24 Accused in Insurance Fraud Scheme
A sting operation launched from a phony law office led to the indictment of 24 medical professionals on charges of filing false insurance claims and paying illegal kickbacks, authorities announced Thursday.
The two-year-long operation, sprung by the Riverside County district attorney’s office and the state Department of Insurance, identified 14 chiropractors, three physicians and seven office workers. They allegedly submitted more than $20,000 in inflated or bogus medical treatment claims to insurance companies and paid kickbacks to undercover investigators posing as lawyers willing to participate in the insurance fraud by referring “patients” to them, officials said.
The amount may reflect just the tip of the iceberg, Deputy Dist. Atty. Guy Pittman said, because the suspects may have perpetrated similar schemes with real lawyers.
The Riverside investigation comes in the midst of a statewide crackdown on insurance fraud. Last year, federal prosecutors in Sacramento uncovered a scam in which attorneys and medical professionals allegedly defrauded insurance companies of nearly $18 million.
If convicted, the suspects face a maximum sentence of eight years in prison.
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