Once among the '1 percent,' executive faces $1 billion Medicare fraud trial

[TexasTowelie]

Not long ago, Miami Beach executive Philip Esformes was living quite comfortably among America’s “1 percent,” raking in millions from his healthcare business, gobbling up pricey real estate and darting around the country in chartered jets.

Then, in a flash, his luxurious lifestyle went poof: FBI agents arrested Esformes in July 2016 and he suddenly became the poster boy for the biggest Medicare fraud case in the country. He was charged with bilking $1 billion out of the federal healthcare program for the elderly and disabled, while his vast business assets and bank accounts were frozen. Worse, Esformes, 50, was ordered held without bail at the Federal Detention Center in Miami.

Esformes was back in court Monday for one final hearing before he goes to trial by himself on Feb. 11. Once always tan and fit, he looked wan and frail as his defense team tried in vain to delay the start of trial. They sought more time to review the Justice Department’s long list of patients who prosecutors say received no services or medically unnecessary treatment at Esformes’ Miami-Dade chain of skilled-nursing and assisted-living facilities.

“We’re not ready to do it by Feb. 11,” said Esformes’ defense attorney, Howard Srebnick, arguing for more time to review the patient files. “The government can choose how it wants to make its case, but it cannot choose how we defend it.”

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article225176275.html

[riversedge]

1. ..Esformes is standing trial alone because all of his co-conspirators have already pleaded guilty, i

Looks like this guy is going down!!



...Esformes is standing trial alone because all of his co-conspirators have already pleaded guilty, including a physician’s assistant, Arnaldo Carmouze, and a former Larkin Community Hospital outpatient director, Odette Barcha. In January, both admitted that they recycled Medicare patients through the hospital and Esformes’ network of nursing homes and ALFs in an elaborate bribery scheme that prosecutors say was orchestrated by the healthcare executive.

Carmouze, 59, pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud Medicare by accepting bribes for making patient referrals to Larkin and Esformes’ healthcare facilities. Barcha, 52, pleaded guilty to conspiring to pay bribes to physicians to refer patients to Larkin and receiving kickbacks herself to move patients into Esformes’ facilities.

In turn, both avoided the risk of trial and much longer prison sentences. Carmouze faces eight years and Barcha three and a half years in prison.

“She was facing significant time if she lost at trial,” said Barcha’s defense attorney, Sam Rabin. “The government offered far less time. It was too good of a deal to pass up.”

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article225176275.html#storylink=cpy