11 Charged In $6.8 Million Insurance Fraud Case Involving Addiction Treatment Operations

The owner and an employee of a Fountain Valley-based treatment facility, along with five doctors and four so-called body brokers, have been arrested and charged in what authorities say was a scheme to fraudulently bill insurance companies millions of dollars for experimental, unnecessary and potentially harmful surgeries on recovering addicts, the Orange County district attorney’s office announced Wednesday. The charges against the 11 defendants represent the first major prosecution by the district attorney’s Sober Living Home Investigation and Prosecution task force, which was formed this year to investigate potential crimes related to addiction treatment and recovery centers.