DETROIT (AP) - The more than 400 people U.S. prosecutors charged in a health care fraud scheme last year weren’t all Muslim nor from a single Midwestern state, despite claims in a story being shared widely online.
The story on the site mydeeptruth includes a misleading headline and provides no evidence that all the suspects are Muslim or from Michigan. The article blames Obama administration immigration policies for turning Michigan into what it calls a “Sharia swamp.”
Last July, federal prosecutors did charge at least 412 people in more than 20 states in connection with health care and opioid fraud scams, including more than 100 health care professionals. Thirty-two Medicare fraud cases were in the Eastern District of Michigan and some of the 96 people charged with defrauding Medicaid were in Michigan. Federal officials included no mention of the religion of the suspects.
At the time, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions called it the “largest health care fraud takedown operation in American history.”
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This is part of The Associated Press’ ongoing effort to fact-check misinformation that is shared widely online, including work with Facebook to identify and reduce the circulation of false stories on the platform.
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