BEVERLY HILLS—On Friday, December 18, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office announced that a Beverly Hills surgeon who has been charged with stealing $29 million in an insurance fraud scheme that involved paying patients to undergo medically unnecessary surgeries has been ordered to be released from jail after testing positive for COVID-19.

Dr. Randy Rosen, 52, pleaded not guilty on July 2, to 88 felony counts in two separate cases in connection with hiring body brokers to pay patients at Southern California sober living homes to undergo medically unnecessary cortisone shots and Naltrexone implant surgeries. On October 1, a judge found there was enough evidence to hold Rosen until trial on all felonies and set bail at $10 million.

Rosen is considered a flight risk due to having millions of dollars in assets and he faces more than 80 years in prison if convicted as charged. Dr. C. Hsien Chang, the Medical Director for Orange County’s Correctional Health Services (CHS), wrote a formal statement in support of Rosen’s continued incarceration, stating “I am familiar with Randy Rosen’s medical conditions and have complete confidence that CHS can appropriately manage and treat his medical conditions while in the Orange County Jail.” Rosen was ordered to be released back to his home in Los Angeles under electronic monitoring for up to 30 days.

“We are watching the theater of the absurd. The criminal justice system shouldn’t have one set of rules for people who are wealthy and a separate set of rules who aren’t. Poor people who pose a low risk to society shouldn’t have to sit in jail because they can’t afford to get out while wealthy people who have demonstrated they have no regard for the law or the lives of other human beings and have nothing to lose walk right out the front door of the jail,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer in an official statement.

Rosen has been charged with billing insurance companies for unnecessary procedures that were performed on drug-addicted patients. Insurance companies were fraudulently billed around $135 million and paid out approximately $29 million dollars due to this scheme.

On July 2,, Liza Visamanos, 41, of Los Angeles, who is also Rosen’s girlfriend, pleaded not guilty to 56 felony counts in connection with the illegal operation. On June 30, Rosen and Visamanos were arrested by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office on approximately $52 million warrants, which is the amount that was stolen as a result of the insurance fraud scheme.

It is further alleged that Rosen required patients to undergo unnecessary drug tests which he sent to Lotus Laboratories, a testing lab owned by Visamanos. At least 22 different insurance providers were fraudulently billed more than $3 million by Lotus Laboratories. Such referrals are prohibited by California law when the physician has a financial interest with the entity that is receiving the referral.

Thomas Douglas, 29, of Playa del Rey, Robert Mellon, 52, of San Diego, Patrick Connolly, 28, of Los Angeles, and Shea Simmons, 28, of Jeanerette, Louisiana, also face felony charges for their involvement in the health insurance fraud scheme.

The workers’ compensation fraud cases are being prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Vincent Marinaccio of the Insurance Fraud Unit and the health insurance fraud cases are being prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Jim Bilek of the Insurance Fraud Unit.