An Orange County decide resigned Wednesday and declared his intent to plead responsible subsequent week to defrauding a state fund out of hundreds of {dollars}.
Israel Claustro, 50, who touted his potential to assist “foster belief within the American justice system” throughout his 2022 judicial marketing campaign, agreed to plead responsible to 1 rely of mail fraud at his subsequent courtroom date Monday in U.S. Central District Court docket in Santa Ana.
“Decide Claustro violated the regulation for his private monetary profit,” First Assistant U.S. Atty. Invoice Essayli stated in an announcement. “We is not going to hesitate to prosecute anybody — judges included — who defraud public advantages supposed to assist these in want.”
Claustro’s Costa Mesa-based lawyer, Paul S. Meyer, stated of his shopper in an emailed assertion: “He takes full duty for his actions, and cooperated absolutely within the investigation. In good religion, with unhappiness, he’s voluntarily resigning his judicial workplace.”
Within the plea settlement, signed Wednesday, the U.S. lawyer’s workplace is asking for residence confinement as Claustro’s punishment.
The crime carries a statutory most sentence of 20 years in federal jail, based on the workplace, and fines totaling tens of hundreds of {dollars}.
A decide will in the end resolve his sentence.
Claustro based a medical company, Liberty Medical Group of Rancho Cucamonga, in November 2015 though he had no formal medical background, based on the plea settlement. California regulation requires homeowners of medical companies to be licensed in medication or a associated area.
The next April, he opened a enterprise checking account with Kevin Tien Do, a health care provider, worker and participant within the fraud, based on the plea settlement.
By October of that yr, Do and different docs working for Liberty started billing California’s Subsequent Accidents Advantages Belief Fund, a employees’ compensation fund for people already disabled or impaired on the time of a office harm, based on the plea settlement.
Liberty’s practitioners offered medical authorized evaluations, based on courtroom paperwork.
By August 2017, nevertheless, Do was issued a discover by the Division of Employees’ Compensation of its intent to droop him for a earlier fraud case, based on the plea settlement.
Do served a one-year federal jail sentence in 2003 for felony healthcare fraud.
This conviction led to his suspension in October 2017 from taking part within the belief fund program, based on the plea settlement.
Do knowledgeable Claustro of his formal suspension in April 2018. Do appealed however in the end had his indefinite suspension upheld by the California Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board in October 2018, based on the plea settlement.
Nonetheless, Claustro nonetheless paid Do $306,000 for medical evaluations and studies carried out after his suspension, based on courtroom paperwork.
Do employed a medical skilled, recognized in courtroom paperwork solely as T.D., to carry out affected person evaluations throughout his suspension, based on courtroom paperwork. T.D., nevertheless, didn’t help in preparation or overview of medical authorized studies despatched to the belief fund, based on courtroom paperwork.
T.D. finally died of pure causes in December 2021, based on courtroom paperwork.
Reviews ready by Do after his suspension included the names of different docs when the billing paperwork had been despatched to the belief fund, based on the plea settlement.
Claustro paid $38,670 of the $306,000 to Do figuring out he, and never one other medical practitioner, was offering the companies, based on courtroom paperwork.
For his half, Do pleaded responsible in January 2025 to 1 rely of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and one rely of subscribing to a false tax return. He’s nonetheless awaiting his sentencing.
Do continued to be reimbursed by the state till spring 2022, based on courtroom paperwork.
Round that point, Claustro served as an Orange County prosecutor and was campaigning to turn out to be a county Superior Court docket decide. Claustro cruised to an outright victory within the June 2022 main, beating challenger Kevin Brian Jones, 72% to twenty-eight%.
His message all through his marketing campaign centered on his humble roots because the son of Mexican immigrants with a third-grade schooling.
“Claustro didn’t observe established OCDA workplace coverage which requires approval of any exterior employment, a process which is meant to safeguard towards potential conflicts of curiosity,” Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer stated in an announcement.
He added that Claustro “betrayed his place of belief as a public servant in probably the most deceitful manner by stealing public advantages from those that wanted them probably the most, and he did so whereas masquerading as a warrior for reality and justice on behalf of the Folks of California.”
