Premium ContentClick on Premium Content on the Featured navigation bar for information.
913-715-3140.
Kansas authorities accuse an 86-year-old Omaha resident of using his health care discount company to steal from elderly customers by withdrawing money from their bank accounts without legal authorization.
Kenneth Opstein faces 29 theft- and fraud-related charges in Johnson County, Kan., in suburban Kansas City, according to court documents. He was arrested in Sioux City, Iowa, on Aug. 27 and then extradited to Kansas.
Opstein is being held in lieu of $1 million bail and is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 16, Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe said Thursday.
Opstein, a former insurance executive, is known in Omaha and throughout the region for his success as a racehorse owner and breeder. A woman reached at Opstein's Fairacres home said that she didn't have any contact information for Opstein's attorney and that the family would have no immediate comment. Opstein has been assigned a court-appointed attorney, Howe said.
Two of Opstein's alleged business partners, father and son Hermann Wilms and Grant Wilms of Overland Park, Kan., have also been arrested and charged.
Howe said the three men are accused of using two companies — ASP Inc. and National Health Care Discount Inc. — to offer lower prices for prescription drugs and dental and optometry services to elderly customers who allowed the companies to withdraw an annual fee of $80 to $120 from their bank accounts.
However, according to court documents, the men made dozens of additional unauthorized withdrawals from customers' accounts since 2007 — as many as 15 to 17 at a time, Howe said.
Some of those customers had died, Howe said, and the company withdrew money through their estates.
Authorities say the three men might have stolen from more than 5,000 customers nationwide, adding that the investigation was continuing and that prosecutors were still trying to uncover a host of details. Howe worked with federal prosecutors to decide which agency would prosecute the cases.
The charges in Johnson County name 14 customers.
“We believe we've just scratched the surface in the number of victims,” Howe said. “We have found that, from coast to coast, we have people who have been victimized by this company.”
The investigation involves the U.S. Secret Service and numerous other law enforcement agencies. It began six months ago, when Kansas and federal investigators began to receive complaints, officials said.
Investigators have surveyed 224 customers' cases, Howe said. The average age of the customers surveyed was 78.
Over the past nine months, the companies have collected at least $2.7 million, investigators say. Prosecutors allege that Opstein and his family received more than $200,000 during that time.
“All three individuals in custody personally enriched themselves with large sums of money,” Howe said.
Opstein's success as a racehorse owner led him to be named to the Nebraska Racing Hall of Fame in 1985. One of his horses, Gate Dancer, ran in the Kentucky Derby and won the Preakness Stakes and the Omaha Gold Cup.
In 1986, Opstein paid $450,000 for a Fairacres home at 321 N. 68th St. He spent thousands of dollars more to remodel it. The home's cutting-edge design has won accolades from the Nebraska Society of Architects. The house is valued for tax purposes at more than $940,000. Opstein also owns property in Iowa.
But Opstein ran into financial trouble in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when he became the focus of more than a dozen lawsuits in Douglas County District Court, mostly for failing to repay loans. Judgments against him totaled $1.5 million. In one case, he repaid a debtor from the proceeds of the sale of 18 horses.
Opstein still managed to back his company's national champion fast-pitch softball team, based in Sioux City, with a $300,000 budget in the early 90s.
Opstein and his companies filed for bankruptcy in 1993. His businesses — Keystone Realty, Good Chance Farm in Ocala, Fla., Tire & Heavy Equipment, U.S. Tire & Auto Service and Marathon Flying — were included in that bankruptcy case.
America Online sued National Health Care Discount in 1998 for allegedly sending spam e-mails to entice potential customers, according to court documents.
Documents in that case say Opstein founded National Health Care Discount in 1989 and initially served as its chief executive and sole shareholder.
The company entered into agreements with dentists and optical care providers to provide discounted services and products to the company's clients.
Investigators have focused on the companies' activities over the past five to eight years, Howe said. “We feel that the vast majority of the wealth they acquired over that period of time was generated from this fraud.”
The prosecutor encouraged anyone who might have worked with ASP Inc. or National Health Care Discount Inc. to contact Kansas authorities.
Most important, Howe said, the elderly and those responsible for them must protect their bank account information and keep a close eye on their bank statements and finances.
“Some of us, including myself, just take for granted what our statements say instead of taking a good look at it,” Howe said. “That's what these companies count on.”
World-Herald staff writer Lynn Safranek contributed to this report.
Contact the writer:
444-1068, johnny.perez@owh.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
