Federal indictments for health care fraud and narcotics offenses.

Recently, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York (covering Long Island, Queens and Brooklyn) announced the arrests of several individuals accused in federal court of having committed health care fraud against the Medicare and Medicaid programs. They are facing charges of 18 USC Section 371 (fraud against the U.S. government), Section 1349 (health care fraud), 1349 (money laundering), and other crimes. They face significant possible jail penalties and huge financial penalties, including restitution and forfeiture of profits derived from their crimes.

“These nine defendants allegedly submitted bills for services not provided collecting millions in reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid programs. This is yet another unfortunate example of individuals abusing government services intended to help patients in need. These actions are representative of the FBI’s nationwide efforts to bring justice to criminals who attempt to manipulate healthcare programs for personal benefits,” stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Smith.

These defendants include Feng Jiang, Joseph Tony Brown-Arkah, Evens Jean, Albert Muratov, Altem Rafaelov, Noman Ahmed, Adnan Arshad, Rehman Diwan, Jessica Hendrickson, Jose Marte, Mohammed Saleem, Faisal Shamsi and Waqas Shamsi. Many of these defendants are accused of paying kickbacks in order to submit reimbursement claims for treatment that was not provided. Some of these defendants allegedly supplied unnecessary prescriptions in exchange for money.

These cases have serious penalties but can sometimes be defended successfully. Sometimes it can be argued that the treatment was in fact actually provided, or that the medications were in fact necessary. In other cases, a defendant can argue that s/he had no knowledge of any illegality and/or that s/he was not responsible for the billing or the submission of the claims, even though they were improper.

Matthew Galluzzo is an experienced federal defense attorney who has successfully defended individuals accused of health care fraud, fraud against the government, and money laundering. If you or a loved one have been arrested or accused of such crimes, you should strongly consider contacting him about his legal services.