Judge Pleads Guilty to Defrauding Workers’ Comp
An Orange County Superior Court judge was federally charged today with defrauding California’s workers’ compensation program.
Israel Claustro, 50, was charged via information with one count of mail fraud, a crime that carries a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.
Claustro signed a plea agreement – also filed in court today – in which he agreed to plead guilty to the felony charge. Claustro is expected to make his initial appearance on January 12 in United States District Court in Santa Ana.
Claustro has agreed to resign from his position as a judge.
“Judge Claustro violated the law for his personal financial benefit,” said First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “We will not hesitate to prosecute anyone – judges included – who defraud public benefits intended to help those in need.”
According to the plea agreement, Claustro – who was an Orange County prosecutor at the time of the fraud – operated Liberty Medical Group Inc., a Rancho Cucamonga-based medical corporation, despite being neither a physician nor a medical professional as required under California law.
One of Liberty’s employees was Dr. Kevin Tien Do, 60, of Pasadena, a physician who had served a one-year federal prison sentence after being convicted in 2003 of felony health care fraud. Because of this conviction, in October 2018, Do was suspended from participating in the California’s workers’ compensation program. Claustro was aware of Do’s prior criminal conviction and suspension from California’s workers’ compensation program.
According to the plea agreement, Claustro admitted that he defrauded California’s Subsequent Injuries Benefits Trust Fund (SIBTF), a special fund administered by California’s workers’ compensation program to provide additional compensation to injured workers who already had a disability or impairment at the time of a subsequent injury.
Specifically, Claustro paid Do more than $300,000 for preparing medical evaluations, medical record reviews, and med-legal reports after Do’s suspension. Claustro caused Liberty to mail these reports to California’s SIBTF, concealing that they were prepared by Do by listing other doctors’ names on the billing forms and reports. Based on these fraudulent submitted reports, Liberty received hundreds of thousands of dollars from SIBTF.
The loss amount from Claustro’s participation in this scheme is approximately $38,670 – the amount SIBTF paid to Liberty based on reports Claustro knew Do had drafted after his suspension from SIBTF.
In connection with this scheme, Do pleaded guilty in January 2025 to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and one count of subscribing to a false tax return. Do is expected to be sentenced in the coming months.
The FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation, and the California Department of Insurance are investigating this matter.
Former Special Assistant United States Attorney Stephanie Orrick of the Orange County Office prosecuted this case.
Contact
Ciaran McEvoy
Public Information Officer
ciaran.mcevoy@usdoj.gov
(213) 894-4465
UAMS Benjamin Davis M.D. takes legal advice from “council.”
UAMS doctors, nurses, and other staff are accused of a two-week-long false imprisonment and battery of a man named Sean Lynn, who entered the hospital after a head injury.
Here is what Dr. Benjamin Davis wrote in the medical record on the day Sean Lynn was finally allowed to leave. “I also discussed the case with CMO of the day (and via CMO, hospital council). All of the above concurred that Arkansas has no statute and UAMS has no policy dictating the terms under which a patient may be placed on medical hold. It was made clear to me the police
would be no help without a 72 hour psych hold, which, as stated above, was impossible.”
I am not an attorney. “Council” that Dr. Davis referred to is probably legal counsel. It is odd, therefore, that I noticed a statute in Arkansas that dictates the terms under which a patient may be placed on a medical hold that UAMS “council” does not advise doctors at the university hospital to follow.
Under Arkansas law, where a patient refuses care and no valid surrogate exists, treatment may proceed only upon a court granting a petition supported by medical certification of necessity. Ark. Code Ann. § 20-9-604.
That law is specifically for when no valid surrogate exists, and I was a valid surrogate that existed at all relevant times; but Dr. Davis and the other medical staff refused to share medical information with me and would not honor the decisions that I told them were their prisoner-patient’s wishes. Because they did not acknowledge a valid surrogate, it is my lay opinion that they should have followed § 20-9-604.
The UAMS staff held Sean Lynn for two weeks by using chemical and physical restraints, and never once applied to a court for certification of medical necessity.
It has been two years and the alleged criminals have not been arrested, they have given no restitution and continue to deny that the ordeal ever happened.
During the imprisonment, and to this day, UAMS insists that Sean Lynn fell 30 to 35 feet. The video here was taken two days after the release. Soon after, Sean described jumping off the ten-foot-high rung of a ladder that was falling. His non-hospital-acquired injuries were far more consistent with a jump from 10 feet than a fall from 35 feet.
UAMS counsel Sherri Robinson wrote in documents to the Arkansas Claims Commission that I agreed Sean fell 35 feet on the day of this recording but also claims that we did not warn UAMS of pending litigation and did not mention that we asked UAMS to correct the record to reflect the true cause of the initial injuries.
Mr. Lynn invites offers of legal representation to be sent to bohemian_books@yahoo.com.
Undue Influence and Litigation Tactics of the Arkansas Elite
A bunch of doctors who work at UAMS and get paid half a million bucks a year goofed.
Instead of admitting to their mistake, they and their cohorts hid the most damning pages of the medical report from the patient, my son, for about 16 months. They also destroyed all the video evidence of their illegal conduct that was taken by the surveillance cameras in the emergency department and hallways where they battered my son.
The UAMS PD refused to arrest any of the people we allege falsely imprisoned and battered my son. So we filed a suit against the medical personnel, security and police involved and a claim against UAMS. We should win, but the legal system rarely works the way it is supposed to work.
Someone sent me a message yesterday, on the two-year anniversary of my son’s release from our two-week ordeal. The message was, drop the lawsuits or never be granted a license to practice law in Arkansas. It was implied, not explicit. Maybe the message was that in retaliation for filing the suit, I will not be granted a license in Arkansas.
I’m 63 years old. I’ve gotten this far without a license. Those of my readers who watched my story unfold over the last two decades know that threats from misfeasors to harm me further don’t usually have the intended effect.
More importantly, the defendants met my son. After he hit his head, the UAMS gang pumped him with fentanyl, lorazepam, diazepam, and a list of other chemical restraints. They withheld all food and water. And still my son did a Houdini out of the four-point restraints the brain surgeons used to bind him, naked, to the $4,700 per night bed.
He knows how corrupt they are, and still he says, “let’s take it to trial.”
Is UAMS Dr. Joseph Margolick on the lam?
What are the chances that there are two or more people named Joseph Margolick in Arkansas, one of whom was cited for speeding more than 15 miles per hour over the limit in Pulaski County and failed to appear for the 2022 arraignment?
A search of Arkansas Court Connect reveals three cases involving the name Joseph Margolick. Two are medical malpractice cases. One is a criminal traffic case.
Standing alone, that proves nothing. Names repeat. Databases are imperfect. Coincidences happen.
But the question becomes more interesting when the lens is narrowed.
What are the chances that there are multiple individuals with the same name in Arkansas, each alleged—separately—to have acted in ways that endangered others, while the systems responsible for accountability appear strikingly disengaged?
In one medical malpractice case, allegations include conduct described as false imprisonment and battery. According to records and correspondence, evidence related to those allegations was submitted to the UAMS Police Department. No meaningful investigation followed. Instead, the department requested that this writer stop sending information.
That response raises a different question altogether.
What are the chances that if the accused individual in a case was poor, unknown, or lacking institutional affiliation, the same level of indifference would apply?
Available information suggests no urgency in executing the warrant issued for Joseph Margolick in 2022 related to a failure to appear.
Again, this is not an identification. It is an observation about systems.
Because when warrants sit unserved, when allegations involving violence are quietly shelved, and when law enforcement discourages the submission of evidence, the issue is no longer about who someone is. It is about what institutions choose to do—or not do.
If accountability pauses whenever professional courtesy enters the room, then the issue is not identity or coincidence—it is selective restraint by the very institutions charged with enforcement.
And that should concern everyone—especially those who believe the law is supposed to work the same way for all.
A Higher Law 