Steven Lomonaco, 61, Mahyar “Christian” Mohases, 37, Robert Williams, 41, Nicholas Reeves, 42, and James Frageau, 29, are alleged to be involved in a scheme which took advantage of people looking for help with their sobriety and the insurance companies paying for their treatment.
Mohases, Williams, Reeves, and Frageau were the recruiters. Their main objective was to find people seeking sobriety treatment, fly them to California, and collect money from insurance companies paying for the treatment. Upon arriving, the patients would enter treatment at Casa Bella International Inc., owned and operated by Lomonaco in Laguna Beach.
The employees were instructed to fill out insurance applications using false information, conveying the patients were residents of California. The addresses used were actually the addresses of employees or businesses ran by the suspects. For each patient enrolled in the treatment program more than 30 days, the co-conspirators could earn up to $10,000, paid by Lomonaco.
In order to pay the premiums for insurance policies obtained with false information, the co-conspirators allegedly filtered money through a non-profit, StopB4UStart, by way of donations made by Nationwide Recovery, a corporation run by Mohases, Williams, Reeves, and Frageau. In all, more than 800 checks were sent out to pay for fraudulent insurance policies.
First arrested was Mohases on January 13, 2020; Reeves on January 14, 2020; and on January 15, 2020, Frageau was arraigned and Williams turned himself in to Huntington Beach Police. Mohases, Williams, Reeves, and Frageau each face up to 14 years in jail if convicted on all charges, which include two counts of committing medical insurance fraud, one count of fraudulent written claim to an insurance company, two counts of money laundering in excess of $150,000, fours count of money laundering, and one enhancement for aggravated white collar crime over $200,000.
Lomonaco could be sentenced to 8 years, 4 months if convicted on all his charges. He was arrested on January 16, 2020 for two counts of committing medical insurance fraud, one count of fraudulent written claim to an insurance company, one count of medical insurance fraud, and one count of enhancement for aggravated white collar crime over $200,000.
The investigation was a collaborative effort by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and the California Department of Insurance.
Photos from Orange County District Attorney’s Office
