A conviction for health care fraud, one might reasonably assume, requires proof of an actual fraud, and a corresponding intent to defraud. There is no shortage of available definitions of these two concepts. Non-legal dictionaries variously define “fraud” as “deceit” or “trickery,” or, more specifically, “intentional perversion of truth in order to induce another to part with something of value or to surrender a legal right.”1 Black’s Law Dictionary defines fraud as the “knowing misrepresentation of the truth or concealment of a material fact to induce another to act to his or her detriment.”2 The Second Circuit notes that a scheme to defraud “has been described as a plan to deprive a person ‘of something of value by trick, deceit, chicane or overreaching.’”3
Similarly, intent to defraud is frequently defined as requiring proof “that the defendant had a ‘conscious knowing intent to defraud … [and] that the defendant contemplated or intended some harm to the property rights of the victim.’”4 Alternatively, a defendant acts with intent to defraud when he acts “with the specific intent to deceive and to cause harm.”5
