Insights

Partner Bill Mateja comments on the highly anticipated trial in federal court in Dallas surrounding an alleged kickback scheme involving surgeons and administrators at the Forest Park Medical Center of Dallas.   “This case is the most significant healthcare fraud case going to trial in the country right now,” says Bill Mateja, a former federal prosecutor who is now a partner at Sheppard Mullin in Dallas. “The government is using a 60-year-old law in a manner in which it has never been used before and they are using it to prosecute some highly-respected doctors.”  “The use of the Trade Act in healthcare prosecutions really has not been tested like it is being tested here,” says Mateja, referring to a 1961 federal law passed by Congress to help then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy pursue leaders of organized crime.