By: Joshua Robbins
July 12, 2024
“In recent years, the Supreme Court has made a project of reining in the federal mail and wire fraud statutes, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341 and 1343. This will have profound implications for federal prosecutors, one of whom described the mail fraud statute as “our Stradivarius, our Colt 45, our Louisville Slugger, our Cuisinart–and our true love.” But it will also have nearly as powerful an impact on civil lawsuits under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute (RICO), most of which are now based on allegations of mail and wire fraud.
Among the RICO cases affected will be those filed by health insurers against health care providers, pharma/biotech companies, and sellers of medical devices and equipment. In some of these cases, insurers allege that such companies have engaged in mail or wire fraud by paying kickbacks to obtain patients, and then billing their insurers for the resulting claims. The recent trend of narrowing the federal fraud statutes could make these cases harder to pursue.”
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