Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorney Blog

Angelenos read the stories all the time and judge harshly: when doctors, chiropractors, dentists, pharmacists and other providers commit healthcare fraud in Los Angeles, we have a visceral reaction of disgust.

• How could someone charged with caring for the lives of our neighbors so grotesquely take advantage of their positions of power?
• Given our fiscal crisis at home here in California and nationwide, why would anyone try to rob the already fast-dwindling Medicare coffers?

If you or someone you care about has been charged with a crime, such as Southern California health care fraud – or even a marginally-related crime, such as insurance fraud in Los Angeles, credit card fraud in Burbank, etc. – you may feel an urge to respond defensively. First of all, the charge against you might be unfair, unwarranted, or overly harsh. But even if you did do something wrong, it wasn’t as if you sat up in bed one morning and decided to go down the “path of evil” for arbitrary reasons.

In fact, very few people engage in Los Angeles health care fraud schemes to be purposefully immoral. Quite to the contrary, Los Angeles healthcare fraud often begins when a professional or personal need is not met. For instance, perhaps you are a physician who got sick and tired of the way that the insurance companies treated you and withheld funds. Your practice suffered, and you found it more and more difficult to keep up with your workload, treat your patients with compassion and attention, and have a life at the end of the day.

So you felt like you “deserved” a little something back for your efforts.

Thus, you went down a slippery slope. You began to engage in illegal activities that grew in sophistication, size, and complexity over time. This continued until, of course, you were investigated, arrested and charged.

At the end of the day, yes, you engaged in stupid or illegal practices. But you were simply trying to even out an unfair playing field that prevented you from doing the good work that you went into medicine to do.

The question now is: What can you do to set the score right, make effective reparations, protect your professional reputation and license (if possible), and respond to critics, both in your community and in your professional and personal circles?

The Kraut Law Group has an incisive, compassionate, and highly respected team. A Los Angeles criminal lawyer can listen to your needs and help you develop strategies to minimize your penalties and maximize your ability to move on from this event. Attorney Michael Kraut is a former prosecutor (he spent nearly a decade and half as a Senior Deputy District Attorney for Los Angeles), so he understands how prosecutors operate and how defendants can best fight the charges against them.

Those who drive under the influence in Long Beach and cause injury accidents are often ignorant of the law or of the consequences of their actions.

Or, at least, the conventional wisdom would have you believe that.

As we have covered countless times on this Long Beach DUI blog, all sorts of people are stopped, arrested, and ultimately convicted for DUI – some of whom even make and enforce the DUI laws. When lawmakers, police officers, prosecutors, and others who work in the Long Beach DUI system are tagged for such crimes, a big hubbub in the media and blogosphere inevitably sparks. Makes sense, right? After all, police officers, Congressmen, Los Angeles DUI attorneys, etc understand the dangers better than practically anybody out there.

That’s why a recent fiasco out of Etowah County, Alabama, has attracted so much head-scratching among Los Angeles DUI lawyers.

According to WHNT News 19, the police chief of Tuscumbia, AL, Tony Logan, was convicted by jury last week of misdemeanor DUI. Logan was sentenced to 30 days, and his driver’s license might be suspended. But his punishment is less interesting than the fact that he was not just a police officer, but the chief of police for a whole town.

Brandon Hughes, a local prosecutor, summed up the jury’s message: “Drinking and driving on Alabama’s roadways is not going to be tolerated. I just hope it sends a message to folks around the state…to be more careful…there are repercussions [for driving DUI].”

Is there any moral to this story? Can we learn anything from Tony Logan’s experience?

Indeed, we can.

Logan’s arrest and subsequent conviction demonstrates how easy it is easy for anyone -- even a super-educated Los Angeles DUI lawyer who understands the dangers of driving under the influence on a very personal level and who works with DUI cases on a day-to-day basis -- can make errors of judgment that lead to arrests, accidents, and worse.

Of course, this is not to excuse bad behavior or DUI – it is merely to place it in context. If you were arrested for driving under the influence in Long Beach or for engaging in other misbehavior behind the wheel, you are not alone. The transgression doesn’t make you a bad person, or even a bad driver. (It does, however, mean that you might need a Los Angeles DUI attorney.)

Going forward, keep the following in mind:

1. Learn from your mistakes, if you made any, to avoid getting into similar trouble.

To do this, you need to reflect on what happened: what caused you to misbehave or ignore the Long Beach DUI laws?

2. Deal with the reality of your arrest and charges.

A Long Beach DUI criminal defense attorney at the Kraut Law Group (444 West Ocean, Suite 800 Long Beach, California 90802 Phone: (562) 531-7454 ) will help you plan the next steps. Attorney Kraut is one of the most respected local DUI attorneys – he has a great reputation among his legal peers, a nearly immaculate record at jury trials, and he draws on his Harvard Law School education and background as a former Deputy District Attorney (14+ years) to deliver superlative service for his clients.

Continue reading " Police Chief Convicted of DUI – Long Beach DUI Attorney Reacts " »

Last Monday, 61-year-old Christopher Iruke was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for designing and executing a Los Angeles Medicare fraud scheme; he leveraged his position as a local pastor to defraud the government. Iruke and his wife, Connie Ikpoh, and Aura Marroquin (an employee) were convicted in August of Los Angeles health care fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud.

Last Monday, US District Judge Terry Hatter sentenced Iruke for his role in the complicated scheme. According to a CNN report, during the 2011 trial, prosecutors presented evidence “that Iruke bought fraudulent prescriptions and documents…to bill Medicare for equipment that were either medically unnecessary or never provided”…for instance, they billed Medicare of about $6,000 for a power wheelchair that actually cost closer to $900.

As Iruke’s situation escalated and became more legally and logistically entangled, he asked his sister to protect him from a Medicare audit by opening two additional medical supply firms. Witnesses told jurors that Iruke and his coconspirators “paid kickbacks to street level marketers to offer Medicare beneficiaries free [devices and equipment] in exchange for the beneficiaries’ Medicare numbers and personal information.” Iruke and his conspirators allegedly leveraged these data as part of their complicated scheme.

Iruke’s case is classic in the sense that what started out as relatively simple and straight forward Los Angeles Medicare fraud escalated and became more complicated. Eventually, all of the complications proved too much, and the scheme collapsed. Unfortunately, individuals who have been tried for crimes like Southern California insurance fraud, Los Angeles credit card fraud, etc., often “dig themselves deeper” once they have gotten into trouble. When you compound your legal woes by committing more fraud and more crime, you vastly complicate the job of your Los Angeles white collar criminal defense attorney and reduce your odds of a successful outcome for your defense.

No matter where you are in the legal process, it’s never too late to begin to get proper and effective legal guidance. Connect with a professional at the Kraut Law Group to explore strategies to protect your legal rights and make the best out of your situation.

On January 1, Cedillo’s Law went into effect, which could reshape the landscape of Long Beach DUI field sobriety tests (and FSTs throughout the Southland). The law is designed to protect undocumented and unlicensed immigrants from being exploited by towing companies. It forbids authorities at FSTs for DUI in Long Beach and elsewhere from towing the car of a driver operating a vehicle without a license.

Advocates of the law are thrilled; they point out that towing truck operators exploited the old towing rule, particularly at intersections in East and South Los Angeles. A spokesman for the Southern California Immigration Coalition, Ron Gochez, told the Los Angeles Times: “They know which communities have a higher population of unlicensed drivers…we see it [the current towing paradigm] as a money making scheme off the backs of poor people.”

Cedillo’s Law was opposed by groups like the Los Angeles Police Protection League and by grieving fathers like Dan Rosenberg, who lost his young son in 2011, when an unlicensed driver crashed into him. Rosenberg told the Times: "I have a lot of sensitivity for people who are willing to risk their lives to come to this country illegally…but you can’t do that the expense of others.”

While we can debate the merits of Cedillo’s Law, the fact is that it is now law. Unfortunately, many drivers arrested for crimes like driving under the influence in Long Beach lack a complete understanding of their rights and obligations under laws like California Vehicle Code Section 23152(a) or 23152(b).

Fortunately, you need not struggle through the minutiae on your own. An experienced, thorough, and compassionate Long Beach DUI criminal defense attorney from the Kraut Law Group (444 West Ocean, Suite 800 Long Beach, California 90802 Phone: (562) 531-7454) can be your ally and advocate as you navigate new challenges. Connect with the team here at Kraut Law Group right now to understand potential options and make the most of your defense.

Continue reading " Breaking Long Beach DUI Field Sobriety Test News: Unlicensed Drivers Will No Longer Get Their Cars Towed at FSTs " »

On this blog, we talk a lot about why doctors, chiropractors, dentists, and others commit Los Angeles Medicare fraud. What drives them, psychologically, socially, and societally?

We also talk about what these defendants should do, how to grapple with the situation, etc. But let's take time to change perspective and consider the role of family members. If you are the spouse or child of someone charged with any Southern California white crime, such as credit card fraud, insurance fraud, identity theft, etc., you may feel mixed emotions about what's going on.

• On the one hand, perhaps you are shocked by the news of the arrest or investigation – you had no idea.
• Perhaps you knew that something “fishy” was going on, so you are not surprised, but you’re deeply disappointed and scared.
• Perhaps you played a small, non-negligible role in the fraud, and you are scared about what might happen to you.
• In any case, you are worried about the ultimate consequences, not only for your loved ones, but also for your life, future, financers, and reputation.

So what's the solution in this drama? How do you go about reconstructing your life, getting at the truth, and dealing with a cascade of revelations?

According to productivity guru David Allen, it’s never a bad idea to begin recalibrating by assessing “what's true now” in your world. Rather than spend time ruminating about what life was like before the Los Angeles Medicare fraud charges, spend some time identifying what's true in your world. What are all the things that are pulling on your attention? Once you have those categorized, you can then process, organize, and review them per Allen’s methodology.

Getting clarity about what's true is an essential first step. The next step is to gain clarity on where you would like to go. What you would like to be true, given your currently reality?

It’s best to find resources and mentors to help you through this process. An experienced Southern California Medicare fraud attorney, like Michael Kraut of the Kraut Law Group, can help you make sense of the chaos in your life and steer you in a positive direction.