Successful lawyer Gage faces heavy-duty fraud case against him

To be sure, they weren’t the usual classy friends and colleagues who seek the opinion of the successful lawyer and medical expert. No, indeed.

There was the man indicted for identity theft who appeared to have almost as many aliases as felony charges. There was the man caught once again after illegally entering the United States from Mexico. (Ironically, a prosecutor called him a flight risk, but the problem is he refuses to take flight.) And there was the couple from New York jammed up on cocaine possession and distribution charges.

Gage, 69, has built a formidable and successful multistate law practice specializing in personal injury and accident cases. He is the counsel in Nevada to a major auto manufacturer on accident- and safety-related legal issues. With 23 years of legal and medical education and a world of legal experience, he has seen almost everything.

Now he faces the possibility of seeing the inside of a federal prison cell after Tuesday’s unsealing of an 18-count superseding indictment that charges him with conspiracy, mail fraud/honest services fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice and criminal forfeiture.

Gage is tied in the superseding document to trial consultant Howard Awand, who was indicted Feb. 28 and charged with fraud, money laundering and witness tampering in a case being investigated by the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation with an assist from the state attorney general’s office. The case is being prosecuted by acting U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Crane Pomerantz, Roger Wenthe and Paul Padda.

Myhre spoke with reporters after Gage’s initial appearance and arraignment on the charges, to which he pleaded, "Absolutely not guilty." It was little surprise that Myhre said the investigation is wide-ranging and ongoing. He said Awand played the middleman in an effort to inflate personal injury claims against insurance companies and used illegal means to make big scores. Gage is suspected of being one of the attorneys who participated in the scheme.

The indictment alleges Awand orchestrated a plan to direct clients to selected physicians in what was essentially described as a network of professional co-conspirators, a few of whom are now cooperating against the defendants.

Gage is accused of manipulating more than $7 million in disbursements in one case alone, $780,000 of which authorities said wound up in Awand’s pocket.

Gage, Awand and a number of as yet unnamed attorneys have several things working against them.

First, there are at least three cooperating witnesses who had first-class seats to the alleged fraud and kickback scheme. They’re not your dime-store variety rats, but physicians whose credibility, no matter how flawed under the circumstances, could be hard to shake.

And there’s the paper trail involved. With voluminous e-mail and stacks of medical and legal documents, questions will be raised that will be hard to explain away.

There’s the potentially crippling money laundering charges packaged courtesy of the IRS, whose paper trail experts have an impressive conviction record.

There’s the wild card charges of obstruction of justice against Gage and witness tampering against Awand.

And there’s up to $8 million in criminal forfeitures being sought against Gage and Awand, who are accused not only of ripping off insurance companies, but of using their clients as pawns in the fraud scheme.

"We absolutely refute the charges and the misguided notion that attorney Noel Gage did anything which could even be claimed to be illegal," his attorney Thomas Carlucci of San Francisco said in a statement. "Noel Gage has a stellar reputation as an attorney. Mr. Gage has spent his career serving his clients by zealously representing them in hard-fought cases against insurance companies and corporations."

Carlucci added that Gage is a "tireless advocate" who has "achieved some of the best trial and settlement results for his clients."

Zealous advocacy is to be admired in a legal system that finds individuals too often trampled by the wealthy, corporations, and the state. Legal tenacity is no crime.

Noel Gage, respected attorney, has his work cut out for him if he wants to spend his next birthday in classier company.

John L. Smith’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 383-0295.