94 people accused of 251 million in medicare fraud, 34 arrested in raids

[froggy]

18 charged in alleged $25-million Medicare fraud scheme in Southern California
October 21, 2009 | 10:53 am
Authorities charged 18 people in an alleged $25-million Medicare fraud scheme operated out of Southern California.


Prosecutors alleged that the defendants fraudulently ordered power wheelchairs, hospital beds and other equipment. They charged Michael Martinez, 30, of Long Beach and six other people with conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and for making false statements to the government.

"Martinez allegedly recruited relatives and individuals linked to the Santa Ana-based Brook Street Gang to act as straw owners for four fraudulent DME companies," officials said in a statement.



"Today's indictments and arrests are important achievements in our ongoing fight against Medicare fraud, but there is more that we can, and will, do," said Lanny A. Breuer, assistant attorney general of the criminal division, in the statement.



--Shelby Grad

Illegals like these have set ups all across America.

 

[KissMy]

They would then just steal it straight for you.

Then you would not even have the government police to go after them.

Typical Mafia mentality. You think we need to keep paying the government protection payments so they wont attack us. This is why the founding fathers let us carry guns. You will notice even Hitler did not attack countries such as Sweden who had well armed citizens. Look how much trouble the mighty US military has against well armed citizens. This is why we will not go into Pakistan.

 

[Truthmatters]

You talk about government as if its nothing but evil.

Why do you hate the founders of this country so much?

They KNEW government of for and by the people would be the envy of the world and it still is.

Look at how many democratic leaning countries the world has now.


Why do you hate America?

 

[KissMy]

You talk about government as if its nothing but evil.

Why do you hate the founders of this country so much?

They KNEW government of for and by the people would be the envy of the world and it still is.

Look at how many democratic leaning countries the world has now.


Why do you hate America?

You are twisted & trying to spin lies.

Government of for and by the people is what I want. This admin like the previous admin wants to take all the power from the people. Take away our ability to protect & defend ourselves & the constitution. This government chose big corporate & powerful winners over the people. This government chose to give better health-care to certain groups & screw others. Permanent bailout funds for the rich power brokers is about to be signed into law.

 

[Avorysuds]

You talk about government as if its nothing but evil.

Why do you hate the founders of this country so much?

They KNEW government of for and by the people would be the envy of the world and it still is.

Look at how many democratic leaning countries the world has now.


Why do you hate America?

The founding Fathers were against large government and warnned of how it would destroy our nation. I'm sorry but you should really never use the founding fathers in defense of anything you say, it works againt you.

 

[Jon]

As an auditor, we typically try to put measures in place to PREVENT fraud. When we do detect fraud, we use those instances to come up with more measures to prevent further fraud. Let's see if the government responds accordingly. My guess is no, but we'll see.

 

[The T]

As an auditor, we typically try to put measures in place to PREVENT fraud. When we do detect fraud, we use those instances to come up with more measures to prevent further fraud. Let's see if the government responds accordingly. My guess is no, but we'll see.

Of course they won't...but that depends upon whom is perpetrating it. They have been selective.

This entire Government is in dire need of an audit...and purging.

 

[NYcarbineer]

They would then just steal it straight for you.

Then you would not even have the government police to go after them.

Typical Mafia mentality. You think we need to keep paying the government protection payments so they wont attack us. This is why the founding fathers let us carry guns. You will notice even Hitler did not attack countries such as Sweden who had well armed citizens. Look how much trouble the mighty US military has against well armed citizens. This is why we will not go into Pakistan.

Germany declared war on us in 1941. Weren't our citizens well armed? Where do you people come up with this nonsense?

 

[judyd]

When you actually consider it, halliburton and other contractors in iraq have stolen more from our country than any illegals. And yet conservatives don't seem to want to do anything about them.

How about going after all the crooks?? Halliburton, illegals, etc.??

I am all for getting rid of the real fraud any where we can. All a politicians will do is dangle some token bust in front of your face while their cronies standing behind you pick your pockets clean.

Why do Liberal assholes keep assuming we don't want to do anything about them? Abuse of Government money is Abuse no matter who is doing it. How is the fact that Haliburton did it to, Justification for Obama and the Dems to increase spending and Bureaucracy and therefore our liability when it comes to abuse.

Maybe it's because when bush/cheney were in office and the subject of Halliburton (and other contractors) fraud was exposed, countless "conservative assholes" defended them to the hilt--they "did so much good for the country, etc. etc."

 

[NYcarbineer]

Those of you who want to use this as a broadbrush indictment of government, will you also use the following as a broadbrush indictment of the private sector?

Goldman Sachs to pay record settlement in fraud suit, change business practices




By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 16, 2010

Goldman Sachs agreed Thursday to pay $550 million to settle a fraud suit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission that accused the storied Wall Street bank of selling a subprime-mortgage investment that was secretly designed to fail.

washingtonpost.com

Remember, these are the guys that conservatives DON"T want regulated so darn much.

 

[asaratis]

Wow, we have $90 billion worth of Medicare fraud annually, year after year. Now they busted a bunch of democrats scamming the system for a paltry $250 million who did not pay the proper kickbacks to their elected officials. These people do not have the millions they took & will never pay back the money they stole. This administration will tout this as a huge victory & say it paid for their new criminal organized health-care law. WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER $89.75 BILLION??? The best thing to do is not have a government system that lets corrupt people steal money in the first place.

Where there is government, there is corruption. Any government assistance program can be corrupted...and will be eventually if left alone.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

36 arrested in 5 cities in Medicare scams totaling $251 million | NOLA.com

nice! hope they rot in prison for a long time

But these are the people obama wants to redistribute the wealth to.

 

[asaratis]

They would then just steal it straight for you.

Then you would not even have the government police to go after them.

Typical Mafia mentality. You think we need to keep paying the government protection payments so they wont attack us. This is why the founding fathers let us carry guns. You will notice even Hitler did not attack countries such as Sweden who had well armed citizens. Look how much trouble the mighty US military has against well armed citizens. This is why we will not go into Pakistan.

Germany declared war on us in 1941. Weren't our citizens well armed? Where do you people come up with this nonsense?

Germany never attacked the USA. Where do you dimwitted liberals come up with your arguments?

 

[NYcarbineer]

Typical Mafia mentality. You think we need to keep paying the government protection payments so they wont attack us. This is why the founding fathers let us carry guns. You will notice even Hitler did not attack countries such as Sweden who had well armed citizens. Look how much trouble the mighty US military has against well armed citizens. This is why we will not go into Pakistan.

Germany declared war on us in 1941. Weren't our citizens well armed? Where do you people come up with this nonsense?

Germany never attacked the USA. Where do you dimwitted liberals come up with your arguments?

Do you want to go on record as agreeing with the other retard that Germany didn't attack certain countries because of their gun rights?

 

[MaggieMae]

YOU PEOPLE don't seem to get it. We have $90 billion worth of Medicare fraud annually!!!

It took 3 years to catch a $250 million fraud. That = 1/360th of the total.

We need a bust that size every single day of the year to erase this problem.

90 billion?

From the OP's article

Cleaning up an estimated $60 billion to $90 billion a year in Medicare fraud will be key to paying for President Barack Obama's proposed health care overhaul.

I tried to warn you about the $90 Billion fraud before healthcare passed. These criminals have been flaunting this crime in our faces for years. Eric holder only managed to just pick some low hanging fruit.

Um, kissieface, that wasn't the original post (OP), which said this:

Cleaning up an estimated $60 billion to $90 billion a year in Medicare fraud will be key to paying for President Barack Obama's proposed health care overhaul. Federal officials have promised more money and manpower to fight fraud, setting up strike forces in several cities.

 

[MaggieMae]

90 billion?

From the OP's article

Cleaning up an estimated $60 billion to $90 billion a year in Medicare fraud will be key to paying for President Barack Obama's proposed health care overhaul.

I tried to warn you about the $90 Billion fraud before healthcare passed. These criminals have been flaunting this crime in our faces for years. Eric holder only managed to just picked some low hanging fruit.

Exactly and Obama and the Congressional Dems are doing everything they can to make sure we open ourselves up to even more abuse.

Sweet.

Like I said I have been seeing Abuse of Government spending on a first hand basis at the West Shore Community College Construction Site in Ludington Michigan for 2 months now. I estimate that Build is costing the government 2 times as much as it would have costed private industry to build. Mainly because of requirements put on it because it is federally funded to employee union workers and pay the prevailing National Union wage when Thousands of local people would do the work for half the price.

For gods sake I have been getting 28.32 per hour to freaking clean up after lazy ass union contractors.

You need to complain to someone in your own state's government, then, the department responsible for dolling out their federal stimulus money. Also, you could write a letter to the editor of your local paper outlining your complaints. But posting some obscure incident happening in one of the thousands of hamlets across the country accomplishes nothing, except the satisfaction of venting.

 

[MaggieMae]

Low hanging fruit?

jesus you people are brick brained.

The new modern medical billing system Obamas team put in place is the REASON these people were caught.

They cant do this type of fraud anymore GET IT!


I know you hate it when America wins a victory over crime when you are forced to give the democratic party the credit.

There is a phrase for that , partisan hack who puts party over country

You are so very blind. They can't do it anymore. They are, and will. There are a thousand ways for Government spending to be abused, this is just one of them.

Yep. How many times have we heard the left pummeling the military for $100 Hammers...and $1K toilet seats?

So? It doesn't happen anymore, does it? At least not so visibly. However, "the military" (the Pentagon) has no idea what their own inventory consists of, so it's entirely possible. The GAO report of 2004 gave up on trying to audit the DoD.

 

[MaggieMae]

Government is always behind the curve & likely on purpose because their cronies are the ones cashing in on the frauds.

Yeah, that's it. Idiot...

 

[MaggieMae]

When you actually consider it, halliburton and other contractors in iraq have stolen more from our country than any illegals. And yet conservatives don't seem to want to do anything about them.

How about going after all the crooks?? Halliburton, illegals, etc.??

I am all for getting rid of the real fraud any where we can. All a politicians will do is dangle some token bust in front of your face while their cronies standing behind you pick your pockets clean.

Why do Liberal assholes keep assuming we don't want to do anything about them? Abuse of Government money is Abuse no matter who is doing it. How is the fact that Haliburton did it to, Justification for Obama and the Dems to increase spending and Bureaucracy and therefore our liability when it comes to abuse.

It's totally bewildering (scratching head) when I try to understand why anyone would be AGAINST increased investigation of abuse just because that ALWAYS will involve added personnel and funding. Using your logic, we should level fund the FBI year after year and hope to still get an upper hand on terrorist activity within the country.

 

[MaggieMae]

And you will both vote for the people who want to fool you into freeing them up to steal directly from you instead of having police to stand in there way to protect you from them Like the Obama admin just did here.

heres a clue for you, who was it that pretended to police the problem but was too stupid or dishonest to fix the system so theycould police it?

Your precious republican party who now will just own your cute little tea party.


The criminals who do the stealing of our money are to blame and Obama did something to stop them and you act like it was nothing.

How very dishonest of you

The comments we get from certain marauding posters here are clear on only one thing: Obama did it, and therefore they're against it. If George Bush or even John McCain had he won had taken on Medicare fraud with a vengeance, they would be hailing it as the biggest accomplishment since winning WWII, posting it in their signature blocks like badges of honor.

The malignancy of ODS has far, far surpassed the epidemic of BDS in his second term. It's really that simple.