UPDATE (4/23/21 9:30pm ET): Michael Lohan‘s attorney Heidi Perlet tells HollywoodLife.com in the following statement: “Michael Lohan has helped countless individuals suffering from addiction issues. He should be applauded for his efforts in saving lives—not arrested for them. Michael has devoted much of his life to helping those in need. This arrest overlooks this fact and ignores all of his good work.”
She added, “According to the State Attorney, Michael is the 117th person arrested in Palm Beach County by the Sober Home Task Force. Michael is not a number, and he will not be reduced to one of the State Attorney’s statistics. Michael is looking forward to having his day in court where the truth, not mere statistics, will come out.”
ORIGINAL: Michael Lohan was arrested and taken into custody on Fri. Apr. 23 as part of a “patient brokering” scheme in south Florida. The 60-year-old father of actress turned Greek resort owner Lindsay Lohan was one of more than 100 people arrested as part of a Palm Beach County probe. He stands accused of five counts of patient brokering and one count of attempted patient brokering, for bringing addicts to treatment centers in exchange for illegal financial payments. Charging documents claim that Lohan received checks worth over $25,000 for his alleged efforts to steer addicts into rehab facilities. HollywoodLife.com has reached out to Lindsay and Michael’s ex-wife Dina‘s reps for comment on his arrest.
“Mr. Lohan was investigated by our Sober Homes Task Force and he’s being charged with receiving kickbacks for referring patients to drug treatment. Patient brokering corrupts our health care system because decisions are motivated by greed instead of a patient’s needs. This is our Task Force’s 117th arrest and will not be our last,” Florida State Attorney Dave Aronberg said of Lohan’s arrest.
In the charging documents obtained by NBC News, an investigator spoke to Michael on April 8, 2021 about patient brokering, and he denied taking part in the activity. The legal paperwork claims Michael collected payments as he referred addicts to the Pride Recovery Center in Delray Beach in 2017 and 2018. According to the arrest warrant, Michael’s name was given up by the Pride Recovery Center owner in hopes of leniency in his own case, as he’s also charged in the patient brokering scheme.
South Florida has the highest concentration of treatment facilities and sober homes in the nation. By 2017, it had become a $1 billion business that began to draw the attention of the FBI, according to the Palm Beach Post‘s calculations. The publication found at the time that “kickbacks, patient brokering, inflated medical testing bills and insurance fraud are rampant. At the same time, the number of sober homes, which don’t have to be licensed, are mushrooming.”
Michael and his then-wife Dina began in show business as the managers of their daughter Lindsay, steering her through a series of successful roles as a child and teen actress in movies like 1998’s The Parent Trap and 2003’s Freaky Friday. She broke out as a huge star thanks to her role in the iconic high school dark comedy Mean Girls in 2004. A year later, Michael and Dina split. Lindsay had her own struggles with substance abuse and arrests, eventually leaving the film industry.
Michael went on to have run-ins with the law, including an attempted assault arrest in 2004. He ended up getting arrested for a DUI car accident while awaiting sentencing. Michael served two and a half years in prison, getting released in 2007. He was arrested again in 2010 for a suspected domestic violence incident involving his on-again, off-again girlfriend Kate Major, who is the mother of his two sons Landon, 8, and Logan, 6. Kate and Michael eventually wed on October 30, 2014. She filed for divorce in June 2019, claiming the marriage was “”irretrievably broken.”