Service members use a leg compression machine after completing part of a fitness challenge in Columbia, S.C., on May 26, 2022. Similar devices were fraudulently billed to veterans in a recent medical debt scam in Oklahoma. (Alexandra Shea/U.S. Army)
Three Oklahoma men who ran a collection agency that fraudulently demanded hefty payments from military personnel, veterans and seniors are permanently banned from further billing operations.
A federal court in Tulsa on Friday issued a permanent injunction against Christopher Parks, 63; his son, Christopher Noah Parks, 31; and his nephew, Stephen Miller, 39. Their company, Assured Collections, which was renamed Assured Financial, also is bound by the order.
The men scammed victims out of an unspecified amount by harassing them into paying medical debts that often didn’t exist, the Justice Department said in a statement Tuesday.
One victim, a Medicare and Tricare insurance beneficiary from South Carolina, was sent a collection notice in 2023 demanding $5,995 for a surgery performed in 2020. Assured was not authorized to collect any payment from that person, prosecutors said.
The elder Christopher Parks, who is serving an 18-month sentence stemming from a health care kickback scheme, directed the collection scam by phone from prison, according to the Justice Department.
Misappropriating medical billing data that Parks had obtained in his previous business dealings, his son and nephew sent out thousands of deceptive debt collection letters, prosecutors said. Many letters demanded sums in the thousands of dollars, the DOJ said.
This fraud led to significant financial losses for many victims, who paid out of fear of legal repercussions, according to authorities.
“The defendants in this case victimized individuals who were already traumatized by illness and were struggling emotionally, physically and financially,” Clint Johnson, U.S. attorney for the northern district of Oklahoma, said in 2023 after a preliminary injunction against the group.
After hundreds of consumer complaints against Assured Collections, Parks told Miller to change the company name to Assured Financial, prosecutors said in the criminal complaint.
This switch was part of a broader strategy to evade accountability and continue exploiting consumers, according to court documents.
While a civil consent decree, such as the one issued by the court in this case, does not always equate to an admission of guilt, it often indicates that defendants agreed to the terms to avoid further litigation.
This can establish a legal precedent that might be used against them in additional civil and criminal cases. The elder Christopher Parks is already awaiting trial in Texas on fraud charges related to the billing practices of another company he operated, USA Medical, the Justice Department said.
His involvement in the debt collection scheme could lead to harsher penalties if he’s convicted. His son and nephew are vulnerable to further legal action by other plaintiffs.
