March 19, 2001

KATHRYN E. LANDRETH, United States Attorney for the District of Nevada, Special Agent-in-Charge Grant Ashley of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bette Briggs, Regional Director of the United States Department of Labor, Pension & Welfare Benefits Administration, and Marita Janiga, Regional Inspector General, U.S. Department of Labor - Office of Inspector General for Investigations announced today that Liliana Mirchou, the owner of a Las Vegas health care clinic called Santa Ana Medical Center, admitted bilking the health and welfare fund of Local 150 of the Culinary Workers Union and Medicare out of $350,000.

Mirchou pled guilty to 1 count of health care fraud before U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben. Under her agreement with the United States, the defendant must repay the full $350,000 to Local 150's health fund and to Medicare. And she also will forfeit an additional $350,000 to the United States, which will be used to prosecute other health care frauds around the country. Mirchou faces a maximum of 10 years in federal prison and at least $250,000 in fines, according to U.S. Attorney Kathryn Landreth.

Mirchou admitted in court documents that, from January 1996 to November 1998, she caused Santa Ana to submit false claims for payment which misrepresented that medical services had been provided by licensed individuals not authorized to provide medical services of any kind in the State of Nevada or anywhere else in the United States.