SHERMAN OAKS : Burn Center Receives $20,000 in Fraud Case

Dr. A. Richard Grossman can no longer say that crime does not pay.

As part of an insurance fraud conviction, a Hollywood-based lending company was ordered to pay $20,000 to the Sherman Oaks Community Hospital Burn Center Foundation.

“It was a godsend,” said Grossman, who heads the burn center. “I’ve got 23 people in here now. It’s like a triage center.”

The burn center received a check for $20,000 Tuesday.

In the fraud case, Government Funding Inc. was accused by the Los Angeles city attorney’s office of charging customers for life insurance policies that no longer existed. The company was convicted Nov. 15 and ordered to pay $10,000 in fines and court costs, and make the contribution to the burn center, Deputy City Atty. Ruth Kwan said.

“Coincidentally, the case concluded right after the fires were hitting Southern California,” City Atty. James K. Hahn said. “I think we were especially mindful of our firefighters that were burned and how much the Sherman Oaks Burn Center is really important.”

The center treated nine firefighters and three civilians from the Calabasas/Malibu brush fires and seven people from the Nov. 15 arson fire in downtown Los Angeles. Two wildfire victims are still being treated, as well as two children from the apartment fire.

It is those children, and six others at the center, that Grossman hopes to help with the new funds.

The money will help “support those children once they leave the hospital,” Grossman said. “You need it for bicycles, you need it for tutoring, you need it for psychologists. It’s going to be difficult for them to get back into life with the burns and the scarring.”