Philip Esformes – The Donald Commuted his Sentence – 6 Counts Short and the DOJ

Philip Esformes, a nursing home operator, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in a Medicare fraud case before President Trump commuted his sentence this week.Credit…Rob Latour/Invision, via Associated Press

Dear Reader:

We applaud the decision on the part of the Department of Justice, which has announced that it intends to pursue the prosecution of the final 6 counts against Philip Esformes. The jurors failed to reach a conviction in April of 2019. The remaining counts were for “paying and receiving kickbacks, money laundering, bribery and obstruction of justice. A conviction on these counts would be a modicum of justice for the elderly and their families. While Esformes claims to be “spending most of his days studying with rabbis, working, reconnecting with his children, and taking care of his father…” In our opinion, there is no manner of decency Esformes can show that would compensate the hundreds of victims (and their families) of his crimes.

Donald Trump’s commutation of Esformes’ sentence was a deplorable act, in and of itself. The elderly and their families deserved better from their President at the time and they deserve justice now.

Feds Want Accused Medicare Fraudster Philip Esformes Confined Until Trial

May 4—Concerned that a convicted healthcare mogul freed by then-President Donald Trump might flee the country, Justice Department prosecutors urged a federal judge Tuesday to confine Philip Esformes to his South Florida home with an electronic ankle monitor and impose a $10.5 million bond to ensure his appearance for a new trial.

But their request was effectively rebuffed, at least for now.

U.S. District Judge Robert Scola instead granted a request by Esformes’ defense team to postpone the government’s bond proposal until mid-August, when it will be taken up again.

Justice Department prosecutors recently said they will pursue unresolved charges from Esformes’ healthcare fraud trial in 2019, when a federal jury deadlocked on the main conspiracy charge and five other offenses but found him guilty of 20 corruption-related counts. Scola sentenced Esformes to 20 years in prison and ordered him to pay $5.3 million in restitution to the taxpayer-funded Medicare program and a $38 million forfeiture fine.

“The trust that he broke was of epic proportions,” Allan Medina, the lead prosecutor in the $1 billion healthcare fraud case against Esformes, said at Tuesday’s hearing.

insurancenewsnet.com continue reading click here.

ADDITIONAL READING:

DOJ Plans To Retry Remaining Charges Against Esformes

“Esformes was sentenced to 20 years in prison but was freed Dec. 22 after Trump commuted his sentence. Now, he’s facing a potential second trial on the remaining charges.

“The decision to move forward on hung counts has not wavered one bit,” Medina told the court.

Medina said the retrial would happen after Esformes’ appeal of his conviction, currently pending at the Eleventh Circuit, runs its course. In the meantime, the prosecution asked for the court to place additional conditions — including a surety bond, home confinement and no internet or cell phone use — on Esformes’ term of supervised release, which was not affected by the commutation of his sentence.”

The case is U.S. v. Esformes et al., case number 1:16-cr-20549, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

To read more on Law360, click here

Prosecutors want to retry Florida healthcare exec granted clemency in $1.3B fraud scheme

U.S. Justice Department prosecutors plan to retry a Florida healthcare executive who had his 20-year sentence commuted by former President Donald Trump last year, according to the Miami Herald. 

Mr. Trump commuted a 20-year sentence for Philip Esformes in December, freeing him after he spent four and a half years in prison. 

Mr. Esformes, who operated a network of more than 30 skilled nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Florida, was convicted in April 2019 for his role in a $1.3 billion Medicare fraud scheme. He was found guilty of 20 charges, including paying and receiving kickbacks, money-laundering and bribery, according to the Justice Department. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison and ordered to pay $44.2 million in forfeiture and restitution. The commutation didn’t overturn the restitution order.

Becker’s Hospital Review, continue reading click here.

Behind Trump Clemency, a Case Study in Special Access

Philip Esformes acquired a $1.6 million Ferrari and a $360,000 Swiss watch and traveled around the United States on a private jet, a spending spree fueled by the spoils from what federal prosecutors called one of the largest Medicare fraud cases in history.

“Philip Esformes is a man driven by almost unbounded greed,” Denise M. Stemen, an agent in the F.B.I.’s Miami field office, said last year after Mr. Esformes, 52, a nursing home operator, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the two-decade scheme that involved an estimated $1.3 billion worth of fraudulent claims.

That prison term ended suddenly this week, when President Trump commuted what remained of Mr. Esformes’s sentence.

His rapid path to clemency is a case study in how criminals with the right connections and resources have been able to cut through normal channels and gain the opportunity to make their case straight to the Trump White House.

For Mr. Esformes, that involved support from a Jewish humanitarian nonprofit group that advances prisoners’ rights and worked with the White House on criminal justice issues, including clemency and legislation overhauling sentencing laws that was championed by Mr. Trump and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and adviser.

Mr. Esformes’s family donated $65,000 to the group, the Aleph Institute, over several years starting after his indictment, according to the group.

His family’s name adorns a school in Chicago associated with the Chabad-Lubavitch group of Hasidic Jews, whose leader at the time was involved in the creation of the Aleph Institute in the early 1980s. His father is a rabbi in Florida. His family has also donated for years to the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, to which Mr. Kushner has longstanding ties.

In the announcement of the commutation, the White House said Mr. Esformes had been “devoted to prayer and repentance” while in prison and is in “declining health.”

Alan M. Dershowitz, a longtime supporter of clemency who works with the Aleph Institute on a volunteer basis, said the group “played a significant role” in Mr. Esformes’s clemency effort and “put together the papers” for the petition.

The New York Times, keep reading click here.