A Lake Forest, California woman has been charged with stealing $1.5 million from an orthopedic practice in Newport Beach while she worked as the company’s bookkeeper.
Ortho Group Bookkeeper Embezzled $1.5M
1 min read Premium comments
Secondary#orthopaedic#OrthopaedicSpecialists
Tina Marie Reyes, 46, has been charged with 36 counts of grand theft with sentencing-enhancement allegations of aggravated white collar crime exceeding $500,000.
Reyes was employed as a bookkeeper at California Orthopaedic Specialists Inc. of Newport Beach beginning in 2014. Reyes was hired to replace a bookkeeper of 21 years, who retired in 2014.
California Orthopaedic Specialists is a practice located in Orange County, California comprised of five orthopedic surgeons: Ralph J. Venuto, M. D., Michael P. Weinstein, M. D., Scott K. Forman, M. D., Nicholas E. Rose, M. D. and Stephen A. Mikulak, M. D. The surgeons at California Orthopaedic Specialists specialize in: Sports Medicine, Arthroscopic Surgery, Joint Replacement, Spine & Cervical Surgery, Foot & Ankle Surgery, Hand Surgery, and Hand Extremity Surgery.
According to the complaint, Scott K. Forman, M.D. one of the practice’s doctors, first learned something was amiss during a European vacation. While away, he learned that a contractor hadn’t been paid. He contacted Reyes to find out the reason why. Though she insisted she would make the payment, Forman decided to investigate further.
When Dr. Forman returned to Newport Beach, he took a closer look at bank statements and realized there were “larger-than-average sums going into a group account for the practice.” Dr. Forman also noticed credit balances on company credit cards that were extremely high and that Reyes had made personal purchases on the company cards.
Reyes was fired when she returned from her vacation at the end of June 2017.
The complaint states, “She was able to hide her theft by transferring just enough contributions from each individual doctor to cover the payments on the credit cards on all her charges and the company’s monthly payments, and then transfer money back into a doctor’s individual accounts to make them appear whole. A complete forensic audit revealed that defendant stole approximately $1.5 million.” The embezzlement allegedly took place from August 2014 through July 2017.
React:
Discussion
This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
Join the conversation
Orthopedic professionals are discussing this. Sign in and upgrade to read every comment and add your voice.