Kansas is a Midwestern state known by many for its professional championship-winning sports teams. The Kansas City Royals are a Major League Baseball team that most recently won the World Series in 2015. The Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League are the 2020 Super Bowl Champions. Of course, the state of Kansas is known for so much more than sports. However, this week, the state has been making headlines in the world of health care fraud.
Kansas brothers indicted for $3.7 million health care fraud scheme.
The District of Kansas branch of the United States Department of Justice was pretty busy last Friday. It reported on not one, but two different indictments. The first has handed down by a federal jury in the state’s largest city of Wichita. 54 year-old, Bradley Eck and his 58 year-old brother, Todd Eck were charged with engaging in an alleged healthcare fraud scheme. The plot resulted in more than $3.7 million in payments from both Medicare and Tricare.
The scheme took place over a three-year period between 2017 and 2019. During that time, says the DoJ report, the Ecks allegedly created several businesses and misrepresented the ownership of the enterprises in documents. The duo is accused of submitting false billings for medical services that were not administered to patients. Their scam included the use of a physician’s provider number without his authorization.
The Ecks are charged with falsifying the physician’s electronic signature to indicate on documents that he performed medical procedures he did not. All in all, both Bradley and Todd Eck are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud; two counts of false statements related to healthcare matters; one count of healthcare fraud; three counts of aggravated identity theft; two counts of money laundering; and one count of money laundering conspiracy.
Kansas chiropractor indicted for PPP loan fraud.
The Ecks were not to be outdone 58 year-old, Timothy Dale Warren. Another United States Department of Justice report announced that the chiropractor was indicted on multiple charges. They were for alleged crimes related to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The Act is a federal law providing financial relief to businesses suffering economic losses because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is a loan program that originated from CARES. It originally intended to provide American small business owners with eight weeks of cash-flow assistance through 100 percent federally guaranteed loans. The loans are backed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) which is authorized to grant businesses forgivable loans for payroll, utilities, rent and other expenses through PPP.
According to court documents, Warren is charged with four counts of bank fraud, two counts of money laundering and four counts of false statements. The owner of Titan Medical Center LLC, Warren is accused of fraudulently obtaining PPP loans totaling approximately $145,800 from two banks. It is alleged that he used a third bank to conceal the proceeds.
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