Lindsay Lohan’s father Michael Lohan was arrested in Palm Beach, Florida on Friday on accusations that he accepted up to $27,000 in illegal kickbacks in exchange for placing addicts in a rehab center.
The 60-year-old faces five counts of patient brokering and one count of attempted patient brokering for sending addicts to Pride Recovery Center in Delray Beach in 2017 and 2018.
Lohan, who runs Lola Recovery Ventures, is accused of accepting nine checks from Pride Recovery.
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One of the addicts sent to the center was a woman—only named by her initials B.M.—with whom Lohan was having a “sexual relationship,” according to his arrest warrant. Lohan allegedly was paid $5,000 for sending her to the facility.
Lohan denied any involvement in patient brokering when speaking with an investigator earlier this month, according to the arrest warrant. He claimed “that all the money he received from Pride Recovery was for facilitating the sale of Pride Recovery and money owed to him from other endeavors.”
The actress’ father was busted as part of a wider investigation into patient brokering in Palm Beach County, becoming the department’s 117th arrest, according to Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg.
“Mr. Lohan was investigated by our Sober Homes Task Force and he’s being charged with receiving kickbacks for referring patients to drug treatment,” Aronberg said. “Patient brokering corrupts our healthcare system because decisions are motivated by greed instead of a patient’s needs.”
In a statement to The Daily Beast, Lohan’s lawyer, Heidi Perlet, said, “Michael Lohan has helped countless individuals suffering from addiction issues. He should be applauded for his efforts in saving lives—not arrested for them. Michael has devoted much of his life to helping those in need. This arrest overlooks this fact and ignores all of his good work... Michael is not a number, and he will not be reduced to one of the State Attorney’s statistics.”
“Michael is looking forward to having his day in court where the truth, not mere statistics, will come out,” she added.
This is not the first time Lohan has run into trouble with the law.
He was arrested in February 2020 for allegedly choking and harassing his estranged wife Kate Major. He adamantly denied the allegations, and later took a plea deal which involved having the choking charge dropped.
