Judge John Koeltl
A superseding indictment alleged, in Counts One and Two, defendants' conspiracy to commit sophisticated frauds involving millions of dollars of fraudulent charges on credit and debit card accounts. Count Three alleged they committed aggravated identity theft as part of those fraudulent conspiracies. Count Four alleged conspiracy to fraudulently obtain Medicaid benefits by failing to disclose the proceeds from the frauds charged in Counts One through Three. District court denied Count Four's severance as unrelated and improperly joined. It found Count Four directly connected to the frauds charged in Counts One through Three, which were connected with or constituted parts of a common scheme or plan. Citing United States v. Shellef, United States v. Turoff and United States v. King, the court found the Count Four's Medicaid fraud charge analogous to income tax evasion stemming directly from defendants' failure to report their frauds' proceeds. Thus Count Four was properly joined. Also, the evidence of the profit that defendants derived from their fraudulent schemes was the same evidence the government will use to prove that defendants submitted false Medicaid applications. Thus joinder was proper under United States v. Amato.
