Vince Farhat :: California Litigation Attorney Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP

Vince Farhat is a partner and chair of JMBM's White Collar Defense and Investigations practice. Vince has extensive jury trial experience and focuses his practice on representing companies and individuals in criminal and civil investigations and prosecutions by government enforcement agencies, as well as complex federal litigation. He also advises companies in connection with complex and sensitive internal investigations.

Prior to joining JMBM, Vince served as an assistant United States attorney in the Major Frauds Section of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California. As a federal prosecutor, he investigated and prosecuted white collar crimes, including healthcare fraud, bank fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, bankruptcy fraud and money laundering. While in the Major Frauds Section, Vince served as the criminal healthcare fraud coordinator for the U.S. Attorney's Office and oversaw the investigative activities of the U.S. Department of Justice Medicare Fraud Strike Force for the Central District. He regularly worked with civil fraud attorneys and other prosecuting agencies in parallel fraud investigations. Vince's criminal trial experience includes cases involving healthcare fraud, wire fraud, bankruptcy fraud, money laundering, immigration fraud and criminal forfeiture.

Before becoming a criminal prosecutor, Vince was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office where he represented the United States in commercial litigation and other civil cases. Vince served as a law clerk to the Honorable Edward Rafeedie, U.S. district court judge for the Central District of California. Vince works as an adjunct professor at Loyola Law School where he teaches white collar and healthcare law.

Representative Experience
Vince is an experienced trial lawyer who understands business risk from the client's perspective. He regularly represents financial services companies, government contractors, consulting firms, real estate and construction companies, healthcare providers, family offices, nonprofits, and trustees and fiduciaries in government investigations, corporate internal investigations, and complex, high-stakes litigation. Representative experience includes:

Internal Investigations: Represents companies in corporate internal investigations arising from allegations of money laundering, fraud, kickbacks, tax reporting violations, and embezzlement
Government Investigations: Represents companies in criminal and civil U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigations involving federal law enforcement statutes, including the Anti-Kickback Statute, Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, and False Claims Act (FCA)
Parallel Investigations: Represents witnesses, subjects, and targets in parallel fraud investigations being conducted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS OIG) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Criminal Tax Investigations: Represents individual taxpayers and business entities in criminal tax investigations being conducted by DOJ and IRS Criminal Investigation
False Claims Act Defense: Represented a chemical manufacturer in an FCA lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, brought on behalf of the United States, 12 states and 188 local governments
Cybercrime Defense: Represents banks and healthcare providers in data breach investigations. Represented online video game company in a cyberattack investigation that led to the successful prosecution of the perpetrator
Economic and Trade Sanctions: Represents companies in investigations by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury
Affirmative Enforcement Matters: Represents clients in proactive scenarios where companies learn of potential internal misconduct and need to investigate to determine potential next steps to protect their interests, including making law enforcement referrals and assisting clients in interacting with the criminal justice system.
U.S. Attorney's Office: Served as lead prosecutor in the Los Angeles "skid row" healthcare fraud investigation and secured the convictions of hospital executives for paying illegal kickbacks for the referral of homeless patients
U.S. Attorney's Office: Served as lead trial counsel in the successful prosecution of a business owner for bankruptcy fraud and money laundering
U.S. Attorney's Office: Served as trial counsel in the successful prosecution of a physician for performing unnecessary surgeries
U.S. Attorney's Office: Successfully defended the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) in a multiparty trade secret misappropriation action brought by a defense subcontractor regarding Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) rail launch assembly

Health Care Industry Experience

Vince understands the dynamic nature of the health care industry and provides practical and effective advice to health care providers throughout the industry. Vince leverages his Justice Department experience directing multi-agency fraud investigations to effectively defend health care clients against False Claims Act (FCA) investigations and other government enforcement actions. When issues of employee fraud, corruption, or corporate wrongdoing arise, Vince effectively represents health care companies and boards of directors in implementing internal investigations, and represents them in related government health fraud investigations and enforcement actions.

Vince has managed internal investigations concerning potentially improper referrals, billing practices, and other alleged regulatory concerns; alleged HIPAA violations, including improper accessing or sharing patients' protected health information (PHI); investigations and complaints by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General; investigations regarding anti-kickback and FCA violations; and criminal and civil cases brought against health care entities and individual providers by the U.S. Department of Justice. He assists companies in updating their fraud and abuse compliance programs in response to current enforcement trends and guidance from federal agencies. Vince also successfully represented a network of full-service health centers in an affirmative breach of contract action against a County-run Medicaid health plan in California.

In addition to representing companies, Vince represents individual health care providers in criminal and civil health care fraud investigations and enforcement actions. His recent representative client matters include:

Successfully represented an orthopedic surgeon in defending against federal FCA conspiracy claims stemming from client's design & development work performed for a California-based orthopedic implant distributor.
Defending a licensed chiropractor in a New York-based criminal health care fraud investigation involving the NBA Players’ Health and Welfare Benefit Plan, a healthcare plan providing benefits to eligible active and former players of the NBA.
Defending the former medical director of a drug and alcohol treatment provider in an U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) criminal investigation alleging illegal importation of unapproved new drugs.
Representing a former emergency room physician in a wide-ranging FCA investigation into billing practices of the client's former hospital employer.
Representing physicians and physician groups in criminal investigations by the FDA into allegations of misbranded and adulterated drugs and medical devices.