Feds announce massive takedown of Medicare fraud suspects in "Operation Gold Rush"
The federal government revealed new details Monday about how it recently took down a massive Medicare fraud operation that CBS News New York first reported on last year.
The feds are calling it Operation Gold Rush and say they stopped Medicare from paying out billions of dollars in fraudulent claims.
It turns out, when CBS News New York went looking for the owner of G&I Ortho Supply in Gravesend, Brooklyn early last year, federal investigators were looking for him, too.
, including Kevin Valdhans, a name CBS News New York first shared with viewers in our February 2024 investigation.
"We'd like to see them face justice"
"We're fighting for the extradition of many of these individuals. We'd like to see them face justice in an American courtroom," , the head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division.
Federal authorities also unveiled a series of other health care fraud cases across the country Monday -- and new efforts to crack down on the practices. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services plans to use AI and other tools to detect fraud faster.
"What we're doing today is changing the paradigm. Not just going after bad guys and putting them behind bars, but actually getting ahead of these schemes so the money never leaves our bank account," said Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Prosecutors say Valdhans and others bought about 30 medical supply stores and then used them to submit $10 billion worth of bogus Medicare claims. Most of it was prevented, but the group collected $41 million in taxpayer dollars from Medicare and $900 million from Medicare supplemental insurers.
Federal investigators haven't said how much of that can be recovered, but they did say they're seizing assets in some of the cases announced Monday.
"This enforcement action involves the seizure of cash as well as luxury vehicles and properties, returning real money to American taxpayers and to our government health care programs," Galeotti said.
The Justice Department announced charges Monday against a total of 324 people connected to various health care fraud cases, including people from all over the world. Valdhans, for example, is a citizen of the Czech Republic.
Prosecutors say the leader of the group was based in Russia and elsewhere, and police arrested four people in Estonia last week in connection to that scheme.
