On behalf of Rosenblum Schwartz & Fry posted in White Collar Crimes on Wednesday, April 19, 2017.
We noted in a blog post from a few weeks back “the steady stream of media stories these days chronicling tales of alleged wrongdoing” by individuals in the singular area of white collar crime.
And we additionally noted in our March 31 entry at the St. Louis criminal defense firm of Rosenblum Schwartz & Fry that one of the areas that has garnered top-tier attention from law enforcers and prosecutors — both state and federal — is the health care realm.
That really isn’t surprising, given the close involvement of government agencies tasked with spending taxpayer money to reimburse medical actors for services rendered to patients, especially relevant to the country’s large Medicare and Medicaid programs.
What is perhaps surprising to many people, though, is the sheer number of individuals who are targeted by agency task forces in criminal probes alleging wrongful conduct for things like bribery, kickbacks, false billings and other activities.
Because here’s something notable about white collar crime generally: Empirical evidence suggests that many alleged wrongdoers did not act with any purposeful intent to break the law. As we note in our above-cited blog post, many workers in St. Louis and nationally who become suspects in criminal investigations and ultimately face charges engaged in criminal conduct — if at all — “only unwittingly.”
That is what one doctor recently told reporters of a national publication recently regarding her criminal conviction for bribery. That physician referred patients to a testing lab and received payment each month for doing so. She now faces a potential prison sentence of five years and a large fine for doing so.
White collar probes and prosecutions spanning broad subject matter — ranging from embezzlement, tax evasion and bank fraud to identity theft, credit card fraud and, as noted herein, health care fraud — are without doubt a top-shelf focus of criminal authorities these days.
Targeted individuals face strong challenges. They can turn to a proven criminal defense firm for empathetic and aggressive representation geared toward a best-case outcome in their personal matter.