Is your Neighborhood Pharmacist a Crook?

01/08/201909/21/2019 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ 5 Comments

Some are, but maybe not your local friendly, helpful health professional!

sessions and weed — You can bet the drug industry and the Medicare fraudsters were happy to see Sessions out as Attorney General

A little over six months ago, then Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a major federal crackdown on doctors, pharmacists and other health providers for fueling the opioid crisis and using your Medicare and Medicaid dollars to line their pockets.
Here is a bit of one story about Sessions’ announcement.
From State News June 28, 2018:

Federal agencies on Thursday announced charges in what Attorney General Jeff Sessions called “the largest health care fraud takedown in American history,” an investigation into over $2 billion in alleged fraud by doctors, pharmacists, and nurses.
Many of the allegations centered on illegitimate opioid prescriptions. The Justice Department charged 162 defendants, including 76 doctors, for their roles dispensing opioids and narcotics, the result of investigations spanning 30 state Medicaid programs and numerous enforcement agencies.
[….]
“Some of our most trusted medical officials, professionals, look at their patients, vulnerable people suffering from addiction, and they see dollar signs,” Sessions said.
The alleged fraud and false billings collectively accounted for 13 million illegal opioid dosages, the Justice Department said, and also included 23 pharmacists and 19 nurses.
The Department of Health and Human Services also announced that since July 2017, it has excluded over 2,700 individuals and 587 providers from Medicare and Medicaid “for conduct related to opioid diversion and abuse” — including 67 doctors, 402 nurses, and 40 pharmacy services.

More here.

Here are a couple of more recent cases of Pharmacy fraud

Don’t miss my post from last week about Pharmacist Haytham “Tom” Fakih in Dearborn, Michigan.
Florida Fraudster
From a Justice Department Press release in December, here.

The owner of a Miami, Florida-area pharmacy who caused Medicare to pay more than $8.4 million over a six-year period for prescription drugs that were never provided to beneficiaries was sentenced today to 87 months in prison.
[….]
Antonio Perez Jr., 48, of Miami Beach, Florida, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Federico A. Moreno of the Southern District of Florida, who also ordered Perez to pay $8,415,824 in restitution and to forfeit the same amount. Perez was ordered to forfeit four Miami-area properties worth approximately $700,000 and multiple bank accounts totaling over $250,000. Perez previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
[….]
During the course of the scheme, Medicare paid Valles Pharmacy Discount over $32 million, of which at least $8.4 million was for prescription drugs that Valles Pharmacy never purchased and never provided to Medicare beneficiaries, Perez admitted.

ahktmar-pharmacy — The owner of Akhtamar Pharmacy will be sentenced in February.

California case
***Update*** Tatarian gets four years in the ‘big house.’ See here.
Also in December a federal jury found Pharmacist Tamar Tatarian, 39, of Pasadena, California guilty of a Medicare fraud scheme after she billed Medicare $1.3 million for drugs she never purchased or distributed.
You will be interested to see that she was one of those caught in Sessions’ big sweep earlier this year.
Tatarian, the owner of Akhtamar Pharmacy, will be sentenced next month.

Secret decoder ring at work! Tatarian must be Armenian. See the Legend of Akhtamar. My reference to Secret decoder ring comes from Ann Coulter’s ‘Adios America’ where she rightly points out that readers of news stories about crooks and criminals must search for clues about where the alleged perp might come from and how he/she got in to the country.

Exception! See yesterday’s post about the Russians ripping off Washington staters! There the reporter actually says where those arrested were from.

Russians and Eastern Europeans Steal Credit Card Information, Rip-off Washington State Residents

01/07/201909/21/2019 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ 5 Comments

Looks like they just flew in and set up a credit card skimming fraud scheme.

Check out this story from the Tri-City Herald, a paper serving Kennewick, Pasco and Richland, Washington. And, check out this fantastic reporting by Kristin Kraemer! This is reporting as it should be!
No typical politically-correct reporting identifying the perps as “man,” or Washington “man” here.
No ‘secret decoder ring’ needed!

Straight up in the headline—these are foreign crooks!
Two are Russians, the other two are from Romania and Moldova.

From the Tri-City Herald (hat tip: Robin):

These foreigners ran a credit card skimming ring in the Tri-Cities, say police

Dozens of Tri-Citians were the victim of a highly sophisticated credit card scam that ended with the arrests of four Eastern Europeans.
Police say the alleged thieves weren’t caught until they had already siphoned $17,000 from accounts just after Christmas.
And there may be dozens more unknowing victims throughout Eastern Washington since police confiscated at least 268 gift cards, each one loaded with a separate account number, name and PIN number.
While the suspects were nabbed at Numerica Credit Union in Richland, court documents show they were operating out of hotels in Yakima County and driving rental cars from Seattle and Southern California.
[….]
Emil Kabirov, 21, Denis Legun, 24, Ana Onici, 22, and George Vasile, 35, appeared Friday in Benton County Superior Court.
Judge Joe Burrowes raised Kabirov’s bail to $500,000 — an amount typically reserved for defendants in murder, violent assault and certain child sex cases.
Bail is set at $100,000 each for Legun and Vasile with the stipulation that they surrender their passports before posting bond. If they don’t hand them over but want to be released, the bail amount increases to $500,000 on each.
[….]
The suspects may have used a skimming device attached to an ATM, gas pump or a card reader in a store to record legitimate transactions.
The stolen information, or metadata, is then downloaded from the device, providing scammers with account numbers and access PINs.
Often, that information is used to make counterfeit cards with blank gift cards so the thieves can use them like credit or debit cards at various ATMs to unlawfully withdraw money from those accounts.

Much more here.
Kabirov and Legun are identified as Russians, Vasile is Romanian, and Onica is from Moldova and all are ordered to appear in court in February. A fifth suspect got away.
Kudos to Ms. Kraemer!
So why can’t we have reporting like this more often—reporting that doesn’t shy away from telling the public when the crooks are immigrants of some sort!

However, I still have one question: which legal immigration program did this bunch use to get in to the US, or did they arrive illegally somehow? How can we ever reform immigration if we don’t know where the loopholes are that crooks like these creeps take advantage of?

California Sec. of State can't Guarantee that Non-Citizens are not Voting

01/07/201909/21/2019 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ 5 Comments

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla (a Democrat activist says his bio) is in the hot seat.

In April of 2018, California began automatically registering voters when they obtained a Driver’s License.
(California is one of twelve states that allows illegal aliens to obtain licenses.)
However, apparently problems developed with a confusing questionnaire at the time the non-citizen was obtaining a license. Padilla is blaming the DMV and the California Department of Technology for the screw-up.
The story at the Sacremento Bee is a little confusing, but a key line near the end sums it up:

Blame aside, Padilla and his critics agree the registration errors undermine voter confidence in California’s election systems.

Here are some more snips from the story (emphasis is mine):

California officials still can’t say whether non-citizens voted in the June 2018 primary because a confusing government questionnaire about eligibility was created in a way that prevents a direct answer on citizenship.
[….]
The email shows that, for months, California officials have been examining whether non-citizens voted last year. On Thursday, Secretary of State Alex Padilla confirmed for the first time that his office has an active internal investigation into the matter.
“The Secretary of State’s office does not comment on the details of ongoing investigations,” the office said in a statement. “Determining whether ineligible individuals who were erroneously registered to vote by the DMV cast ballots requires a complete review. The Secretary of State’s office is doing its due diligence by conducting a thorough investigation.”
Spokesmen for the office declined to say how the department could otherwise determine citizenship of those registered.
While the office is confident non-citizens were unable to vote in the November general election, it remains unsure about the June primary.
Since the DMV started automatically registering people to vote on April 23, 2018, it has acknowledged making 105,000 processing errors out of more than 2.4 million transactions. At least one non-citizen has come forward to say he was improperly added to the voter rolls in the latest batch of errors.

One honest non-citizen came forward to admit he was not eligible to vote!
Then this next bit is amusing (sort of). It is not voter fraud if the fraudulent voter was registered to vote through a government error? But, surely the government didn’t take him to the polls!

“These registrations do not constitute voter fraud, as none of the individuals erroneously registered did so through any affirmative effort on their part,” Padilla wrote in a Nov. 9 letter to Moorlach [State Sen. John Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa].

More here.

Who could possibly believe that there aren’t cheaters voting in California? Once confidence in the electoral system has been eroded, especially in the 12 states that allow non-citizens to obtain Driver’s’ Licenses, how do you ever get it back?

Alert: Beware of Medical Supply Phone Fraud

01/06/201909/21/2019 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ 3 Comments

Have you been getting calls that start with a recorded voice saying “Don’t hang up!”? The caller says he/she has important information about relieving chronic pain with neck, back or knee braces (that Medicare will pay for).

I get those and so I noticed this news story from Fruitland, Maryland ten days ago about how phone scammers clone a number (in this case they cloned the police department!) and use it to make their fraud calls.
Then I found a letter to the editor from a man in Wilson, NC who, although suspicious of the call, did talk with the ‘supplier’ of braces, and here is what he said,

I have received dozens of calls concerning braces for pain in my back, shoulders, etc., none of which is true! On those calls where I actually talked to the callers, I told them exactly that and apparently I was ignored. They told me it will cost me absolutely nothing and Medicare will pay for everything. I again told them no, I don’t need them, nor do I want them. They told me they would send them anyway and they would be absolutely free and Medicare would pay.
Guess what? On a recent Thursday, a package arrived from Trilogy Medical Supply of West Palm Beach, Florida. I refused acceptance and UPS took the unopened package back. Now the fun part!
I called Medicare and after speaking to three individuals, was told that this company had indeed billed Medicare more than $3,400 for something I neither wanted nor asked for and in fact refused. Medicare has opened an investigation into this and will refuse payment for my “pain relief braces!”

So, it appears that the feds were promptly paying out to Trilogy Medical Supply.* It is not clear if the letter-writer gave out his Medicare card number to the callers.
Check your Medicare statements when they come in and look for items you were billed for. One friend of mine said there were amounts of certain medications (for pain!) that were larger than she had received.
Yesterday a Better Business Bureau in Ohio published a list of the Top Seven phone fraud schemes they had been notified about in 2018.
See them all but especially #2: The Grandparents Scam!
Another of my friends reported that an elder family member fell for this one and actually drove out late at night to wire cash to the unknown caller!

*We have no idea who owns Trilogy Medical Supply (could be perfectly legit). But, as soon as the Department of Justice website is up and running again (after the shutdown), I’ll check if they show up there.

California: Thousands of Mourners See Police Officer Ronil Singh Laid to Rest

01/06/201909/21/2019 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ 3 Comments

This is one of the better stories I’ve read on the funeral for a man, an immigrant who gave everything for America, who should be alive today. Instead some Mexican low-life who allegedly entered the US illegally is still breathing.

singh funeral 2 — Singh’s dog Sam says good-bye

From the Modesto Bee (emphasis is mine):

CrossPoint Community Church overflowed with mourners. The main Worship Hall was standing-room only, reserved for uniformed law enforcement and family members.
Three additional viewing areas inside the church for the general public also were packed and in Newman a livestream viewing was held at Orestimba High School.
[….]
The funeral for the 33-year-old Singh, who was shot and killed while performing a traffic stop in the early hours of Dec. 26, drew some 4,000 people and officers from more than 100 agencies up-and-down the state, as far away as New York and Massachusetts and even two members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
[….]
The family immigrated to the United States in 2003, and he worked his way up working various positions at local law enforcement agencies including the Modesto Police and Turlock Police departments and the Merced County Sheriff’s Department. Then in 2011 he achieved his dream of becoming a police officer when he was hired by the Newman Police Department. He was promoted to become a K9 officer in 2013 and the rank of corporal in 2016.
[….]
Aside from the speakers’ voices, the quiet hall was interrupted only by laughter at Singh’s jokester antics and the occasional burbling sounds of Singh’s five-month-old son, Arnav, who sat in the front row held by with his widow, Anamika Chand-Singh.
[….]
About 2,000 law enforcement representatives took part. Modesto Police Department spokesman Billy Boyle said he had never seen as large a combined police and public turnout as at the funeral service, and that it spoke to the close relationship local law enforcement has with the community.

And, it spoke to the public’s universal outrage at the monstrous unfairness of it —that an illegal alien creep who shouldn’t have been in the country in the first place allegedly took Singh’s life.
Read more at the Modesto Bee.

Donate to the family through the police department

There is no official GoFundMe account for the family. The Stanislaus County PD makes it clear on their facebook page that there is only one legitimate fundraising effort on-going for the family.

Please be aware there are NO other approved or authorized memorial fund or online fundraising accounts that will be established.

Click here to see how you can donate.

Michelle Malkin wants to know why the Democrats are silent, especially California Democrat women! And, it seems to me that the Rs should be talking about Corporal Ronil Singh every day as the wall debate continues. Indeed his death could save thousands in the future if the US finally controls the southern border!