By: Sara Kropf Perhaps the most troubling type of criminal forfeiture is the pretrial restraint of untainted assets. The Department of Justice will seize assets, before proving a single allegation of wrongdoing, even where those assets are not linked to the...
By: Sara Kropf In recent years, the government has increasingly prosecuted individuals under the federal aggravated identity theft statute. This increase may be from the legitimate increase in identity theft but it may also result from the government’s realization...
By: Sara Kropf Back in July 2013, I wrote a post about two executives at a medical device company in Austin who had been indicted for health care fraud. On June 2, 2014, after a four-week trial, the two men were found guilty by a jury in the Western District of Texas....
By: Sara Kropf As someone who handles litigation and white-collar criminal matters, I'm often troubled by my clients' corporate audit department. It will author lengthy, non-privileged reports about processes at companies that don’t work. Those reports put everyone on...
By: Sara Kropf For most white-collar cases, the key issue at sentencing is the calculation of the loss amount. Although not mandatory, the Sentencing Guideline range will unquestionably influence the final sentence. And the Guidelines rely heavily on the loss amount...
By: Sara Kropf A few years ago, massive securities fraud cases were all the rage. Over the last few years, health care fraud has been on the hit parade. Now, DOJ has managed to combine the two into one case. The former CEO and former CFO of publicly-traded medical...
By: Sara Kropf I know the public gets sick of lawyers and our filings and our appeals. I don’t. Because when you are a criminal defense lawyer, your job is to be dogged and relentless. We don’t give up. We exhaust every possibility. This is not commercial litigation....
By: Sara Kropf On June 11, a Tampa jury found four former executives of WellCare Health Plans Inc. guilty of several charges, including health care fraud and making false statements to a law enforcement officer. The verdict came at the end of a trial lasting several...