Lawsuits - the Cost of Doing Business

"When you’re selling $1 billion a year or more of a drug, it’s very tempting for a company to just ignore the traffic ticket and keep speeding.”

A New York Times report reviews what has been accomplished by multiple civil and criminal lawsuits against Big Pharma companies that have relied almost entirely on fraud to market industry's worst pharmaceuticals--antipsychotic drugs--which have become industry's most profitable cash cow.

"The new generation of antipsychotics has also become the single biggest target of the False Claims Act, a federal law once largely aimed at fraud among military contractors. Every major company selling the drugs — Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson — has either settled recent government cases for hundreds of millions of dollars or is currently under investigation for possible health care fraud."

"Two of the settlements, involving charges of illegal marketing, set records last year for the largest criminal fines ever imposed on corporations. One involved Eli Lilly’s antipsychotic, Zyprexa; the other involved a guilty plea for Pfizer’s marketing of a pain pill, Bextra. In the Bextra case, the government also charged Pfizer with illegally marketing another antipsychotic, Geodon; Pfizer settled that part of the claim for $301 million, without admitting any wrongdoing."

But these lawsuits are no deterrent to crime, as Jerome Avorn, MD, Harvard medical professor correctly observes : "When you’re selling $1 billion a year or more of a drug, it’s very tempting for a company to just ignore the traffic ticket and keep speeding.”

Full Article and Source:
Lawsuits, Just the Cost of Criminal Marketing of Antipsychotic Drugs

See Also:
Side Effects May Include Lawsuits

Florida: Medicare Scammer Gets 20 Years

Just days after his partners in crime were arrested on Medicare fraud charges, Ihosvany Marquez was recorded on an undercover tape saying he had no qualms about stealing from the federal program for the elderly and disabled.

"I don't care because it is the government," Marquez told a federal informant, pitching him on a plot to export a multmillion-dollar scam from Miami-Dade to Detroit.

"Medicare needs to have fraud because it's more money they get every year," he said in the May 27, 2009, recording, which was read Thursday by a prosecutor in Miami federal court.

Marquez, a former Miami Springs High pitching ace who almost played in the Major Leagues, was sentenced Thursday to 19 ½ years in prison for healthcare fraud. He schemed to bilk $48.8 million from Medicare by submitting false claims for purported HIV therapy.

Marquez's seven clinics in Miami-Dade and Orlando were paid $21.6 million, which he must repay the taxpayer-funded Medicare program.

Full Article and Source:
Convicted Miami Dade Medicare Scammer Imprisoned for Nearly 20 Years

Kansas: Lawyer Disbarred for Charging $3,500 an Hour

The Supreme Court of Kansas has disbarred a Kansas City attorney for charging $3,500 an hour to handle a soldier's case and for making offensive remarks to a judge and court staff.

Carlos Romious lost his license on Monday after the Kansas high court found that he charged the inflated fee while representing a soldier facing drug possession charges in a military court. The court also found that during a three-year period Romious shouted profanity at court clerks, got into a brawl with a court security officer and accused a judge of being a pedophile.

In adopting a recommendation from a disciplinary administrator, the court in a per curiam decision concluded that the pattern of misconduct warranted disbarment.

"In summary, the respondent's conduct resulted in two criminal convictions, a contempt adjudication that led to 120 days in jail, minor injuries to a U.S. deputy marshal, and an adverse impact on a military career," the court said.

Full Article and Source:
Kansas Attorney Disbarred Over High Fee, Disrespect to Judge and Court Staff

Editorial: Arizona Probate System in Desperate Need of Reform

Last year my daughter almost died. Dealt a severe blow by a massive aneurysm, the doctors did not think she would make it. All we could do was pray and wait.

In the midst of it all I was sued by people unrelated to us seeking to gain control of her life, and her trust.

My daughter happens to be Walt Disney's granddaughter.

What has transpired over the past year has been torture. I have not been able to speak to my daughter in private for nearly a year. Courts, bodyguards and self-serving individuals have sought at all costs to use the probate system to their advantage.

Just think about our case for a moment. Not all blood relatives are necessarily good people, of course. But throughout my life I have tried every day to be a good father to my children.

However, our probate system - that used to supposedly protect the vulnerable and their assets during the most trying of times - actually allowed in our case people completely unrelated to us and relatives with no close family ties to create chaos in our family.

That's just not right.

We are going to use what we have learned to put forth a very aggressive set of legislative reforms.

Some of the issues are:

1. The court should not allow a case to go forward without evidence. Hearsay is not evidence.

2. If a malicious petition is filed, the petitioners should have to pay all attorney fees. The attorneys should also be sanctioned.

3. When individuals have their directives, the court must uphold them.

Full Article and Source:
Arizona's Probate System in Desperate Need of Reform

TX: Budget Shortfall Forces Big Cuts for Disabled

Barbara Cullison waited eight years and eight months to get community-based care for her profoundly autistic daughter Audrey through a popular Medicaid waiver program designed to keep people with disabilities out of institutions. Now, Audrey and thousands of other Texans with disabilities fear losing their services because of budget cuts demanded of state agencies.

Advocates say the Department of Aging and Disability Services’ baseline budget request eliminates financing for more than 13,000 people — the majority of them waiting to receive so-called Medicaid waiver services in private homes, group homes or other community settings. Agency officials say an “unknown number” of people already receiving the services could lose them.

Lawmakers would have to approve another $317 million off of the agency's budget wish list — called "exceptional items" — to keep the services intact, a pipe dream when the state is facing an estimated $21 billion shortfall and has asked agencies to submit options for cutting their budgets another 10 percent.

“If this goes away, what are we going to do?” asked Cullison, whose daughter just came off of the waiting list for community services in September. “I need that safety net, need to know [that] when I can’t take care of her anymore, there’s a place for her that’s set, that’s paid for. After nine years, I thought I didn’t have to worry about this anymore.”

Agency officials acknowledge their hands are tied.

Full Article and Source:
Budget Shortfall Forces Big Cuts for Disabled

Grandchildren of Walt Disney, Father Battle for Control

Even the lives of American royalty are not immune from being upended in Probate Court.

Three cases in Maricopa County and California courts attest to the fact.

The court battles revolve around the fortune of one of the legends of American entertainment, Walt Disney. They trace back to secret land deals in Florida. A prominent East Valley developer. A controversial Arizona real-estate baron. And two Disney heirs, his grandchildren, who inherited hundreds of millions of dollars.

The cases illustrate how even the most careful estate planning may not prevent vicious court fights from erupting when families feud. Relatives take sides, attorneys clash, and original estate terms may be altered.

The legal fees, they all say, are costing a fortune.

Full Article and Source:
AZ Maricopa County Probate Court - In the Valley, Heirs Embroiled in Disney Feud

Financial Advisor Charged With Bilking Elderly Out of Hundreds of Thousands

The state charged Carlene B. Veara of South Yarmouth with diverting money from elderly investors to a company she controlled.

Veara, a registered representative in the Hyannis branch of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, gained power of attorney for a 98-year old investor, a woman in failing health with no known blood relatives. She then transferred more than $177.000 from the woman’s accounts to a company called Cape Cod Caretakers, of which Veara was sole executive officer, according to Secretary of State William Galvin’s office.

Veara was also listed as beneficiary of the investor’s Morgan Stanley Smith Barney account valued at more than $600,000, and a joint owner of the investor’s bank account. None of these arrangements were disclosed to the Morgan Stanley Smith Barney as required by its policies and procedures.

“Examiners have also determined that Veara has entered various forms of fiduciary relationships with multiple clients, such as a trustee of a trust, an executrix of a will, or as health care proxy – all without disclosing that relationship and associated conflicts of interest to her employer,” the complaint states.

Full Article and Source:
State Charges Cape Woman With Bilking Elders for Hundreds of Thousands

Once Again, Watch Out for Probate Court

The latest appalling story out of probate court begins with a frantic message to a state senator from a relative worried about her 84-year-old aunt.

"She has been forcibly removed from her home by the police, accompanied by her daughter who is acting as her temporary conservator, to the psychiatric ward,'' the woman wrote in an e-mail last week to state Sen. Edith Prague. "She is not insane and committed no crime but is being treated like the worst type of criminal.''

Sadly, this is no surprise in some of our lawless probate courts. I've been writing these tragic stories for more than four years. Two things have not changed: judges and lawyers who take advantage of the old and sick and probate court administrators who say these are only isolated and rare problems.

The daughter, who lives out of state, was estranged from her mother. At the daughter's behest, Probate Judge John W. Cooney made her conservator of her mother and allowed Dorothy Crouse to be snatched from her home and locked in a secure nursing facility in Wallingford.

For 10 days, nobody could find Crouse, who was medicated and blocked from all visitors.

Crouse suffers from mild dementia, but she lived alone and independently. She has a boyfriend, relatives she is close with and friends in the community. The law requires that even if a person is conserved - which means the court takes over your civil rights, your money and your freedom -the judge must make sure it is under the "least restrictive" conditions.

That means an estranged child can't step in and tell mom or dad what to do. That means a judge can't name somebody conservator when the conserved person already has a power of attorney and other legal documents dictating care.

"It makes my blood boil,'' Prague told me. "There are people my age ... who want to live independently and who want to be left alone. I am not going to sit down and let this happen.

"The conservator abuse is usually caused by money. Look at Miss Smoron down in Southington,'' Prague said about the infamous case where, at the behest of a rogue conservator, a judge changed the will of a dying woman to benefit a developer. "Who do these probate judges think they are? We've got to do something about it."

Indeed we do.

Full Article and Source:
Once Again, Watch Out for Probate Court

Britney Spears Hearing Scheduled for Oct. 14

Britney Spears' conservatorship order is to come to an end within three months.

the 28-year-old pop star is expected to reclaim control of her life after meeting with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Reva Goetz last week so he could assess her general wellbeing.

A source told RadarOnline.com: "Britney has made tremendous progress in the past three to four months. She seems to be firmly in control again.

"Judge Goetz needed to meet with Britney and talk to her face-to-face, to see how she was doing. It's one thing to read medical reports about her, but the in-person meeting was very important.

"Britney's court-appointed attorney, Sam Imgham, was the only other person in the judge's chambers during the 35-minute meeting.

"Judge Goetz also met with Britney's father, Jamie separately, as well as with Britney's therapist."

The final decision will be made by Judge Goetz, and if he decides Spears no longer needs conservators she will be in charge of her affairs within 12 weeks.

The next conservatorship hearing is scheduled for October 14.

Full Article and Source:
Britney Spears Set to Take Back Control

See Also:
Britney Spears Remains Conserved