Photo credit: Law Times
An Ontario lawyer, convicted of defrauding the US government of over US$3 million and sent to prison for almost four years, has lost his licence to practice in Ontario.
NationalPost reports that the lawyer, Ronald Ori Davidovic, between 2014 and 2019, participated “in a scheme in which a network of durable medical equipment companies submitted millions of dollars’ worth of false bills to Medicate, a US federal insurance program, for equipment patients didn’t need” according to a decision from a Law Society of Ontario tribunal.
The companies “relied on marketing firms to obtain signed doctors’ orders and recruit Medicare patients using overseas call centres. Kickbacks were given to individuals at those firms, one of which was owned by Mr Davidovic. He and his conspirators attempted to conceal the illegal kickbacks through sham contracts and invoices that made it appear as though the money was for legitimate marketing services,” says the decision revoking his licence.
Davidovic reached a deal with the US government in July 2022, pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
“As part of the deal, he admitted he received $160,609 from health care fraud and wire fraud conspiracy. He agreed to forfeit that amount to the US government and did so prior to sentencing,” says the tribunal’s decision, dated December 6.
In January 2023, a judge sentenced him to “70 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. The judge also ordered him to make restitution of $3,977.709 jointly and severally with his conspirators. Mr Davidovic did not appeal.”
Before the case cited above, Davido in 2017, the tribunal of the Law Society of Upper Canada, which was changed to the Law Society of Canada, ruled he was of “good character,” allowing his licensing application to proceed after serving time in Florida for downloading child pornography on his computer.
“He pleaded guilty in November 2004 to one count of receiving material containing the visual depiction of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct,” said the tribunal’s decision from March 17, 2017. “He spent over two years in federal prison and was registered as a sex offender in Florida.”
Instead of reapplying to the Florida bar after five years, Davidovic, who was born in Montreal but moved to Miami as a child when his father got work there, applied to practice law in Ontario.
“It has been over 13 years since the commission of the offences, and nine years since the applicant completed his sentence,” the tribunal’s 2017 decision that found Davidovic was “of good character” and granted his application for licensing as a lawyer in Ontario.
