ICYMI: Vicente Gonzalez staffer defrauded South Texans
Vulnerable Democrat Vicente Gonzalez hired a campaign consultant who is guilty of Medicare and Medicaid fraud, raising questions about why Gonzalez doesn’t put South Texans first.
“While South Texans work hard to make ends meet, Vicente Gonzalez and his staff are living large off the backs of the taxpayers. Gonzalez must be held accountable for why he hired a man known for defrauding South Texans.” – NRCC Spokeswoman Delanie Bomar
In case you missed it…
Gonzalez’s Consultant’s Shady Past
August 12, 2024
Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas) uses a political consulting firm that is owned by a Texas man who previously served around three years in prison after pleading guilty to Medicare and Medicaid fraud, Daniel reports.
Gonzalez’s campaign currently pays $3,000 a month to Southern Texas Strategies for “strategic consulting services” and has used the firm since 2021, paying it $134,000 in total over that time, according to FEC records.
[…]
Southern Texas Strategies doesn’t have a website but is owned by Valente Alaniz, according to its “assumed name certificate” filed with the state of Texas.
[…]
Alaniz and his sister Velma were arrested in 2011 on charges of defrauding the U.S. government after the two illicitly made money off of Medicare and Medicaid in claiming that they had sold power wheelchairs prescribed by doctors when in fact the doctors hadn’t ordered them and the wheelchairs never even got delivered.
The Department of Justice said they also submitted false bills to Medicare and Medicaid that they had provided such power wheelchairs to other patients, when instead they provided less expensive scooters.
The two pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and Valente Alaniz received a sentence of 37 months in prison, while his sister got a year less. A court also ordered them to repay Medicare and Texas’ Medicaid program $160,000 in restitution.
[…]