Four Convicted of $154 Million Insurance Fraud Scheme
The four convicted were employees of Unity Outpatient Surgery Center in Buena Park and included office manager Rosalinda Rodriguez Landon, 67, suspended attorney Roy Chester Dickson, 64, accountant Andrew Robert Harnen, 58, and administrator Dee Francis, 62. The defendants were convicted on 24 counts and acquitted on 11 counts. Orange County Judge Thomas Goethals ordered the defendants to jail pending sentencing.
All four defendants were accused of not reporting several million dollars in income. Dickson was also accused for creating fraudulent documents to mask patients that were illegally recruited. He made a large deposit into a personal account after officials began investigations in 2003.
After 12 days of deliberation, the jury came to their verdict last Tuesday. However, the conviction was delayed until Monday because of the Thanksgiving holiday.
The jurors offered mixed opinions on the corporate tax fraud charges, but they agreed on most of those for personal income tax frauds.
"I'm surprised by the verdicts," Roger Sheaks, Landon's attorney, said. "It appears to me she was acting in good faith, and I believe the evidence supported that."
"The jury worked really hard," Francis' attorney Sonja Muir said. "It was a complex case with complex issues. I'm disappointed, but I respect the work they did."
The jury had over 500,000 pages of documents to review. Deliberations had to be restarted three times because of jurors who were lost during the panel. One dropped out of the process after 17 counts were reached.
"It became like a quest, like climbing a mountain," juror Tom Flahive said of the trial.
A second phase of the trial will begin with the sentencing and pretrial hearings for five remaining counts on Dec. 20. A new jury panel is expected to be present at the next deliberation. The second phase will focus on allegations that defendants recruited nearly 3,000 patients to undergo unnecessary medical tests and defrauded 32 insurance companies. Two other outpatient surgery centers have been rumored to have been involved. Dr. Mario Rosenberg, 65, has also been named as one of the defendants.
Muir stated that most of the tax frauds and scheming should be blamed on Unity owner Tam Vu Pham. Pham pleaded guilty in 2005 and will be in prison until 2017. Muir also described Pham as a "charlatan" and "scam artist."
