Orange County rehab worker illegally paid people to bring addiction patients to his facility, prosecutors say
An Orange County addiction treatment facility worker paid people to refer patients to him in order for him to meet his monthly quota of intakes, federal prosecutors allege.
Santa Ana resident Luis Guerrero, 53, was arrested on Thursday morning and will face an arraignment hearing in the afternoon. According to the office of U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada, Guerrero conspired to pay $37,000 to two “body brokers” in the form of illegal kickbacks.
The body brokers would then refer people struggling with addiction to Guerrero, who would attempt to sign them up for treatment at his Orange County-based facility, prosecutors said. Guerrero had a monthly patient intake quota as a condition for his employment at the facility as a patient intake coordinator.
Prosecutors also alleged that Guerrero, in coordination with the unnamed “body brokers,” arranged payments to the patients in exchange for allowing the facility to bill their insurance providers for treatment.
In audio obtained by prosecutors, Guerrero could be heard telling one of the body brokers during a call that he’d arrange for a $5,000 payment to a patient, the U.S. Attorney alleges.
“We’ll do something to put money in her hands before she leaves or before she arrives [home],” Guerrero allegedly told a body broker.
Prosecutors said the $37,000 payment was arranged to go to the body brokers in October 2020 in exchange for referring five patients. They were given a partial payment of $30,000 later that month.
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