Lindsay Lohan's father Michael arrested, charged with patient brokering, authorities say

The father of actress Lindsay Lohan was arrested Friday in Palm Beach County, Florida, on patient brokering charges, authorities said.

Michael Lohan, 60, was booked in the Palm Beach County Jail shortly before 11 a.m. Friday on five counts of patient brokering and one count of conspiracy to commit patient brokering. Authorities say more than $27,000 in kickbacks were paid directly either to Lohan or to a business entity he was associated with, Lola Recovery Ventures of Palm Beach Gardens, from a Delray Beach-area substance abuse treatment center.

“Mr. Lohan was investigated by our Sober Homes Task Force and he’s being charged with receiving kickbacks for referring patients to drug treatment," Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg said in a prepared statement Friday. "Patient brokering corrupts our health care system because decisions are motivated by greed instead of a patient’s needs. This is our Task Force’s 117th arrest and will not be our last.”

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Lohan denied patient brokering under questioning

Records show that Lohan has listed addresses in Boca Raton and Southhampton, N.Y. Under Florida law, it is illegal for a lab or a health care provider either to offer or to pay a commission, a bonus or a bribe for the referral of patients. Patient tbrokering typically has involved steering patients who have private health insurance to drug-treatment centers and urine-testing labs.

The person who does the steering – often a person affiliated with a sober home – gets paid kickbacks from the thousands of dollars in insurance reimbursements the centers and labs receive for the person's drug tests. Those reimbursements can total as much as $5,000 per week.

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Two men previously associated with Delray center, Pride Recovery, were arrested on patient brokering charges in March 2019. Roy Brian Ageloff and his nephew, Jarryd Ageloff, were accused of the time of paying $20,000 in patient referral kickbacks. Court documents allege that Lohan received kickbacks from Jarryd Ageloff.

According to a Boca Raton report, Lohan spoke to police this month after learning from police that he was the subject of an investigation. During a recorded telephone conversation on April 8, Lohan denied being involved in patient brokering and told investigators the money paid to him was to help facilitate the sale of Pride Recovery.

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This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Lindsay Lohan's father Michael arrested on patient brokering charges