US attorneys pulled in $169M in 2023 collections in Fresno. Here are the biggest payouts
The Fresno-based office of the U.S. Attorney’s Office collected more than $169 million in 2023 from criminal and civil cases, prosecutors announced this month.
The team headed by U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert tried cases for the Department of Justice in the Eastern District of California, which is in downtown Fresno.
The amount brought in ranges widely from year to year. The collections in 2022 reached $2.5 million while 2017 raked in $240 million, according to numbers from the attorney’s office.
The record was in 2014 when collections totaled $9 billion.
Some of the most recent DOJ settlements were reached in 2022, but the payments came in 2023. Here’s a look at the biggest cases of the year:
$117 million
The biggest payout of the year came from Pacific Gas & Electric, which agreed in April to fork over $117 million in a settlement agreement previously reached in PG&E’s bankruptcy proceedings.
The utilities company was sued for damages caused by multiple fires within the court’s jurisdiction prior to PG&E’s bankruptcy, including the deadly 2018 Camp Fire that leveled the town of Paradise and was the deadliest wildfire on record.
$26 million
Clinica Sierra Vista agreed in February to a settlement, which totaled $25.98 million, after prosecutors said the Central California medical provider under-reported its income from clinics in Fresno, Kern and Inyo counties.
California will get $15.59 million and the rest goes to the federal government.
$11.4 million
After being accused of false claims, Lags Spine & Sportscare Medical Centers Inc. and owner Dr. Francis P. Lagattuta agreed to pay $11.4 million.
The provider billed Medicare, Medi-Cal and the Oregon Medicaid program for medically unnecessary skin biopsies, spinal cord stimulation surgeries and urine drug testing, prosecutors said. The clinic closed in 2021, including locations in Fresno and Hanford.
The agreement came in late December 2022. The settlement includes proceeds from the “sale of a remotely operated underwater vehicle,” prosecutors said in a news release.
$10 million
An aerospace and defense company Sierra Nevada Corporation of Sparks, Nevada, was accused of improper charges to the federal government and agreed to pay $10 million in a settlement.
The company purposely made duplicate charges, set premium rates and reported fake expenses, prosecutors said. This agreement also came in late December 2022.
$9.5 million
A doctor who practiced in Los Angeles pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud and paid $9.5 million in restitution.
Dr. Minas Kochumian committed the fraud over six years ending in 2018, prosecutors said. The treatments and injections he billed to Medicare and Medi-Cal were never conducted.
