Philip Esformes (Esformes) is a former Florida nursing home mogul who was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment in 2020 after being found guilty of healthcare fraud. In the last days of his presidency, former president Donald Trump commuted Esformes’ prison sentence. However, the commutation did not affect Esformes’ $38 million forfeiture judgment and $5.5 million restitution order, both of which were affirmed by the Eleventh Circuit.
Now, Esformes has asked the Eleventh Circuit for a rehearing en banc. In his original appeal and request for a rehearing, Esformes argued that serious prosecutorial misconduct warrants a dismissal of the case. During the investigation of the case before trial, a magistrate judge found that prosecutors had engaged in misconduct, specifically relating to the prosecution team’s use of attorney-client privileged documents and inconsistent explanations of their continued use of such documents. The district court largely adopted the magistrate court’s findings.
Esformes argued that “these unconstitutional transgressions irretrievably compromised the integrity of the prosecution and, as a result, controlling law required dismissal.” However, the magistrate and district courts found that while the prosecution did engage in misconduct, dismissal of the indictment was not warranted and instead suppression of the documents would suffice.
The government initially accused Esformes of defrauding Medicaid and Medicare of $1.1 billion by bribing doctors to refer patients to his nursing homes and then moving them to his assisted living facilities once he had charged the government the maximum amount. However, at sentencing, the district court found that the scheme had only cost Medicaid and Medicare between $4.9 million and $8.3 million.
The attorneys at Chilivis Grubman represent clients of all types and sizes in connection to health care fraud, False Claims Act, and Anti-Kickback litigation. If you need assistance with such a matter, please contact us today.