Audio By Carbonatix
One of the things Obama took pains to highlight during last night’s debate was just how aggressively his administration has gone after Medicare fraudsters. Remember Jacques Roy, the Rockwall physician accused of masterminding a scheme to bilk the government of $375 million? Probably not, since the drubbing Obama received in the debate has eclipsed just about everything else that has happened during the past three and three-quarters years.
Obama would just as soon you forget his execrable outing in Denver and replace it with memories of all that Medicare-fraud fightin’ he’s done, which brings us to the announcement from the office of local U.S. Attorney Sarah Saldana. At some point Thursday morning, law enforcement agents rounded up a dozen defendants who, along with two others who are already in jail, the government says were involved with more than $100 million in Medicare fraud. The same thing apparently happened elsewhere, as U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced the round-up of 91 individuals charged with $429 million in Medicare fraud.
The details of the North Texas cases are dry, as Medicare fraud tends to be. You have the father-son team of Lawrence Dale St. John and Jeffrey Dale St. John who, along with Dr. Nicolas Alfonso Padron, are alleged to have billed Medicare for home visits by Padron when he was out of the country, on a cruise, or otherwise unable to make an appointment. Dr. Joseph Megwa of Arlington would sign stacks of prescriptions and payment documents without reviewing them. Pamela and Kahinde Adenuga, also of Arlington, ran His Grace Medical Supply & More, through which they would submit false claims.
Saldana took the occasion of the arrests to remind us that, over the past 18 months, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force in North Texas has charged defendants with nearly a half billion in fraud and “sent a clear message that we will protect taxpayers’ dollars and the Medicare program.”
And who has been president for the past 18 months? Obama. Forgotten about that debate yet?
