Health care fraud prosecutions in the Second Circuit and throughout the country have typically sought forfeiture money judgments against all defendants for the proceeds of the fraud obtained by all members of a health care fraud conspiracy.  The Supreme Court recently curtailed these efforts in Honeycutt v. United States.  In Honeycutt, the Court held that the forfeiture statute
Continue Reading Supreme Court Limitation on Forfeiture Will Impact Health Care Fraud Prosecutions

The Supreme Court held last week that in a federal health care fraud prosecution, the Sixth Amendment prevents the government from obtaining a pretrial freeze of assets that were untainted by the alleged crime and that defendant sought to use to pay her lawyer.

In Luis v. United States, the government alleged that the defendant had been engaged in
Continue Reading Sixth Amendment Prevents Pretrial Restraint on Health Care Defendant’s Use of Untainted Funds To Pay Counsel

Federal criminal defense practitioners will be interested in United States v. Barry Cohan, an EDNY decision addressing the priority of overlapping forfeiture and restitution remedies in a health care plea agreement.

In Cohan, the defendant pled guilty to health care fraud and identity theft, and was subject to a $600,000 forfeiture and $607,186 in restitution.  While forfeiture and


Continue Reading Forfeiture and Restitution Intersect in Health Care Fraud Plea

Tragic news events on Long Island have made the public increasingly aware of the threat posed by prescription drug trafficking and abuse.  In June 2011, four people were killed by a man robbing a Medford pharmacy for prescription painkillers.  On New Year’s Eve, an ATF agent was killed trying to stop a robbery at a pharmacy in Wantagh.

Last month,
Continue Reading Prosecutors Announce Prescription Drug Initiative