Organized Crime

Under Police Investigation But Have Not Charged in Michigan

Published on: April 12, 2023 | by Barone Defense Firm

freedom-1886402_1280-300x170 If you have reason to believe that you are under investigation for a crime in Michigan, it is in your best interest to seek the advice and representation of an experienced criminal defense lawyer as soon as possible.

You may feel tempted to handle the matter on your own or wait until you have been formally charged with a crime. It is important to understand that the actions you take at this early stage can have a significant impact on the outcome of your criminal case.

If you are being investigated this only means that police officers are using many investigative tools against you as they are building a case. While you may not be facing criminal charges right now, you may well soon be notified that warrant for your arrest has been issued. You are better off hiring a criminal defense attorney now to protect your rights.

How Common is Human Sex Trafficking in Oakland County Michigan?

Published on: February 11, 2021 | by Patrick Barone

While no statistics are readily available to answer this question, anecdotal evidence suggests that human trafficking is more common in Oakland County Michigan than most people realize or want to admit. This contention is informed by a recent press announcement by Oakland County Prosecuting Attorney Karen McDonald.

Ms. McDonald addressed the media when announcing a significant human trafficking bust in Madison Heights, a suburb of Detroit Michigan. During this press conference, Ms. McDonald indicated that her new administration had formed Oakland County’s first ever human trafficking unit. Furthermore, that under her administration, rather than assemble a special drug unit, her administration will focus on the identification, investigation, interdiction, and prosecution of those involved in human trafficking.

This public announcement comes days after Michigan’s Attorney General announced Michigan’s Human Trafficking Commission’s 2020 Annual Report. This 20-page report, available online, explains the framework under which Michigan’s Human Trafficking Commission operates, and a summary of the Commission’s work in 2020.

Barone Defense Firm Named Among Regions Best Law Firms Again for 2021

Published on: January 14, 2021 | by Barone Defense Firm

US News and World Report has once again included the Barone Defense Firm as among the region’s Best Law Firms for DUI/DWI Defense. The Firm has been so listed since 2010.

US News and World Report ranks lawyers based on a variety of criteria. While the award is granted by the publication, it is essentially based on peer review. For a law firm to be ranked by US News and World Report a lawyer in the subject firm must first be among those lawyers who have previously received a “Best Lawyers” award by US News and World Report. These lawyers have passed peer review, meaning that other lawyers in the region, or nationally if applicable, have indicated that the lawyer possesses sufficient subject matter expertise, is known to possess and execute a high level of responsiveness to the rigors and demands of the profession, including things such as decorum with the courts, timely filing of pleadings and papers, responding to clients and opposing counsel, and many other professional demands. Peers are also asked whether they would refer a matter to a firm and whether they consider a firm a worthy competitor. On this basis, the Barone Defense Firm has a tier one regional ranking for the area of DUI/DWI.

For more than 20 years the Barone Defense Firm has developed its pristine reputation for DUI/DWI defense and distinguished itself among its peers for excellence in this challenging area of criminal law. However, for the later portion of the past 20-year period the Barone Defense Firm has expanded its practice to include other areas of criminal defense at both the State and Federal level and has developed expertise in such disparate areas as firearms law, criminal sexual conduct including the possession manufacture and distribution of child pornography (at the Federal level) and CSAM (child sexually abuse material) and other CSC cases at the state level, and many areas of white collar criminal including health care fraud, prescription fraud, complex financial crimes and RICO.

Barone Admitted to Practice Before the Federal District Court for Michigan’s Western District

Published on: December 9, 2020 | by Barone Defense Firm

The Barone Defense Firm is pleased to announce that Patrick Barone, the Firm’s founding member, has been admitted to practice before the Federal District Court for the Western District of Michigan. Mr. Barone has been admitted to practice before the Federal District Court for the Eastern District since 1993.

Mr. Barone was admitted to the State Bar of Michigan in 1991. He was admitted to the State Bar of Illinois in 1993. However, being admitted to the state bar in one or more states does not authorize a lawyer to practice before any Federal Court. This is because the rules applicable to Federal Courts differ from State Courts in several ways. First, simply being admitted to a state bar is necessary but insufficient. Admission before a specific Federal Court requires that the attorney seeking admission prepare a petition to be filed with the Federal Court. This petition must be supported by a sponsoring attorney who vouches for the attorney seeking admission. The sponsoring attorney must already be a member of Federal Court where the petitioning lawyer is seeking admission.

Federal Criminal Defense Team

Texas Pharmacist Gets 10 Year Prison Term for Health Care Fraud and Money Laundering

Published on: July 3, 2020 | by Patrick Barone

George Tompkins , a Texas pharmacist from Houston, was recently given a 10-year prison term after a jury convicted him of multiple felony counts, including health care fraud, money laundering and wire fraud. Known as the “compound king”, the 75-year-old was also convicted of conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks. Mr. Tomkins was first arraigned on the 17-count indictment back in February 2018.

The evidence received by the court during the 6-day jury trial suggested that Mr. Tompkins, working with others, devised a health care prescription fraud scheme whereby they unlawfully received almost twenty-two million dollars in government payments for prescriptions that were medically unnecessary. The money was paid to Tomkins by the Department of Labor, and most of the prescriptions were given to patients referred to them by and through their contract to provide such services to state and federal employees. The payments were contracted through the Federal Employees Compensation Act program (FECA). Many hundreds of patients were involved in this prescription fraud scheme.

To assist in their criminal enterprise, Mr. Tompkins and his cohorts created a couple different shell companies through which much of the fraud was run. They used these companies to launder their ill-gotten proceeds. Part of the fraud involved continuing to ship prescriptions to their “patients” even after they had repeatedly been told to stop sending them.

Financial Fraud Expected to Increase in Michigan Due to Covid 19 Experts Predict

Published on: June 24, 2020 | by Patrick Barone

One of the many unintended consequences of the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic may well be a significant increase in financial fraud. This is due in part to the central banks lowering of the prime interest rate to zero percent. With money this “cheap” companies and individuals are encouraged to borrow money, which is all well and good until the money must be repaid. And when money is cheap, individuals may use the money they have borrowed recklessly, taking greater risks of loss.

Financial fraud occurs when an individual or corporation offers to provide goods, services, or financial benefits knowing that that these things do not and may never exist. In these situations, the victims of financial fraud trade money for these benefits, but never receive what’s been promised to them. This is because the perpetrators of the financial fraud know that the benefits do not exist, were never intended to be provided, or were misrepresented. Typically, victims give money but never receive what they paid for.

Possibly the most famous historical example of financial fraud occurred in the 1870s and is referred to as a “Ponzi scheme.” Charles Ponzi was a businessman and financier who created the Securities and Exchange Company. Using this as a front to defraud, Mr. Ponzi took money from investors, and then, after a mere 45 days, promised to return to them a 50% profit. Trouble was that the money was never “invested.” Ponzi simply took the new money he was being paid today to pay off the older investors. Also called a “pyramid scheme” a Ponzi scheme can only last so long, and like all Ponzi schemes, it eventually collapsed.

FBI Raid Leads to Several Medicare and Medicaid Prescription Fraud Charges

Published on: June 12, 2020 | by Patrick Barone

As part of an ongoing investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigations, several of Michigan’s pharmacists have been charged with Medicare and Medicaid Prescription Fraud. The allegations include claims that at least one scheme lead to the defrauding of the Federal Government of more than five million dollars. Further, that fraudulent claims were submitted to Medicare, Medicaid and Blue Cross via the service dialdrugspharmacy.com. Medications fraudulently prescribed included Clozapine and Alprazolam. According to the complaint, some of these prescriptions were written for dead people.

According to Title 18 of the United States Code, health care fraud consists of the knowing implementation (or attempted implementation) of a scheme intended to defraud a health care program using false pretenses. A pharmacist can violate this law even if they are ignorant of the law itself, or if they only have the “general intent” to violate the law. This is because health care fraud under this section is not a specific intent crime. The law defines “fraud” as being the intentional deception or misrepresentation of facts which lead to the receiving of an unauthorized benefit. But here again the intent need only be general and not specific. According to the Michigan prescription fraud lawyers at the Barone Defense Firm, this can lead to unfair prosecution of pharmacists who never specifically intended to violate the law.

There are many kinds of prescription fraud. Once type of prescription fraud involves a scheme whereby a prescription is set on “auto-refill” and then billed as scheduled when the patient never actually ordered or wanted the medication. These prescriptions are never picked up but the pharmacy non-the-less bills Medicare. This same medication can be “re-sold” many times over, thereby increasing the size of the auto-refill fraud. Another version of this kind of fraud involves giving the undelivered pills to patients, staff or medical sales reps for redistribution. This is most common with Opioid drugs that have significant street value.

Former Mob Prosecutor Keith Corbett Says Netflix Irishman Misleads About Hoffa’s Disappearance.

Published on: December 4, 2019 | by Patrick Barone

Former Mob Prosecutor Keith Corbett Says Netflix Irishman Misleads About Hoffa’s Disappearance.

Barone Defense Firm attorney Keith Corbett spent most of his career putting away Detroit’s most notorious mobsters. As the Chief of the Organized Crime Strike Force for the United States Attorney’s Office, Corbett was responsible for helping to put away some of the biggest players in Detroit’s top crime families, including Tocco and Zerilli. After a couple decades as a mob prosecutor working with these cases, and in the course of it, immersing himself in the history and culture of La Cosa Nostra, it’s no wonder he’s been repeatedly interviewed regarding the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa. With the release of the Netflix original The Irishman, a Martin Scorsese film starring Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci, the public’s interest in knowing more about this topic is once again piqued, leading to a flurry of more recent interviews.

According to Channel Four News, Corbett “was the prosecutor who sent both Zerilli and Tocco to prison.” Having prosecuted them, Corbett has an idea of the ill-will that might exist between them and told Channel Four News that Tocco blames Zerilli for his conviction and incarceration. So maybe Tocco had a reason to lie about Jimmy Hoffa being buried on Zerilli’s property?

On the other hand, in a WJR interview, Corbett doubted Hoffa’s good friend Charles O’Brien had anything to do with his disappearance. “I don’t think Chuckie was involved, he’s not the kind of guy you want,” Corbett said regarding Hoffa’s disappearance.