Two healthcare executives have pleaded guilty to federal charges related to a multimillion-dollar fraud conspiracy in the Eastern District of Texas, announced U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs.
Mouzon Bass, III, 60, of Highland Park, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Lance Wilson, 57, of Allen, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The guilty pleas were entered this week before U.S. Magistrate Judge Aileen Goldman Durrett.
According to information presented in court, Bass, the sole owner and president of Vivature, a healthcare billing company, and Wilson, a senior executive at Vivature, were involved in conspiracies to defraud others in connection with COVID-19 testing and an athletic training billing scheme.
The maximum statutory sentence prescribed by Congress is up to 20 years in federal prison, a potential fine, and restitution at sentencing.
The maximum statutory sentence is provided here for information purposes; the court will determine the sentence based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.
Sentencing hearings will be scheduled after the U.S. Probation Office completes presentence investigations.
This case is being investigated by the FBI, the Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General, the Department of Defence Office of the Inspector General, and the Defence Criminal Investigative Service.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Anand Varadarajan and Adrian Garcia.
Bass, Wilson, and Robert Brent Scott, 59, of La Quinta, CA, were indicted by a federal grand jury in January 2024 and charged with conspiring to commit wire fraud, healthcare fraud, and money laundering.
In a separate indictment returned in October 2023, Kyle Kelly Carter, 61, of Keller, was charged with conspiring to commit wire fraud.
The defendants have all made initial appearances in federal court this month.
According to the indictments, from approximately 2014 through 2023, the defendants are alleged to have been involved in a university-centred athletic department billing scheme. Bass and Wilson used their company, Vivature, to submit false claims to private insurance carriers, representing that physicians, like Scott and Carter, were providing medical services for injured student-athletes at universities across the country.
In reality, these physicians did not see or treat these student-athletes, and in many instances, were physically hundreds of miles away from where the student-athletes were receiving treatment.
The services were actually performed by athletic trainers employed by the universities’ athletic departments, who were most often specifically excluded from insurance companies’ reimbursement policies.
At the direction of Bass and Wilson, Vivature submitted thousands of false claims to the insurance companies, named Scott, Carter, and other physicians as the servicing providers, and used their NPI numbers on the claims’ paperwork.
In exchange for allowing the fraudulent use of their NPIs and credentials, Vivature made regular payments to Scott, Carter, and other physicians.
A separate conspiracy involved only defendants Bass, Wilson, and Scott, who executed a scheme to fraudulently obtain Health Resources and Services Administration funds earmarked for COVID-19 testing for uninsured Americans.
The defendants partnered with international resorts that host American travellers abroad, offering to manage the billing and claims process for COVID-19 testing provided to these travellers.
Then, the defendants submitted thousands of reimbursement claims to HRSA for these travellers, even though they were privately insured and ineligible for the HRSA program.
In total, the defendants are alleged to have collectively obtained over $70 million from the two schemes. With these funds, they paid themselves millions of dollars, purchased real property, including a multimillion-dollar home, a lakehouse, and an international residence, and bought a multimillion-dollar yacht.
