The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has held that a laboratory owner’s payments to marketing intermediaries violated the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act (EKRA)—in its first interpretation of the statute since it was enacted in 2018.
In United States v. Schena, No. 23-2989, F.4th (9th Cir. July 11, 2025), the Ninth Circuit affirmed the convictions of Mark Schena—who in 2022 was found guilty by a federal district court jury of nine counts of health care and securities fraud. These included two counts of EKRA violations, based on illegal kickbacks to an intermediary who misrepresented the lab’s services. Schena was sentenced to 96 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $24 million in restitution. (The intermediary plead guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and was sentenced to a shorter term, as was another co-defendant represented by Epstein Becker & Green attorneys.)
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