United States v. Patel

651 F. App'x 468
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJune 9, 2016
DocketNos. 14-2436, 15-1103, and 15-1881
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 651 F. App'x 468 (United States v. Patel) 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. Patel, 651 F. App'x 468 (6th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

KETHLEDGE, Circuit Judge.

A federal jury convicted Shahzad Mirza, Jigar Patel, and Srinivas Reddy of healthcare fraud and conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud ih violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1347, 1349. The jury also convicted Patel of money laundering in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(l)(B)(i). The district court sentenced each defendant to a below-guidelines term of imprisonment and ordered them to pay restitution. On appeal, they argue that the court erred in its jury instructions; that the government presented insufficient evidence to support their convictions; and that the restitution orders violate the Sixth Amendment. Mirza and Reddy also argue that the court erred in calculating their sentencing 'guidelines ranges. We affirm.

I.

Medicare covers certain in-home healthcare for home-bound patients. Before a patient can receive in-home care, however, a physician must certify that the patient is unable to leave his home for treatment. Beginning in 2008 and continuing into September 2011, Tausif Rahman ran a series of fraudulent home-healthcare companies, collectively called Physician’s Choice. The companies purported to provide physical therapy to home-bound patients. In fact, however, they used the Medicare numbers, personal information, and signatures of customers fraudulently to bill for in-home care that they never provided. In exchange, the customers got cash or drugs.

To create an appearance of legitimacy, Physician’s Choice created “patient files,” with content fabricated by “writers.” These writers filled in the dates and details of fictitious physical therapy sessions, including the patient’s pain level, ability to move, and response to treatment. Rahman got licensed physicians and physical therapists to sign certain documents. Initially, Rahman also hired a licensed physician to perform a superficial meeting with each customer. When that doctor died, Rahman recruited new doctors to participate in his scheme, but they refused actually to meet any customers.

The defendants here were involved in Rahman’s scheme in varying capacities. Shahzad Mirza, a licensed physical therapist, joined Rahman’s operation at the outset. He refused to see customers but signed hundreds of files. He stopped working for Rahman in late 2009 or early 2010. Jigar Patel, a physical therapy assistant, was one of the original writers. He eventually formed his own physical therapy company — with a licensed physical therapist on staff — and supplied entire files to Physician’s Choice with that therapist’s signature. Physician’s Choice paid Patel’s fraudulent company for these files. Rahman hired Srinivas Reddy — a doctor in India but unlicensed in the U.S. — to meet with customers after Rahman’s licensed doctors refused to do so. Reddy interviewed customers and used blank prescriptions signed by the licensed doctors, to give drugs to customers.

In 2011, the government learned of the Medicare-fraud scheme and recruited one of Rahman’s employees to make an undercover recording of other employees signing up new customers. A few months later, a federal grand jury indicted Patel and Red-dy (and a dozen others) for healthcare fraud and conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, and Patel for money laundering. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 1347, 1349, 1956(a)(l)(B)(i). In 2014, after many of the conspirators had pled guilty, a federal grand jury issued a Second Superseding Indictment charging Mirza with healthcare fraud and conspiracy. See R. 360.

Patel, Reddy, and Mirza went to trial. After the close of the government’s proofs, [471]*471each defendant moved for a judgment of acquittal. The district court denied their motions. The jury convicted the defendants on all counts. The court calculated a guidelines range for Mirza of 57-71 months’ imprisonment, for Patel of 78-97 months, and for Reddy of 63-78 months. But the court sentenced Mirza and Patel to only 50 months’ imprisonment and Reddy to only 42. The court also ordered each defendant to pay restitution: $6,489,370.17 for Mirza, $1,952,095.90 for Patel, and $1,652,132.37 for Reddy. All three appealed.

II.

The defendants challenge their convictions and sentences on numerous grounds.

A.

Mirza and Reddy argue that the district court gave the jury an erroneous instruction regarding “deliberate ignorance.” We review the court’s jury instructions for an abuse of discretion. See United States v. Williams, 612 F.3d 500, 506 (6th Cir.2010).

An instruction regarding “deliberate ignorance” explains to the jury that a statutory knowledge element can be satisfied by “the deliberate avoidance of knowledge.” United States v. Mitchell, 681 F.3d 867, 876 (6th Cir.2012). The instruction is appropriate when the defendant claims a lack of knowledge and “the facts and evidence support an inference of deliberate ignorance.” Id. Here, Reddy and Mirza argued at trial that they were innocent of Medicare fraud because they had believed Rah-man’s assurances that he ran a legitimate business. At the conclusion of trial,- and over the defendants’ objections, the court instructed the jury that

[i]f you are convinced that the defendants ... deliberately ignored a high probability that Physieian[’]s Choice ... w[as] engaged in health care fraud ... you may find that one or more of these defendants knew that the company would engage in health care fraud. But to find this, you must be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants ... were aware of a high probability that Physician[’]s Choice ... w[as] engaged in health care fraud ... and that the defendants deliberately closed their eyes to what was obvious.

R. 485 at PagelD 4653-54. This instruction is lifted verbatim from the Pattern Criminal Jury Instructions for the Sixth Circuit and, is an accurate statement of the law. See Pattern Criminal Jury Instructions for the Sixth Circuit § 2.09; United States v. Mari, 47 F.3d 782, 785 (6th Cir.1995).

Mirza and Reddy contend that the government presented no evidence of deliberate ignorance at trial, so the court had no basis to give this instruction. But the government presented evidence that Reddy met with patients and prescribed drugs to them even though he was not a licensed doctor, and Mirza refused to see patients but signed hundreds of patient files. Although both claimed at trial not to know that what they were doing was illegal, their behavior is strong evidence that they either knew about the illegality or shut their eyes to it. Thus the instruction was properly supported by evidence at trial.

Mirza and Reddy also contend that the instruction served only to mislead the jury into thinking that they could convict the defendants if they were negligent. But the court immediately followed its instruction on deliberate ignorance with the caution that “[cjarelessness or negligence or foolishness on [the defendants’] part is not the same as knowledge and is not enough to convict.” The defendants’ argument is mer-itless. See Mari, 47 F.3d at 785.

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651 F. App'x 468, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-patel-ca6-2016.