U.S. Marshals: Indicted Doraville clinic owner on the run

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By Marcus K. Garner

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Doraville medical clinic owner indicted Wednesday for Medicare fraud has fled the country, authorities said.

Clinic owner indicted in health care fraud

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David Song Sen Cui, of Duluth, left for China shortly after federal agents conducted a search of his Atlanta Hope Medical Clinic, Assistant U.S. Attorney Shanya Dingle told WSB Radio.

“He has fled to China and we don’t know whether he is going to appear on the charges,” Dingle said. “He fled during the course of the investigation.”

U.S. Marshals officials said Friday that a fugitive file had been opened on Cui and said that the FBI would lead the search.

Cui, 43, has been accused of billing more than $5.5 million in false claims to Medicare.

According to the indictment, unlicensed massage therapists provided services to numbers of elderly patients, which Cui’s business in turn billed to Medicare as ‘physical therapy.’

No court date has been scheduled yet for Cui, Dingle said, but “he may shortly be considered a fugitive.”

She said federal authorities have tried to get in contact with Cui.

“He only recently became aware of the indictment,” Dingle said.

Return for updates.

A MARTA bus driver was arrested early Wednesday morning for driving on the wrong side of the road and hitting a police car while drunk.

Nichelle Therese Horton was off duty when she was seen driving her silver Chrysler 300 southbound in the northbound lane of Lawrenceville Highway near DeKalb Industrial Parkway, police said.

According to police reports, Horton’s car was weaving between the left and middle northbound lanes of the three-lane roadway, going between 12 and 20 mph.

A DeKalb County police officer was driving south on the correct side of the street when she encountered Horton, and tried to drive ahead of Horton in the northbound lanes an attempt to warn any oncoming traffic of the wrong-way driver, police said.

But as the officer pulled alongside Horton’s car in an attempt to pass, Horton sped up and veered into the officer’s lane, hitting the rear quarter of the police car, according to police reports.

The officer braked, stopping both cars, and eventually arrested Horton.

Horton, 40, was charged with driving under the influence, driving on the wrong side of the road, among other charges, and was released from the DeKalb County jail early Thursday morning on $2,000 bond.

Reached by phone Friday morning, Horton declined to comment.

Her attorney, Kevin Moony, could not be reached for comment.

Horton has been a driver for MARTA since February 1997, according to MARTA officials, and most recently served as a back-up driver, filling in for other bus operators.

MARTA spokeswoman Cara Hodgson said Horton has been placed on unpaid leave until an internal investigation is complete.

Staff writer Mike Morris contributed to this article.