Federal prosecutors in the US charged six suspects linked to a New York ‘birth tourism’ scheme recently.
According to reports, the massive plot cost US taxpayers millions of dollars. It comprised of sending 117 pregnant Turkish women to the United States so that they could deliver their children in Long Island, New York.
Meanwhile, reports also confirmed how the suspects included 4 Turkish nationals as well as two citizens from the US.
The money-laundering scheme saw the pregnant women pay around $10,000 each, just so they could secure American citizenship for their kids. While the court charged six suspects, they are still on the lookout for more that could possibly be involved.
In another press conference held recently, Seth DuCharme, a US-based attorney, unveiled more details regarding the incident.
Here, he confirmed how 117 pregnant women traveled from Turkey towards Suffolk County. And that was just so they could deliver their kids, right before returning back home. He also confirmed how a total of 119 kids were delivered upon US soil.
The suspects used a total of seven different birth houses while stealing around $2.1 million in terms of Medicaid funding. Therefore, that was exactly how they paid for crucial elements such as pre-natal obligations, labor, as well as costs for delivery.
To make sure they received all of their funds, they illicitly made use of their expertise in submitting fraudulent benefit applications, related to the New York Medicaid. Moreover, this was on behalf of all of the pregnant ‘Turkish aliens.’
All of the applications falsely made claims about how the women were in fact US citizens, residing in the state of New York. However, they also excelled at making it appear as if the women didn’t have any income. As a result, it looked as though they could no longer cover their expenses.
In reality, there was zero truth to those facts. Also, the women belonged to middle-class or upper-middle-class societies. The investigations revealed how a few of the women were flight crew members aboard Turkish airlines.
Three of the suspects went as far as arranging lodging and transport for all the women in the scheme. Prosecutors also went on to reveal how the suspects recruited the Turkish women through an online Turkish Facebook page called ‘My Baby Should Be Born In America.’
With a faulty scheme as major as that, the repercussions are bound to be plenty.