Ex-Orange County Resident Sentenced to 7 Years in Federal Prison for Receiving Kickbacks from Sober Living Homes, Firearms Trafficking

LOS ANGELES – A former resident of Orange County was sentenced today to 84 months in federal prison for soliciting and receiving nearly $500,000 in illegal kickbacks from corrupt sober living homes in exchange for finding them new patients in a process known as “body brokering” and for firearms trafficking.

Darius Moore, 31, formerly of Santa Ana but most recently of North Carolina, was sentenced by United States District Judge Josephine L. Staton.

Moore pleaded guilty in November 2021 to one count of conspiracy to pay or receive illegal remunerations for referrals to clinical treatment facilities and one count of soliciting or receiving illegal remunerations for referrals to clinical treatment facilities.

From no later than February 2020 to December 2020, Moore conspired with addiction treatment facility owners to broker patients to the facilities for drug addiction treatment services. Moore knew the facilities would bill the referred patients’ private health insurance plans for the treatment services and then pay Moore a share of the resulting insurance proceeds as kickback payments.

Over the course of his time working as a body broker, Moore was paid nearly $500,000 in kickbacks from the facilities.

While free on bond in the “body brokering” criminal case, Moore violated his pretrial release conditions on several occasions, including in May 2023 when he sold two firearms and a drum magazine to buyers. In September 2023, a federal grand jury in the Western District of North Carolina charged him with one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. After the North Carolina federal case was transferred to this district, Moore pleaded guilty in Los Angeles on February 14 to that count.

Moore has been in federal custody since August 2023.

The FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated this matter with assistance from the California Department of Insurance.

Assistant United States Attorney Nandor F.R. Kiss of the Orange County Office and Trial Attorney Siobhan M. Namazi of the Fraud Section of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division prosecuted this case.