FORMER BOSTON MAN CHARGED WITH STAGING AUTO ACCIDENTS AND OPERATING FRAUDULENT PHYSICAL THERAPY CLINICS

BOSTON, MA - A former Boston man was arrested in South Carolina and charged in an Indictment unsealed late yesterday in federal court with 54 counts of mail fraud for his involvement in staging auto accidents and operating fraudulent physical therapy clinics and medical billing offices in several Massachusetts cities and towns.

United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan, Randy Miskanic, Inspector In Charge of the United States Postal Inspection Service in New England, Anthony DiPaolo, Chief of Investigations of the Massachusetts Insurance Fraud Bureau, and Keith Carlough, Director of Operations of the National Insurance Crime Bureau-Area 9, announced today that TU QUY MAI, age 57, of N. Charleston, South Carolina, and formerly of Dorchester Avenue in Boston, was charged in an Indictment unsealed today with 54 counts of mail fraud.

The Indictment alleges that from 2000 through 2006, TU QUY MAI engaged in a scheme to defraud insurance companies by means of staged auto accidents and false and fraudulent medical and physical therapy billing claims. The Indictment alleges that TU QUY MAI established and operated clinics in various locations in Massachusetts, including Worcester, Quincy, Brockton, West Roxbury and at least five different locations in Dorchester. In addition to paying people to stage auto accidents, the Indictment alleges that TU QUY MAI paid others to pretend to have been in auto accidents, whether real or staged, in order to seek treatment at TU QUY MAI’s clinics, for which he submitted claims to insurance companies. The Indictment alleges that TU QUY MAI routinely caused physical therapists and physical therapist assistants who worked for him to prepare false records, including evaluation reports and notes of alleged treatments, when no actual evaluation or treatment had been performed. According to the charges, in order to avoid detection by insurance companies, TU QUY MAI routinely changed the name of his clinics and billing companies and caused others to hold themselves out as the owners.

If convicted on these charges, TU QUY MAI faces up to 20 years imprisonment on each count, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.

The case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Massachusetts Insurance Fraud Bureau and the National Insurance Crime Bureau. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark J. Balthazard of Sullivan’s Economic Crimes Unit and Gregg D. Shapiro of Sullivan’s Civil Divison.

The details contained in the Indictment are allegations. The defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

For more information contact:

CHRISTINA DIIORIO-STERLING
PHONE: (617)748-3356
E-MAIL: USAMA.MEDIA@USDOJ.GOV