55 Silver Lawsuit: Aetna Fraud, Deaths, and Federal Probe

The 55 Silver lawsuit is a federal insurance-fraud case that Aetna filed in November 2023 against Nathan Samuel Young, his company 55 Silver LLC, and more than a dozen affiliated people and entities, alleging a nearly $40 million scheme to bill for sham addiction treatment in Southern California. The case settled confidentially in the spring of 2026, but a federal criminal investigation, wrongful death suits, license revocations, and wage claims tied to the same network are still active.

What 55 Silver Is

55 Silver LLC is a California limited liability company owned and controlled by Nathan Young. It did not treat patients itself. According to Aetna’s filings, 55 Silver and a sister entity, 9 Silver LLC, functioned as the financial backbone of a network of rehab facilities and sober living homes: paying leases on the sober living houses, paying body-broker commissions, and running payroll through Gusto, Inc. for drivers, house managers, and recruiters. Young allegedly used the companies’ bank accounts interchangeably with his personal accounts to move money across the network.{¹}

What Aetna Alleged

Aetna Life Insurance Company and Aetna Health of California filed suit on November 14, 2023, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, case number 2:23-cv-09654.{²} The complaint brought seven causes of action: fraud, negligent misrepresentation, intentional interference with economic contractual relationships, a substantive RICO count and a RICO conspiracy count, a claim under California Business and Professions Code Section 17200, and unjust enrichment.{¹}

The scheme Aetna described had several moving parts. Body brokers recruited people with desirable insurance coverage, offering cash, transportation, housing, and in some cases drugs. When a recruit had no insurance, defendants allegedly helped obtain a policy or added the person as a dependent on another patient’s plan even without any family relationship.{³}

Once in the network, patients were housed in the 55 Silver and 9 Silver sober living homes, which Aetna’s complaint called “little more than drug dens” where drug and alcohol use occurred daily. Rather than supporting recovery, the residences kept patients tethered to the affiliated treatment facilities so billing could continue.{¹}

To keep the money coming, defendants allegedly shuffled patients between facilities and billed under different Tax Identification Numbers to dodge fraud-detection systems. When one facility’s benefits ran out, a patient would be moved to another entity to restart the cycle. Some patients were billed for identical treatment from multiple entities on the same day. Unnecessary drug tests were used to justify returning patients to higher, costlier levels of care, and relapses were treated as a chance to bill again.{³}

Ali Beheshti’s company, Zealie LLC, handled the administrative billing that funneled the claims to Aetna and, according to the complaint, took a percentage of the proceeds.{⁴} Zealie’s attorneys called the allegations “without merit” and described the company as a third-party billing vendor with no involvement in treatment decisions.{⁵}

Young’s Counterclaim

Young pushed back. On November 27, 2024, he and his associates filed a counterclaim accusing Aetna of running a “sham prepayment review audit” to indefinitely delay more than $16.4 million in legitimate claims. The counterclaim argued that Aetna’s practices stigmatized patients by treating relapse and repeated treatment as inherently fraudulent, though both are recognized features of substance use disorder. Young sought damages, attorneys’ fees, and a jury trial.{⁶}

How the Case Ended

The court terminated the case on March 26, 2026. On April 16, 2026, the parties filed a stipulation to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1)(A), covering Nathan Young, David Young, 55 Silver LLC, 9 Silver LLC, and the treatment-entity defendants.{²} Young’s attorney, Marc S. Williams, confirmed that “the parties have reached an amicable resolution” but said the terms were confidential.{⁷}

The Federal Criminal Investigation

Settlement of the civil case did not end Young’s legal exposure. In late 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice’s criminal fraud division opened a grand jury investigation into the network. The DOJ subpoenaed Aetna for records on body brokering, kickback payments, fraudulent enrollment in health plans, and billing for telehealth group sessions.{⁸}

Young’s lawyers asked the court to stay the Aetna civil case, citing Fifth Amendment concerns tied to the parallel criminal investigation. Aetna opposed the stay, noting that courts rarely grant one before an indictment. As of the most recent reporting, no indictments have been filed against Nathan or David Young, and the investigation remains open.{⁸}

One person on the network’s periphery has been charged. Nicholas William Metzger Moore, who served as secretary and CFO at Young’s Kiloby Center for Recovery in Rancho Mirage and was identified in Aetna’s filings as a body broker, was indicted on charges of conspiracy to pay illegal referral kickbacks and failure to file a tax return. He pleaded not guilty.{⁹}

Wrongful Death and Neglect Suits Against 55 Silver

Alongside the Aetna case, families and former patients have filed civil suits naming 55 Silver directly.

Emmanuel Deron Mitchell, 28, was recruited from Oklahoma to Los Angeles on January 2, 2024, and died of a fentanyl overdose at a sober living house on February 7, 2024. A complaint filed by his mother, Rosalind Savoid, on behalf of his child, alleged that facility staff did not know how to administer Narcan and named Nathan Young, 55 Silver, and several treatment facilities.{¹⁰}

Benjamin Barragan, 29, a North Dakota tribal member, was recruited to California in April 2024 and died of a fentanyl overdose on June 13, 2024. A complaint filed by Cathy Ann Santos on behalf of his five children alleged that Barragan died at midnight but staff did not find his body until 6 a.m. It named Nathan Young, David Young, 55 Silver, and multiple affiliated facilities.{¹⁰}

Attorney Karen Gold, who represents both families, has filed more than 60 claims on behalf of other victims alleging injuries, damages, and neglect within the network. Gold said operators treated patients as “disposable” and that when insurance benefits ran out, individuals were “dropped off at dangerous homeless encampments.”{¹¹}

A former client, Kyle Witt, sued in California state court (case number 24STCV147114), naming 55 Silver LLC, Nathan Young, David Young, and several affiliates. Witt alleged that from March to September 2024 he was placed in facilities that were “unclean, overcrowded, and drug infested,” was billed for detox services he never received, and was denied prepared meals. After he fractured his cervical spine in three places diving into a pool in May 2024, he said he received no follow-up care, was denied a neurology appointment and physical therapy, and on September 28, 2024, was terminated from the program and abandoned on Skid Row.{¹²} Another former client, Kelsey Berndt, said in a separate suit that she was shuffled between facilities more than 32 times and given ineffective Zoom-based therapy while being prescribed Suboxone, which she said created a new addiction.{¹³}

Wage Claims and Regulatory Actions

55 Silver and 9 Silver also face a substantial volume of wage claims filed with the California Department of Industrial Relations. State records show dozens filed between December 2022 and April 2026, from offices in Los Angeles, Santa Ana, Bakersfield, San Bernardino, and Van Nuys, with 14 cases under investigation as of mid-2026.{¹⁴} Former workers described a system in which clients were employed as house managers, maintenance staff, and drivers at wages well below legal minimums, with room and board claimed as an offset. Anthony Morrison, a maintenance worker, said he earned $250 per week for full-time work and was fired after threatening to contact the state labor department. Christian Magliozzi sued alleging he was required to falsify attendance records for Zoom therapy sessions and was fired two days after complaining to regulators.{¹⁵}

On the regulatory side, the California Department of Health Care Services took enforcement action against several Young-affiliated facilities in 2024. DHCS issued an accusation and order of immediate temporary suspension against Elmo Detox LLC on October 10, 2024, citing conditions harmful to patient health and safety.{¹⁶} Elmo Detox challenged the suspension, arguing that the inspection findings were months old and did not show imminent danger.{¹⁷} DHCS ultimately revoked licenses for at least three facilities in the network; reporting identified Rodeo Recovery and 33rd Street Detox as also receiving notices of license revocation and temporary suspension.{¹⁸} In June 2024, the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services issued a “SCAM ALERT” naming Santa Monica Rehab, a Young-linked entity, and warning the public about body brokering, cash offers, kickbacks, and insurance fraud in California’s private-pay addiction treatment industry.{⁵}

Where Things Stand

The network contracted sharply under the pressure. When Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma stopped covering out-of-state addiction treatment effective January 1, 2025, a spokesman for Young said roughly 1,000 people were sent back to their home states as sober living houses emptied and closed.{¹⁵}

As of early 2026, the Aetna civil case is resolved by confidential settlement. The DOJ criminal investigation remains open, with no indictments against Young reported. Landlord lawsuits over hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid rent from properties in Huntington Beach, Laguna Hills, Anaheim, and Fountain Valley are continuing, along with the wrongful death and personal injury cases being pursued by Karen Gold and others.{⁷} Nathan Young and his associates have denied all allegations of wrongdoing, saying their operations help vulnerable people get sober and reintegrate into society.

1
Media News Group. Aetna v. Nathan Samuel Young, First Amended Complaint
2
PACER Monitor. Aetna Life Insurance Company et al v. Nathan Samuel Young et al
3
Media News Group. Aetna Opposition to Motion to Dismiss
4
Media News Group. Aetna v. Nathan Samuel Young, Original Complaint
5
OC Register. Scam Alert Issued by Delaware Targeting California Addiction Treatment
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OC Register. Embattled Addiction Treatment Empire Countersues Aetna in $40 Million Tug of War
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OC Register. Rehab Riviera: Huge Court Payout Spells Out Some Details of Rehab Fraud
8
Insurance News Net. Rehab Riviera: Addiction Treatment Empire Faces Criminal Probe
9
OC Register. Court Battle Could Expose Ugliest Strategies of Drug Rehab Business
10
OC Register. Rampant Drug Use at Addiction Rehabs Led to Deaths, Complaints Claim
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Mercury News. Rampant Drug Use at Addiction Rehabs Led to Deaths, Complaints Claim
12
Media News Group. Kyle Witt v. Apex Recovery LLC et al., Complaint
13
OC Register. Neglect, Abandonment Claims Filed Against Embattled Addiction Treatment Empire
14
California Department of Industrial Relations. Wage Claim Search Results – 55 Silver
15
Insurance News Net. Especially Disgusting: Former Workers, Patients Level Accusations at Addiction Treatment Empire
16
Media News Group. DHCS Accusation and Notice of Suspension, Elmo Detox LLC
17
Media News Group. Elmo Detox Challenge to DHCS Suspension
18
Daily News. Addicts Came to Southern California From Afar to Get Sober. They Wound Up Dead