Strike Force Hits Hard at Massive Medicare Fraud
Last month, the Federal Medicare Strike Force charged 111 defendants in nine states for their alleged participation in fraud schemes that reportedly cost Medicare almost a quarter billion dollars. Last month’s sweep resulted from the Justice Department’s and Health and Human Services’ work with the FBI, the HHS inspector general, and various state and local law…
Read MoreThe Great Race: Legal Online Poker Advances in Nevada, Hawaii Legislatures
Hearing Clarifies Issues in Nevada The Nevada Assembly Committee on Judiciary met on March 24, 2011, to discuss AB 258, which would provide for the licensing and operation of Internet poker in Nevada for the first time. Committee members were, not surprisingly, interested in the possible benefit or harm to Nevada’s existing bricks-and-mortar gaming industry…
Read More‘Taking the Fifth’ Before Congress: A New Ethics Twist
It’s unethical for a prosecutor to put a witness on the stand in a criminal trial when he or she knows in advance that the witness is going to take the Fifth Amendment and refuse to testify at all. Legal ethics authorities reason that the only effect of that kind of testimony is not to…
Read MoreBrady Violation Leads to Reversal of Conviction in D.C.
Editor’s note: This is a guest blog post by David Deitch, a Washington, D.C.-based litigator and the author of the White Collar Criminal Defense Blog. He can be reached at dbdeitch@nulldeitchlawdc.com. According to the D.C. Court of Appeals, when it comes to Brady disclosures, late is not necessarily better than never. In Miller v. United States,…
Read MoreThe Recession’s Effect on Federal Prison Sentences
On March 2, 2011, Jeff Ifrah, founder of Ifrah Law, and Jeffrey Hamlin, an associate in the firm, published the following article in the Los Angeles Daily Journal. Prison inmates in the United States may have reason to thank Wall Street for the 2008 recession. The bloated federal deficit is forcing agencies to tighten their budgets, including…
Read MoreBig Boeing Award, New Rules Won’t End DOD Conflicts of Interest
After a decade of delays and embarrassing missteps, on February 24 the Air Force awarded one of the largest contracts in military history, a $35 billion deal to build nearly 200 giant airborne refueling tankers, to the Chicago-based Boeing Company. At one point, the Air Force had awarded the contract to a team composed of…
Read MoreWill the Internet Taint a Loughner Verdict?
As Arizona plans a trial for accused Tucson shooter Jared Lee Loughner, a new set of questions has arisen: How will a jury be able to sit in impartial judgment, untainted by nonstop online coverage of the crime and its aftermath? What safeguards should a judge impose to keep the jury from following the case…
Read MoreFacebook Friends and Judicial Ethics
Last December, another legal ethics commission addressed the question of whether a judge may become a “friend” on a social networking site with attorneys who appear as counsel in the judge’s courtroom. The Ohio Supreme Court Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline opined that a judge may “friend” attorneys as long as the judge…
Read MoreIs D.C. on the Way to Legalizing Online Poker?
An amendment introduced to the District of Columbia Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Support Act and approved with little fanfare or advance warning could signal a major change in the law of i-gaming. The amendment, introduced by at-large Democrat Councilmember Michael A. Brown, would allow the D.C. Lottery to administer online poker by defining the D.C.…
Read MoreAmicus Briefs Urge Reduction in Rubashkin Fraud Sentence
We first posted about Sholom Rubashkin—the former plant manager at the now-defunct Agriprocessors, Inc. — back in May 2010, when Rubashkin was awaiting sentence for more than 80 counts of fraud in connection with his operation of the kosher slaughterhouse. Since then, Chief U.S. District Judge Linda Reade of the Northern District of Iowa sentenced…
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