FBI raids offices involved in 800-GET-THIN investigation

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- FBI agents raided Wednesday the offices of two men who allegedly own a weight-loss surgery business related to the 1-800-GET-THIN marketing campaign under investigation.

In a criminal complaint, former staff members and patients accuse Michael and Julian Omidi and their mother Cindy Omidi of creating a "lucrative and criminal enterprise to solicit patients for Lap Band surgeries."

People responding to 1-800-GET-THIN advertisements would contact a call center, which would often refer them to Lap-Band clinics owned by the Omidis. Several patients died as a result of their surgeries, according to the complaint.

When patients died, the Omidis "engaged in systematic and illegal cover ups to thwart investigations," the complaint says.

The Omidis also fraudulently billed patients' insurance companies for surgical procedures performed by unqualified staff in unsanitary facilities, the complaint continues.

Cindy Omidi was also arrested Wednesday in her Hollywood Hills home after being indicted of violating the Bank Secrecy Act by structuring financial transactions to avoid government scrutiny.

In Oct. 2013, she was indicted on charges that she bought money orders more than two dozen times in 2009 and 2009 for $2,900, which is below a $3,000 threshold that would have required her to disclose the transactions, The Los Angeles Times reports.