Ann Arbor Criminal Defense Blog

Federal authorities recently announced that they have uncovered a $1.2 billion Medicare scam that targeted seniors and the disabled across the nation, including here in Michigan. Officials said 24 people have been arrested on federal health care fraud charges in what they described as a far-flung operation that included doctors, corporate executives and telemarketers working out of foreign call centers.

The Justice Department accuses the defendants of peddling orthopedic braces to seniors who did not need them. The doctors who allegedly participated wrote hundreds of thousands of prescriptions for unneeded back, wrist, knee and shoulder braces.

News outlets across Michigan and the nation buzzed yesterday with news of a college admissions scandal that has ensnared actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin. The two are among the 50 individuals charged with participation in a scheme in which wealthy parents bribed university coaches and insiders to get their children into prestigious schools.

According to federal prosecutors, those currently under arrest face racketeering conspiracy charges, though additional charges and defendants might be added later.

It takes just a few minutes to drive south of Ann Arbor to Milan, a small town with about 5,000 residents on the southern edge of Washtenaw County. A 31-year-old man there was recently charged with wire fraud in what law enforcement officials are describing as an elaborate internet fraud scheme.

Federal law enforcement officers raided the Milan man’s home and reported finding 11 improvised explosive devices known as IEDs, a pair of loaded assault-style rifles, two pipe bombs and more than $50,000 in cash, among other items.

A Detroit-area doctor was told he could be freed from federal custody for a price. The price of freedom for the 77-year-old physician: $7 million.

Rajendra Bothra, of Bloomfield Hills, was indicted in December with five other doctors for alleged participation in a health care fraud scheme. The physicians are accused of running the fraudulent operation from the Pain Center and Interventional Pain Center, in Warren and Eastpointe.