Clinic Owner Convicted in $26M Fraud

PHOTO CAPTION: A gold plated Tesla Cybertruck that federal prosecutors say Kevin Curry purchased with proceeds from his TRICARE fraud scheme. Curry was convicted Sept. 24 in a case involving more than $26 million in fraudulent claims to the military health program. U.S. Department of Justice photo.

A Texas mental health clinic owner has been convicted in a $26 million scheme to defraud TRICARE after prosecutors said his businesses billed the military health program for treatments that were medically unnecessary, never provided or obtained through illegal kickbacks.

Federal jurors in Fort Worth convicted Kevin D. Curry, 64, on Thursday following a trial in the Northern District of Texas.

Curry operated two mental health clinics in Texas, Acuity TMS of Plano and Acuity TMS of Fort Worth, along with Emerald Coast TMS of Fort Walton Beach in Florida.

The clinics offered transcranial magnetic stimulation, commonly called TMS.

According to the Justice Department, Curry and his businesses paid more than $5.5 million in kickbacks to persuade active duty service members, veterans and family members to consent to TMS treatments.

Prosecutors said some of those patients did not qualify for the treatment and, in many cases, never received the services that were billed to TRICARE.

The businesses ultimately submitted more than $26 million in false, fraudulent and kickback tainted claims, according to evidence presented at trial.

TRICARE paid approximately $17 million.

Prosecutors also said Curry falsely represented himself as a medical doctor even though he was a licensed professional counselor.

The Justice Department said Curry used the credentials of actual doctors without their knowledge or permission to submit claims to TRICARE.

He also directed employees to fabricate medical records intended to support the billing, according to prosecutors.

Some of the money was then spent on personal luxuries.

The Justice Department said Curry used proceeds from the scheme on hotel stays, a lavish casino themed party and a gold plated Tesla Cybertruck worth more than $100,000.

Federal investigators seized the Cybertruck during the case.

The Justice Department released a photograph Friday showing the gold vehicle prosecutors said was purchased with proceeds from the fraud.

A federal jury convicted Curry of three counts of health care fraud, three counts of offering and paying illegal health care kickbacks and three counts involving monetary transactions in criminally derived property.

The case was investigated by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, FBI, Texas Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General.

The verdict represents a shift from the case's earlier status.

Curry was charged in June as part of a nationwide federal health care fraud enforcement action, but the allegations had not yet been proven at that point.

After a federal trial, jurors have now returned guilty verdicts on all nine counts described by the Justice Department.

Curry has not yet been sentenced.

Each count carries a maximum possible sentence of 10 years in federal prison, according to the Justice Department.

Those are statutory maximums for the individual counts and do not mean Curry will necessarily receive a 90 year sentence.

A federal judge will determine his punishment at a later sentencing hearing after considering federal sentencing guidelines and other factors.

For the military community, the case involved more than fraudulent billing.

Prosecutors said active duty service members, veterans and military family members were used to generate claims for mental health treatments, while millions of dollars flowed out of the health program established to serve them.

And according to federal prosecutors, some of that money ultimately ended up paying for a gold plated Cybertruck now held up by the Justice Department as evidence of where the fraud proceeds went.

(Source: OAF Nation)