United States v. PCPLV LLC

District Court, D. Nevada·Decided June 24, 2022·No. 2:21-cv-00184·Unknown

Opinion

1 JASON M. FRIERSON United States Attorney 2 Nevada Bar No. 7709 ALLISON C. REPPOND 3 Assistant United States Attorney U.S. Attorney’s Office 4 501 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Suite 1100 5 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 (702) 388-6336 6 Allison.Reppond@usdoj.gov 7 Attorneys for the United States 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 10 United States of America, Case No. 2:21-cv-00184-JCM-DJA 11 Plaintiff, 12 United States’ Ex Parte Sixth Motion to vs. Extend the Service Deadline 13 14 PCPLV LLC d/b/a Pinnacle Compounding 15 Pharmacy, Ofir Ventura, Cecelia Ventura, Brandon Jimenez, Robert Gomez, Gomez & 16 Associates, Inc., Rock’n Rob Enterprises, Amir Shalev, D.P.M., AS Enterprises, Inc., 17 and Ivan Lee Goldsmith, M.D., 18 Defendants. 19 20 Pursuant to Rule 6(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the United States 21 moves the Court for a sixth order extending the United States’ deadline to serve the 22 defendants in this matter. To allow for continued settlement discussions, the United States 23 requests an additional 90-day extension of the service deadline in this matter. The Court 24 previously provided an initial 60-day extension of the United States’ service deadline and 25 extended the service deadline from May 3, 2021 to July 2, 2021. The Court also granted the 26 United States’ second, third, fourth, and fifth requests for additional 90-day extensions of 27 the United States’ service deadline to allow ongoing settlement discussions to continue. The 28 United States’ current service deadline is June 27, 2022. 1 The Court has broad discretion to provide the brief extension requested, and the 2 United States respectfully requests this Court grant its Sixth Motion to Extend the Service 3 Deadline in this matter. 4 Respectfully submitted this 23rd day of June, 2022. 5 JASON M. FRIERSON United States Attorney 6 7 /s/ Allison C. Reppond Allison C. Reppond 8 Assistant United States Attorney 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 1 I. Introduction 2 Pursuant to Rule 6(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the United States 3 moves the Court for an order extending the United States’ deadline to serve the defendants 4 in this matter. The United States’ service was initially extended by the Court from May 3, 5 2021 to July 2, 2021 on a showing of good cause. ECF 3, Ex Parte Order Granting United 6 States’ Ex Parte Motion to Extend the Service Deadline Under Rule 4(m) of the Federal 7 Rules of Civil Procedure. The Court provided a second extension of the United States’ 8 service deadline from July 2, 2021 to September 30, 2021 on a showing of good cause. ECF 9 5, Ex Parte Order Granting United States’ Ex Parte Second Motion to Extend the Service 10 Deadline Under Rule 4(m) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The Court also 11 provided a third extension of the United States’ service deadline, from September 30, 2021 12 to December 29, 2021 on a showing of good cause. ECF 7, Ex Parte Order Granting 13 United States’ Ex Parte Third Motion to Extend the Service Deadline Under Rule 4(m) of 14 the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The Court provided a fourth extension, in light of 15 ongoing settlement discussions, and extended the deadline upon a showing of good cause 16 from December 29, 2021 to March 29, 2022. ECF 9, Ex Parte Order Granting United 17 States’ Ex Parte Fourth Motion to Extend the Service Deadline Under Rule 4(m) of the 18 Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The Court provided a fourth extension, in light of 19 ongoing settlement discussions, and extended the deadline upon a showing of good cause 20 from March 29, 2022 to June 27, 2022. ECF 11, Ex Parte Order Granting United States’ 21 Ex Parte Fifth Motion to Extend the Service Deadline Under Rule 4(m) of the Federal 22 Rules of Civil Procedure. The United States now requests one additional 90-day extension 23 of the deadline to serve defendants. There is good cause for the requested extension. 24 Since the Court granted the prior extensions of the service deadline, the United 25 States remained actively engaged in discussions with the defendants to determine if this 26 matter may be resolved without the burden and expense of protracted litigation. As part of 27 these discussions, the United States has performed a detailed evaluation of the claims and 28 1 United States has also conducted multiple meetings with the defendants, exchanged 2 documents and information, engaged in substantive discussions regarding the claims at 3 issue in this matter and the potential for settlement, and discussed settlement strategy 4 internally based on information exchanged in various meetings and conversations between 5 the parties. The United States anticipates confirming its final settlement strategy and 6 authority within the next one to two weeks and, with that in mind, is in the process of 7 scheduling additional meetings with the parties to further discuss settlement in July or early 8 August. The United States is certain negotiations will continue forward efficiently and 9 effectively in the coming weeks. Settlement negotiations remain ongoing and productive. 10 As noted in the United States’ first Motion to Extend the service deadline in this matter, all 11 defendants have notice of the claims at issue and received an informal copy of the 12 Complaint, ECF 1. The parties1 have stated they do not oppose a sixth extension of the 13 service deadline, as it will further facilitate settlement discussion that will potentially save 14 the parties much time and expense. 15 Thus, there is good cause to extend the service deadline in this matter for 90 days, 16 from June 27, 2022, to September 26, 2022, to allow settlement discussions to continue 17 without disruption. Further, even if the Court finds good cause for an extension is lacking, 18 the Court should exercise its broad discretion to provide the brief extension requested. The 19 United States respectfully requests this Court grant its Sixth Motion to Extend the Service 20 Deadline in this matter. 21 II. Statement of Facts and Procedural History 22 This case arises from an illegal kickback scheme in which a compounding pharmacy 23 (owned and operated by defendant PCPLV LLC d/b/a Pinnacle Compounding Pharmacy 24 and its principals, defendants Ofir Ventura, Cecelia Ventura, and Brandon Jimenez) paid 25 illegal kickbacks to third-party marketers (including defendants Robert Gomez and his 26 27 1 The United States has been unable to engage in any substantive discussions on this issue with defendant Robert Gomez, as Mr. Gomez has made no plans to proceed with counsel. The United States has encouraged Mr. Gomez to 28 seek counsel and has also informally provided Mr. Gomez with a copy of the Complaint. 1 (including defendants Ivan Lee Goldsmith, M.D., Amir Shalev, D.P.M., and Shalev’s 2 business, AS Enterprises, Inc.) in exchange for referral of large volumes of prescriptions to 3 government healthcare beneficiaries for unnecessary and expensive compounded 4 medications. See generally ECF 1, United States’ Complaint. Two government healthcare 5 programs, TRICARE and CHAMPVA, and their beneficiaries were targets of this scheme. 6 Id. 7 Pinnacle billed TRICARE and CHAMPVA millions of dollars for compounded 8 prescription medications by Pinnacle. ECF 1 at ¶¶ 88–93.

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

United States v. PCPLV LLC, (D. Nev. 2022).

United States v. PCPLV LLC (United States v. PCPLV LLC) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related