Latest news with #JorgeZamoraQuezada
Daily Mail
26-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Fraudster doctor who gave chemo to healthy patients WITHOUT cancer to fund lavish $118m lifestyle learns his fate
A Texas doctor has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for orchestrating one of the most egregious medical fraud schemes in modern US history making $118 million in false claims. Jorge Zamora-Quezada, 68, a once-respected rheumatologist, was convicted of diagnosing hundreds of healthy patients with a life-altering disease they never had - all to bankroll his empire of jets, beachfront properties, and European sports cars. Zamora-Quezada's criminal scheme centered around one of deception as set about falsely diagnosing people with rheumatoid arthritis, an incurable autoimmune disease that affects joints but can be treated with various medications and chemotherapy drugs that involve toxins. Armed with falsified test results and fabricated symptoms, he administered toxic treatments, including chemotherapy infusions, steroids, and other aggressive drugs to people who were otherwise young and healthy. 'Dr. Zamora-Quezada funded his luxurious lifestyle for two decades by traumatizing his patients, abusing his employees, lying to insurers, and stealing taxpayer money,' said Matthew R. Galeotti, head of the DOJ's Criminal Division. 'His depraved conduct represents a profound betrayal of trust toward vulnerable patients who depend on care and integrity from their doctors.' The doctor is thought to have particularly made children, the disabled and elderly patients a target. 'Constantly being in bed and being unable to get up from bed alone, and being pumped with medication, I didn't feel like my life had any meaning,' one devastated patient told the court. According to the Department of Justice, patients who should have been thriving were instead left with liver damage, hair loss, strokes, necrosis of the jaw, and chronic pain so severe that some couldn't even lift a spoon or walk unassisted. 'For most patients, it was obvious that they did not have rheumatoid arthritis,' one stunned rheumatologist testified during the 25-day trial. The diagnosis, in many cases, had been conjured out of thin air. The disgraced doctor would order a number of 'fraudulent, repetitive, and excessive medical procedures on patients in order to increase revenue.' All told, Zamora-Quezada's scheme siphoned more than $28 million from Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, and private insurers like Blue Cross Blue Shield. He used the profits to construct a sprawling real estate portfolio spanning the US and Mexico, purchase a million dollar private jet, and drive off in a Maserati GranTurismo, both of which were branded with his initials 'ZQ'. He also owned multiple residential properties, including two penthouses and a condo in Mexico and another condo in Aspen, Colorado. He owned several homes and commercial buildings in Texas, court records show. And while his patients lay in bed, ravaged by unnecessary drugs, Zamora-Quezada referred to himself as 'La Eminencia' - The Eminence -and flew across borders in style. Having been convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, seven counts of health care fraud, and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, Zamora-Quezada will now spend the next decade behind bars. He has been ordered to forfeit over $28 million, his jet, his Maserati, and his entire real estate empire consisting of 13 properties. 'Today's sentence is not just a punishment - it's a warning,' Galeotti said. 'Medical professionals who harm Americans for personal enrichment will be aggressively pursued and held accountable.' Zamora-Quezada's victims have come forward during the trial to explain how their former doctor would diagnose them with degenerative diseases that other doctors would later reveal they never had. One of his victims was Maria Zapata, 70, who went to see the doctor years earlier because of a pain in her knee. The doctor told her she had arthritis and gave her injections that would 'strengthen the cartilage' in her knee. Her husband then asked the doctor why he was administering so many injections, but he reassured them the treatment would help. However, there was discoloration on Zapata's leg and other doctors were concerned with the course of the treatment before finally a doctor told Zapata she never even had arthritis. Another patient of Dr Zamora-Quezada, Nora Rodriguez, said that that he yelled at her and threw her out of his office after she questioned his treatment. 'He kept getting upset when I was asking him why I was feeling worse and not getting better,' she said. 'He yelled and told me, ''you are no longer my patient; get out of this office,''' Rodriguez said. Inside his Mission, Texas clinic, Zamora-Quezada ran what prosecutors described as a 'culture of fear.' He hired foreign staffers on temporary visas, who fearing deportation wouldn't question his unethical orders. One former worker told how he threw a paperweight at them after failing to generate enough unnecessary procedures. When insurance companies requested patient files, employees were told to make them 'appear.' When real patients weren't available for records, he used staffers as fake models for ultrasounds. Many records weren't stored in proper facilities but rather dumped in a rundown barn infested in the Rio Grande Valley that was infested with rodents and termites, some covered in animal feces and urine. He threatened employees, abused his status, and manipulated desperate people who had come to him for care. 'He took advantage of the very system he swore to uphold,' prosecutors argued in court. For his victims, many say the damage cannot be undone. Among the most harrowing testimonies came from parents of children subjected to unnecessary treatments. One mother compared her child's experience under Zamora-Quezada's care to that of a science experiment: 'He used my child like a lab rat,' she said, describing endless injections and pills prescribed for a disease that never existed. Others told the court they lived for years under the shadow of a false diagnosis, believing their dreams had been crushed with not much longer left to live. Some described how the devastating diagnosis saw them abandoning plans for college or feeling like they were 'living a life in the body of an elderly person.' Zamora-Quezada's had faced some public scrutiny in the past. In 2006, he was accused of prescribing a drug 'inconsistent with public health and welfare' and of 'billing for treatment that was improper, unreasonable, or medically or clinically unnecessary.' He later settled for a public reprimand by the Texas Medical Board in 2009 and was fined $30,000 but able to continue his practice.
New York Times
26-05-2025
- Health
- New York Times
Texas Doctor Who Filed $118 Million in Fraudulent Medical Claims Gets 10 Years in Prison
For nearly 20 years, a Texas doctor falsely diagnosed patients as having a chronic disease, administered unnecessary, toxic treatments and filed more than $118 million in fraudulent health insurance claims to fund his lavish lifestyle, which included a private jet, luxury cars and high-end properties, prosecutors said. The doctor, Jorge Zamora-Quezada, 68, of Mission, Texas, was sentenced to 10 years in prison this week, according to the Justice Department. From 2000 to 2018, he falsely diagnosed patients with rheumatoid arthritis and administered dangerous, medically unnecessary treatments to defraud federal and private health insurance companies, the Justice Department said. Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic disease that causes a person's immune system to attack healthy tissue. Some of Mr. Zamora-Quezada's patients were as young as 13, the Justice Department said. Mr. Zamora-Quezada's medical license was canceled in 2021, according to Texas Medical Board records. His scheme funded what prosecutors described in court documents as his 'lavish and opulent lifestyle,' with properties across the United States and Mexico, as well as a private jet and a Maserati that he used to travel between his offices in the Rio Grande Valley and San Antonio. Mr. Zamora-Quezada had two luxury penthouse apartments in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico; condominiums in San Diego, Aspen, Colo., and Punta Mita, Mexico; and multiple homes and commercial properties in Texas, according to court records. Matthew R. Galeotti, head of the Justice Department's criminal division, said Mr. Zamora-Quezada's 'depraved conduct' represented a 'profound betrayal of trust' between patients and their doctors. Randy Crane, the U.S. chief district judge for the Southern District of Texas, sentenced Mr. Zamora-Quezada to 120 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Mr. Zamora-Quezada was also ordered to pay $28,245,454 in restitution, according to court documents. His scheme defrauded Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE and Blue Cross Blue Shield, which together paid out more than $28 million in false claims, according to prosecutors. A lawyer listed in court records for Mr. Zamora-Quezada did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday. After a 25-day trial, Mr. Zamora-Quezada was convicted in January 2020 of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, seven counts of health care fraud and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice. According to a criminal complaint filed in 2018, Mr. Zamora-Quezada falsely diagnosed many patients with rheumatoid arthritis and subjected them to testing, chemotherapy drugs, hourslong intravenous infusions and other 'excessive, repetitive and profit-driven' procedures. Patients suffered strokes, necrosis of the jawbone, hair loss, liver damage and debilitating pain that made daily, basic tasks difficult, federal prosecutors said in a news release. It was not known how many patients in total were misdiagnosed. Mr. Zamora-Quezada hired staff members whom he could manipulate because of their immigration status and imposed strict quotas for the procedures, the Justice Department said. Mr. Zamora-Quezada dismissed patients from his practice who questioned him and hid thousands of patients' records from insurers and other doctors in a dilapidated barn in the Rio Grande Valley, where they were found covered with feces and urine, rodents and termites, the complaint said. Additionally, prosecutors said, Mr. Zamora-Quezada falsified or fabricated patient files and records, including by taking ultrasounds of employees that he used as misleading documentation for insurer audits.
Daily Telegraph
25-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Telegraph
Doctor who falsely diagnosed healthy patients to fund lavish lifestyle sentenced to 10 years prison
Don't miss out on the headlines from Health. Followed categories will be added to My News. A Texas doctor who falsely diagnosed his healthy patients to fund his lavish lifestyle with private jets and luxury sports cars as part of a US$118 million (A$182m) health care scheme was sentenced to a decade behind bars. Rheumatologist Jorge Zamora-Quezada defrauded patients and insurance companies by purposefully diagnosing people with rheumatoid arthritis despite them not having the lifelong and incurable condition, The NY Post reports. Zamora-Quezada, 68, masterminded the scheme out of his Mission, Texas office with the help of staffers who were abused and threatened by his status, the Department of Justice said. The disgraced health care provider led patients to believe they were suffering from chronic illnesses and they would pay unnecessary and costly treatments and testing that included a variety of injections, infusions, X-rays, MRIs, and other procedures. The regimens included the administration of toxic medications that had potentially harmful and even deadly side effects. Jorge Zamora-Quezada was sentenced to 10 years in prison for defrauding patients and insurance firms out of millions of dollars. Picture: FBI Zamora-Quezada also falsified medical records of his patients to secure insurance funds from providers by falsifying medical. He defrauded US$28 million (A$43m) from Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, and Blue Cross Blue Shield. Other doctors in the Rio Grande Valley testified against Zamora-Quezada during the 25-day trial, revealing the surprising findings when they treated hundreds of patients, believing they had RA. 'For most (patients) it was obvious that they did not have rheumatoid arthritis,' one rheumatologist testified. The dangerous treatments Zamora-Quezada prescribed caused patients to develop debilitating side effects, including strokes, necrosis of the jawbone, hair loss and liver damage. Other victims developed pain so severe that they were left unable to perform simple, everyday tasks. 'Constantly being in bed and being unable to get up from bed alone, and being pumped with medication, I didn't feel like my life had any meaning,' one patient told the court. According to a courtroom report from nearly 20 victims offered statements, including Miranda Hinojosa, who was transported by ambulance. She told the court she is now bedridden due to the unnecessary chemotherapy provided by Zamora-Quezada starting when she was 11 years old. 'I hope you rot in hell!' another victim said. A mother compared her child to a lab rat with the amount of medication Zamora-Quezada prescribed. The corrupt caregiver used his position to hire foreign staffers who needed employment to remain in the country on their J-1 visas and wouldn't question his authority unless they risked being fired and deported. The two-engine, six-passenger jet Zamora-Quezada purchased with the money he got through his scheme. Picture: DOJ One of Zamora-Quezada's real estate properties that he was ordered to forfeit after his conviction. Picture: DOJ Calling himself 'eminencia' — or eminence, Zamora-Quezada built a work atmosphere of fear and authority. Zamora-Quezada would use his employees as models for ultrasounds that he would include as part of a fabricated missing patients file if he were audited by an insurer. Thousands of patient files were stored in a separate shed ravaged by rodents and termites — most documents covered in faeces and urine. If he was questioned on missing patients' records, the doctor would order his staffers to make files 'appear.' The records storage of Zamora-Quezada's office after his arrest. Picture: DOJ Zamora-Quezada used the millions in takings to build an expansive real estate portfolio complete with 13 separate properties in the US and Mexico, purchased a two-engine plane and a Maserati GranTurismo. 'Dr Zamora-Quezada funded his luxurious lifestyle for two decades by traumatising his patients, abusing his employees, lying to insurers, and stealing taxpayer money,' the DOJ's Criminal Division head Matthew R. Galeotti said. 'His depraved conduct represents a profound betrayal of trust toward vulnerable patients who depend on care and integrity from their doctors.' Zamora-Quezada was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, seven counts of health care fraud, and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $28,245,454, his real estate portfolio, jet and Maserati. 'Today's sentence is not just a punishment — it's a warning. Medical professionals who harm Americans for personal enrichment will be aggressively pursued and held accountable to protect our citizens and the public fisc,' Galeotti said. This article originally appeared in The NY Post and was reproduced with permission. Originally published as Doctor who falsely diagnosed healthy patients to fund lavish lifestyle sentenced to prison
News.com.au
25-05-2025
- Health
- News.com.au
Doctor who falsely diagnosed healthy patients to fund lavish lifestyle sentenced to prison
A Texas doctor who falsely diagnosed his healthy patients to fund his lavish lifestyle with private jets and luxury sports cars as part of a US$118 million (A$182m) health care scheme was sentenced to a decade behind bars. Rheumatologist Jorge Zamora-Quezada defrauded patients and insurance companies by purposefully diagnosing people with rheumatoid arthritis despite them not having the lifelong and incurable condition, The NY Post reports. Zamora-Quezada, 68, masterminded the scheme out of his Mission, Texas office with the help of staffers who were abused and threatened by his status, the Department of Justice said. The disgraced health care provider led patients to believe they were suffering from chronic illnesses and they would pay unnecessary and costly treatments and testing that included a variety of injections, infusions, X-rays, MRIs, and other procedures. The regimens included the administration of toxic medications that had potentially harmful and even deadly side effects. Zamora-Quezada also falsified medical records of his patients to secure insurance funds from providers by falsifying medical. He defrauded US$28 million (A$43m) from Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, and Blue Cross Blue Shield. Other doctors in the Rio Grande Valley testified against Zamora-Quezada during the 25-day trial, revealing the surprising findings when they treated hundreds of patients, believing they had RA. 'For most (patients) it was obvious that they did not have rheumatoid arthritis,' one rheumatologist testified. The dangerous treatments Zamora-Quezada prescribed caused patients to develop debilitating side effects, including strokes, necrosis of the jawbone, hair loss and liver damage. Other victims developed pain so severe that they were left unable to perform simple, everyday tasks. 'Constantly being in bed and being unable to get up from bed alone, and being pumped with medication, I didn't feel like my life had any meaning,' one patient told the court. According to a courtroom report from nearly 20 victims offered statements, including Miranda Hinojosa, who was transported by ambulance. She told the court she is now bedridden due to the unnecessary chemotherapy provided by Zamora-Quezada starting when she was 11 years old. 'I hope you rot in hell!' another victim said. A mother compared her child to a lab rat with the amount of medication Zamora-Quezada prescribed. The corrupt caregiver used his position to hire foreign staffers who needed employment to remain in the country on their J-1 visas and wouldn't question his authority unless they risked being fired and deported. Calling himself 'eminencia' — or eminence, Zamora-Quezada built a work atmosphere of fear and authority. Zamora-Quezada would use his employees as models for ultrasounds that he would include as part of a fabricated missing patients file if he were audited by an insurer. Thousands of patient files were stored in a separate shed ravaged by rodents and termites — most documents covered in faeces and urine. If he was questioned on missing patients' records, the doctor would order his staffers to make files 'appear.' Zamora-Quezada used the millions in takings to build an expansive real estate portfolio complete with 13 separate properties in the US and Mexico, purchased a two-engine plane and a Maserati GranTurismo. 'Dr Zamora-Quezada funded his luxurious lifestyle for two decades by traumatising his patients, abusing his employees, lying to insurers, and stealing taxpayer money,' the DOJ's Criminal Division head Matthew R. Galeotti said. 'His depraved conduct represents a profound betrayal of trust toward vulnerable patients who depend on care and integrity from their doctors.' Zamora-Quezada was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, seven counts of health care fraud, and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $28,245,454, his real estate portfolio, jet and Maserati. 'Today's sentence is not just a punishment — it's a warning. Medical professionals who harm Americans for personal enrichment will be aggressively pursued and held accountable to protect our citizens and the public fisc,' Galeotti said.
Fox News
21-05-2025
- Health
- Fox News
Texas doctor sentenced to 10 years in prison in one of the ‘most significant' cases of patient harm
A Texas-based doctor was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison for healthcare fraud after he carried out what prosecutors said was a nearly two-decade scheme that involved falsely diagnosing thousands of patients with degenerative diseases and profiting handsomely off their treatments. Jorge Zamora-Quezada, a rheumatologist licensed to practice medicine in Texas, Arizona and Massachusetts before being stripped of his licenses in each state, raked in hundreds of millions of dollars for the misdiagnoses and treatment he ordered during his roughly 20 years as a medical practitioner. The treatments included punishing rounds of chemotherapy, intravenous infusions, and a battery of other tests, monthly visits, and regular procedures associated with the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic, autoimmune condition for which there is no cure. The sentencing, and his earlier court appearances, played out at times like a study in contrasts. Prosecutors detailed his extravagant lifestyle, including a private jet, 13 properties across the U.S., including in Aspen and various towns in Mexico, and a Maserati – while the health of the patients he defrauded continued to worsen. Prosecutors accused him of taking advantage of vulnerable individuals in Texas, such as teenagers, elderly individuals, and disabled persons, in order to carry out the scheme. Some of them testified at Wednesday's hearing about the ongoing side effects they suffered as a result of the doctor's actions, including receiving chemotherapy or IV infusions they did not need. It's "one of the most egregious" cases of its kind the Justice Department has brought in this space, Matthew Galeotti, head of the Justice Department Criminal Division, told Fox News Digital in a sit-down interview on Wednesday. That's because of "all of the various kinds of misconduct rolled into one," he said, "and because it was pervasive – the scheme lasted more than 18 years." "By the time you're towards the end of the scheme, he knows the consequences some of these things have had on the victims, and he's going forward anyways," he said of the doctor. The Justice Department's Criminal Division has been prosecuting this case for years. Unlike other departments, it is one of the few where career and political staff alike are largely in lockstep, with goals and cases that transcend partisan politics and seek instead to hold criminals like the Texas doctor accountable. Galeotti said he sees the case as emblematic of the Trump administration's goals to vindicate victims and counter wasteful government spending. "Even in cases where you don't see this level of misconduct, where you're not prescribing someone chemotherapy medicine that doesn't need it, which obviously sort of stands out on its own, we still have a problem because you were wasting government funds that should be going to actually benefiting patients," Galeotti said. A separate Justice Department official told Fox News Digital Zamora-Quezada's case was one of the "most significant" instances of patient harm that he had seen in at least a decade. "There was testimony about truly debilitating side effects from the medications, things like strokes, necrosis of the jawbone, really the jawbone melting away, hair loss, liver damage," the official said. The doctor's actions were seen as particularly egregious, in the Justice Department's telling, because they sought to prey on lower-income communities in Texas, targeting teenagers, elderly persons, and disabled individuals. The doctor also operated in areas with less access to medical care and with fewer native English speakers compared to other parts of the state. "Of course, it's always the most twisted when you're benefiting from someone else's misfortune – misfortune you caused – and misfortune you used for your own personal enrichment," Galeotti said. "They're the hallmarks of the worst kind of conduct that you see," Galeotti said. Zamora-Quezada was convicted by a jury in 2020 of seven counts of healthcare fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, and one count of obstruction of justice. His attorneys argued that the fraud was not "pervasive" in the way the government made it out to be, according to public court filings. Prosecutors said Zamora-Quezada purchased condominium properties in vacation towns, including in Aspen, San Diego, and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. They said he commuted to his various doctors' offices in Texas in a Maserati and a private jet, both emblazoned with his initials, "ZQ." His assets were forfeited after he was charged, prosecutors said. Meanwhile, they said, while Zamora-Quezada was living a life of luxury, out of nearly 100,000 Medicare patients he treated, Zamora-Quezada diagnosed 72.9% of them with rheumatoid arthritis. Prosecutors compared that data to seven other Texas rheumatologists, who cumulatively diagnosed 13% of their patients with the same condition. Prosecutors asked for $100 million in restitution, but the judge required him to pay $28 million. Attorneys for Zamora-Quezada did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
