Dr. Shiva Akula, who has been incarcerated since approximately January 9, 2024 and who was convicted on 23 counts of Medicare fraud totaling approximately $115,000 on November 6, 2023, awaits sentencing on April 10, 2024 at 2:00 p.m., at which time the New Orleans U. S. Attorney’s Office seeks the maximum 30-year prison sentence as well as a restitution order totaling $42 million.
———————————————————-
Addendum (March 10, 2024):
On Thursday, March 7, 2024, Dr. Akula did file this Response to the U. S. Government’s Motion to Appoint a Receiver.
Also, on March 6, 2024, Judge Africk issued this Order indicating that the Government’s loss calculation would not be considered until the final presentencing report is received rather than the draft submitted.
———————————————————–
On November 7, 2023, we published this feature recapping the trial of Dr. Shiva Akula, a New Orleans Indian physician whom the U. S. Government charged with 23 counts of Medicare fraud totaling approximately $115,000.
We also stressed in our feature of Day two (2) of the trial that key prosecution witness Kelly Anderson stood to obtain a “boatload of money” from her qui tam lawsuit. That phrase “boatload of money” is not ours but rather the phrase uttered by Akula’s defense attorney, David DeVillers, to the jury during opening arguments. DeVillers, in an apparent attempt to impugn the integrity of Anderson, uttered the phrase on at least four or five occasions during opening arguments. From that feature, let us again provide a quick primer on the nature of a qui tam lawsuit:
As Burns stated he’d do in the video, here’s the link for guidance on the nature of the qui tam lawsuit filed by future prosecution witness Kelly Anderson. From that Cornell University explanation:
In a qui tam action, a relator brings an action against a person or company on the government’s behalf. The government, not the relator, is considered the plaintiff. If the government succeeds, the relator bringing the suit receives a share of the award. This is also called a popular action.
For example, the federal False Claims Act authorizes qui tam actions against parties who have defrauded the federal government. If successful, a relator in a False Claims Act qui tam action may receive up to 30% of the government’s award.
In today’s Sound Off Louisiana feature, founder Robert Burns provides a comprehensive update on the Akula matter and explains why the distinct possibility does exist that Anderson may well receive that “boatload of money” as the U. S. Government pushes hard for $42 million in restitution during Akula’s sentencing on April 10, 2024:
Burns provides comprehensive update of USA v. Dr. Shiva Akula, who is scheduled to be sentenced on April 10, 2024, at which time the US Attorney will be seeking the maximum 30-year prison sentence and a $42 million restitution order.
Let us supply the support documents we reference in the preceding video:
1. Judge Africk’s 1/31/24 denial of Akula’s Motion for New Trial and Motion for Judgment of Acquittal.
2. U. S. Attorney’s 1/28/24 Motion to Appoint Receiver.
4. Lis Pendens (Filed Monday, March 4, 2024): St. Charles Avenue Condo in New Orleans; Covington Hospice Facility; Clearview Hospice Facility in Metairie.
5. U. S. Attorney’s March 5, 2014 Memorandum for Loss Calculation and Restitution Amounts.
Toward the middle of page five (5) of the Memorandum for Loss Calculations, it should be noted that a significant amount of Akula’s billings, according to the U. S. Attorney’s Office, entailed patients who were, “not hospice eligible.”
We can’t help but be reminded of our past February 13, 2019 feature in which Billy Broussard went to excruciating lengths to authoritatively demonstrate his contention that Gravity District 8 of Ward 1 of Calcasieu Parish sought to defraud FEMA/GOHSEP by having ineligible debris reported to FEMA/GOHSEP as eligible. All of this dealt with the “Indian Bayou project,” which entailed cleanup in the aftermath of the 2006 flood.
He did so via his October 4, 2018 email for which we supplied a link (two paragraphs above the audio file on the above-linked feature). The email provides a link for a May 20, 2009 email from internal auditor Kelly Fontenot to FEMA/GOHSEP-contracted folk indicating a need to get those GPS locations to go away.
It must be nice when you’re the government and you can somehow make “GPS locations go away” such that potential FEMA/GOHSEP fraud goes undetected. We bet Dr. Akula sure wishes he had a way to get, “those Medicare billing codes to go away.”
It appears he may spend the remainder of his life in Federal prison (along with complete liquidation of all of his assets) as a result of his having no such ability!