SANTA ANA, California
A physician formerly employed by a medical company has agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to defraud California’s workers’ compensation fund of millions, despite being suspended from handling such matters due to a prior healthcare fraud conviction, the Justice Department announced Monday.
Dr. Kevin Tien Do, 59, of Pasadena, will plead guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and filing a false tax return. He is scheduled to appear in United States District Court in Santa Ana this afternoon.
In his plea agreement, Dr. Kevin Tien Do admitted to conspiring to defraud California of millions in healthcare funds through the Subsequent Injuries Benefits Trust Fund (SIBTF) from October 2018 to February 2023. The SIBTF, part of California’s workers’ compensation program, provides additional payments to injured workers with pre-existing disabilities.
Starting in 2016, Do worked for Liberty Medical Group Inc., a Rancho Cucamonga-based company. He prepared SIBTF-related medical reports, which the company then billed to the state program.
In October 2018, California suspended Do from participating in the state’s workers’ compensation program, including the Subsequent Injuries Benefits Trust Fund (SIBTF), due to his 2003 federal health care fraud conviction.
Despite the suspension, Do continued working for Liberty Medical Group on SIBTF-related cases.
He carried out the same tasks as before, such as drafting and editing SIBTF-related reports. To hide Do’s continued involvement, Liberty’s owner devised a plan allowing him to secretly author these reports, which the company then submitted to the SIBTF for payment.
After Dr. Kevin Tien Do’s suspension in October 2018, Liberty Medical Group stopped listing his name on billing forms and medical reports sent to the California SIBTF. Instead, the company fraudulently used the names of other doctors, even though Do had prepared the reports.
Do admitted that Liberty received more than $3 million in payments from the SIBTF for reports submitted after his suspension. His plea agreement also revealed that Liberty’s owner, who was not a licensed medical professional, edited Do’s medical reports.
California law requires shareholders or owners of a medical corporation to hold licenses in medical or related fields, such as psychology, nursing, or physician assistance.
Do admitted that the true owner of Liberty Medical Group and his co-conspirator was not a doctor, but a California attorney. At the time, this attorney worked as a prosecutor for the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and later became a judge. This individual not only had access to Liberty’s bank account but also signed and issued Liberty’s checks to Do and others.
The plea agreement reveals that over $3 million paid to Liberty by the SIBTF after Do’s suspension was funneled to another company controlled by Liberty’s owner and his wife, totaling more than $1.5 million.
Do also admitted to underreporting his income to the IRS.
On his 2021 tax return, he failed to report about $66,227 that Liberty had paid him.
Once Do pleads guilty, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison for the mail fraud charge and up to three years for the tax fraud charge.
The FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation, and the California Department of Insurance are investigating this matter.
Assistant United States Attorneys Charles E. Pell of the Orange County Office and Ryan J. Waters of the Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Section are prosecuting the case.