Arrest in Chicago …
Janek Hunt, Brother-In-Law of Dr. Munir Uwaydah, Arrested In Chicago. Felony Complaint Filed Against Hunt By Riverside County District Attorney.
By Lonce Lamonte – December 14, 2018
Janek Hunt, the brother-in-law of Dr. Munir Uwaydah, was arrested for workers’ compensation fraud and booked into custody on November 25th 2018 in Chicago, Cook County, Illlinois.
Nine counts were filed against him of insurance billing fraud under Penal Code Section 550 (a) (6) with an aggravated white collar crime enhancement on November 16th 2018 in the county of Riverside, California by the Riverside County District Attorney’s office. Janek Hunt is operating Blue Oak Medical Group with Dr. Uwaydah.
The fraudulent billings occurred out of the multiple Blue Oak clinics in San Bernardino, Riverside, San Diego, Orange, and Los Angeles counties.
On November 13th 2018, the U.S. Customs Department informed a Riverside County D.A. Investigator, David Jones, that Janek Hunt had just arrived in the United States on a flight presumably landing in Chicago. Why he was landing in Chicago is not known.
Investigator David Jones filed for an expedited walk-through arrest warrant stating the defendant was scheduled to fly out of the U.S. on November 23rd 2018 and back to Estonia. Janek Hunt is Estonian, lives in Estonia where he runs the Blue Oak Medical Group billing system, and travels to the United States which includes California, as needed.
It can be presumed that since fugitive Munir Uwaydah cannot return to the United States due to the warrant out for his arrest which was issued in September 2015, he has been sending his brother-in-law, Janek, as his surrogate. Fugitive Wendee Luke, who is also under indictment along with Dr. Uwaydah from the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office since September 2015, lives in Estonia working and also running the Blue Oak billing department.
November 13th 2018 is two days before the Riverside County District Attorney’s office wrote the Complaint against Hunt and three days before it was even filed. Why U.S. Customs already had Hunt in their sights even before the complaint was filed is also not known.
The case against Janek Hunt came as a combined effort from workers’ compensation insurance payer investigators, including but not limited to: Gordon Oard, of Berkshire Hathaway; Noelani Mars, from Argus West; and Vic Beyer of ICW Group.
On September 15, 2015, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office announced the indictment of 15 individuals. One of them was Dr. David Johnson, who was arrested. He was doing business as Firstline Health Inc. aka U.S. Health and Orthopedic. His arrest was supported by overprescribing, overbilling, and billing for services not provided. Further investigation by ICW Group found invoicing submitted by U.S. Health & Orthopedic for alleged treatment by Dr. Johnson while he was incarcerated. This discovered fact was expressed in open court in the downtown Los Angeles criminal court proceedings in the first several weeks of the case. Dr. Johnson was released early on because of health reasons and then appeared in court in a wheel chair.
On September 28th 2015, ICW Group investigator Vic Beyer went to the U.S. Health & Orthopedic clinic at 10832 Laurel Street in Rancho Cucamonga where alleged treatment had occurred and spoke to the office manager, Rosa Bernal. Bernal was uncooperative and told Vic Beyer that their attorney advised them not to speak with him. Attorney Matthew Rifat claimed to represent U.S. Health & Orthopedic by sending Vic Beyer an email claiming representation. But he failed to provide a letter of representation when subsequently contacted by ICW Special Investigations Unit (ICW SIU).
In November 2015, ICW Group began to notice Blue Oak Medical Group had taken over and replaced U.S. Health & Orthopedic. A first clue occurred when Blue Oak Medical Group submitted a September 8, 2015 initial examination invoice for claimant Teodoro Beltran. Galal Goubran M.D. did the examination.
But claim records showed ICW Group that Dr. Goubran at U.S. Health & Orthopedic had initially examined Beltran at the exact same location for the same claim and alleged injuries on July 8, 2014. Vic Beyer’s further investigation found Blue Oak Medical Group is operating out of several clinic locations previously owned by U.S. Health & Orthopedic.
Some of those locations are 44-75 Jackson Street in Indio, 1011 Devonshire Avenue #200 in Hemet, 212 S. Grand Avenue in Santa Ana, 10832 Laurel Street Suite 102 in Rancho Cucamonga, and 3602 Inland Empire Boulevard Suite 120 in Ontario. Two physicians’ assistants, Jose Trujillo and David Franke, along with Galal Goubran, M.D. are all former employees under U.S. Health & Orthopedic and continue to see and treat the same patients under Blue Oak Medical Group.
Blue Oak Medical Group filed as a California Corporation on January 1, 2015 with Robin Chorn, M.D. listed as the owner. In 2016, Blue Oak changed ownership with the California Medical Board and listed Shannon Moore as the point of contact. Shannon Moore was an employee and representative of U.S. Health & Orthopedic.
In 2016, Blue Oak filed Secretary of State documents and listed Edwin Mirzabeigi, M.D. as CEO, Secretary, and CFO. In 2017, new documents were filed again and the CEO, Secretary, and CFO switched back to Robin Chorn, M.D.
Dr. Munir Uwaydah was not listed as any officer on any documents. This pattern and practice is clear from eight plus years of investigations that have revealed Uwaydah puts his name on no document but runs his companies with an iron fist in spite of names on documents. He pays straw owners, officers, and representatives.
On the 2017 California Secretary of State documents, Matthew Rifat is listed as the person who completed the form as counsel for Blue Oak. All checks issued by ICW Group to Blue Oak for payment of alleged treatments were being endorsed and deposited by Parkside Solutions into California Bank and Trust accounts.
Matthew D. Rifat, the attorney for U.S. Health & Orthopedic and Blue Oak Medical Group, is the “Registered Agent” for Parkside Solutions, LLC. Matthew D. Rifat is also on corporate records returns listed as the Secretary for Blue Oak. Documents submitted to the ICW Group indicate Firstline/U.S. Health & Orthopedic was in the process and/or planning to operate as Blue Oak Medical Group around early 2015. Review of invoicing and reports submitted by Blue Oak identified the same pattern and practice identified with U.S. Health & Orthopedic to include suspected ongoing over prescribing, overbilling, and billing for services not rendered.
Vic Beyer of ICW spoke with ICW claimant Michelica Cannon on August 1, 2016. Blue Oak billed ICW $34,390.40 for allegedly prescribing 16 containers of cream and 42 bottles of pills/tablet medication to Cannon. Blue Oak treated Michelica Cannon between the dates of September 2, 2015 and April 4, 2016. She stated she only received three containers of cream and six bottles of pills-tablet medications. This quantity of medications should have been billed at $5,573.48.
Claimant Michelica Cannon showed ICW investigator Vic Beyer the bottles of medications which showed the cream medications (Keloprofen) were prescribed by Dr. Edwin Mirzabeigi. The bottles had labels which read Talca Pharmaceuticals, Inc. with an address of 768 Calle Plano, Suite B, in Camarillo, California, CA 93012.
Numerous other ICW claimants testified to the same types of scenarios: the quantities of medications they were dispensed were billed to ICW at numerous times the quantities dispensed. Some claimants were also egregiously overprescribed.
A search warrant issued on May 17th 2017 upon California Bank & Trust to search bank account information in the name of Parkside Solutions provided records from September 8th 2015 through April 30th 2017. DA Investigator David Jones of Riverside County saw two authorized signers on Parkside Solutions’ accounts. They are Matthew Rifat, the attorney for Blue Oak Medical Group, and Tracey Rifat, presumably his wife.
The records include deposits consisting of checks issued by Liberty Mutual, Church Mutual, Zurich American, State Compensation Insurance Fund, Farmers, State Farm, Citizens Insurance Company of America, and other insurance carriers. Each of the checks was deposited into Parkside Solutions bank accounts and written out to Blue Oak Medical Group.
As Riverside County DA investigator, David Jones, concluded at the end of his report, Matthew Rifat, Shannon Devane (aka Shannon Moore), Janek Hunt, and Munir Uwaydah are engaged in a conspiracy to defraud ICW Group, Berkshire Hathaway, Zenith, Farmers, and other workers’ compensation insurance companies by billing for services and drugs not rendered. They also inflate the drug prices by having Blue Oak Medical Group buy drugs from a pharmaceutical company, like Talca Pharmaceuticals, in which Blue Oak has a financial interest.
Lonce Lamonte, journalist; lonce@adjustercom.com
All credit to AdjusterCom.com
The article can be found at http://www.adjustercom.com/modules.php?mop=modload&name=News&func=article_view&adj_article_id=2661
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