Connecticut General Life Insurance v. New Images of Beverly Hills

Defendant Haya Zilka appeals from the district court’s grant of a preliminary injunction freezing her assets. She attacks the injunction on a variety of grounds, many of which were never presented to the district court. All are without merit and we affirm.

The background of this case is long and colorful. Plaintiffs — branches of four major medical insurance companies' — -filed a complaint in 1999 against dozens of individuals involved in an alleged insurance *880 fraud scheme at ten outpatient surgery-clinics in Southern California. The alleged scheme involved surgeons who would perform elective cosmetic surgeries and then submit fraudulent bills and medical records to plaintiffs, assigning bogus diagnoses and misrepresenting the surgeries performed. For example, various facial cosmetic surgeries were documented and billed as procedures to correct deviated septums; breast implants were billed as biopsies; tummy tucks became hernia or gynecological surgeries. The fraud was aided by patient recruiters who sought patients, primarily Asian-American women, from all over the country and were paid a fee per patient.

Haya’s now ex-husband Ezeekiel Zilka was a surgeon at…