A federal grand jury indictment unsealed Wednesday charges a doctor, who operates a West Hollywood medical clinic that specializes in treating HIV patients, with orchestrating a long-running scheme to defraud health insurance companies.
James T. Lee, 71, of West Hollywood, pleaded not guilty Wednesday afternoon to six counts of health care fraud, two counts of witness tampering and one count each of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and making false statements relating to health care matters, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
He was released on $500,000 bail with electronic monitoring, and a trial date was tentatively set for Sept. 3.
Lee was arrested in Vienna, Austria, after the federal grand jury returned the indictment on June 6, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon after waiving extradition.
The indictment alleges that Lee wrote prescriptions for Serostim — an injectable human growth hormone that is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for HIV-positive patients — to HIV patients who used their Medicare Part D benefits to pay for the drug, and that he then illegally bought the medication back from patients to re-sell at a significant profit to other patients who were not HIV-positive and used the drug to build muscle and for other cosmetic purposes.
Many of the patients did not receive the full amount of Serostim that Lee billed to the insurance companies or they received the medication that Lee had purchased from other patients, according to the indictment.
Lee and his alleged co-conspirators submitted at least $14.2 million in claims to insurance companies for the injections, which resulted in payments of about $5.9 million, according to federal prosecutors. Medicare paid at least $1.4 million in connection with Serostim prescriptions that were issued by Lee and filled by patients who sold at least some of the drugs to the doctor, the U.S. Attorney’s Office alleges.
During two surreptitiously recorded meetings, Lee allegedly encouraged a patient to provide false information to federal agents who were investigating the case, according to prosecutors.
Lee, who received his medical degree from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, maintained an office at 8733 Beverly Blvd.
and he’s gay. unreal.
This is what happens when greed and lifestyle in this area make a bad reputation of how shallow even doctors or in the medical community peddle drugs for human growth hormone and steroids to build muscle and how this has infiltrated circled of gay men with HIV who then find a way to use their disease to dupe the Medicare system and eventually to their doctors surplus to the jaded gay and heterosexual men who want a powerful steroid to build their physiques for the club and circuit scenes! This is why Medicare will refuse to approve further treatment for… Read more »
This guy is such a thief everyone in West Hollywood knew what was going on. His office manager Jenny allegedly stole $20,000 from the him a few years ago but he could not go after her for fear of getting caught himself. I am a former patient and he was not interested in treating me because I was not interested in taking HGH. I don’t even think he is a good doctor.
Apparently Doctor Lee past away at the age of 72, that doctor was supporting a criminals her name is Carmen Randel Martinez, that bitch was plotting to murder my wife which is her step sister to take over her step father life insurance and his money. My father in law have no idea what those criminals were doing behind his back. That criminal Carmen Randel Martinez son his name is Christopher Rodriquez was child molesting his child niece name Valerie Rodriquez when she was a child , I caught him molesting her at my father in law office, who knows… Read more »