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Medicare Fraud Suspect Arrested at LAX

One of Medicare’s most wanted fugitives was arrested today after he voluntarily flew back to Los Angeles from South Korea. Won Suk Lee, a Huntington Park acupuncturist, was said to have fraudulently billed Medicare over 2 million dollars for services which they do not cover. Lee is reported to have actually been paid over one million dollars for the services he billed. My question is why did the government pay the bills for services which they are not supposed to cover? My hope is that the bills were in fact fraudulent bills which described services which should be covered by …

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County Assessor John Noguez Bails Out…Finally

The Los Angeles County Tax Assessor who was arrested months ago on charges of corruption and fraud was finally able to post bail with the help of friends, a competent bail bondsman and a a great deal of patience. John Noguez was in custody after a judge set bail at over 1million dollars. This means that Noguez would need to put up one million dollars to secure his release or he could pay a bail bondsman a fee of ten percent and the bondsman would post the million dollar bond to secure Noguez’ release. Not so fast said a Los Angeles …

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Sheriff’s Employee and Spouse Arrested for Work Comp Fraud

Keri Atwood and her husband were both arrested for worker’s compensation fraud in Ventura County. Both husband and wife were arrested and released on bond earlier this week. Keri is said to be a civilian employee of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department. The Ventura County Star reported that Atwood had allegedly suffered a leg injury at work and had received disability payments of about $30,000 as a result of her being off work from the injury. Atwood was said to be getting medical treatment for her injuries and was using crutches or a wheelchair to get around to see her doctors. Investigators …

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Grand Theft is Driving Sheriffs and Business Owners Nuts

120,000 pounds of walnuts have disappeared in two separate thefts. Tehama County Sheriff’s deputies are investigating two separate heists by possible “imposter” truck drivers. The first theft involved 40,000 pounds of walnuts and the second was double that amount. In total this is $450,000 worth of nuts. The sheriffs do have a suspect who is described as a tall white mail with a strong Russian accent driving a white tractor trailer. The thief was described as having the correct purchase order numbers for the shipments of nuts when he picked up the product. This sounds like an inside job to …

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LA County John Noguez Will Stay in Jail – Bail Set at $1.16 Million Dollars

Los Angeles County Assessor John Noguez was arrested about 6 days ago after authorities suspected he was taking bribes in exchange for lowering peoples property taxes. In total he was alleged to have cost the County of Los Angeles $1.16 million in lost property taxes based upon his actions. Superior Court Judge Shelly Torrealba would not reduce Noquez’ bail when requested by his attorney. Typically base is set by “schedule” here in California. For every crime there is a corresponding bail amount. In certain cases like theft or fraud the bail schedule provides for setting bail at the same amount …

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Probation officer arrested for worker’s comp fraud

A six year probation officer was arrested Tuesday on allegations of filing nine fraudulent workers’ compensation claims over the last three years. Rochelle Williams, 35 is accused in 27 felony counts of forging medical records and other documents. She works as a Los Angeles probation officer and is responsible for placing minors in foster homes and other facilities. Williams is being accused of filing workers comp claims while she continued working so she could be paid both her regular salary and money from the state insurance program. The county has placed her on unpaid administrative leave. If you have questions …

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Art Dealer charged with stolen artwork and tax evasion

Matthew Taylor, 33 was found guilty Tuesday of selling and possessing stolen art as well as income tax evasion, and wire fraud. Two paintings went missing from an East LA gallery. One impressionist landscape painting by Granville Redmond and another by Lucien Frank. Taylor tried to sell the Frank painting to a customer after painting over the original artist’s signature and trying to pass it off for another artist’s work. Charges that Taylor had sold more than $2 million in art he falsely represented by artists including Claude Money and Jackson Pollock, were dropped prior to the trial. Taylor was …

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Parole Sweep Called “Operation Guardian” Nets 70 arrests in Los Angeles County

A joint task force of federal, state and local law enforcement just executed a parole sweep called “Operation Guardian” in Los Angeles County. The task force arrested 70 parolees and seized drugs, guns and found a bleeding parolee who officers took to the hospital to be treated for his wounds. The sweep was described by law enforcement as the largest parole sweep of its kind in county history. Officers knocked on the doors of around 400 parolees in search of any type of violation. Common parole violations are possessing firearms, narcotics, other dangerous weapons or hanging around with people one …

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LA District Attorney Still Investigating West Hollywood’s John Duran

As the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office continues to investigate the allegations that City Councilman John Duran falsified expenses, the City of West Hollywood voted to defend the Councilman if charges are filed. Many of us in Los Angeles know John Duran, in my case from working in the County as a criminal defense attorney, and others know him through his hard work for the City of West Hollywood. The Los Angeles Times reports that Duran had more than $7,000 in meal expenses on city credit cards over a three year period. John, I’m not sure where you have been …

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Probation Sweep Results in 35 Arrests

A multi-jurisdictional task force arrested 35 people this week for weapons violations in Los Angeles County. The Los Angeles County Probation department in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S. Immigration, The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Pasadena Police Department searched 158 probationers and their homes earlier this week. The officers found 23 firearms, drugs, and other contraband. The Daily News reported that 250 law enforcement officials helped out in the sweep. Tony Bell, a spokesman for County Supervisor Michael Antonovich said that “this is one of the most cost-effective law enforcement programs …

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Practicing Medicine Without a License is a Crime

A staff member at a West Hollywood plastic surgery clinic was caught in the act of practicing medicine without a license. After getting complaints from the State Medical Board, investigators fromthe agency starting watching a clinic at Sunset medical Tower on Sunset Boulevard very closely. When the Board inspectors went to the facility what they found was scary. As staff member at the doctor’s office was not only diagnosing patients’ medical conditions but was administering laser treatment to patients. According the the local media, the owners of the clinic are manny and Pie Calayan, neither of whom are medical doctors …

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Fake Condoms, Barbie Dolls and Purses Can Mean Prison and Heavy Fines

Prosecutors in New York just sent a Chinese born American citizen to federal prison for 37 months for importing and selling millions of dollars worth of counterfeit Trojan brand condoms. 4.3 million counterfeit condoms were recovered in the 6 year investigation which lead to the conviction. Prosecutors indicated that condoms were tested and found to be defective and leak, burst or otherwise not be spermicidally lubricated as the authentic version should be. Court documents indicate that condoms were imported from China and packaged under several different names in the Trojan line. The products were then sold as authentic to both wholesale and …

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Largest Medicare Fraud Case in History Cracked by Feds

94 people were charged Friday with defrauding the Medicare System of over $250 million. Arrests went down in Miami, New York, Detroit, Houston and Baton Rouge in what is being described as the largest Medicare scam in history. Suspects in several different states were alleged to have billed Medicare for supplies that were never received and treatment that never happened. Allegations include paying patients to visit doctors or otherwise allow the use of patients’ Medicare numbers for billing purposes. In one case nearly 4,000 claims to Medicare were allegedly submitted over a six year period on behalf of one woman in Brooklyn, …

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Probation for Insurance Fraud

IC just got probation after being charged with insurance fraud stemming from four years of taking premiums and not paying for workers compensation coverage for his client. The prosecutor alleged losses to the victim totally about $200,000.00. The California Department of Insurance found IC’s acts sufficiently offenses to take away his insurance license. I was able to get IC probation and work release and, of course, we are contesting the alleged loss amount. Just another day at the office.

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