In a momentous press release promulgated on its website, the Trump Administration Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it had caught two high-ranking executives stealing massive amounts of money from needy Americans, particularly the elderly, and had used Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) provisions and programs to do so.
Announcing as much in the press release, which was published on Wednesday, February 18, the administration explained, “Two executives were sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted for their roles in a years-long scheme to steal from the Affordable Care Act (ACA) program.”
Continuing, it noted that one executive was involved in insurance and another in marketing, and used their positions to improperly enroll thousands upon thousands of Americans into Obamacare programs, thus stealing millions upon millions of dollars that were bilked out of insurance companies.
It explained, “The defendants — the president of an insurance brokerage firm and the CEO of a marketing company — preyed on tens of thousands of vulnerable consumers to improperly enroll them into fully subsidized ACA plans, for which the defendants earned millions of dollars in commission payments from insurance companies.”
Later on, the press release named the two and exposed the depth of the scandal, saying, “According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Cory Lloyd, 47, of Stuart, and Steven Strong, 43, of Mansfield, Texas, engaged in an extensive fraud scheme that sought over $233 million in fraudulent ACA plan subsidies for which the federal government paid at least $180 million.”
It added, describing who was targeted by the duo, “As proven at trial, Lloyd and Strong targeted vulnerable, low-income individuals experiencing homelessness, unemployment, and mental health and substance abuse disorders, and, through ‘street marketers’ working on their behalf, sometimes offered bribes to induce those individuals to enroll in subsidized ACA plans.”
Further, the press release noted in what ways the situation was fraudulent, saying, “Evidence presented at trial showed that Lloyd and Strong conspired to enroll these vulnerable consumers in ACA plans that were fully subsidized by the federal government by submitting false and fraudulent applications for individuals whose income did not meet the minimum requirements to be eligible for the subsidies.”
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Then, on much the same note, the statement noted, “As a result of being enrolled in subsidized ACA plans for which they did not qualify, some of these consumers experienced serious disruptions in their medical care or their prior insurance coverage under Medicaid or other programs. These individuals were put at risk of losing access to life-saving treatments for opioid use disorders, mental health disorders and serious infectious diseases.”
Attorney General Pamela Bondi, commenting on the matter, said, “Preying upon medically compromised consumers to rob hundreds of millions from taxpayer-funded programs is evil and unforgivable. Fraud schemes like this rob citizens and shake faith in our institutions — today’s sentencing is the latest example of this DOJ’s commitment to fighting fraud nationwide.”
Similarly, FBI Director Kash Patel explained, “These defendants didn’t just commit fraud; they built a business model around exploiting people at their most vulnerable. They targeted vulnerable individuals in the community, manipulated federal health programs for profit, and put victims at risk of losing critical medical care so they could cash in. Stealing hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars while endangering lives is as callous as it gets. The FBI and our partners will continue to track down and hold accountable anyone who treats vulnerable Americans as a payday.”
Watch Scott Bessent comment on fraud here: