U.S. News
A VA Employee and a Clinic CEO Admitted to a $14 Million Kickback Scheme That Exploited Veterans
By Mike Harper · July 31, 2026
One man worked inside the VA. The other owned the clinic. Together, they turned veterans into a revenue stream.
Laurent Cassagnol, 43, an Advanced Medical Support Assistant at the VA Community Care Program in Orlando, Florida, and Heriberto Rivera, 43, CEO of Family Integrative Medicine of Orlando, pleaded guilty this week to conspiracy to pay and receive illegal health care kickbacks in a scheme that generated more than $14 million in fraudulent claims to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Rivera admitted to paying kickbacks and bribes to Cassagnol in exchange for Cassagnol steering VA patients to Rivera’s clinic for acupuncture, chiropractic adjustments, and other holistic medical services. Cassagnol admitted to accepting the payments.
The arrangement was straightforward. Cassagnol’s job at the VA Community Care Program gave him the ability to direct which outside providers veterans were referred to for care. Instead of routing patients based on clinical need, he sent them to FIMO — Rivera’s clinic — because Rivera was paying him to do it. The VA, unaware of the arrangement, approved the referrals and paid the bills.
The result: over $14 million in claims billed to the VA, of which more than $11 million was actually paid by the government. Every dollar came from taxpayer funds designated to provide medical care for veterans who earned it through military service.
The investigation began after someone filed a complaint with the VA Office of Inspector General’s fraud hotline — the kind of tip that transforms suspicion into evidence. The FBI and VA-OIG conducted the investigation.
The case was announced as part of the Department of Justice’s newly created Fraud Division, established in April to investigate and prosecute fraud against federal programs. The DOJ said the division has bolstered the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, chaired by Vice President JD Vance.
Both men face up to five years in prison at sentencing. Neither has been sentenced yet.
The veterans who were referred to FIMO may not have known anything was wrong. They showed up for appointments, received services, and went home. But the referrals that sent them there weren’t made because the clinic was the best option for their care. They were made because a government employee was being paid to send them.
That’s the part of the scheme that no settlement repairs: the veterans who trusted a system that was being gamed from the inside.