$83 million: Sterling woman convicted of Medicare, tax fraud

[mahatmakanejeeves]

$83 million: Sterling woman convicted of Medicare, tax fraud

By Times-Mirror Staff Aug 1, 2018 Updated 12 hrs ago

A federal jury on Monday convicted a Sterling woman on health care fraud and tax charges for operating a fraudulent sleep study clinic in northern Virginia, according to federal prosecutors.

Young Yi, 44, a citizen of South Korea, obtained more than $83 million from Medicare and private insurance during the health care fraud conspiracy, according to court records and evidence presented at trial. She lowered her taxes by nearly $900,000 in one tax year alone, authorities said.

“Yi lied to, cheated, and stole from taxpayers and insurance companies,” said G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “When someone commits health care and tax fraud it drives up the cost of care for everyone and creates an un-level playing field. Yi misled patients and their doctors, falsified records to cover it up, and deducted millions in taxes she used to buy expensive properties and luxury goods.”

Yi formed the primary entities she used to commit the crimes, 1st Class Sleep Diagnostic Center and 1st Class Medical, in 2005. Using those and other entities, Yi directed her employees to solicit patients who had been referred to her clinic for legitimate sleep studies for supplemental but medically unnecessary studies. To conceal the scheme, prosecutors said Yi instructed employees not to send the results of the fraudulent studies to the patients’ doctors, lied to patients by telling them they did not have to pay copays or coinsurance, and cross-billed using her different entities both to conceal the repetition from the insurance companies and to get out-of-network payments for in-network services. The cross-billing between the two lead entities alone was approximately $4 million. Yi also used the original referring doctors’ names and identifying information on health insurance claims without their permission, evidence showed.
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[spooky3]

1. A road map for Manafort. Also, I once followed links

In a WaPo article on the most expensive houses in the metro area. One of the most hideous ones was to be built (and maybe was complete) in Great Falls. It was this defendant’s.

And here it is:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/where-we-live/wp/2017/01/06/le-chateau-de-lumiere-is-a-splash-of-grandeur-in-great-falls/

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Per the article, that is "a scaled-down version of the original." Within a month, someone bought it.

Where We Live

Le Chateau de Lumiere sets record for highest price paid for a home in Great Falls

By Kathy Orton February 27, 2017 [link:[e-mail]|Email the author]

Despite claims that the luxury market is softening, high-end properties continue to sell at premium prices in the Washington area. Le Chateau de Lumiere, an homage to Versailles and the mansions of Newport, R.I., set a record for the most expensive home sold in Great Falls earlier this month.

The eight-bedroom, 13-bathroom, 24,000-square-foot mansion was purchased Feb. 17 for $12 million, $2 million below its list price, according to public records.

{Le Chateau de Lumiere is a splash of grandeur in Great Falls}

The buyer was listed as Cutlass Properties, a limited liability company that was registered in Virginia on Dec. 22. Buyers of luxury real estate often protect their identities by purchasing homes through a limited liability company.
....

Kathy Orton is a reporter and Web editor for the Real Estate section. She covers the Washington metropolitan area housing market. Previously, she wrote for the Sports section. She came to The Washington Post in 1996 from the Los Angeles Daily News. She also worked at the Cincinnati Post. Follow https://twitter.com/KathyOrtonWP

[spooky3]

3. Unbelievable, isn't it? I think I need another

Visit to the McMansion Hell website.

It was also interesting that the fraudster alienated the neighbors, who wouldn’t allow it to be built. Sociopaths will be sociopaths. I’ll bet some of them were amused to read of Yi’s conviction.