Michele Brown Gets the Payoff for her Role in Deferred Prosecution Agreements?
Guess where Michele Brown ended up, after leaving the US Attorney’s office to try to deflect attention both from Chris Christie’s inappropriate relationship with her as well as from Christie’s actions as US Attorney more generally? She’s gone to work for the law firm, McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter.
That’s interesting for two reasons. First, because one of the partners in the firm, Walter Timpone, is buddies with acting US Attorney Ralph Marra. But more importantly, Timpone is the guy who–as the Counsel for DePuy Orthopaedics, signed the Deferred Prosecution Agreement that Chris Christie put through. And the Monitor who got big money for that DPA? Debra Yang, the woman who mysteriously got a sinecure at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher just as her US Attorney’s office was closing in on the ultra-corrupt Republican Jerry Lewis.
We know from emails released this year during the House Judiciary’s hearing on Deferred Prosecution Agreements that Brown was intimately involved in the negotiations of these DPAs.
It’s remarkable, don’t you think, how cozy all these DPAs end up being?
the crime network masquerading as government is breathtaking
DePuy Orthopaedics.
Is it just me, or is the entire health care industry one big criminal enterprise, one which co-opts all the genuine angels and do-gooders on the front lines of health care delivery, while kiting off with our insurance and Medicare money?
What really boggles my mind is how the folks who are the brains behind these fraudulent health care enterprises haven’t figured out that a Medicare-for-all program might be something they could really work over, and instead fight tooth and nail against it. Doesn’t greed scale up?
Or are they making soooo much money the way the system is currently configured, that they don’t want any changes?
one big criminal enterprise is right.
One big Ponzi scheme, ala Madoff. A shell game with the little people providing the funds (premiums).
And if all the big people are in on the Ponzi scheme (and it looks like court monitoring is part of that), what good is enforcement?
Maybe they feel they’re making enough already and they don’t need any more?
Debra Yang, I think EW.
Just to revisit, here’s Christie’s old press release.
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nj/p…..27.rel.pdf
emph added
with the defense counsel signing off:
It was an interesting assortment of picks – especially with home offices of the violators being in places like Warsaw IN and a USA in NJ cutting the deal, you’d almost think that monitors based in places like CA wouldn’t make all that much sense, but then again, driving against the the directional markers on one way streets wouldn’t necessarily seem like a great idea either – and yet.
Thanks–I knew that but apparently my fingers didn’t.
Brown is credited on the email release with pretty much serving as lead prosecutor (in addition to the emails) From the Christie press release:
So the patterns overlay even more. Brown is the prosecutor, cuts the deal with Timpone’s firm, then goes to work for them a bit later – and the deal cut involves using Yang (who had left her role as USA to go to work for the firm defending the politician she had been charged with prosecuting) as monitor.
EW, don’t you mean
?
Argh! See comment 7.
Thanks.
For you. Now that BushCo is gone, perhaps efforts to stop fraud in Medicare can be redoubled. Medical equipment has always been very “popular” among the fraudsters as it is easier to conceal than fraud for direct patient care. Medicaid, too.
There certainly does seem to be something fishy going on here. What does DOJ Ethics say about this one (too many)?
DoJ who say about the what?
About the coziness of all these cases in Christie’s couterie, in what appears to be a revolving door between prosecutions and getting jobs at defendant law firms.
You can address your complaints to
Supreme Court of New Jersey
Office of Attorney Ethics
P.O. Box 963
Trenton, NJ 08625
They will probably tell you to go to one or another of the District Ethics Committees; you should avoid that because the local committee will likely bury the complaint.
They will tell you you should make your complaint in writing – that’s essential.
They have a good web page and a pretty helpful FAQ page.
Not that it’s likely to do much good – Timpone’s a big Rethug wheel.
This brings to mind the cartoon of the hunters in the forest, wondering where all the game is … and then you start to notice that the trees look a lot like legs.
The criminals are the government, in many ways: they’ve found out that looking honest allows them access to more money that they’d otherwise ever have gotten.
O/T, and please excuse, but I know nothing about Pennsylvania politics and figured that someone here would. Friends on another site are trying to grasp how Philadelphia could be in this situation.
@2
Does anyone recall the investigation that was to begin regarding Medicaare fraud and Novation,LLC?
Attorneys Scandal: An Illegal White House-coordinated Effort to …May 18, 2007 … Five of the 12 U.S. attorneys who were canned or targeted for removal were …. Texas assistant U.S. attorney deaths raise foul play questions … investigating Medicare fraud and money laundering cases involving Novation and … The U.S attorney firing scandal is just one more piece of a jigsaw …
http://www.alternet.org/story/52037/ – Cached – Similar
Novation LLC, Medicare Fraud, U.S. Attorneys, Accidental Deaths …Shannon Ross’s investigation of Novation LLC had sparked the New York Times article … Carol Lam was personally prosecuting Medicare fraud at the Tenet …
http://www.1115.org/…/novation-…..s-firings/ – Cached – Similar
“Senate Judiciary Democrats also failed to ask Gonzales whether the DOJ deaths and firings in Dallas-Fort Worth were linked to Todd Graves’ Medicare prosecution activity in the Novation case filed on March 9, 2005 and his forced resignation prior to being replaced on March 23, 2006 by DOJ lawyer Bradley J. Schlozman under new Patriot Act interim appointment guidelines.
In an April 18, 2005 affidavit, Medical Supply Chain, Inc. founder and plaintiff Samuel Lipari described interception of electronic communications and searches by law enforcement officials which were employed to interfere with and obstruct his prosecution of Medical Supply Chain, Inc. v. Novation LLC, et al. [US District Court for the Western District of Missouri, No. 05-0210-CV-W ODS]
U.S. Attorney Scholzman was accused by Lipari on October 12, 2006 in the U.S. Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit in St. Louis for failing to prosecute Novation LLC when Lipari brought evidence to Schlozman’s office regarding corrupt Medicare practices provided to him by Novation insider executives who came forward to assert to the Gonzales Justice Department that hospital supply funds had been laundered through publicly traded electronic hospital supply marketplace Neoforma, Inc. that was then controlled by Novation, VHA, UHC and UHC.
Scholzman has reportedly never prosecuted a legal case and previously served as a deputy in the DOJ civil rights division where he helped overrule career government lawyers in approving then House GOP Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s controversial Texas congressional redistricting plan to gain additional Texas Republican seats in Congress.
(Excerpt,Tom Flocco) link to follow________________________________
Incidentally, it was announced just a cuople of days ago that Schlozman would NOT be prosecuted in the fired DOJ attorneys’ cases.
Dead, fired attorneys’ Medicare fraud probe linked to White HouseApr 12, 2007 … “The implication for fraud involving hospital equipment costs, … the Texas fraud case was also covered up, despite deaths and firings within a … about the five dead and fired U.S. attorneys probing Medicare fraud in …
http://www.tomflocco.com/fs/FiredAttorneysFraudProbe.htm – Cached – Similar
OT – The enemy of my enemy, um, might still be my enemy?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200….._proxy_war
Pakistan may be delegating out some of their war on terror efforts to militia groups that, “wear their hair and beards long, Taliban style, and support attacks on U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.”
Apparently, the militia are no fans of the Pakistani Taliban. But they still also support attacks on US troops. Pakistan wants to use them to free up military resources and bc they know the terrain and the Taliban enemy.
Yet “the biggest Medicare Fraud ever” perpetuated by St. Barnabas Medical System… also investigated by Christie’s office… ended in a settlement where St. Barnabas only had to pay back 1/3 of the $645M it had bilked from Medicare.
Yet, strangely, no corporate monitor was assigned. By a man whose US Attorneys office just loved to assign expensive monitors.
And Christie’s brother is (was?) on the board of St. Barnabas.
And Christie’s family foundation has given over $1m so far to St. Barnabas.
There must be more here.
Interesting take really.
The right is lining up against the public option not because it will engender ’socialism’ but, rather, it will likely cascade changes which will likey close the considerable Medicare and Medicaid loopholes… Loopholes which are very profitable for most medical comapanies’ bottom line.
Oppose “Obamacare” so our graft can continue.
September 13, 2009 Edition
Novation LLC’s Healthcare Contracting Scheme Ruled Legal
Apr 27, 2009 KANSAS CITY, KS — A Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled last Thursday in support of US District Court Judge Carlos Murguia’s order that the nationwide hospital supply cartel created by Novation LLC and Jeffery Immelt the CEO of General Electric (NYSE: GE) could not be challenged in court for artificially inflating hospital supplies and over charging Medicare and Medicaid.
Last Thursday’s ruling denying the motion to reopen Kansas District Court Case 05-2299-CM effectively ends the last challenge to Novation and GE’s GHX long term anticompetitive control that assigns market share and permits only suppliers that pay a kickback the chance to sell their products to America’s hospitals. This practice was exposed by a series of New York Times articles on Novation LLC’s role in controlling the price hospitals pay in the 1.8 Trillion dollar healthcare market.
The London Times on July 31, 2006 reported the US Department of Justice was investigating Novation LLC for these business practices.
A public interest group http://www.stopgpokickbacks.org has also been formed by patients, physicians, healthcare workers, device manufacturers, distributors, and concerned citizens committed to returning true competition to the hospital supply marketplace.
The Kansas US District Court Judge Carlos Murguia appointed to the bench by President Bill Clinton, refused to permit Medical Supply Chain, Inc. to submit evidence in support of its antitrust claims against the Novation LLC cartel members or to engage in discovery
Press Release 365
Fraud Based Racketeering Awaits GEFeb 3, 2009 … GE is the creator and part owner of GHX, LLC the nation’s sole remaining … $31.6 billion in supplies through Novation LLC in 2006. …
http://www.pressrelease365.com/……..i-3174.htm – Cached – Similar
Novation LLC’s Healthcare Contracting Scheme Ruled LegalApr 27, 2009 … GE is the creator and part owner of GHX, LLC the nation’s sole remaining … Keywords: Novation LLC, GE, Judiciary, Congress, Anti-Trust, …
http://www.pressrelease365.com/……..o-3373.htm – Cached – Similar
http://judiciary.house.gov/hea…..090625.pdf
I can’t believe the money being electronically transferred to Ashcroft and other former senior officials from the Department of Justice.
And one of the transferred funds’ primary sources is millions of senior citizens Medicare payments for all those artificial hips and knees. Christie and Brown apparently uncovered the collusion of these hip and knee companies to form a monopoly. (I haven’t had time to look into their work on our behalf.)
Artificial hips and knees are number 1 and number 5 in elective surgeries paid for by Medicare.
Interestingly, number 5 is for repair, replacement, and/or cleaning up those ubiquitous infections surrounding these surgeries.
After reading the emails link from the post, it read as if Christie was orchestrating extortion of the company rather than setting up a just settlement between the company and the people of the United States.
As a matter of fact, the people of the United States didn’t factor in much at all. Except, you know, as the source of all those transferred funds.
I do not see how the Obama Administration can move forward on health care reform without first showing examples of the abuses that have been pillaging consumers.
The dollar amounts mentioned are staggering. Stopping abuses will pay for the public option.
The crooked, connected players know the ins and outs within the current framework. Any changes would create the need to abandon some previously lucrative spigots in favor of new ones which must be learned.
Also, crimes would likely be discovered to have occurred in the old framework.
So, a DPA is sort of a prosecutor-granted pardon. Hmmmmmmm.
Carol Lam would be an excellent addition to the health care reform team.She AUTHORED a 954 page text book on Health Care fraud.Then she proceeded to raid a Tenet Hospital in San Diego for Medicare fraud.
Two mistrials ensued,and Lam was pushed out by the Bush regime,allegedly for non enforcement of immigration policy(?).
Interestingly enough,one month after her departure ,Jeb Bush was named to the Board of Directors for the SAME chain of hospitals,Tenet,that she prosecuted.Forthwith some additional info:
Posted on June 19, 2007
Jeb Bush earns $474,500 as a new Board Member for Tenet Healthcare
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush was elected to the Board of Tenet Healthcare and will be paid $474,500 for 13 days of work per year as a member of the board. That equates to $36,500 per day.
Great job in a company that is consistently defrauding the USA of its tax dollars.
Tenet has been involved in with the federal government on charges of fraud, false claims and over-billing Medicare, over the past 13 years.
The Department of Justice stated that Tenet would only be required to pay back $900 million of the $1.7 billion stolen, because of their “inability to pay.” Not a bad settlement for Tenet Healthcare.____________________________________
(linky to follow)
Jeb Bush earns $474500 as a new Board Member for Tenet Healthcare …Jun 19, 2007 … Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush was elected to the Board of Tenet Healthcare and will be paid $474500 for 13 days of work per year as a …
whistleblower.labovick.com/…/jeb-bush-earns-474500-as-a-new-board-member-for-tenet-healthcare/ – Cached – Similar
Incidentally, the firm for whom the former US attorney,Debra Yang, works-Gibson,Dunn,Crutcher, also represents Tenet Health Care,according to their website.