A U.S. Navy doctor decorated for his service in Iraq pleaded guilty this week for being part of a scheme that faked injuries to bilk the military out of money intended to help troops recovering from traumatic injuries.
Cmdr. Michael Villarroel, 51, admitted to taking $180,000 in kickbacks in exchange for signing off on medical records he knew were fraudulent, a statement from the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of California said Tuesday.
Villarroel is the 10th person to plead guilty as part of a scheme that obtained $2 million in payments from the Traumatic Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance program, which is funded by military personnel and the services, the statement said.
“These military health care dollars, which were intended to benefit injured and traumatized service members, instead funded a fraudulent windfall,” U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman said in the statement.
Villarroel served for 19 years and was awarded a Bronze Star for his service in 2004 during combat operations in Fallujah, Iraq, his attorney Joseph McMullen told the San Diego Union-Tribune on Tuesday.
Villaroel served as a doctor in Explosive Ordnance Disposal Expeditionary Support Unit One, based in Coronado, Calif., from March 1, 2010, until May 31, 2013, an indictment filed in 2020 said.
From 2012 until 2015, Villarroel and others affiliated with the EOD unit conspired to submit false claims for millions of dollars in benefits payments, the indictment says.
Villarroel signed and verified applications to make it seem that sailors had suffered severe injuries while on duty, the indictment said.
In one case, an EOD sailor submitted a false claim in 2013 stating that he had broken his left leg, left foot, right knee and right forearm in a motorcycle accident.
Others altered the medical records of someone who had been in an accident as part of their fraudulent applications, which Villarroel then approved, the indictment said.
Villarroel faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on a charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. His sentencing is scheduled for June 16.
Others involved in the scheme include Christopher Toups, who was a chief petty officer, the indictment said.
Toups pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in October last year. Toups worked with Villarroel and Kelene McGrath, a former Navy nurse, to falsify medical records to exaggerate or fake injuries, an October 2022 statement from the Justice Department said.
lawrence.jp@stripes.com Twitter: @jplawrence3
Michael Villarroel, a U.S. Navy doctor, pleaded guilty March 28, 2023 in federal court to conspiring to defraud the Navy by faking or exaggerating injuries to obtain insurance payments. (File photo)
