Alleged Scheme Involved Homeless

LOS ANGELES — An investigation into what the authorities say was a scheme that used homeless people to bilk tens of millions of dollars from federal and state health insurance programs began four years ago with a tip from a rescue mission employee.

The employee, Scott Johnson, who works for the Union Rescue Mission in the heart of Skid Row, said he had noticed vans and cars loading up homeless people.

“Sometimes they were so full of people that they put people in the trunks of cars,” Mr. Johnson said Thursday as he passed out bottles of water to the homeless. “I wondered what was going on, so I called the state authorities.”

Mr. Johnson said security cameras on the mission building captured what he initially thought were ambulances illegally discarding patients.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/us/10homeless.html?th&emc=th