Southern California doctor accused of STEALING $150M from federal COVID-19 program for uninsured patients

10/10/2023 / By Laura Harris

Dr. Anthony Hao Dinh, 64, of Newport Coast, Orange County in Southern California is facing charges for allegedly embezzling approximately $150 million from the federal Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) Uninsured Program.

Dinh, a licensed osteopathy doctor specializing in ear, nose, and throat surgery and facial plastic surgery, owns multiple clinics all over Orange County. He is facing 12 counts of wire fraud, five counts of money laundering and one count of obstruction of justice. If convicted on all counts, Dinh could potentially face up to 50 years in prison if sentences run consecutively.

If convicted, Dinh could face up to 20 years in prison for the wire fraud and three of the money laundering charges; up to 10 years for the two other money laundering charges; and up to 20 more years for obstruction of justice. He is currently out of custody on a $7 million bond. He is scheduled for an arraignment hearing at the end of October in the United States District Court in Santa Ana, California.

Dinh was initially charged in a criminal complaint filed in April. A grand jury indictment filed last week expanded on the case by increasing the number of fraudulent claims Dinh allegedly submitted and adding in the charges of money laundering and obstruction of justice.

Southern California prosecutors said this is the largest fraud scheme in the nation targeting the Health Resources and Service Administration‘s program for uninsured patients to have been uncovered so far.

Dinh’s sister, Hanna Trinh Dinh, 65, was also charged in April for her role as an accomplice to the scheme. She has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud as part of a plea deal, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Dinh submitted over $250 million in claims to the government

The alleged fraudulent activities happened over nine months from July 2020 to March 2021. Dinh allegedly submitted more than $250 million in fraudulent claims to HRSA’s COVID-19 Uninsured Program, which seeks to reimburse healthcare practitioners for services provided to uninsured patients who received COVID-19 testing, treatment or vaccination. (Related: Americans continue to suffer as hospitals refuse to be transparent about their prices.)

Dinh allegedly manipulated the system by filing claims for services that were not rendered, were not medically necessary and on behalf of patients who were already insured. These documents, in turn, reveal that HRSA disbursed approximately $150 million to Dinh through his medical practices.

After the investigations against Dinh began in April, prosecutors alleged that he even submitted false patient records in response to a subpoena from a grand jury.

In addition, Southern California prosecutors are also alleging that Dinh submitted at least 65 fraudulent loan applications seeking nearly $8 million under two other COVID-19-era programs – the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program. Court records note that Dinh was paid roughly $2.8 million from those two programs. His sister Hanna admitted to helping Dinh submit fraudulent PPP and EIDL applications.

Watch Fox Business host and former National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow discuss the fraudulent spending of federal unemployment benefits.

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