Very Weird Case Out of New York — Will Your Los Angeles Medicare Fraud Case Be As Bizarre?

Even “straightforward” Los Angeles Medicare fraud schemes often become surprisingly dynamic.

Perhaps you and an associate billed the state or federal government for wheelchairs that you never delivered to patients. Or maybe you constructed a scheme to collect Social Security numbers and patient data and then use that information to purchase pharmaceuticals to sell to a third market supplier.

Even the most carefully wrought, well-protected plans have a funny way of coming undone and leading to surprises not only for investigators but also for defendants themselves.

Consider, for a good example, a case out of the Northern District of New York, where a Utica woman, Cynthia Morgan, was just sentenced to over two years in prison and a compulsory restitution of $1.4 million for her role in a healthcare and insurance fraud scam.

Morgan plead guilty to her charges in August 2012. She and her husband and three associates set up a staged car accident in March 2006. They fake a collision between a Ryder truck and her Ford van. Morgan was not hurt. But she acted hurt and submitted false claims for insurance and disability benefits and personal injury damages.

She collected over $100,000 from Mutual of Omaha and then sued in Civil Court for her “personal injures.” She succeeded and collected $30,000 in that matter.

It sounds like a ridiculous situation — and it demonstrates the creative lengths to which people will go to perpetrate Southern California white collar crimes like insurance fraud.

Unfortunately, when you get caught, investigators will not only follow up on your trail and figure out what you did (or allegedly did), but they will also unmask other “bad stuff” that maybe you didn’t even occurred. For instance, perhaps an associate committed additional criminal acts while operating under the aegis of your scheme. You didn’t know about those acts. But because of your criminal affiliation, you could still be punished for them.

Coming up with an effective and appropriate Southern California criminal defense strategy is neither intuitive, nor simple. Let the team here at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers assess your case for free and help you come up with an insightful and effective plan to go forward.