Located in Broward County, Ft. Lauderdale is the principal city of this county and one of the major cities of South Florida. Just like Miami, it is a major international hub and tourist attraction, pulling in people from across the world, in particular Latin America. At the state level, Broward County is under the jurisdiction of the 17 th Judicial Circuit of Florida. At the federal level, it is part of Southern District of Florida, which is headed by U.S State Attorney Wifredo Ferrer.
Ft. Lauderdale has been the location of many large schemes and frauds, the most recent high profile being the Scott Rothstein Ponzi scheme. One of the largest growing areas of white collar crime has been in the area of health care fraud. Over the past several years, the Federal prosecutors have targeted Medicare Fraud in cities across Florida, including Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, and Tampa. Due to the rampant Medicare fraud in the United States, the Department of Justice launched in 2007 the Medicare Fraud Strike Force -a multi-agency team of federal, state, and local investigators united to fight Medicare fraud. This Strike Force is supervised by the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. State Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.
According to statistics provided by the USAO, the Strike Force has charged, to this day, more than 1,140 defendants that collectively have billed the Medicare program for more than $2.9 billion.
In 2009, the Department of Health and the DOJ created the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT). HEAT’s mission is to crack down on organizations and individuals committing fraud and to gather resources across the government to help prevent fraud, waste, and abuse of the Medicare and Medicaid program.
Just this past July 2013, a director for a health care center in South Florida was sentenced to 135 months for organizing a fraud scheme that resulted in over $63 million in fraudulent Medicare claims. In addition to the prison sentence, the convicted, Alina Feas, former director of Health Care Solutions Network Inc., must serve 3 years of supervised release and pay $24.1 million in restitution.
Combatting Medicare is an ongoing battle for prosecutors and law enforcement. Sometimes innocent people are arrested because they become involved unwittingly or unaware of the criminal scheme. Others become swept up in the illegal scheme but play a minor role and deserve a much lesser sanction.
Attorney Ken Swartz can represent you if you are facing charges or you are the subject of an investigation. Ken has extensive experience working with clients from Ft. Lauderdale and throughout the state of Florida. Board certified in criminal trial law by the Florida Bar, Ken has tried over 130 criminal jury trials in federal court, ranging from drug charges, violent crimes, manslaughter, and white collar crimes. Miami criminal defense attorney Ken Swartz often travels from his base in Miami throughout Florida to meet clients, meet with prosecutors, and attend hearings. Our legal services are available to all residents of Ft. Lauderdale who are in need of representation. Take the first step by contacting the Swartz Law Firm.