Category: Daily News

A former National Football League player accused of participating in a $1.5 million scheme to defraud a Sacramento business that managed workers’ compensation claims has been sentenced to 24 months in federal prison.

Marcus Buckley, 46, of Weatherford, Texas, was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Sacramento. Judge Troy L. Nunley also ordered Buckley to pay more than $1.58 million in restitution, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office news release.The Court recommended that he be incarcerated at FCI Seagoville or FCI Texarkana, Texas.

Nunley’s sentence was nine months less than what prosecutors had asked for, and that Buckley had apparently agreed to, after his guilty plea on a single count of money laundering.

Buckley played professional football for seven seasons, from 1993 to 2000, with the New York Giants. During that time, the Giants had workers’ compensation insurance coverage through Pennsylvania Manufacturer’s Association Insurance Group, or PMA.

In 2006, Buckley filed a workers’ compensation claim against the Giants for cumulative stress injuries sustained while playing football, part of that time in California. During the first week of November 2010, Buckley, the Giants and PMA settled Buckley’s claim for $300,000 as part of a “compromise and release” agreement, according to the news release.

After Buckley’s claim was settled, between late 2010 and June 2011, Buckley prepared and filed numerous requests for additional reimbursement under his claim. He prepared false invoices and statements from medial providers for medical service purportedly provided. He also prepared false credit collection notices from collection agencies purportedly seeking payment from Buckley from various medical providers for past-due medical bills, the news release said.

Buckley sent the false invoices, statements and credit collection letters to his co-defendant, Kimberly Jones, who was a claims adjuster with Gallagher Bassett Services at its Sacramento office. The firm was a third-party administrator that managed workers’ compensation claims in California on behalf of PMA.

Jones was aware that Buckley was not entitled to additional reimbursement under his disability claim, and that the documentation and requests he submitted were false, the news release said. Jones nevertheless caused Gallagher Bassett to issue checks payable to Buckley, and he ultimately received more than $1.58 million to which he was not entitled.

Jones pleaded guilty to wire fraud in October 2015, is to be sentenced Feb. 8 by Judge Nunley at 09:30 AM in Courtroom 2.

Last May, congressional staffers started with a very simple question: Exactly how easy is it for the average person to order some of the deadliest drugs on the planet over the internet and have them delivered to their home from the other side of the globe?

The answer, they revealed this week, is: shockingly easy.

At a briefing on Wednesday several Senate investigators working for Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Tom Carper (D-DE) detailed to reporters exactly how simple it is to order fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that has overtaken heroin and prescription painkillers to become the biggest killer of Americans, online.

The staff started, quite literally, by Googling “fentanyl for sale,” they said. They found pages and pages of advertisements. Posing as first-time buyers, they made contact with six responsive sellers. These sounded like sophisticated operations, offering discounts on bulk purchases and even trying to upsell the investigators to carfentanil, an even more powerful opioid.

The sellers preferred Bitcoin, the investigators said, but they also accepted Western Union transfers, PayPal, and prepaid credit cards. They wanted to ship the packages through the international arm of the US Postal Service, rather than a private carrier like FedEx or UPS. They told the investigators that there was less of a chance the package would end up detained.

At one point, when China cracked down on a specific strand of fentanyl, the sellers advertised “a hot sale” on the top of the email, which the staff included in their report, literally said: “JUNE SPECIAL OFFER” – to try to empty their reserves before the ban went into effect.

Using payment and shipment information that the sellers themselves provided, the Senate investigators identified 500 transactions in 43 states adding up to $766 million worth of fentanyl, going by its street value, just from these six sellers. They found people who were purchasing for personal use – including seven who overdosed and died – as well as the people buying to set up their own distribution network in America.

It became clear how adaptable the fentanyl sellers were. Now that shipments from China have come under suspicion, the sellers told the investigators that they preferred to ship through Europe. Even as the US worked with China to crack down on one fentanyl compound, the sellers simply tweaked their formula and offered to sell a new version in another email included in the report.

The underlying message of the report was that the US Postal Service should do more to crack down on these illicit shipments. Right now, private carriers are required to collect advanced electronic data, a bar code with information about the sender, the recipient, and what is in the package. But the Postal Service and its foreign counterparts do not. That’s precisely why sellers prefer the US Postal Service over FedEx or UPS.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission today posted joint warning letters to the marketers and distributors of 12 opioid cessation products, for illegally marketing unapproved products with claims about their ability to help in the treatment of opioid addiction and withdrawal.

The FDA and FTC issued joint warning letters to 11 companies for their products: Opiate Freedom Center (“Opiate Freedom 5-Pack”), U4Life, LLC (“Mitadone”), CalmSupport, LLC (“CalmSupport”), TaperAid (“TaperAid” & “TaperAid Complete”), Medicus Holistic Alternatives LLC (“Natracet”), NutraCore Health Products, LLC (“Opiate Detox Pro”), Healthy Healing, LLC (“Withdrawal Support”), Soothedrawal, Inc. (“Soothedrawal”), Choice Detox Center, Inc. (“Nofeel”), GUNA, Inc. (“GUNA-ADDICT 1”), and King Bio, Inc. (“AddictaPlex”).

The FTC sent four additional warning letters to other marketers of opioid cessation products.

All of the companies use online platforms to make illegal claims about their products’ ability to cure, treat, or prevent a disease. Examples of claims made include:

– “#1 Selling Opiate Withdrawal Brand”
– “Imagine a life without the irritability, cravings, restlessness, excitability, exhaustion and discomfort associated with the nightmare of addiction and withdrawal symptoms”
– “Safe and effective natural supplements that work to ease many physical symptoms of opiate withdrawal”
– “Break the pain killer habit”
– “Relieve Your Symptoms – addiction, withdrawal, cravings.”

The FDA and FTC have requested responses from each of the companies within 15 working days. The companies are directed to inform each agency of the specific actions taken to address each agency’s concerns. The warning letters also state that failure to correct violations may result in law enforcement action such as seizure or injunction.

Also today, the FTC, in coordination with SAMHSA of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), issued a fact sheet to help consumers get real help for opioid addiction or withdrawal, while avoiding products that promise but do not deliver help. The fact sheet has tips that consumers and health practitioners alike can share with those considering help for opioid addiction or withdrawal.

Health care professionals and consumers are encouraged to report any adverse events related to these products to the FDA’s MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program. To file a report, use the MedWatch Online Voluntary Reporting Form. The completed form can be submitted online or via fax to 800-FDA-0178.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said on Tuesday it had changed a regulation to allow more healthcare professionals to prescribe a medication used to treat opioid addiction, opening up access in rural America where there are few doctors.

Prior to 2000, only physicians could treat those with opioid addiction and had to register with the DEA as both physicians and operators of narcotic treatment programs. The latest change is part of a 2016 law that added categories of practitioners who may prescribe the narcotic drug buprenorphine for maintenance or detoxification treatment, the DEA said in a statement.

Buprenorphine, sold under the brand name Subutex, among others, is an opioid used to treat opioid addiction, acute pain, and chronic pain. It can be used under the tongue, by injection, as a skin patch, or as an implant. When used for opioid addiction it is recommended that a health care provider observe the person while they take the medication. For longer term treatment of addiction a combination formulation of buprenorphine/naloxone is usually recommended. Maximum pain relief is generally within an hour with effects up to 24 hours.

Buprenorphine was approved for medical use in the United States in 1981.In 2012, 9.3 million prescription for the medication were written in the United States. Buprenorphine may also be used recreationally by injection or in the nose for the high it produces. Some use it as a substitute for heroin. In the United States it is a Schedule III controlled substance.

A 2017 study published by the National Rural Health Association found that 53 percent of rural counties had no physician able to prescribe medication to those addicted to opioids, the DEA said. About 90 percent of physicians allowed to prescribe such medication live in urban counties, and 30 million people live in areas where treatment is unavailable.

About 5,000 mid-level practitioners can now prescribe the medication, and nearly 43,000 practitioners may qualify to do so, the DEA said.

Rural America has more drug overdose deaths than urban areas, a 2017 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed. Prescription drug abuse is a leading cause of death, with opioids killing more than 42,000 people in 2016, the highest U.S. death toll of any year on record, CDC said.

“This action reflects this work and the ongoing need to further expand access to the most effective treatment for opioid use disorder,” said David Fiellin, professor of medicine, emergency medicine and public health at Yale School of Medicine, in an email to Reuters, who published the story.

In 2001, Alexander Zaks M.D. formed several businesses in California’s Central Valley that focused on providing medical treatment to the region’s agricultural workers. Zaks, along with David Holmes D.C. and Daniel Reyes D.C., formed Accident Help Line Medical Group (AHL) at that time. The entities focused on patients with chronic work-related injuries. Zaks also established Millcreek Surgery Center and Alta Surgery Center. Zaks and a partner also owned Reliable Medical Supply, which provided medical equipment. In 2003 Zaks and partners also created Valley Interpreting, a translation service for patients who spoke limited or no English.

Dr. Khan and Dr. Zaks engaged in some cross marketing of their respective services to attorneys representing clients with workers’ compensation issues.

Bruce Roth, then a senior attorney with State Fund, was assigned to defend State Fund against the Zaks Entities’ WCAB liens. Suspecting possible fraud, Roth led an investigation of the Zaks Entities. In January 2006, Roth filed a petition with the WCAB to consolidate the Khan Entities’ and Zaks Entities’ 1,200+ liens against State Fund.

In October 2009, after losing on several issues before the WCAB, Roth settled the consolidated case with the Zaks Defendants without first gaining the approval of his manager at State Fund or State Fund’s claims department. Once Roth’s superiors learned of the settlement they removed Roth from the case, contacted the Zaks Entities, and disavowed the settlement on the basis that Roth lacked authority to enter into it. They forced Roth to resign and referred the case to other attorneys.

State Fund then entered into superseding settlement agreements with the Zaks Entities for substantially the same amount of money as provided for in the 2009 Settlement Memorandum negotiated by Roth. State Fund asserts that it did so in large part out of concern that the WCAB might have enforced the original 2009 Settlement Memorandum between Roth and the Zaks Entities based on Roth’s ostensible authority to bind State Fund. The newer 2010 Settlement Agreement between State Fund and the Zaks Entities released both State Fund and the Zaks Entities from all claims they had against each other up until the time of that agreement.

The State Fund then filed a federal suit for violation of the federal Racketeering and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) statute against defendants Alexander Zaks, M.D., Sana Khan, M.D., David Holmes, D.C., and Daniel Reyes, D.C.; their various companies and State Fund’s own former employee, attorney Bruce Roth.

After three years of litigation and extensive discovery, the Zaks Defendants, the Khan Defendants, and Roth filed three separate motions for summary judgment which were granted in March 2016. SCIF appealed the summary judgment to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal which just affirmed the trial court in the unpublished case of SCIF v Kahn, Zaks et.al.

State Fund’s claims against these Defendants-Appellees were precluded by the broad liability releases contained in the 2010 Settlement Agreements. The district court correctly determined that the releases protected all of these Defendants-Appellees because even State Fund’s claims against the Individual Zaks Defendants were premised on acts within the scope of their agency relationships with lien claimants, such that liability was precluded by the releases’ plain terms.

The court also correctly held that there were no grounds for rescinding the 2010 Settlement Agreements. For fraud to justify rescission, however, it must be extrinsic. Here, there was no extrinsic fraud to justify rescission.