Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorney Blog

Politicians, pundits and “everyday Americans” alike are striving to stamp out Southern California Medicare, Medi-Cal and Medicaid fraud – and for good reason. Consider Massachusetts Republican Senator Scott Brown's recent rant against fraud in the Medicare system: “The Government Accountability Office has estimated that nearly 10%, or $47 billion, of annual Medicare spending is nothing but waste, fraud or abuse.” Attorney General Eric Holder has put the number higher – at $60 billion. "We need Medicare administrators to work to prevent these improper payments – instead of the existing “pay and chase” model that makes the system so susceptible to fraud."

Senator Brown and others are livid, understandably. Southern California white collar crimes, such as Los Angeles insurance fraud, Pasadena Medicare fraud and identity theft not only sap money from a strained system but also cause a deterioration in our ability to trust institutions designed to protect us and support us in times of need.

It’s easy to look at enormous numbers like this – $47 billion, $60 billion – and to develop a mentality that it’s “all these people’s fault.” In other words, there is a handful of “bad guys” who are robbing the system blind. If we could only catch and punish these perpetrators, then our health care system would be fixed, our economy will be righted, and all would be well.

If only things were that simple!

The reality is that our fiscal and health care crises are complex and likely related to foundational factors – for instance, we have collectively been consuming vastly more sugar per capita than we were eating back in the 1960s and 1970s. And guess what? Rates of obesity, diabetes, and other diseases have shot up since those halcyon days.

This is not to say that we shouldn’t streamline our entitlement systems or punish people who commit property crimes. But let’s get real. When you shovel bucket loads of sugar down the mouths of Americans, more people are going to get sick, and more people are going to need health care. But instead of addressing foundational issues like this; politicians and policymakers seem happier to identify and castigate people who commit fraud, waste, and abuse.

Again, this isn’t to say that people who commit crimes should be exonerated. And as an experienced Los Angeles criminal defense attorney will tell you, Southern California white collar crime cases are often extremely complicated, and defendants who do commit wrongs often should (and want to!) correct what they have done wrong, remunerate victims, and generally “clean up their messes.”

But identifying and developing your best path towards a good criminal defense is a complicated business. Attorney Michael Kraut of the Kraut Law Group is a unique defense attorney, in that he spent the lion's share of his career as a prosecutor for the City of Los Angeles. Today, he represents criminal defendants, and not only has he gotten great results at jury trials, but he has also gained the respect of other lawyers, judges, and media (KTLA Los Angeles, New York Times, Fox News, etc.) for his compassionate, ethical, and skillful work.

Last week, while most of the blogosphere zeroed in on the salacious accusations against International Monetary Fund's chief, the news on the Southern California Medicare fraud front was not exactly silent.

Indeed, a May 14th article in the Wall Street Journal ("Medicare Fraud Nets Guilty Plea") has had a lot of pundits and analysts debating the implications. A Brooklyn physical therapist, Alexander Kharkover, plead guilty the Friday before last in Federal Court to five counts of submitting false/fraudulent claims to Medicare. For a five-year period (from January 2005 to July 2010), Kharkover allegedly overbilled Medicare to the tune of nearly $12 million, and Medicare paid $7.3 million worth of those claims.

Mr. Kharkover pled guilty without trying to arrange a plea deal. He has yet to be sentenced. Here is an interesting quote from the WSJ about the matter: “According to a person familiar with the case, in one instance, Mr. Kharkover allegedly submitted a bill for a service he performed personally, but on a date when he was on vacation cruise.”

Anyone who has been charged with a Southern California white collar crime, Los Angeles insurance fraud, or a somewhat related crime, like Southern California identity theft, may be quickly and roundly excoriated in the press as a villain, even if your case is complicated and extenuating arguments might explain your actions (or failure to act).

Unfortunately for white collar crime defendants, the public is in a relatively tenacious mood. As the national economy continues to lag, the public appears to be less and less tolerant of what it perceives to be “crimes of the rich.” Meanwhile, the federal government has cranked up its anti-fraud programs, and the experience of defendants like this Brooklyn healthcare provider can often be scary, lonely, and overwhelming.

A Los Angeles criminal defense attorney, like Michael Kraut of the Kraut Law Group, (6255 Sunset Boulevard, Suite 915, Los Angeles, California 90028), can give you insight and practical help. Mr. Kraut has a stellar record at jury trials, a great reputation within the legal community, and lots of experience as a former prosecutor he draws upon to help his clients get excellent results.

Yes, it can be scary to be charged with multiple fraud counts, especially if you know that you did something wrong. But the quality of your legal representation can have a dramatic influence on your potential penalties and your ability to put the arrest behind you and get back to living your life and running your business.

If you smoke medical marijuana and get behind the wheel – or drive under the influence of alcohol in Beverly Hills -- you can be charged with a crime pursuant to California Vehicle Code Section 23152(a). Indeed, it doesn’t matter if the marijuana you smoke is legal – even over-the-counter medications or prescription medications taken with a doctor’s order can cause you to violate 23152(a). In the annals of the literature about Glendale DUI, Burbank DUI, Los Angeles DUI, and Pasadena DUI, you can find hundreds of cases involving people getting arrested for driving after consuming totally illegal drugs.

The question about how to measure drug-induced driving problems has obsessed lawmakers and policymakers for some time. The Colorado Senate last month proposed a bill to set a limit for marijuana blood content. But last Tuesday, the CO Senate Judiciary Committee killed that bill -- House Bill 1261 -- on a voice vote. The Pot DUI Bill would have set a limit for medicinal marijuana drivers – if you had more than 5 nanograms per milliliter of THC in your blood, you would be considered over the legal limit.

A medicinal marijuana advocate, William Breathes, demonstrated that his THC levels remained over that limit -- even after he had slept for a full night and abstained from smoking for 15 hours. An occupational medicine specialist evaluated him at that time and declared him to be “in no way incapacitated.”

Advocates of the Pot DUI Bill, such as Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, were furious that the bill died. Said Suthers: “It is dumbfounding that the Colorado Senate could fail to pass a per se Marijuana bill. There are approximately 125,000 Coloradans authorized by state law to use medical marijuana…The Senate’s vote yesterday exhibited not only a lack of concern for the safety of Colorado drivers and pedestrians, but also an inability to lead.”

This policy debate is hugely important, and it's one that’s not likely to go away, especially here in California, where more and more citizens over the past decade have been using medicinal marijuana to treat problems like glaucoma, chronic pain, and depression and anxiety. If you’ve been arrested for a drug-related DUI in Beverly Hills, a Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorney, such as Michael Kraut of Beverly Hills’ Kraut Law Group (9107 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 450, Beverly Hills, California 90210 Phone: (310) 550-6935), can provide you with the essential guidance and legal counsel you need.

Mr. Kraut is well regarded by peers and by the media as an expert on the subject of Los Angeles DUI, and he also served for nearly a decade-and-a-half as a prosecutor of drug and alcohol crimes.

If you’ve recently been charged with a Southern California white collar crime, insurance fraud, credit card fraud, or any other non-violent offense, you might not immediately see any parallels between your situation and the war on terror. But the blogosphere was literally inflamed this past week with news about Osama bin Laden’s death at the hands of US commandos, and it may be useful for us to examine how the ways in which we think about crime influence our potential legal defense strategies.

The basic point is this: We often construct "just so" stories or narratives to justify our opinions about events and people.

The manhunt for Osama bin Laden, for instance, ended successfully from the United States’ point of view. Now, when we look back, historically, things will look all tied up like a neat little bow. One can almost think about Osama being gunned down by snipers in the daring 40-minute raid in Abbottabad Pakistan as the third act of a movie (guessing there probably will be one pumped out by Hollywood soon enough). Thus, our ì20/20 hindsightî makes it seem like the deliverance of justice upon Osama was a forgone conclusion. If history had proceeded along another path – what’s technically known as a counterfactual – we would have constructed a different "just so" story, and that, too, would have seemed like an inevitable product of history.

Thinking about history in terms of its counterfactuals is incredibly useful – and it is useful not just in an abstract sense, but also if you are trying to concoct and execute an appropriate defense to charges, for instance, of Southern California white collar crime.

Other counterfactual examples: everyone assumes that President Ronald Reagan "spent the Soviet Union to death" and thus precipitated the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communism and all that. But had events transpired slightly differently -- if the Soviet Union reacted by engaging in preemptive war against the US, instead -- then President Reagan’s strategy would not have looked so keen!

Indeed, you can look at basically any event in history that we think of along the lines of: "of course it was inevitable that XYZ would happen" and question that thinking. We create "just so" stories because human beings naturally gravitate towards narratives. But these narratives don’t necessarily correlate to any fundamental objective "truth." They are perceptions -- and often warped perceptions, at that.

So, how is this all relevant to your potential Southern California white collar crime defense?

Think about what you’ve been charged with (or will be charged with). As soon as prosecutors (and friends and family) even hear the charges, they will begin to construct artificial scenarios in their minds about how you did it, why you did it, etc. Before even engaging analytically with the evidence, they may either convict you in their minds or declare you innocent in their minds. You may even do this yourself, believe it or not! It's a variation of the well-known psychological phenomenon of Stockholm Syndrome – where a kidnapping victim begins to develop defensive feelings for his or her kidnapper.

It’s important to remember to fight back against these ìjust soî stories that crop up in the minds of prosecutors, judges, juries and other people who might judge you in the future (e.g. friends, peers, employers). For help, turn to an experienced Los Angeles criminal defense attorney, such as Michael Kraut of the Kraut Law Group (6255 Sunset Boulevard, Suite 915, Los Angeles, California 90028). Mr. Kraut worked for over a dozen years (14 to be specific) as a prosecutor, so he can come at white collar crime matters from both sides and develop more creative and strategic approaches to building defenses.

As this blog has been reporting for months now, federal investigators have been really cracking down on crimes like Southern California Medicare and Medical fraud. A breaking story out of Miami highlights how much the government means “business.”

According to an April 14th story in the Miami Herald, Lawrence Duran and his wife, Marianella Valera, pled guilty to stealing $200 million from Medicare as part of a massive conspiracy. The couple could face 20 years in prison – for running what the Herald describes as “The nation’s largest mental health racket.”

The couple, who owned seven different mental health clinics, got indicted last October on charges of defrauding 22 defendants, including psychiatrists, recruiters, and even senior employers in their companies. The Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Lanny Breuer, did not mince words: “they reaped millions in illegal profits by operating a sham mental healthcare company that provided unnecessary and illegitimate treatments to patients, many of whom were recruited through bribes and kickbacks, and then they laundered the proceeds.”

Duran and Valera tried to negotiate a plea deal for the 38 count indictment but ultimately failed. It’s unclear whether they’ll be charged with trying to steal $83 million from Medicare (the amount they actually received) or $200 million (the amount that their company billed Medicare). The resolution of this niggling issue may have a strong bearing on their prison sentences. At this point, the couple could face a decade in prison… or two decades.

Irrespective of what happens to this couple, the harshness and severity of the justice delivered should make anyone charged with a similar crime of Los Angeles credit card fraud, Southern California insurance fraud, or any other Southern California white collar crime nervous.

Fortunately, an experienced Los Angeles criminal defense attorney can provide powerful and useful strategic guidance – but your choice of lawyer does matter. You want to make sure that your attorney has trial experience, the capability to investigate and understand the sophisticated charges you face, and good working relationships with prosecutors.

Mr. Michael Kraut of the Kraut Law Group served for many years as a prosecutor of crimes like Southern California white collar crime, and he has a hugely successful rate at jury trials. You can use his experience to help you develop and execute a smart and results-oriented defense.