Women Receive 8 Years for Roles in Fraud Scheme

After pleading guilty, Maria DeJesus Licea Rosales, 42, and Olga Lilia Toscano, 41, were both sentenced to eight years in state prison for their roles in a medical-fraud scheme that involved conspiracy, capping—or patient recruiting, insurance fraud, grand theft, filing fraudulent tax returns and sentencing enhancements for white-collar crime and loss of more than $2.5 million.

The Orange County District Attorney’s Office reports that of the 19 defendants charged in the case, 13 were indicted by a criminal grand jury on June 13, 2008. The fraud recruited 2,841 healthy people from across the United States to receive unnecessary surgeries in exchange for money or low-cost cosmetic surgery.

As part of the scheme, a total of $154 million was fraudulently billed to health insurance companies. During a nine-month period, insurance companies paid out more than $20 million.

Six other defendants in the case pleaded guilty prior to the indictment and have been sentenced. The remaining nine defendants are scheduled for jury trial on Oct. 26, 2009, at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana.