San Diego chiropractor, George Reese, with offices on El Cajon Boulevard, was indicted in 2014 for referring patients to a Los Angeles area medical service provider. Foremost Shockwave Solutions in return for bribes. The bribes were set by the conspirators at $100 per patient and paid through an intermediary. After taking a cut amounting to $25 per patient, the intermediary would pay the remaining $75 per patient to Reese.

Foremost Shockwave Solutions was allegedly controlled by attorney Lee Mathis and Fernando Valdes its president. Both were also indicted. Although disguised as “office rent” payments, the illegal bribes were allegedly paid in cash during clandestine exchanges in restaurants and parking lots.

For example, $6,000 in cash was delivered to Reese in the parking lot of the Jolly Roger in Oceanside, hidden in a gift bag. Other times, it was passed in envelopes or stashed inside newspapers.

According to the indictment, Reese and his codefendants generated and submitted bills to insurers totaling in the tens of millions of dollars. Most of these treatments involved the providing of “Shockwave therapy,” which uses low energy sound waves to initiate tissue repair. Proceeds from the insurance claims generated through this scheme were paid to Mathis and Valdes.

Reese pleaded guilty in June 2016. and began serving a one year one day sentence. His plea agreement remains sealed. Valdez entered into a plea agreement in July 2017. His plea agreement also remains sealed. His sentencing hearing is set for September 7, but a motion is pending to continue his sentencing. Attorney Mathis plead not guilty. His case is still pending.

Currently the court is in the process of determining his competency to stand trial. His final Medical report was due 7/19/2018, along with any report regarding issues of outstanding discovery. The Government’s expert report on his competency is due 8/9/2018.

A status hearing regarding these medical reports and a ruling on the competency of Mr. Mathis to stand trial is set for 8/16/2018 at 10:00 AM in Courtroom 4C before Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo. The jury trial which was set for 8/6/2018 was vacated pending the outcome of the competency hearing.

According to a status report filed by his attorney on July 17, there are more than 250,000 pages of discovery in the case that she has to review with her client.

The attorneys also claim “Mathis has been interviewed and administered standardized psychological and neuropsychological, memory, malingering and motivation and he has been interviewed regarding competency factors for a total of 16 hours between February and July 2018. There were two home visits. Based on these evaluations, Dr Thomas has concluded Mathis is unable to assist counsel at trial due to his inability to provide reliable valid information regarding his behavior and experiences between the time periods of 2012 – 2015.”

“This is due to his insidious decline in memory and learning as evidenced on the present assessment data and interview behavior. And while his memory is unreliable, he also engages in confabulation, or the action of confidently asserting a story or series of events having occurred that, in fact, did not occur.”

“This condition is not likely to improve, but to become more pronounced as it is more likely than not diagnosable as a mild neurocognitive disorder due to possible Alzheimer’s disease from family history and other factors.”