Lindsay Lohan’s father arrested, faces patient brokering charges in Florida

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The father of actress Lindsay Lohan was busted on patient brokering charges out of Palm Beach County, according to court records.

Michael Lohan, 60, was booked into jail Friday. He faces five patient brokering charges and one charge of conspiracy to commit patient brokering. Prosecutors say he brought drug addicts to treatment centers in Florida in exchange for kickbacks, according to an arrest affidavit.

The affidavit names him as the president of Lola Recovery Ventures in Palm Beach Gardens. Lohan referred patients to Pride Recovery for about five months starting in December 2017, cashing in on a total of $27,750, the affidavit says.

The owner of Pride Recovery was later arrested and admitted he was involved in illegal patient brokering with Lohan, the affidavit says. He and his business partners wrote nine checks to Lohan totaling $27,750 for the patients he referred there, which was confirmed by bank records, as well as interviews with the victims and their admission records to the Pride Center, the affidavit says.

On each patient’s records, Lohan is listed as the referrer, the affidavit says.

Last month, Lohan called one of the officers investigating him, the affidavit says. Lohan told the investigator that he heard from a patient’s mother that the investigator was asking question about him.

“Lohan advised he did marketing for Pride Recovery and he wanted to know how his name came up” and what they were investigating, the affidavit says. “Lohan went on to elaborate how he has done a lot of work in the recovery industry and he would be more than willing to meet” with Palm Beach County’s Sober Homes Task Force, the affidavit says.

In interviews with investigators, one of Lohan’s victims told officials that Lohan got her a reduced rate for treatment at Pride Recovery because they were friends. The mother of another victim said she felt she was “deceived” by Lohan to send her son to Pride Recovery, because he was not addicted to drugs and needed a psychiatrist, the affidavit says.

Lohan told her Pride Recovery was her son’s best option, the affidavit says. He told her the facility had “state of the art equipment” that could “scan her son’s brain to figure out how to treat him.” He told her that her insurance would cover everything and she wouldn’t have to pay anything out of pocket, the affidavit says.

She ended up paying $10,000 to meet the deductible, the affidavit says. While her son was at Pride Recovery, he was “not seen by the psychiatrist, threatened suicide, and ran away from Pride Recovery due to the lack of treatment he was receiving.”

Another victim told investigators “Lohan is a monster and will do anything for money,” the affidavit says.

Investigators also spoke with the actual marketing director for Pride Recovery, who told them he never worked with Lohan on marketing for the facility, the affidavit says.

Lohan was the Sober Home Task Force’s 117th arrest, and “will not be our last,” says State Attorney Dave Aronberg.

“Patient brokering corrupts our health care system because decisions are motivated by greed and instead of a patient’s needs,” he said.