WATCH – BREAK NEWS –
May 31, 2025 – The founder/former CEO made an initial court appearance. The federal investigation into Sovereign Health which ran multiple addiction treatment centers in Southern California has been underway since June 2017 when the FBI raided Sovereign’s treatment facilities, its San Clemente headquarters and Tonmoy Sharma’s home.
But even after the closure, NBCLA investigations found that Tonmoy Sharma, the former CEO, operated a licensed residential treatment facility in San Juan Capistrano under the name Dana Shores Recovery.
Sharma, who was arrested at LAX Thursday afternoon, is accused of submitting more than $149 million in fraudulent claims to private insurance companies as well as accepting $21 million in illegal kickbacks for patient referrals.
Sharma was charged with four counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy, and three counts of illegal remunerations for referrals to clinical treatment facilities.
“From 2014 to 2020, Sovereign billed private insurance companies for drug addicted and mentally ill patients often at high, out-of-network rates,” the Department of Justice said in a statement. “At Sharma’s direction, Sovereign employees aggressively pursued patients through various forms of marketing, directing the patients to contact the company at its toll-free phone number.”
