Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A federal jury convicted a Louisiana chiropractor yesterday for his role in health care fraud and unemployment insurance fraud schemes totaling millions of dollars.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Dr. Benjamin Tekippe, 40, of New Orleans, was a chiropractor and owner of Metairie Chiropractic & Rehab in New Orleans. Tekippe solicited patients with insurance from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana (BCBSLA) at schools, public events, and on social media to receive chiropractic massages, which he misleadingly advertised as “free.” Tekippe would then routinely bill BCBSLA for chiropractic services he did not perform. In total, Tekippe fraudulently submitted over $2.3 million in claims to BCBSLA for services not performed and was reimbursed approximately $740,000 by the insurance provider. The fraudulent claims sought payment for thousands of chiropractic services purportedly provided by Tekippe during periods when he was out of the office, traveling on vacation, or incarcerated for past arrests. The evidence also showed that in response to a medical records request from a BCBSLA auditor, Tekippe fabricated patient records and instructed his staff to write them in their own handwriting to make it falsely appear that the services had been performed as billed. Evidence at trial showed that Tekippe spent the fraud proceeds on, among other things, luxury goods and gambling.  

In addition, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Tekippe submitted weekly certifications falsely claiming that he was unemployed when he was billing for chiropractic services purportedly performed during his claimed unemployment. Through this scheme, Tekippe received $12,952 in unemployment insurance benefits to which he was not entitled.

Tekippe was convicted of six counts of health care fraud and one count of wire fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 17 and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the wire fraud count and 10 years in prison on each health care fraud count. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Matthew R. Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Acting U.S. Attorney Michael M. Simpson for the Eastern District of Louisiana; Acting Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Tapp of the FBI New Orleans Field Office; and Special Agent in Charge Jason Meadows of the Department of Health and Human Service Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG) Dallas Region, Baton Rouge Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI and HHS-OIG investigated the case.

Trial Attorneys Kelly Z. Walters and Samantha Usher of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case.

The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat health care fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program. Since March 2007, this program, currently comprised of 9 strike forces operating in 27 federal districts, has charged more than 5,800 defendants who collectively have billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $30 billion. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with HHS-OIG, are taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement in health care fraud schemes. More information can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Last night, a high-ranking leader of La Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13, was arrested in New York for his alleged role in a conspiracy responsible for 11 murders.

Joel Vargas-Escobar, also known as Momia, was indicted the District of Nevada and charged with racketeering conspiracy that involved 11 murders. Vargas-Escobar is also charged with two counts of murder-in-aid of racketeering and associated firearms charges. Vargas-Escobar – who previously had been deported to El Salvador and illegally re-entered the United States – had been a fugitive from justice for nearly four years.

“The American people are safer following the arrest of yet another MS-13 leader thanks to the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division and Joint Task Force Vulcan,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “This terrorist entered our country illegally and is accused of orchestrating 11 murders — under President Trump’s leadership, we will not rest until this terrorist organization is completely dismantled and its members are behind bars.”

“The arrest of yet another violent and dangerous MS-13 leader is a major win for our FBI agents, law enforcement partners, and safer American streets,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “Our agents and analysts are continuously coordinating across multiple field offices and investigating with our valued partners to keep this work going — and we will not stop until that work is done.”

According to court documents, MS-13 is a national and transnational gang composed largely of individuals of Salvadoran or other Central American descent. MS-13 has more than 10,000 members regularly conducting gang activities in at least 10 states and Washington, D.C., with thousands more conducting gang activities in Central America and Mexico. MS-13 operates through the use of intimidation and violence, including murder, and enriching members and associates through criminal activities, including breaking into houses and stealing firearms, jewelry, cash, and other items of value, and selling narcotics. MS-13 is organized by subsets known as “cliques,” and each clique typically has one or more leaders, commonly referred to as “shot callers.”

Vargas-Escobar and his co-defendants are allegedly part of MS-13’s command and control structure in Las Vegas and California and exercised significant leadership roles in the organization’s operations. The indictment charges members of the “Parkview” clique of MS-13 with committing 11 murders over about a year in Nevada and California. According to the indictment, many of the victims were allegedly kidnapped by MS-13 members and taken to remote locations in the mountains and desert where they were tortured and killed.

Vargas-Escobar was the alleged leader of the Parkview clique of MS-13 in Las Vegas and personally ordered two of the charged murders. He was deported to El Salvador in 2018 but illegally re-entered the country.

The arrest operation was coordinated by the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division in Washington, D.C., with support from the FBI’s Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and New York field offices, the Criminal Division’s Violent Crime and Racketeering Section (VCRS), the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada, and Joint Task Force Vulcan (JTFV).

JTFV, which was created in 2019 to destroy MS-13 and now expanded to target Tren de Aragua, is comprised of U.S. Attorney’s Offices across the country, including the Southern District of New York; the Eastern District of New York; the District of New Jersey; the Northern District of Ohio; the District of Utah; the District of Massachusetts; the Eastern District of Texas; the Southern District of Florida; the Eastern District of Virginia; the Southern District of California; the District of Nevada; the District of Alaska; the Southern District of Texas; and the District of Columbia, as well as the Department of Justice’s National Security Division and the Criminal Division. Additionally, the FBI; DEA; HSI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the U.S. Marshals Service; and the Federal Bureau of Prisons have been essential law enforcement partners with JTFV.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America and an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) operation. Operation Take Back America is a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at www.justice.gov/OCDETF.

Vargas-Escobar appeared this morning for his initial court appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge James M. Wicks of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York – Central Islip. He was ordered detained and will be transferred to the District of Nevada for trial. If convicted, Vargas-Escobar faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Christopher Taylor and Justin Bish from the Criminal Division’s Violent Crime and Racketeering Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Melanee Smith and Steven Rose for the District of Nevada, with substantial assistance from Joint Task Force Vulcan Deputy Director Jeremy Franker, as well as the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A Minnesota man was sentenced yesterday to 21 years and 10 months in prison for possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) found in his apartment and for using the dark web to advertise and distribute CSAM images and videos.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Craig James Myran, 47, of Bemidji, was an active participant on a website only accessible through the dark web that was dedicated to discussing and trafficking CSAM. For years, he used an account with a unique username to make over a thousand posts in which he shared images of CSAM. In at least one post, Myran requested specific files of known CSAM from other users that he disturbingly referred to as his “holy grail.” In another post, he advertised over 100 images depicting the sadomasochistic sexual abuse of two prepubescent minors. On Dec. 8, 2022, FBI special agents executed a search warrant on Myran’s apartment in Bemidji, where they found a cell phone and numerous hard drives that contained evidence that he used the dark web to advertise, publish, and solicit CSAM. Agents also found thousands of other CSAM images.

According to the government’s sentencing memorandum, Myran’s sexual exploitation of minors was not limited to his activity on just one particular dark-web site. He was simultaneously an active participant on multiple other dark-web sites dedicated to trafficking in CSAM, and he previously made posts on the dark web about producing his own CSAM by screen-recording minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct during online webcam interactions. On Nov. 20, 2024, a federal jury convicted Myran on two counts of advertising child pornography, one count of distributing child pornography, and one count of possessing child pornography.

Matthew R. Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa D. Kirkpatrick for the District of Minnesota; and Special Agent in Charge Alvin M. Winston Sr. of the FBI Minneapolis Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI Minneapolis Field Office investigated the case.

Trial Attorney William G. Clayman of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney David B. Green for the District of Minnesota prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Justice Department. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A Florida man pleaded guilty on Monday to purchasing Medicare identification numbers and using those numbers to cause over $8.4 million of false and fraudulent claims to be submitted to Medicare.

Corey Alston, 47, of Fort Lauderdale, pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States and to illegally purchase Medicare beneficiary identification numbers in connection with a scheme to bill Medicare for COVID-19 test kits that were ineligible for reimbursement. According to court documents, Alston and his co-defendant, Latresia A. Wilson, conspired to unlawfully purchase Medicare beneficiary identification information (including Medicare Beneficiary Identification Numbers) and used that information to submit millions of dollars in claims to Medicare for COVID-19 test kits that the beneficiaries did not want or request.

Over the course of just seven months, from July 2022 through February 2023, Alston, Wilson, and others, through companies they owned and controlled, submitted over $8.4 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare that were ineligible for reimbursement. Medicare paid over $2.6 million based on the false and fraudulent claims. Alston personally earned over $2.3 million from the scheme.

Wilson previously pleaded guilty on June 10, 2024, to conspiracy to defraud the United States and to illegally purchase Medicare beneficiary identification. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 15. Alston is scheduled to be sentenced on July 9. Alston and Wilson each face a maximum penalty of five years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Matthew R. Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe for the Middle District of Florida; Special Agent in Charge Matthew W. Fodor of the FBI Tampa Field Office; and Acting Special Agent in Charge Jesus Barranco of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG) made the announcement.

The FBI and HHS-OIG investigated the case.

Trial Attorneys Shane Butland and Keith Clouser and Senior Litigation Counsel Catherine Wagner of the National Rapid Response Strike Force of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case. Acting Assistant Chief Justin Woodard assisted in charging the case.

The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat health care fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program. Since March 2007, this program, currently comprised of nine strike forces operating in 27 federal districts, has charged more than 5,800 defendants who collectively have billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $30 billion. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement in health care fraud schemes. More information can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Yesterday, a federal court in Massachusetts entered a consent decree requiring SunSetter Products LP (SunSetter) to pay $9.25 million in civil penalties and implement and maintain a robust compliance program to prevent future illegal conduct, the Justice Department announced.

In a complaint filed April 6, 2023, the government alleged that SunSetter failed to timely report to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) a defect affecting approximately 270,000 protective covers used with SunSetter retractable awnings. According to the complaint, removal of the defective awning cover could cause the retractable awning to unexpectedly spring open with enough force to knock over anyone in the awning’s path, putting consumers using ladders to access the awning at risk of death or serious injury. The complaint alleged that multiple consumers were injured, and one killed, as a result of this defect. The complaint alleged that SunSetter violated the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA) by failing to report the defect until 2017, despite being aware of consumer complaints as early as 2012 and completing its own simulation testing in 2015 that confirmed the safety hazard. SunSetter recalled the covers in August 2019.

“The failure to immediately report dangerous products puts consumers at unnecessary risk,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Yaakov Roth of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The Department will continue to work with the CPSC to hold accountable companies that fail to follow the law.”

“This settlement makes clear that companies must prioritize consumer safety and comply with their legal obligations to report hazardous defects in a timely manner,” said U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley for the District of Massachusetts. “SunSetter’s failure to do so had tragic consequences. We will continue to hold companies accountable when they put the public at risk by disregarding federal safety laws.”

“This consent decree is an important reminder of the affirmative obligation to report product hazards in a timely manner,” said Acting Chairman Peter A. Feldman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. “I appreciate the work of CPSC staff and our partners at DOJ in resolving this matter and keeping American consumers safe.”

Trial Attorneys Brett Ruff and Nicole Frazer of the Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch and Assistant U.S. Attorney Anuj Khetarpal for the District of Massachusetts, with the assistance of Renee McCune of CPSC’s Office of the General Counsel and Amelia Hairston-Porter of CPSC’s Office of Compliance and Field Operations, are handling the case.

For more information about the enforcement efforts of the Consumer Protection Branch visit the Branch’s website at www.justice.gov/civil/consumer-protection-branch.

The claims resolved by the consent decree announced today are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.