‘Rehab Mogul’ Accused of Sexually Assaulting Patients and Defrauding More than $170M

Pinterest Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department A California “rehab mogul” was arrested last week on suspicion of sexually assaulting multiple female patients — and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office believes there could be more victims. Christopher Bathum, who founded 19 drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, was taken into custody Thursday after a raid of his home and more than a dozen locations in Los Angeles and Orange counties in California, PEOPLE confirms. (Bathum, 55, ran treatment centers there and in Colorado.) The self-described “mogul” and his company CFO, Kirsten Wallace, are also accused of multiple felony counts of grand theft, money laundering, insurance fraud and identity theft for allegedly conspiring to defraud patients and health insurers such as Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Cigna, Health Net and Humana out of more than $176 million. The sheriff’s department began its investigation in May after authorities were tipped off to allegations of sexual misconduct at Bathum’s Community Recovery treatment facilities dating back as far as 2012. “Christopher loves to save his patients’ lives from the clutches of addiction,” Bathum’s website, christopherbathum.co, states. “He understands what a successful treatment must be like because he has helped others achieve it.” Not so, authorities say. • Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. “Bathum and Wallace’s alleged conspiracy victimized hundreds of people addicted to drugs and alcohol by keeping them in a never-ending cycle of treatment, addiction and fraud — all the while lining their pockets with millions of dollars from allegedly fraudulent insurance claims,” California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said in a statement. “This is likely the first wave of indictments and charges in an ongoing investigation into one of the largest health insurance fraud cases in California.” Authorities say their alleged scheme involved stealing patient identities and buying health insurance policies for patients without their knowledge. Bathum allegedly continued to bill insurance companies even after his patient’s treatment was finished. In June, ABC’s 20/20 aired an episode on Bathum and the accusations leveled against him in which several women claimed he coerced them to have sex in exchange for drugs — sexually assaulting them and disrupting their recovery. One of the women, Amanda Jester, said that Bathum allegedly sexually assaulted her in a sweat lodge at his Malibu, California, facility and later in a Four Seasons hotel room. “I have no credit card, no money, no cellphone — I felt like I had no choice,” she told 20/20. Another woman alleged Bathum overdosed on heroin and methamphetamine after a drug-fueled night at a Malibu motel with her and two of his other clients. But Bathum denied all of their claims to ABC. He remains in jail and is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. It was not immediately clear if he has retained an attorney ahead of his arraignment. It was […]

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