Receiver appointed to ensure Awand pays restitution

U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson on Tuesday appointed a receiver to oversee the assets of Howard Awand, a former medical consultant.

Federal prosecutors sought the appointment to ensure that Awand pays some $3.2 million in restitution, which includes $2.5 million to the Internal Revenue Service.

Awand was sentenced in June to four months in prison after a conviction stemming from irregularities prosecutors uncovered in a medical malpractice case. He is serving the sentence concurrently with a four-year term from a separate conviction for failing to pay $2.5 million in income taxes.

In court papers, prosecutors said Awand and his wife, Linda, who also is serving federal prison time on a tax conviction, have roughly $3.2 million in assets, but nearly $5 million in liabilities.

The government fears one of the couple's properties, a $1 million Vermont bed and breakfast, may be sold by local authorities to cover unpaid property taxes.

Awand's Los Angeles defense lawyer, Harland Braun, argued in court papers last week that the government's push for a receiver was the result of a "self-inflicted wound." Had the government allowed Linda Awand to remain free on appeal, she would have been available to continue to run the Vermont property and preserve its value, Braun wrote.

Braun also contended that the Awands never should have been in this position because Dawson once told lawyers during the couple's tax trial that "no one was going to jail" on the misdemeanor charges.

Braun, however, did not show up in court Tuesday to oppose the naming of a receiver, and Dawson from the bench denied ever making such a remark.

Awand, who remains in federal custody in Las Vegas, ignored another judge's order last week and refused to testify before a federal grand jury investigating fraud within the legal and medical professions.

Prosecutors consider Awand the central figure in a network of lawyers and physicians that might have defrauded clients of millions of dollars. He now faces possible contempt charges for failing to cooperate in the investigation.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135 or read more courts coverage at lvlegalnews.com.