... I 1 PAUL E. ZELLERBACH 2 3 District Attorney County of Riverside 4 3960 Orange Street tRR lFOIL~!PJ SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE 5 Riverside, CA 92501 6 Telephone: (951) 955-5400 7 Erika L. Mulhere, State Bar No. 252293 8 Deputy District Attorney SEP 17 2014 A 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE (Riverside) CASE NO. RIF1409778 THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, DECLARATION OF INVESTIGATOR 17 WILLIAM T. LOVELESS IN SUPPORT Plaintiff, 18 19 OF THE EX PARTE APPLICATION 20 FOR TEMPORARY RESTRAINING v. ORDERPURSUANTTOPENALCODE 21 22 23 24 25 PEYMAN HEIDARY AKA:BRIAN HEIDARY AKA:THE GODFATHER AKA:NUMBER ONE, § 186.11 Defendant 26 27 28 I, William T. Loveless, declare as follows: 29 30 I am currently a Peace Officer employed by Riverside County District Attorney's Office 31 Bureau of Investigation as a Senior Investigator III. I have 26 years of experience as a sworn peace 32 officer in the State of California. I have been assigned to investigate workers' compensation 33 34 insurance crimes for the past two years, including several applicant fraud investigations and 35 36 PAUL E. ZELLERBACH DISllUCf ATTORNEY Cou11ty of Rinnide 3960 Ora11ce Street Riverside, cwror:a.i• medical provider fraud cases . Ill INVESTIGATOR'S DECLARATION IN SUPPORT OF EX PARTE APPLICATION 1 l • • 1 Penal Code Section 186. 11 allows prosecutors to freeze up to twice the assets as the amount 2 stolen. The following report will pertain to a complex medical provider/attorney fraud in the 3 4 5 6 workers' compensation system. In brief, this case pertains to a subject named Peyman Heidary, a licensed chiropractor, who illegally owns and controls nine health clinics as well as a law office. Utilizing his clinics and law office, Heidary has been the mastem1ind, since 2007, behind the 7 committing of workers' compensation fraud, along with the aid of several medical providers, 8 attorneys, and field investigators/recruiters. 9 The business names used by ovmer Peyman Heidary include California Healthcare 10 Management Franchise, Inc., The Best of California Business Promotions and Management, Inc., 11 12 13 14 the Best of California Promotions and Management, Inc., California Injury Lawyers, Inc., and Orange County Law Group, Inc. California Injury Lawyers, Inc. and Orange County Law Group, Inc. are one in the same corporation but are known by and operate under both names. 15 In September 2012 I was assigned as Case Agent of an inter-agency team to investigate a 16 17 case of conspiracy to commit workers' compensation-related medical provider fraud involving the 18 Angeles, and Orange. The case was submitted by Phillis Shorts, an experienced, long-standing 19 illegal operation of several health clinics located in the counties of Riverside, San Bernardino, Los investigator for the State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF). 20 21 22 23 operation of several health clinics operating as LLCs under the corporation California Healthcare 24 doctor, in violation of the Moscone-Knox Act (legislation created to combat what is known as the 25 26 27 28 29 Corporate Practice of Medicine), a felony per Business & Professions Code section 2052(a), as well In summary, Shorts' investigation outlined a scam involving, since 2005, the illegal Management Franchise, Inc., owned by a subject named Peyman Heidary, who is not a medical as Business & Professions Code section 2400. At these clinics, physicians, chiropractors, acupuncturists and other providers render various forms of treatment. Also implicated in the scam was the law office California Injury Lawyers, Inc. Shorts' investigation included a financial 30 schedule showing that during the timeframe of 01/01/05 - 08/14/12 Heidary's organization billed 31 SCIF $5,648,815.35. In turn, SCIF paid Heidary!s organization $1,475,914.56. 32 Business & Professions Code section 2052 states the practice of medicine without the proper 33 license is unlawful. Business & Professions Code section 2400, within the Medical Practice Act, 34 35 36 PAUL E. ZELLERBACH DIS11Ucr AnoRNEV Co•aty ol Rinrsicle 3960 OraD&C Street PJvenide, Califorqi• states: "Corporations and other artificial entities shall have no professional rights!t privileges, or powers." INVESTIGATOR'S DECLARATION IN SUPPORT OF EX PARTE APPLICATION 2 • \ • 1 2 3 4 5 6 Based upon my research of the Corporate Practice of Medicine and MSO scams I learned the business model being utilized by Peyman Heidary is one of the many current scams involving a non~physician (Peyman Heidary) who owns a Management Services Organization (MSO) that controls the treatment at a medical facility. In this type of scam the medical providers are required 7 to contract with the MSO for management services. Typically, the MSO will hold the leases to 8 9 premises and equipment and will charge the physician fees for rent of the premises and equipment 10 11 12 13 in order to draw all the profit out of the treatment facility. In most MSO scams, a disproportionate share of the profit from the medical clinic goes to the MSO (in this case Peyman Heidary). Over the course of my investigation I established via certified documents (such as those received from the California Secretary of State's office, the Employment Development Department, 14 and various city licensing departments), bank records received pursuant to search warrants, and 15 interviews with multiple witnesses (such as current and fonner employees of Heidary's 16 organization) that Heidary owns and controls the daily business activities and medical treatment at 17 seven health clinics and manages the daily business activities and medical treatment at two 18 19 20 21 22 additional health clinics (one in Los Angeles and one in Van Nuys). Also, via various documents, bank records, and interviews with witnesses I established that Heidary owns and controls the daily business activities of California Injury Lawyers, Inc. and Orange County Law Group, Inc., which are one in the same but are known by and operate under both corporation names. 23 As it pertains to this investigation, California Healthcare Management Franchise, Inc. 24 (Heidary's MSO) was engaged in the unlawful, corporate practice of medicine at the clinics in 25 26 question, and the physicians, chiropractors, acupuncturists, and other providers practicing at those 27 28 clinics were aiding and abetting in the unlawful practice of medicine. Moreover, attorneys for California Injury Lawyer, Inc. (CIL) and Orange County Law Group, Inc. (OCLG) have been 29 involved in the scam by representing parties/clients who often file fraudulent or suspicious workers' 30 31 compensation claims and then refer those parties/clients to the clinics in question for treatment. In 32 been by fraudulent means. 33 34 35 36 PAUL E.l.ELLERBACH DISTRICT AITORNEY Co... ty or Riverside 3960 Onqe Strett Riverside. Califoraia short, Heidary's MSO has been built upon an illegal foundation, and all monies received by it have By utilizing attorney referral agencies (primarily Los Defensores and 1-800-The Law-2) that Heidary has contracted with, workers' comp claimants are referred to Erica Torres, the Office Manager of CIL/OCLG. Torres then contacts by phone or text message Field Investigators (known INVESTIGATOR'S DECLARATION IN SUPPORT OF EX PARTE APPLICATION 3 ' I • 1 as "cappers" in the criminal realm of insurance fraud), who are then sent to contact the claimant, 2 usually at the claimant's home, for the sole purpose of "signing up" the claimant as a client of 3 4 5 6 During the contact with the claimant, the capper obtains basic information, such as name, DOB, the nature of the claimant's injury, the date of the injury and where it occWTed. Most 7 important, the capper obtains the claimant's signature on blank State of California Department of 8 Industrial Relations fotms, such as the DWC- 1 (Division of Workers' Compensation) form (the 9 state mandated form on which the claimant's information is documented), Fee Disclosure 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Statement, Venue Authorization, and other authorization forms~ While still at the claimant's home, the capper makes an appointment on behalf of the claimant for treatment at one of Heidary's clinics, based upon the proximity of the claimant's residence to one of Heidary' s clinics. Often the claimant begins his/her treatment the same day as the sign-up. Following the sign-up~ the capper returns the signed paperwork to Erica Torres or Ana Solis, another Office Manager for CIL/OCLG, who then distribute the paperwork to one of thirteen paralegals or office staff members for inputting the claimant's information into the CIL/OCLG computer database. At this stage of the process, the paralegal or staff member, at Heidary's direction, add injuries or affected body parts (not declared by the claimant, such as Musculoskeletal, 22 psychological disorders, Internal Medicine, and Sleep Disorder) to the original injury/injuries 23 reported by the claimant to the capper during the initial sign-up. Those assigned to process the 24 claimant's paperwork also change or alter the date of the injury to show what is known as a 25 "Cumulative Trauma" injury (an injury that compounds over the course of an extended period of 26 ... CIL/OCLG. 27 28 time), typically for a one-year period. Once the fom1al paperwork is completed, it is forwarded to the Workers Compensation 29 Appeals Board (WCAB) to be assigned an Application for Adjudication (ADJ) case number, 30 following which the case becomes part of the WCAB process. 31 Falsely adding injuries and extending the date of injury to Cumulative Trauma, resulted in 32 the claimant receiving unnecessary treatment from multiple providers during a scheduled visit, and 33 34 also unduly extended the time length of the treatment at Heidary's clinics for as long as one year. 35 36 By utilizing the above-mentioned procedure, in particular the falsification of documents and immediate referrals for treatment at Heidary's clinics, CIL/OCLG served as the hub around which ' ' .' ~ 'i j PAUL E. ZELLERBACH DISJ'RICf A'ITORNEY C011nty o1 Rhrerside ' : 3960 OraRtf Street Rivenide. Californi• INVESTIGATOR'S DECLARATION IN SUPPORT OF EX PARTE APPLICATION 4 • • • • 1 Heidary's MSO revolved and was pivotal to the history of theft that had been occurring on the part 2 of Heidary's MSO. After the claimants began their treatment at Heidary's clinics, where they were 3 4 5 6 referred to by CIL/OCLG, the various providers treating at or associated with Heidary's clinics then billed the respective insurance companies for their services. As part of the billing process, the insurance companies were instructed to send all payments to P.O. Box 76002, Anaheim, CA. Based 7 upon documents I have received, my own surveillances, and witness interviews, I know that 8 Heidary is the holder of record for that box and is listed as the only person authorized to pick up the 9 mail delivered to it. On multiple occasions I have witnessed Heidary arrive at the Anaheim Canyon 10 Postal Service Station where the box is located and pick up a large volume of mail and place it in 11 12 13 his vehicle. Over the course of my investigation I have received bank records pursuant to search 14 warrants for sixty-one (63) accounts, solely held or jointly held by Heidary, from the following 15 financial institutions: Bank of America, Wells Fargo Bank, JPMorgan Chase Bank, Farmers & 16 Merchants Bank, and Banco Popular. 17 As part of this investigation, a Forensic Auditor conducted a thorough analysis of the bank 18 records to determine the flow of funds to and from Heidary' s many accounts. Based upon the 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 auditor's review of checks/payments from insurance companies and other records that show the income Heidary's MSO has received since 2009, the auditor established that, via his three primary corporations, Heidary has received $26,802,347. In addition to Heidary's (63) accounts, examination of Heidary's assets show he owns two houses, one in Riverside, CA, the other in La Habra, CA, and a 2008 Mercedes Benz. Based on your declarant's investigation thus far, he believes that Heidary stole $1.4 million from SCIF by virtue of SCIF's payments to Heidary's MSO and strongly believes it is imperative that Heidary's assets be seized per 186.11 PC. This decision was made based on the amount of 29 fraud believed to have been committed by Heidary. It would also appear that the monies found in 30 his residence and vehicle, totaling $35,600.00, at the time of a search warrant served on 07/23/14 31 and the monies in his above-mentioned accolUlts are also proceeds from his fraud scheme. Should 32 these assets not be seized, it is likely that Heidary may divert these assets and flee the country, 33 possibly to Iran, to avoid prosecution. 34 35 36 PAUL E. ZELLERBACH DISTRICT AITORNEY Co•~ty ofRiveniR 3960 Or..te StTeet Riverside, Caliroraia Your declarant further believes that the above-mentioned assets and/or properties are currently hi the control of the defendant, Peyman Heidary, subsequent to the commission of a INVESTIGATOR'S DECLARATION IN SUPPORT OF EX PARTE APPLICATION 5 , .. 1 criminal act alleged pursuant to Penal Code section 186.1l(a). In the course of your declarant's 2 investigation, he has become aware of assets of the defendant, held individually and jointly. The 3 4 5 research into the ownership of these assets was conducted primarily by your declarant, mainly as a result of several search warrants he obtained and served on financial institutions. The assets to be 6 encumbered and/or attached in these proceedings to assure restitution are enumerated in Attachment 7 A. 8 9 10 I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California that the foregoing is true and correct. 11 12 Executed at Riverside, California on this .:::::_??K day of , ~Jii'~~~SI::• 2014. 13 14 • 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 I 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 PAUL E. ZELL£RBACH DIS'IlUCT ATIORNEV Co..ty ol Rmnlde 3960 Oruze Street Riverside. Califoraia INVESTIGATOR'S DECLARATION IN SUPPORT OF EX PARTE APPLICATION 6 • • • • • • HEIDARY ASSETS/ATIACHMENT A Wells Fargo Bank: Account Name/Owner(s)/Authorized Signers 1659697179 1864311541 0758192066 Pacific Diagnostics/Mehran Ghazizadeh, DC/Peyman Heidary California Healthcare/Peyman Heidary/Christopher Nguyen 2347544302 2347544310 2374784961 9553562266 2579859527 2347544039 2553606605 2579859428 9688406330 9688406298 9688405548 9688404863 9688404814 8761207623 7244024225 9688406389 8761206930 7244025057 7244025008 7244024837 7244024423 7244023987 6082288819 8761207045 6300288880 6300288518 3367150731 0758192363 1359104740 2579859790 California Healthcare Management Franchise, Inc./Peyman Heidary Raymond W.P. Leung!Peyman Heidary Tushar M. Doshi, MD, Inc./Peyman Heidary Quynam Nguyen!Peyman Heidary (listed as a Joint Owner) PH La Habra Trust (Savings )/Peyman Heidary (Trustee) Quynam Nguyen, MD (deleted from account on 6/20/13)/Peyman Heidary Sam Amirrnoazzami Chiropractic Corp./Peyman Heidary PH La Habra Trust/Peyman Heidary (Trustee) The Best of California Promotions & Management/Peyman Heidary Elias A. Murillo, DC/Peyman Heidary Ryan Q. Truong!Peyman Heidary Kristy D. Tran/Peyman Heidary M.B. Transportation Services/Manuel Buenrostro/Peyman Heidary California Injury Lawyer, Inc./Cary Abramowitz/Peyman Heidary Roland Chabot, PHD/Peyman Heidary Law Offices of Cary Abramowitz/Cary Abramowitz/Peyman Heidary Law Office of Roger Little/Peyman Heidary Clayton Johnson, DC/Peyman Heidary James E. Myerson, DC/Peyman Heidary Thy K. Nguyen, DC/Peyman Heidary Scott Adam, DC/Peyman Heidary Jason H. Yang!Peyman Heidary Vision Psychological/Mark H. Michaels/Peyman Heidary Peyman Heidary Tarik M. Hyams, DC/Peyman Heidary Dr. Arash Yaghoobian/Peyman Heidary Jacqueline Phan, DC/Peyman Heidary California Healthcare Management. Franchise, Inc./Amir Azizi!Peyman Heidary Heidary Chiropractic, Inc./Peyman Heidary Jason H. Yang, MD/Peyrnan Heidary Comprehensive Diagnostics Group, Inc./Anthony Francisco/Peyman Heidary (name deleted from acct. on 4/18/14) I ' • • ... Popular Community Bank: Account Name/Owners/Authorized Signer 6808499393 The Best of California Business Promotions and Management, 6806185382 6806299555 6807147167 6808499419 6808499468 910603500 6808499542 6808499559 Inc./Peyman Heidary PH La Habra Trust/Peyman Heidary (Trustee) PH Riverside Trust/Peyman Heidary (Trustee) PH Riverside Trust/Peyman Heidary (Trustee) Bellflower Health Clinic LLC/Peyman Heidary Ontario Health Clinic LLC/Peyman Heidary Peyman Heidary/Peyman Heidary Anaheim Health Clinic LLC/Peyman Heidary California Family Medical Clinics, Inc./Peyman Heidary 6808499526 6808499518 6808499492 6808499450 Corona Health Clinic LLC/Peyman Heidary Riverside Health Clinic LLC/Peyman Heidary Montebello Health Clinic LLC/Peyman Heidary Family Medical Clinics of California, Inc./Peyman Heidary 6808499443 Santa Ana Health Clinic LLC/Peyman Heidary · JPMorgan Chase: 205218906 5736226607 865737456 5736226574 2935202872 19688555 18869404 217631706 186933072 New World Interpreting, LLC!Isaias Saldana/Peyman Heidary PH Riverside Trust/Peyman Heidary Peyman Heidary PH La Habra Trust/Peyman Heidary (Trustee) The Best of California Business Promotions and Management, Inc./Peyman Heidary Peyman Heidary (Mortgage account re: 4338 Bayhill Ln., CA) Peyman Heidary (Mortgage account re; 1540 Coachwood St., La Habra, CA) Capital Financial Synergies Inc/Peyman Heidary The Best of California Business Promotions and Management, Inc./Peyma n He ida ry Farmers & Merchants Bank: 14197863 14706644 The Best of California Promotions & Management, Inc./Peyman Heidary PH Riverside Trust/Peyman Heidary (Trustee) Bank of America: 164103233092 Orange County Law Group, Inc./Cary D. Abramowitz (President/ Customer 1)/Peyman Heidary (Signer/Customer 2) Homes: 4338 Bayhill Ln., Riverside, CA 92505 1540 Coachwood St., La Habra, CA 90631 ... I • • • Corporations: California Healthcare Management Franchise, Inc. Secretary of State Corp#: C2557059 Federal Tax ID #: 20-0248343/26-1073166 The Best of California Business Promotions & Management, Inc. Secretary of State Corp#: C3507743 Federal Tax ID #: 46-1112183 The Best of California Promotions & Management, Inc. Secretary of State Corp#: C3021718 Federal Tax ID #: 26-1073166 LLCs: Anaheim Health Clinic Federal Tax ID #: 46-1210236 BeiiOower Health Clinic Federal Tax ID #: 46-1210236 Santa Ana Health Clinic Federal Tax ID #: 46-1228760 Corona Health Clinic Federal Tax ID #: 46-1231881 Ontario/Upland Health Clinic Federal Tax ID #: 46-1244480 Riverside Health Clinic Federal Tax ID #: 46-1252461 Montebello Health Clinic Federal Tax ID #: 46.-1252461