Medical professionals among 15 charged in alleged $2 billion health care fraud; searches carried out in Los Angeles

TARZANA, LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Several medical professionals are among the dozen people who have been arrested and charged in what federal prosecutors say amounts to $2 billion in alleged health care fraud.

ABC7’s Kevin Ozebek was on hand as federal agents made one of those arrests in Tarzana Thursday morning. Loud bangs were heard and FBI agents were seen climbing the side of a hill to reach a mansion around 6 a.m.

Moments later, Hany Malek, 61, was handcuffed and taken into custody.

Federal prosecutors say Malek is a chiropractor who posed as a doctor.

Investigators say that even though he is just a chiropractor, he would diagnose illness in patients simply for them to undergo a procedure to remove the plague from their arteries. Prosecutors say the deliberate misdiagnosis was part of a scheme to bill Medicare.

“They operated on them and they did it multiple times,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said. “So they were saying ‘actually, the first operation wasn’t successful, we have to do it again.’ It was just to bill Medicare, just to make money – so they could buy mansions like this. »

The U.S. Department of Justice announced charges Thursday against 15 people, including six medical professionals, for alleged health care fraud schemes, including “fictitious drug treatment programs, unnecessary artery treatments, and bogus hospice services.”

Ten of these individuals were arrested, many in the Los Angeles area.

Federal prosecutors say that includes a father and son accused of trafficking homeless people from across the country to Southern California and elsewhere so private insurance companies could be billed for their treatment. But investigators say they rarely received the treatment they needed.