A Navy physician from Coronado pleaded responsible Tuesday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, admitting his position in a scheme to file insurance coverage claims for exaggerated or pretend accidents, federal prosecutors mentioned.
Dr. Michael Villarroel, 51, obtained $180,000 in kickbacks for signing off on claims through the scheme, which obtained $2 million from an insurance coverage program that pays service members who are suffering critical, debilitating accidents, the San Diego U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace mentioned.
Villarroel’s legal professional, Joseph McMullen, mentioned his shopper “takes full duty for his actions.”
McMullen mentioned Villarroel is a Navy commander who has served for 19 years, and famous that in 2007, he was awarded a Bronze Star Medal for his service throughout fight operations in Fallujah, Iraq in 2004.
In line with courtroom paperwork, Villarroel was the medical physician for the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Expeditionary Assist Unit One from March 2010 to Could 2013.
In line with prosecutors, the physician admitted that from 2012 by December 2015, he conspired with others, together with a development mechanic within the Navy and the mechanic’s spouse — a Navy nurse.
Prosecutors mentioned the mechanic — who pleaded responsible in 2022 for his position — prodded different navy members into submitting claims with the Traumatic Servicemembers Teams Life Insurance coverage program, which gives tax-free lump funds from $25,000 to $100,000 for injured service members.
Individuals within the scheme claimed to have injured themselves in a number of methods, together with a automobile crash or a fall from a ladder or a horse or throughout a coaching train, in response to courtroom paperwork.
Prosecutors accused the physician of signing off on a number of false insurance coverage claims, understanding they have been fraudulent. Generally he supplied the medical data of different individuals unrelated to the case however who had been injured in accidents much like these named within the bogus insurance coverage declare, the federal government alleged.
Villarroel is the tenth particular person to plead responsible to prices on this or associated instances. He was the final remaining defendant, though some are nonetheless awaiting sentencing, together with the mechanic.
Villarroel is slated to be sentenced June 16 in San Diego federal courtroom. The cost carries a most sentence of 20 years.
This story initially appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.
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