Want in on the latest health care system? Sure you do

256px-MRI-PhilipsThieves for years set up fake companies with fake offices and employees and even fought civil court fights in those roles while they cut new fraud deals.

Among those they impersonated were representatives of Cerner Corporation, a global supplier of health care technology headquartered in Kansas City.

All four conspirators who have pleaded guilty were from towns in Texas and are old enough to have watched “Dallas” on TV.

The fourth, David Hernon, 54, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Kansas City.

Hernon will be sentenced later for his role in a conspiracy to commit wire fraud from August 2008 to February 2015.

They used their Cerner fakes and others to get dozens of doctors to invest more than $6 million in fake new technology, to sell an MRI to a hospital for more than $1 million and to influence the outcome of civil court cases that arose from disputes over their scams.

Also among high points from a media release by federal prosecutors:

The conspirators got more than 50 doctors to invest the $6 million after the thieves set up a company that they claimed had a great new MRI system.

Actually, it was a system they made with used components and disguised by removing original labels.

Under their guises, the thieves manipulated the filing and settlement of the involuntary bankruptcy of CMI Holding Co. in Texas. They impersonated bondholders in filing for the bankruptcy and continued in that role throughout a negotiated settlement.

“Incredibly,” the release states, “the co-conspirators also impersonated an investor, which enabled them to participate in the settlement discussions from the other side of the litigation as well.”

They did not stop there. They also created an entity to take settlement money away from the bond holders.

“Co-conspirators used this elaborate infrastructure of business entities, Web site domains, phone numbers, addresses, bank accounts and identities as a shield to prevent others from detecting their fraud,” the release states, and continued it for years “to mislead new investors, new business partners and new courts.”

Now all that sales skill and acting ability has led to trouble. They could each be sentenced to up to 20 years in federal prison.

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