Surgeon Sentenced to 15 Months in Prison for Accepting Illicit Payments in Exchange for Referring Patients for Spinal Surgeries, Santa Ana, CA - An orthopedic surgeon was sentenced today to 15 months ..
May 24, 2021 Two United States Postal Service (USPS) employees pleaded guilty today to federal criminal charges accusing them of unlawfully buying and cashing tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of Postal money orders with unemployment benefits fraudulently obtained with false claims of COVID-related job losses.
Santa Ana, CA An orthopedic surgeon was sentenced today to 15 months in federal prison for accepting nearly $623,000 in bribes and kickbacks in exchange for referring his patients to receive spinal surgeries at a corrupt Long Beach hospital.
Dr. Jeffrey David Gross who resides in Dana Point and Las Vegas, was sentenced by United States District Judge Josephine L. Staton, who also ordered him to forfeit $622,936. Gross pleaded guilty in August 2020 to one felony count of conspiracy to commit honest services mail and wire fraud.
The kickback scheme centered on Pacific Hospital in Long Beach, which specialized in surgeries, especially spinal and orthopedic procedures. The owner of Pacific Hospital, Michael D. Drobot, conspired with doctors, chiropractors and marketers to pay kickbacks in return for the referral of thousands of patients to Pacific Hospital for spinal surgeries and other medical services paid for primarily through the California workers compensation system.
Saugus postal worker indicted on mail theft charge
Wicked Local
The Department of Justice issued the following press release
A former U.S. Postal Service mail carrier was arrested on Feb. 10 and charged with stealing mail.
Brian Thibodeau, 48, was indicted on one count of theft of mail by an employee of the U.S. Postal Service. Thibodeau was released on conditions following an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne B. Bowler.
Beginning in 2001, Thibodeau worked for many years as a letter carrier in the Saugus Post Office. It is alleged that, in 2020, Thibodeau stole customers’ gift cards sent in the mail and spent them for his personal use.
Patrick Bidelman walked out of his trailer, as the 80-year-old Nokomis resident does every afternoon at 1:30, and retrieved his mail.
Good – the package of vitamin supplements his girlfriend ordered had arrived. There were also a couple of insurance brochures, and a reminder from the Democratic Party to renew his membership.
The letter, he figured, was junk.
He returned inside, stood by his work bench, and opened it anyway. The first sentence was interesting: “Patrick Bidelman, you are a piece of (excrement) for your letter to the Herald on Nov. 17.”
He paused and took the letter to Sandy, his girlfriend. She sat down at a table, scrolled through the remainder, looked up at him and said “this is alarming.”