# United States v. Akula: Affirming Conviction for Medicare Fraud

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/swear-on-the-stand-7111404/united-states-v-akula-affirming-conviction-for-medicare-fraud
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/swear-on-the-stand-7111404/united-states-v-akula-affirming-conviction-for-medicare-fraud.md
Podcast: [Swear on the Stand](https://stenobird.com/podcast/swear-on-the-stand-7111404)
Published: 2026-06-17T12:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/danielswear/episodes/United-States-v--Akula-Affirming-Conviction-for-Medicare-Fraud-e3khd5s
Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/fddb5314/podcast/play/121205372/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-5-9%2F121cd12e-ddd0-723b-a1a7-1874159bc11d.m4a
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/swear-on-the-stand-7111404/episodes/united-states-v-akula-affirming-conviction-for-medicare-fraud
Duration seconds: 1213

## Resource

This episode consists of a legal opinion from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit regarding the criminal conviction of Dr. Shiva Akula . The court affirmed his conviction on twenty-three counts of healthcare fraud related to a massive scheme involving his company, Canon Healthcare , which bilked Medicare for millions of dollars. Dr. Akula’s appeal focused on the exclusion of his expert witness , the alleged insufficiency of evidence , and the substantive reasonableness of his twenty-year prison sentence. The appellate judges determined that the district court acted within its discretion, noting that the overwhelming evidence proved Akula’s leadership in the fraudulent billing practices. Furthermore, the court upheld an upward variance in his sentencing due to his blatant lack of remorse and repeated violations of court orders. Overall, the document serves as a final judicial validation of the legal proceedings and penalties brought against Akula for his extensive medical billing crimes .

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/swear-on-the-stand-7111404/episodes/united-states-v-akula-affirming-conviction-for-medicare-fraud/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/swear-on-the-stand-7111404/united-states-v-akula-affirming-conviction-for-medicare-fraud.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.