Opinion ID: 2982513
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Komal Acharya

Text: The government presented sufficient evidence for the jury to convict Komal Acharya of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. Acharya concedes that Patel stored boxes of medications at her apartment that she now knows were part of the fraud scheme, Acharya’s Br., Doc. 39 Page ID 24, but her defense is that she did not know before her indictment what the boxes contained. She relies on the testimony of Chetan Gujarathi, who told the jury that Acharya did not know what was inside the boxes. The government, however, presented intercepted telephone calls between Acharya and Babubhai Patel to demonstrate that Acharya was a member of Patel’s health care fraud conspiracy. On April 28, 2011, the DEA executed a delayed-notice search warrant at the apartment of Chirag Soni, who also stored boxes of billed-but-not dispensed medications for Patel. The DEA made this entry look like a break-in and theft. After Soni notified Babubhai Patel about the break-in, Patel conversed with Acharya on the phone. When Patel told Acharya that boxes had been stolen from Chirag’s place, Acharya wanted to know “how” and “who” stole them. Patel named the person he suspected of committing the theft. In a later call, Acharya -24- Nos. 13-1164/1173/1182/1215/1216 United States v. Babubhai Patel, et al. asked Patel the value of the stolen medications and he told her $500,000. Acharya exclaimed, “Oh, my God. Can you not catch him?” Patel answered, “I am trying to now. I am going to search for a private detective and see how we do that and where it is.” Acharya replied, “Legally you cannot do anything since there was medicine in it. Isn’t it?” She also asked, “Since only he knew about it, it was from his store, wasn’t it?” But Patel told her the boxes were “from all the other, all the other stores.” R. 905 Page ID 6548–49, 6555–56, 6565. Other evidence also reasonably convinced the jury that Arachya was tied to the health care fraud conspiracy. Patel deposited large sums of money into her account to support her home health care business at the same time that she stored medication boxes for him. Patel wrote checks to Acharya totaling $160,000 to pay a bonus to Brijesh Rawal. Patel used this ruse to help Rawal avoid taxes on the bonus. Acharya deposited Patel’s checks in her personal account, wrote $140,000 in checks to Rawal, and kept the $20,000 difference. When Arachya was hospitalized for a medication overdose, Patel called her and asked her not to give her home address to the hospital staff. He was concerned the police would check her apartment and find the stored medications. Acharya also knowingly acted as nominee owner for some of Patel’s pharmacies and corporations. Patel instructed Chetan Gujarathi to inform Acharya that four new corporations had been formed for her and that the tax identification numbers had arrived in the mail. When a representative of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan wanted to speak to the owner of a pharmacy, Acharya contacted Gujarathi to obtain all of the documentation so that she could handle the call. During an intercepted phone call, Patel told Acharya that he had placed six businesses in her name. She asked for the information about each, including tax identification numbers, revenue, address, phone number and number of employees. Patel told her that $18 -25- Nos. 13-1164/1173/1182/1215/1216 United States v. Babubhai Patel, et al. million would soon be deposited into her accounts. Acharya laughed about whether anyone would wonder how someone her age could be doing $18 million in business. She also asked Patel how much he would pay her to be a pharmacy marketer because she had already brought him five patients. A rational jury could conclude from this evidence that Acharya understood the nature and objectives of Patel’s health care fraud conspiracy, that she voluntarily joined it, and that she took numerous steps to facilitate the conspiracy’s success. She provided a place to hide medications, she served as a nominee owner of several fraudulent corporations, and she was a conduit for Patel’s money. The district court correctly denied her motions for judgment of acquittal during and after trial. We affirm her conviction for conspiracy to commit health care fraud.