Valley plastic surgeon, wife wanted for fraud arrested in Israel

A local plastic surgeon and his wife who have been on the run since September 2017 were taken into custody in Israel in June, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

David and Linda Morrow were arrested in Israel at the request of the U.S. on June 16.

David Morrow is pending extradition to the U.S. Linda Morrow arrived from Israel this morning and appeared in federal court Monday where she pleaded to a new indictment that charges her with fleeing while pending trial. David Morrow also faces a charge in relating to fleeing the country.

Israeli authorities reportedly took Linda Morrow into custody after they determined that she entered the country with a fraudulent passport .

Morrow and her husband, Dr. David M. Morrow, have been on the run since he breached his plea agreement when he failed to appear for a status hearing in September 2017. David Morrow was the owner of Rancho Mirage’s Morrow Institute, while Linda served as the executive director of the center.

The Morrows orchestrated a multi-million dollar health care fraud scheme which operated partially by billing plastic surgery operations as being medically necessary to health insurance providers.

“As part of the scheme charged in this indictment, the defendant allegedly used the names and signatures of patients without their knowledge to obtain payments for procedures that were not covered by insurance,” United States Attorney Eileen M. Decker wrote in a September 2016 news release on the case. “Health care fraud schemes that defraud insurance companies in this manner victimize both the insurers and the insured who are forced to pay higher premiums. This case seeks both to punish the defendants and to deprive them of their illegal profits.”

In under three years, the Morrow Institute billed over $84 million to companies like Anthem Blue Shield as well as local self-insured municipal agencies.

Watch News Channel 3 live at 5 for the latest updates on this developing story.