Clearwater Criminal Defense Law Blog

A Broward County man is facing Federal fraud charges after investigators say he used Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to enable an attempt to defraud Medicare. Per investigators, the 37-year-old man submitted multiple applications for PPP loans to local banks and financial institutions earlier this year under the name of a durable medical equipment firm. They say the firm routinely submitted false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for DMEs that were either unnecessary, ineligible for reimbursement through Medicare, or not properly delivered to the beneficiary. The defendant was the...

An Oklahoma orthopedic hospital and several related individuals and entities have agreed to pay the Federal and state governments $72.3 million to settle claims that it defrauded Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE while violating the False Claims Act by allegedly paying illicit kickbacks.Federal investigators say the defendants were engaged in a multi-layered conspiracy for several years. From 2006 through 2018, the hospital defendants allegedly gave its physician group and two individual physicians cheap or free office space, above-market compensation for services, preferential access to...

The former chief executive officer of a Tennessee pain management firm will spend three-and-a-half years in Federal prison on a conviction for his alleged involvement in an illegal kickback conspiracy that defrauded Medicare of around $4 million. Per investigators, the 42-year-old man established a referral racket with another individual whereby his firm allegedly received referral fees for Medicare durable medical equipment orders from a manufacturer of DME's. Allegedly in order to mask the payments, the defendant allegedly created a shell company in his wife's name. Prosecutors say the...

A major New Jersey pharmaceutical firm has agreed to pay over $642 million to the Federal government to settle claims that it violated the False Claims Act (a/k/a "Lincoln's Law") for allegedly paying kickbacks to doctors and allegedly paying illicit copayments to Medicare beneficiaries for those taking two of its drugs.Per investigators, the firm allegedly learned of several hundred patients who were taking a multiple sclerosis drug in late 2012 who would soon become eligible for Medicare the following year. They say the firm helped transition those individuals to Medicare Part D knowing...