The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office outlined the roles 11 co-defendants allegedly played in the operation of a medical fraud scheme that netted defendants hundreds of millions of dollars. The story in CBS News reports that prosecutors describe a sprawling fraud scheme where 11 of the 15 defendants “billed hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent insurance claims, mostly involving workers compensation, that ranged from billing for services never provided to fraudulent surgeries.” Fraudulent billings, prosecutors say, that “continue today.”
At least 15 defense attorneys packed Judge Kathleen Kennedy’s downtown Los Angeles courtroom for a bail hearing for the 15 alleged co-conspirators. Bailiffs had to deny access to many in the overflowed courtroom. Bail bondsmen filled the aisles, among them the Beverly Hills bail bondsmen to rappers including Snoop Dog and Dr. Dre, and Josh Herman, who assisted Park with bail that sprung her for the murder trial. At one point Judge Kennedy mused that she had half the sheriff’s department in her courtroom.
The prosecution set a bail schedule for each of the 11 defendants at close to or exceeding $20 million. The four defendants in the related indictment have bail ranging from $1 million to nearly $3 million. In Friday’s hearing, defense attorneys argued for bail reduction calling the schedule “astronomical” and “unfair.”
Former Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley has referred to as “non-traditional” organized crime. “It’s not La Cosa Nostra, instead it is organized criminals who are smart enough to take advantage of society’s weaknesses,” says Cooley. “These kinds of frauds are rampant and thoroughly penetrate the American health care system,” Cooley says. “Given the amount of money committed to health care in the United States, this is where the organized crime goes, it follows the money.”
Prosecutors contend that in 2009, Uwaydah’s fraud enterprise reached the stage that Uwaydah and other charged defendants including Park “conspired to take over a distressed bank… in order to facilitate the laundering of their criminal proceeds.” Prosecutors accuse Park of controlling fraudulent billing practices for Uwaydah’s business empire, “placing her name on shell companies and shell bank accounts … designed to hide Uwaydah’s identity.” They also allege she attended weekly meetings with Uwaydah and other associates to discuss “hiding assets from creditors, insurance companies and law enforcement.”
At one point, the prosecution presented documents alleging that even last Tuesday, the very same day the 15 defendants were arraigned in court, the medical conspiracy still continued to churn out fraudulent medical billings and services while the alleged conspirators were in custody.