Opinion ID: 873684
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: makes any materially false, fictitious,

Text: or fraudulent statements or representations, or makes or uses any materially false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry, in connection with the delivery of or payment for health care [shall be punished accordingly]. A plain reading of 18 U.S.C. § 1035(a) reveals that the jury was required to find that the “matter” involved a health benefit program, not that the particular “statement” falsified or covered up involved a health benefit program. Id. The jury was presented with evidence that Ajoku’s statements and writings were made in connection with the delivery of and Medicare payment for prescription devices because Santos could not bill Medicare for devices without employing and utilizing a qualified exemptee under California law. We need not address the outer limit of whether a statement “involv[es]” a health care program for the purposes of § 1035 because there was sufficient evidence to determine that Ajoku’s statements to California authorities were made in a matter involving Medicare. While Ajoku made his statements to California rather than federal authorities, we 8 UNITED STATES V . AJOKU have held that false statements that are not made to federal authorities but that concern matters of interest to the federal government may fall within federal oversight. For example, § 1035 is substantially identical to 18 U.S.C. § 1001, which sanctions anyone who “knowingly and willfully . . . makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation” concerning “any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States . . . .” We have previously held that § 1001 encompasses statements involving matters of federal concern, even when those statements were made to state investigators. See United States v. King, 660 F.3d 1071, 1081 (9th Cir. 2011), cert. denied, 132 S. Ct. 2740 (2012) (holding that false statements made to an Idaho agricultural inspector were sufficiently tied to federal interests to violate § 1001). We have also held that § 1001 encompasses false documents that were never actually provided to any governmental entity, so long as they were intended to be used in a matter of federal concern. See United States v. Balk, 706 F.2d 1056, 1059 (9th Cir. 1983) (“Under section 1001, the falsified documents did not have to be submitted to the Navy; it is only necessary that their intended use be related to a matter within the jurisdiction of the Navy.”). Given our precedent, it is immaterial that Ajoku’s statements were made to California investigators rather than directly to federal authorities. Instead, it is sufficient for the purposes of § 1035 that the statements were made to state authorities in a matter affecting the delivery of federal Medicare payments.