EXCLUSIVE: Inside the lavish lifestyle of FBI Most Wanted 'fraudster', who dodged deportation before allegedly swindling taxpayers in $2 BILLION Medicare scam - but judges STILL let him wriggle free
- Palestine-born Khalid Satary was arrested in 2019 as part of an investigation into fraudulent Medicare claims, after previously being jailed for music piracy
- Prosecutors say he was the 'kingpin' of the Medicare scam, but judges granted bond despite protestations from state attorneys and previous flight attempt
- He has now vanished and is thought to have hidden his fortune overseas, or transferred it to his son, Jordan, who still flaunts his lavish lifestyle in Texas
With millions of dollars in his pocket, a 'history of deceit' and a previous attempt to jump the country with an illegal passport, most would have viewed alleged fraudster Khalid Satary as a flight risk.
The Palestinian national, or 'DJ Rock' as he was once known, had already served three years in a US jail in the mid-2000s after he was found to be the ringleader of a $50million music piracy ring.
More than a decade later, he was back in court facing charges for a cancer testing scheme, which allegedly cost taxpayers $500million in illegal Medicare reimbursements.
The racket had made Satary rich and, as state attorney Timothy Loper argued at a bond hearing, 'it's not that difficult, when you have $20million at your disposal, to get out of this country when you're looking at decades in prison'.
Prosecutors wanted him held in jail pending trial.
But, in a galling decision for US taxpayers, a federal judge allowed him to post bond in 2019 and travel around the country without restrictions.
Satary is now nowhere to be found.
Alleged fraudster Khalid Satary, 51, (left) was added to the FBI's Most Wanted list in January after disappearing while awaiting trial over his alleged alleged involvement in a $2bn Medicare fraud. Family companies raided during the investigation include those placed under the name of his son Jordan, 28, (right)
The Satary's amassed allegedly amassed vast personal wealth from their scam, including this former $2.6million family home in Delray Beach, Florida
It is thought he could be anywhere from New Orleans to Jordan, while court records show he has allegedly transferred up to $10million of his assets offshore.
In January, he was added to the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted list after he failed to show up for a hearing.
Now DailyMail.com has unearthed evidence of Satary's vast personal fortune and the lavish lifestyle he enjoyed while he transferred assets to his son, Jordan, 28, in an alleged bid to conceal his scam from prosecutors.
The family had amassed an empire of properties and luxury cars, including a $2.6million mansion in Delray Beach, Florida, and a $1.2million home with a swimming pool in a gated community in Suwanee, Georgia.
Incredibly, all this had been established - allegedly with fraudulently obtained taxpayer cash - after authorities tried and failed to deport Satary in 2008 following his sentence for music piracy.
It begs the question, why on earth did the courts set him free?
Living the American dream
Satary, who was born in Gaza in 1972 before moving with his family to Dubai, came to the US in 1992 on a student visa and settled in Atlanta, Georgia, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Around a decade after arriving in the country, his piracy conviction revealed that he kept large amounts of cash that he regularly transferred overseas to Jordan, the UAE, Egypt and Israel, according to an FBI affidavit.
When he was released from jail in 2008, the federal government attempted to deport him, but could not find a country that would accept him.
Satary wasted little time in taking advantage of his reprieve and switched his focus from music to Medicare.
He opened a series of diagnostic labs, billing millions to the taxpayer, and quickly rebuilt his wealth.
The 51-year-old purchased his family home in Suwanee for $1.2million in 2014, placing it under his son's name, a ploy he often used to conceal his wealth, prosecutors allege.
For several years his family and associates lived the American dream, driving expensive cars and courting powerful Georgia politicians.
But the net began closing on Satary at the height of the opioid epidemic, when his family's labs, including those under the name of his son, were raided as part of a federal crackdown on alleged 'pill mills' that were linked to hundreds of opioid deaths.
Photographs on Khalid Satary's Facebook page appear to show the family's $1.2million mansion with a swimming pool in a gated community in Suwanee, Georgia
The property was placed under Jordan's name, a ploy his father often used to conceal his wealth, prosecutors claim. It was later transferred to an associate for $1, records show
'Kingpin' of $500m scam that targeted elderly
Satary nor any figures connected with his labs were charged in the case, but just two years later his laboratory empire was the biggest scalp in Operation Double Helix, a federal probe that took aim at fraudulent Medicare reimbursements.
As many as 35 people have been charged in the sting, covering a combined $2.1billion in unnecessary genetic tests, of which Satary's labs are allegedly responsible for around a quarter.
The centers in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Florida and Georgia collected around $200million in reimbursements.
He pocketed vast sums of the cash himself, while the rest was used to pay kickbacks to crooked middlemen and doctors who were part of his alleged scheme.
Satary is yet to be tried, but other defendants have pleaded guilty and confessed to working with him.
Prosecutors say there is a 'mountain of evidence' against him, which points to him being the 'kingpin' of the operation.
His labs allegedly used middlemen to recruit senior citizens for 'free' cancer screening tests, even if they didn't need them.
These middlemen would then bribe doctors to sign off these tests as 'medically necessary', prosecutors say.
Satary's labs would process the tests before claiming Medicare reimbursements at up to $10,000 a pop, using the money to pay off those involved in the alleged scheme.
Satary Sr was added to the FBI's Most Wanted list after he failed to show for a court hearing
Prosecutors claim messages show Satary explaining the scam to unnamed conspirators.
One chain sent in October 2017 allegedly shows him telling an associate how he would be wired $23,687 for referring patients to Clio Laboratories in Lawrenceville, Georgia, which operated under Jordan Satary's name.
Neither Khalid nor Jordan's lawyers responded to a request for comment by DailyMail.com, but the former's lawyers have argued in court documents that the claims against him are 'generalized' claims of wrongdoing that lacked a 'smoking gun'.
Jordan has not been charged in the US.
To flee or not to flee
Satary Sr's attorneys claimed he did not pose a flight risk, arguing he had no passport or driver's license and his failed deportation showed no other country wanted him.
Furthermore, he had known he was under investigation for months prior to his arrest and had made no attempt to flee, they said.
Yet this was not entirely true.
Satary had in fact told the FBI in 2016, shortly before the 'pill mill' raids, that he had tried to move to Qatar, allegedly paying millions of dollars for a black market Jordanian passport, but was defrauded.
Yet US Magistrate Judge Karen Wells Roby ordered Satary released with no domestic travel restrictions in 2019.
Prosecutors appealed and the following week US District Judge Wendy Vitter confined him to the northern district of Georgia.
Khalid and his son Jordan appear together in several Facebook posts, with Khalid placing several of his businesses under his son's name to hide his involvement in alleged fraud
The pair both appear to share a love of music, with Khalid a former DJ and now music promoter, while Jordan's Instagram posts show him at an array of glitzy concerts
Prosecutors claim Khalid has transferred much of his wealth to his family and associates, including depositing $25million into a bank account in his wife's name over two years
His bond was set at $500,000, which Satary put up in cash.
But when the pandemic delayed his trial, he successfully applied for looser restrictions until he was allowed to travel freely throughout the country for his new business venture as a music promoter for Arab pop artists in the US.
This enraged state attorneys, who argued that no bond amount could stop him fleeing due to his proven ability to hide and transfer his vast wealth to associates and overseas.
Between January 2017 and August 2019, Satary deposited $25million into a bank account in his wife's name, with 'virtually all of the money directly traceable to the Medicare fraud scheme', prosecutors allege.
In 2016, his son transferred the family's Suwanee home to an associate for $1, Gwinnett County records show.
Meanwhile, a further $21million has been moved to an unknown location.
'Mr Satary knows how to hide money,' state attorney Loper said.
Hidden wealth overseas
Satary Jr continues to live the high life in Houston, Texas, despite an arrest warrant under his name in Jordan, for his alleged role in concealing his father's ill-gotten gains
Jordan claims to be the chairman of an advertising agency with offices in Atlanta and Houston
His social media profiles show off his lavish lifestyle and carry inspirational posts telling followers to 'attract friends who force you to think bigger and live life 11/10'
His Instagram documents extravagant holidays to mansions in Dubai
His profiles are also littered with pictures of luxury cars, in keeping with his family's past
Jordanian court records indicate where he might have hidden it.
The documents, provided to DailyMail.com by Hussam Abdallat, a Jordanian anti-corruption activist living in exile in London, allegedly show Satary used his son's companies and other associates in the US and Middle East to secretly move millions of his vast fortune offshore.
Those involved allegedly include several high-ranking Jordanians, including a member of parliament, a diplomat and a senior customs official.
Records show pending arrest warrants in the country for Satary and his son, whose Instagram profile shows him continuing to live the high life in Houston, Texas, where he claims to be the chairman of an advertising agency.
In keeping with his family's past, his posts show off fast cars, glitzy concerts and luxury holidays to Dubai, alongside captions such as 'attract friends who force you to think bigger and live life 11/10…(go big or stay home).'
Meanwhile, the FBI is left floundering. Its January appeal claimed the elder Satary 'has ties or may travel to Houston, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; Delray Beach, Florida; and Dubai, United Arab Emirates'.
In other words, he could be anywhere.
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