United States Attorney James T. Jacks
Northern District of Texas

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2011
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/txn/

U.S. ATTORNEY’S OFFICE TURNS OVER NEARLY $3 MILLION
IN ORDERED RESTITUTION TO MEDICARE

Convicted Defendants Robbie and Pete Hames
Had Hidden Money in an Offshore Account

DALLAS — After several years of protracted civil litigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas has forwarded a $2.87 million check to the U.S. District Clerk for payment to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for restitution as ordered by the Court in U.S. v. Robbie Lesa Hames, et al. No 3:01-CR-323-P. The U.S. Attorneys= offices are responsible for enforcing and collecting civil and criminal debts owed to the U.S. and criminal debts owed to federal crime victims.

Dallas residents Robbie Lesa Hames and her husband, Charles William (Pete) Hames, were sentenced in December 2004, to 102 months and 70 months, respectively, following their convictions at trial earlier that year on all 17 counts of an indictment charging various offenses related to their conspiracy to defraud Medicare. In addition, as part of their sentences, they were ordered to pay $2,885,020 in restitution. The Hames owned Alternate Nursing Care, a home health care business, in Irving, Texas. According the Bureau of Prisons inmate locator website, both Robbie and Charles Hames have been released from custody.

“Using all of our litigation tools, both criminal and civil, this case has finally come to a successful resolution,” said U.S. Attorney Jacks. “Recognition must be given to not only the lawyers who handled this civil litigation, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Diane Kozub, Walt Junker and Sean McKenna, but also to former Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rose Romero and Lynn Hastings who, with the excellent investigative efforts of the FBI and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, secured the criminal convictions against the Hames. This case serves to illustrate the fulfillment of one of the primary goals of the Department of Justice - not only to punish wrong-doers, but to recover and return their ill-gotten gains to the taxpayers of the United States.”

1 At about the time of the sentencings, the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed an injunction prohibiting the Hames or their agents from removing funds deposited into an account located in the Island of Guernsey by a Cook Islands trust established by the Hames. It then filed a civil forfeiture action against funds, alleging that most of the deposits to the account contained, in part, proceeds of the Medicare fraud. After negotiation with the trust, an agreed judgment was entered forfeiting the $2.87 million, and directing the forfeited funds be paid to Medicare towards satisfaction of the restitution judgment. At the request of the U.S. government, the Guernsey authorities took legal action under its laws to have the money repatriated to the United States.

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