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Philadelphia District Attorney, Lynne Abraham, United States Attorney, Michael Stiles and Postal Inspector In Charge, Bruce Chambers, announced the return of a Federal Grand Jury Indictment charging Leonardo Karpin, A/K/A “Leo,” owner and proprietor of the “center for Physio Therapy” in Philadelphia and Helen Giordano, the Center’s office manager, with 43 counts of mail fraud.
This two-year investigation, initiated by the District Attorney’s Insurance Fraud Unit and joined by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the Federal Insurance Fraud Task Force, covered the years 1993 through 1995. It is alleged that Karpin and Giordano used the Center to defraud numerous health care providers of more than $500,000 by billing them for services that were not provided to patients, billing for the services of a chiropractor who did not authorize the billing, falsely representing in billing forms that the chiropractor had referred the patient when no such referral had taken place, falsely representing on billing forms that a doctor had administered or supervised treatment at the Center even though the doctor never practiced at the Center, and billing for “Physical Therapy” although neither of the defendants, nor any person employed by them, was qualified or authorized by law to perform such therapy services.
Each of the bills presented by the Center contained more than one fraudulent statement and, through this scheme, it is alleged that the Center fraudulently received in excess of $500,000.
Each of the 43 counts of mail fraud is punishable by a maximum of five (5) years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
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