Filed Fake Reimbursement Claims With His Wife's Healthcare Provider

A Spanish national in the U.S. on a work visa and employed by the FAA has plead guilty to a $1 Million dollar health care fraud scheme. Luis Rodriguez, 46, of Bethesda, could face up to 10 years in prison.

Court documents show that Rodriguez filed more than 1.3 million dollars worth of phony health care claims to his wife's health care insurer, Cigna. His wife is employed by the Inter-American Development Bank.

Officials say Rodriguez would make appointments for himself or his two minor children and then, once he received a bill, would use the information to create additional phony invoices. During the period from March 2006 through April, 2010, Rodriguez filed more than 2,800 reimbursement forms, claiming over 25,000 services, none of which had ever been delivered.

His next actions read like a script from America's Dumbest Criminals. Aware that law enforcement was on to his scheme, Rodriguez posed as a senior IAD Bank officer named Paul Gagnon. He then told Cigna that the bank had closed the matter and directed Cigna to call off the FBI. He conveniently left a call back number for Cigna that happened to be his office at the FAA. When an undercover FBI agent phoned, Rodriguez answered the call as himself, Luis Rodriguez. When the agent asked to speak to Gagnon, Rodriguez paused, then told the agent she had the wrong number. The agent hung up, immediately redialed the number and this time Rodriguez answered the phone saying, "Paul Gagnon here."

Rodriguez is to be sentenced on September 25. According to a report in The Washington Examiner the loss to Inter- American Development Bank is expected to be about $1-Million. The IAD Bank is partially funded by you - the American Taxpayer.

FMI: www.FAA.gov