Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

38 arrested in Medicare fraud probe

|
|
 
  
Published: May 10, 2007 at 1:51 PM

WASHINGTON, May 10 (UPI) -- Officials at the U.S. Justice and Health and Human Services departments said they have arrested 38 people suspected of defrauding Medicare.

The 38 people are accused of operating phony companies in southern Florida and billing Medicare $142 million for services that never took place, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

Law enforcement officials said one of the accused purchased a $200,000 Rolls Royce Phantom using Medicare funds.

Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said he personally visited some of the phony companies and found some were no more than nearly empty strip mall offices or even barren storage closets. He said the fraud in many cases was "blatant."

"These fraudsters, they move quick," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said in describing the computer systems used to track the alleged fraudsters. "They operate quickly, and so we have to change our strategy, as well."

Topics: Alberto R. Gonzales, Michael Leavitt
© 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Father's Day: Celebrity dads The 2012 Miss USA competition Faces of the 2012 French Open
2012 MTV Movie Awards Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee Notable deaths of 2012
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 21
Singer Janelle Monae arrives at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards in Universal City, California
View Caption
Singer Janelle Monae arrives for the MTV Movie Awards at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California. UPI/Jim Ruymen
fark
Miss USA host: Name a movie that portrays women in a positive way? Miss Ohio: Pretty Woman
Remember ladies, beating your boyfriend because he won't marry you to renew your visa won't improve...
Try meth when you really have an itch, or when you want to see in two places at once. Warning: mildly...
"Speed and alcohol may have been a factor" say investigators about the man killed when thrown from...
Surprise parties have a little more gunfire in Arizona
Rehabilitated former "bath salts" zombie explains what it's like to hunger for the flesh of the...