Are "New American" Doctors Fueling the Opioid Crisis?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 5 Comments

Screenshot (821)
No bond for Dr. Rajendra Bothra

Surely some of the doctors who prescribe unnecessary pain medications and hook hundreds of thousands of Americans on drugs are American born and bred, but check out this story from Michigan in December.
Not only did these ‘new American’ doctors and health professionals turn unsuspecting Americans into drug addicts, but they did it by using your taxpayer dollars in multi-million dollar fraud schemes involving Medicare and Medicaid.
They got rich destroying lives!
And, when they got caught, many fled the country!
From the Detroit News:

Rich and on the run: Doctors flee country amid fraud, opioid crackdown

Detroit — More than a dozen doctors and medical professionals charged with federal crimes locally have fled the country in recent years amid a federal crackdown on illegal opioid use and health care fraud.
Prosecutors used the fugitive status of 16 medical professionals who have fled since 2011 to keep Dr. Rajendra Bothra jailed Wednesday while he awaits trial in a nearly $500 million conspiracy, one of the largest health care fraud cases in U.S. history.

Here is a bit more, but please read the shocking story!

The medical professionals who have fled for overseas destinations including Jordan, Pakistan and Egypt in recent years have two things in common: foreign ties and big bank accounts that have financed flights from justice. In Bothra’s case, he has eight siblings in India and amassed a $35 million fortune and vast-real estate holdings, including a $1.99 million island estate.

 

Screenshot (822)
The Detroit News did a great service by publishing this list of Detroit doctors/medical professionals who have left the country to avoid prosecution. Too bad those last two columns are blank!

 
More here.
In case you have forgotten, last summer then Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the largest healthcare bust of Medicare and Medicaid fraud scammers in US history and linked it to the opioid crisis.

Medicare Fraud Strike Force

To help find and prosecute frauds and crooks, the feds established the Medicare Fraud Strike Force involving a coordinated effort between the Fraud Section of the US Justice Department, US Attorney’s offices, the FBI, the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General and local law enforcement.
I bet you’ve never even heard of it because the national media rarely (if ever!) mentions its work, which the Strike Force says has resulted in successful prosecutions of 4,000 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $14 billion.
In addition to the Detroit area, the Strike Force is operating in 12 locations around the US: Miami, FL, Los Angeles, CA, Houston, TX, Brooklyn, NY, Baton Rouge and New Orleans, LA, Tampa and Orlando, FL, Chicago, IL, Dallas, TX, Washington, DC, Newark, NJ, Philadelphia, PA and the Appalachian Region.
question mark

I wonder why these huge Medicare and Medicaid fraud stories never seem to be front page news across the country and why aren’t they widely reported by cable news?

 
 

Michigan: Complaint filed against Sonic Drive-in Owner for Defrauding Medicare and Medicaid to the Tune of $1.2 Million

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 7 Comments

 
Editor: This is the first of several such stories I have lined up to report from Michigan!
I can’t say this better than the Detroit News says it,

A Dearborn pharmacist, hailed earlier this year for opening the nation’s first halal-certified Sonic Drive-In restaurant, cheated Medicare and Medicaid by charging for medication prescribed to dead people, according to federal prosecutors.
Trudell Pharmacy owner Haytham “Tom” Fakih also committed health care fraud by billing for expensive medication that was not dispensed to patients, prosecutors alleged in a criminal complaint filed against the pharmacist in federal court Sunday. In all, the fraud cost more than $1.2 million, authorities allege.
[….]
The investigation emerged publicly in September when federal agents seized more than $350,000 during a series of raids that happened five months after Fakih staged a ribbon-cutting ceremony at his Sonic Drive-In restaurant with Dearborn Mayor John O’Reilly Jr. and other community leaders.

Sonic ribbon-cutting

 

Sonic drive in opening
The bearded guy in the middle is Dearborn’s mayor with “Tom” Fakih on his right. Photo is from the Press and Review story about the grand opening of Sonic’s Halal fast food restaurant.

 
In April of last year Fakih, 53, opened a halal drive-in restaurant to much fanfare, says a Press and Guide report,

Representatives from the city, the Dearborn Area Chamber of Commerce, local religious organizations, Dearborn Public Schools, the American Arab Chamber of Commerce and friends of franchise owner Tom Fakih came out to support the new business during its celebration on Wednesday. Mayor John O’Reilly Jr. cut the ribbon…
The offerings showed off the halal options that make the Dearborn location unique. It is the only Sonic in the country to offer them.

According to the Detroit News,

On Sunday, Fakih was released on $10,000 unsecured bond after making an initial appearance in federal court. If convicted, he could spend up to 10 years in prison.

More at the Detroit News.
*Note* a charge by the government is not a determination of guilt.
More tomorrow about Michigan!
question mark

I suppose I could do some digging to find out more about Fakih, apparently a well-established and well-connected businessman in Dearborn, but news reports don’t mention his nationality or anything else about him.

Virginia: Alexandria “Man” Arrested on Christmas Eve for Filming a Minor in Mall Dressing Room

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 10 Comments

Ladies beware!
The “man,” Mumtaz Rauf, 39, was arrested at Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax, Virginia after a sharp-eyed teen saw what looked like a camera peeping down at her while she was trying on clothes in a mall shop.

Mumtaz Rauf
Mumtaz Rauf

The incident is alleged to have happened at Forever 21 in the late afternoon of Christmas eve.
The girl reported her fear about someone possibly filming her to a store clerk who then spotted a man hurrying from the store.
Rauf was arrested in a dressing room in another store a short time later.
NBC Washington reported (see the video too!) that when police arrived Rauf had a pinhole camera on him, some black tape and a Bluetooth transmitter.
Rauf “was charged with unlawful filming of a minor, which is a felony because of the victim’s age,” continued the NBC report.
Mumtaz rauf gear
Rauf’s tools of the trade from INSIDENOVA story

Rauf was previously a bartender in Alexandria and had been profiled almost a year ago to the day in the Old Town Crier.
In the interview Rauf was asked, “How did you get started in the bartending business?”
His reply: “High hopes of money, women and fame.” (Hmmm!)
Fairfax County Police believe that this was not a one-time event, so if you think you may have been filmed in a dressing room at Fair Oaks Mall, call police at 703-591-0966.
The story was reported by other local news outlets here and here.
question mark

There is no mention of Rauf’s nationality or immigration status in any of the reports.

Buffalo, NY Daycare Owner Sentenced to 12 Months for Ripping off US Taxpayers

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 9 Comments

Just before Christmas the US Justice Department announced that Tariq Butt, 42, of Buffalo, NY, who was convicted of theft of government funds, was sentenced to serve 12 months in prison and was ordered to pay $305,000 in restitution to the US Department of Health and Human Resources.
Justice Dept. logo
So what did Butt and his wife Halima Mohammed do?
They were the owners of two day care centers with the adorable names of Twinkle Stars Day Care Center and Candyland Daycare, both located in the City of Buffalo.
In only a little over 8 months they scammed us to the tune of $305,000 via a government program known as the Child Care and Development Block Grant program when they submitted “hundreds of false and fraudulent claims” for children who did not attend the daycare.
According to the Urban Institute,

“The Child Care and Development Block Grant is a federal and state program that allows states to help low-income families pay for child care so they can work or attend a job training or educational program.”

And, get this, the program got an additional $5.8 billion from the feds in February 2018.
Gee, and Trump only wants $5 billion to secure our border.
Butts’ wife, Halima Mohammed, was previously convicted and sentenced to five months in prison and three years supervised release, to include five months home detention.
Local news reported the story on December 20th, here and here.
This story and others like it rarely make the national news.

There is no mention of nationality or immigration status of the pair.question mark

Welcome to My New Blog!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 34 Comments

As many of you know, I wrote the blog Refugee Resettlement Watch for eleven years beginning in July of 2007. My goal was to educate Americans about the US Refugee Admissions Program and related refugee issues here and around the world.
Ann SPLC artwork
I wanted to see the USRAP reformed, and although President Donald Trump has slowed the flow of refugees into the US, it is not enough.

I could be wrong, but I don’t see the major reform I believe is needed happening as the Democrats now control the House of Representatives.

Beating my head against a wall for two more years strikes me as nuts!
So, I’m doing what I threatened over the years and am writing a blog about frauds and crooks.

Update:  Over the summer the speech police removed Refugee Resettlement Watch, but it has since been reconstructed, here.  I’m writing there regularly now along with ‘Frauds and Crooks’ primarily because I couldn’t let them win.

My inspiration and purpose at ‘Frauds and Crooks’ is to balance news like this news from Columbus, Ohio about a Left-wing film company planning a ‘diversity is beautiful’ film just in time for the 2020 Presidential election!

If you have been a long time reader of RRW, you know my side interest was in SNAP fraud, otherwise known as food stamp fraud, not the little stuff, but the huge scam involving trafficking in food stamps.

This blog will be about that fraud and a heckuva lot of other frauds being perpetrated on US taxpayers and average citizens. There is medicare and medicaid fraud, money laundering scams, daycare fraud, vote fraud, immigration and asylum fraud, and even frauds on lonely little old ladies using popular dating services….

….not to mention crimes and terrorism that don’t involve money, but threaten our safety and the safety of our country.

So you can see, I will have a lot of material to write about!

You will be happy to hear that I don’t expect to write more than one or two posts a day with the exception of sending out short, time sensitive fraud alerts as they come up.

And, one last thing!  I have chosen a clean website format and hope to keep it simple to read and navigate.  There won’t be any ads popping up either!

Don’t miss my twitter feed in the right hand sidebar!

(I occasionally still post a few things at twitter, but they clearly were working to diminish my reach.)

Thanks for visiting!

Ann

P.S. Be sure to read my rules about commenting under the header.