Fraud Roundup
Ill. Doc, employee face fraud charges
A Macomb, Ill. physician and an employee from his office turned themselves in to local authorities after fraud charges were filed against them by the Illinois Attorney General’s office.
Dr. Khaled Dabash, 44, and Rebecca M. Neese, 30, of Camden are both charged with being an organizer of an aggravated fraud conspiracy, a Class X felony, as well as two counts each of aggravated fraud and insurance fraud and one count each of conspiracy to commit fraud, vendor fraud and mail fraud.
Neese also was charged with 10 counts of engaging in the diagnosis or treatment of human beings without a license.
According to court files, the violations occurred in 2003 when Dabash was out of the country and Neese continued to see patients at his private practice.
Most of the remainder of the charges allege that false insurance claims were filed in 2003 with the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services as well as the Health Alliance and Blue Cross-Blue Shield.
The charges were filed in McDonough County Circuit Court by the Illinois Attorney General’s office. All of the counts are felonies ranging from Class 4 to the non-probationable Class X.
A spokesman for the attorney general’s office would say only that the case is being handled by the office’s Medicaid Fraud Bureau.
Dabash turned himself in at the county jail and was released after posting $25,000 bond. Neese turned herself in Monday morning and was released after posting $10,000 bond.
Source: Coalition Against Insurance Fraud
Family of Mo. boy shot by foster brother awarded settlement
The family of a boy who was shot to death by a boy in his foster home will receive a $100,000 settlement from the boy’s former foster parents, but a lawsuit against the state continues.
The insurance carrier for former Jasper County foster parents Mark and Treva Gordon and their son will pay Brandie McLean, her children and attorneys $100,000 in the shooting death of her son, Braxton Wooden.
McLean’s 8-year-old son died after he was shot in the head by the Gordons’ 14-year-old son, Ethan, with a .38-caliber handgun on June 2, 2005. They boys were home alone and playing a game of cops and robbers in the Gordons’ home in Alba at the time.
Ethan Gordon said he did not think the gun was loaded. Jasper County Juvenile Court tried him on a charge of involuntary manslaughter and he was committed to the custody of the Division of Youth Services until he is 17.
Magistrate Gary Fenner approved the partial settlement agreement between Farm Bureau Town & Country Insurance Co. and McLean and her family on June 30 in U.S. District Court in Springfield.
The agreement removes the Gordons as defendants in McLean’s wrongful-death lawsuit, but her claims against the Children’s Division of the Missouri Department of Social Services remain in litigation.
McLean, 29, and her family allege in their lawsuit that, among other things, the guns and ammunition in the Gordons’ home were kept in a manner that violated regulations.
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