Michigan: 'New American' Pharmacists Charged in Medicare Fraud Case; Billed for Meds for Dead People

Until I started investigating fraud cases involving Medicare and Medicaid, I had no idea that there were so many pharmacists on-the-take.  And, this is one more case that makes me ask—What! Don’t we have enough US born and educated pharmacists without importing foreign ones?
Of course, as is almost always the case, there is no mugshot, and no information on the nationality and immigration status of this bunch of alleged crooks named by the US Justice Department in an unsealed indictment earlier this week charging that they ripped us off for $9.2 million:

Wansa Nabih Makki, 41, of Dearborn

Mohamad Ali Makki, R.Ph., 43, of Dearborn Heights

Mahmoud Makki., 36, of Dearborn

Hossam Tanana, 53 of Dearborn

 

Pharmacy fraud
According to a Press & Guide story: “The pharmacy in Livonia that some of the defendants were working out of, bore no signs that anything other than a dental office was inside.”  http://www.pressandguide.com/news/four-people-indicted-in-million-laundering-scheme-at-area-pharmacy/article_76eec6fc-5c80-11e9-890c-bb73ed71aebf.html

 
By the way, I think Michigan may ultimately win the prize for the state with the most frauds and crooks (aka new American entrepreneurs) ripping off the US health care system.
Continue reading “Michigan: 'New American' Pharmacists Charged in Medicare Fraud Case; Billed for Meds for Dead People”

Convicted New England Pain Docs had Ties to Egypt

“Mr. Aboshady helped Dr. Mashali operate one of the most dangerous pain management practices in Massachusetts.”

United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling

 
This story from The Global Dispatch looks to be directly quoting a Dept. of Justice press release.  The story is much worse than its title,

New England Pain Management Physician Sentenced to Prison for False Billing Scheme

A physician at the now-defunct New England Pain Management Associates Inc. was sentenced today in federal court in Boston for conspiring to falsify patient medical records in order to obtain payments from Medicare and commercial insurers for medical services that were not performed.

New England pain doc
Dr. Fathalla Mashali

Moustafa Moataz Ibrahim Aboshady, 36, of Lake Forest, Calif., was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton to 75 months in prison, three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $1,852,459. In September 2018, a federal jury convicted Aboshady of one count of conspiracy to make false statements in connection with health care benefit programs and two counts of making false statements in connection with health care benefit programs.
In March 2018, co-conspirator Dr. Fathalla Mashali was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to 27 counts of health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and 16 counts of money laundering.
“Mr. Aboshady helped Dr. Mashali operate one of the most dangerous pain management practices in Massachusetts,” said United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling. “Dr. Mashali routinely dispensed large quantities of powerful narcotics to addicted patients.
Mr. Aboshady assisted Dr. Mashali’s illegal behavior by using his training as a doctor to fabricate patient records, with the goal of duping Medicare and other insurers into paying Dr. Mashali for his fraudulent conduct. Moreover, Aboshady later lied about Mashali’s medical practices to regulatory authorities.”
“Dr. Aboshady engaged in unlawful, unethical, and unprofessional conduct. He used the Medicare system as his own personal ATM, cheating taxpayers and private insurance companies out of thousands of dollars by billing them for medical services that were never performed. The FBI is committed to protecting government and private health care programs and stopping those who steal from them,” said Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Division.
[….]
Aboshady conspired with Mashali, other members of NEPA (New England Pain Management Associates), and members of a satellite office in Cairo, Egypt, to falsify medical records and urine drug test results to support claims for payment to Medicare and insurers for services that Mashali did not render.

 
Continue here for more of the gory details of the fraud this pair was perpetrating on US taxpayers, and for the harm they were bringing to their drug addicted patients.
The photo (above) is from a very cool website I just discovered called The Bad Doctor Database, see it here.  Dr. Mashali appeared for his trial in that ‘get-up’ in the photo on the right.  My first thought was that it was a ploy to gain sympathy of the court.  Although not charged for any deaths, when you read about Mashali you learn that eight of his patients died of opioid over doses.

question markWhat are you going to do?  Check out your doctors very carefully especially if they are of the ‘new American’ variety! And, keep a watchful eye on loved ones who you suspect of being over-medicated and risk addiction!  Knocking off infidels while getting rich is a pretty sweet deal for creeps like these.

 

Raleigh's Rich Russians Arrested, Charged with Multiple Crimes

This was hot news in North Carolina last month, but I suspect it never made it to cable news fixated every day, all day, on Donald Trump!
Here is the headline of a Department of Justice press release in December.

Five Foreign Nationals Indicted on Murder-For-Hire, Money Laundering, and Immigration Charges

The story of the Russian nationals, led by Leonid Teyf57, who lived in a mansion estimated to be worth $4 million in a posh section of Raleigh reads like a made-for-TV movie.

raleigh mansion
Russian mobsters lived here!

 
As the DOJ’s press release tells us, the Russians got rich by ripping off the Russian military. Teyf was a contractor hired to supply goods and services to the Russian military, but had devised a kickback scheme that netted him over $150 million over a two year period.
leonid-teyf-tatyana
Leonid and Tatyana Teyf

The DOJ alleges that he, and his fellow Russians in the US, set up various businesses through which they laundered what amounts to Putin’s money.
The gang, including Teyf’s wife Tatyana, 41, are also charged with immigration fraud as they tried to get another of their Russian pals in to the US.
 

Murder-for-hire plot!

But, the story got even juicier when Teyf allegedly believed his wife was having an affair with his housekeeper’s son (remember made-for-TV potential here!).
Local news reports were buzzing about that tidbit.  According to the DOJ,

During the course of the investigation into the money laundering charges, a Confidential Source utilized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation learned that Leonid Teyf came to believe that his wife, Tatyana Teyf, was having an affair with another man.  Leonid Teyf recruited the Confidential Source to assist in planning for the man’s murder.  The murder was to take place here in the United States or in Russia after they conspired to have the man deported.

If found guilty, Leonid Teyf could get 20 years and Tatyana and their other accomplices could get 10 each.
The feds will seek to recover $39 million and then here is the clincher for them,  “Each defendant will likely face the prospect of removal from the United States after their terms of imprisonment.”
Why not just deport them after they are convicted and save us the expense of keeping them behind bars?

Let Putin take care of them!
question markOf course the first question that came to my mind when I read the news, widely reported in North Carolina, was: how did this bunch of Russian mobsters get in here in the first place?  We hear mumbo-jumbo all the time about coming to America the right way? What is that? If they hadn’t made some dumb mistakes, would these mobsters just have wormed their way to US citizenship?