Dearborn: Ten Muslims indicted in $50 million MASSIVE medical fraud

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Stealing $54 million from programs that helped the poor pay for their medicine. And where did it go? To fund jihad, perhaps?

Ten people from Dearborn, Dearborn Heights indicted in large-scale pharmacy fraud scheme

The suspects allegedly defrauded insurance companies out of $46 million

By Dave Herndon, Press and Guide,

Seven Dearborn residents and three others from Dearborn Heights were charged Wednesday with multiple counts of pharmaceutical fraud for their alleged involvement in a $46 million insurance scam.

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Dearborn residents Mohamad Abou-Khodr, 30; Nabil Chehadeh, 39; Ali El-Moussawi, 29; Bassem Farhat, 46; Hussein Wazne, 50; Bahia Zeidan, 28; and Suzan Berro, 20, along with Dearborn Heights residents Hussein Abdallah, 36; Daniel Haidar, 30; and Linda Fawaz, 25, were charged by United States Attorney Matthew Schneider with the fraud.

A federal grand jury indicted the 10 people on charges including wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering.

The indictment alleges that between January 2014 and November 2019, the 10 people received more than $46 million in reimbursement claims from various co-pay assistance programs. The indictment alleges that all of the money was fraudulently obtained.

“The indictment alleges that the defendants brazenly took advantage of programs created by drug manufacturers to help defray the cost of expensive prescription drugs, all in a scheme to steal millions of dollars,” Schneider said. “At a time when so many Michiganders are struggling to afford their medications, this alleged scheme is especially reprehensible. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to uncover and prosecute prescription drug fraud, so we can ensure these assistance programs remain available to help the people of Michigan.”

Schneider was joined in the announcement by Steven M. D’Antuono, special agent in charge of the Detroit FBI office and Special Agent in Charge Lamont Pugh III of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Chicago Regional Office.

“The defendants are alleged to have defrauded a program designed to help patients pay for vital and often high-cost prescription drugs,” D’Antuono said. “I am impressed by the efforts of the FBI, HHS-OIG, and DEA agents who worked tirelessly to uncover the extent of this fraud and to hold these defendants to account.”

The indictment, which was unsealed Dec. 18, alleges that they were operating dozens of pharmacies, mostly in Wayne County, though most were never actually open to the public.

The defendants allegedly worked together to defraud pharmaceutical manufacturers by submitting reimbursement claims to numerous co-pay assistance programs for medications that they neither purchased nor dispensed.

The pharmacies also allegedly submitted claims on behalf of patients who did not exist; many of these purported patient identifies were also allegedly used to submit claims for multiple types of medications.

According to the indictment, claim administrators became suspicious of billing activity at the pharmacies and requested either supporting documentation or on-site audits of defendants’ pharmacies.

In those instances, the defendants allegedly either failed to respond to these requests or refused to submit to the audits.

The indictment alleges that this behavior typically resulted in a given pharmacy becoming unable to submit additional claims to that administrator’s co-pay assistance program. In response, on more than one occasion, the defendants allegedly closed pharmacies under suspicion and then immediately opened a new pharmacy at the same address.

The pharmacies alleged to have been involved this scheme include:

• New Boston RX Pharmacy in Huron Township

• Pro Med Pharmacy, Guardian Pharmacy, Wellmart Pharmacy, and Brite Well RX in Garden City

• Downriver RX Pharmacy, and First Aid Pharmacy, in Lincoln Park

• Newburgh Pharmacy, Med Health Pharmacy, and Ritemed Pharmacy in Westland

• Crittenton RX and Metro RX Pharmacy in Sterling Heights

• Family Health Pharmacy in Southgate

• Mint Pharmacy, Wellgreen’s Pharmacy (a/k/a Danny’s Pharmacy) in Westland

• Levan RX, Nova Pharmacy, and Smart Pharmacy in Livonia

• Clinic RX2, Med Rite Pharmacy, and Smart RX Pharmacy in Dearborn Heights

• Dalcoma Pharmacy in Clinton Township

• Canton RX and Michigan RX Pharmacy in Canton

• Safe Pharmacy in Taylor

• Quest RX, and Sam Pharmacy RX, in Novi

• Wayne Pharma, Wyandotte RX (a/k/a Royal RX) in Wyandotte

• Waterford Pharmacy in Waterford

• Cedar RX in Lansing

• Halas Pharmacy and Family Drug Pharmacy V in Redford

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Mirko
Mirko
4 years ago

World-famous dog-loving mosloids. Nobody in America could expect such a thing, in the land of the seven dwarfs behind the seven mountains. https://theepochtimes.com/us-stops-sending-sniffer-dogs-to-egypt-jordan-after-7-die_3184808.html

Mirko
Mirko
4 years ago
Reply to  Mirko
cylde
cylde
4 years ago

To muslims it is just another form of jizya. I am certain their muslim patients were not ripped off.

Liatris Spicata
Liatris Spicata
4 years ago
Reply to  cylde

To muslims it is just another form of jizya.

Possibly. And what might it be in the case of ultra-Orthodox Jews?

cylde
cylde
4 years ago

What do they have to do with this article????Are you one of those people that blame Jews for everything wrong in the world????

Liatris Spicata
Liatris Spicata
4 years ago
Reply to  cylde

What do they have to do with this article????Are you one of those people that blame Jews for everything wrong in the world????

Your- and Pamela’s- outrage seems curiously focused on Moslems. Not denying there are problems there- but you take a pervasive problem, and stupidly ascribe it all to jizya. I suggest if you have grain of insight- and dubious proposition, I admit- you consider alternatives to the one that just happens to feed your narrative.

Say, are you one of the people who blame Moslems for everything wrong in the world? Gad your questions are infantile. I suggest there might be something more to it than jizya- the behavior in question here is far from limited to Muslims and needs to be addressed accordingly.

cylde
cylde
4 years ago

your reply is a load of crap.

Liatris Spicata
Liatris Spicata
4 years ago
Reply to  cylde

your reply is a load of crap. (comment quoted in its entirety)

Clearly you have nothing intelligent to say. I suspect that reasoned discourse is beyond your mental capabilities.

Just to set the record straight, sir, NOTHING I HAVE EVER SAID, here or elsewhere, at any time, in any way suggests that I am one of those people that blame Jews for everything wrong in the world.

You, of course, as is customary here, decline to deal with the issue I raised. What a sleazebag- or just plain idiot- you are.

Michelle
Michelle
4 years ago

He calls your POV “crap” and you attack him. See the point?

rickyoo
rickyoo
4 years ago

I do not blame Muslims for everything, but if there were no Muslims on this planet, it would be a much better and safer place to live. I am not Jewish, but the hatred towards Jews is disgusting, when they do not go around massacring innocent people or raping and killing girls and young women en masse, like too many Muslims do. Muslims have nothing to offer the world except hatred and death. If you disagree, please tell us how Muslims are beneficial to mankind.

Liatris Spicata
Liatris Spicata
4 years ago
Reply to  rickyoo

ricky-

Yours is one of the more balanced comments I’ve read here (other than my own, of course). I can’t really disagree, but, hey, I’ll try.

Individual Moslems may well make significant contributions in this world. Was Maryam Mirzakhani Moslem? Khalil Gibran definititely was influenced by Sufi Islam. Mohammad Anwar, a practicing Moslem who among other things wrote a Perl interface to the Hebrew Calendar, most definitely is, as was the eminent chemist, Ahmed Zewail. None of the aforementioned could be said to promote hatred and death in this world.

A point I have made here any number of times is that Islam is the enemy: Moslems are the primary victim (of course, that claim is roundly but mindlessly denounced and ridiculed by the goon squad here). I admit, Moslems do have a nasty tendency to victimize everyone else, a tendency that is inherent in the ideology of Islam. The failure of people here- particularly the hateful, despicable “goons”- to distinguish between Moslems as people and the ideology of Islam is iniquitous.

I would only want to change one word (plus a verb tense) in your comment: the sentence starting with Muslims have nothing to offer the world … to Islam has nothing to offer the world ….

–Cheers

Michelle
Michelle
4 years ago

Very few muslims have ever been able to throw off the chains of islam and contribute to mankind and in fact, considering the size and extent of their once empire and their numbers now, one cannot be criticized for expecting better. So keep trying and do let us all know when a muslim makes a significant contribution to mankind and one equal to those many made by Jews. FYI Israel has in one year made more patent applications than has all of islam ever made including Iran, SA, Iraq, Egypt, Turkey, etc. but WTH does facts have to do with it. keep trying!

Liatris Spicata
Liatris Spicata
4 years ago
Reply to  Michelle

So keep trying and do let us all know when a muslim makes a significant contribution to mankind and one equal to those many made by Jews. FYI Israel has in one year made more patent applications than has all of islam ever made including Iran, SA, Iraq, Egypt, Turkey, etc. but WTH does facts have to do with it. keep trying!

Did I provide any incorrect information? I think not. Nor did I suggest that Moslem’s contributions rivaled those of Jews.

I do not understand why you people cannot argue with integrity. You, Michelle, are a jerk.

Michelle
Michelle
4 years ago

You always act like a spurned prima donna when someone disagrees with you. Perhaps my comment was based upon your constant fellatio of islam and muslims in the name of bleeding heart fairness. I suggest a couple of years working with muslims in Africa to place both of your feet firmly on the faeces strewn ground. I probably waste my time even replying to the expected ad hominem but then as I jumped into a conversation perhaps I deserved it but your constant virtue signalling IS sickening and you carry around your overblown personal bleeding heart righteousness like a banner then you wonder why people react as they do. individuals like you are the problem in the west as all muslims know it for what it is; war. But not you and your brethren.

BTW I am still awaiting your answer about George Soros? When you cannot even answer a pertinent question you should look in the mirror.

william carr
william carr
4 years ago

Muslim leaders have been quite vocal about what they term the jihad seekers allowance or jizzyah. While it is regrettable that fraud is not confined to Muslims, Muslims hold themselves to a high standard do they not? and claim that when sharia rules the world all will be perfect no more crime! Most if not all Muslim countries are the be found in the bottom third of the world index of corruption

Liatris Spicata
Liatris Spicata
4 years ago
Reply to  william carr

Muslims hold themselves to a high standard do they not?

Not at all! However, per the words of their dippy so-called prophet, they are prone to have a very high opinion of themselves!

Liatris Spicata
Liatris Spicata
4 years ago
Reply to  cylde

I am certain their muslim patients were not ripped off.

It’s not a matter of patients being ripped off (at least not directly), dimwit:

The defendants are alleged to have defrauded a program designed to help patients … The defendants allegedly worked together to defraud pharmaceutical manufacturers by submitting reimbursement claims to numerous co-pay assistance programs for medications that they neither purchased nor dispensed. (emphasis added)

You seem to completely misunderstand who was defrauded. Doesn’t prevent you from having strong- but unsubstantiated- opinions about the nature of the fraud. I am certain they didn’t rip off Bigfoot or the Wild Man of Borneo, either.

Sheesh.

cylde
cylde
4 years ago

Interesting that you don’t think patients are harmed by fraud in medical services.

Liatris Spicata
Liatris Spicata
4 years ago
Reply to  cylde

Interesting that you don’t think patients are harmed by fraud in medical services.

That’s not what I said, is it now, clyde? I realize it’s tough to be honest, but even you can do it if you try.

Liatris Spicata
Liatris Spicata
4 years ago

Don’t tell Pamela, but various members of the Orthodox Jewish community in New York have been charged and convicted of similar fraud against the semi-socialized health care system in the USA. Also Armenians …. Russians. Even- gasp- some Evil White Men. Gotta wonder, what is it about government welfare programs that lends itself so readily to fraud. Could it be the availability of “free stuff”?

Mohammed_Goldberg
Mohammed_Goldberg
4 years ago

The lure of easy money tempts so many……

Liatris Spicata
Liatris Spicata
4 years ago

Yup …. that’s why I don’t find “jizya” to be a very satisfactory answer. These goons seem only to want to look at things from a single, rather narrow, perspective. Not a good way to analyze things if you seek to understand them.

Mohammed_Goldberg
Mohammed_Goldberg
4 years ago

Sounds like a typical Muslim charity.

Lover of Truth
Lover of Truth
4 years ago

Wherever Muslims are in the west, they lie cheat, kill and generally worsen our society and culture. Send them ALL back to Islamic countries – they are welcome to them!

Jack Cobin
Jack Cobin
4 years ago

It took 5 years to find out?

ar05076
ar05076
4 years ago

Dearbornistan: Ten Mooselimbs indicted in $50 million MASSIVE medical fraud ..!!

Dave Glynn
Dave Glynn
4 years ago

Teachers at a school in the United States threatened to tell a Muslim girl’s parents that she had removed her hijab, arguing that it was part of her “culture.” ????

https://www.infowars.com/teachers-at-u-s-school-threatened-to-tell-muslim-girls-parents-after-she-removed-her-hijab/

durabo
durabo
4 years ago

Lengthy prison terms and deportation if applicable

CreoleGumbo
CreoleGumbo
4 years ago

Notice that it took 5 years before anything was done about it. And it was probably going on long before 2014. This is only the first year that they became aware of it.

Fraud and abuse in healthcare is and has been rampant for years but took off on steroids once computerization in billing took over. But this is just another thing that gets no publicity and unfortunately no politicians wish to talk about it and no one wishes to tackle the problem with all their health care schemes and proposals.

I am convinced, having worked in this arena AND in this geographic area that this type of thing may easily account for 50% of all healthcare expenditures. And (in Michigan) it is primarily done by foreign trained doctors and most of them have Islamic sounding names. Of course I am not supposed to say that.

MajorTom
MajorTom
4 years ago

Look at all this activity through the lens of………Shariah!

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