California fraud watch: Guilty verdict in Redondo beach

LOS ANGELES – Tamara Yvonne Motley, 54, a.k.a. “Tamara Ogembe,” of Redondo Beach, Calif., was found guilty of nearly two dozen felonies for billing Medicare more than $24 million by submitting fraudulent claims for medically unnecessary durable medical equipment – mostly power wheelchairs and repairs, many of which were never performed. She was found guilty by a federal jury of 20 counts of health care fraud, two counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. From July 2006 to August 2014, Motley was the de facto owner of the Hawthorne-based Action Medical Equipment and Supplies. From January 2013 to November 2016, Motley was the de facto owner of the Ventura-based Kaja Medical Equipment & Supply. Both companies were enrolled with Medicare in the names of Motley’s out-of-state relatives. Motley paid marketers for patient referrals and then directed them to take patients to corrupt physicians, who prescribed medically unnecessary durable medical equipment, such as PWCs, that Motley’s companies used to submit fraudulent bills to Medicare. In January 2011, when Medicare changed the reimbursement rules for PWCs to make the upfront payments less lucrative to suppliers, Action switched to billing Medicare for PWC repairs, and continued that scheme at Kaja once Action was shut down. Motley faces up to 10 years in federal prison for each health care fraud count, up to 20 years in federal prison for the money laundering conspiracy count, and a mandatory sentence of two years in federal prison consecutive to the other sentences for the aggravated identity theft counts.

Guilty pleas in San Diego 

SAN DIEGO - Anthony Duane Bell, Sr., of El Cajon, Calif., has pleaded guilty to fraudulently receiving more than $21 million in Medicare payments. His son, Anthony Duane Bell, Jr., admitted making false statements to the FBI to conceal the fraudulent scheme. As part of his guilty plea, Bell, Sr. agreed to pay $21.7 million in restitution to Medicare and forfeit $806,375.12 and a multi-million-dollar luxury house in El Cajon. According to court records, the Bells created companies known as Universal Medical Solutions 1 and Universal Medical Solutions 2, with locations in Santee and San Diego. The companies supplied durable medical equipment like knee, ankle, wrist, shoulder and back braces. The Bells obtained customers for their companies by paying thousands of dollars in kickbacks to “marketing” companies. To obtain the prescriptions, the marketing companies paid doctors for the medically unnecessary prescriptions for braces.  The Bells sought to conceal their fraudulent kickback scheme by entering into sham “marketing” agreements and other contracts. The Bells were actually paying a set fee per brace to purchase the patients. The Bells would then send the braces to the Medicare beneficiaries and bill Medicare for the medically unnecessary braces. The Bells paid significantly less for the braces than they billed Medicare. When Bell Jr. was interviewed by the FBI, he falsely stated that he had never heard of PA Healthcare Pharmaceuticals, a provider of durable medical equipment and his former employer.