NAFUSA lifetime member Thomas O’Brien, partner at Browne George Ross O’Brien Annaguey & Ellis LLP secured a major victory last week in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, successfully clearing Dr. Mirali Zarrabi on all 33 felony counts regarding a $355 million insurance fraud scheme on the 1-800-GET-THIN Lap-Band surgery business. O’Brien was lead counsel and his trial team included former Assistant U.S. Attorneys from his days as U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California (2007-2009).

Dr. Zarrabi, a pulmonologist, was the sole defendant acquitted of all charges in what appears to be the lengthiest federal trial conducted nationwide during the pandemic, spanning close to three months.

“The complexity of the matter and length of the trial were significant challenges, but our client, Dr. Zarrabi, is extremely pleased with the outcome and so are we,” said O’Brien. “It’s not often a defendant with so many charges is acquitted on all of them, but the jury did its job and reviewed the evidence properly.”

Federal prosecutors argued at trial that the 1-800-GET-THIN network had fraudulently submitted roughly $355 million in insurance claims for coverage of Lap-Band surgeries, a type of weight loss surgery. According to prosecutors, GET THIN scheduled patients for medically unnecessary sleep studies and then falsified the results to show that the patients had obstructive sleep apnea, often a trigger for insurance coverage of Lap-Band surgery. Dr. Zarrabi, an independent contractor of GET THIN, was accused of failing to review the falsified sleep study results, but the BGR team successfully demonstrated to the jury that the government’s chief cooperating witness, Charles Klasky, falsified the results after Dr. Zarrabi had performed his sleep study reviews.