President Donald J. Trump granted a full pardon to Dr. Faustino Bernadett, who was facing a 15-month prison sentence for failing to expose the illegal kickback scheme at Pacific Hospital of Long Beach. Bernadett owned the hospital for five years, during the time Michael Drobot ran the scam that generated nearly $1 billion in fraudulent …
Workers’ comp claim activity has decreased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic as Californians sheltered in place and many businesses curtailed operations. Telemedicine quickly became an option for injured workers needing to continue their treatment, but investigators say that while the service is useful some unscrupulous providers and cheats may be preparing to use it to …
The California Department of Insurance’s continuing effort to update the rules for insurance carriers’ special investigative units (SIU) has produced a third set of amended draft regulations with changes to streamline some provisions while expanding on others. The updates also reflect the reality of the lengthy rulemaking process, which started over a year ago with …
Orange County prosecutors filed felony charges against two people in an alleged kickback and workers’ comp insurance fraud scheme. Prosecutors say that Bradley Dan Groscost and Felix Koltsov concocted a plan that ultimately billed workers’ comp carriers over $20 million for urine drug screenings and prescriptions for compounded creams. The scheme was driven by $2 …
The Santa Clara District Attorney filed workers’ comp fraud charges against the owner of a vocational training school for allegedly taking $650,000 in Supplemental Job Displacement Benefit (SJDB) payments, but never providing the training. The case is linked to another criminal case against a vocational training school filed earlier this year as both schools had …
United States Attorneys are due in court early next month to prosecute a 12-count workers’ comp fraud indictment. It is against Sam Solakyan for his alleged role in a major kickback scheme. Solakyan ran an MRI network under the names Vital Imaging and San Diego MRI Institute. Solakyan is seeking a dismissal. He is claiming …
California’s district attorneys said they needed a 20% increase in funding to fight workers’ comp fraud to the fullest extent, but said they could make do with a 14% increase. An 8% increase, however, will have to suffice as members of the California Fraud Assessment Commission approved a nearly $5.8 million increase in the assessment …