Chiropractor Sentenced on

Health Care & Pension Fraud

   Dr. Anthony Calandro was sentenced to 72 months’ imprisonment and ordered to pay $1,018,746 restitution for billing 18 insurance companies and patients for services the patients did not receive and using pension plan funds, without authorization, to buy stock and to purchase several Florida condominiums. His business, Chiropractic Accident Centre of Crestwood, was sentenced on the health care fraud charges to two years of probation and ordered to pay a $2,000 special assessment.

   Calandro and Chiropractic Accident Centre of Crestwood P.C., were convicted in November of one felony count of health care fraud. Calandro was also convicted of three counts of making false statements related to health care services because he billed multiple insurance companies for services that were never rendered.

   From 2006 to 2011, Chiropractic Accident Centre of Crestwood P.C., submitted numerous reimbursement claims that falsely stated that the Centre had taken more X-rays than were actually taken. In almost all instances, only one or two X-rays were taken during a patient’s visit, but as many as eight to 12 X-ray views were billed.

   The corporation was convicted of four counts of making false statements.The office also billed for other non-rendered services, including whirlpool therapy, although he did not have a whirlpool and falsely indicated that a billable service had been provided to thousands patients who missed appointments.  

  Calandro pled guilty in another case to mail fraud and making false statements to federal agencies concerning the Chiropractic Centre pension plan. Calandro was the trustee for the pension plan and had sole control over the funds of the pension plan.

   In 2005 and 2006, he used $60,000 of the pension plan funds to buy stock and $128,121 to make down payments on the purchase of three Florida condominiums in his name. To conceal the theft of the funds, from 2005 to 2009, Calandro falsely reported to his employees, the Department of Labor, and the Internal Revenue Service that the pension plan owned the condominiums and other assets.

   Calandro appeared today for sentencing before United States District Judge E. Richard Webber.

Missouri Man Guilty of

Concealing Assets in Bankrupticy

  Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a former Jackson County, Missouri attorney pleaded guilty in federal court today to bank fraud, which involved stealing funds from the Sam and Lindsey Porter foundation, as well as bankruptcy fraud.

Harley Kent Desselle, 62, of Raytown, Missouri, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple to one count of bank fraud and one count of making a false oath in a bankruptcy proceeding.  

  Dickinson said. “He abused his clients, and he abused the legal system for a client who declared bankruptcy. With today’s guilty plea, he will be held accountable for his flagrant misconduct.”

“Concealing assets in a bankruptcy proceeding is a crime that threatens the integrity of the bankruptcy process and public confidence in that process, especially when the concealment is done by the attorney responsible for assuring full disclosure,” stated Nancy J. Gargula, United States Trustee for Missouri, Arkansas and Nebraska (Region 13).”

Desselle was suspended from the practice of law in December 2008 and disbarred by the Missouri Supreme Court in April 2009.

Teen Prostitution Gang Used Social Media Sites to Identify Potential Victims

09/14/12

It’s yet another reason why parents need to keep a close eye on their kids’ involvement with social networking websites—during a three-year period ending in March 2012, members of a violent Virginia street gang used some of these websites to recruit vulnerable high-school age girls to work in their prostitution business.

After a multi-agency state and federal investigation, all five defendants pleaded guilty to various federal charges related to the sex trafficking conspiracy. The leader of the gang—27-year-old Justin Strom—was just sentenced on September 14 to 40 years in prison, while the sentences handed down for the other four defendants totaled 53 years.

Strom headed up the Underground Gangster Crips (UGC), a Crips “set” based in Fairfax, Virginia. The Crips originated in Los Angeles in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and since then, the gang has splintered into various groups around the country. Law enforcement has seen a number of Crips sets in the U.S. engaging in sex trafficking as a means of making money.

That’s certainly what was happening in Virginia. Strom and his UGC associates would troll social networking sites, looking for attractive young girls. After identifying a potential victim, they would contact her online using phony identities...complimenting her on her looks, asking to get to know her better, sometimes offering her the opportunity to make money as a result of her looks.

If the victim expressed interest (and many did, being young and easily flattered by the attention), Strom or one of his associates would ask for her cell phone number to contact her offline and make plans to meet.

After some more flattery about their attractiveness, sometimes hits of illegal drugs and alcohol, and even mandatory sexual “tryouts” with Strom and other gang members, the girls were lured into engaging in commercial sex, often with the help of more senior girls showing them the ropes. The girls might be sent to an apartment complex with instructions to knock on doors looking for potential customers…or driven to hotels for pre-arranged meetings…or taken to Strom’s house, where he allowed paying customers to have sex with them. 

In addition to using the Internet, Strom and his associates recruited vulnerable young girls from schools and bus and rail stops. He also went online to find customers—postings ads on various websites showing scantily-clad young women.

Some of the juvenile victims were threatened with violence if they didn’t perform as directed and many were given drugs or alcohol to keep them sedated and compliant.

Strom and his associates did not discriminate—their victims were from across the socio-economic spectrum and represented different ethnic backgrounds. 

The FBI’s Washington Field Office worked the investigation alongside the Fairfax County Police Department, with the assistance of the Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force.  

After the group’s indictment in March 2012, then-Special Agent in Charge Ronald Hosko of our Washington Field Office reiterated the importance of working with our partners and community groups in combating these types of despicable crimes. He also said, “Trafficking in humans, especially for the purpose of underage prostitution, is among the most insidious of crimes…and the FBI will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to track down those who exploit our children and engage in human trafficking.”

Resources:

- More info on social networking sites

Living a Lie:
Identity Theft That Lasted Decades

10/1/2012

When Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Richard Blanco—a member of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) in Jacksonville—interviewed an individual suspected of driver’s license fraud in 2011, he wasn’t initially sure if the man was the victim or the perpetrator of identity theft.

That’s because the man—now imprisoned and officially known as John Doe—had a stack of government-issued identification acquired during the 22 years he had been using a living victim’s identity. That included a passport, driver’s license, birth certificate, Social Security card, and identification allowing him unescorted access to a port and military installation.

	Podcast: John Doe Sentenced

“He was extremely convincing that he was the victim,” said Blanco, a veteran trooper with more than 30 years on the force. “When you have 20 forms of identification and it’s in your possession,” Blanco explained, “it’s hard to not believe you are the person you say you are.”

But John Doe was indeed an imposter, and while he was living under another man’s name, the real victim was living a nightmare. It all started in 1989 when the victim’s car was broken into and his wallet was stolen. His identity had been compromised.

John Doe began using the victim’s name, even when he went to prison for aggravated battery. As a result, Blanco said, “if you run John Doe’s fingerprints, even today, they will come back with the victim’s name.”

When the victim, a Miami resident, applied to become a corrections officer, he had to explain why his records showed a felony conviction. He urged officials to compare his fingerprints to those of John Doe’s. When the victim applied for a passport, he was denied because the passport office claimed he already had one—the one that John Doe had applied for and received.

When Blanco was able to talk with the real victim, he heard two decades worth of frustration. The victim had filed a police report years before, but John Doe had never been caught or stopped. Blanco remembers the victim telling him,

“This guy has been living my identity. He’s gotten my license suspended and he’s had kids in my name.”

JTTF investigators had to rule out any threat to national security, because John Doe had access to the Mayport Naval Station as well as JaxPort, the Jacksonville Port Authority. Although he was just working at those locations, Special Agent Paxton Stelly, who supervises Jacksonville’s JTTF, pointed out that John Doe had passed the background checks required to gain access there. “He appears to have manipulated the system with ease,” Stelly said.

Last month a jury convicted John Doe—who continues to insist he is the real victim despite DNA testing and a thorough investigation,—and sentenced him to 10 years in prison.  his real identity remains a mystery.

“It will continue to be a mystery unless he makes an admission to us,” Blanco said, adding, “I don’t know what he’s going to do when he gets out of prison, because the man doesn’t have an identity.”

Resources:

- More about identity theft

____________________________________

• Exercise caution at the ATM machine. ONLY use a machine with which you are familiar. Fake machines may appear to be out of order AFTER you insert your ATM card, but are actually being used to relieve shoppers of their identify
• .DO NOT flash your cash or your credit cards. Store your wallet in an inside pocket, or if you must put it in a purse or bag, be sure that you have control of the bag at all times and that the wallet is in a zipped compartment.

• Guard Your Card. Credit card theft is big business. Always keep your card in sight when paying for a transaction. Card readers are easy to hide under a counter. A credible cashier will keep the transaction above board.
  
• At restaurants, if you are not familiar with the staff, it may be better to pay in cash than to have your card leave your sight. Even an honest misplacement can mean big hassles for you.
  
• Don't underestimate your assets. To a desperate thief,  $50 can mean the difference in eating or starving. Desperate people use desperate measures to get what they need.
  
•  NEVER leave packages or valuables exposed in your car even if it is locked. To a thief, a pair of sunglasses may be worth bashing in a window.
• Stay in touch. Let a friend or family member know where you are and when you expect to arrive.
• If you plan to leave your home for more than a day or two, have a neighbor pick up your mail and your newspaper; leave a few lights on, or better yet, set them on timers to go on an off at various times of the day.
• REPORT suspicious activity. The only dumb call is the one you don't make.
• STAY ALERT!!  Plan your trip and know where you are going. Look around and avoid potentially dangerous situations.
  

Intelligence Note

Prepared by the Internet Crime Complaint Center

September 14, 2012

FBI Associate Deputy Director Kevin Perkins speaks at a press conference in Washington, D.C.

Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations in seven cities have led to charges against 91 people—including doctors, nurses, and other licensed professionals—for their alleged participation in Medicare fraud schemes involving $429.2 million in false billing. FBI Associate Deputy Director Kevin Perkins joined Attorney General Eric Holder, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and other government officials at a Washington, D.C. press conference announcing the takedown.

The largest number of defendants were charged in Miami—a total of 33 for their alleged participation in various fraud schemes involving a total of $204.5 million in false billings for home health care, mental health services, occupational and physical therapy, and durable medical equipment. Other defendants were charged in Los Angeles (16), Brooklyn (15), Dallas (14), Baton Rouge (4), and Chicago (2).

According to court documents, defendants were charged in schemes to submit claims to Medicare for treatments that were medically unnecessary and often never provided. In many cases, patient recruiters, Medicare beneficiaries, and others were allegedly paid kickbacks in return for supplying beneficiary information to the providers who submitted the fraudulent claims.

Perkins, who called the strike force’s partnerships “a critical piece of our strategy” to “protect the integrity of Medicare and the health care system at large,” also offered steps that the public—especially Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries and their family members—can take to help prevent fraud:

• Beware of suspicious activity, including marketers offering money, gifts, or free services to patients;
• Review explanation of benefits forms sent by your insurance company (and contact your company immediately if you see any suspect billings);
• Protect your insurance card information the same way you would protect your credit card information;
• Report any suspicious activity to your local FBI office or HHS’ Office of Inspector General.

New Driver Licenses and Nondriver ID Cards Designed to Thwart Crime

Beginning in December 2012, the Missouri Department of Revenue is introducing the latest improvements to driver licenses and nondriver identification cards. 

These changes protect your identity and help decrease fraud.  The new system means the end of the over-the-counter driver license system that has been in place since the 1990s, and allows the Department to install substantially more modern technology.

• New Missouri Driver Licenses and Nondriver Identification Cards - Brochure
• New Missouri Driver Licenses and Nondriver Identification Cards - FAQs