Rehab Operator Featured in WSJ Investigation Charged by Feds

Last year, we investigated how drug rehabs in California were luring patients from across the country, cycling them through programs where illicit drugs were common and treatment was minimal, and then kicking them out on the street after billing their insurance for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Now, one of the operators featured in our story on alleged widespread fraud in America’s booming rehab industry has been charged by federal prosecutors with health care fraud and violating an anti-kickback statute.

Nathan Young, known to his clients as Pablo, allegedly engaged in an elaborate scheme that involved providing recovering addicts with illegal drugs in order to keep billing their insurers for treatment, according to federal prosecutors.

Facilities associated with Nathan Young submitted more than $1.6 billion in claims to major health insurers and were paid over $210 million between 2020 and 2026, including billings for “non-existent and woefully inadequate ‘therapy’ sessions,” prosecutors said in a recently filed criminal complaint.

Our investigation last year highlighted stories of Young’s former clients like Penny Lamb and Jeffery Lichtenberg, an Oklahoma couple who were shuttled between Southern California properties where illicit drugs were common and treatment included logging onto crowded video calls. They relapsed often and eventually ended up homeless.

Lichtenberg, who said he was now sober, living in a home and working in North Carolina with Lamb, told me that Young got what he deserved.

"It sucks for him, but you can’t treat people like he did and not expect karma in return to be good to him,” Lichtenberg texted.