Three members of a Tampa Bay-area family have been indicted by a federal grand jury on Medicare fraud charges. The indictment alleges that Ben, Gregory and Tracey Bane used their businesses to defraud Medicare out of over $5 million.

Federal prosecutors accuse Ben Bane of Plant City and his son and daughter-in-law, Gregory and Tracey Bane of Valrico, of conspiring to submit false bills to Medicare through Bane Medical Services, their oxygen and medical equipment company as well as another company called Oxygen Respiratory Therapy Inc.

The Banes are accused of forging doctors’ signatures, falsifying test results to show that patients qualified for Medicare reimbursement for oxygen therapy and other services and submitting claims to Medicare for unnecessary or unperformed services. (more…)

The Tampa Bay area isn’t the only part of Florida seeing an explosion in the number of mortgage fraud cases filed. Since September 2007, when federal and state authorities launched a mortgage fraud intiative in South Florida, 218 people have been charged in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties.

You may recall that, here in the Tampa Bay area, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has announced a similar initiative this spring.

Currently, over on the east coast of South Florida, forty-one people face charges related to $40 million in bogus loans. Those defendants are charged in six separate federal criminal cases and involve purchasers, mortgage brokers, real estate agents and lawyers. (more…)

According to the latest statistics released by local law enforcement, Manatee County has the highest murder rate per capita in the Tampa Bay area with 22 murders so far in 2009.

Manatee County only had 22 murders over the course of the entire year in 2007. In 2009, Manatee County has a murder rate of 6.96 per 100,000 people. According to law enforcement agencies and the U.S. Census, this figure is more than three times the murder rate of other counties in the Tampa Bay area.

The same reports put Polk County at 3.1 homicides per 100,000 people, Hillsborough County at 2.2, Sarasota County at 2.15, Pasco County at 2.12, Pinellas County at 1.76 and Hernando County at 1.17. (more…)

Yesterday, in a courtroom about 55 miles east of Bradenton, prosecutors and defense attorneys worked together – with the support of the defendant and the victims’ family – to resolve a 2001 vehicular manslaughter case. The cooperation between the sides was remarkable.

Back in 2001, Haitian immigrant truck driver Jean Claude Meus’ tractor-trailer overturned on a van, killing its driver Nona Moore and her eight-year-old daughter. Meus was charged in Hardee County with two counts of vehicular manslaughter and was convicted in 2003. The jury deliberated for less than an hour. Meus was ultimately sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The Moore family, amazingly, felt that the outcome was unjust and that Nona Moore would not have wanted Meus in prison for an accident. They worked to find Meus a pro bono defense attorney to help with post-conviction appeals. Meus had no criminal history and no trace of drugs or alcohol in his system at the time of the accident. (more…)

Former Hillsborough County Circuit and 2nd District Court of Appeal Judge Thomas E. Stringer agreed yesterday to plead guilty to federal bank fraud for his action in helping a young stripper hide financial assets.

Stringer retired just this past February after it became known that the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission was pursuing misconduct charges against him and the FBI was investigating. After Stringer was no longer a judge, the judicial commission dropped its ethics complaint.

Local media uncovered information last year that Stringer allowed New York stripper Christy Yamanaka to deposit many thousands of dollars into his bank accounts while she was in debt to other creditors by more than $300,000. (more…)

As expected, Tampa Bay area mortgage fraud prosecutions continue to accumulate in federal court. Last week, a St. Petersburg mortgage company employee agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit mortgage fraud.

Randy Griffin admitted to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He will be sentenced at a later date.

Griffin worked as a real estate closer at Diamond Title and Associates, where he falsified records on at least three closings, according to his plea agreement. (more…)

Troy Sierra of St. Petersburg was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his girlfriend in 2007. A jury convicted Sierra of first-degree murder for the shooting death of Kelly Burgess. The trial lasted three days.

In the state of Florida, the prosecution can charge first-degree murder in a number of situations. In this case, it appears that the state proved that Sierra killed Burgess as part of a premeditated design – the most commonly charged and traditional type of first-degree murder. First-degree murder in Florida is punishable by death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. In the Sierra case, the state did not seek the death penalty, therefore the only possible sentence was life imprisonment. (more…)

For over 20 months, Naushad Shahabuddin exchanged food stamps for cash at the Clearwater Quick Check Food Mart. Shahabuddin gave customers cash for less than the face value of the food stamps and then kept the difference for himself. He made an illegal profit of about $130,000. His “customers” walked away with about $260,000 in cash instead of food products.

The U.S. Secret Service investigated and Shahabuddin was ultimately charged with defrauding the government. He pleaded guilty this spring.

Unlike a similar case in St. Petersburg which garnered its defendant a sentence of house arrest, a federal judge this week sentenced Shahabuddin to 21 months in prison for his crimes. He is also required to repay the government its money.

Although this defendant received a higher sentence than the defendant in the St. Pete food stamp fraud case, the 21-month sentence was within the range discussed by prosecutors and defense attorneys. Shahabuddin is also required to pay the government the entire $390,000 but he will receive credit for any amounts paid back by his 510 food stamp “customers”.

The difference in sentences for seemingly similar crimes can be the result of a variety of reasons. It could be attributable to different criminal histories on the part of the defendants, different levels of cooperation with the investigation, different levels of sophistication of the criminal enterprise and more. The difference can also hinge to some extent on intangibles such as the identity of the judge and the attorneys involved in the case.

Unsurprisingly, an Orange County judge canceled the October trial date for the Casey Anthony capital murder case. No new trial date was set although a status hearing is now scheduled for January 10, 2010. (A change of venue motion filed by the Anthony defense team in May has not yet been heard by the court.)

Such a long continuance is frankly not that unusual in a death penalty case. There are constitutional issues which must be raised by a competent capital murder defense attorney as well as an above-average number of lay witnesses, law enforcement witnesses and potential expert witnesses to investigate. The preparation period for a solid death penalty defense is long and intense. (more…)

Back in April, we posted about a St. Petersburg food stamp fraud case being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Tampa. The defendant Anton Goubrial pleaded guilty to two felonies as part of a plea agreement with the prosecutors.

Goubrial was back in court recently for sentencing. According to the agreement Goubrial’s federal criminal defense attorney reached with the U.S. Attorney, the government recommended a downward departure from the sentencing guidelines for Goubrial’s crimes. The judge ultimately sentenced him to six months’ home detention and five years’ probation. The court also entered a money judgment of $174,310.95 against Goubrial – he is essentially required to pay the government back all of the proceeds of his fraud. (more…)