U.S. v. Newton

In prosecution on Medicare fraud charge, arising out of defendant’s drafting and submission of fraudulent claims for reimbursement for health services provided to patients who did not otherwise qualify for Medicare benefits or for submitting inflated claims or claims for which no services were provided, Dist. Ct. could properly conclude that government witness’s invocation of Fifth Amendment privilege on witness stand was proper, and that government’s refusal to issue said witness immunity did not distort fact-finding process, even though government had given immunity to other witnesses. Defendant did not show that fact-finding process was distorted, where said witness had initially told authorities about defendant’s role in conspiracy, and defendant could not point to anything else that witness could provide that was clearly exonerating for defendant. Also, record did not support defendant’s claim that witness lacked reasonable fear of future prosecution. However, defendant was entitled to new sentencing hearing, where Dist. Ct. erred in calculating Medicare loss that was attributable to defendant, since only speculation could support Dist. Ct.’s starting presumption that 90 percent of Medicare’s reimbursements to defendant’s employer were fraudulent regardless of which employee had submitted said claims.