Remarks As Prepared for Delivery by Attorney General Eric Holder at the Heat Press Conference on Detroi...( WASHINGTON June 24 -- The following ...),Health

WASHINGTON, June 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following are remarks as prepared for delivery by Attorney General Eric Holder at the Heat Press Conference on Detroit Takedown:

Good afternoon and thank you for being here. I'm joined here today by my colleagues, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and FBI Director Robert Mueller.

Just a few weeks ago, Secretary Sebelius and I announced an unprecedented, united effort by the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services to combat healthcare waste, fraud, and abuse by launching the Healthcare Fraud Prevention & Enforcement Action Team or HEAT. The HEAT Task Force, which is co-chaired by Deputy Attorney General David Ogden and HHS Deputy Secretary Bill Corr, is already bringing to bear the tools and resources of both of our agencies to attack this critical problem.

As part of the HEAT initiative, we announced the expansion of our Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations from South Florida and Los Angeles to Detroit and Houston.

Today, we are here to announce that our combined efforts to shut down Medicare fraud schemes and to stop unscrupulous people from defrauding the American taxpayers have already yielded important results.

This morning, indictments charging 53 people with Medicare fraud-related crimes have been unsealed in Detroit. Agents from the FBI and the HHS Inspector General's Office have begun arresting these defendants in Detroit, Miami, and other parts of the country. The individuals indicted today include 16 company owners and executives, as well as 4 doctors, 8 medical personnel, 6 employees and 19 patient-beneficiaries. Combined, they are accused of conspiring to submit more than $50 million in false claims to the Medicare program.

In one case it is alleged that defendants created a healthcare company, submitted paperwork to obtain required Medicare
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