Multiple arrests made in healthcare fraud bust in Tarzana

That's right. The U.S. Attorney General Bill Saley, the representative from the IRS, they're all here. This is all part of a major crackdown on health care fraud and taken into custody this morning. A well-known chiropractor accused of operating with a surgeon and billing Medicare, I understand, for unnecessary surgeries. Yeah, this morning we executed an arrest warrant on an indictment. This gentleman, along with a co-defendant, were indicted on $135 million fraud scheme where they were ordering surgeries and performing surgeries that were medically unnecessary, which actually resulted in people being harmed. And this is the worst type of healthcare fraud because you have doctors who are supposed to be doing no harm. They are putting their financial interests, again, over the interest of their patients to make money so they can live at nice mansions like this. Now, are the patients accused of being in on this or did these patients actually think that they needed surgery? They're victims in this. They were told by these medical professionals that they needed this operation. It's just a clear plaque in your arteries and your legs. And in fact, they performed it multiple times on the same people. And so they're victims in this. Again, this is all just to bill Medicare for millions and millions of dollars. And IRS is a part of it, so is FBI, and they did the financial tracings. I mean, it's an extremely, we're talking about arterial surgery. This is an extremely dangerous surgery when it's needed, and I can imagine just how dangerous it is when it's unnecessary. Yeah. Yeah, I'm Officer Bill Saley, good morning, I'm an assistant special agent in charge for the IRS. Just this way the bill said, healthcare is not a victimless crime, right? And the IRS will follow the money and expose the truth. How are these victims doing now? Are they okay? A lot of them are suffering from pain, they had some permanent damage. So I don't think they'll ever be okay. But today, this is part of only one arrest that we're conducting today. We actually have multiple arrests all happening throughout our district this morning. We're targeting healthcare professionals who defrauded Medicare. And we're gonna have a big press conference this morning. And it's gonna be billions of dollars of fraud, not millions. And you have identified the chiropractor taken into custody here in Tarzana, Dr. Hani Malek. you said he was working in partnership with a surgeon. Has that surgeon also been arrested? Yes, the surgeon is also indicted and is being arrested as part of this operation. And this gentleman here is a chiropractor, but he would pose as a medical doctor to the point where he'd even wear a white coat and tell patients that they needed these surgeries. So that just shows you the lengths to he was going to perpetuate this fraud. And I don't know if you have these numbers available, but how many patients are we talking about? It's a lot of patients. I don't I don't have the exact number in front of me. But to bill $135 million, you got to perform the surgery on a lot of people. All right. Thank you very much, Bill LaSalle. Thank you very much, the IRS. Also, this all happening here in Tarzana this morning. Of course, we're going to have much more on this coming up on Good Day LA. For now, I'll send it back to you. And as Bill LaSalle mentioned, that press conference, I believe, is going to happen around 9:30 this morning. And when that happens, we will, of course, be there. Gigi, thank you so much. That is a...