United States v. Mittal,
No. 01-1318 (2d Cir. June 10, 2002)

A physician convicted by the District Court for the Southern District of New York for soliciting and receiving illegal kickbacks for Medicare referrals appealed his 30-month jail time plus three years' supervised release sentence to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. The court affirmed the conviction, finding no error in the lower court jury instruction that it must find that the physician knew of, and intended to do, something illegal, as opposed to knowing of and intending to violate that "specific" Medicare anti-kickback statute. The court found the evidence suggested the physician knew about the specific statute anyway, as he sought a lawyer's advice on what was and was not unlawful acts under the statute.