Opinion ID: 1085312
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Ms. Pratcher’s testimony

Text: The Government relies on Ms. Pratcher’s testimony that she expressed suspicion about Mr. Ohaka to Mr. Rufai several months before First Century was approved to bill Medicare. It argues that this testimony shows that Mr. Rufai was on notice about the fraudulent billing scheme. But this stretches Ms. Pratcher’s testimony too far. When Ms. Pratcher was at Vitacare and at First Century, she received calls from Vitacare customers -33- saying they had not received their equipment. She told Mr. Rufai about the calls, and he said he would speak with Mr. Ohaka about it and instructed her to apologize to the customers. The Government contends that this supports an inference that Mr. Rufai knew of a scheme that involved Medicare fraud. Although the evidence showed that Mr. Rufai knew that First Century’s billing was dependent on Medicare,9 Ms. Pratcher’s testimony shows only that he knew Mr. Ohaka’s Vitacare customers were complaining about not receiving their orders. For Ms. Pratcher’s statements about Vitacare customer complaints to have put Mr. Rufai on notice of Medicare fraud at First Century would require the following. He would have had to conclude that the Vitacare customers’ equipment was not just delayed but was not being delivered at all; that failure to deliver the equipment was deliberate rather than inadvertent or a result of incompetence; that Medicare had been billed for the equipment; and that the customer calls were not isolated incidents. He would then need to have concluded that the same occurrences would happen at First Century. Factfinder inferences that Mr. Rufai knew (1) that Medicare fraud was occurring at Vitacare and (2) that it would occur later at First Century are attenuated, speculative, and pile inference upon inference. Ms. Pratcher’s testimony that she told Mr. Rufai about her concerns that Mr. 9 Mr. Rufai was calling nearly every day to see if Medicare had called about First Century’s application, and he and Mr. Adegboye did not bother to maintain a bank account for billings until First Century was approved by Medicare. -34- Ohaka had asked her to put her name on some tax forms similarly fails to support an inference that Mr. Rufai knew of Medicare fraud. The conversation may have put Mr. Rufai on notice of tax misconduct, but that is not a link to knowledge of health care fraud. The Government also pointed to inventory issues to argue that Mr. Rufai was on notice of the fraud. To pass the initial Medicare inspection, site inspectors have to find adequate inventory in the store. Ms. Pratcher testified that she called and spoke with Mr. Rufai about the lack of inventory and that he told her to speak with Mr. Ohaka. Ms. Pratcher’s grandfather had recently moved to Georgia, and Mr. Ohaka had asked her to put her grandfather’s used wheelchair and toilet in the store. The problem with the Government’s inventory theory is that the evidence did not show that Ms. Pratcher told Mr. Rufai about the used inventory. Moreover, even if Mr. Rufai had known about the used inventory, and thus about Mr. Ohaka’s willingness to deceive Medicare to get Medicare billing approval, a jury would still need to infer that Mr. Rufai knew that Mr. Ohaka would begin submitting false Medicare claims several months later. Ms. Pratcher’s testimony about her conversations with Mr. Rufai may have been enough to suggest to him that something was amiss with Mr. Ohaka and First Century, but they predated and did not forecast fraudulent billing. Her testimony does not support the string of inferences the Government urges in this case. -35-