October 3, 2012in Federal Law, Florida Criminal Law, Florida Lawyer

Two South Florida doctors sent to prison for 10 years in major Medicare scam

Two South Florida doctors convicted of conspiring to defraud Medicare through the nation’s largest mental-health racket were each sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday.
A federal jury in June convicted psychiatrists Mark Willner, 56, of Weston and Alberto Ayala, 68, of Coral Gables, the medical directors for American Therapeutic Corp., for their roles in a $205 million scheme to fleece the taxpayer-funded program for the elderly and disabled.
The 12-person jury found them not guilty on other healthcare fraud offenses.
U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz gave the two doctors the maximum prison sentence for their cruicial roles in the criminal conspiracy, and then ordered Willner to pay $57 million and Ayala $87 million to Medicare.
Justice Department prosecutors said the doctors prescribed $120 million worth of fraudulent psychotherapy sessions at ATC’s chain of clinics in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Willner and Ayala were paid $641,000 and $536,000, respectively, for their services, according to trial evidence.
Since Miami-based ATC’s chain was shuttered two years ago, 35 defendants have been charged in the case with the majority pleading guilty. The ringleader, business owner Lawrence Duran, received a 50-year prison sentence — the stiffest punishment ever for a Medicare fraud offender.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/10/02/3030400/two-south-florida-doctors-sent.html#storylink=cpy
Read More
September 27, 2012in Uncategorized

Latest Update on missing UF student Christian Aguilar

As friends and strangers, police officers and relatives trudged through thick brush Wednesday, bound by the single mission of finding University of Florida freshman Christian Aguilar, police revealed ominous details about the prime suspect in the disappearance, casting a pall over an increasingly grim search.
Police said Pedro Bravo, the last person seen with Aguilar, bought a shovel and duct tape days before Aguilar’s Sept. 20 disappearance. After searching the wooded fields around Gainesville, investigators have not found a shovel, tape or any other evidence.
Nor have they found any sign of Aguilar, an 18-year-old freshman who went to high school with Bravo at the Doral Academy Preparatory School in west Miami-Dade.
“It’s eating me alive to find out that Pedro could have actually planned this,” said father Carlos Aguilar, 45, of west Miami-Dade. “It’s hard to think about, but I still have faith and I am hoping my son is alive.”
Aguilar’s younger son, Alexander, 16, now a student at Doral Academy, said the newest development was “scary.”
“I am trying to stay positive, trying not to let myself think of the worst-case scenario,” he said Wednesday.
Bravo, a student at Gainesville’s Santa Fe College, told police that he fought with Aguilar, beating him for 10 to 15 minutes before leaving Aguilar “bloody, swollen and barely breathing or moving” in a wooded area, court records show.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/26/3022803/grim-news-for-searchers-of-missing.html#storylink=cpy
Read More
September 11, 2012in Federal Law, Florida Criminal Law, Florida Lawyer

Check casher pleads guilty to laundering stolen Medicare millions that wound up in Cuba’s banks

A Cuban immigrant who laundered millions of dirty Medicare dollars through his Florida check-cashing store into Cuba’s state-controlled banking system has agreed to help federal investigators catch other suspects in the unprecedented case being prosecuted in Miami.
Oscar L. Sánchez, who recently pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to launder profits from Medicare fraud, agreed to “cooperate fully” with the U.S. attorney’s office in hopes of reducing a potential prison sentence of at least nine years, according to his plea agreement.
The agreement offers no details about his criminal activity because of its highly sensitive nature: Sánchez’s case marks the first prosecution of a defendant accused of laundering taxpayer-funded Medicare proceeds into Cuba’s national bank.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/10/2995736/check-casher-pleads-guilty-to.html#storylink=cpy
Read More
September 7, 2012in Florida Criminal Law, Florida Lawyer

Judge rejects plea deal for former model in hit-and-run that killed UM student on LSD

Former model Valentina Hubsch came to court thinking she had a plea deal allowing her to avoid jail time for leaving the scene of an accident resulting in the death of a 21-year-old University of Miami student.
But after hearing tearful statements Thursday from the family of the victim, Judge Jorge Rodriguez-Chomat rejected the plea offered by the state. Hubsch and her attorney were taken by surprise.  “I feel like we were ambushed,” said defense attorney Albert Levin. “The facts remain the facts, and my client’s role in this tragedy will not change.  The victim’s role in the accident was not in question. On Nov. 13, 2010, Paul Jones was running through traffic on Red Road near 45th Street. Friends say he had taken LSD.
Police received multiple 911 calls of a disoriented man “in the middle of the road trying to get people to run him over,” according to a report from the state prosecutor.  Hubsch was driving north on Red Road in her silver Sonata just after dark.   She hit something, “so sudden and so frightening that I don’t know exactly what happened,” she told police later. She briefly pulled over, but stayed in her car, then continued to her home. She didn’t call 911.
The following day, she contacted Coral Gables Police through her lawyer to turn herself in. Both went to the station, but no investigator was present at the time. Hubsch returned the following day to give her statement. She was charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving a death, which carries a minimum mandatory sentence of 21 months in jail. She was not taken into custody.
Jones died from his injuries 10 days later

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/06/2987989/plea-deal-for-former-model-rejected.html#storylink=cpy
Read More
August 31, 2012in Federal Law, Florida Criminal Law, Florida Lawyer

NFL veteran pleads guilty to tax-related fraud charges in Miami

William Joseph, a University of Miami defensive tackle who played in the NFL for much of the past decade, pleaded guilty to tax-related fraud charges in federal court Friday.
Joseph and others — including former Oakland Raider teammate, running back Michael Bennett — are accused of cashing dozens of fraudulently obtained tax-refund checks and seeking a loan with fake collateral. Their take totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to court records.
Joseph, 32, of Miramar, pleaded guilty to theft of government money and aggravated identity theft, the latter of which carries a mandatory two-year prison sentence. His sentencing was set for Nov. 9 before U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/31/2976855/nfl-veteran-who-played-at-um-to.html#storylink=cpy
Read More
August 22, 2012in Florida Criminal Law, Florida Lawyer

Man With Face Tattoos Claims Misidentification

Adriana Johnson clearly remembers the January afternoon six years ago when she watched her father scuffle with a young man on a Liberty City street. She remembers the teen skirt down a side street, return with an AK-47 rifle and unleash a flurry of bullets. The memories, on Tuesday, were crisp:
Her mother bleeding from the leg, screaming that she had been shot.
The homicide detectives investigating the murders of her parents presenting her with a photo lineup. The instant recognition. The killer sported two distinctive tattoos inked on each cheek.
“Crosses. On each side of his face,” Adriana, now 16, told jurors Tuesday, on the opening day of the murder trial for Benito “Bo” Santiago.
The suspect’s conspicuous crucifix tattoos lay at the heart of the prosecution’s case against Santiago, 23, charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
On Tuesday, prosecutors said that Adriana and another witness identified Santiago, whom they knew from around the neighborhood, as the man who killed Grace Armstrong, 27, and Adrian Johnson, 28.
The second witness, prosecutor Kathleen Cortes told jurors, knew Santiago well — she had allowed him to sleep at her home from time to time.
But defense attorney Alan Greenstein said prosecutors have no physical evidence linking Santiago to the crime and eyewitness testimony is unreliable. The second witness, Patricia Wilcher, never housed Santiago in the months preceding the shooting because the teen was living in New York at the time, Greenstein said.
“She’s got the wrong man,” Greenstein told jurors.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/21/2962054/trial-starts-for-man-in-liberty.html#storylink=cpy
Read More
August 15, 2012in Florida Criminal Law, Florida Lawyer

Fernandez Rundle Wins

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle claimed victory Tuesday over her Democratic primary opponent, thus clinching her sixth elected term because no balloted candidates oppose her in November.
“It’s about your record. It’s about your performance, the things you do every day working with victims in this community,” she told cheering employees Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. during a spirited gathering of supporters at Miami’s Renaissance Restaurant. “I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
With the majority of the precincts reporting late Tuesday, voters have chosen her over Miami criminal defense attorney Rod Vereen.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/13/2951953/fernandez-rundle-voted-back-to.html#storylink=cpy

Read More

Contact Info

Melmer Law, LLC prides itself on being readily available at all times for their clients and their families. Please contact us below for more information.

Melmer Law, LLC

Mark P. Melmer, Esq. served as a prosecutor here in Miami-Dade County, handling thousands of cases at both the misdemeanor and felony level. For the last 10 years Mark has devoted his practice to family law and domestic violence issues. This experience and insight makes him a formidable advocate.

Useful links

Social Links

Facebook-f Twitter
© 2022 Melmer Law, LLC. All Rights Reserved. | Web Design and Development by Paton Marketing