A Kent, Washinton man accused of advising straight immigrants to claim homosexuality — and potential persecution in their home countries — when they applied for asylum has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.Steven Mahoney touted himself as an expert in immigration affairs and ran Mahoney and Associates in Kent, which advised immigrants on how to stay in the U.S. He pleaded guilty in April, acknowledging that between 1998 and 2007 he filed as many as 99 false immigration documents and was paid between $1,000 and $4,000 for each.In addition to false claims of homosexuality, he advised some clients to claim they could be tortured due to their religious practices or political views.His ex-wife, Helen Mahoney, was sentenced to six months. Both are naturalized U.S. citizens from Russia.Listen and Read More About This Story Here
The FBI and Oprah Winfrey herself, through a message on her Web site, are warning fans to beware of scams that fraudulently use the TV queen's name in a fake $1 million giveaway. Among the latest is the "Oprah Millionaire Contest Show," in which recipients are informed they have been "nominated" to appear on an episode of Winfrey's show where $1 million will be awarded. They are further told they must purchase – from the sender of the message – a transportation ticket to Chicago and pay to get into the show. One such alleged scammer – apparently, "at least a dozen" exist, according to the Winfrey Web site – lists its return address as "Harpo Productions" at Studio 54 in Seattle. Winfrey's operations, which are indeed called Harpo Productions, are based in Chicago – and its show tickets are free. The real Harpo Productions has issued a statement emphasizing that the company and the show "are not sponsors nor do we have any involvement whatsoever with this e-mail solicitation." Individuals who receive such unauthorized solicitations are urged to file a report with the FBI at the Internet Crime Complaint Center, which "accepts online Internet crime complaints from either the person who believes they were defrauded or from a third party to the complainant," says its Web site.
A gay doctor in Los Angeles has admitted to chiseling Medicare of thousands of dollars in an AIDS-related billing scam, reports The Associated Press. Dr. George Steven Kooshian of La Quinta plead guilty February 24 to administering diluted doses of medicine to mostly gay patients suffering with HIV, AIDS or hepatitis and billing the federal government and private insurers the full cost of treatment.The OC Weekly, alternative weekly that serves Orange County, first reported on Kooshian's illegal enterprise in a 2001 cover story written by R. Scott Moxley. But when Moxley first began investigating Kooshian, a powerful gay philanthropist, his friends pushed back, calling the doctor a “concerned and caring physician” who had been victimized by “unethical and inappropriate” reporting in a full-page advertisement printed in gay weekly The Orange County-Long Beach Blade.In 2005, however, the Weekly was vindicated when federal agents used the paper's reporting as the basis to open their own probe that resulted in criminal charges.Kooshian has admitted to administering diluted treatments at four offices in Los Angeles and Orange County. But the Weekly alleges that Kooshian went further. It says he harmed the patients that sought his help by substituting vital medicine with an impotent brew of saline and liquid vitamins – at a cost of up to $9,000 per shot – and made a fortune off their untreated afflictions.Federal agents believe he stole as much as $660,000 with this scheme.Kooshian's assistant Virgil Opinion also faces criminal charges for his role in the scam. The pair have also admitted to billing for treatments that never occurred.Ironically, his supporters were unwilling to believe that someone who had generously supported the gay community could have benefited from harming it. Kooshian's lawyer, William Kopeny, continues to insist his client did nothing to “impair the heath of any of his patients.”Kooshian faces up to 50 years in prison and a $1.32 million fine at a May 11 sentencing hearing.
A Kent, Washinton man accused of advising straight immigrants to claim homosexuality — and potential persecution in their home countries — when they applied for asylum has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Steven Mahoney touted himself as an expert in immigration affairs and ran Mahoney and Associates in Kent, which advised immigrants on how to stay in the U.S. He pleaded guilty in April, acknowledging that between 1998 and 2007 he filed as many as 99 false immigration documents and was paid between $1,000 and $4,000 for each.
In addition to false claims of homosexuality, he advised some clients to claim they could be tortured due to their religious practices or political views.
His ex-wife, Helen Mahoney, was sentenced to six months. Both are naturalized U.S. citizens from Russia.
Listen and Read More About This Story Here
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The FBI and Oprah Winfrey herself, through a message on 
A gay doctor in Los Angeles has admitted to chiseling Medicare of thousands of dollars in an AIDS-related billing scam, reports The Associated Press. Dr. George Steven Kooshian of La Quinta plead guilty February 24 to administering diluted doses of medicine to mostly gay patients suffering with HIV, AIDS or hepatitis and billing the federal government and private insurers the full cost of treatment.
