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Jonathan Porter

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Jonathan uses his years of experience as a federal prosecutor to guide clients through the challenges associated with government investigations and regulatory compliance.

Jonathan brings to clients a thorough working knowledge of how the U.S. government targets and pursues criminal and civil investigations, particularly those involving the healthcare industry. He is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, and in that capacity, he brought charges against numerous individuals and companies under federal law, including criminal charges of health care fraud, wire fraud, and violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute, and civil complaints alleging violations of the False Claims Act.

At the Department of Justice, Jonathan was a key member of multiple international health care fraud takedowns, in which Jonathan charged dozens of doctors, nurses, and other licensed medical professionals, along with marketers and health care executives for alleged participation in healthcare fraud schemes involving billions of dollars in false billings. In total, these charges resulted in more than 30 guilty pleas plus a conviction in the nation’s first trial of a medical professional charged as part of Operation Brace Yourself, which Jonathan first-chaired. Jonathan also was active in dozens of civil investigations brought under the False Claims Act. Jonathan resolved tens of millions of dollars in civil settlements and judgments for False Claims Act violations.

Jonathan also advises clients on a range of regulatory issues, along with the development and implementation of corporate compliance programs. He uses his unique perspective as a former AUSA, providing a prosecutor’s eye for detail in helping clients understand how DOJ and other agencies view compliance, particularly in light of the changing standards for compliance as outlined in the DOJ’s Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs (ECCP) and implemented in the Department’s white-collar crime enforcement initiative.

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On June 14, 2023, a federal jury found that a Georgia physician knowingly violated the False Claims Act following a two-week trial on allegations that he made false claims to the Medicare Program. Now, despite just $1.1 million in improper payments stemming from false claims, a federal court is likely to impose a judgment that exceeds $27 million after adding statutory per-claim penalties and trebling the amount determined by the jury to be false.

Cosmetic surgeries are on the rise. One study of cosmetic surgery data found that body procedures like tummy tucks, buttock augmentation, and liposuction increased by 63 percent from 2020 to 2021.[1] Facelifts were up 54 percent.[2] And breast procedures were up 48 percent.[3] According to that study, Americans spent over $14.6 billion on aesthetic procedures in 2021 with surgical revenues increasing by 63 percent.[4]

Last month, The Economist published a call to action titled, “There is a worrying amount of fraud in medical research: And a worrying unwillingness to do anything about it.”[1] The article is the latest in a sequence of alarms that some clinical researchers might not be as squeaky clean as we would hope them to be. Senior DOJ officials have in turn emphasized in public remarks that investigating clinical research shortcomings is now a Justice Department priority, with the whistleblower bar following suit.

On February 27, 2023, a jury in Minnesota federal court rendered a verdict in favor of the United States and against a surgical product distributor following a False Claims Act jury trial that lasted six weeks.[1] The jury identified $43 million in Medicare payments flowing from 64,575 kickback-procured claims.

In the world of qui tams, it is usually the whistleblower pushing cases to trial. But on February 23, 2023, a federal judge in West Virginia set down for trial a hospital’s case against a whistleblower. Now, in a trial set for late March 2023, a jury is set to determine whether a whistleblower and the general counsel for a competing health system engaged in malicious prosecution and tortious interference by filing a qui tam against a West Virginia hospital.