Yes, Armenians!
Today it’s all over the news! Millions of dollars have been ripped off from US taxpayers and the Medicare program in 25 states—the perpetrators are Armenian-Americans. Here we go again, another scam to join our growing list of medicare/medicaid and food stamp scams orchestrated by immigrant networks. (Someone really needs to write a whole blog just on these scams!)
From the New York Times:
An Armenian-American crime syndicate stole the identities of doctors and thousands of patients and used them and more than a hundred spurious clinics in 25 states to bill Medicare for more than $100 million for treatments no doctor ever performed and no patient ever received, the federal authorities announced on Wednesday.
Prosecutors said the case represented the largest Medicare fraud operation ever carried out by a single group that resulted in criminal charges. The group succeeded in stealing $35 million in Medicare reimbursements, officials said, before the charges were leveled and arrests were made on Wednesday.
The “highly organized massive scheme” is at the heart of a racketeering indictment and other charges unsealed in federal court against 44 people, including a number of members of the Armenian crime group, according to the F.B.I. and federal prosecutors in New York and Georgia.
“With 118 phantom clinics and over $100 million in bogus billings, this group of international gangsters allegedly ran a veritable fraud franchise,” Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement announcing the charges. “As charged, they stole taxpayer dollars earmarked for the elderly and infirm and got away with it, until now.”
Did we take Armenian refugees?
Sure enough! A little scouting around produced this 1988 article, in the New York Times no less, about bringing an emergency 12,000 Armenians here from the Soviet Union that year. I find it interesting that when something goes down, like this fraud bust, no mainstream media reporter ever asks how did all these Armenian gangsters get here in the first place.
Reagan Administration officials report a sharp increase in the number of Armenians trying to leave the Soviet Union, and the State Department has drafted a proposal to admit 12,000 of them to the United States as refugees.
The proposal suggests that President Reagan should begin emergency consultations with Congress so that the United States can take in the Armenians by doubling the maximum number of refugees who may be admitted this year from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
At the same time, Administration officials said, the State Department is proposing to raise the United States worldwide refugee admissions ceiling to 83,500 for the current fiscal year. That is 15,000 more than the number approved by Mr. Reagan in October.
Refugee numbers are set each year by the President. Under the Refugee Act of 1980, he can change numbers, but must first consult with Congress. Looking for Sources of Funds
Administration officials said they did not know how the Government could pay for processing and resettling the extra refugees. State Department officials estimate the cost at $25 million to $30 million, and they are searching for possible sources of funds.
Guess they found the money somewhere!