Richard Winton
LOS ANGELES—For years, it was hard to miss the billboards and radio jingles across Southern California for a weight loss surgery center that said, “Let your new life begin, call 1-800-GET-THIN.”
But on Wednesday, federal prosecutors charged that the lap-band surgery operation was built around a massive fraud scheme that forced patients to undergo unnecessary tests, falsified medical tests to justify surgeries and cheated insurers and patients out of $250 million.
Authorities arrested two doctors Wednesday after a federal grand jury indicted the pair for allegedly creating fraudulent medical bills as part of the lap-band surgery enterprise.
The arrests of Julian Omidi, 49, of West Hollywood and Mirali Zarrabi, 55, of Beverly Hills are the culmination of more than five years of federal investigation into the lap-band enterprise, which included in 2014 the seizure of more than $109 million in assets. It also comes after a Los Angeles Times investigation found that five patients died after surgery at clinics affiliated with the ad campaign between 2009 and 2011. Those deaths have prompted separate wrongful death lawsuits.
A 37-count indictment unsealed Wednesday accuses the pair of mail fraud, wire fraud, false statements, money laundering and aggravated identity theft. The charges stem from 1-800-GET-THIN’s lap-band surgeries and sleep study programs between May 2010 and March 2016. The indictment alleges that sleep studies with false results were used to get insurance companies to fork over millions of dollars.
“Patients were harmed as a result of this fraud scheme when they were subjected to unnecessary medical procedures, and insurance providers were harmed when they paid out tens of millions of dollars after receiving fraudulent bills,” said acting U.S. Attorney Sandra R. Brown.
In addition to the two physicians, two corporations controlled in part by Omidi, OmidiSurgery Center Management LLC and Independent Medical Services Inc., are named in the indictment.
The business was built around placing silicone ring implants around patients’ stomachs to discourage overeating.
Prosecutors allege that Omidi established procedures requiring prospective lap-band patients to have at least one sleep study, even if it was not covered by insurance. Employees were given commissions to make sure the studies occurred, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors allege that the purpose of the sleep studies was to justify the surgeries by showing the patients suffer from sleep apnea due to their weight.
