As a health lawyer, you won’t see me on any “largest plaintiff’s verdicts” list. Which is probably a good thing. If I ever were, I don’t think you’d ever see me again. I will likely be doing what I love, health law, for a long time—one-tenth of an hour at a time.
One of the things I do love best about my job is getting to save people. This week, I got a “two-for-one.”
I had this kid that just graduated medical school and the TMB was holding up his license to “re-investigate” an old criminal matter in his background, which at the time, the grand jury had “no billed.” If you know anything about grand juries, they will indict a ham sandwich, so there was nothing there. But that didn’t stop the TMB from making the kid sweat. We just got word this week that he got his license.
But, he also said that his dad, who is a doctor, needed me, because he was the target of a DEA investigation. A DEA agent had called with her badge number, and said that the doctor’s bank account looked suspicious for drug activity, and they wanted information.
It took me about 15 seconds of listening to the story to tell the kid, “this is a scam.” There is no way that the DEA will call a doctor to ask for bank account information—they’re the government. They already know “what’s in your wallet.” (And besides, the DEA shows up in a doctor’s office to count pills, not money.)
The kid called me back to tell me, “yeah, it was a scam.”
Corporate Transparency and the New Beneficial Ownership (BOI) reporting rules for lawyers and clients. With “two-for-one” win, who needs to be on the largest pile of money, anyhow? Well, funny thing about piles of money, turns out lots of dishonest people do want to get their hands on them.
There are new rules for lawyers who represent clients who want to form limited liability companies with the Secretary of State. I do this about 100 times a year and the new rules are fairly intrusive, because if a lawyer files with the SOS for a client, the client must now waive attorney-client confidentiality as to who his lawyer was. Client lists with lawyers are confidential, unless they aren’t. And now they aren’t. At least when it comes to corporate formation.
If I form the company for the client, I must now give the client my FinCEN number, which I could only get after navigating this rabbit hole: (1) going to the Texas “txt.gov” car tag and driver’s license website to set up an account for my authenticated driver’s license, (2) go to a similar federal ID website, sort of like the Texas one, to give them a copy of my license to drive, prior to being allowed to (3) go the to the FinCEN website to get a number from them, which I must (4) give to the client so that the client can go waive confidentiality and tell the government who their lawyer or “Company Applicant” might be, even though no crime/fraud has occurred.
I started to count the number of government issued ID numbers I needed to accomplish this task, but gave up.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). FinCEN is part of the Department of Treasury and investigates financial crimes. After looking at their website, it is hard not to be a fan. They are after terrorists and drug dealers who are money-laundering, financial exploitation of elderly people, money laundering from human trafficking of all kinds, foreign kleptocracy money, ransomware operators, (and yes, health care fraud.) I am very glad FinCEN exists.
The reason they want to know what lawyer set up a company is so they can send legitimate subpoenas and discovery to law firms, who set up suspected companies. We can argue about the implications of this, or we can go scream at clouds, both feel like they would do the same amount of good.
But what is also entering through the same door, are the very scammers FinCEN is set up to combat. Much like the doctor who was told the DEA is after them, scammers will quickly figure out that they too, can send out fake document requests to law firms and make phone calls to all kinds of professions, posing as FinCEN agents.
According to an April 22, 2024 posting by the Industrial Federal Credit Union, entitled “Beware of Scammers Posing as Law Enforcement Agents:”
“These scammers employ various deceptive tactics, including the use of fake names and badge numbers. In some instances, they may even use the identities of real law enforcement agents, accompanied by a text in what appears to be legitimate law enforcement credentials in photo form. Additionally, these scammers may possess certain details about you, such as part or all of your Social Security number (SSN). For medical professionals like doctors and pharmacists, they may possess National Provider Identifier numbers or state license numbers.
And now, after the Corporate Transparency Act takes effect, add lawyers to the list of professionals who may be asked for financial information about the firm and clients. Here are key points to remember:
- Law enforcement will never call and ask for your SSN or any other personal information. It will not demand payment, nor will it call you to threaten arrest or claim you are under investigation if you don’t pay.
- Caller ID may display a legitimate law enforcement phone number, but this does not confirm the authenticity of the call. Modern technology enables scammers to manipulate caller ID information, so it’s crucial not to rely solely on this.
- Never disclose your SSN or confirm any portion of it to unknown callers. Similarly, refrain from providing bank account or credit card numbers to anyone contacting you unsolicited.
- Any request to wire money, purchase gift cards, or send cash or cryptocurrency should be treated as a scam, regardless of the identity the caller claims to have.
If you receive a suspicious call, promptly end the conversation and report the incident to ReportFraud.ftc.gov.