Santa Ana, California - Special agents with the FBI Tuesday morning arrested an Orange County man on federal charges of soliciting and receiving illegal kickbacks from corrupt sober living homes in exchange for finding them new patients in a process known as “body brokering.”
Darius Jarell Moore, 27, of Santa Ana, is charged with one count of solicitation and receipt of payment in return for referring a patient to a recovery home or clinical treatment facility. Moore is scheduled to make his initial appearance this afternoon in United States District Court in Santa Ana.
An affidavit filed with the complaint alleges Moore received hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks from four Orange County facilities with two separate ownership groups via a shell company – Moore Recovery Solutions LLC, a Santa Ana-based business. The kickbacks allegedly were covered up by bogus contracts for “marketing” services.
According to the affidavit, “Patient brokering has created a situation where substance abusers with no desire to stop using drugs are able to gain income from their insurance benefits by periodically participating in treatment programs.…The facilities generally know patient brokers pay patients and give patients drugs, but they maintain deniability by discharging patients who admit they were paid and stopping work with particular patient brokers as soon as such actions become overtly known.”
The complaint specifically alleges that Moore in October 2020 accepted a $16,000 kickback wired to a bank account held in the name of Moore Recovery Solutions from a checking account of a corrupt sober living home. The affidavit further details more than $350,000 in illegal kickbacks that the sober living homes allegedly paid to Moore in exchange for recruiting new patients. The sober living homes then submitted claims to health insurers.
The affidavit also details a recorded conversation between Moore and a sober living home employee discussing the clients Moore had placed into the facility and the cash value of the clients.
In December 2020, investigators executing search warrants at Moore’s residence found marketing agreements between Moore Recovery Solutions and two sober living homes that agreed to pay him $70,000 per month and $10,000 per month, respectively, but no other evidence that Moore’s company was a legitimate marketing service, according to the affidavit.
Investigators also found text messages from patients to Moore asking for money and asking to be placed in treatment. In response, Moore told the patients he would only talk to them through Signal, an encrypted communication application.
A complaint contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
If convicted, Moore would face a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.
This matter was investigated by the FBI, the United States Office of Personnel Management – Office of Inspector General, and the California Department of Insurance.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Benjamin R. Barron, Chief of the Santa Ana Branch Office, and DOJ Trial Attorney Justin Givens of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.
