Signage is seen at the United States Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, D.C., August 29, 2020.
Andrew Kelly | Reuters
The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday announced criminal charges against two people in California in a scheme that allegedly made $144 million in false and fraudulent health claims to federal programs for unnecessary Covid-19 tests.
The DOJ also announced criminal cases against 19 other defendants, among them doctors, a nurse, medical business executives and others, for an additional $8 million in false Covid-related billings to federal health programs and theft from federally funded pandemic assistance programs. Prosecutors also allege some defendants sold fake vaccination cards and bogus coronavirus cures.
The cases span nine federal court districts.
“Throughout the pandemic, we have seen trusted medical professionals orchestrate and carry out egregious crimes against their patients all for financial gain,” said Luis Quesada, assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division.
“These health care fraud abuses erode the integrity and trust patients have with those in the health care industry, particularly during a vulnerable and worrisome time for many individuals,” Quesada said.
In the major California case, the owners of a clinical laboratory, Imran Shams and Lourdes Navarro, both age 63, of Glendale, were charged with a health-care fraud, kickback and money laundering scheme that involved the fraudulent billing of over...
A front-page article with the byline of veteran New York Times opinion writer Nicholas Kristof is the latest poisonous example of what I call the NGO “halo effect.” Headlined “The Silence That Mee...