Stradling Team Secures Dismissal of Federal Charges Against Executive in Anti-Kickback Matter

Following 18 months of litigation, we secured a dismissal of all criminal charges against our client, the lead defendant, the founder of an Irvine-based genetic testing company. The indictment, brought in the Central District of California by prosecutors from the Southern District of California, alleged that our client and eight other defendants carried out a scheme from early 2013 until June 2017 to pay physicians kickbacks for prescribing genetic tests billed to Medicare and Medicaid, all under the guise of a clinical research program.

Our team worked relentlessly to identify and forcefully articulate serious problems with the government’s case on multiple fronts, including substantive defenses pointing towards factual innocence, as well as issues arising from the government’s mishandling of privileged information. That work led directly to the government’s decision to abandon its case as to all defendants on the eve of trial, thus allowing our client to resume his life as an entrepreneur and the doctor defendants to continue to help their patients cope with chronic pain. 

The Stradling trial team was led by Jason de Bretteville and Shawn Collins, who were supported by Sean Lobb, Lisa Northrup, Tucker Atkins, and Katherine Hammersly.