Federal Jury Finds Edina Chiropractor And His Patient Recruiters Guilty Of Insurance Fraud Conspiracy |
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U.S. Attorney’s Office
District of Minnesota
28 December 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Acting United States Attorney Gregory G. Brooker today announced the conviction of ADAM JOHN BURKE, 33, ABDIRAHIN KHALIF IBRAHIM, 26, and DANA ENOCH KIDD, 36, for their roles in a multi-million dollar insurance fraud conspiracy. BURKE, IBRAHIM, and KIDD were initially indicted on December 20, 2016, and following a two-week trial before Senior Judge Michael J. Davis in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, Minn., the jury convicted BURKE, IBRAHIM, and KIDD on charges of conspiracy and mail fraud.
Assistant U.S. Attorney David Maria said, “Adam Burke, a licensed Doctor of Chiropractic, used his professional position and private medical practice to perpetrate an egregious fraud scheme that cost automobile insurers and, ultimately, policyholders in Minnesota, millions of dollars. We are thankful for the hard work and dedication put into this case by our partners at the Commerce Fraud Bureau and the FBI.”
“Insurance fraud costs all Minnesotans in the form of higher premiums,” said Commerce Commissioner Jessica Looman. “The Commerce Fraud Bureau investigates sophisticated fraud schemes and works closely with our other law enforcement partners to bring criminals perpetrating fraud to justice. Today’s verdict makes it clear that Minnesota does not tolerate insurance fraud.”
“The defendants in this case defrauded automobile insurance companies by submitting false no-fault insurance claims and subsequently received reimbursements for chiropractic services that were either not medically necessary or were never rendered. Their greed had real consequences for the people of Minnesota in terms of higher insurance costs and tax dollars spent investigating their illegal conduct,” said Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Minneapolis Division Richard T. Thornton. “The FBI and its partners will continue to aggressively pursue insurance fraud schemes to protect the public from dishonest fraudsters damaging our insurance companies, regardless of their position in the medical community.”
As proven at trial, beginning in at least 2012, BURKE, a licensed Doctor of Chiropractic, participated in a scheme to defraud automobile insurance companies by hiring patient recruiters, known as “runners,” to solicit automobile accident victims to attend treatments at BURKE’S clinic, Burke Chiropractic Center, P.A. (“Burke Chiropractic”). BURKE typically paid the runners, including IBRAHIM and KIDD, between $1,000 and $2,000 for each patient they brought to Burke Chiropractic so that BURKE could bill services to the insurance companies. To disguise the payments, BURKE would write checks to the runners with false descriptions in the memo lines such as “marketing,” “consulting fee,” or “pt transportation.” BURKE also required the runners to form corporate entities, such as limited liability companies, with names that sounded like legitimate businesses that performed marketing or transportation services, again, to hide the true nature of the payments. BURKE wrote more than 280 checks, totaling more than $590,000.
As proven at trial, BURKE structured the scheme in a way that would maximize Burke Chiropractic’s billings to the insurance companies. BURKE typically withheld kickback payments to the runners until after the patients had attended a certain number of treatment sessions. Frequently, the runners paid a portion of the kickback payments they had received from BURKE to the patients they referred in order to make sure that the patients attended the minimum number of treatment sessions. Thus, the kickback payments were intended to ensure that patients came for treatments at Burke Chiropractic because of the payments, as opposed to the necessity and reasonableness of the treatments. As an additional incentive to continue attending treatments, BURKE often referred patients to personal injury attorneys, and BURKE instructed the runners to advise patients that following through on all treatment sessions would result in a bigger settlement from the insurance company. As a result of this fraud scheme, BURKE and Burke Chiropractic billed millions of dollars to the automobile insurance companies.
This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the Minnesota Commerce Fraud Bureau and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Additional assistance was provided by the Minneapolis Police Department, Saint Paul Police Department, Minnesota State Patrol, and Homeland Security Investigations.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys David M. Maria and John E. Kokkinen.
Defendant Information:
ADAM JOHN BURKE, 33
Minneapolis, Minn.
Convicted:
Conspiracy to commit mail fraud, 1 count Mail fraud, 12 counts
Conspiracy to commit mail fraud, 1 count Mail fraud, 3 counts
Conspiracy to commit mail fraud, 1 count Mail fraud, 1 count