Report: FBI Investigating ABA Provider Whose Daily Charge Topped $30,000, Has History of Suing Clients

The FBI is investigating the billing practices of The Perfect Child, the Brooklyn autism therapy provider whose charges for a single child could top $30,000 a day, The Wall Street Journal reported Nov. 3. According to the WSJ, agents have contacted some of the company’s clients in recent weeks. An investigation is not a finding of wrongdoing, and no criminal charges had been announced against the company or its owner, Simcha Bendet, as of Nov. 4.

According to the Journal, the bureau’s Pittsburgh field office is running the case. In late July, agents met with Highmark, the Pittsburgh-based insurer, whose investigators briefed them on the company’s practices, according to an email the Journal viewed. In September, agents interviewed Carolina Lopez, the New Jersey mother billed $911,000 after Highmark balked at the charges, and in October the FBI obtained some of the company’s bills and other records. Lopez told the Journal that agents asked her not to discuss the case publicly. An FBI spokesman declined to comment to the Journal.

Still Billing, Still Suing

The company continues to operate and bill clients, and it sued at least five patients’ families in a New York court last week, the Journal reported. In its June investigation, the Journal reported that the company and its affiliates had sued at least 19 patient families and employers since late 2024.

Alan Schabes, a Cleveland lawyer who said he represents the company, declined to comment to the Journal, saying his client would not authorize him to speak on the record. Bendet did not respond to the Journal’s requests for comment.

The Journal’s new reporting adds accounts from more families. The company billed Marlene Rosario’s insurer $20,000 for therapy it said it provided to her son on Feb. 27 and 28, 2025, days after Rosario, of Lakeland, Florida, texted from an urgent care clinic to cancel that week’s sessions, according to text messages and medical records cited by the Journal. The Journal reported that the company later billed her more than $1 million for her two sons’ care, despite earlier emails saying she would pay no more than $100 a year even if her insurer denied claims.

The Journal also reported that in August, Kirsten Messier of Tennessee received a bill for nearly $1.5 million for about a year of her daughter’s treatment, along with a demand: sign over power of attorney so the company could sue her insurer in her name, or face legal action to collect the full amount from her family. She refused but kept using the services for weeks because she could not find another provider in her rural area. She told the Journal she knew she needed to stop, “but it’s my kid, what am I supposed to do?”

Earlier Reported FBI Contacts

Former employees told the Journal that FBI agents interviewed them about the business in 2023. It is unclear whether those contacts were part of the current investigation. In 2024, the FBI contacted Mike Wu, the parent of a patient, after his insurer, a UnitedHealth Group unit, determined that the company might have forged his signature on an appeal of denied claims, according to Wu and court records cited by the Journal. The company then sued Wu to collect about $20,000; Wu said he later settled.

The company has also invoked the bureau in its own collections. Earlier this year, a Perfect Child collections manager emailed a parent, threatening to report her if she did not pay nearly $20,000 by the end of that week, the Journal reported. “This involves opening an FBI case against you,” the email said.

Congress, Insurers, and Regulators

A separate House oversight inquiry is examining billing practices that affect employer-sponsored health plans. The House Committee on Education and Workforce asked Bendet for billing and collections records on July 6. In its Aug. 21 follow-up letter, the committee said it had received no response and warned that failing to respond could lead to a subpoena. BreakingNewsABA’s September report could not establish whether the company later responded or whether the committee issued a subpoena. The Journal reported that committee staff had recently interviewed parents of former patients and that Elevance Health and Aetna were conducting their own investigations.

According to the Journal, the company did not participate in most insurers’ networks, meaning no contracts governed its rates, and no law limits how much providers can bill insurers and patients for many outpatient services.

AT A GLANCE

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