Two Twin Cities Chiropractors Sentenced To Prison For Orchestrating Insurance Fraud Schemes

United States Attorney Erica H. MacDonald today announced the sentencing of PRESTON ELLARD FORTHUN, 40, and ADAM JOHN BURKE, 34, for their roles in two separate multi-million dollar insurance fraud conspiracies. FORTHUN was sentenced to 60 months in prison and BURKE was sentenced to 90 months in prison. Both defendants were found guilty last year following separate jury trials before Senior Judge Michael J. Davis in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

U.S. Attorney MacDonald said, “Mr. Forthun and Mr. Burke are two medical professionals who chose to cater to their own greed above their patients’ chiropractic care. Today, they are faced with the consequences of their criminal actions.”

“These chiropractors put personal greed above their professional duty,” said Minnesota Commerce Commissioner Jessica Looman. “These sentences send a strong message that health insurance fraud is a serious crime and those who perpetrate it will be investigated and prosecuted. The Commerce Fraud Bureau will continue to aggressively pursue criminals who scam Minnesotans.”

“The defendants took an oath to help - but their scheme defrauded all of us, and today's sentence shows that there are severe penalties for those who seek to defraud the system,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Jill Sanborn. “I want to thank the entire team who worked tirelessly to unwind this scheme and get us to where we are today.”

As proven at trial, FORTHUN and BURKE, both licensed Doctors of Chiropractic, devised separate schemes to defraud automobile insurance companies by hiring patient recruiters, known as “runners,” to solicit automobile accident victims to attend treatments at their clinics. FORTHUN and BURKE paid the runners for each patient they recruited, and the runners in turn typically paid the patients to induce them to attend treatments at the clinic. Both fraud schemes were structured in a way that would maximize their clinics’ billings to insurance companies. Knowing that the runners were paying patients, FORTHUN and BURKE withheld kickback payments to the runners until after the patients had attended a certain number of treatment sessions. Thus, the kickback payments were intended to ensure that patients came for treatments at the defendants’ clinics because of the payments, as opposed to the necessity and reasonableness of the treatments. As a result of their fraud schemes, FORTHUN and BURKE billed millions of dollars to the automobile insurance companies.

These cases are the result of an investigation conducted by the Minnesota Commerce Fraud Bureau and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Minneapolis Police Department, Saint Paul Police Department, Minnesota State Patrol, and Homeland Security Investigations provided additional assistance.

These cases were prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Kokkinen, Amber M. Brennan and David M. Maria.

Defendant Information:

PRESTON ELLARD FORTHUN, 40

Bloomington, Minn.

Convicted:

• Conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, 1 count
• Mail fraud, 6 counts
• Wire fraud, 7 counts

Sentenced:

• 60 months in prison
• Two years of supervised release
• $1,553,500 in restitution

ADAM JOHN BURKE, 34

Minneapolis, Minn.

Convicted:

• Conspiracy to commit mail fraud, 1 count
• Mail fraud, 12 counts

Sentenced:

• 90 months in prison
• Two years of supervised release
• $991,530 in restitution

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United States Attorney’s Office, District of Minnesota: (612) 664-5600