United States v. Harris

308 F. App'x 932
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 29, 2009
Docket06-3327
StatusUnpublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 308 F. App'x 932 (United States v. Harris) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Harris, 308 F. App'x 932 (6th Cir. 2009).

Opinion

OPINION

McKEAGUE, Circuit Judge.

This case involves an interesting tale of fraud and deception by a doctor attempting to avoid repaying his student loans to the government. As a medical student, Lawrence Harris took out Health Education and Assistance Loans (“HEAL loans”) in order to complete his education. HEAL loans are private loans backed by the government. After graduating, Harris did not make regular payments on his loans, and his private lender filed a claim for his loans with the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”). HHS paid the private lender, and then the government obtained a civil judgment against Harris. Harris entered a repayment agreement after that judgment, but again failed to make consistent payments. The government suspended Harris’s access to Medicare and Medicaid payments in November 2000, and, in 2002, Harris convinced the government that he was permanently unable to pay off his loans. The government forgave the loans and readmitted Harris to Medicare and Medicaid practice. Suspicious charges involving Harris led to an investigation. That investigation resulted in an indictment against Harris, charging him with ten counts of health care fraud, one conspiracy count, and one count of making a false statement.

A jury convicted Harris on all twelve counts, and the district court sentenced him to seventy-eight months in prison and $528,074 in restitution. Harris now appeals, challenging the denial of a motion to compel effective assistance of counsel that he filed just before trial began, the use of judicial fact-finding in his sentencing, and the obstruction of justice enhancement he received during sentencing. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the district court’s judgment.

I. BACKGROUND

A. History of Harris’s Loans

Beginning in 1988, Harris attended the Ohio College of Podiatry Medicine. In *934 order to attend Ohio College, Harris took out HEAL loans. HEAL loans are private loans backed by the government. Harris accrued $66,100 in loans during his time in school.

It is unclear if Harris ever took a deferment on his loans. It is clear, however, that Harris did not make at least six loan payments. Sallie Mae, the private lender responsible for the loans, filed an insurance claim with HHS. HHS repaid Sallie Mae for Harris’s loans and Sallie Mae assigned the loans to HHS. HHS then referred the loans to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Cleveland, Ohio for collection.

B. The First Judgment against Harris and the Loan Repayment Plan

In 1989, the government initiated a civil action against Harris to collect on the HEAL loans. It obtained a judgment against Harris in the amount of $127,520.18. Based on that judgment, Harris and the government entered into a repayment agreement in 1991. The plan required regular repayment be made from the reimbursements Harris received from Medicare for services rendered. 1 The government would receive the first $1,500 of the Medicare payments Harris received each month. The next $10,000 each month would be Harris’s, while anything over $11,500 in a month would be split equally between Harris and the government.

C. Harris’s Attempts to Limit his Payments

During the same period, Harris began attending an “asset protection class” offered by Jay Mitton. He attended this class yearly, often with other doctors he knew. One of the seminar books indicated that forming a corporation and working as the corporation’s employee would allow an individual with heavy loan payments to have better control of his finances. Harris received similar advice from his accountant, Kenneth Embry. Embry indicated that, if Harris formed a corporation and listed himself as its employee, “Medicare would discontinue intercepting his funds.” Repayment of Harris’s loans was initially made from Medicare reimbursements which he obtained using his Medicare PIN number. Creating a corporation would create a new PIN number for the corporation under which Harris could bill Medicare for reimbursements. Embry indicated that Medicare would not deduct payments for Harris’s repayment plan from Medicare reimbursements obtained using the corporation’s PIN number if Harris was fisted as an employee of the corporation. Based on this advice, Harris formed Metropolitan Foot and Ankle (“Metropolitan”) in 1993.

To incorporate under Ohio state law, Harris believed he needed to have other doctors as shareholders. He listed several other doctors as shareholders, doctors that he knew from school and who had also attended the Mitton seminars. One of these doctors was Dr. Taj Malik. Dr. Malik later testified he had never been involved with Metropolitan. 2 Dr. George Ilodi was also fisted as a shareholder. Dr. Ilodi later testified that he had never been involved with or had any knowledge of Metropolitan. 3 After being contacted by FBI agents investigating Harris, Dr. Ilodi *935 sent a letter to Harris inquiring why Harris had used Dr. Ilodi’s name in connection with Metropolitan. Harris sent a response, but the response was addressed to Dr. Malik rather than Dr. Ilodi: in it, Harris apologized to Dr. Malik for using Dr. Malik’s address in relation to Metropolitan and explained it away as an accident. Needless to say, the letter did nothing to assuage Dr. Ilodi’s concerns about the use of his own name. Dr. Kenneth Walker was also listed as a shareholder. 4 Dr. Walker’s wife testified that Dr. Walker was not involved in any way with Metropolitan. Dr. Damon Litsey and Dr. Brenda Casselberry also testified that, though listed as shareholders in Metropolitan, neither had any involvement with Metropolitan. 5

When Metropolitan first incorporated, Medicare began deducting Harris’s payments from reimbursements to Metropolitan. In response, Harris informed Medicare he was simply a Metropolitan employee. He submitted a handwritten chart showing other doctors’ roles at Metropolitan. It listed Dr. Walker as president of Metropolitan and Dr. Cassel-berry as president of Metropolitan’s Po-dopediatrics Department, though neither doctor had any involvement with the corporation. Harris also wrote letters to Medicare — using other doctors’ names— that indicated Harris had no financial interest in Metropolitan and that Harris would be fired if Medicare continued deducting amounts Harris owed under the repayment plan from Metropolitan’s Medicare payments. Harris did not receive permission from these other doctors to use their names, but his efforts were successful: Medicare stopped deducting amounts Harris owed from reimbursements made to Metropolitan. He wrote the first of these letters in 1993, and Medicare stopped deducting amounts Harris owed from reimbursements made to Metropolitan’s Medicare reimbursements soon after.

Emboldened by the success of this ruse, Harris formed another corporation, Achilles Foot and Ankle (“Achilles”), in 1994. He did not actively use the Achilles corporation until the fall of 2000, shortly after he learned that the government was going to exclude him from Medicare.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

United States v. Troy Parker
403 F. App'x 24 (Sixth Circuit, 2010)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
308 F. App'x 932, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-harris-ca6-2009.