Lantana man listed as fugitive charged with patient brokering
DELRAY BEACH — The fallout from the February 2017 arrest of treatment-center operator James Tomasso has led to another “patient brokering” arrest, this one of a Lantana man with a history of drug-related charges, reports show.
Shawtee Oates, 37, who had been listed as a fugitive, was booked late Wednesday at the Palm Beach County Jail. Oates appeared in court Thursday morning and was ordered held on $150,000 bail — $5,000 each for 30 counts of fraud and patient brokering — the Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office said Friday.
Patient brokering occurs when substance-abuse treatment centers pay sober homes — where addicts live while getting clean — to steer clients with private health insurance to them. Florida law prohibits treatment providers from paying a commission, bonus, kickback or bribe for new patients.
Multiple people who work in the addiction treatment industry have been arrested on patient brokering charges since The Palm Beach Post investigated corruption in the sober home industry.
As recently as Thursday morning, Oates still appeared on a list of fugitives posted by Crime Stoppers of Palm Beach County, although that was taken down by Friday. Delray Beach police and the sheriff ’s office were not able to say Friday how Oates came into custody and whether he was arrested or turned himself in on the arrest warrant.
In February 2017, the Palm Beach County Sober Homes Task Force arrested Tomasso, then 57, of Boca Raton, the owner and director of Global Recovery Resources. Police charged him with patient brokering, alleging he paid for referrals to one of his common-law wife’s three treatment centers. The task force’s dealings with Tomasso have led so far to numerous arrests, most recently the October 2017 arrests of six people, the March 29 arrest of Betsy Dieujuste of Boca Raton, and the May 9 arrest of Scott Robert Gillis of Boynton Beach.
According to an April 13 report from Delray Beach police, and made available by Palm Beach County Circuit Court clerks on Friday, the task force discovered 30 checks totaling $32,900 that Tomasso wrote to Oates between April 2016 and January 2017. Tomasso told task force investigators the payments were in exchange for Oates referring clients to one of Tomasso’s treatment cen- ters for detoxification services. Tomasso said he would split a $1,000 fee 50-50 with Oates.
Cellphone records also showed Tomasso and Oates traded both texts and Facebook messages that discussed referrals and subsequent payments.
The report said Facebook postings retrieved by police showed Oates offered either discounted or free rent to clients who used Tomasso’s “intensive outpatient programs,” or IOPs. They also showed he enticed clients with promises of air fare to Florida, cash, cigarettes and toleration of marijuana use.
The messages showed Oates sold marijuana and opioids “and even solicited addicts for sex; one woman in particular while she was still in treatment,” the report says.
It also says Oates himself was not sober for part of the time he was housing addicts in his sober homes.