{"id":504793,"date":"2026-10-23T00:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T00:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/504793\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T00:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T00:18:14","slug":"fraudsters-lured-homeless-addicts-to-california-with-free-flights-groceries-and-more-feds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/504793\/","title":{"rendered":"Fraudsters lured homeless addicts to California with free flights, groceries and more: feds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fraudsters accused<\/a> of a $1.6 billion phony rehab scheme allegedly used \u201cbody brokers\u201d to lure at least 6,000 homeless addicts \u2013 including many from other states \u2013 into California detox centers, according to court papers and prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles rehab king David Young, 71, and his son Nathan Young, 39, allegedly offered free flights, groceries and other perks as part of their substance abuse scam to traffic addicts<\/a> into dozens of California rehab centers, according to Department of Justice prosecutors.<\/p>\n

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Nathan Young. Carlin Stiehl for CA Post<\/p>\n

David Young. Carlin Stiehl for CA Post<\/p>\n

The Youngs directed \u201cbody brokers,\u201d including Greenville, Texas couple Honey and Cody Phipps, aged 42 and 36, to mercilessly target homeless addicts<\/a>, recycling them through their drug facilities and getting them fat insurance policies so they could collect the cash.<\/p>\n

The defendants pocketed more than $210 million in the six-year scheme that Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald called \u201cthe largest the largest sober home fraud scheme the Department has ever prosecuted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Honey and Cody Phipps are alleged \u201cbody brokers\u201d accused of bringing rehab patients into California.<\/p>\n

All four were arrested in the sweeping anti-healthcare fraud investigation in California that federal authorities unveiled in Los Angeles on Thursday.<\/p>\n

To execute the complex con, the Youngs ordered the Phipps and other body brokers to travel to various states to find homeless addicts, get them insured and enrolling them at their rehab centers in Los Angeles, San Diego, the Bay Area and elsewhere in the California, court papers say.<\/p>\n

Credit card records showed that victims were flown in from Las Vegas, Cleveland, and Birmingham, Ala., to the Youngs\u2019 rehabs, with names such as Rodeo Recovery and Get Real Recovery.<\/p>\n

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US Attorney Bill Essayli. Carlin Stiehl for CA Post<\/p>\n

FBI LA agents making an arrest in large medicare bust in California. Carlin Stiehl for CA Post<\/p>\n

First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli said the scheme was particularly problematic given California\u2019s homelessness problem. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they couldn\u2019t bill anymore, they\u2019d end up on the streets of California and Los Angeles,\u201d said Essayli of the Youngs\u2019 victims. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a pipeline of addicts and homeless people to here in California.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The body brokers offered kickbacks for junkies to enroll at their rehabs \u201cincluding money, drugs, free airline flights, free or nearly-free accommodations at highly desirable locations, including luxury apartments and houses\u201d in Los Angeles, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

In some cases, victims were coached \u201cto fabricate and exaggerate their symptoms and substance addictions during intake,\u201d or encouraged to use drugs or alcohol so that they would not pass a urine drug test so they would be eligible for treatment, court papers say.<\/p>\n

The Youngs sought patients with insurance police that paid high reimbursements and had those without policies sign up for them, in some cases telling them to claim they were Native American to receive good coverage.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Youngs even got jobs for some patients at companies that were known to provide lucrative insurance policies and then kept the cash, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Nathan Young. CA Post<\/p>\n

The Phipps. Facebook\/@codynhoney.phipps<\/p>\n

Once inside the Youngs\u2019 network of rehab homes, the patients were cycled through different types of treatment centers that corresponded to different levels of sobriety, so the fraudsters could maximize their profits, court papers charge.<\/p>\n

But the Youngs\u2019 patients never received treatment, investigators say. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOften, as many as approximately 100 patients would be logged into one Zoom session at a time and patients would not be expected to be on camera or to participate in therapy,\u201d court papers state. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, no therapy would be provided during these Zoom sessions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Youngs also told \u201cemployees to take patients to the movies, dinners and other outings, and to document and fraudulently bill those outings as \u2018group therapy,\u2019\u201d the papers say.<\/p>\n

The Phipps. Facebook\/@codynhoney.phipps<\/p>\n

The feds\u2019 Thursday takedown. <\/p>\n

They also recruited doctors to provide patients with powerful sedatives, and even got some victims hooked, prosecutors allege.<\/p>\n

And, to keep them as long as possible, the Youngs had their victims \u201cdrugged with medication, cut off from communication with family members, prevented from accessing their belongings, and physically blocked from leaving,\u201d according to court papers.<\/p>\n

After they finally escaped the Youngs\u2019 facilities, the patients were on their own.<\/p>\n

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