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Orange County District Attorney Michael R. Capizzi announced that a Garden Grove physician has been convicted of insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud.
An Orange County Superior Court jury found Danh Cong Truong guilty of both charges, each a felony. The evidence used to convict the defendant was from an undercover operation by the OCDA’s office and the California DOI. From October 1991 to July 1992, the two departments set up an undercover operation to investigate law firms and medical clinics involved with medical and insurance fraud. Three undercover officers posed as people involved in automobile accidents. The officers met with the defendant, a medical doctor who owned and operated Brookhurst Medical Clinic.
Truong diagnosed the undercover officers as suffering from physical injuries stemming from a car accident. The officers neither were injured nor had they been involved in an auto accident. The doctor then billed for services that were never provided, including exams that were not conducted and physical therapy services that were never rendered.
For the three undercover officers, the defendant billed insurance companies in excess of $9,000. The billings were then sent to co-defendant Timothy Elliott, an attorney who is alleged to be a co-conspirator in the insurance fraud. Unfortunately, Elliott saw the writing on the wall and fled the country before the authorities closed in. There is currently an arrest warrant pending for him, with bail set at $1 million. Intelligence sources suggest he may currently be residing in the Philippines.
After Truong submitted the billings to Elliott, the attorney made a demand upon the insurance companies for payment of the medical billings plus pain and suffering alleged to have been sustained by the undercover officers. This demand was for $57,000 — all of it fraudulent.
In an interesting twist to an otherwise (somewhat) normal story, prosecutors convinced the presiding judge that defendant Truong was a flight risk and that he had strong ties to Belgium. Upon presentation of evidence that Truong had liquidated everything he owned during the time he was awaiting jury trial, the judge remanded the doctor directly into custody without bail. So while Truong may well file an appeal, he’ll have to do so from behind bars.
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