Health Care Fraud: Seven Defendants Convicted For They Role In Yhe $200 Million Kickback Scheme

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<h2>USAO Seeking &dollar;17M in Money Judgments Against Defendants Convicted in Forest Park Trial<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>The U&period;S&period; Attorney&&num;8217&semi;s Office is seeking more than &dollar;17 million in money judgments against the seven defendants convicted in the Forest Park Medical Center bribery trial in April&comma; announced U&period;S&period; Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Erin Nealy Cox&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Each defendant played a role in the &dollar;200 million kickback scheme&comma; designed to induce doctors to steer lucrative patients – particularly those with high-reimbursing&comma; out-of-network private insurance – to the now defunct hospital&period; The majority of the kickbacks&comma; which totaled more than &dollar;40 million&comma; were disguised as consulting fees or &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;marketing money” doled as a percentage of surgeries each doctor referred to Forest Park&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Hospital manager Alan Beauchamp&comma; who testified for the government&comma; admitted that Forest Park &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;bought surgeries&comma;” and then &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;papered it up to make it look good&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Patients trust medical professionals to make healthcare based on the patients’ best interests&period; Instead&comma; these defendants allowed their greed to dictate their recommendations as to how and where patients were treated&comma;” U&period;S&period; Attorney Nealy Cox said today&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Prosecutors filed motions for entry of a forfeiture money judgement against six of the seven convicted defendants Tuesday afternoon&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>From Wilton McPherson &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Mac” Burt&comma; Forest Park’s managing partner&comma; the government is seeking &dollar;4&comma;560&comma;852&period;33&period; Mr&period; Burt was found guilty on 10 of 12 counts&comma; including one count of conspiracy&comma; two counts of paying kickbacks&comma; six counts of commercial bribery in violation of the Travel Act&comma; and one count of money laundering&comma; and now faces up to 65 years in federal prison&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>From Jackson Jacob&comma; owner of the shell companies through which some of the bribes were routed&comma; the government is seeking &dollar;526&comma;102&period;13&period; Mr&period; Jacob was found guilty on four of 14 counts&comma; including conspiracy and three counts of paying kickbacks&comma; and now faces up to 20 years in federal prison&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>From Michael Bassem Rimlawi&comma; a spinal surgeon&comma; the government is seeking &dollar;8&comma;130&comma;000&period;00&period; &lpar;A portion of that money would be jointly and severally liable with his partner&comma; Dr&period; Doug Won&period;&rpar; Dr&period; Rimlawi was found guilty on three of four counts&comma; including conspiracy and two counts of receiving kickbacks&comma; and now faces up to 15 years in federal prison<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>From Shawn Mark Henry&comma; a spinal surgeon who invested in FMPC&comma; the government is seeking &dollar;840&comma;000&period;00&period; Dr&period; Henry was found guilty on three of three counts&comma; including conspiracy&comma; commercial bribery&comma; and money laundering&comma; and now faces up to 30 years in federal prison&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>From Mrugeshkumar Shah&comma; a pain management doctor&comma; the government is seeking &dollar;67&comma;850&period;00&period; Dr&period; Shah was found guilty on four of four counts&comma; including conspiracy&comma; two counts of paying kickbacks&comma; and one count of commercial bribery&comma; and now faces up to 20 years in federal prison&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>From Iris Kathleen Forrest&comma; a nurse who recruited and preauthorized worker’s comp requests&comma; the government is seeking &dollar;463&comma;600&period;00&period; Ms&period; Forrest was convicted on two of two counts&comma; including conspiracy and paying kickbacks&comma; and now faces up to 10 years in federal prison&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Prosecutors had previously filed a motion for entry of a forfeiture money judgement against Dr&period; Douglas Sung Won&comma; who is currently facing bankruptcy proceedings&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>From Dr&period; Won&comma; a spinal surgeon who partnered with Dr&period; Rimlawi&comma; the government is seeking &dollar;9&comma;122&comma;500&period;00&period; &lpar;A portion of that money would be jointly and severally liable with Dr&period; Rimlawi&period;&rpar; Dr&period; Won was found guilty on one of two counts&comma; conspiracy&comma; and now faces up to 5 years in federal prison&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The government is also seeking &dollar;8&comma;255&comma;000&period;00 from Dr&period; Wade Neal Barker&comma; one of Forest Park’s founding doctors&comma; who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to pay and receive healthcare bribes and kickbacks as well as aiding and abetting commercial bribery before trial and agreed to testify for the prosecution&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In total&comma; the government is seeking &dollar;17&comma;355&comma;904&period;46 from the defendants convicted at trial&comma; plus an additional &dollar;8&comma;255&comma;000&period;00 from Dr&period; Barker&comma; for an overall total of &dollar;25&comma;610&comma;904&period;46 to date&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In this case&comma; prosecutors are seeking forfeiture money judgements based on proceeds traceable to the defendants’ crimes of conviction&period; In addition to any forfeiture ordered by the Court&comma; the Forest Park defendants may be required to pay mandatory restitution to the victim insurance companies – an amount that will likely far exceed the amount sought in the money judgements&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The case was investigated by the U&period;S&period; Office of Personnel Management Office of Inspector General&comma; the Federal Bureau of Investigation&comma; the U&period;S&period; Department of Labor Office of Inspector General&comma; the U&period;S&period; Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration&comma; the U&period;S&period; Department of Defense &&num;8211&semi; Defense Criminal Investigative Service&comma; and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation&comma; with assistance from the Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigations&period; Assistant U&period;S&period; Attorney Mark Tindall is handling the money judgements&period; Assistant U&period;S&period; Attorneys Andrew Wirmani&comma; Kate Pfeifle&comma; Marcus Busch&comma; and Gail Hayworth are also prosecuting the case&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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