UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Yan KATS, Defendant-Appellant
Opinion
Opinion
Yan Kats appeals his conviction for conspiracy to commit Medicare fraud and for receipt of kickbacks in exchange for referral of Medicare payments, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 and 42 U.S.C. § 1395nn(b)(l). We affirm.
I.
Lauro Manigbas, owner of Tech Diagnostic Medical Lab (Tech-Lab), agreed to kick back 50 percent of the Medicare payments received by Tech-Lab as a consequence of referrals from Total Health Care (THC), a medical services company owned by David Smushkevich and operated by Robert Sheppard. Under the scheme, THC collected blood and urine samples from medical offices and clinics in southern California and forwarded them to Tech-Lab for laboratory work. Tech-Lab billed THC, which billed the private insurance carrier or the government-funded insurance programs, Medi-Cal and Medicare. Tech-Lab “kicked back” half its receipts to THC.
In early 1985, Smushkevich and Manig-bas arranged an identical scheme involving Tech-Lab and Smushkevich’s latest venture, A Community Medical Clinic (Community Clinic). Kats, the appellant here, subsequently purchased a 25 percent interest in Community Clinic and began collecting payments under the scheme.