United States v. Shorter

In 2014, following investigations by the Indiana Attorney General and FBI, a grand jury indicted Shorter and her company, Empowerment, which provided transportation to Medicaid patients, for health care fraud, 18 U.S.C. 1347, and three counts of misusing a means of identification, 18 U.S.C. 1028A. The government submitted evidence of Shorter’s personal involvement in Empowerment’s billing practices; the results of an Indiana Attorney General Investigation into Empowerment’s billing practices; an FBI search of Empowerment’s records; and the experiences of Empowerment employees and of clients who used its services. The Seventh Circuit affirmed her convictions rejecting arguments challenging the indictment, the admission of certain evidence at trial and the sufficiency of the evidence as a whole. The court noted “powerful” circumstantial evidence that permitted the jury to convict her, especially because the jury could reasonably infer from the evidence that she “caused” the fraudulent billings. View "United States v. Shorter" on Justia Law