Greiss Forfeit Money 2020
Greiss Forfeit Money 2020
Greiss Forfeit Money 2020
1 NICOLA T. HANNA
United States Attorney
2 BRANDON D. FOX
Assistant United States Attorney
3 Chief, Criminal Division
STEVEN R. WELK
4 Assistant United States Attorney
Chief, Asset Forfeiture Section
5 VICTOR A. RODGERS
California Bar No. 101281
6 Assistant United States Attorney
Asset Forfeiture Section
7 Federal Courthouse, 14th Floor
312 North Spring Street
8 Los Angeles, California 90012
Telephone: (213) 894-2569
9 Facsimile: (213) 894-0142
E-mail: Victor.Rodgers@usdoj.gov
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Attorneys for Plaintiff
11 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
12 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
13 FOR THE CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
14 SOUTHERN DIVISION
15 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ) Case No. 8:20-CV-01989
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16 Plaintiff, ) COMPLAINT FOR FORFEITURE
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17 v. ) 18 U.S.C. §§ 981(a)(1)(A) and (C)
) and 984
18 $176,548.00 IN U.S. )
CURRENCY, ) [FBI]
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Defendant. )
20 )
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Plaintiff United States of America brings this claim
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against defendant $176,548.00 In U.S. Currency (the “defendant
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currency”), and alleges as follows:
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JURISDICTION AND VENUE
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1. The government brings this in rem forfeiture action
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pursuant to 18 U.S.C. §§ 981(a)(1)(A) and (C) and 984.
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7 sets a quota for the number of patients that the patient broker
8 must refer over a particular length of time (e.g., each month)
14 brokers and the amount of payments made to them for the patient
15 referrals.
16 17. In addition to the above-referenced illegal revenues,
17 substance abuse treatment facilities derive unlawful revenues by
18 referring patients to clinical laboratories for the performance
19 of lab tests, including urine tests designed to detect whether a
20 patient is using drugs. While substance abuse treatment
21 facilities operating legally can purchase a screening kit
22 cheaply (e.g., for less than $10.00) that tests urine samples
23 and will immediately show whether drugs are in a patient's
24 system, substance abuse treatment facilities engaged in
25 referring patients to clinical laboratories, in exchange for
26 kickbacks, will receive a portion of the several thousands of
27 dollars paid by insurance companies to the clinical laboratories
28 that perform expensive "confirmation" drug tests.
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4 facilities.
5 23. During an October 24, 2018 telephone conversation,
6 Greiss told CHS that (i) Greiss purchased patients from patient
7 brokers; (ii) Greiss kept track of patient referral payments,
8 which referral patients accounted for fifty percent of Greiss'
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1 Greiss paid to them for patients because "this is the one area
2 where we gotta put the money if you want to get the clients
3 in [ . ] "
4 25. Legitimate businesses generally maintain invoices for
5 payments those businesses make to third parties so that the
6 businesses can, among other things, have documents reflecting
7 those payments available if the businesses are audited.
8 However, during the November 6, 2018 meeting, Greiss stated that
9 he "wouldn't accept invoices" from patient marketers, and that
10 the patient marketer transactions were handled orally with "just
11 a phone call" so that "there's no paper trail" that would allow
12 third parties (such as law enforcement) to obtain documents
13 reflecting Greiss' payments to patient marketers for patients.
14 26. As noted above, legitimate substance abuse treatment
15 facilities, which refuse to pay patient brokers for referring
16 patients, are often forced to discontinue operations due to a
17 lack of patients, and during the October 24, 2018 telephone
18 conversation, Greiss told CHS that referral patients admitted as
19 a result of the kickback payments accounted for fifty percent of
20 Greiss' facilities' admissions. Accordingly, absent and but for
21 the kickback scheme, Greiss' substance abuse treatment
22 facilities could not have continued to conduct their business
23 operations and generated the defendant currency or any other
24 monies as a result of those operations.
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26 I I I
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28 I I I
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3 of this action.
4 Dated: October Jj, 2020 NICOLA T. HANNA
United States Attorney
5 BRANDON D. FOX
Assistant United States Attorney
6 Chief, Criminal Division
STEVEN R. WELK
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9
ief, Asl
Assistant United Attorney
Section
VICTOR A. RODGERS
10 Assistant United States Attorney
Asset Forfeiture Section
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Attorneys for Plaintiff
12 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
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1 VERIFICATION
2 I, Darrell K. Twedt, hereby declare that:
3 L I am a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of
4 Investigation.
5 2. I have read the above Complaint for Forfeiture and
6 know the contents thereof.
7 3. The information contained in the Complaint is either
8 known to me personally, was furnished to me by official.
9 government sources, or was obtained pursuant to subpoena. I am
10 informed and believe that the allegations set out in the
11 Complaint are true.
12 I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the
13 United States that the foregoing is true and correct.
14 Executed on Oc-foloe.r ,..,. , 2020 at _0--'-('_Q....;...t1~...,_.e.=--·_,.
15 California.
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17 ()< <&---:
~barrell K. Twedt
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