Houston hospital president, three others convicted in Medicare fraud scheme

SUGAR LAND, TX -- A federal jury in Houston today convicted the president of Riverside General Hospital (Riverside), his son, and two others for their participation in a $158 million Medicare fraud scheme involving false claims for mental health treatment. Ten defendants have now been convicted in connection with the Riverside fraud scheme.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson of the Southern District of Texas, Special Agent in Charge Perrye K. Turner of the FBI's Houston Field Office, Special Agent in Charge Lucy R. Cruz of the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation's (IRS-CI) Houston Field Office and the Texas Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) made the announcement. U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal of the Southern District of Texas presided over the trial.

"The former president of Riverside hospital, his son, and their co-conspirators systematically defrauded Medicare, treating mentally ill and disabled Americans like chits to be traded and cashed out to pad their own pockets," said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell. "For over six years, the Gibsons and their co-conspirators stuck taxpayers with millions in hospital bills, purportedly for intensive psychiatric treatment. But the 'treatment' was a sham - some patients just watched television all day, others had dementia and couldn't understand the therapy they supposedly received, and other patients never even went to the hospital at all. Today's verdict sends another powerful message that the department will hold accountable anyone who seeks personal profits at the expense of America's most vulnerable citizens."

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