Kansas
Quick Reference: November 19, 2009 - Woman Charged With Theft of Military Health Care Service - Read More September 10, 2009 - Indictment Charges California Woman in Lyme Disease Fraud Case - Read More | Search for News in Your Area
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Woman Charged With Theft of Military Health Care Services (U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas)
TOPEKA, KAN. – April Greer, 28, Overland Park, Kan., has been charged with one count of health care fraud.
Charges filed on Nov. 19, 2009 in U.S. District Court in Topeka, Kan., allege that in January 2007 Greer was divorced from her husband, who was a sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps, making her ineligible to continue receiving health care benefits from the TRICARE program. Despite knowing she was no longer eligible, Greer continued submitting claims to TRICARE. She made a total of 176 medical claims, 161 pharmacy claims and one dental claim, resulting in a loss to TRICARE of more than $97,700.
If convicted, she faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000. The Defense Criminal Investigative Service of the Department of Defense investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Treadway is prosecuting.
For more information, visit the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Kansas at: http://www.justice.gov/usao/ks/
Indictment Charges California Woman in Lyme Disease Fraud Case (U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas)
KANSAS CITY – Carole E. Bradford, 69, Chula Vista, Calif., is charged with conspiring with her husband and others to market medical equipment and drug treatments for a nonexistent epidemic of Lyme disease, U.S. Attorney Lanny Welch said on Sept. 10.
A superseding indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., adds new charges alleging Bradford, wife of co-defendant Robert W. Bradford, took an active part in the alleged fraud in her roles as chief executive officer, chairman of the board, president and co-founder of a company called American Biologics.
The superseding indictment adds Carole E. Bradford to a list of defendants first named in an indictment filed in December 2008 including John R. Toth, Robert W. Bradford, Bridgett G. Byrd and CRB, Inc., dba American Biologics.
The 20-count superseding indictment alleges Carole E. Bradford and the other defendants conspired to violate the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act by conspiring to sell a microscope that supposedly would diagnose Lyme disease, as well as drugs that supposedly would cure the disease. They distributed marketing materials making false claims that Lyme disease was “the plague of the 21st century” and was a contributing factor in 50 percent of all chronic illness including Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
Carole E. Bradford’s husband, Robert W. Bradford, claimed to be a “doctor” and a “professor” even though he was not a physician and had no science degrees from an accredited university in the United States. He was the inventor of what he called “the Bradford Variable Projection Microscope,” which he claimed could be used to identify Lyme disease. Toth, who was a licensed medical doctor in Kansas, used Bradford’s microscope and treatments, charging patients approximately $100 for each use of the equipment and approximately $320 for a series of injections he called “antimicrobial treatment.” In March 2008 in Shawnee County District Court, Toth was sentenced to 32 months in prison after pleading no contest to a state charge of reckless involuntary manslaughter in the death of a patient, Beverly A. Wunder.
According to the superseding indictment, Carole E. Bradford helped develop the strategy for marketing the medical device and the drugs and shared in the profits of the fraudulent scheme. She signed contracts with pharmacies for development and marketing of drugs, and attended meetings to promote the fraud and to train physicians.
She is charged with one count of conspiracy, eight counts of mail fraud, 14 counts of introducing a misbranded drug into interstate commerce, five counts of receiving misbranded drugs, and one count of introducing a misbranded medical device into interstate commerce. Upon conviction, the crimes carry the following penalties:
- Conspiracy: A maximum penalty of 5 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000.
- Mail fraud: A maximum penalty of 20 years and a fine up to $250,000 on each count.
- Introducing a misbranded drug into interstate commerce: A maximum penalty of 3 years and a fine up to $250,000 on each count.
- Receiving a misbranded drug: A maximum penalty of 3 years and a fine up to $250,000.
- Introducing a misbranded medical device into interstate commerce: A maximum penalty of 3 years and a fine up to $250,000.
The Food and Drug Administration – Office of Criminal Investigation worked on the case. John Claud, trial attorney with the Department of Justice’s Office of Consumer Litigation is prosecuting the case along with Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Rask.
For more information, visit the website of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas: http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/ks/index.html
