When we searched for lawyers for representing Greg and Vilasini, we researched and talked to about four of them of which Naomi and Dan were chosen to represent Greg and Vilasini respectively.
When we had first met with Dan, he claimed that he has never lost a trial and he wouldn’t want ours to be the first one.
He asserted to be very familiar with health care white collar defense and had a detailed write up on https://whitecollar.us, describing how the DOJ and FBI go about identifying potential physicians using data tools and work with Insurance companies.
He said he would bring an FBI agent who now works with Aetna to testify on how they do data analysis and how that it was a typical way of them accusing a physician.
He agreed to take on the case first with a $50,000 retainer, which was borrowed by Vilasini and Greg from my mother. Very soon, he said he urgently needs to hire the Billing Expert Michael Arrigo and asked for $50,000 more. I made a cashiers check to his trust account for that purpose and he deposited it.
He quickly then came to the conclusion that the billing was a “huge mess” and we won’t be able to defend the case. He wanted to identify a psychiatric DSM diagnostic code, speak to her psychiatrist and came up with a mental state defense strategy.
After reviewing the indictment, I suggested Vilasini to send all the data relevant to the counts where specific patient items were listed and the purchase agreement for KRD to Dan.
I felt that we should clear up the inconsistencies in the indictment. I thought that Vilasini must have called and yelled at the Insurance companies for not paying the outstanding billings and moreover, she had threatened to sue them to collect for the work that she had done but not paid.
However, he said he wants to accept that all the billing of hers as crazy and messy and depict that it was all caused by her mental state.
I had offered to help early with the data analysis but he said the experts would be hired to do that.
Vilasini was very much against a mental state defense. She was clear and wanted to establish that she did not commit any fraud.
She was very upset throughout the court proceedings because Dan did not work with her in getting her input regarding the data or seek explanations on even the items listed in the indictment. Vilasini had sent the data related to each item in the indictment to Dan. However, Dan never got into any of those details and said she is unable to provide any detailed and clear information.
Therefore, there was almost no useful communication between Dan and Vilasini throughout the court proceedings. Vilasini had requested to terminate and replace him for the same reasons, however the court denied her request twice.
Vilasini must have even mentioned to her psychiatrist about how very hopeless she was about Dan. Dr. Levinson had asked me before the trial about what my thoughts were regarding Dan as to representing Vilasini.
She said that he pressingly asked her for more money. After the $100K payment from my mother and me, we did not have any money left. Her practice was stopped by the court. Therefore, she had to apply and get CJ government funds assistance for her lawyer.
Vilasini has sent several desperate emails about bringing the billing expert, interviewing the insurance company agents and interviewing the patients to get a real insight and further presenting them as witnesses. She also wanted to clearly establish any billing errors and the payments due to her treatment services.
Dan was very strong about everything that he did and managed her entire case solely by himself. Dan and Vilasini were completely not able to work together in preparing, presenting and defending the case.
Based on my suggestion, Vilasini had created a random sample spreadsheet of 200 patients of a total of about 13,500 in the system (over 1%) and which indicated no payments made and no substance of any fraud accusations. Dan quickly dismissed that as unusable.
I was not present during the part of the trial until my testimony was completed. The trial that I witnessed was completely based on the mental state of Vilasini and no defense or explanation of about the billings and errors. The jury asked about the data for the counts cited and were just directed to whatever the court had presented to them.
At the trial, when I asked why he did not bring the expert Michael Arrigo that he hired to testify, he said he was not needed. I asked if he was not used, then he should return the money $50,000 that I had given for payment to the expert. He refused and said I paid $35,000 to Michael Arrigo. After the trial, when I asked for the analysis of Michael Arrigo, Dan said that he didn’t do any work because the data was not useful.
-Venkat Ganesan
(Statement from brother of Vilasini)
Dan’s website claims before he took this case:
Dan’s website http://whitecollar.us, after this case trial:
