Kentucky Man Pleads Guilty In Staged Accident Scheme

GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN - U.S Attorney Patrick Miles announced that Gustavo Ramiro Acuna-Rosa, a resident of Kentucky, and formerly of Wyoming and Lansing, Michigan, pled guilty in United States District Court in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and health care fraud. The conspiracy count carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years and the health care fraud count a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years. Acuna-Rosa's sentencing hearing is scheduled for November 28, 2016. He currently remains in federal custody.

Acuna-Rosa's guilty pleas arise out of his involvement in a sophisticated automobile accident insurance fraud ring that operated in Kent and Ingham Counties from at least 2012 through May 2015. In the plea agreement, Acuna-Rosa admitted that he first participated in the insurance fraud ring in 2012 when owners of Revive Therapy Center in Wyoming, Michigan, paid him $1,000 to participate in a staged automobile accident. Thereafter, Acuna-Rosa sought treatment at Revive Therapy Center, and his automobile insurance company was billed for false and fraudulent claims related to his unnecessary medical treatment.

In 2013, Acuna-Rosa, with the assistance of others, opened his own physical therapy clinic in Lansing, Michigan, under the name Renue Therapy Center. While operating this therapy clinic, Acuna-Rosa used recruiters who paid other individuals to participate in staged automobile accidents or to agree to seek treatment at his clinic for injuries that they falsely claimed to have suffered as a result of their real automobile accidents. Acuna-Rosa's therapy clinic then billed automobile insurance companies for treatment that was unnecessary or that it did not actually provide to these individuals. Acuna-Rosa further admitted to submitting false insurance claims to automobile insurance companies totaling between $250,000 and $550,000.

U.S. Attorney Miles stated that, "Those who seek to personally benefit by defrauding the system with false automobile accidents and false insurance claims will be prosecuted to the fullest extent under the law."

A federal indictment remains pending against three additional individuals that have been charged with involvement in the ring: Yoisler Herrera-Enriquez and Dolis Rojas-Lopez, both from Wyoming, Michigan, and Antonio Ramon Martinez-Lopez, from Port Richey, Florida.

The investigation is being handled by the Grand Rapids offices of the Department of Homeland Security-Homeland Security Investigations and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The prosecution is being handled by Assistant United States Attorney, Ronald M. Stella.

The charges in an indictment are merely accusations, and a defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in a court of law.

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