White collar crime? I think a sophisticated gang. They see no harm, I see our hard earned tax dollars going to fund yet another groups illegal activities. True they didn’t use guns to rob us, but the effect is the same, thousands of victims left in their wake. Then to add insult to injury after bilking Medicare they stole their identity. The ringleader calling himself “VOR” ties in directly with gang affiliation and the reference to “putting the traditional Mafia to shame” would further cement the idea of this being a gang. With several heads and spread out across the nation it took a lot of time and energy from the F.B.I. to solidify the case prior to the synchronized arrests. Stripping them of ALL of their assets is an excellent way to begin to recoup some of the stolen funds. I think Pelican would be an excellent place to house these individuals. They should have thought twice and just run for a political office, California really likes to overpay their officials and Washington D.C. serve a term and get your salary for life.
White collar crime at its best! The healthcare industry never developed an immunity to white collar crime either. What a group of "organized gangsters". I have previously heard of Medicare scams where real physicians offices were charging for services not rendered, but a non-exsistant relationship between the patient and the doctor in phantom clinics was a pretty smart idea. So, why turn around and do something as dumb as sending a bill from an eye doctor for a bladder test and get caught? GREED will get you every time! Healthcare cost and medical insurance premiums are rising everyday partly because of fradulent activities like this and the tens of millions already paid out by Medicare. Come on healthcare reform! And what the heck are the Armenians doing with all this money anyway? I can only speak for myself but I am very suspicious. Homeland Security, keep your eyes and ears open.
White collar crime is just as costly and dangerous as running drugs across the border. WE all end up paying for it, in higher insurance premiums, doctor bills and in our taxes. They tried to take Medicare for 163 million! That is our money, paid by our taxes that they were trying to steal! This is one time that I wish the bad guys weren’t read their Miranda Rights, or protected from excessive force. And I would hope they would be deported to some prison in their homeland, so we don’t have to pay for their room and board in one of our prisons. But then you have to wonder, why did it take so long for Medicare to realize that something was wrong? Is our government finances so unsecured that this could happen? But those entities are made up of people just like us. Why did they let it happen, has our population become so lacks that they turn their eyes from evil, let it be someone else’s problem? They don’t want to take responsibility or they feel “cheated” themselves, too much work and not enough pay? WE need to become aware that theft affects everyone, including ourselves. And that it is everyone’s responsibility. Bring back honesty and morality!
Fraud it seems like everyone is taking advantage of our government system nowadays. Medicare is already in shambles, people who actaully need it cannot seem to qualify for it but how can indviduals scam our system of checks and balances.It is so true when they say that the more you make the more you want, but the greed part will always give the scams away. As you had said the drug cartels at one time shared in the wealth of drugs but greed got to them also forced them to become enemies because of the money. Healthcare always seem to get the short end,weather it's actual doctors or the Armenia mob, how can they start the money making scams. What ever happened to "working for something"
i feel like this is a very serious as it shows that we need a revised health care system. And giving out free medicare will make it even worse. also it shows the sorry people in the worl these days, many people in society are looking for the "easy way out" rather it means to earn money by selling drugs, themselfs or resorting to stealing as a way of income. its becoming more popular to with the way the economy is it is almost forcing people to steal and so illegal activites to make money
The worst part of this isn't that they actually committed the crime; the worst part is that no one caught on! They should have not been able to establish phantom clinics in over half of our states. How come once they are caught all the sudden the discrepancies they made are discovered? Discrepancies that were dead give aways that something was going on. Medicare is paid by our tax dollars so why was Medicare so careless about OUR money in paying those claims. Especially in today's economy. I feel as if this should also fall onto Medicare for not checking the legitimacy of these claims. I personally work in the medical field and deal with insurance companies daily. I find it ridiculous that this got so far. Maybe they could have got away with it a few times but it should have never got that far without anyone noticing! And the fact that Medicare is so careless with their own taxes dollars proves that their system is not working, and the people responsible for how these claims were verified should receive some punishment as well.
It’s sad that people try to take advantage of our government system. Usually when you associate gangs with illegal activities you think of drugs, illegal weapons, prostitution, etc…… now they are trying to rip off the government by using healthcare as a motive. Medicare is a healthcare system funded by the government to help the elderly provide for their medical needs. The fact that gangsters have schemed Medicare out of $35 million is ridiculous. If this wasn’t enough, they decided to steal people’s identities. What make this so disturbing are the facts that not only were they able to pull this off, but the paperwork they filed to get this money wasn’t even checked. The procedures didn’t even match the professions. The economy is in bad enough shape already, we don’t need gangs stealing from our government. Hopefully Medicare and any other government agencies will check the paperwork they are handed and make sure their money is going a legitimate place for a legitimate reason.
This is very much disturbing. You would never think a "gangster" would pull one off like this. What I dont understand is how the govt. seems to always check paperwork for everything else, check with details & not this? Makes me wonder who else besides the gangsters are involved in this. This has to be an inside job. Imagine that, gangs stealing from our govt. its so scary. Our economy is bad already. I agree activites like this make the health insurance premiums go up & I guess this is another reason why it is so hard for people like me to get health insurance (at a reasonable price). RIDICULOUS & SAD!
This is in response to what Jessica said. The FBI along with other agencies sometimes catch on to things pretty quick but they want to build the strongest case against them as possible. Sometimes it takes years. They want to catch as many people as they can. This was a multi jurisdiction case. They were spread out all over the US and not to include in another country. If they would have stopped it the first time they saw it, they might have not had enough evidence and they would have got off. The cycle could have keep going and going. They held out and tracked it all over the place and ended up catching the big boss. We might not have saved any of our money by jumping the gun and making a quick arrest. I do like that they got sloppy and billed incorrectly. They may not have even got caught if they would have only done a little homework. Somebody else brought up a good point. What are they doing with all of this money and how much if any were they able to uncover.
Wow gangster have taken crime to a whole new level, I must say they were pretty smart minus the getting caught part. I wonder if people reading this took notes, I mean I never thought gangster would think outside the box and try something like this. I changes the idea that gangster just sell crack weed etc. But ha ha on the Viagra part, never thought about slanging those on the street. Get millions of dollars by just doing his make me want to rethink my career choice. If you get compared to the God Father that means you are the stuff right now. I like that there are no age restriction on being a gangster. I wander what other gangsters have been innovated to do other types of crimes like this. But I’m also curious as to how policing can help prevent things like this before they happen. I wonder how I can get in to something like this; of course I would be cautious of whistleblowers. But all in all I’m more in awe of this because I have never heard of this kind of crime coming from gangster; I thought this was more of a white collar crime.
It's scary to think how easily they could've gotten away with scamming Medicare out of 163 million if the government hadn't have catched on to the phony paperwork that led to the discovery of the gang activity. You would think there would be stricter regulation on medical records so things like this wouldn't happen but clearly they almost got away with it.
This case goes to show that the criminal justice system does not have as good a grasp on organized crime as one would think. It is worrying that the mafia has now expanded its activity outside of illegal gaming and drug smuggling, but is now involved directly in America's health care system. People tend to question the moral rationale behind why these organizations choose to get criminally involved in such sensitive areas. The answer is money. Regardless of whether it goes too far or not, these organizations will do anything to extract money from places where they are not entitled to. The discovery of this recent activity may only be the start of the mafia branching out their involvement into new areas of crime. The CRJ system must stay on top of their intelligence to make sure changes in criminal activity within the mafia don't go unnoticed.
C.Meeke It seems that organized crime and white collar crime are doing very well in corporate America. It is disappointing that these people would commit sophisticated acts of crime. It is hard to believe that this scam was broad based. The FBI did a great job in using their special agents and technology to bring an end to this organized crime ring. Unfortunately that is only story out of many organized criminal activates that have a direct impact on society. I wander how long the case was being followed before the FBI had enough evidence on the suspects to make the arrests. It just shows how white collar crime and organized criminal activity have infiltrated the economy and ruined legitimate business for personal wealth and greed. This is case where the CJ system was very effective in getting the bad guys. These suspects clearly acted in a deviance of the law and against the social norms of society. They saw an illegitimate opportunity and took it. So how does the CJ system handle these criminal gangsters? Sense they are Armenian will they be held and order to face trial in the U.S under our Federal system? Here is a case where these gangsters will have a direct impact on our economy and affect millions of Medicare patients. So what does the CJ do? Clearly these gangsters will get see daylight again on the streets, but what type of punishment will come about. Will this incident have an impact on the global criminal activity which affects our economy only time will tell? Bit it was good to see the bad guys get caught and the Federal system working so effectively.
White collar crime no doubt, but here's my thing, why didn't someone catch on to this? Is it because maybe someone on the inside was pulling strings for these low dirty, no good, cant work for themselves, money greedy, low life scums? And to think that EVERY SINGLE TIME you go to a doctor's office they need EVERY LITTLE INFO ABOUT YOU DOWN TO THE COLOR UNDERCLOTHING YOU HAVE ON. Where is OSHA n HIPPA laws and how on earth is the govt letting something like this slip thru their fingers? It's disturbing to know that I have to work and break a sweat for hard earn money that I work hard for and get taxed on, but yet these low life scums pull my earnings without earning it. The only thing humiliating about this case is the fact that they dont know what symptoms go with what for them to have gotten caught. Glad to see that the law enforcement is stepping up and handling this case effectively, hope they didnt upset the govt officials in on this too much.
definetly falls under white collar crime, maybe even corporate, since they formed business' to collect the funds. My question is how did they get away with it for so long with medicare? Medicare sends patients a monthly statement showing how thier insurance was billed, by what doctor, what was ordered, and what portion medicare will cover. Some of these "patients" should have caught on alot earlier. It goes to show how sophisticated gangs are becoming in order to survive. I guess drug deals arent paying the rent anymore.
Wow, another way people are stealing our hard earn money. Unlike some gangs or corrupt citizens, these people robbed hard earn tax payers dollars via sneaky methods. It just amazes me the, hate to say it, but crafty ways people are coming up with to take more money. The current financial crisis has a lot to do with it too. None the less, it doesn’t justify the millions of dollars these people stole from health care systems. As everyone else is saying…”white collared crime at its best!” The fact that another group of people are soaking up our tax dollars not only angers me, but makes me sad. Yes, crime has been going on forever, but right now in our economic standing, this is appalling. Every single person is in some way or fashion (unless you’re filthy rich) is being hurt by this economic depression, it’s driving everyone to do whatever they see fit to get money, like steal Medicare money. It was a sophisticated crime that hopefully will be prevented. However, now that this crime has taken place, it only leaves room for white collar crime to expand to different means. Much like what jft said, “I can only speak for myself but I am very suspicious. Homeland Security, keep your eyes and ears open.” I couldn’t agree more.
This should be enough for people to think twice about letting the government run our healthcare system. It amazes me that if you have an insurance claim that is not perfect it will be denied but someone can make millions off false medical claims with the government and get away with it for years. Not only did the tax payers pay these false claims, but the money the crimnals collected from this scam will probably be used to fund their defense.
“America, The Land of Opportunity” -- The Armenian mob boss must have been chanting that slogan until he was arrested. The real shame is that the Armenian gangsters will be treated better in our court and prison systems than if they were in Armenia.
Medicare is facing enough problems at this time without this kind of a major scam. I hope that a lot of the money will be recovered. The article states that couriers would often carry cash proceeds from the fraud bank back to Armenia. I thought that you couldn’t board a plane with more than $10,000 on your person. They must have made a lot of trips to have transported much of the money back to Armenia.
WOW!! This just goes to show that as smart of a scheme a gang or criminals think up they'll always get caught in the end. This is taking identity theft as well as fraud to a whole new level. The fact that these Armenian's had the strive to obtain social security numbers of individuals on/eligible for medicare and get medicare to pay out claims is impressive, yet undermines the very foundations this country was built on. The damage these criminals caused wasn't just to the government it was also on the people who's social security numbers they obtained. These people now have to go and clear up any damage caused by false claims against them, not to mention the trouble they'll have with medicare the next time they have an actual claim. Another damaging effect that not a lot of people may think of is that this wasn't just a crime against those who's identity's were stolen it was a crime against EVERY law abiding tax paying citizen, for they are the ones who foot the bill for medicare!!
I am quite impressed with what these guys pulled off! Never did I think that gangs would evolve from petty drug selling and violence to intelligent scams. I am not for what these individuals did, but they're not the only ones at fault. The article clearly stated that these "doctors" had more than one field they practiced. Everyone knows, or should know, that a doctor is usually licensed in one field. Plus, one could also google the name of your doctor and find out what they've done in their profession. It's available for the public. People need to think sometimes. I hope those guys go away for a long time, but I also hope that people ask questions and get curious once in a while before doing things blindly.
wow it never amaze me what peopele will do for money. I wonder the name of the people the were using tosteal the moneyif they were being deined medical in there home state. How does this go on for as long as it did without anyone noticing. when i file a bill i get two to three phone calls to make sure they want to pay it. We all know they will never pay it back most of the time we never see this monmey put back where it came from. How is taking a house and a car going to replace a something that a baby or eldly person may of needed months ago. This make me mad because it had enough for me to get health ins for me and my kids and there people out who need these health plan and they just took there chance away from them.
Wow, a gangster crime dealing with Medicare! Never thought I would see the day when someone would stoop so low for money. Then again, it happens daily. These people who contributed to this crime are just as bad as the people who came up with the plan in the first day. These health care clinics should be put to shame because participating in things like that, to me, is unethical. Medical places should be focused on helping the patients and not worried about medical scams to make money. On the other hand, these gangsters should be ashamed because they were caught! They are gangsters; they are supposed to be street smart on how to not get caught. These criminals should be sneakier and have better plans in order to get things done. Now, I am not saying they should do this all the time because this is unacceptable in my eyes, but if you’re going to do something stupid do it right and don’t get caught. If you don’t have a good plan then you are just going to get caught and punished. Which is why I say don’t do stupid things like try to get money from the Medicare Company.
I had read that the Russian Mafia was involved in banking but I did not know they had invaded medicare, too. It is a shame that they pull money away from programs that the real patients need the care but are denied because of costs. Plus all of the money that is spent trying to safeguard against thugs like these guys.
Commenting on Pokluda's comment: What are you talking about? Do you honestly believe that this white collar crime is more dangerous than running drugs? Thats ridiculous! Theft doesn't always affect everyone but in this case it does! Now, back to the article! This is definitely white collar crime at its best. Its absurd how easy such a crime can be to get away with. They came up with a business stradegy basically, stole identies and ran the business the same way a legit one would be ran. Its kind of scary to think how easily you're identity can be stolen, and also makes you wonder everytime you are seeking medical attention, for example, if you are being treated by a legit liscensed physician. Back to Pokluda's ludacris questions, it's not like the FBI sat back and watched this happen. It possibly could've been found quicker, or maybe it was, but they have to build a strong case on it before they can act legally. This isn't a perfect society nor will it ever be for that matter. Honesty and Morality are out there still and so is crime. Crime will always be present and new ideas will immerge for criminals to benefit themselves by taking illegal actions. All we can do is hope to reduce crime, because wiping it out completely is not a realistic possibility.
White collar meets the gangsters/ “mafia”….What a bunch of dim-wits….did you really think that you were never going to get caught? This is a huge fraud case extending through many states and was bound to get noticed and revealed sooner or later, although it is sad it took this long for someone to catch on and realize it. If you are going to run a scam than the least you can do is make sure that the type of doctor matches the diagnosis/ treatment on the paperwork. On top of the millions that were obtained for these so called “medical claims”, the individuals/victims now are faced with their identity being stolen by “crooks”. I would love to know where all the money went and what did it go towards….obviously houses and cars, but I am sure that is only what the prosecutors “found”. Greed is the root of all evil, if only everyone agreed!
This is a sad story, which unfortunately happens much too often relating to Medicare. Our healthcare system is already broke enough. The elderly, who live on a fixed income, are the ones who pay the price. If it has happened once, it has happened thousands of times. The only unique thing about the story is the amount of money involved, and the mafia connection fits in well with the gangsters’ class. Every day in the headlines there are multiple stories of fraud associated with healthcare. There must be a more compassionate and efficient way to deliver care. If we do not solve the problem we will all end up paying the price.
Where is the traditional mob in all of this? Even our criminals are outsourced. “Most of the defendants were “Armenian Nationals or Immigrants and many maintained substantial ties to Armenia and criminals there”. The story reads like an organized crime textbook. “The Operation was under the protection of an American Crime boss, known in the former Soviet Union as a Vor…the rough equivalent of a traditional God Father”. They are following a well-worn criminal path which is circular in nature. Their organizational structure is the same.
As before, segments of a new struggling immigrant population replace an older, more established one in a life of crime, like the Italians, Jews or Irish before them. Before they can establish themselves in legitimate business; they establish themselves by illegitimate means. The American dream may be temporarily blocked for them. However, they too will eventually move up the socio-economic ladder.
I read the article and find it hard to believe that a red light did not turn on to all those charges of fraudulent bills to Medicare claims. It a shame you can be denied if you can not remember your member id for health care services,but on the other hand you can be given millions of dollars if you make it seem you have the credential of a big corporate operation. It nothing new and will probably continue over and over again. When will our government officials open their eyes oops excuse me when will we say enough is enough...I am sick in tire of being sick in tire of this particular crime being overlooked and in the end who really suffer because of it. US...not once did I hear of the claims or money being reimbursed to the customer....that will probably be tired up in red tape and never mention...
This is white collar crime at its best. It is unbelievable that a group of mobsters were able to pull this off for as long as they did. It is shocking that medicare did not catch this sooner. I mean I find it odd that they had no idea that this clinics existed or not they just sent money to this so called clinics without checking first if they existed. What also is impressive is that these mobsters pulled this off for such a long time and were able to get 35 million from medicare I mean I could not think about a scheme like that, that takes a lot planning on the mobsters part. But medicare should of done a better job at catching them sooner before they got 35 million from them. They did a poor job and they paid the price. But at least they were caught and taken in. something should be done to prevent scams like this. Authority should put in a special program to track this stuff and catch mobsters before its to late.
Really this is not that hard of a story to believe. I am just wondering how many others there are out there pulling the samething. why wasn't Medicare checking up on these claims better. I mean good grief, when I was on the ambulance they checked our paperwork so precisely that if we forgot to dot an "i" or cross a "t", the bill was rejected. The problem here is that with the Homeland Security effort many of our special case workers have been relocated and sent to other departments so that those left in the White Collar Crime division are stretched thin.
This is just showing how gangs are evolving from what they use to be back in the day. No longer are they about protecting themselves from immigrating to a country where they find there are absence of jobs, but now they are about what everyone else in the world is about money and power. Unfortunately in this society he who has the most money, has the most power. I believe that this is the new gang war. No longer are they on the streets risking their lives to shoot one another (although there are some that are) but now they are competing by who can get the most bucks and who has the most guns which goes hand in hand. We know it works because that is how the United States became a world power, our military was the best! Another this is that we are no longer dealing with the uneducated gangster that we were back in the day. Now we have members of gangs that are highly educated and no I do not mean only by school/college related but they are educated in what they do. This is why this medicare scheme went on without detection for so long.
This is frustrating to see something be so easy for criminals with no above average IQ to be able to out smart our government system. Our electronic technological age has made it so easy for criminals to infiltrate it and steal funds and it is not shocking when it is done to individuals who are niave and not protected, but we expect our government to protect our tax dollars with all the security procedures and highly educated people they supposable have at hand. This should have been caught immediately and now we, as well as our elderly suffer for these oversites. The money has to be made up somewhere and thats only one place. It is an embarrassment and there should be consequences, and I'm not talking about on the end of the criminals involved.
Gangsters will do anything that will make them money. This story just amplifies the fact that gangs are getting smarter at what they do. Gangsters are moving from crime on the streets to white collar crime. It is easier to do and they don’t get their hands so “dirty”. This is just sad that it had to affect so many people and that it took a while before they got caught. This is just another way for people to take advantage of other people’s hard work. It is amazing how far people will take their greed. The 35 million dollars could have gone to those who need it but no, it went to the greed of individuals. I don’t know how people can be so selfish. I am very glad they we were caught but it should have been caught beforehand.
Even though it is terrible what they did, but it's kind of crazy how they got away with it for so long. That is a ridiculous amount of money that they stoll from the government. It makes me wonder about all the people who came into these clinics needing help and were sick and these people were fake, writing up things that had nothing to do with what was actually going on with these people. This sort of gang was seriously like the mafia, setting up something like this took a serious amount of smarts and time. But just like everything dishonest and bad, it always eventually comes out. These people should be charged and locked away for the rest of their lives. Honest people who are broke have to pay the governement and nobody should be able to get away with this sort of a crime.
They must of had some good insiders to help cover their tracks because they sure did get away with this scam for a long time. These people were very organized and had planned this all out. They may not have hurt anyone physically but they did financially. They stole tax payers money by starting this ring. This group of individuals were definitely as big as a mafia and very organized to pull this off. Including their partners in crime and the dishonest insiders they had working for them too. Just like the article states, "The scheme's scope and sophistication puts the traditional Mafia to shame." Sad to know it went unnoticed for so long.
This just goes to show how sophisticated these guys are when it comes to breaking the law. people were arrested in at least 5 states and "118 phantom clinics were set up in 25 states". Think of the time and effort it took just to set this up. Then they make the mistake of not matching up claims with the appropriate doctor. Sounds like they were in too much of a hurry to get this thing off the ground. I wonder how long it took the authorities to be aware of this medicare scam. I just hope that the property forfeited from those arrested makes up for what was stolen, otherwise we will be footing the bill.
This went on for a very long time undetected so it really makes you wonder how many others are out there doing this kind of thing. It may not be a violent crime, but it certainly is a crime that hurts many. I'm not surprised it happened, nor am I surprised it took so long for them to be caught. I suspect there are many more things going on no one knows about yet.
White Collar Crime in my opinion is more detrimental to society than criminal/blue collar crime. White Collar Crime can destroy million lives and costs us billions in tax dollars, yet I do not understand why people only receive minimum sentences when convicted. Our Judicial System needs to step up on creating harsher sentences in order to prevent and help deter these types of crimes for happening. Also our Government needs to create some policies that will help protect the American people from thieves such as Bernie Madoff’s who created a $50 Billion Ponzi scheme.
Unfortunately, Medicare schemes are nothing new. This one does however have a new twist. Armenians defrauding the US government. We have enough issues ourselves with this. Organized crime from abroad. If Armenians did this, how many others might be doing the same thing? This operation did put the traditional mafia to shame. Most of the time we are looking for traditional patient/doctor overbilling type fraud for medicare, but this process borders on genious. Even the genious get caught though. The question now is what is going to happen to them now as far as prosecution, prison or a simple fine?
Can I say white collar crime? I think so. White collar crime? It's simply a complex gang. Though it may seem that there is no harm done, take a look at your wasted tax dollars and realize where they are going! Guess what America this is just one more way that our government is able to take more money from us because instead of giving stitches or reform to a broken system they simply put another bandaid of millions of tax payer dollars to try and solve it. Thus resulting in a loss of more of our money.
As if the health insurance system in this country was not bad enough (premiums keep going up, but not the pay), we have individuals stealing taxpayers money. I can not comment to much on this topic since my knowledge is limited and I did not take Greg's class on "White Collar Crime". :) But I did read about Gangsters and this has "GANG" written all over it. A group of individuals who meet to commit illegal acts. Very sophisticated gangs. Isn't Armenia a poor country? It would seem that the money funneled into that country would be to help the people but I get the feeling that I doubt that was happening. How would the country recoup any of this money?
Well this definately puts the traditional theft to shame. To still such resources such as healthcare from others is a travesty. As it was explained to me, the perspective of persons from other countries have a different perspective. Some, not all of foreigners, are from unfortunate circumstances which is usually why they end up in the United States perhaps as a refugee. Many people from other countries are used to having nothing and all they know is survival. It is tragic that this ends up being our government and it is much more tragic considering this is associated with healthcare of all things.
Violent crimes are often considered to be more harmful to society than white collar crimes. White collar crimes in my opinion are more harmful to society than other crimes. White collar crimes reach more victims and costs victims much more than other crimes. The dollar amount that white collar crimes costs society greatly out numbers other crimes combined. The amount that this group stole is a lot more than the amount in any persons wallet or purse. However, the pickpocket is looked at as worse criminal than a group of businessmen that steal millions by setting up fake medical clinics
White collar crime? I think a sophisticated gang. They see no harm, I see our hard earned tax dollars going to fund yet another groups illegal activities. True they didn’t use guns to rob us, but the effect is the same, thousands of victims left in their wake. Then to add insult to injury after bilking Medicare they stole their identity. The ringleader calling himself “VOR” ties in directly with gang affiliation and the reference to “putting the traditional Mafia to shame” would further cement the idea of this being a gang. With several heads and spread out across the nation it took a lot of time and energy from the F.B.I. to solidify the case prior to the synchronized arrests. Stripping them of ALL of their assets is an excellent way to begin to recoup some of the stolen funds. I think Pelican would be an excellent place to house these individuals. They should have thought twice and just run for a political office, California really likes to overpay their officials and Washington D.C. serve a term and get your salary for life.
ReplyDeleteWhite collar crime at its best! The healthcare industry never developed an immunity to white collar crime either. What a group of "organized gangsters". I have previously heard of Medicare scams where real physicians offices were charging for services not rendered, but a non-exsistant relationship between the patient and the doctor in phantom clinics was a pretty smart idea. So, why turn around and do something as dumb as sending a bill from an eye doctor for a bladder test and get caught? GREED will get you every time! Healthcare cost and medical insurance premiums are rising everyday partly because of fradulent activities like this and the tens of millions already paid out by Medicare. Come on healthcare reform! And what the heck are the Armenians doing with all this money anyway? I can only speak for myself but I am very suspicious. Homeland Security, keep your eyes and ears open.
ReplyDeleteWhite collar crime is just as costly and dangerous as running drugs across the border. WE all end up paying for it, in higher insurance premiums, doctor bills and in our taxes. They tried to take Medicare for 163 million! That is our money, paid by our taxes that they were trying to steal!
ReplyDeleteThis is one time that I wish the bad guys weren’t read their Miranda Rights, or protected from excessive force. And I would hope they would be deported to some prison in their homeland, so we don’t have to pay for their room and board in one of our prisons.
But then you have to wonder, why did it take so long for Medicare to realize that something was wrong? Is our government finances so unsecured that this could happen? But those entities are made up of people just like us. Why did they let it happen, has our population become so lacks that they turn their eyes from evil, let it be someone else’s problem? They don’t want to take responsibility or they feel “cheated” themselves, too much work and not enough pay? WE need to become aware that theft affects everyone, including ourselves. And that it is everyone’s responsibility. Bring back honesty and morality!
Fraud it seems like everyone is taking advantage of our government system nowadays. Medicare is already in shambles, people who actaully need it cannot seem to qualify for it but how can indviduals scam our system of checks and balances.It is so true when they say that the more you make the more you want, but the greed part will always give the scams away. As you had said the drug cartels at one time shared in the wealth of drugs but greed got to them also forced them to become enemies because of the money. Healthcare always seem to get the short end,weather it's actual doctors or the Armenia mob, how can they start the money making scams. What ever happened to "working for something"
ReplyDeletei feel like this is a very serious as it shows that we need a revised health care system. And giving out free medicare will make it even worse. also it shows the sorry people in the worl these days, many people in society are looking for the "easy way out" rather it means to earn money by selling drugs, themselfs or resorting to stealing as a way of income. its becoming more popular to with the way the economy is it is almost forcing people to steal and so illegal activites to make money
ReplyDeleteThe worst part of this isn't that they actually committed the crime; the worst part is that no one caught on! They should have not been able to establish phantom clinics in over half of our states. How come once they are caught all the sudden the discrepancies they made are discovered? Discrepancies that were dead give aways that something was going on. Medicare is paid by our tax dollars so why was Medicare so careless about OUR money in paying those claims. Especially in today's economy. I feel as if this should also fall onto Medicare for not checking the legitimacy of these claims. I personally work in the medical field and deal with insurance companies daily. I find it ridiculous that this got so far. Maybe they could have got away with it a few times but it should have never got that far without anyone noticing! And the fact that Medicare is so careless with their own taxes dollars proves that their system is not working, and the people responsible for how these claims were verified should receive some punishment as well.
ReplyDeleteIt’s sad that people try to take advantage of our government system. Usually when you associate gangs with illegal activities you think of drugs, illegal weapons, prostitution, etc…… now they are trying to rip off the government by using healthcare as a motive. Medicare is a healthcare system funded by the government to help the elderly provide for their medical needs. The fact that gangsters have schemed Medicare out of $35 million is ridiculous. If this wasn’t enough, they decided to steal people’s identities. What make this so disturbing are the facts that not only were they able to pull this off, but the paperwork they filed to get this money wasn’t even checked. The procedures didn’t even match the professions. The economy is in bad enough shape already, we don’t need gangs stealing from our government. Hopefully Medicare and any other government agencies will check the paperwork they are handed and make sure their money is going a legitimate place for a legitimate reason.
ReplyDeleteThis is very much disturbing. You would never think a "gangster" would pull one off like this. What I dont understand is how the govt. seems to always check paperwork for everything else, check with details & not this? Makes me wonder who else besides the gangsters are involved in this. This has to be an inside job. Imagine that, gangs stealing from our govt. its so scary. Our economy is bad already. I agree activites like this make the health insurance premiums go up & I guess this is another reason why it is so hard for people like me to get health insurance (at a reasonable price). RIDICULOUS & SAD!
ReplyDeleteThis is in response to what Jessica said. The FBI along with other agencies sometimes catch on to things pretty quick but they want to build the strongest case against them as possible. Sometimes it takes years. They want to catch as many people as they can. This was a multi jurisdiction case. They were spread out all over the US and not to include in another country. If they would have stopped it the first time they saw it, they might have not had enough evidence and they would have got off. The cycle could have keep going and going. They held out and tracked it all over the place and ended up catching the big boss. We might not have saved any of our money by jumping the gun and making a quick arrest. I do like that they got sloppy and billed incorrectly. They may not have even got caught if they would have only done a little homework. Somebody else brought up a good point. What are they doing with all of this money and how much if any were they able to uncover.
ReplyDeleteWow gangster have taken crime to a whole new level, I must say they were pretty smart minus the getting caught part. I wonder if people reading this took notes, I mean I never thought gangster would think outside the box and try something like this. I changes the idea that gangster just sell crack weed etc. But ha ha on the Viagra part, never thought about slanging those on the street. Get millions of dollars by just doing his make me want to rethink my career choice. If you get compared to the God Father that means you are the stuff right now. I like that there are no age restriction on being a gangster. I wander what other gangsters have been innovated to do other types of crimes like this. But I’m also curious as to how policing can help prevent things like this before they happen. I wonder how I can get in to something like this; of course I would be cautious of whistleblowers. But all in all I’m more in awe of this because I have never heard of this kind of crime coming from gangster; I thought this was more of a white collar crime.
ReplyDeleteIt's scary to think how easily they could've gotten away with scamming Medicare out of 163 million if the government hadn't have catched on to the phony paperwork that led to the discovery of the gang activity. You would think there would be stricter regulation on medical records so things like this wouldn't happen but clearly they almost got away with it.
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ReplyDeleteThis case goes to show that the criminal justice system does not have as good a grasp on organized crime as one would think. It is worrying that the mafia has now expanded its activity outside of illegal gaming and drug smuggling, but is now involved directly in America's health care system. People tend to question the moral rationale behind why these organizations choose to get criminally involved in such sensitive areas. The answer is money. Regardless of whether it goes too far or not, these organizations will do anything to extract money from places where they are not entitled to. The discovery of this recent activity may only be the start of the mafia branching out their involvement into new areas of crime. The CRJ system must stay on top of their intelligence to make sure changes in criminal activity within the mafia don't go unnoticed.
ReplyDeleteC.Meeke
ReplyDeleteIt seems that organized crime and white collar crime are doing very well in corporate America. It is disappointing that these people would commit sophisticated acts of crime. It is hard to believe that this scam was broad based. The FBI did a great job in using their special agents and technology to bring an end to this organized crime ring. Unfortunately that is only story out of many organized criminal activates that have a direct impact on society. I wander how long the case was being followed before the FBI had enough evidence on the suspects to make the arrests. It just shows how white collar crime and organized criminal activity have infiltrated the economy and ruined legitimate business for personal wealth and greed. This is case where the CJ system was very effective in getting the bad guys. These suspects clearly acted in a deviance of the law and against the social norms of society. They saw an illegitimate opportunity and took it. So how does the CJ system handle these criminal gangsters? Sense they are Armenian will they be held and order to face trial in the U.S under our Federal system? Here is a case where these gangsters will have a direct impact on our economy and affect millions of Medicare patients. So what does the CJ do? Clearly these gangsters will get see daylight again on the streets, but what type of punishment will come about. Will this incident have an impact on the global criminal activity which affects our economy only time will tell? Bit it was good to see the bad guys get caught and the Federal system working so effectively.
White collar crime no doubt, but here's my thing, why didn't someone catch on to this? Is it because maybe someone on the inside was pulling strings for these low dirty, no good, cant work for themselves, money greedy, low life scums? And to think that EVERY SINGLE TIME you go to a doctor's office they need EVERY LITTLE INFO ABOUT YOU DOWN TO THE COLOR UNDERCLOTHING YOU HAVE ON. Where is OSHA n HIPPA laws and how on earth is the govt letting something like this slip thru their fingers? It's disturbing to know that I have to work and break a sweat for hard earn money that I work hard for and get taxed on, but yet these low life scums pull my earnings without earning it. The only thing humiliating about this case is the fact that they dont know what symptoms go with what for them to have gotten caught. Glad to see that the law enforcement is stepping up and handling this case effectively, hope they didnt upset the govt officials in on this too much.
ReplyDeletedefinetly falls under white collar crime, maybe even corporate, since they formed business' to collect the funds. My question is how did they get away with it for so long with medicare? Medicare sends patients a monthly statement showing how thier insurance was billed, by what doctor, what was ordered, and what portion medicare will cover. Some of these "patients" should have caught on alot earlier. It goes to show how sophisticated gangs are becoming in order to survive. I guess drug deals arent paying the rent anymore.
ReplyDeleteWow, another way people are stealing our hard earn money. Unlike some gangs or corrupt citizens, these people robbed hard earn tax payers dollars via sneaky methods. It just amazes me the, hate to say it, but crafty ways people are coming up with to take more money. The current financial crisis has a lot to do with it too. None the less, it doesn’t justify the millions of dollars these people stole from health care systems. As everyone else is saying…”white collared crime at its best!” The fact that another group of people are soaking up our tax dollars not only angers me, but makes me sad. Yes, crime has been going on forever, but right now in our economic standing, this is appalling. Every single person is in some way or fashion (unless you’re filthy rich) is being hurt by this economic depression, it’s driving everyone to do whatever they see fit to get money, like steal Medicare money. It was a sophisticated crime that hopefully will be prevented. However, now that this crime has taken place, it only leaves room for white collar crime to expand to different means. Much like what jft said, “I can only speak for myself but I am very suspicious. Homeland Security, keep your eyes and ears open.” I couldn’t agree more.
ReplyDeleteThis should be enough for people to think twice about letting the government run our healthcare system. It amazes me that if you have an insurance claim that is not perfect it will be denied but someone can make millions off false medical claims with the government and get away with it for years. Not only did the tax payers pay these false claims, but the money the crimnals collected from this scam will probably be used to fund their defense.
ReplyDelete“America, The Land of Opportunity” -- The Armenian mob boss must have been chanting that slogan until he was arrested. The real shame is that the Armenian gangsters will be treated better in our court and prison systems than if they were in Armenia.
ReplyDeleteMedicare is facing enough problems at this time without this kind of a major scam. I hope that a lot of the money will be recovered. The article states that couriers would often carry cash proceeds from the fraud bank back to Armenia. I thought that you couldn’t board a plane with more than $10,000 on your person. They must have made a lot of trips to have transported much of the money back to Armenia.
WOW!! This just goes to show that as smart of a scheme a gang or criminals think up they'll always get caught in the end. This is taking identity theft as well as fraud to a whole new level. The fact that these Armenian's had the strive to obtain social security numbers of individuals on/eligible for medicare and get medicare to pay out claims is impressive, yet undermines the very foundations this country was built on. The damage these criminals caused wasn't just to the government it was also on the people who's social security numbers they obtained. These people now have to go and clear up any damage caused by false claims against them, not to mention the trouble they'll have with medicare the next time they have an actual claim. Another damaging effect that not a lot of people may think of is that this wasn't just a crime against those who's identity's were stolen it was a crime against EVERY law abiding tax paying citizen, for they are the ones who foot the bill for medicare!!
ReplyDeleteI am quite impressed with what these guys pulled off! Never did I think that gangs would evolve from petty drug selling and violence to intelligent scams. I am not for what these individuals did, but they're not the only ones at fault. The article clearly stated that these "doctors" had more than one field they practiced. Everyone knows, or should know, that a doctor is usually licensed in one field. Plus, one could also google the name of your doctor and find out what they've done in their profession. It's available for the public. People need to think sometimes. I hope those guys go away for a long time, but I also hope that people ask questions and get curious once in a while before doing things blindly.
ReplyDeletewow it never amaze me what peopele will do for money. I wonder the name of the people the were using tosteal the moneyif they were being deined medical in there home state. How does this go on for as long as it did without anyone noticing. when i file a bill i get two to three phone calls to make sure they want to pay it. We all know they will never pay it back most of the time we never see this monmey put back where it came from. How is taking a house and a car going to replace a something that a baby or eldly person may of needed months ago. This make me mad because it had enough for me to get health ins for me and my kids and there people out who need these health plan and they just took there chance away from them.
ReplyDeleteWow, a gangster crime dealing with Medicare! Never thought I would see the day when someone would stoop so low for money. Then again, it happens daily. These people who contributed to this crime are just as bad as the people who came up with the plan in the first day. These health care clinics should be put to shame because participating in things like that, to me, is unethical. Medical places should be focused on helping the patients and not worried about medical scams to make money. On the other hand, these gangsters should be ashamed because they were caught! They are gangsters; they are supposed to be street smart on how to not get caught. These criminals should be sneakier and have better plans in order to get things done. Now, I am not saying they should do this all the time because this is unacceptable in my eyes, but if you’re going to do something stupid do it right and don’t get caught. If you don’t have a good plan then you are just going to get caught and punished. Which is why I say don’t do stupid things like try to get money from the Medicare Company.
ReplyDeleteI had read that the Russian Mafia was involved in banking but I did not know they had invaded medicare, too. It is a shame that they pull money away from programs that the real patients need the care but are denied because of costs. Plus all of the money that is spent trying to safeguard against thugs like these guys.
ReplyDeleteCommenting on Pokluda's comment: What are you talking about? Do you honestly believe that this white collar crime is more dangerous than running drugs? Thats ridiculous! Theft doesn't always affect everyone but in this case it does! Now, back to the article! This is definitely white collar crime at its best. Its absurd how easy such a crime can be to get away with. They came up with a business stradegy basically, stole identies and ran the business the same way a legit one would be ran. Its kind of scary to think how easily you're identity can be stolen, and also makes you wonder everytime you are seeking medical attention, for example, if you are being treated by a legit liscensed physician. Back to Pokluda's ludacris questions, it's not like the FBI sat back and watched this happen. It possibly could've been found quicker, or maybe it was, but they have to build a strong case on it before they can act legally. This isn't a perfect society nor will it ever be for that matter. Honesty and Morality are out there still and so is crime. Crime will always be present and new ideas will immerge for criminals to benefit themselves by taking illegal actions. All we can do is hope to reduce crime, because wiping it out completely is not a realistic possibility.
ReplyDeleteWhite collar meets the gangsters/ “mafia”….What a bunch of dim-wits….did you really think that you were never going to get caught? This is a huge fraud case extending through many states and was bound to get noticed and revealed sooner or later, although it is sad it took this long for someone to catch on and realize it.
ReplyDeleteIf you are going to run a scam than the least you can do is make sure that the type of doctor matches the diagnosis/ treatment on the paperwork. On top of the millions that were obtained for these so called “medical claims”, the individuals/victims now are faced with their identity being stolen by “crooks”. I would love to know where all the money went and what did it go towards….obviously houses and cars, but I am sure that is only what the prosecutors “found”. Greed is the root of all evil, if only everyone agreed!
This is a sad story, which unfortunately happens much too often relating to Medicare. Our healthcare system is already broke enough. The elderly, who live on a fixed income, are the ones who pay the price. If it has happened once, it has happened thousands of times. The only unique thing about the story is the amount of money involved, and the mafia connection fits in well with the gangsters’ class. Every day in the headlines there are multiple stories of fraud associated with healthcare. There must be a more compassionate and efficient way to deliver care. If we do not solve the problem we will all end up paying the price.
ReplyDeleteWhere is the traditional mob in all of this? Even our criminals are outsourced. “Most of the defendants were “Armenian Nationals or Immigrants and many maintained substantial ties to Armenia and criminals there”. The story reads like an organized crime textbook. “The Operation was under the protection of an American Crime boss, known in the former Soviet Union as a Vor…the rough equivalent of a traditional God Father”. They are following a well-worn criminal path which is circular in nature. Their organizational structure is the same.
As before, segments of a new struggling immigrant population replace an older, more established one in a life of crime, like the Italians, Jews or Irish before them. Before they can establish themselves in legitimate business; they establish themselves by illegitimate means. The American dream may be temporarily blocked for them. However, they too will eventually move up the socio-economic ladder.
I read the article and find it hard to believe that a red light did not turn on to all those charges of fraudulent bills to Medicare claims. It a shame you can be denied if you can not remember your member id for health care services,but on the other hand you can be given millions of dollars if you make it seem you have the credential of a big corporate operation. It nothing new and will probably continue over and over again. When will our government officials open their eyes oops excuse me when will we say enough is enough...I am sick in tire of being sick in tire of this particular crime being overlooked and in the end who really suffer because of it. US...not once did I hear of the claims or money being reimbursed to the customer....that will probably be tired up in red tape and never mention...
ReplyDeleteThis is white collar crime at its best. It is unbelievable that a group of mobsters were able to pull this off for as long as they did. It is shocking that medicare did not catch this sooner. I mean I find it odd that they had no idea that this clinics existed or not they just sent money to this so called clinics without checking first if they existed. What also is impressive is that these mobsters pulled this off for such a long time and were able to get 35 million from medicare I mean I could not think about a scheme like that, that takes a lot planning on the mobsters part. But medicare should of done a better job at catching them sooner before they got 35 million from them. They did a poor job and they paid the price. But at least they were caught and taken in. something should be done to prevent scams like this. Authority should put in a special program to track this stuff and catch mobsters before its to late.
ReplyDeleteReally this is not that hard of a story to believe. I am just wondering how many others there are out there pulling the samething. why wasn't Medicare checking up on these claims better. I mean good grief, when I was on the ambulance they checked our paperwork so precisely that if we forgot to dot an "i" or cross a "t", the bill was rejected. The problem here is that with the Homeland Security effort many of our special case workers have been relocated and sent to other departments so that those left in the White Collar Crime division are stretched thin.
ReplyDeleteThis is just showing how gangs are evolving from what they use to be back in the day. No longer are they about protecting themselves from immigrating to a country where they find there are absence of jobs, but now they are about what everyone else in the world is about money and power. Unfortunately in this society he who has the most money, has the most power. I believe that this is the new gang war. No longer are they on the streets risking their lives to shoot one another (although there are some that are) but now they are competing by who can get the most bucks and who has the most guns which goes hand in hand. We know it works because that is how the United States became a world power, our military was the best! Another this is that we are no longer dealing with the uneducated gangster that we were back in the day. Now we have members of gangs that are highly educated and no I do not mean only by school/college related but they are educated in what they do. This is why this medicare scheme went on without detection for so long.
ReplyDeleteThis is frustrating to see something be so easy for criminals with no above average IQ to be able to out smart our government system. Our electronic technological age has made it so easy for criminals to infiltrate it and steal funds and it is not shocking when it is done to individuals who are niave and not protected, but we expect our government to protect our tax dollars with all the security procedures and highly educated people they supposable have at hand. This should have been caught immediately and now we, as well as our elderly suffer for these oversites. The money has to be made up somewhere and thats only one place. It is an embarrassment and there should be consequences, and I'm not talking about on the end of the criminals involved.
ReplyDeleteGangsters will do anything that will make them money. This story just amplifies the fact that gangs are getting smarter at what they do. Gangsters are moving from crime on the streets to white collar crime. It is easier to do and they don’t get their hands so “dirty”. This is just sad that it had to affect so many people and that it took a while before they got caught. This is just another way for people to take advantage of other people’s hard work. It is amazing how far people will take their greed. The 35 million dollars could have gone to those who need it but no, it went to the greed of individuals. I don’t know how people can be so selfish. I am very glad they we were caught but it should have been caught beforehand.
ReplyDeleteEven though it is terrible what they did, but it's kind of crazy how they got away with it for so long. That is a ridiculous amount of money that they stoll from the government. It makes me wonder about all the people who came into these clinics needing help and were sick and these people were fake, writing up things that had nothing to do with what was actually going on with these people. This sort of gang was seriously like the mafia, setting up something like this took a serious amount of smarts and time. But just like everything dishonest and bad, it always eventually comes out. These people should be charged and locked away for the rest of their lives. Honest people who are broke have to pay the governement and nobody should be able to get away with this sort of a crime.
ReplyDeleteThey must of had some good insiders to help cover their tracks because they sure did get away with this scam for a long time. These people were very organized and had planned this all out. They may not have hurt anyone physically but they did financially. They stole tax payers money by starting this ring. This group of individuals were definitely as big as a mafia and very organized to pull this off. Including their partners in crime and the dishonest insiders they had working for them too. Just like the article states, "The scheme's scope and sophistication puts the traditional Mafia to shame." Sad to know it went unnoticed for so long.
ReplyDeleteThis just goes to show how sophisticated these guys are when it comes to breaking the law. people were arrested in at least 5 states and "118 phantom clinics were set up in 25 states". Think of the time and effort it took just to set this up. Then they make the mistake of not matching up claims with the appropriate doctor. Sounds like they were in too much of a hurry to get this thing off the ground. I wonder how long it took the authorities to be aware of this medicare scam. I just hope that the property forfeited from those arrested makes up for what was stolen, otherwise we will be footing the bill.
ReplyDeleteThis went on for a very long time undetected so it really makes you wonder how many others are out there doing this kind of thing. It may not be a violent crime, but it certainly is a crime that hurts many. I'm not surprised it happened, nor am I surprised it took so long for them to be caught. I suspect there are many more things going on no one knows about yet.
ReplyDeleteWhite Collar Crime in my opinion is more detrimental to society than criminal/blue collar crime. White Collar Crime can destroy million lives and costs us billions in tax dollars, yet I do not understand why people only receive minimum sentences when convicted. Our Judicial System needs to step up on creating harsher sentences in order to prevent and help deter these types of crimes for happening. Also our Government needs to create some policies that will help protect the American people from thieves such as Bernie Madoff’s who created a $50 Billion Ponzi scheme.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, Medicare schemes are nothing new. This one does however have a new twist. Armenians defrauding the US government. We have enough issues ourselves with this. Organized crime from abroad. If Armenians did this, how many others might be doing the same thing? This operation did put the traditional mafia to shame. Most of the time we are looking for traditional patient/doctor overbilling type fraud for medicare, but this process borders on genious. Even the genious get caught though. The question now is what is going to happen to them now as far as prosecution, prison or a simple fine?
ReplyDeleteCan I say white collar crime? I think so. White collar crime? It's simply a complex gang. Though it may seem that there is no harm done, take a look at your wasted tax dollars and realize where they are going! Guess what America this is just one more way that our government is able to take more money from us because instead of giving stitches or reform to a broken system they simply put another bandaid of millions of tax payer dollars to try and solve it. Thus resulting in a loss of more of our money.
ReplyDeleteAs if the health insurance system in this country was not bad enough (premiums keep going up, but not the pay), we have individuals stealing taxpayers money. I can not comment to much on this topic since my knowledge is limited and I did not take Greg's class on "White Collar Crime". :) But I did read about Gangsters and this has "GANG" written all over it. A group of individuals who meet to commit illegal acts. Very sophisticated gangs. Isn't Armenia a poor country? It would seem that the money funneled into that country would be to help the people but I get the feeling that I doubt that was happening. How would the country recoup any of this money?
ReplyDeleteWell this definately puts the traditional theft to shame. To still such resources such as healthcare from others is a travesty. As it was explained to me, the perspective of persons from other countries have a different perspective. Some, not all of foreigners, are from unfortunate circumstances which is usually why they end up in the United States perhaps as a refugee. Many people from other countries are used to having nothing and all they know is survival. It is tragic that this ends up being our government and it is much more tragic considering this is associated with healthcare of all things.
ReplyDeleteViolent crimes are often considered to be more harmful to society than white collar crimes. White collar crimes in my opinion are more harmful to society than other crimes. White collar crimes reach more victims and costs victims much more than other crimes. The dollar amount that white collar crimes costs society greatly out numbers other crimes combined. The amount that this group stole is a lot more than the amount in any persons wallet or purse. However, the pickpocket is looked at as worse criminal than a group of businessmen that steal millions by setting up fake medical clinics
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