ASHLAND, Ky. — The federal government has agreed to return $1.1 million a doctor paid in restitution money after an appeals court overturned his conviction on health care fraud charges, according to court documents.
U.S. District Judge David L. Bunning signed the order last week to return the money to former Ashland cardiologist Richard Paulus, The Daily Independent reported.
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned his conviction March 5 and Paulus was released from a federal penitentiary.
Federal prosecutors charged Paulus with performing unnecessary heart procedures as part of a healthcare fraud scheme in Eastern Kentucky. He was a cardiologist at King’s Daughters Medical Center in Ashland when authorities received an anonymous complaint about the procedures.
A jury convicted him in 2016, but a series of legal wranglings followed that saw the conviction reversed, reinstated and overturned.
According to the latest appeals court ruling, federal prosecutors withheld a letter from Paulus that showed about 75 out of 1,049 stent procedures were flagged as unnecessary, which is lower than what government witnesses had said at trial.
A hearing has not been scheduled in the case due to court restrictions implemented because of the coronavirus pandemic, but deadlines have been set for written motions, including a motion to dismiss by attorneys representing Paulus.
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