Attorney Keith Corbett

What is Payroll Protection Program Fraud?

Published on: October 21, 2020 | by Ryan Ballard

The Payroll Protection Program was included in the CARES Act to provide small businesses with funds to pay employees when the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Like almost any government assistance program in history, there have been instances of fraud related to PPP loans. The Department of Justice and Office of The United States Attorneys have been on the lookout for businesses and people who fraudulently obtained PPP funds. If you have been contacted by law enforcement about your PPP funds, do not make any statements to law enforcement and call an experienced Federal Fraud Lawyer at the Barone Defense Firm immediately.

What are the qualifications to be eligible for the PPP?

The first requirement to be eligible for the PPP is that the business must be a small business as defined by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). Your business must not have more than 500 employees or must meet the size standards set by the SBA. The SBA sets size standards in terms of revenue dollars and number of employees. For example, if you own a brewery, you’re considered a small business by the SBA if you have 1,250 employees or less

Michigan Doctor Pleads Guilty to Healthcare and Medicare Fraud

Published on: August 14, 2020 | by Ryan Ballard

Doctor Roger D. Beyer recently pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud in the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan. In a complaint filed on May 8, 2020, the US Attorney assigned to the case set out several allegations.

Regarding healthcare fraud, the complaint alleged that Dr. Beyer’s office improperly coded procedures reported to Medicare. The complaint alleged that Dr. Beyer directed his staff to perform a rectal diagnostic procedure repeatedly, beyond the initial diagnostic purpose of the procedure. Dr. Beyer’s offices then continuously billed Medicare for the diagnostic service even though they weren’t medically necessary. By continuously performing the diagnostic service, Dr. Beyer’s office could bill Medicare each time for that service even though it wasn’t medically necessary.

What are CPT codes?

Texas Pharmacist Gets 10 Year Prison Term for Health Care Fraud and Money Laundering

Published on: July 3, 2020 | by Patrick Barone

George Tompkins , a Texas pharmacist from Houston, was recently given a 10-year prison term after a jury convicted him of multiple felony counts, including health care fraud, money laundering and wire fraud. Known as the “compound king”, the 75-year-old was also convicted of conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks. Mr. Tomkins was first arraigned on the 17-count indictment back in February 2018.

The evidence received by the court during the 6-day jury trial suggested that Mr. Tompkins, working with others, devised a health care prescription fraud scheme whereby they unlawfully received almost twenty-two million dollars in government payments for prescriptions that were medically unnecessary. The money was paid to Tomkins by the Department of Labor, and most of the prescriptions were given to patients referred to them by and through their contract to provide such services to state and federal employees. The payments were contracted through the Federal Employees Compensation Act program (FECA). Many hundreds of patients were involved in this prescription fraud scheme.

To assist in their criminal enterprise, Mr. Tompkins and his cohorts created a couple different shell companies through which much of the fraud was run. They used these companies to launder their ill-gotten proceeds. Part of the fraud involved continuing to ship prescriptions to their “patients” even after they had repeatedly been told to stop sending them.

Financial Fraud Expected to Increase in Michigan Due to Covid 19 Experts Predict

Published on: June 24, 2020 | by Patrick Barone

One of the many unintended consequences of the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic may well be a significant increase in financial fraud. This is due in part to the central banks lowering of the prime interest rate to zero percent. With money this “cheap” companies and individuals are encouraged to borrow money, which is all well and good until the money must be repaid. And when money is cheap, individuals may use the money they have borrowed recklessly, taking greater risks of loss.

Financial fraud occurs when an individual or corporation offers to provide goods, services, or financial benefits knowing that that these things do not and may never exist. In these situations, the victims of financial fraud trade money for these benefits, but never receive what’s been promised to them. This is because the perpetrators of the financial fraud know that the benefits do not exist, were never intended to be provided, or were misrepresented. Typically, victims give money but never receive what they paid for.

Possibly the most famous historical example of financial fraud occurred in the 1870s and is referred to as a “Ponzi scheme.” Charles Ponzi was a businessman and financier who created the Securities and Exchange Company. Using this as a front to defraud, Mr. Ponzi took money from investors, and then, after a mere 45 days, promised to return to them a 50% profit. Trouble was that the money was never “invested.” Ponzi simply took the new money he was being paid today to pay off the older investors. Also called a “pyramid scheme” a Ponzi scheme can only last so long, and like all Ponzi schemes, it eventually collapsed.

FBI Raid Leads to Several Medicare and Medicaid Prescription Fraud Charges

Published on: June 12, 2020 | by Patrick Barone

As part of an ongoing investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigations, several of Michigan’s pharmacists have been charged with Medicare and Medicaid Prescription Fraud. The allegations include claims that at least one scheme lead to the defrauding of the Federal Government of more than five million dollars. Further, that fraudulent claims were submitted to Medicare, Medicaid and Blue Cross via the service dialdrugspharmacy.com. Medications fraudulently prescribed included Clozapine and Alprazolam. According to the complaint, some of these prescriptions were written for dead people.

According to Title 18 of the United States Code, health care fraud consists of the knowing implementation (or attempted implementation) of a scheme intended to defraud a health care program using false pretenses. A pharmacist can violate this law even if they are ignorant of the law itself, or if they only have the “general intent” to violate the law. This is because health care fraud under this section is not a specific intent crime. The law defines “fraud” as being the intentional deception or misrepresentation of facts which lead to the receiving of an unauthorized benefit. But here again the intent need only be general and not specific. According to the Michigan prescription fraud lawyers at the Barone Defense Firm, this can lead to unfair prosecution of pharmacists who never specifically intended to violate the law.

There are many kinds of prescription fraud. Once type of prescription fraud involves a scheme whereby a prescription is set on “auto-refill” and then billed as scheduled when the patient never actually ordered or wanted the medication. These prescriptions are never picked up but the pharmacy non-the-less bills Medicare. This same medication can be “re-sold” many times over, thereby increasing the size of the auto-refill fraud. Another version of this kind of fraud involves giving the undelivered pills to patients, staff or medical sales reps for redistribution. This is most common with Opioid drugs that have significant street value.

Former Mob Prosecutor Keith Corbett Says Netflix Irishman Misleads About Hoffa’s Disappearance.

Published on: December 4, 2019 | by Patrick Barone

Former Mob Prosecutor Keith Corbett Says Netflix Irishman Misleads About Hoffa’s Disappearance.

Barone Defense Firm attorney Keith Corbett spent most of his career putting away Detroit’s most notorious mobsters. As the Chief of the Organized Crime Strike Force for the United States Attorney’s Office, Corbett was responsible for helping to put away some of the biggest players in Detroit’s top crime families, including Tocco and Zerilli. After a couple decades as a mob prosecutor working with these cases, and in the course of it, immersing himself in the history and culture of La Cosa Nostra, it’s no wonder he’s been repeatedly interviewed regarding the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa. With the release of the Netflix original The Irishman, a Martin Scorsese film starring Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci, the public’s interest in knowing more about this topic is once again piqued, leading to a flurry of more recent interviews.

According to Channel Four News, Corbett “was the prosecutor who sent both Zerilli and Tocco to prison.” Having prosecuted them, Corbett has an idea of the ill-will that might exist between them and told Channel Four News that Tocco blames Zerilli for his conviction and incarceration. So maybe Tocco had a reason to lie about Jimmy Hoffa being buried on Zerilli’s property?

On the other hand, in a WJR interview, Corbett doubted Hoffa’s good friend Charles O’Brien had anything to do with his disappearance. “I don’t think Chuckie was involved, he’s not the kind of guy you want,” Corbett said regarding Hoffa’s disappearance.