Petroff Amshen LLP v. Alfa Rehab PT PC

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedFebruary 17, 2022
Docket21-847
StatusUnpublished

This text of Petroff Amshen LLP v. Alfa Rehab PT PC (Petroff Amshen LLP v. Alfa Rehab PT PC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Petroff Amshen LLP v. Alfa Rehab PT PC, (2d Cir. 2022).

Opinion

21-847 Petroff Amshen LLP v. Alfa Rehab PT PC

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT

SUMMARY ORDER RULINGS BY SUMMARY ORDER DO NOT HAVE PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT. CITATION TO A SUMMARY ORDER FILED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2007, IS PERMITTED AND IS GOVERNED BY FEDERAL RULE OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE 32.1 AND THIS COURT’S LOCAL RULE 32.1.1. WHEN CITING A SUMMARY ORDER IN A DOCUMENT FILED WITH THIS COURT, A PARTY MUST CITE EITHER THE FEDERAL APPENDIX OR AN ELECTRONIC DATABASE (WITH THE NOTATION “SUMMARY ORDER”). A PARTY CITING TO A SUMMARY ORDER MUST SERVE A COPY OF IT ON ANY PARTY NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL.

1 At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 2 held at the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, 40 Foley Square, in the City of 3 New York, on the 17th day of February, two thousand twenty-two. 4 5 PRESENT: 6 MICHAEL H. PARK, 7 BETH ROBINSON, 8 Circuit Judges, 9 JED S. RAKOFF, * 10 District Judge. 11 _____________________________________ 12 13 PETROFF AMSHEN LLP, 14 15 Plaintiff-Appellant, 16 17 v. 21-847 18 19 ALFA REHAB PT PC, BRUNSWICK BANK & 20 TRUST COMPANY, JAMES CHENG, CHUNG 21 KWONG YAU, CAI FENG TAN, THE 22 SAMANTHA LEE FAMILY TRUST, 23 ADVANCED REHAB CARE PT PC, 24 JOSEPHINE BELLONI, ANNAROSE 25 ROTONDI TRUST, AGYAL PHYSICAL 26 THERAPY PLLC, WEI JI LI, ASSEM 27 PHYSICAL THERAPY PC, AMRO 28 MAHMOUD SHOKRY BARAKAT, WISDOM 29 PHYSICAL THERAPY PC, HATEM E. 30 ABOUHASSAN, KISHORE KANDURI, AKA 31 KISHORE K. KANDURI, RADWA PT PC,

* Judge Jed S. Rakoff, of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, sitting by designation. 1 MOHAMED M. ELMANDOUH, MD, 2 ULTIMATE CARE CHIROPRACTIC PC, 3 GRAIG GRANOVSKY, GRAIG GRANOVSKY 4 CHIROPRACTIC PC, THIRD AVENUE 5 CHIROPRACTIC CARE PC, NATHANIEL 6 MAZZA, THERAKINEMATICE PT PC, 7 LEGASPI MADELINE, PHYSIO SOLUTIONS 8 PT PC, REHAB CONCEPTS PT PC, 9 SIGNIFICANT CARE PT PC, SAYED F. 10 SAYED, NBC HEALTH PHYSICAL 11 THERAPY PC, NATHANIEL BREX ROA 12 CAYETUNA, LITE CARE REHAB PT PC, 13 ISLAM BEKHET, EXTENSIVE CARE PT PC, 14 ANNA MEYERZON, MMA PHYSICAL 15 THERAPY PT PC, MAZED ABDEL MAGID, 16 MD, JMP REHAB CARE PT, HARKIRTAN 17 SINGH, DALBIR KAUR, HOWARD 18 KESSLER, MD, FIRST HAND PHYSICAL 19 THERAPY PC, ABDELHAMID ABOURYA, 20 AKA ABDELHAMID MAHMOUD ABOURYA, 21 EYE ON WELL-BEING ACUPUNCTURE PC, 22 OATES DEVAN, CORE BASICS PC, KHALED 23 NASR, COMMUNITY WELLNESS 24 PHARMACY INC., RAKMIN ILYABAYEV, 25 COMFORT TOUCH PT PC, FERRIN 26 MANUEL, CANARSIE WELLNESS 27 PHARMACY INC., BODY ACUPUNCTURE 28 CARE PC, OKSANA PODHAYETSKA, 29 BRIGHT STAR REHAB PT PC, MOHAMED Y 30 EL SAIDY, BL HEALTHY LIFE 31 ACUPUNCTURE PC, ZENON 32 KURKAREWICZ, BRONX CHIROPRACTIC 33 REHABILITATION, P.C., SEAN DIAMOND, 34 D.C., BEST TOUCH PT PC, MOTAZ M. 35 EBEIDO, VITAL MERIDIAN 36 ACUPUNCTURE PC, LUDMILA 37 BOBCHYNSKA, MD, MEDS4DAYS 38 PHARMACY INC., BRITTNEY COLEMAN, 39 PHYSICAL THERAPY REHAB PC, 40 ACUPUNCTURE HEALTHCARE PLAZA I 41 PC, LAW OFFICES OF DOMINICK W. 42 LAVELLE PC, DOMINICK LAVELLE, AKA 43 DOMINICK W. LAVELLE, ELSANAA PT PC, 44 MAHMOUD ELSANAA, ZHONG SU, LIBING 45 SU, MANHATTAN'S HANDS OF HOPE PT 46 PC, JOHN DOE #1-10, JEREMY JAMES

2 1 SCHIES, BARAKAT PT PC, DANIMARK 2 PHYSICAL THERAPY PC, CAMBRIDGE 3 CLARENDON FINANCIAL SERVICES LLC, 4 5 Defendants-Appellees. † 6 ____________________________________ 7 8 FOR PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT: DANIEL GINZBURG, The Ginzburg Law 9 Firm, P.C., Old Bridge, NJ (Steven Amshen, 10 Petroff Amshen LLP, Brooklyn, NY, on the 11 brief). 12 13 FOR DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES: DONALD JAY POLS, Belis & Pols, LLP, 14 Brooklyn, NY. 15 16 WESLEY MEAD, The Mead Law Firm, P.C., 17 Astoria, NY. 18 19 LLOYD M. EISENBERG, Eisenberg & Carton, 20 Uniondale, NY. 21 22 GALINA FELDSHEROVA, Kopelevich & 23 Feldsherova, P.C., Brooklyn, NY. 24 25 Appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New

26 York (Brodie, J.).

27 UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND

28 DECREED that the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.

29 Petroff Amshen LLP (“Petroff Amshen”), a law firm based in Brooklyn, alleges that dozens

30 of chiropractors, physical therapists, and acupuncturists engaged in a tax evasion scheme

31 implicating the firm. As alleged, individual Defendants, acting through corporate entities

32 (“practices”) under their control, wrote over 120 checks worth at least $600,000 made out to

33 Petroff Amshen as the payee, often with memos of “legal fees” or “legal services.” But Petroff

34 Amshen never performed any legal services for Defendants and had no knowledge of the checks.

† The Clerk is respectfully directed to amend the caption accordingly.

3 1 Rather, Defendants forged Petroff Amshen’s endorsement on the checks and created fake W-9

2 forms, purportedly issued by Petroff Amshen, to write off the transactions as business expenses.

3 With the help of Cambridge Clarendon Financial Services, LLC (“Cambridge Clarendon”), a

4 check casher in New Jersey, and Brunswick Bank & Trust Company (“Brunswick Bank”), a

5 nearby bank, Defendants then cashed the checks for themselves, converting pretax money in their

6 corporate accounts into post-tax assets. Cambridge Clarendon, “[u]pon information and belief . . .

7 was aware of the scheme,” “received remuneration and compensation for its role,” and neglected

8 to verify the (false) employer identification number on the W-9 or to call Petroff Amshen for

9 verification. Compl. ¶¶ 7–9. The number of checks written by each firm varies from one to

10 nineteen checks. The Complaint appends copies of checks allegedly written by Defendant firms,

11 and many of the checks bear a stamp from Cambridge Clarendon.

12 Petroff Amshen sued each practice and the individual Defendants affiliated with it, along

13 with Cambridge Clarendon and Brunswick Bank, in the United States District Court for the Eastern

14 District of New York. Against each set of Defendants affiliated with a given practice, Plaintiff

15 brought a claim under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), a claim

16 for common-law fraud, and a claim for unjust enrichment. Plaintiff also requested declaratory

17 relief to the effect that Petroff Amshen itself was not involved in Defendants’ scheme. As to the

18 RICO claim, Plaintiff alleged that each corporate Defendant was a RICO “enterprise,” but also

19 alleged that “[t]he criminal enterprise was comprised of all of the Defendants,” corporate and

20 individual, acting as a single organization. Compl. ¶ 11. For each corporate Defendant, all

21 affiliated individuals are alleged to have “knowingly conducted and/or participated, directly or

22 indirectly,” in its conduct “through a pattern of racketeering activity” involving violations of 18

23 U.S.C. §§ 1341 (mail fraud), 1343 (wire fraud), and 1956 (money laundering). E.g., Compl. ¶ 138.

4 1 As for damages, Petroff Amshen alleges injury to the firm’s reputation via the use of its name in a

2 fraudulent scheme. The firm also alleges that it will face tax penalties of an unspecified nature.

3 The district court dismissed all RICO counts for failure to state a claim and declined to

4 exercise supplemental jurisdiction over Petroff Amshen’s state-law claims. Petroff Amshen

5 appealed, arguing that it has plausibly alleged RICO claims and that, in the alternative, it should

6 be granted leave to amend. 1 We review a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim de novo.

7 Darby v. Greenman, 14 F.4th 124

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