California Professional License Defense Blog

Dr. Anthony Lee, 64 of Villa Park, an exclusive Orange County neighborhood pleaded guilty to felony charges including sexual battery by fraud, first-degree residential burglary and lewd acts on a minor. Dr. Lee who had a medical practice in Anaheim was sentenced to three years in state prison and stripped of his California Medical License.

Dr. Lee, who was friends with the victim’s family visited the minor under the guise of prescribing birth control. When Dr. Lee arrived at the home, he went upstairs to the victim’s bedroom and told her that he needed to do an exam on her prior to prescribing birth control. Without any medical equipment or gloves, Dr. Lee digitally penetrated the victim, saying he needed to do so to check for infections. In addition, Dr. Lee kissed the girl, touched her breasts and manipulated her body into sexual positions telling her he was teaching her techniques men like.

Besides allegations of the victim who resides in Irvine, two other women came forward and reported Dr. Lee had sexually assaulted them in his Anaheim Office. The statute of limitations on those crimes has already passed and prosecutors cannot charge Dr. Lee for those crimes.

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Dr. Christopher Thompson, a Brentwood doctor was charged with abruptly stopping his car in front of two cyclist, in what might have been a road rage incident. Dr. Thompson has previously been investigated for a similar road rage incident against cyclist in March of 2008, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Dr. Thompson faces two felony counts of reckless driving causing injury and battery causing serious bodily injury in an accident that occurred July 4, 2008. The Los Angels County District Attorney’s Office is alleging that Thompson slammed on his brakes directly in front of two bicyclist who were riding downhill on Mandeville Canyon Road. The bicyclist, without time to stop or avoid Thompson’s red Infiniti collided with the vehicle with one rider crashing through the read window and the other crashing to the pavement.

Ron Peterson, 40 who crashed through the window suffered broken teeth, broken nose and cuts to the face. Christian Stoehr, 29 suffered a shoulder separation which will require surgery. Both riders describe riding down the hill when they heard a honk and someone yell profanities at their direction. The car that honked, then pulled right in front of them and immediately slammed on their brakes.

Thompson, who lives on Mandeville Canyon Road is an owner of a medical documentation company in Woodland Hills. Thompson is out on bail and is awaiting a court date on August 1, 2008 where he will be arraigned on the felony complaint. If convicted, Thompson faces up to 7 years in prison.

In addition to any criminal charges, Dr. Thompson also faces discipline by the California Medical Board. Such discipline can include license suspension all the way to total revocation of all privileges to practice medicine in the state.

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Roy Chester Dickson of Yorba Linda, California was indicted by the Orange County Grand Jury on 106 felony counts including money laundering, grand theft, insurance fraud and making false or fraudulent claims. Dickson, an attorney is accused of being a player in the Unity Outpatient Surgery Center scam where three Southern California physicians, Dr. Mario Rosenberg, Dr. Michael Cheeluen and Dr. William Wilson Hapton Jr. are also charged. According to prosecutors, Dickson has been involved in similar criminal conduct in other surgery center clinics in southern California.

Also indicted was Andrew Robert Harnen, the surgery center accountant and bookkeeper. Harnen is accused of filing false tax returns and failing to report over $6 million, paying the doctors and recruiters for their participation in the Unity scam.

According to prosecutors, Unity is the biggest insurance fraud scam in the history of the U.S. with a loss of over $150 million. In this particular scam, the defendants are accused of recruiting over 2,800 healthy people, who from August 2002 to April 2003 traveled to Buena Park to undergo unnecessary medical procedures. In return, the patients received payments between $300-$1,000 per procedure.

Dickson and Harned are being held on $2 million bail and are scheduled to appear in court for their arraignment on July 10, 2008.

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San Francisco transplant surgeon Dr. Hootan Roozrokh is being accused by the California Medical Board of administering large quantities of pain medicine to a prospective organ donor. The allegations stem from the death of 25-year-old Ruben Navarro who was going to have his organs donated upon death. Under state law, a transplant physician cannot be in the operating room of a potential donor until that donor is pronounced dead. The state board complaint further alleges Dr. Roozrokh was "actively monitoring the patient's vital signs for a determination of death."

In addition to the actions taken by the California Medical Board, Dr. Roozrokh’s also faces criminal charges in San Luis Obispo for felony dependent adult abuse in the death of Mr. Navarro. If convicted at trial, Dr. Roozrokh could be sentenced to prison.

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Theodore Swain, 60 was sentenced to 24 years in state prison for stealing $7 million dollars in a Ponzi scheme bilking 100 investors in Southern California. In addition to his prison sentence, Mr. Swain was ordered to pay $6.7 million dollars in restitution to his victims.

Mr. Swain has had a “history of ripping people off with his worthless investment schemes,” says California Attorney General Edmund Brown. “Most recently, he convinced 99 consumers, including a doctor, lawyer and aerospace engineer, to invest tens of thousands of dollars in property which does not exist.”

Between 2003 and 2006, Mr. Swain convinced consumers to invest $1,000 to $1000,000 in mortgage certificates which never existed. Swain was able to manufacture documents, which promised 10% annual returns on real estate projects. “This was a very convincing Ponzi scheme,” said Deputy Attorney General Tawnya Boulan who prosecuted the case jointly with the California Department of Corporations. “Swain was very persuasive and ripped off sophisticated investors by maintaining an appearance of success.”

As is typically done in Ponzi schemes, Swain used new investor capital to pay older investors, allowing him to continue with the fraud for several years. Swain also failed to disclose pertinent investor information allowing his investors to make informed decision in violation California law.

A San Diego jury found Mr. Swain guilty of 15 counts of fraud, 6 counts of grand theft, 3 counts of securities fraud and 3 counts of elder financial abuse. In addition to the substantive charges, Mr. Swain was convicted of sentencing enhancements related to securities fraud called white collar crime enhancements.

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California Attorney General Edmund Brown announced that the state of California was going to create an online database to track prescription drug history in an effort to curb abuse by drug dealers and people who go to several doctors to get several dangerous prescription drugs.

The prescription drug database will give California pharmacists and physicians a real time glimpse of patients prescription history. This technology will help fight prescription drug abuse in California and reduce a financial burden on medical insurance companies. In addition, it will reduce doctor shopping for those who are addicted to prescription drugs and go to several doctors for the same prescription.

The new database named CURES or Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System is set to launch in 2009 at a cost of 3 ½ million dollars. While California does have the CURES system in place currently, it is not an online database and can take days for pharmacists and physicians to check a patients drug history. The CURES database carries information of over 86 million schedule II,III, and IV prescription drugs such as Morphine, Vicodin, Oxycodone, Methadone, Codeine

A representative of the California State Board of Pharmacy is quoted as saying "The California State Board of Pharmacy has long been a strong supporter of the CURES system. This new system will reduce drug diversion from pharmacies--it is an important enhancement to patient care and law enforcement."

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Our Orange County, CA law firm handles both criminal defense and professional license defense cases. What makes sense about hiring a firm such as ours is the ability of a criminal defense firm to promote clients interests at the outset of a case. This means meeting with the District Attorney before they file a case and advocating our position in the hopes of encouraging them not to file charges or file reduced charges. Often times, when a person gets arrested the arresting officer does not get the entire picture of the case or what took place. It is our job to gather all the facts quickly and present them to the DA so when they review the case, they do so with both side and not just the police reports.

Whether defending lawyer, doctors, financial professionals, teachers or contractors, the best defense is an early defense. Keep in mind, most professions licensed by the State of California have disclosure requirements. Unless you are familiar with these requirements and the law, you need to hire an attorney. If not, and your license is revoked, it almost impossible to get it reinstated.

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Failure to disclose an arrest or conviction in a timely manner could cause a physician to lose their right to practice medicine. The California Medical Board views the non-disclosure of an arrest or conviction in ANY state, not just California a major breach of ethics and professional conduct.

California Business and Professions Code§ 802.1, says, a licensee must report the following:
1. The bringing of an indictment or information charging a felony against the licensee. OR
2. The conviction of the licensee, including any verdict of guilty, or plea of guilty or no contest, of any felony or misdemeanor.

The “bringing of an indictment or information” simply means the District Attorney’s Office has filed felony criminal charges against the physicians. This doesn’t require a plea of guilty, just the filing of the charges. For misdemeanors, physicians do not need to report the arrest, unless the physician goes on to plead guilty to a misdemeanor or felony.
Once either of these two scenarios occurs, a physician has 30 days to notify the board.

Criminal law is such that certain offense can be charged only as felonies and some only as misdemeanors. However, there are a number of crimes that can be charged either as felonies or misdemeanors. This means, any physician who has been arrested or investigated for a crime anywhere in California should contact a criminal defense attorney who also defends professional licenses.

Pilchman and Kay, PLC, located in Orange County, California invites you to contact our firm for a free consultation. We handle cases in all Southern California cities on the state and federal level including Medical Board of California cases.

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Our Orange County, Ca law firm receives a lot of calls from physicians in Orange County, Los Angeles County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County and San Diego County who have either been arrested for a crime or have been convicted of a crime. The number one question is how their criminal case will effect their medical license and what actions the California Medical Board can take. So, it is worth mentioning again.

Physicians, like anybody, are susceptible to committing crimes including; DUI, Fraud, Illegally Prescribing Meds, Drug Possession and Domestic Violence, just to name a few. Each case is different and the Board reviews cases on an individual basis. They will review police reports and any supplemental material to determine if there is an underlying cause for the conduct such as alcohol abuse and DUI’s or financial difficulties and theft or fraud charges. They will also assess whether the physician is unfit or unworthy of a California Medical License.

The Board conducts their own investigation and may learn information that was not available or known at the criminal stages. This could mean office staff, nurses and colleagues are interviewed. This could mean random drug testing. This could mean taking business records from medical offices. As you can see, the discovery of incriminating evidence that can be used against you and your license is huge. It is critical that a medical license defense attorney is consulted during this process as it could mean the difference between keeping your license and losing your license. In fact, if a physician is arrested or being investigated by law enforcement for a crime, I would recommend hiring a criminal defense attorney in Southern California who also handles medical license defense cases. This would ensure both the physician and the medical license are protected at the earliest stages of the case.

Pilchman and Kay, PLC is an Orange County based criminal defense and professional license defense firm. We handle state, federal and medical board cases in Orange County, Los Angeles County, Riverside County, San Diego County and San Bernardino County. We welcome you to call us for a free consultation regarding any medical license or criminal defense case.

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Physicians may encounter situations where a patient, employee or another physician illegally uses their DEA number to secure prescription medication either over the phone or by stealing a blank prescription form. The unlawful use of a physicians DEA number has SEVERE consequences to those who commit the theft, but it also may have SEVERE consequences for the doctor. Like the old saying goes, an “ounce of prevention is worth a pound of security.”
The California Health and Safety Code specifically address these issues in Health and Safety Code Section 11368. It states that anyone who forges or alters a prescription or who obtains any narcotic drug by a forged, fictitious, or altered prescription may be punished by imprisonment in the county jail or state prison for not less than six months or more than one year. Since prescription forgery is considered a criminal offense, it is recommended that a report be made to the local law enforcement.

In addition, Federal law requires physicians to report all theft or loss of controlled substances and official Federal Order Forms (Form 222) to a regional office of the Drug Enforcement Administration. The DEA has offices located in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. Go to http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/online_forms.htm to download all the necessary forms so you will not find yourself in a criminal court or worse, Federal court.

Keep in mind, neither the Medical Board nor state law requires physicians to report stolen or illegal use of a physicians DEA number however, it is suggested that all doctors who encounter this issue should send the Board a letter to have on file just in case. This letter should be a brief description of how the DEA number was compromised and what precautions the physician is taking to prevent further losses or thefts.

If you are questioned by the California Medical Board or the DEA regarding the unlawful use of your DEA number, it is important to hire an experienced professional license defense attorney to protect you from the potential loss of your license or criminal prosecution. Our Southern California criminal defense firm located in Orange County, California has been defending physicians all over California.

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Attorney General Jerry Brown has shut down mortgage companies in Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties for alleged predatory lending scams. Virtual Escrow, Olympic Escrow, National Mortgage, Lifetime Financial, Greenleaf Lending and Direct Credit Solutions are the companies named for participating in scams that could top more than $20 million.
In a time where the housing market is down, mortgage companies are attempting to gain business by using unconventional and illegal measures. Specifically, this investigation has uncovered information that many of the named companies were engaging in illegal tactics to initiate loans including psychological pressure, lies and even forged documents.
With California leading the nation in subprime lending, it is likely that additional companies particularly in Orange County might be named or investigated for mortgage fraud. As of 20007, authorities have initiated criminal investigations of many lenders including, New Century Financial Corp. an Irvine subprime lender who is now bankrupt.

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Mortgage fraud has topped $1 billion in the past decade and California places 4th on a national list of mortgage fraud offenders for 2007. Beating out California is Florida at number 1, Nevada at number 2 followed by Michigan. FBI statistics show 46,700 mortgage fraud reports in 2007 alone, up 30% from last year. Common types of mortgage fraud include misrepresenting employment history, falsified tax returns, inflating income and providing false financial documents.

Orange County, California houses many of the top mortgage companies in the country. Therefore, many of these complaints and allegations are likely to find their way to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, the California Department of Corporations, the California Department of Real Estate, the US Attorney or the California Attorney General’s Office.
If you are being charged with mortgage fraud in Orange County, Los Angeles County, Riverside County or San Bernardino County either as an applicant or as a licensed mortgage broker, you need to find a knowledgeable criminal defense lawyer who can guide you through the process and protect your rights. If you are not adequately represented you may increase your criminal exposure and possibly lose your brokers license.

The loss of your professional license can be devastating not only to you but to your family as well. Allegations of fraud in the mortgage industry alone may trigger reporting requirements. I cannot emphasize enough the need to contact a top criminal defense lawyer who can help you understand licensing laws and self-reporting statutes so you don’t lose your license.

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