spent the cash on luxury cars, handbags, and properties overseas<\/a>, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\nPresident Trump, in March 2025, signed an executive order to set a zero-tolerance to health care fraud. SHAWN THEW\/POOL\/EPA\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
Except for the ring-leader, nearly everyone involved is of Somali descent. <\/p>\n
The Treasury\u2019s top cops in charge of following dirty money, known as the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, will issue an advisory on Monday telling lenders \u201cto be vigilant in identifying and reporting suspicious transactions potentially related to healthcare fraud schemes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Financial institutions must file what is known as a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) under the Bank Secrecy Act with the elite unit whenever there is a suspected case of money laundering or fraud.<\/p>\n
Islamist terror networks like Al-Shabaab in Somalia have allegedly been funded by welfare fraud in Minnesota, according to federal officials. AP<\/p>\n
Any attempts to hide, move, or clean stolen cash violate this country\u2019s main anti-money laundering law.<\/p>\n
The leaked advisory, effectively an early warning system for US banks, lays out how crooks steal patient IDs through bribes and identity theft, flood the system with bogus claims for ghost treatments.<\/p>\n
The proceeds are then \u201cwashed\u201d through wire transfers and crypto, or spent on luxury items.<\/p>\n
\u201cFraud, including health care fraud and government benefits fraud, also continues to be one of the largest sources of illicit proceeds in the United States,\u201d the document to be published on Monday reads, adding that \u201chealth care fraud has increased significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Trump administration has brought nearly 200 cases of alleged health care fraud in 50 federal districts. DOJ<\/p>\n
The Treasury Department also warns that failure to stamp out bogus healthcare claims eventually leaves hardworking Americans footing the bill.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese schemes threaten the integrity of both the US health care and financial systems, impose enormous costs on taxpayers, waste critical resources for beneficiaries of these programs, and increase the cost of health care in the United States,\u201d the 18-page missive states.<\/p>\n
The rip-off starts with \u201cstraw owners,\u201d often using immigrants or the stolen identities of retired doctors, who create phony shell companies that pretend to be legit suppliers of wheelchairs, home health care, lab tests, drugs, or adult day care.<\/p>\n
Some 324 people have been charged by the federal government with health care fraud. DOJ<\/p>\n
Tactics include billing for ghost services that were never delivered, slapping charges on medical junk patients don\u2019t need, or \u201cupcoding\u201d cheaper procedures to look like expensive treatment. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is often facilitated by paying kickbacks and bribes through recruiters and marketers to complicit doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other medical professionals for fraudulent, non-existent, exploitative, or unnecessary medical care,\u201d the advisory reads.<\/p>\n
Once the government pays out, the scammers wire the money overseas \u2014 making it harder for the feds to recover, according to the same source.<\/p>\n
Operation Gold Rush took down Russian-backed fraudsters who allegedly purchased legitimate medical supply companies to submit fake claims for durable medical equipment, stole identities, and ripped off Medicare. DOJ<\/p>\n
Last year, the Justice Department brought criminal charges against 324 defendants for alleged participation in a $10 billion health care fraud.<\/p>\n
It was part of Operation Gold Rush, the largest such bust in history, that took down a Russian-banked crime syndicate that allegedly purchased legitimate medical supply companies to submit fake claims for durable medical equipment, stole identities, and ripped off Medicare.<\/p>\n
Medicaid and Medicare fraud costs at least an estimated $68.7 billion each year, according to a 2022 study conducted by the Colorado State University Global White Collar Crime Task Force.<\/p>\n
The Justice Department has alleged that $10 billion in fraudulent claims were filed while transnational criminal organizations received $941 million from Medicare and Medicaid supplemental insurers. DOJ<\/p>\n
The confidential Treasury warning to banks raises as many as 24 \u201cred flags\u201d for financial institutions to watch for, including claims logged by someone without permanent residence in the US, sudden spikes in billing from newly established medical companies, or making huge transfers to companies overseas just after a direct deposit from the government clears.<\/p>\n
While not legally binding, ignoring an advisory is highly dangerous for a bank\u2019s regulatory standing, which can trigger reputation-shredding probes and penalties. <\/p>\n
Treasury hit New York-based investment bank Canaccord Genuity with a record $80 million civil fine just three weeks ago for failing to monitor suspicious trading.<\/p>\n
Investigators said that between 2019 and \u20602022, Canaccord failed to file at least 160 suspicious activity reports covering thousands of \u200bquestionable transactions, with some activity that deserved \u201cred flags\u201d going unreviewed for months or years.<\/p>\n
The allegations were unrelated to healthcare fraud, but focused on a Cyprus-based firm that spent years helping Russian oligarchs move money out of Russia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Uncle Sam needs you to help crush the billion-dollar financial fraud gangs. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is launching…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[288,153,396,1082,7050,2517,5800,9,11,10,10693,16371,14162,18543],"class_list":["post-179239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-business","tag-donald-trump","tag-fraud","tag-justice-department","tag-medicaid","tag-medicare","tag-minnesota","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-scams","tag-scott-bessent","tag-somalia","tag-treasury-department"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}