Acupuncturist pleads guilty in fraud scheme that bilked millions of dollars from Amtrak’s health care plan

For Immediate Release

October 21, 2019

LOS ANGELES – An acupuncturist pleaded guilty to charges of health care fraud and money laundering on Oct. 11, 2019, after defrauding Amtrak’s health care plan for approximately $3.8 million in acupuncture treatments and other services that were either medically unnecessary or never provided.

According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California, Guiqiong Xiao Gudmundsen, 52, aka “Kimi” Gudmundsen, owned Healthy Life Acupuncture Center, which operated in Riverside and Los Angeles. From January 2008 until December 2015, Gudmundsen recruited Amtrak employees to visit Healthy Life.

Gudmundsen would fraudulently charge Amtrak’s insurance plan for acupuncture treatments that she knew weren’t being provided. Furthermore, she wrongfully and knowingly billed Amtrak for medically unnecessary services such as massages and facials and for other services-- to include services for people who were not insured by Amtrak’s plan. She did this by billing Amtrak’s plan under the name of someone who was covered. Additionally, Gudmundsen admitted that she regularly waived co-payments, co-insurance, and deductibles for Amtrak health care plan participants, something the plan did not permit.

According to the plea agreement, Gudmundsen would knowingly and routinely funnel funds received from fraudulent claims through bank accounts opened in the names of a shell company and her relatives.

The case was investigated by Amtrak OIG, IRS Criminal Investigation, and the U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration. Sentencing is scheduled for January 22, 2020.

More information is available in the U.S. Attorney’s Office press release:

http://go.usa.gov/xpquA