Press Coverage February 18, 2026

Government Drops Case Over Referrals-For-Kickback Scheme

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Paul E. Coggins

Paul Coggins, a partner in Troutman Pepper Locke’s Regulatory Investigations, Strategy, + Enforcement Practice Group, was quoted in the February 18, 2026 Law360 article, “Government Drops Case Over Referrals-For-Kickback Scheme.”

  • Counsel for lead defendant Amir Mortazavi, Paul Coggins of Troutman Pepper Locke LLP, told Law360 on Wednesday that the federal government pushed conspiracy law “far beyond where it should be in the federal system.” The government rightly moved to dismiss the suit, Coggins said.

    “We didn’t agree with the government on much in this case, but we did agree that the interest of justice demanded that the case be dismissed,” he said.
  • …
  • Prosecutors paired the Travel Act with the state’s commercial bribery statute, Coggins said, for the first count. The indictment also included a count of money laundering.

    “I thought the original indictment had stretched conspiracy law past the breaking point,” Coggins said. “They had reached back a decade.”
  • …
  • Doctors owning stakes in pharmacies does not break the law, Coggins said, so long as they aren’t paid based on the prescriptions they write.

    Count one of the original indictment had a duplicity problem, Coggins said, meaning it may have referred to two different conspiracies. The government filed a superseding indictment, but that led to statute of limitations problems.
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