Ex-Hospital CFO Pleads Guilty In Homeless Scam

Los Angeles - The former chief financial officer of a Tustin hospital agreed to plead guilty to paying illegal kickbacks for patients recruited from downtown's Skid Row, papers filed in federal court today showed.

In a plea agreement filed in U.S. District Court, Vincent Rubio, 49, admitted paying kickbacks to "marketers" who recruited homeless people and had them taken to Tustin Hospital.

In addition to health care fraud, Rubio admitted failing to report the payments he received from one of the marketers on his federal tax forms.

Rubio is the fifth person charged in an ongoing investigation into health care fraud involving homeless people.

Last month, the former owners of a Los Angeles hospital agreed to pay $10 million to settle a civil lawsuit over paying recruiters to bring in homeless people for unnecessary medical treatment.

The U.S. Attorney's Office settled its case against Robert Bourseau and Dr. Rudra Sabaratnam, former owners of the City of Angels Medical Center, who both previously pleaded guilty to defrauding Medicare and Medi-Cal out of millions of dollars. Prosecutors for the state of California also joined in the suit.

The men paid the recruiter, Estill Mitts, a total of $500,000 between 2004 and 2007 to find homeless people who were paid $100 or less. The hospital then charged Medicare and Medi-Cal for the services.

Both Bourseau and Sabaratnam pleaded guilty to criminal charges and agreed to pay $4.1 million in restitution.

Dante Nicholson, the hospital's former senior vice president, faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced June 14.

Mitts, who ran an assessment center in downtown Los Angeles' Skid Row, admitted he earned about $20,000 a month in kickbacks and was delivering between 30-50 "patients" per month.

Mitts pleaded guilty in September 2008 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud, money laundering and tax evasion.

Bourseau will be sentenced on Feb. 22, and Sabaratnam on April 5.

Rubio is expected to make his initial federal court appearance on March 1. He faces a statutory maximum penalty of 15 years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney's Office noted.