Situation
Kenia Valle Boza was charged in the Southern District of Florida with health-care-fraud and wire-fraud conspiracies and major fraud. The case reflected an aggressive theory by the Department of Justice, one that sought to extend health-care-fraud prosecutions to reach a medical-billing-coding supervisor rather than the owners or executives who typically sit in the government's crosshairs.
The exposure was severe. A conviction in a case the government framed at roughly $12 million would have meant prison and the end of a career.
Approach
Franklin Monsour, lead trial counsel and now a partner at Dechert LLP, brought Adam Fels onto the trial team specifically to try the case with him to verdict. The defense met the government's novel theory head-on, taking the case to a jury and presenting a defense case that proved the client's innocence.
Result
After a two-week jury trial, Valle Boza was acquitted in full in June 2025. The verdict was a flat rejection of the government's attempt to push health-care-fraud liability down to the coding-supervision level.