Category: Betraying Americans

New Americans Sent to Slammer over Massive Health Care Fraud Scheme

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 3 Comments

“[A]fter arriving in the United States from Cuba on a raft seeking refuge and a better life…they proceeded to build a vast empire of fraud.”

I could not find a photo of the Cuban crooks.

 

Here is the news directly from the US Justice Department, and I must say this is one of the better press releases I’ve seen from the feds especially for its mention of the fact that the Cuban crooks were refugees who then took advantage of us. (Immigration history is rarely mentioned.)

(Thanks to one of my many readers who share tips with me.)

We gave them an opportunity for a good life, they ripped us off and now we must pay for their incarceration!

Husband and Wife Sentenced to Prison for Roles in $38 Million Health Care Fraud and Wire Fraud Scheme

Rodolfo Pichardo, 71, of Hialeah, Florida was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for masterminding a $38 million health care fraud and wire fraud scheme. His wife Marta Pichardo, 66, was sentenced to 8 years in prison for her role in the scheme.

[….]

Rodolfo Pichardo and Marta Pichardo previously pled guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud. On December 4, 2019, Rodolfo Pichardo, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Rodolfo A. Ruiz to 188 months in prison, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release. He was ordered to pay $33,841,576 in restitution. Today, Marta Pichardo was sentenced by Judge Ruiz to 96 months in prison, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release. She was ordered to pay $10,482,178 in restitution.

According to court documents, after arriving in the United States from Cuba on a raft seeking refuge and a better life, the Rodolfo Pichardo and his wife Marta Pichardo settled in Miami-Dade County, Florida where they proceeded to build a vast empire of fraud, consisting of at least six fraudulent home health agencies, three fraudulent therapy staffing companies, and two fraudulent pharmacies. Each of these entities purportedly provided home health services, therapy services, and prescription drugs, respectively, to qualified Medicare beneficiaries, though in fact and as both Rodolfo and Marta Pichardo knew, they did not.

From May 2010 through September 2016, the Pichardos and their co-conspirators used this empire to submit more than $38 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare, for which the trust-based program then paid out more than $33 million.

Fueled their lavish lifestyle with your money!

The Pichardos then used this money to purchase multiple properties, high-end vehicles, expensive jewelry, plane tickets, vacations, cosmetic procedures, and more, both for themselves and their family members.

As part of the scheme, Rodolfo Pichardo offered and paid kickbacks, both by cash and by check, to numerous patient recruiters, in exchange for the referral of Medicare beneficiaries to home health agencies that he owned. The conspirators also offered and paid cash kickbacks to owners and operators of multiple Miami-Dade medical clinics, in return for acquiring medically unnecessary home health prescriptions for the recruited Medicare beneficiaries. These prescriptions were then used by the Pichardos’ various home health agencies and pharmacies to bill Medicare for purported services and pharmaceutical drugs that were provided to allegedly qualified Medicare beneficiaries

During the long-running scheme, the Pichardos took several calculated steps to conceal the fraud and avoid detection, including using nominee owners, changing names and locations of their fraudulent entities, and creating shell companies to conceal the receipt of the fraud proceeds, hide assets and transactions, and divert proceeds for both personal use and to further the fraud.

There is a bit more here.

So much for Michael Bloomberg’s New American Economy built on immigrant entrepreneurs.

As I have said before, the President should work some of the fantastic fraud busts his Justice Department is exposing into each rally he attends.  He could direct his staff to find one or two relevant to whatever state he is visiting.

I think Florida fraudsters might outnumber Michigan schemers here at ‘Frauds and Crooks’, but I’ll check my archives tomorrow on this blogs first anniversary!

Don’t forget to check in at Refugee Resettlement Watch which has been taking most of my attention in recent weeks!

Happy New Year!

Mother of Islamic Terrorist Wants her Son’s Life Insurance—Whaaaa!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 5 Comments

That would be the mother of the San Bernardino Christmas party slaughterer.

She says she is entitled to the payola since she didn’t know what her son had planned (or so she says).  Tell that to the 14 families who lost their loved ones forever!

From Alpha News (Hat tip: Dragon’s Lair):

(The story was at the Daily Mail a couple of weeks ago, but I missed it.)

Mother of San Bernardino terrorist trying to get money from Minnesota Life Insurance

Rafia Farook, the mother of San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook, is trying to cash in on her son’s $280,000 life insurance policy. Here’s the Daily Mail:

“Rafia is battling the Justice Department over Farook’s $280,000 life insurance policy of which she was the primary beneficiary. Insurers Minnesota Life Insurance paid out shortly after the attack but the funds were held by court after the Justice Department attempted to have the cash seized as proceeds of crime.”

New American Mama Farook bringing the joys of diversity to our land. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7776675/Mother-San-Bernardino-terrorist-seen-four-years-ISIS-loving-wife-massacred-14.html

Four years ago Rafia Farook’s son Syed, and her son’s wife Tashfeen Malik, shot up a Christmas party at the San Bernardino Department of Public Health, where Syed was an employee. As a result of the attack, 14 were killed and another 22 injured. Both Malik and Syed Farook were killed by police while they fled the scene.

It is unclear why Minnesota Life Insurance paid out money because of the death.*** However, it is possible that the money was paid out to reduce legal exposure for Minnesota Life Insurance, especially since the Justice Department would surely seize the money once it was paid. Minnesota Life Insurance is a subsidiary of Securian Financial, which is headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The Daily Mail continues: “Rafia is continuing to fight attempts by the federal government to retain the payout. She says that because she did not know her son was going to commit an act of terror, there is no reason for the money not to be paid.”

But Rafia Farook has other problems. Her other son Syed Raheel and his Russian wife are in trouble for immigration fraud.

That’s because Syed Raheel tried to get his wife’s sister into the country via a sham-marriage with Enrique Marquez Jr., who is currently serving 25 years in federal prison after admitting to purchasing guns that were used in the Farook-Malik terror attack.

*** Someone should see who runs the Minnesota Life Insurance Company!  Do you follow my meaning!

Michigan: Afghanistan-born Surgeon Dubbed the “Greedy Butcher” to Spend Two Decades Behind Bars

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 2 Comments

A federal appeals court affirmed a lower court decision earlier this week that seeks to send a message to medical practitioners who are clearly seeking financial gain at the expense of their patients’ health.

The original court ruling against Dr.Aria Sabit was in 2017 (before I began writing ‘Frauds and Crooks‘ to highlight cases like this where ‘new Americans,’ supposedly here to follow the American dream ripped us off, or in some cases killed us). Hey, Michael Bloomberg, so much for immigrant entrepreneurs!

 

This is a screenshot. Visit the 2017 story here: https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/2017/01/06/sentence-for-accused-greedy-butcher-surgeon-truly-up-for-grabs/

 

From the Detroit Free Press:

A Birmingham neurosurgeon’s federal appeal failed, leaving him to serve nearly 20 years in prison because of his role in a $2.8 million insurance fraud scheme involving unnecessary spinal surgeries.

Aria Sabit also must deal with a lifetime of supervision and pay nearly $2 million in restitution because of the upheld sentence.

A three-judge U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the 2017 sentence on Monday. Dec. 16.

“After recounting the facts underlying Sabit’s conviction, the district court discussed the … factors and then handed down the sentence,” the opinion read. “That shows the district court took a holistic approach to justifying the sentence.

“And that holistic approach didn’t lack an adequate explanation: the district court spoke at length about Sabit’s ‘horrific criminal acts upon vulnerable and defenseless human beings’ and then explained why the sentence was necessary (1) to protect the public and (2) to deter other criminal conduct.”

The 11-page opinion concludes by saying the lower district court did not commit “reversible” error during Sabit’s criminal proceedings or when imposing his sentence.

“Thus, we affirm,” the opinion concluded.

Prior to his guilty plea and sentencing, Sabit owned and operated the Michigan Brain and Spine Physicians Group with several metro Detroit locations.

Sabit admitted to convincing more than a dozen patients to undergo spinal fusion surgeries that he never performed, causing serious bodily harm in some cases.

“He told patients they needed spinal surgery,” the just-released opinion detailed. “Sabit then operated on the patients and told them (falsely) that he had inserted the agreed-upon medical device.

“Sabit also falsified his operative reports to make the patients think he had put the spinal devices in place.”

Go here for more on the sickening case.

The message to you, dear readers, please, please carefully check out your doctors.  We have American bad docs, but honestly based on cases I’ve been reading about (so many in Michigan!) a lot of foreign-born docs are not here to help you get well.

Endnote: I encourage those of you interested in the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program to go over to Refugee Resettlement Watch every few days, because a lot is going on following the President’s reform initiative launched in September.

Memory Lane: Somali Refugee Planned to Bomb Oregon Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 4 Comments

Editor:  Sorry I have been remiss in getting things posted here at ‘Frauds and Crooks’ this last week, but the issue of the President’s initiative to slow the flow of refugees to America has really heated up and I’ve been buried under breaking news at Refugee Resettlement Watch.  

Thanks to all of you who have e-mailed with stories for ‘Frauds and Crooks’ that I’ve been forced to ignore for now (not enough hours in my day!).  I’ll try to do better in the days ahead!

I don’t know how many of you are interested in refugee issues, but there is no shortage of refugee criminals and terrorist wannabees that are ignored by the refugee industry working against the President.

Because the FBI foiled a 2010 plot to bomb Portland’s Christmas tree lighting ceremony, these Americans enjoyed the festive event.

One such story (completely swept under the rug) is from 2010.

(Thank goodness RRW was recovered after the speech police got it removed from the internet so I can find the older stories like this one.)

Speaking of that, go here to see that I was on a panel on big tech censorship in October to explain what happened to me.

This morning the ‘Religious Left’ got me particularly fired up as they have written to 15 governors and imply refugees are pure as the driven snow—no crooks, no criminals, no murderers and no terrorists, they suggest with their cleverly-worded letter.

See that post here.

And, since it’s the Christmas season I thought readers might be interested in revisiting one of the terrorism stories the Leftwing ‘Christians’ clamoring for more Africans, Asians and Middle Easterners have carefully swept under the rug.

From Oregon Live in 2010:

FBI thwarts terrorist bombing attempt at Portland holiday tree lighting, authorities say

The FBI thwarted an attempted terrorist bombing in Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square before the city’s annual tree-lighting Friday night, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oregon.

Mohamed Osman Mohamud is a refugee (you raised to adulthood with your tax dollars) who told an FBI undercover operative that it was a “sin” for him and his family to live in the US. So he figured he might blow up some Americans as a jihadist? https://www.kunc.org/post/alleged-christmas-tree-bomber-thought-living-us-was-sin#stream/0

A Corvallis man, thinking he was going to ignite a bomb, drove a van to the corner of the square at Southwest Yamhill Street and Sixth Avenue and attempted to detonate it.

However, the supposed explosive was a dummy that FBI operatives supplied to him.

[….]

Mohamed Osman Mohamud,19, a Somali-born U.S. citizen, was arrested at 5:42 p.m., 18 minutes before the tree lighting was to occur, on an accusation of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. The felony charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The arrest was the culmination of a long-term undercover operation, during which Mohamud had been monitored for months as his alleged bomb plot developed.

More here.

See one of many posts on Mohamud at RRW.  He was a refugee, but apparently for the Lefty Christians an attempt at an Islamic terrorist attack doesn’t count.

KATE BROWN: 1ST OPENLY LGBT AMERICAN ELECTED GOVERNOR (OREGON) http://www.leizey.com/blog/2016/11/12/seven-times-women-cracked-the-glass-ceiling-this-week

And, for a chuckle, see that Oregon’s Governor Kate Brown is planning to tell the President that Oregon will take more Somalis.

She didn’t say Somalis, but she can’t choose which religious or ethnic groups Oregon taxpayers will ‘welcome.’

She has not yet transmitted her official letter to the US State Department.

See the official list out yesterday, here.

Shame on You if You Don’t Take 15 Minutes to Do This!

Texas: Their Mothers Were Murdered!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 3 Comments

Imagine thinking that your elderly mother died of natural causes in a senior living facility where you thought she was safe and well-cared-for only to receive a call two years later from the police telling you she didn’t die peacefully, but was likely murdered by Billy Chemirmir, a man who should have been removed from the US years before!

This is an update on my series of posts about the man I simply call the Kenyan Killer.

And, this is a story the national news is not touching! 

Imagine the pain of knowing that this is the last face your dear mother saw on this earth.

As we left off back in July the Kenyan Killer was behind bars in Texas awaiting trial for the murder of the last in a string of murders (more under investigation) that could make him the most prolific serial killer in Texas.

Why did these vulnerable senior women and one elderly gentleman die?  He wanted to steal their valuables, especially their jewelry.

Most were allegedly suffocated to death with a pillow.  He was a clever killer.

Reporter Charles Scudder at The Dallas Morning News has penned a two-part series on the case featuring some of the daughters who today suffer from enormous grief and anger over the deaths of their mothers—many of whom might not have died if the police and medical examiners had been sharp enough to see a pattern that might have emerged if, at least in some cases, the assisted living facilities had not been quick to assume death by natural causes.

The tip-off to some family members that something didn’t add-up was that their mothers’ jewelry was missing—one guardian angel necklace in particular.

The fabulous two-part series is behind a paywall.  It is an important paywall because it funds indepth journalism like this story.  Part 1 is here and Part II here. 

The two part series is entitled:

Guardians

Nearly two years after her mother died in a Dallas senior living apartment, Shannon Gleason Dion got a shocking call from a Plano
detective.

Her mother had likely been murdered, he told her, by a man who could be among the most prolific serial killers in Texas history.

Here is a bit of how reporter Scudder sets the scene in his opening paragraphs of Part II.  Shannon got that call:

Her 92-year-old mother, Doris Gleason, had died nearly two years earlier at The Tradition-Prestonwood, a luxury senior living facility in Far North Dallas. “Old age,” the death certificate had said.

No one could explain why jewelry was missing from the apartment. No one knew why Doris wasn’t wearing the guardian angel necklace she never took off. But Shannon had done her own sleuthing.

She’d learned that jewelry had been stolen from the apartments of other residents who had died.

Scudder’s story is riveting….

Wanting something good to come out of their suffering, five daughters have launched a new group!

 

 

SOSS stands for Secure our Senior’s Safety

And, this is what they say about their initiative:

Some of us are wives. Some of us are mothers and grandmothers. Some of us are sisters.

​We were daughters.

​Now we are friends. Joined together by a shared tragedy.

​We lost our mothers to a knock on a door.

To repeat – a knock on a door. He shouldn’t have been able to walk down their hall and knock on their door.

​We thought they were safe. We paid for oversight. We thought they were safe. They were not.

​We are daughters who have lost their mothers. We are working so you don’t have to live our tragedy. We don’t want this to happen to another family.

Many of us have been in the situation of having to place a loved one in a care facility, and if you haven’t,  then you may very well be burdened with that decision in the future.

Therefore, if you do nothing else today, visit their website and if you feel moved to do so, donate to help them get their message out widely.

Where is the national news media?

Their story must get out nationally, please send to your social media networks and if you have any contacts with any national news outlet, please send it there too!

For more information either go to The Dallas Morning News (and pay if you can).

For more background, here below are my posts from earlier this year.  (I had a formatting problem, but the links work—click on the title!)

 

 

Texas: Families of Elderly Victims of the Kenyan Killer Sue Senior Living Facilities

 

Texas: Kenyan Alleged Serial Killer was Well Known to Law Enforcement

 

Radio Silence from Mainstream Media on Kenyan Mass Murderer in Texas

 

Texas: Illegal Alien from Kenya Charged in Murder of at Least a Dozen Elderly Women