IVY A. WANG

LOS ANGELES - Ivy A. Wang spent most of September last year through June this year in trial or preparing for trial. Over those months, she and her colleagues defended clients in two very high-profile trials, winning a not-guilty verdict for one and a hung jury and dismissal for the other.

The first trial was the federal prosecution of the 1-800-GET-THIN diet surgery network and its owner for billing fraud. The allegation was that the defendants would fraudulently obtain insurance coverage for some patients' Lap-Band procedures by claiming the patients suffered from sleep apnea, a co-morbidity that allowed coverage for insureds whose BMI was otherwise not high enough. U.S. v. Omidi, 2:17- cr-00661 (C.D. Cal., filed Oct. 18, 2017).

Wang represented pulmonologist Dr. Mirali Zarrabi who apparently approved sleep study reports of many of those patients. The defense presented evidence during the trial that reports were being falsified after Zarrabai reviewed them.

The trial began Sept. 21. "The government took a very, very long time to put on their case," she said, while the defense took only a few days. The jury returned its verdict on Dec. 16, convicting the company and its owner but acquitting Zarrabi.

"I think he was absolutely vindicated by the jury," Wang said of her client.

She and partner Thomas O'Brien believe that, at three months, it was the longest criminal trial held in the Central District of California during the pandemic.

The next trial, in the Southern District, lasted four months.

In that case, she and O'Brien represented Rear Adm. Bruce Loveless, the one defendant out of 34 not convicted of any crime in the Navy's "Fat Leonard" bribery and corruption case. Twenty-nine defendants, including primary culprit Leonard Glenn Francis, pleaded guilty. U.S. v. Newland, 3:17-cr-00623 (S.D. Cal., filed March 10, 2017).

The trial of Loveless and four others began on Feb. 28. Those other four were charged with violating an official duty and bribery, but Wang's client was only charged with violating a duty. Ultimately, she said, prosecutors "weren't able to articulate what duty he violated."

Jurors returned guilty verdicts against the four on June 29, but they hung as to Loveless. "I like to think that many on the jury recognized that he was innocent and charges never should have been brought," Wang said. Prosecutors dismissed Loveless from the case in late September.

When Wang was an assistant U.S. attorney herself, she believed she was ensuring that justice was being done. She still feels that way now as a defense attorney, she said.

"I'm also helping ensure that justice is being done so that innocent people are not convicted, that ... the government's not overreaching and that people's constitutional rights are not being violated."