{"id":613890,"date":"2026-09-28T02:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T02:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/613890\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T02:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T02:22:09","slug":"us-military-healthcare-fraud-scheme-paid-for-gold-plated-tesla-lavish-parties-and-hotels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/613890\/","title":{"rendered":"US Military healthcare fraud scheme paid for gold-plated Tesla, lavish parties and hotels"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">The Department of Justice said Curry paid more than US$5.5m in kickbacks to persuade patients to agree to the treatment, even when they did not qualify for it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">Evidence presented at trial showed Curry falsely presented himself as a medical doctor and used the credentials of licensed physicians without their knowledge or consent to submit claims.<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">Prosecutors said he also directed employees to fabricate medical records to support fraudulent billings.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"A Texas counsellor fraudulently billed the US military US$26 million and bought a gold-plated Tesla Cybertruck. Photo \/ US Department of Justice\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>A Texas counsellor fraudulently billed the US military US$26 million and bought a gold-plated Tesla Cybertruck. Photo \/ US Department of Justice<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">The clinics allegedly submitted more than US$26m in fraudulent claims, including those linked to illegal kickbacks, resulting in about US$17m in payments from the US military\u2019s healthcare programme, Tricare.<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">Authorities said Curry used some proceeds to fund personal spending, including hotel stays, a lavish casino-themed party and a gold-plated Tesla Cybertruck worth more than US$100,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">Photographs released by the department showed the customised vehicle, which prosecutors used to show how Curry spent his fraudulent income.<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">Assistant Attorney-General Colin McDonald said the case involved the exploitation of a healthcare programme relied on by military families.<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cYesterday\u2019s verdict makes clear that those who try to defraud the United States will be met with swift and decisive justice,\u201d McDonald said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cSuch conduct is an affront to the military community and the American public.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">US Attorney Ryan Raybould said Curry had \u201cshamelessly preyed on the trust of service members, veterans and their families\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">The case was investigated by the Department of Defence Criminal Investigative Service, the FBI, the Texas Attorney-General\u2019s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General.<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">Curry is waiting to be sentenced. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years\u2019 imprisonment on each count, although a federal judge will determine the final sentence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Department of Justice said Curry paid more than US$5.5m in kickbacks to persuade patients to agree to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[13103,95,1558,21715,3241,5767,99450,14051,2082,3561,213930,302228,134,527,20285,12517,41569,647,1132,130,111,139,69,10142,2954,9527,3170,9939,5536,14920,131,9938,3040,302229],"class_list":["post-613890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-46m","tag-and","tag-been","tag-billed","tag-bought","tag-convicted","tag-counsellor","tag-federal","tag-for","tag-fraud","tag-fraudulently","tag-goldplated","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-hotels","tag-jury","tag-lavish","tag-military","tag-million","tag-more","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-paid","tag-parties","tag-programme","tag-scheme","tag-states","tag-tesla","tag-texas","tag-than","tag-united","tag-us","tag-us26"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}