October 15 with bilking Medicare of $ 6 million dollars by fraudulently billing the government for electric wheelchairs and other expensive medical equipment . The two , allegedly members of an organized crime ring , entered pleas of not guilty and are being held in a federal detention center . `` They deny any allegations of wrongdoing , '' said their attorney , James Kosnett . Defrauding government-run health care programs involves stealing two types of identities : those of doctors , who bill for services , and patients , whose beneficiary numbers entitle them to medical care and necessary equipment . Criminals are expert at collecting both . Watch doctor tell what happened when his identity was stolen `` That information is very , very valuable to these crooks . And the doctor may work at one clinic but he wo n't know about the second and third clinic that they 've already set up using his identification , '' said Glenn Ferry , special agent in charge of the Los Angeles region for the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General . `` They are definitely well-organized , well-schooled on how to commit Medicare fraud . ''
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Organized crime gangs are exploiting a new target for illegal profit : Medicare and Medicaid . Experienced in running drug , prostitution and gambling rings , crime groups of various ethnicities and nationalities are learning it 's safer and potentially more profitable to file fraudulent claims with the federal Medicare program and state-run Medicaid plans . `` They 're hitting us and hitting us hard , '' said Timothy Menke , head of investigations for the Office of Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services . `` Organized crime involvement in health care fraud is widespread . '' One hot spot for health care fraud is Los Angeles , California , where Russian , Armenian and Nigerian gangs have been caught by federal agents . Recent cases include crime boss Konstantin Grigoryan , a former Soviet army colonel who pleaded guilty to taking $ 20 million from Medicare . Karapet `` Doc '' Khacheryan , boss of a Eurasian crime gang , was recently convicted with five lieutenants of stealing doctor identities in a $ 2 million scam . Two Nigerians , Christopher Iruke and his wife , Connie Ikpoh , were charged