Chris brings a deep understanding of government investigations and prosecutions as well as trial experience and relationships forged over three decades in law enforcement to his work in vigorously protecting his clients.
Chris primarily focuses his practice on representing health care providers during audits and investigations. He defends individual practitioners and health care companies targeted by federal, state, and third-party payors; conducts hearings on their behalf to reduce overpayment demands; and spearheads internal investigations addressing compliance issues. His clients include physicians, community pharmacies, home care agencies, medical equipment manufacturers, and other provider types.
In addition to his regulatory work, Chris represents clients in civil litigation, including in Article 78 proceedings, and white-collar matters. The latter includes violations of the Federal Controlled Substances Act, the False Claims Act, and crimes charged under state and federal law.
Prior to joining the firm, Chris served for over a decade as the New York City regional director for the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) within the New York State Attorney General’s Office. In addition to his own slate of cases, Chris supervised a staff of 90 attorneys, detectives, auditors, registered nurses, and other professionals who assessed, investigated, and prosecuted fraud within the state Medicaid program as well as patient abuse and neglect in residential care facilities. He was the face of the MFCU in New York City and was responsible for coordinating investigative efforts with multiple government agencies, including the United States Attorney Offices for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the New York State Office of the Medicaid Inspector General, and local district attorneys’ offices.
While at the MFCU, Chris had the unique distinction of being the first, and so far only, MFCU attorney to successfully indict and prosecute a health care provider for racketeering, a crime typically limited to traditional organized crime, and separately secured the first extradition of a criminal defendant to the United States from Pakistan in then over a decade. Chris also co-chaired the unit’s statewide Fraud and Abuse Working Group, a team that focused on evaluating data algorithms for their predictive value in detecting fraud, waste, and abuse across an array of health care provider types, and lectured internally and nationally on health care fraud.
Earlier in his career, Chris served as a senior assistant district attorney within the Economic Crimes Bureau at the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office (WCDA) where he investigated and successfully prosecuted a variety of financial crimes. While at the WCDA, Chris also prosecuted and secured trial verdicts against violent felony offenders, drug dealers, and others and handled appeals and post-verdict litigation at all levels within the state court system, including before the New York State Court of Appeals.