Two Defense Victories: M.D. Florida and E.D. Virginia

We note two recent victories in federal white collar jury trials, one by a seasoned hand and another by an up and coming star. In U.S. v. Kallini, Dr. Adel Kallini, a former anesthesiologist and now pain management physician practicing in Broward County, Florida, was indicted in the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division.  Dr. Kallini was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, as well as one count of falsification of records in a federal investigation.  The Government also sought forfeiture of over $1MM. 

Dr. Kallina was defended by longtime NACDL Board Member Brian Bieber of Gray Robinson, and his associate Alex Strassman. According to Bieber:

Our sole defense at trial was good faith reliance upon the advice of counsel.  In June, 2013, Dr. Kallini’s tax attorney presented him with a business “deal”, proposed to the attorney by two people who claimed to be legitimately involved in the health care field.  (Unbeknownst to Dr. Kallini and his lawyer, the two were involved in health care fraud for the past three years which included, but was not limited to, paying kickbacks to patients and doctors in South Florida).  The “deal” presented to Dr. Kallini, through his lawyer, essentially required Dr. Kallini to “rent” out his Medicare provider number for (what he was told) the billing of legitimate services provided to patients by other physicians who, for one reason or another, could not bill Medicare for the services provided.  From the payments, Dr. Kallini was to receive 25%, his lawyer 10%, and the two others 65%.  Dr. Kallini’s lawyer prepared a written agreement/contract reflecting the above.

Dr. Kallini has been practicing medicine since 1971 and had a Medicare provider number since 1973.  Having never previously done anything of this nature, he asked his lawyer point blank: “Is this legal?”  His lawyer told him it was.  Dr. Kallini signed the agreement/contract.

On cross examination, the Government’s expert witness was forced to concede the critical differences between intentional fraud and unintentional "abuse" of the Medicare payment system. The expert also acknowledged that if the defense's factual theory of the case was correct, Dr. Kallini's conduct could fall into the non-criminal category. Bieber's cross examination of the expert on this point was greatly aided by Strassman's discovery on the internet of a six year old Power Point presentation prepared by the expert in which he taught a group of Government investigators the differences between the intentional defrauding of Medicare and the “unintentional abuse” of the payment system. Dr. Kallini was the sole defense witness. 

In U.S. v. Upchurch, et al.,  in the EDVA (Alexandria Division), Eugene Gorokhov of Washington DC's Burnham & Gorokhov, assisted by Ziran Zhang, represented defendant Matthew Jones. According to Gorokhov:

A group of young adults, to include my client, went to a Six Flags amusement park on a Saturday in the Summer of 2015.  On the day they were there, numerous people at Six Flags had their belongings stolen, to include bags containing wallets and credit cards.  Later surveillance videos showed that several individuals in my client’s group used the stolen credit cards at nearby stores on the same days.  My client, however, was not in any of the videos. 

Despite the apparent lack of evidence against my client, the Government still charged him, along with the others, with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and access device fraud.  As to my client, the only evidence of his involvement was: (1) the appearance of his home address on a fraudulent credit card application, made in the name of a victim who had her belongings stolen from the park; (2) the use of the fraudulently obtained card to pay a phone bill under his name.  Multiple people lived at my client’s home address.  After indictment, phone records showed that his phone account had two phone numbers, and other evidence the investigator had showed that one of these numbers was used by another resident of his house, giving that person incentive to pay the phone.

The Government investigator, during the course of his investigation: (1) did not interview any of the other residents living at my client’s home address, despite knowing that more than one person lived at my client’s address; (2) overlooked the fact that the fraudulent credit card application listed an email address associated with one of the other residents at my client’s address (and admitted that he overlooked it at trial); (3) did not subpoena any of ATM surveillance videos associated with several fraudulent ATM transactions on the credit card, and those videos were ultimately erased in accordance with the bank's retention policy; and (4) did not obtain recorded phone calls between the credit card company and the individual who made the fraudulent card application, even though there were about a dozen such calls.  Those calls surfaced 24 hours before trial and were, for unknown reasons, not previously produced by the bank.  Those calls showed that it was someone else, and not my client, attempting to activate the fraudulent card.

During deliberations, the jurors came back with a question that asked, in essence, whether they could find a defendant guilty based only on his knowledge of a crime, and his presence at the scene.  The defense asked Judge Brinkema for a "mere presence" instruction, which she gave.  Thirty minutes later, the jury came back with a verdict of not guilty with respect to Eugene's client. 

Congratulations to Bieber and Gorokhov and their respective teams. And if you have a federal white collar jury trial victory to report do not hesitate to let me know. We'll do our best to publish it and discuss its significance here.

(wisenberg)