Is the word out all over the world for foreign docs to head to the Detroit area and set up scams to rip-off American taxpayers? It seems that way considering the number of cases of fraud I’ve reported from Michigan.
See this post about Opiod pushing docs in Michigan because they aren’t just ripping us off financially, but hurting Americans as well.
Metro Detroit physicians found guilty of defrauding Medicare, prescribing unnecessary opioids
Four Metro Detroit physicians were found guilty of health care fraud for their roles in a scheme to administer unnecessary back injections to patients in exchange for prescriptions of medically unnecessary opioids.
Officials said patients were required to get the injections in order to get the prescriptions. Some of the opioids were resold by drug dealers.
Spilios Pappas, 62, of Lucas County, Ohio, Joseph Betro, 59, of Oakland County, Michigan, Tariq Omar, 62, of Oakland County, Michigan, and Mohammed Zahoor, 53, of Oakland County, Michigan, were each found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, and one count of health care fraud.
“These physicians subjected patients to medically unnecessary injections to reap millions in fraudulent billings. Worse still, they incentivized those treatments by offering opioid prescriptions in sky-high dosages meant for the terminally ill,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Today’s verdict shows that the Department will root out physicians who let dollar signs rather than medical need drive their treatment of patients.”
Evidence at trial showed that from 2008 to 2016 Pappas, Betro, Omar and Zahoor worked at numerous medical clinics in Michigan and Ohio, which were operated under the name of the Tri-County Group (Tri-County) and owned by co-conspirator Mashiyat Rashid.
While working at Tri-County they engaged in a scheme to defraud Medicare of over $150 million by billing for medically unnecessary facet joint injections, unnecessary urinary drug screens, home health and more.
Officials said they offered prescriptions of oxycodone 30 mg to patients who were in pain, drug dealers, or opioid addicts. Those patients were forced to submit to unnecessary facet injections for the prescription.
The four defendants were all ranked in the top 25 doctors for dollars paid by Medicare for facet joint injections, even though they only worked a few hours a week. The defendants practice was described during trial as an assembly line, where the four defendants earned anywhere from $1,100 to $3,500 an hour for performing the injections.
Seniors: If you are seeing a doctor, especially for pain medications and you see something suspicious, report it to Medicare.gov. Check your Medicare statements carefully. One friend who was receiving pain meds told me that her doctor had billed Medicare for a much larger amount than she was prescribed. Maybe by mistake? But, best to report anything suspicious!
MAYOR OF TAYLOR AND TWO OTHERS INDICTED FOR BRIBERY AND FRAUD
A thirty-three count Indictment unsealed today charges City of Taylor Mayor Richard “Rick” Sollars, businessman Shady Awad, and Taylor Community Development Manager Jeffrey Baum with conspiracy to commit bribery in a scheme spanning from 2015 to 2019,United States Attorney Matthew Schneider announced. The Indictment also charges Sollars and Awad with seven counts of bribery each, and charges Sollars and Baum with 18 counts of Wire Fraud.
According to the Indictment, Sollars helped Awad’s real estate development company Realty Transition LLC obtain scores of tax-foreclosed properties owned by the City of Taylor. In return, Awad lavished Sollars with thousands of dollars in cash and over $30,000 in renovations to Sollars’s home, over $11,000 in renovations to Sollars’s lake house, and over $12,000 in new household appliances.
The appliances included a refrigerator, stove, microwave, dishwasher, a $1,600 cigar humidor, a vacuum cleaner, and a clothes washer and dryer. The free renovations provided to Sollars by Awad include hardwood floors on every level of Sollars’s Taylor residence, hardwood floors at the lake house, a garage door, a new front door, cabinets, and a refurbished lake house deck.
The Indictment also alleges that Jeffrey Baum received bribes from Awad and another developer, in exchange for Baum’s help in obtaining tax-foreclosed properties from the City.
Sollar’s vacation home!
Text messages between Sollars, Awad, and Baum cited throughout the Indictment document the bribe scheme. In one text, Awad states as follows: “My relationship with Rick is worth $1 million so whatever it takes I’ll pay for it” in telling a contractor to do free work on Sollars’s lake house.
The Indictment also charges Sollars and Baum with 18 counts of Wire Fraud, alleging that Sollars and Baum defrauded donors to Sollars’s campaign fund in three ways. First, Sollars would take checks from his campaign account and write them payable to a particular market, purporting to pay for catering for one of Sollars’s events. Instead, the market owner would cash the campaign checks and give the cash back to Sollars, with no catering provided. Second, Sollars and Baum would direct Sollars’s supporters to write checks directly to the market for events that never occurred. Sollars would get cash and scratch-off lottery tickets from the market owner. Third, Sollars and Baum would solicit and accept thousands of dollars in cash contributions to Sollars’s campaign. Instead of depositing the funds into his campaign account, Sollars would simply keep the cash and use it for personal expenses.
The Indictment also seeks forfeiture of $205,993 in cash seized from Sollars’s home on February 10, 2019.
FBI provides readers with contact information if you suspect fraud or corruption with your local elected officials!
“Any time an allegation of corruption is brought to our attention, the FBI’s Detroit Area Public Corruption Task Force will investigate it thoroughly. Public corruption at any level undermines the community’s faith in their elected officials and does long-term damage to government institutions,” said SAC D’Antuono. “With that in mind, we encourage anyone who believes they have information about corruption to contact the FBI at 313-965-4545 or tips.fbi.gov.”
I know I haven’t done a scientific analysis, but heck it sure seems that a very high percentage of my ‘Frauds and Crooks’ stories originate in Michigan!
For new readers: If you are interested in the issue of Refugee Resettlement (Michigan is a leading state that ‘welcomes’ more impoverished people), visit my other blogRefugee Resettlement Watch where I have been spending a lot of time in recent weeks.
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!
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.”
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 toRefugee Resettlement Watch every few days, because a lot is going on following the President’s reform initiative launched in September.
I’m starting to see a pattern! Seems like most of the crime stories I’m seeing these days are coming from three states: Michigan, Maine and Minnesota. What could the connection be?
I’m joking of course. I have done no serious analysis of crimes in all fifty states and it might just be that I have some very watchful readers in those particular states sending me news on an almost daily basis!
Hamtramck school worker charged with sex assault on student
Hamtramck — A student liaison at a charter school has been charged with sexually assaulting an 18-year-old male student, officials said.
Ibrahim Aljahim
Ibrahim Aljahim, 37, of Hamtramck, was arraigned Sunday in 34th District Court in Romulus on two counts of criminal sexual conduct, according to Hamtramck Police Chief Anne Moise and the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.
Officials said Aljahim was charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving someone who is mentally disabled. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.
A judge set his bond at $10,000, Moise said in a statement. A probable cause conference has been scheduled for next Thursday and a preliminary examination of the case against him was set for Oct. 10 in the 31st District Court in Hamtramck, according to court records.
Moise said Aljahim was released after posting bond and further facts and evidence will be presented in court during the preliminary examination.
The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office said police were called to the Oakland International Academy, a charter school, to investigate allegations that Aljahim had inappropriate sexual contact with a male student on school property during school hours.
No further information is being released at this time, officials said.
As usual, no information on nationality or immigration status for this ‘new American.’
I know that by now you might be thinking this blog could be renamed Michigan Frauds and Crooks.
Is it Michigan or is it that papers like the Detroit News are doing their jobs?
And, to one of my critics—you see I do write about American crooks when the news interests me!
Thanks to reader Cathy for this storypublished yesterday:
Southfield city clerk charged with 6 felonies tied to November election
Detroit — Southfield City Clerk Sherikia L. Hawkins was charged Monday with six felony counts over “unauthorized and inaccurate” changes to absentee ballots in the November 2018 election.
Sherikia L. Hawkins
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson made a joint announcement of the charges in Detroit, calling it a “rare” case.
“Voting is fundamental to the very essence of our democracy,” Nessel said during a Monday news conference. “It is incumbent upon state governments to safeguard the electoral process and ensure that every voter’s right to cast a ballot is protected.”
Allegations that Hawkins altered 193 absentee voter records came to light during the 14-day canvass following the election. Benson said the Oakland County Clerk’s Office reported with the Bureau of Elections “the potential for these irregularities and from there we began our investigation.”
[….]
Hawkins, a Democrat who just a few months ago was honored by the state party with the Dingell/Levin Award at its Legacy Dinner in Detroit, could not be reached Monday at her office for comment or a number listed in public records. Her attorney also could not be reached.
[….]
After taking office in January, Benson and Nessel, both Democrats, wanted to make sure the state’s elections were protected from “every conceivable threat,” Nessel said.
“Every citizen must know that when they enter the ballot box, the vote that they cast will be counted and that the collective will of the voters will be carried out,” Nessel said.
Hawkins,38, was arraigned Monday in 46th District Court in Southfield on the charges, which include election law-falsifying returns or records, forgery of a public record, misconduct in office and multiple counts of using a computer to commit a crime.
Forgery of a public record is a 14-year offense, Nessel said.
[….]
“After the city has examined the underlying facts of this matter, we will explore all appropriate and legal avenues to protect the voting process and rights of the Southfield Citizenry,” the statement issued by [City Council] spokesman Michael Manion said. “Mrs. Hawkins will be on administrative leave with pay at this time.”
Hawkins is paid $101,500 per year in Southfield as the city’s clerk.
[….]
Hawkins made history in November 2017 as the first African-American elected as city clerk, according to the clerk’s page on the city’s website. She formerly served as Pontiac’s city clerk.
A thirty-three count Indictment unsealed today charges City of Taylor Mayor Richard “Rick” Sollars, businessman Shady Awad, and Taylor Community Development Manager Jeffrey Baum with conspiracy to commit bribery in a scheme spanning from 2015 to 2019, United States Attorney Matthew Schneider announced. The Indictment also charges Sollars and Awad with seven counts of bribery each, and charges Sollars and Baum with 18 counts of Wire Fraud.
