Four employees of a closed outpatient surgery center in Buena Park, Calif., were convicted Monday in Orange County Superior Court in a $154 million medical fraud case, according to an Orange County Business Journal report.
Prosecutors called the case the largest of its kind in the country. The charges of tax fraud were based on accusations that the surgery center billed insurers for payments for unnecessary surgeries. Roy C. Dickson, an attorney for the ASC, Andrew Harnen, the center's accountant, and Dee Francis and Rosalinda Landon, administrators, were convicted on multiple counts of tax fraud.
According to the report, prosecutors said the surgery center recruited over 2,800 patients for unnecessary surgeries that were then billed to payors. Payors paid more than $20 million during a nine-month period for the surgeries.
The defendants each face an additional 101 charges for allegedly accepting more than $2.5 million each as part of the scheme. They will be tried on those charges at a later date. Several other defendants have already been convicted in the case, including Unity Outpatient owner Tam Vu Pham, who received a 12-year prison sentence.
Prosecutors called the case the largest of its kind in the country. The charges of tax fraud were based on accusations that the surgery center billed insurers for payments for unnecessary surgeries. Roy C. Dickson, an attorney for the ASC, Andrew Harnen, the center's accountant, and Dee Francis and Rosalinda Landon, administrators, were convicted on multiple counts of tax fraud.
According to the report, prosecutors said the surgery center recruited over 2,800 patients for unnecessary surgeries that were then billed to payors. Payors paid more than $20 million during a nine-month period for the surgeries.
The defendants each face an additional 101 charges for allegedly accepting more than $2.5 million each as part of the scheme. They will be tried on those charges at a later date. Several other defendants have already been convicted in the case, including Unity Outpatient owner Tam Vu Pham, who received a 12-year prison sentence.