City of Angels Medical Center official pleads guilty in kickback scheme

The former senior vice president of City of Angels Medical Center pleaded guilty today to paying illegal kickbacks to recruiters who referred homeless patients from skid row to the hospital, where they received unnecessary health services. Dante Nicholson, 51, was the third person convicted in a widespread scheme to pay illegal kickbacks and defraud Medicare and Medi-Cal by recruiting homeless people from the skid row area in downtown Los Angeles.