Won Suk Lee

On November 6, 2014, Won Suk Lee was sentenced to 1 year and 5 months in jail, time served, and pay $100,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to health care fraud charges. Lee was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport June 1, 2013 after arriving on a flight from South Korea.

In July 2012, Won Suk Lee was indicted on charges of health care fraud, aiding and abetting, and causing an act to be done. According to the indictment, Lee and his co-conspirators are responsible for approximately $2.1 million in false claims submitted to Medicare.

Lee owned and operated Won Suk Lee Acupuncture and Herb, Inc. (aka Huntington Park Acupuncture Clinic and Variety Choice, Inc.), two clinics located in Huntington Park, a suburb of Los Angeles. Lee, an acupuncturist, and his staff allegedly provided acupuncture and massage services to Medicare patients from August 2009 through February 2011. However, these services were not covered by Medicare.

Investigators believe that Lee provided Medicare beneficiaries' health identification cards and other personal and medical information to California Neuro-Rehabilitation Institute, Inc. (CNR), a clinic enrolled as a Medicare provider for physical therapy services.

CNR then allegedly submitted false claims to Medicare for Medicare-covered services, such as physical therapy, even though the beneficiaries did not receive any services from CNR. Lee's co-conspirators created patient files for the beneficiaries that included false documentation for covered services allegedly provided at CNR to support the fraudulent Medicare claims. CNR received approximately $1.2 million from Medicare for these fraudulent claims.