Liu Chao-hsun (柳昭薰), the owner of a service that allegedly defrauded insurance firms by helping pregnant women give birth in the US, and seven others were charged on Tuesday, prosecutors said, adding that those involved profited more than NT$30 million (US$986,777) from the scheme.
The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office announced the indictments on fraud, forgery, inciting others to commit a criminal offense and related charges against 35-year-old Liu and a 26-year-old employee surnamed Lee (李), along with six women who participated in the scam, an investigation of which started last year.
Eleven other women who hired Liu and gave birth in the US with the intention of making money from insurance claims were given deferred prosecutions, as they admitted to having participated in the scheme and promised to return the insurance money and pay a fine of NT$100,000, office spokesman Hsieh Tsung-fu (謝宗甫) said.
Charges were dropped against Yen Yu-chen (顏玉貞), who ran a similar service, and an insurance agent surnamed Liang (梁), as well as four other women, all of whom were investigated in association with the case, due to insufficient evidence, Hsieh said.
As local authorities have no legal jurisdiction in the US, there will be no criminal prosecution of the doctors and owners of clinics in the US who allegedly colluded with Liu to produce false documents for insurance claims, Hsieh added.
Liu allegedly operated a Web site that advised pregnant Taiwanese women how to travel to the US to give birth and claim US citizenship for their children.
Liu and her staff allegedly instructed women on how to dress to hide their pregnancy, how to answer immigration officials about their intentions for entering the US and how to file for insurance claims to cover the medical expenses, in addition to making arrangements for clients to see colluding doctors in the US.
Liu charged each woman between NT$500,000 and NT$600,000, including airfare and medical expenses, and also profited from insurance claims, prosecutors said.
From 2015 to the end of last year, about 1,000 Taiwanese have filed insurance claims for giving birth overseas, investigators said, adding that about 80 percent of claimants gave birth in the US.
Investigators estimated that participants in Liu’s scheme made more then NT$30 million in that period, with each woman receiving between NT$400,000 and NT$1.5 million in insurance payouts from fraudulent claims filed with the National Health Insurance Administration and private insurers.
Investigators said that participants in Liu’s scheme filed insurance claims with the agency and private insurance companies to cover expenses incurred for caesarean sections and to treat placenta previa, a condition in which the placenta partially or wholly blocks the neck of the uterus during childbirth.
Most of the claims by women participating in the scheme were fraudulent, filed with fake medical documents provided by doctors in the US colluding with Liu, prosecutors said.
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