Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
The SEC is investigating Houston-based SAExploration Holdings for allegedly providing “material misstatements” and misleading financial information to investors and the federal agency over the past four years. In response, the oilfield services company says it will cooperate with the SEC, is restating past financial reports, has fired its general counsel and has removed its chairman and chief executive officer.
A federal judge in Dallas on Wednesday ordered four healthcare professionals to pay the federal government $339.4 million in a whistleblower action tied to one of the largest home healthcare fraud cases in U.S. history.
In separate pleadings filed last week, six of the defendants found guilty in the spring for their roles in a bribery and kickback scheme at the now-defunct Forest Park Medical Center are asking the U.S. District Court in Dallas for judgments of acquittal or, alternatively, new trials. Texas Lawbook correspondent Bruce Tomaso provides a summary of the arguments.
A prominent Dallas spinal surgeon convicted in the Forest Park Medical Center fraud case is seeking a new trial. The filing on Monday by David Gerger of Houston-based Gerger Khalil & Hennessy, claims a string of harmful errors by federal prosecutors and the trial judge requires that the conviction in April of Dr. Michael Rimlawi be vacated. Bruce Tomaso has the story.
After close to a decade at the SEC's Fort Worth Regional Office, Chris Davis has returned to private practice. Davis was involved in the high profile cases and first-impression matters against AriseBank and 1Broker at the regulatory agency.
The former HD Vest Financial GC started his new job as the regional director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Fort Worth office last Monday. In an exclusive interview, Peavler says he faces significant challenges but people need to know about one change from his predecessor.
Surgeon Nick Nicholson was one of 22 Forest Park Medical officials indicted in one of the largest and most complex healthcare bribery and kickback schemes in Texas history. But Dr. Nick was the only one a jury found not guilty. In an exclusive, in-depth interview, Nicholson and his lawyer, Tom Melsheimer, take readers inside the confidential sanctuary of the attorney-client relationship to discuss in vivid detail every aspect of the case and the decisions they made that led to the dramatic acquittal earlier this year. This is their story.
Melsheimer and his legal team worked more than 4,000 hours defending Forest Park Medical Center Surgeon Nick Nicholson against allegations of bribery and kickbacks. In a joint interview, the pair provide The Texas Lawbook insights into their relationship, how the use of mock juries helped them develop a successful legal strategy, the decision whether to quote from the King James Version or a modern Bible translation and their opinions of the prosecutors, judge and other defendants. Here they are in their own words.
The Texas Securities Commission issued an emergency cease-and-desist order late Wednesday against a Fort Worth oil executive for allegedly providing misleading and incomplete information to potential investors about so-called “offset wells.”
Carli Adele Hempel, the former director of bariatric services at Forest Park Medical Center, has agreed to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor charge of conspiracy to misapply property of a health care benefit program. Mark Curriden has the breaking details.
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