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18 People Arrested by Medicare Fraud Strike Force

September 19, 2008

Los Angeles, CA - About 18 people were arrested in Southland raids due to alleged Medicare fraud schemes, which involve ordering of hospital beds, feeding kits, power wheelchairs, and shoes for diabetics.

Around 175 people who are alleged to have billed Medicare for an amount of more that half a billion dollars were arrested by the strike force since its inception in the previous year.

According to authorities, among the people who were arrested are medical professionals and clinic owners. The arrest of these people were made and conducted by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, which is team of state and federal investigators that started operating in Los Angeles earlier in the year.

Included in the persons who were arrested is Donald Noyola, who was just released from Chino State Prison.

Noyola was listed as the secretary, chief financing officer, and the president of Sycamore Medical Supply Co., a small firm based in Los Angeles that according to court records, billed Medicare for more than $1.3 million over nine months in the previous year for reimbursements.

In addition, according to prosecutors as well as indictments that were made public, Noyola was a bit player in one of a series of claimed schemes that is projected to bilk Medicare for over $33 million.

Meanwhile, one of the indictments that were released revealed that the defendants with clinics in Los Angeles as well as the Van Nyus billed Medicare in both 2007 and 2008 about $16.3 million worth of about 2,400 wheelchairs that are motorized, which are not actually needed by the patients.

Acting assistant attorney general Mathew Friedrich said the raids that were conducted would help in defending the integrity of Medicare “for the more that 40 million Americans who rely on the Medicare program for their health coverage.”

Also included in the latest indictments are Amen Shagoyan et al, who are charged with conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud as well as other various offenses.

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