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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Telemarketing Creep|Gets 6½ Years

LOS ANGELES (CN) - A recidivist and longtime fugitive was sentenced to 6½ years in federal prison and ordered to repay $16 million to victims of his "work at home" telemarketing scam.

Matthew Craig Rubin, 46, ran Medicor out of Van Nuys with his brother, Andrew Rubin, who also has been sentenced to prison. They took out Help Wanted ads claiming people could make $20 to $40 an hour doing medical billing at home, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement.

They sold "more than 30,000 Kwic-Claim Medical Billing Software packages for approximately $400 each, but only 65 people were actually able to successfully bill using Medicor software," the U.S. attorney said.

Matthew also set up National Business Information Systems, whose sole function was to refer people to his other scam.

Matthew pleaded guilty in September 2005 to money laundering and witness tampering, then took it on the lam.

Andrew pleaded guilty to money laundering in 2006 and was sentenced to 3 years in prison and 3 years of supervised release. He was sentenced two weeks ago to another year in prison for violating terms of his release.

Federal complaints against the bad brothers date back to 2001, when the FTC sued them and their company. "During this litigation, [Matthew] Rubin convinced the Medicor controller to lie for him so that he would be excluded from a federal court injunction and asset freeze order," the U.S. Attorney's Office said. "Free from the asset freeze, Rubin wire transferred his fraud proceeds from New Zealand to the U.S. and withdrew $665,000 in $100 bills from his bank account. In 2002, the FTC prevailed in the lawsuit, and a federal judge ordered Medicor and the Rubins to pay more than $16.5 million."

Just before Matthew was to be sentenced in this case, he was arrested in Arizona in another fraud case. He fled to Mexico and hid out for 5 years.

Mexico helped the U.S. Post Office track him down and return him to the United States.

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