January 28, 2008

Prof. Benson Weintraub to Present "Defense of a Criminal Healthcare Fraud Case" at Health Care Compliance Association's 12th Annual Compliance Institute

Professor Benson Weintraub, Esquire, a Ft. Lauderdale-based global health care attorney and counselor with an international practice and clientele, and a distinguished academic authority on the Federal sentencing of corporations and individuals, has been invited to present "Defense of a Criminal Healthcare Fraud Case" at Health Care Compliance Association's (HCCA) 12th Annual Compliance Institute to be held in New Orleans April 13-16, 2008.

Weintraub has served as a full-time Professor of Law. During his legal career, Porf. Weintraub has successfully represented complex white collar targets, corporations, business entities, executives, defendants, and witnesses as a tenacious, exclusively federal white collar criminal defense lawyer for more than 25 years.

Among his credits has defended more than 60 Physicians, Health Care Delivery Corporations & Organizations, DME Distributors, Internet Pharmacies, Pharmacists, Pharmaceutical Manufacturers, and public officials on hospital regulatory boards throughout the nation.

He also represented David Paul in the failed CenTrust Bank case as well as reputed drug lords, Willie Falcon and Salvador Magluta.

Weintraub recently represented Arne Soreide, a high profile telecom executive convicted after trial (by other counsel) in Fort Lauderdale of a $22m fraud, successfully convincing the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta that his 25 year sentence of imprisonment must be reversed, which the appellate court conceded was improper.

Weintraub was appointed by the first Chairman of the US Sentencing Commission to assist the fledgling agency in drafting its initial sentencing guidelines for organizations and individuals.

His extensive academic writing has been widely published or cited in Yale L.J., Harvard Law Review, Federal Sentencing Reporter, Stanford Journal of Law & Policy, Notre Dame Law Review, Federal Probation (US Courts), etc., and health care blogs.

Florida Board Certified Criminal Trial Lawyer Robert David Malove is Of Counsel to Benson Weintraub, LLC, upon whom a Masters Degree in Forensic Science, was conferred on Malove by the distinguished George Washington University in Washington DC. Malove received his JD from Pepperdine University School of Law. He has completed the Graduate Certificate Program in Healthcare Corporate Compliance at George Washington University and is Certified in Healthcare Compliance (CHC) by the Compliance Certification Board of HCCA. For more information visit www.healthcarefraudblog.com.

January 23, 2008

Medicare Fraud Defendant Sentenced in Florida

548707_barbed_wire__2.jpgOn January 10, Cesar Romero was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Patricia A. Seitz to forty-six months in jail and remanded into immediate custody for his role in a multi-million dollar Medicare billing fraud scheme on which Romero previously had pled guilty. Romero faced a potential sentence range of 46 to 57 months in prison, but was sentenced to the low-end of the advisory guidelines' sentencing range called for under an Adjusted Offense Level of 23. Romero's counsel disputed the 2-level upward departure from the base offense level of 21 with a lower advisory sentencing range of 37 to 46 months incarceration.

253463_iv_drip_-_intravenous_therapy.jpgRomero took part in a scheme in which a phantom health clinic, named “The Real Group & Associates, Inc.,” was incorporated in South Florida and subsequently billed Medicare for reimbursement for non-existent drug infusion and injection therapies typically prescribed to AIDS and chemotherapy patients. Nearly $17 million of false claims were submitted to Medicare for reimbursement, resulting in payments of more than $2.5 million on the false claims. To date, law enforcement has recovered more than $1.6 million of the fraud proceeds. At sentencing, Romero was held responsible, in part, for recruiting and managing the straw owner of the clinic, and for the creation and control of the clinic’s corporate bank accounts that were used to transfer and disburse the Medicare fraud proceeds through a series of fraudulent financial transactions.

If you or someone you know has been charged with healthcare fraud or is under investigation, call attorney Robert Malove.

January 14, 2008

Former St. Elizabeths Hospital Chief Pharmacist Pleads Guilty

On January 9, 2008, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeffrey A. Taylor announced that Raymond Jackson, former Chief Pharmacist at St. Elizabeths Hospital, pleaded guilty to stealing $95,000 of medication from the hospital. Taylor waived his right to be be indicted by a federal grand jury and instead entered a plea agreement a one count information charging him with theft or embezzlement in connection with health care in violation of Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 669.606632_pills_pills_pills_3.jpg

Jackson, 48, of Ashford Drive, Waldorf, Maryland, will face up to ten years of incarceration when he is sentenced by the Honorable Emmet G. Sullivan on May 2, 2008. Under the federal sentencing guidelines, the advisory sentence Jackson faces is between 24 and 30 months in prison. The guidelines' recommended sentence sentence takes into consideration specific offense characteristics including a loss in excess of $200,000 and abuse of position of trust. Jackson will be ordered to pay restitution of $95,000 to St. Elizabeths and $140,882 to Kaiser Foundation Health Care Plan.

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