Jan 31, 2023 | Health Care Fraud, White Collar Crime
The DOJ announced that 25 defendants have been charged with selling fake nursing degrees and transcripts from three accredited Florida-based nursing schools. All defendants face up to 20 years in prison after being charged with varying counts of conspiracy to commit...
Jan 31, 2023 | White Collar Crime
Sherry Joseph was sentenced to 45 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for her role in a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) scheme. Joseph, of New York, was indicted for wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in September...
Jan 31, 2023 | False Claims Act
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....
Jan 31, 2023 | Government Investigations, Health Care Fraud
Mark Sorensen was found guilty, by a federal jury, of one count of conspiracy and three counts of payment of illegal kickbacks. Sorensen, along with 52 additional individuals, was indicted in September 2019 as part of a Midwest health care fraud enforcement action....
Jan 26, 2023 | Government Contract, Government Investigations
In a post published a couple weeks ago, we discussed the strides made by Georgia to legalize and facilitate the sale and use of medical cannabis in the state. One of the final steps to that end was the adoption of regulations that had been proposed by the Georgia...
Jan 24, 2023 | False Claims Act
On January 20, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that DePuy Synthes, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, agreed to pay $9.75 million to settle allegations it, through former sales representatives, improperly paid kickbacks to a surgeon in...
Jan 24, 2023 | Government Investigations, White Collar Crime
On January 20, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the sentencing of Mun Chol Myong (Mun), a national of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Mun was sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to time served of 45 months’...
Jan 24, 2023 | Election Law
In May of 2020, Georgian Tomas Miko sued his then-State Representative Vernon Jones in federal court for allegedly violating Miko’s First Amendment rights when Representative Jones blocked Miko from his Facebook page after having “initially exchange[d] barbs...
Jan 17, 2023 | False Claims Act
Last week, the United States Supreme Court consolidated and agreed to hear two False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam cases out of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. The issue in those cases is whether and when a defendant’s contemporaneous subjective understanding or...
Jan 17, 2023 | Criminal Matters
Callers posed as U.S. government officials told victims, mostly elderly, that he or she had won a prize, but before collecting it, the victim needed to pay taxes and fees. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), that is how a group defrauded more than 400 people...
