With millions of dollars in his pocket, a “history of deception” and a previous attempt to enter the country with an illegal passport, most would have viewed suspected fraudster Khalid Satary as a flight risk.
The Palestinian national, or “DJ Rock” as he was once known, had already spent three years in a US prison in the mid-2000s after he was found to be the leader of a $50 million music piracy ring.
More than a decade later, he stood trial again, charged over a cancer testing program that allegedly cost taxpayers $500 million in illegal Medicare reimbursements.
The brawl had made Satary rich, and prosecutor Timothy Loper argued at a bail hearing, “If you have $20 million on your hands, it’s not that difficult to get out of this country when you face decades in prison.”
Prosecutors wanted him held in prison pending trial.
But in a decision galling for US taxpayers, a federal judge in 2019 allowed him to post bail and travel around the country without restrictions.
Satary is nowhere to be found now.
Suspected fraudster Khalid Satary, 51, (left) was added to the FBI’s Most Wanted list in January after he disappeared while awaiting trial for his alleged involvement in a $2 billion Medicare scam. dollar waited. Family businesses searched as part of the investigation include those operating under the name of his son Jordan, 28, (right).
The Satarys have allegedly amassed enormous personal fortune through their fraud, including this $2.6 million former family home in Delray Beach, Florida
It’s thought he might live somewhere between New Orleans and Jordan, while court filings show he allegedly transferred up to $10 million of his wealth overseas.
In January, he was added to the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List after failing to show up for a hearing.
Now has found evidence of Satary’s vast personal fortune and the lavish lifestyle he enjoyed while transferring assets to his son Jordan, 28, allegedly in an attempt to hide his fraud from prosecutors.
The family had built an empire of real estate and luxury automobiles, including a $2.6 million mansion in Delray Beach, Florida, and a $1.2 million home with a pool in a gated community in Suwanee, Georgia.
Incredibly, all of this was discovered – allegedly with fraudulently stolen tax money – after authorities failed to deport Satary in 2008 following his conviction on music piracy charges.
It begs the question, why on earth did the courts let him go?
Living the American Dream
According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Satary, who was born in Gaza in 1972 before moving to Dubai with his family, came to the United States in 1992 on a student visa and settled in Atlanta, Georgia.
About a decade after arriving in the country, his piracy conviction revealed that, according to an FBI affidavit, he possessed large amounts of cash that he regularly wired abroad to Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Israel.
When he was released from prison in 2008, the federal government tried to deport him but could not find a country that would take him.
Wasting no time, Satary used his reprieve to shift his focus from music to Medicare.
He opened a series of diagnostic labs, billed the taxpayer millions, and quickly rebuilt his fortune.
The 51-year-old bought his family’s home in Suwanee for $1.2 million in 2014 and put it in his son’s name, a ploy he often used to hide his wealth, according to prosecutors.
For several years, his family and associates lived the American Dream, driving expensive cars and courting powerful Georgia politicians.
But at the height of the opioid epidemic, the net began to close against Satary when his family’s labs, including those under his son’s name, were ambushed in a federal raid on alleged “pill factories” linked to hundreds of opioids stood, deaths were searched.
Photos on Khalid Satary’s Facebook page appear to show the family’s $1.2 million mansion and swimming pool in a gated community in Suwanee, Georgia
The estate was transferred to Jordan’s name, a ploy his father often used to hide his wealth, prosecutors allege. According to the records, it was later transferred to a partner for $1
“Kingpin” of a $500M scam targeting the elderly
Satary and others associated with his labs were indicted in the case, but just two years later his lab empire was the biggest scandal in Operation Double Helix, a federal investigation aimed at fraudulent Medicare reimbursements.
Up to 35 people have been charged with unnecessary genetic testing worth a total of $2.1 billion, of which Satary’s labs are said to be responsible for about a quarter.
Centers in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Florida and Georgia received approximately $200 million in reimbursements.
Large sums of the money he pocketed himself, while the rest was used to pay bribes to corrupt middlemen and doctors who were part of his alleged scheme.
Satary’s trial is pending, but other defendants have pleaded guilty and confessed to collaborating with him.
Prosecutors say there is a “mountain of evidence” against him, suggesting he is the “main man” in the operation.
His labs allegedly used middlemen to recruit older people for “free” cancer screenings, even when they didn’t need them.
Those middlemen would then bribe doctors into recognizing those tests as “medically necessary,” prosecutors say.
Satary’s labs would process the tests before claiming Medicare reimbursements of up to $10,000 per person and use the money to pay off those involved in the alleged scheme.
Satary Sr. was placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted List after failing to show up for a court hearing
Prosecutors claim news shows Satary explaining the fraud to unnamed conspirators.
A chain sent in October 2017 allegedly shows him telling an employee how he would be paid $23,687 to refer patients to Clio Laboratories in Lawrenceville, Georgia, which operated under the Jordan Satary name.
Neither Khalid nor Jordan’s lawyers responded to a request for comment from , but the former’s lawyers have argued in court documents that the claims made against him are “general” allegations of wrongdoing for which there was none give “decisive evidence”.
Jordan has not been charged in the US.
To flee or not to flee
Lawyers for Satary Sr. claimed that he was not a flight risk, arguing that he had no passport or driver’s license and that his failed deportation showed that no other country wanted him.
In addition, he had known for months before his arrest that he was under investigation and had not attempted to escape, it was said.
But that wasn’t entirely true.
In fact, in 2016, just prior to the “pill factory” raids, Satary had told the FBI that he had tried to move to Qatar, allegedly paying millions of dollars for a Jordanian passport available on the black market, but cheated had been.
But US Judge Karen Wells Roby in 2019 ordered Satary’s release without domestic travel restrictions.
Prosecutors appealed, and the following week, US District Judge Wendy Vitter imposed an exile in the North County of Georgia.
Khalid and his son Jordan appear together in several Facebook posts, with Khalid listing several of his businesses under his son’s name to disguise his involvement in alleged fraud
The pair both appear to share a love of music, with Khalid being a former DJ and now music promoter, while Jordan’s Instagram posts show him at a series of glittering concerts
Prosecutors allege that Khalid transferred much of his wealth to his family and friends, depositing $25 million into a bank account in his wife’s name over a two-year period
His bail was set at $500,000, which Satary posted in cash.
But when the pandemic delayed his trial, he successfully applied for looser restrictions until he could travel freely across the country for his new business venture as a music promoter for Arab pop artists in the US.
This enraged prosecutors, who argued that no bail could stop him from escaping as he had a proven ability to hide and transfer his vast fortune to partners and abroad.
Between January 2017 and August 2019, Satary deposited $25 million into a bank account on behalf of his wife, with “virtually all of the money directly attributable to the Medicare fraud program,” prosecutors allege.
In 2016, his son transferred the family home in Suwanee to a partner for $1, Gwinnett County records show.
Meanwhile, another $21 million has been transferred to an undisclosed location.
“Mr. Satary knows how to hide money,” prosecutor Loper said.
Hidden wealth abroad
Satary Jr. continues to lead an upscale life in Houston, Texas, despite an arrest warrant under his name in Jordan for his alleged role in covering up his father’s ill-gotten gains
Jordan claims to be the president of an advertising agency with offices in Atlanta and Houston
His social media profiles showcase his lavish lifestyle and include inspirational posts urging his followers to “attract friends that force you to think bigger and live life 11/10.”
His Instagram documents extravagant vacations in villas in Dubai
His profiles are also littered with pictures of luxury cars, consistent with his family’s past
Jordanian court records reveal where he may have hidden it.
The documents, provided to by Hussam Abdallat, a Jordanian anti-corruption activist living in exile in London, allegedly show that Satary used his son’s businesses and other associates in the US and the Middle East to secretly sell millions of his move huge fortunes abroad.
Those involved are said to include several senior Jordanians, including a member of parliament, a diplomat and a senior customs official.
Records show the country still has warrants out for his arrest for Satary and his son, whose Instagram profile shows him continuing to live the high life in Houston, Texas, where he claims to be the chairman of an advertising agency.
In keeping with his family’s past, his posts feature fast cars, glitzy concerts and luxury vacations in Dubai, along with headlines like “attracting friends that force you to think bigger and live life 11/10… (go big or too Stay at home).” ‘
Meanwhile, the FBI falters. The January appeals allegation that the elder Satary “has connections to Houston, Texas, or may travel there; Atlanta, GA; Delray Beach, Florida; and Dubai, United Arab Emirates”.
In other words, he could be anywhere.