A Los Angeles area woman who sent false claims to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union-Pacific Maritime Association (ILWU-PMA) benefit plan at the Port of Long Beach has been sentenced to 27 months in prison, City News Service reported May 23.
Sara Victoria, 46, who pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy and aggravated identity theft last December, will also have to pay $551,810 in restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Victoria, along with eight other defendants — seven of them Port of Long Beach dockworkers — took advantage of the union health benefit plan that covers overall chiropractic services without a deductible, copay or out-of-pocket costs. The scheme resulted in over $2.1 million in fraudulent claims, some of them filed under the names of dockworkers’ spouses and children, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
In her plea agreement, Victoria said she owned three businesses between 2017 and 2021 that offered sexual services, chiropractic care and acupuncture and “hired prostitutes at her companies and recruited them through referrals and from strip clubs in the Long Beach area.”
She gave cash and sexual favors to longshore workers and others if they authorized the submission of fake claims for services that didn’t happen.
One of them was LA area resident Cameron Rahm, 39, who said in his plea agreement that he received sexual services from women working at Back to Life Wellness Center LLC and The Chiroman Wellness Center in San Pedro and the Waterfront Wellness Center Inc. in Wilmington.
“Victoria, aided and abetted by Rahm, submitted approximately $178,495 in fraudulent claims to the ILWU-PMA plan for services purportedly rendered to Rahm’s wife, for which the plan paid approximately $30,243,” the attorney’s office said in a statement.
