Attorney critics six Attorney General’s Clinton Township racketeering case – Macomb Daily

Macomb County Circuit Judge James Maceroni on the bench for a prior case. He will issue an opinion in the Hassan Fayad criminal case. MACOMB DAILY FILE PHOTO

An attorney for one of six defendants charged with racketeering for alleged false medical billing in Macomb County said the case should be thrown out because the state Attorney General’s Office has failed to provide any evidence of criminal acts.

James Amberg, attorney for Hassan Fayad, argued for dismissal earlier this month in front of Macomb Circuit Judge James Maceroni.

He called the case “the most convoluted a case as I’ve ever seen” in his over 20 years of practice, referring to the case presented over a several-day preliminary examination in 41B District Court in Clinton Township.

“The Attorney General’s representative didn’t even know what their own theory of the case was, and if they did, they didn’t tell us, the various attorneys in the case,” Amberg said. “There are no crimes here. The case has been problematic since the beginning.”

Amberg said the Attorney General’s Office failed to provide what is known as the “bill of particulars,” what is supposed to be a concise description of the alleged law violations.

“It’s difficult to fight a case when nobody from the government side can offer a rational explanation of what your client is charged with,” he said.

Instead, state attorneys were allowed to file arguments on why the case should be bound over to circuit court. District Judge Carrie Fuca advanced the case to the higher court.

Judge Maceroni said following the July 15 he likely would issue a written opinion before the next scheduled hearing, Aug. 29.

Fayad, 39, of Dearborn, is charged with one count of conducting a criminal enterprise, aka racketeering, three counts of conspiracy to commit false pretenses between $1,000 and $20,000 and three counts of insurance fraud.

Codefendants include:

• Michael Angelo, 62, of Springfield, NJ, who owns the multiple medical offices under one roof in Clinton Township, faces the most charges. In addition to a criminal enterprise count, he is charged with four counts of false pretenses, four counts of conspiracy to commit false pretenses, six counts of delivery or manufacture of controlled substances and three counts of insurance fraud.
• Chitra Sinha, 81, of Bloomfield Township, and Mohammed Ali Abraham, 71, of Dearborn Heights, each face charges of racketeering, and three counts each of false pretenses between $1,000 and $20,000 and insurance fraud.
• Robert Presley, 50, of Ferndale, is charged with racketeering, two counts of delivery or manufacture of a controlled substance and two counts of insurance fraud.
• Thomas Quartz, 37, of Grosse Ile Township, is charged with racketeering, two counts of conspiracy to commit false pretenses between $1,000 and $20,000 and three counts of insurance fraud.

Angelo’s attorney, Michael Bullotta, a former federal prosecutor, is scheduled to argue for dismissal of the case against his client Monday in front of Judge Diane Druzinski.

Judge Richard Caretti initially was assigned the case but split it up among a half-dozen judges.

Some details of the allegations were presented in a news release in which Attorney General Dana Nessel and Anita Fox, director of the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services, announced the charges.

State officials say that beginning in 2013, Angelo ran a hotline, 1-800-USLawyer, and funneled auto-accident callers into an “elaborate insurance fraud scheme,” directing the callers to one or several of the many medical enterprises owned or controlled by Angelo.

Those callers were directed through a predetermined protocol of office visits, device and injection treatments, medication prescriptions, and drug screenings, physical therapy sessions and diagnostic imaging all performed within Angelo’s network of enterprises or those operated by co-conspirators, according to state authorities. It is alleged that each business then billed the no-fault auto insurance carriers or the Michigan Assigned Claims Plan for the uninsured patients for the treatments.

Assistant Attorney General Dan Grano said at the July 15 hearing the government is not required to provide a “theory” of the case to defense attorneys, and the legal brief filed at district court served as the bill of particulars.

“This essentially is insurance fraud with some false-pretense counts,” Grano said.