Benefit fraud has become an enormous form of theft from labor unions. Add one more case to the list. On October 23, federal prosecutors announced a settlement with a Michigan-based company, Great Lakes Medical Laboratory, Inc., for a little over $1.2 million, a sum representing twice the company’s combined fraudulent billings of the Medicare program and a United Mine Workers of America-affiliated health plan in West Virginia. “This settlement demonstrates my office’s commitment to protect critical Medicare dollars and union-affiliated benefit plans from fraud and abuse,” said U.S. Attorney Mike Stuart. The action follows a joint probe by the Office of Inspector General of each of the Labor Department and the Health & Human Services Department, plus the U.S. Attorney’s Healthcare Fraud Abuse, Recovery and Response Team (ARREST).
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On December 10, Johnnie Nicholas, former financial secretary of United Mine Workers Local 4994, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio to seven days of incarceration and three years of supervised release for embezzling $37,900 from the New Philadelphia, Ohio-based union. He also was ordered to perform 200 hours of community service, and pay a $10,000 fine and a $100 special assessment. At sentencing, he paid residual restitution in the sum of $17,650. Nicholas had pleaded guilty in May following an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.…