SANTA ANA, California - A patient intake coordinator for an addiction treatment facility in Orange County was arrested today on a federal grand jury indictment alleging he conspired to pay $37,000 in illegal kickbacks to so-called "body brokers" in exchange for finding him new patients.

Luis Guerrero, 53, of Santa Ana, was arrested this morning. He is scheduled for arraignment this afternoon in United States District Court in Santa Ana. Guerrero is charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts of offering or paying illegal remunerations for referrals to the clinical treatment facility that employed him.

According to the indictment that a grand jury returned on May 22, Guerrero sought the services of two body brokers in referring patients to his employer's Orange County-based addiction treatment facility, which treated patient populations that received health care benefits through health insurers.

Guerrero allegedly then negotiated kickback payments to the body brokers on behalf of the facility and arranged for the body brokers to receive thousands of dollars per patient in illegal kickbacks. The indictment alleges that these kickbacks were intended as compensation to the brokers for referring patients and to induce them to continue referring patients so Guerrero could meet a monthly patient intake quota - a condition of his employment with the facility.

Guerrero also assisted the body brokers in paying thousands of dollars directly to the patients, as a further kickback to compensate the patients for allowing the facility to bill their insurance providers for treatment, the indictment alleges. For example, during a call with a body broker over an encrypted messaging service, Guerrero arranged for a patient to receive a $5,000 electronic payment and agreed to assure the patient that "we'll do something to put money in her hands before she leaves or before she arrives [home]," according to the indictment.

In October 2020, Guerrero allegedly negotiated payment of $37,000 in kickbacks to the body brokers in exchange for their referral of five patients over the previous two months, leading to a $30,000 partial payment to the body brokers later that month.

An indictment is merely an allegation, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

If convicted of all charges, Guerrero faces a statutory maximum sentence of 35 years in federal prison.

The FBI is investigating this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Benjamin R. Barron and Nandor Kiss of the Santa Ana Branch Office are prosecuting this case.

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