Judge tosses $400M Atlanta hospital kickbacks case after 8 years

“The government must live with the strategic decisions it made when prosecuting this case for the past eight years,” Totenberg said, adding the prosecution strategy was “highly irregular.”

“When viewed in full context, this case has a history that spans a quarter century,” Totenberg said.

Brian McEvoy, an attorney for Moore, said he’s pleased with the decision. Moore, now in his late 60s, always maintained his innocence, McEvoy said.

Emily Strongwater, an attorney for Cota, said the ruling brings long overdue accountability for prosecutors’ “overreach and delay.” She said she was confident Cota and the other defendants, who deny any wrongdoing, would have been acquitted at trial.

“It sends a clear message to the Department of Justice: The power to bring criminal charges must be exercised with responsibility, fairness and urgency,” Strongwater said Thursday. “We are relieved for our client, the other defendants and the families who supported them through this ordeal. They can finally move forward, free from charges that should never have been filed.”

The defendants argued throughout the case that the government lacked crucial evidence, and the judge appeared to agree in her order, noting the government began investigating Tenet and the alleged scheme in May 2012.

“There are no allegations that any individuals obtained a direct financial benefit from this alleged scheme,” Totenberg wrote. “There are no allegations that Tenet received government payments for services that were not rendered. And there are no allegations that anyone overcharged government payors based on the services provided.”

A representative for the DOJ, which prosecuted the case, did not immediately respond to questions about the ruling.

Lawyers for Holland declined to comment.

Holland, 68, was the chief executive of North Fulton Hospital and then senior vice president of operations for Tenet’s Southern states region, case records show. Moore was the CEO of Atlanta Medical Center from 2001 to 2014, and Cota was the president and CEO of Clinica de la Mama, a company that ran medical clinics for predominantly undocumented Hispanic women.

Prosecutors alleged Holland, Moore and Cota orchestrated a multimillion-dollar kickback scheme to have patients of Clinica de la Mama referred to the Tenet hospitals led by Holland and Moore in Georgia and South Carolina.

The plot allegedly resulted in the fraudulent billing of federal health care programs for at least $400 million and the fraudulent receipt of at least $127 million in claims. Prosecutors said Tenet, through Holland and Moore, paid more than $12 million in bribes to Clinica de la Mama to ensure patients gave birth at Tenet hospitals.

Holland, Moore and Cota claimed the Tenet payments to Clinica de la Mama were for legitimate services, including the management of a physician residency clinic, translators, the handling of Medicaid eligibility paperwork, community outreach and marketing. They said they had relied in good faith on the advice of attorneys who vetted the contracts at issue.

Strongwater said Clinica de la Mama provided critical prenatal care to thousands of women in underserved communities.

“Despite the government’s sweeping claims of a $400 million fraud, the case never alleged that patients were harmed or that services weren’t provided,” she said. “There was no financial loss, no defrauded patients and no evidence of wrongdoing by the clinic’s leadership.”

Cota’s ex-wife, Tracey Cota, was also involved in running Clinica de la Mama and was prosecuted in 2014 alongside Tenet executive Gary Lang. Both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to pay and receive renumeration in exchange for Medicaid patient referrals in violation of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute.

Totenberg said prosecutors’ attempt to use at trial statements from dozens of alleged coconspirators, including Tracey Cota, caused a major delay in the case against Holland, Moore and Edmundo Cota.

In September 2024, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted prosecutors the right to use statements from some of the alleged coconspirators.

Totenberg said a key witness in the case, Tracey Cota’s former lawyer, died in 2024. He had reviewed and provided legal advice about the Clinica contracts at issue, the judge said.

Several other witnesses, who would have testified about Holland’s character, have also died, Totenberg said. She said an expert witness has retired and can no longer testify, some evidence has been lost and “memories have inevitably faded.”

There was “not an iota of evidence” that Holland, Moore and Edmundo Cota presented a current or future threat to the nation’s health care system or the public, Totenberg said.

“After over 10 years of investigations and approximately eight years of defendants living under criminal indictment, this case must end,” she said.

Tenet, based in Texas, agreed to pay the federal government more than $900 million in 2006 to settle allegations of fraudulent billing and Anti-Kickback Statute violations. In 2016, Tenet and two subsidiaries — Atlanta Medical Center Inc. and North Fulton Medical Center Inc. — agreed to pay $513 million to resolve criminal charges and a civil case that accused the hospitals of paying kickbacks to get patient referrals.