Day: February 25, 2019

Cab Company Owner Pleads Guilty to Stealing from Medicaid, Other New Americans Made Him Do it!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 3 Comments

According to the US Department of Justice:

Arshad Nazir, age 54, of Ticonderoga, New York, pled guilty to conspiring to defraud Medicaid, and conspiring to pay bribes and kickbacks to Medicaid beneficiaries who used his medical transportation service. He admitted to causing at least $550,000 in losses, and to paying at least $95,000 in bribes and kickbacks.

medicaid fraudNazir’s lawyers say other cab companies run by other ‘new Americans’ made him do it in order to stay competitive (I kid you not!).
Here is a recitation of the charges against him from the local The Post-Star, including a mention of the defense that he previously was a good guy before he was a bad guy!
 

Cab Company Owner Pleads Guilty in Ticonderoga Case

 

He admitted to causing at least $550,000 in Medicaid program losses through false filings, and to paying at least $95,000 in bribes and kickbacks. In all, his company received $2.45 million in Medicaid payments between 2014 and 2018, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
no-phot-avail
Nazir, whose company was known as Avalanche Taxi Co., faces up to 10 years in federal prison when sentenced June 18 by U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy. He also will be required to make $550,000 restitution.
[….]
According to prosecutors, Nazir admitted that he committed a variety of fraudulent acts involving Medicaid and the state Department of Health, including:

Billing Medicaid and receiving payment for trips where beneficiaries drove themselves to their own medical appointments

Falsifying the identities of the drivers for those trips.

Billing Medicaid and receiving payment for round trips to and from medical appointments when the beneficiaries took only one-way trips with Avalanche Taxi.

Falsifying pick-up and drop-off locations in order to increase the purported distances traveled and therefore be able to claim and receive higher Medicaid payments.

Nazir also admitted that he agreed to pay kickbacks and bribes to Medicaid beneficiaries in order to get the beneficiaries to schedule and keep scheduling medical transportation appointments with Avalanche Taxi. Those kickbacks included cash, cigarettes and tobacco, and free goods at Nazir’s convenience store in Ticonderoga.
His lawyer, Kevin O’Brien, said Nazir ran a legitimate taxi business for years, but when others moved into town and used fraudulent practices to take his business, he followed.

Now have a look at the names of some of the other cab company owners who apparently “moved into town” to compete with Nazir in the Medicaid transport business!

Charges are still pending against others who were involved in the scheme, including four other Ticonderoga cab company owners, Qaiser “Kaz” Gondal, 46; Khalid M. Chadder, 49; Waqas Nauman, 37; and Khurram Gondal, 39.

More here.
And, don’t miss this!
An earlier US Dept. of Justice press release lists more names of ‘new American’ entrepreneurs investigated in Ticonderoga and neighboring towns in welcoming New York!
No time for the ‘Secret Decoder Ring’ investigation today, but if anyone knows where Mr. Nazir is from and what his immigration status is, let me know!

Florida: The Patriot's Owner and Sex Slaves

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 8 Comments

I read a bunch of news stories this morning all pretty much agreeing that when Robert Kraft allegedly used the services of a Florida massage parlor, he was interacting with modern day sex slavery.
Most of the ‘workers’ were young Asian girls (Chinese and South Koreans) who cannot speak English and lived at the establishment.

But, what I didn’t find was any report or opinion piece throwing any blame at our LEGAL immigration system that is allowing such large numbers of young women into the US on visas of some sort. Does no one at the US State Department or in USCIS see any red flags with visas from China?

 
Sex slavery in Florida
Here is just one article (by Eric MacLeish at the Boston Globe) about what Robert Kraft has alleged to have participated in.
Sounds like the same type of operation we heard about in rural New Hampshire, here, where they weren’t catching big fish like Kraft, but did arrest some of the Chinese ring-leaders.

Why the allegations against Robert Kraft are a big deal

 

In the wake of the disclosures involving Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft allegedly soliciting two prostitutes at the Orchids of Asia Spa in Juniper, Fla., some commentators have suggested that the charges may get dismissed at the arraignment and that they only involve two alleged misdemeanors for which Kraft cannot be extradited from Massachusetts to Florida. So, no big deal and according to some, Kraft’s place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame looks pretty secure.

Robert Kraft
Maybe the Kraft bust will do us a great service by educating a lot of people about our flawed immigration system!

Kraft has issued a carefully worded statement denying that he did anything against the law. He’s entitled to a trial. The police say that they have video evidence of him engaging in a sex act with two prostitutes that he allegedly paid. Unless it’s another person on that video, a trial seems unlikely. So should all of this go away for Kraft in a neat plea deal?
It should not. Investigators in Florida report that the women working at the spa are victims of a human trafficking operation where they were coerced into performing as many as 15 sex acts a day.
Apparently, many live and sleep at the spa and are undoubtedly working without pay based on some fictitious debt that they incurred for being smuggled into the United States. Some were discovered squatting at the back of the spa, cooking on a hot plate. We don’t know all of the details yet, but let’s be clear. If the allegations are true, Robert Kraft has in effect aided and abetted an organization involving human slavery.
[….]
In cases involving statutory rape (when a child is below the age of consent), it is typically not a defense when a victim misidentifies his or her age. It’s the responsibility of the defendant to find out how old he or she is. There are no charges of underage victims here, but a similar rule should apply. A 2018 Polaris report estimates that there were 9,000 storefront operations similar to Orchids of Asia employing exploited women in the sale of sex, with revenues totaling $2.5 billion.
Most of the women are from China or South Korea and most do not have a high school education. It was up to Kraft to understand the type of operation he was entering on those two visits.
There are more than 400,000 human beings held as slaves in the United States.

More here.

question markWhat do you do? Educate your friends and family members to this horrific practice, and if one of the 9,000 storefront operations is near you, keep an eye on them and look for signs that the Asian girls are not free to leave the establishment and then let the authorities know.