WASHINGTON — Ben Carson has called for harsh criminal penalties for health care fraud, but the Republican presidential candidate and his wife also have kept millions invested with a close friend who admitted defrauding insurance companies, an Associated Press review found.
Pittsburgh dentist Alfonso A. Costa pleaded guilty to a felony count of health care fraud after an FBI probe into his oral surgery practice found he had charged for procedures he never performed, according to court records.
Though the crime carries a potential sentence of up to 10 years in federal prison, Costa was sentenced to house arrest and probation after Carson helped petition a federal judge on behalf of the man he described as “one my closest, if not my very closest friend.”
That’s different from the position Carson later took as he prepared to launch his presidential campaign. In his 2013 political treatise, “America the Beautiful,” Carson wrote that anyone found guilty of health care fraud should face the “Saudi Arabian Solution.”
“Why don’t people steal very often in Saudi Arabia?” asked Carson, a retired neurosurgeon. “Obviously because the punishment is the amputation of one or more fingers. I would not advocate chopping off people’s limbs, but there would be some very stiff penalties for this kind of fraud, such as loss of one’s medical license for life, no less than 10 years in prison and loss of all of one’s personal possessions.”
Despite that tough-on-crime message, records show Carson and his wife have maintained their business relationship with Costa in the years since his 2007 conviction. The breadth of the two men’s business ties has not been previously reported, partly because details can be obscured in property and incorporation records.
Carson defended his relationship with Costa anew on Thursday.
“Al Costa is my very best friend. I know his heart. I am proud to call him my friend. I have always and will continue to stand by him. That is what real friends do,” Carson said.
Doug Watts, Carson’s spokesman, said this week he was unable to respond to specific questions about land deals involving the candidate and Costa. He acknowledged they do have investments together.
Before his criminal conviction and the revocation of his license to practice dentistry, Costa built a multimillion-dollar fortune through commercial real estate. Costa Land Co. and its affiliates own properties in at least five states and overseas.
Investments that Carson and his wife made through Costa earn the couple between $200,000 and $2 million a year, according to financial records Carson has filed.
