Pasadena doctor pleads guilty in employee fraud case likely to implicate OC judge – Pasadena Star News

By PAUL ANDERSON

Company doctor from Rancho Cucamonga ties to a former Orange County DA who is now a state judge pleaded guilty Friday to a workers’ compensation fraud scheme.

Dr. Kevin Tien Do, 59, of Pasadena pleaded guilty to separate counts of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and signing a false tax return. U.S. District Judge John Holcomb scheduled sentencing for July 11.

Doe, who worked with Liberty Medical Group Inc., conspired with a former Orange County district attorney who is now an Orange County Superior Court judge, federal prosecutors alleged in court documents.

The alleged co-conspirator was not named, but Orange County Superior Court Judge Israel Claustro has ties to Liberty Medical Group, according to psychologist Nhung Phan, who sued Liberty Medical Group in October for unpaid bills of about $100 000 dollars that she prepared for workers’ compensation claims. .

Phan told City News Service that when she alerted the medical group that she had not been paid for 84 reports she prepared for the company from Aug. 2, 2016, to Jan. 31, 2017, Claustro initially said in an email that the bills had been paid, but that someone will have to go through the repository to check again. When she replied, the letters were marked as undeliverable.

“They never gave me information about it,” Phan said. “He kept saying they needed to find a warehouse.”

Claustro’s attorney, Paul Meyer, told City News Service, “It’s premature to comment.”

Costas Kalaitsidis, a spokesman for the Orange County Superior Court, said last month: “The court cannot discuss any case pending in any court because ethics rules prohibit any such discussion.”

Doe said the co-conspirator was the actual owner of the company, even though it is not legal for a person who is not a doctor to own such a business. He also admitted Friday that even after he was told he could not work for the company because of his criminal record, he continued to file reports with the names of doctors.

“I was paid $306,111 for work I shouldn’t have done,” Doe said.

Doe also admitted to failing to report $66,227 in income on his 2021 tax return. This was income he received and was paid to an entity he controlled, not on his behalf, to cover up the fraud, prosecutors said.

The hearing referred to a nine-page document filed under seal on Dec. 27, but did not discuss details.

Assistant US Attorney Charles Pell declined to comment on the case after the hearing.

Do was convicted in August 2003 of aiding and abetting health care fraud, according to the California Medical Board. Do was sentenced to a year in federal prison in October 2003 and ordered to pay $366,031.24 in restitution, according to the medical board.

Doe participated in a Medi-Cal fraud scheme from April 1997 to late 1998, according to the medical board.

In his current case, Do admitted in his plea agreement that from October 2018 to last February, he participated in a fraudulent scheme to defraud the state of millions of dollars in workers’ compensation health care funds, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said he prepared workers’ compensation medical reports that he would then submit to the state’s Further Injury Relief Trust Fund. Ko was suspended from the state workers’ compensation program because of his criminal record in 2003, but he continued to work in the program, prosecutors said.

According to prosecutors, Do fraudulently listed the names of other doctors on billing forms and medical reports because he was unable to do so. According to prosecutors, Do acknowledged in a plea agreement that Liberty received more than $3 million from the state for reports after he was suspended in 2018.