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    California Drug Clinic Operator Convicted in $3 Million Kickback Scheme

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    Casey Mahoney, 48, of Los Angeles, illegally paid “body brokers” to lure clients, a federal jury found.A California man who operated addiction treatment facilities in Orange County was convicted this week of paying nearly $3 million in illegal kickbacks for referrals of patients to his facilities, according to federal prosecutors.From at least October 2018 until December 2020, the man, Casey Mahoney, 48, of Los Angeles, paid about $2.87 million to “so-called ‘body brokers’” who gave thousands of dollars to patients to coax them into Healing Path Detox L.L.C. in Huntington Beach and Get Real Recovery Inc. in San Juan Capistrano, two treatment centers Mr. Mahoney operated, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said in a statement on Friday.Some of the money that the body brokers gave to patients was used by the patients to buy drugs, the department’s statement said.After a nine-day trial, a federal jury in Los Angeles found Mr. Mahoney guilty on Wednesday of one count of conspiracy related to offering illegal remunerations for patient referrals, seven counts of illegal remunerations for patient referrals and three counts of money laundering, prosecutors said. He was acquitted on one count of aiding and assisting the preparation of a false tax document.The money-laundering charges, the most serious on which Mr. Mahoney was convicted, each carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Sentencing is set for Jan. 17, 2025.Treatment facility operators may pay a group like a marketer or an advertiser to promote their services to patients. But the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act of 2018 prevents the operators from paying body brokers kickbacks based on how much revenue the patients they referred brought in, as Mr. Mahoney did, according to the indictment.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Southern California Oil Sheen Is Unlikely to Stem From Spill, Tests Indicate

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      Samples from an oil sheen in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Huntington Beach, Calif., were more consistent with oil that seeps naturally.An oil sheen that emerged last week in the Pacific Ocean off the Southern California coast does not appear to have been caused by an oil spill, officials with the U.S. Coast Guard said on Monday.Oil samples collected from the sheen, which was about 2.5 miles long and half a mile wide, did not match anything that would have leaked from one of the oil rigs or ships in the water near Huntington Beach, Calif., according to preliminary tests conducted by the state’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response.The samples had characteristics of “freshly produced oil” from the local Monterey geological formation and were more consistent with oil that seeps naturally from the sea floor, though the tests did not conclusively determine their origin, the Coast Guard said.“We have many samples from all the oil rigs and their products, as well as the oil that was in the oil sheen,” Petty Officer Richard Uranga, a spokesman for the Coast Guard, said. “The oil doesn’t seem to be connected with the oil rigs.”The sheen was first spotted on Thursday evening, about 1.5 miles off the coast of Huntington Beach, where there are significant offshore oil operations.The discovery prompted concerns that equipment from those operations was spilling oil into the Pacific Ocean — a particularly alarming prospect in the wake of a major oil spill in the same area in 2021, during which 25,000 gallons of crude gushed from a crack in a pipeline and into the sea. The leak resulted in federal charges against three companies.The Coast Guard, as well as state and local agencies, investigated the new sheen over the weekend. Crews cleaned up about 85 gallons of oil offshore and removed about 1,050 pounds of oily sand and tar balls from the shore, the Coast Guard said. The various agencies have concluded their response to the incident.In Huntington Beach, popularly known as Surf City, beaches remained open over the weekend and on Monday, despite what seemed to be an increase in the appearance of tar balls, said Jennifer Carey, a spokeswoman for the city.She said that tar balls had been washing ashore regularly since the oil spill in 2021. Still, the city continued to monitor the situation, Ms. Carey said, adding that if beachgoers see tar on the beach, they should avoid it. If visitors see an area with heavy contamination, she added, they should report the situation to a lifeguard. More

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      California Has a Lot of Recall Attempts, and Not Just for Governors

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      While all eyes were on Gov. Gavin Newsom, a developer in Sonoma County was charging forward with an effort to recall the district attorney who had sued his company.All around California, other officials were facing recall campaigns, too. A member of the Fallbrook Union High School District board of trustees. A councilwoman in Kingsburg. A councilman in Morgan Hill. The mayors of Huntington Beach and Placerville, council members in Huntington Beach and Placerville, school board or board of education members in Chico, Santa Monica, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Elk Grove and oh my goodness, are you tired yet?Recalls are a dime a dozen in California, and to read through the rationales for them is to confront a deluge of grievances, some serious and others remarkably petty.The recall efforts are because she voted against resuming full-time in-person schooling. Because of zoning disputes. Because she “has demonstrated a Marxist/socialist agenda.” Because of his homelessness policies. Because she declined to prosecute a police brutality case. Because he ostensibly “lacks mental competence.” Because she was convicted of welfare fraud several years before she was elected.If history is a guide, most of these campaigns will never come to a vote. But two, in addition to Mr. Newsom’s, will be on the ballot on Tuesday.The first is in wine country north of San Francisco, and its target is Jill Ravitch, the Sonoma County district attorney. The campaign is led by a local developer, Bill Gallaher, whose company was sued by her office in connection with the abandonment of residents of an assisted-living facility during a 2017 wildfire. (The case was ultimately settled.) Mr. Gallaher, who has said the recall is in service of “steady, competent leadership overseeing public safety in our county,” has bankrolled the campaign himself.The second is a convoluted saga concerning William Davis and Melissa Ybarra, who are on the City Council in Vernon and had backed a successful recall campaign this year against two other council members who had supported a solar and wind energy project whose developer was involved in an embezzlement investigation.Now those recalled council members, Diana Gonzales and Carol Menke, are supporting the new recall campaign, alleging — according to The Los Angeles Daily News — that Ms. Ybarra engaged in nepotism as the city’s housing commissioner and that Mr. Davis is mentally incompetent. Ms. Ybarra and Mr. Davis say the campaign is just retaliation.Before this year of two recall elections, Vernon — a city just southeast of Los Angeles that has a mere 108 residents — had never had one. More