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Speech

Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division Speaks at the Dallas Health Care Fraud Enforcement Action Press Conference

Location

Dallas, TX
United States

As prepared for delivery

Thank you, Deputy Secretary Corr.

Today, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force is taking aim at the largest alleged home health fraud scheme ever committed.

As the Deputy Attorney General noted, this is also the largest single case ever brought by the Strike Force, as measured by the amount of alleged fraudulent billings.

According to the indictment, Dr. Roy and his co-conspirators, for years, ran a well-oiled fraudulent enterprise in the Dallas area, making millions by recruiting thousands of patients for unnecessary services and billing Medicare for those services.

One defendant allegedly paid recruiters $50 for each beneficiary the recruiters could deliver from a Dallas-area homeless shelter.

The Strike Force is a uniquely successful partnership between the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and nine of our U.S. Attorneys’ Offices. By using data analysis and other techniques, we are targeting, and putting an end to, Medicare fraud schemes in hotspots across the country.

Just last year, we carried out the two biggest health care fraud takedowns in history, together involving more than 200 defendants and over $500 million in alleged fraudulent billings.

Since 2009, the Strike Force has charged more than 800 defendants with alleged fraud of over $2.2 billion.

These serious crimes have serious consequences.

Last year, an owner of a mental health care corporation in Miami that was billing Medicare for unnecessary and illegitimate treatments, was sentenced to 50 years in prison. His co-owners were each sentenced to 35 years in prison.

In Dallas, and the eight other Strike Force cities, the Criminal Division and our partners in the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices will continue to crack down on Medicare fraud and hold accountable those stealing from the public fisc.

Thank you. I’d now like to turn it over to my friend and partner, U.S. Attorney Sarah Saldaña.


Updated September 17, 2014