United States v. Sareth Tath

MEMORANDUM

Sareth Tath was found guilty of thirty-five counts of violating 18 U.S.C. § 1347 for his participation in a scheme to defraud Medicare. On appeal, Tath argues that the district court erred in admitting evidence concerning Revive, a business Tath established after Medicare stopped paying the claims of the scheme’s primary business, United Medical Supply (“UMS”). Tath also challenges the sufficiency of the evidence. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and we affirm.

The Revive evidence was properly admitted under Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b). See Fed.R.Evid. 404(b). Evidence of other acts may be admitted if:

United States v. Castillo, 181 F.3d 1129, 1134 (9th Cir.1999). In this case, the evidence tended to prove Tath’s intent to defraud Medicare and his absence of mistake. Further, the acts were not too remote in time; Tath established Revive immediately after Medicare placed UMS on pre-payment review. The government sufficiently proved Tath’s involvement in the Revive venture through the testimony of co-defendant Vu Nguyen. The Revive scheme also was sufficiently similar to the UMS scheme, in that the evidence indicated that Tath intended Revive to…