‘NRI Tonmoy Sharma’, Former Sovereign Health CEO Arrested in $149 Million Healthcare Fraud Scheme

Los Angeles/ Jun 06, 2025
NRIpress.club/Ramesh/ A.Gary Singh
NRI Tonmoy Sharma, the founder and former CEO of the defunct addiction treatment provider Sovereign Health Group, has been arrested on federal charges linked to a sprawling healthcare fraud scheme. He is accused of submitting over $149 million in false insurance claims and paying more than $21 million in illegal kickbacks to secure patient referrals.
Sharma, 61, a resident of Tustin, was taken into custody at Los Angeles International Airport and is expected to be arraigned in federal court in downtown Los Angeles.
The charges against Sharma include four counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy, and three counts of paying unlawful kickbacks for patient referrals to treatment centers.
Also arrested was Paul Jin Sen Khor, 45, of Irvine, who served as Sovereign’s supervisor of cash management and accounts payable. He faces one count of conspiracy and one count of paying illegal remunerations. Khor pleaded not guilty during a court appearance in Santa Ana and was released on a $20,000 bond, with a trial set for July 29.
Federal prosecutors allege that between 2014 and 2020, Sovereign Health, based in San Clemente, targeted patients suffering from addiction and mental health issues and billed their private insurers at inflated out-of-network rates.
At Sharma’s direction, the company ran aggressive marketing campaigns, encouraging individuals to call a toll-free number. Call center staff allegedly used deceptive tactics to enroll patients, falsely promising that treatment would be covered by a charitable foundation. This foundation, however, was a front to collect sensitive personal information from patients.
Sovereign employees, often without patients’ consent or knowledge, used that data to fraudulently enroll them in private insurance plans. The indictment claims that employees falsified insurance applications—fabricating qualifying life events and manipulating income figures—to gain access to government-subsidized insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
In many cases, Sovereign staff impersonated patients when speaking with insurance companies. Policies secured through these dishonest means would not have been approved had the insurers known the truth.
The company also submitted more than $29 million in claims for urinalysis testing that was either not authorized or billed improperly. Sovereign frequently performed both basic and advanced drug testing—comprehensive panel tests being the more expensive option—up to three times a week per patient. These tests were often billed under doctors’ names without their approval or after those doctors had left the company.
Prosecutors further allege that Sharma and Khor paid over $21 million in illegal kickbacks to patient brokers. The scheme was disguised through phony contracts referring to the kickbacks as “marketing hours,” a term used in invoices to hide the true nature of the transactions.
If convicted, Sharma faces up to 20 years in prison for each wire fraud count. Both he and Khor also face up to five years for the conspiracy charge and up to 10 years for each count of illegal kickbacks.
The investigation is being led by the FBI, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, and California’s Department of Health Care Services, with additional support from the IRS, U.S. Department of Labor, and other agencies.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Solomon Kim from the Major Frauds Section is handling the prosecution. It should be noted that an indictment is a formal accusation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.
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