DOJ Deputy Chief Gejaa Gobena Joins Hogan Lovells White Collar Practice
Hogan Lovells announced that Gejaa T. Gobena will join the firm’s Investigations, White Collar and Fraud (IWCF) practice as a partner in its Washington, D.C. office.
Prior to joining Hogan Lovells, Gobena served as Deputy Chief of the Fraud Section in the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice (USDOJ). As Deputy Chief, Gobena led the Criminal Division’s fifty-attorney health care fraud unit, supervising prosecutions brought by Medicare Fraud Strike Force teams across the country and spearheading the Unit’s recent shift to investigating and prosecuting broader corporate health care fraud schemes. In that position, he oversaw the prosecution of over a thousand individuals for health care fraud, including last week’s historic national health care fraud takedown which involved charging more than 300 individuals accused of committing fraud costing the government US$900 million.
In a release, the firm said:
Gobena will supplement Hogan Lovell’s substantial national IWCF practice by counseling clients as they navigate internal and government investigations, particularly health care fraud investigations. He will further assist Hogan Lovells’ clients looking to mitigate risk following the new USDOJ directive to pursue executives of target corporations more aggressively.
“Government agencies are evolving their enforcement strategies through innovations in technology, data and new legal theories,” said Crispin Rapinet, global head of the firm’s ICWF practice. “The range of Gejaa’s DOJ experience handling both False Claims Act cases as a younger lawyer and then in fraud prosecutions for the Criminal Division gives him tremendous skill as well as insight into the personalities and priorities driving DOJ decision-making, all of which will be of great value to our clients.”
During his tenure as DOJ Deputy Chief, Gobena supervised teams that prosecuted large corporate entities in cities throughout the country. He also worked and advised on non-health care fraud prosecutions and policy matters, including matters involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Earlier, Gobena was part of the HEAT (Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team) initiative in Detroit, where he worked with teams of investigators from Office of Inspector General-Health & Human Services, Federal Bureau of Investigation and numerous other law enforcement agencies to prosecute health care fraud cases to verdict before earning his promotion to supervisor.
And for several years before that, Gobena handled civil False Claims Act and qui tam matters for DOJ’s Civil Division.
“Our firm continues to identify and hire talented lawyers with government agency credentials and experience to provide our clients with a complete understanding of how enforcement agencies are pursuing investigations,” said Dennis Tracey, head of Litigation for the Americas. “Gejaa is a confident, personable and engaging litigator with a demonstrated thoughtful and thorough approach to handling legal challenges.”
In 2015, Gobena received the Award for Excellence from the Health and Human Services Department of the Office of the Inspector General. He also received the Assistant Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in 2013, and the Attorney General’s Award for Fraud Prevention in 2011.
He earned his J.D. from Columbia University School of Law and his B.A. from The University of Virginia.
