The $700 million lawsuit against the United States seeks justice pertaining to the Department of Justice's gross misconduct in investigating and prosecuting predictive healthcare innovator Brian Meshkin and his company, Proove Biosciences. Proove offered critical medical tests to evaluate genetic and non-genetic factors in chronic pain, including one that could predict with 96.7% accuracy a patient's risk for opioid addiction, a significant concern in the ongoing opioid epidemic. As CEO of Proove, Meshkin oversaw an ascendant personalized medicine company that was enabling clinicians across the country to prescribe patients with safer alternative treatments in the midst of the national opioid crisis.
Irvine, California--(Newsfile Corp. - September 16, 2024) - One of America's premier civil litigation law firms, Plante Huguenin Lebovic Kahn LLP ("PHLK"), announces its representation of predictive health social entrepreneur Brian Meshkin. Case number 2:24-cv-07768 was filed in California on September 11th, 2024. Together, they will seek justice for Mr. Meshkin and hold the DOJ accountable for violating his constitutional rights and then dismissing the matter with a proverbial shrug. Mr. Meshkin built Proove Biosciences into one of America's leading pharmacogenetics companies. Proove's cutting-edge genetic tests positioned it at the forefront of our nation's battle against the opioid crisis, which continues to ravage our country today. The lawsuit serves as a case study on how the DOJ and the media, in this instance, STAT News and Charles Piller, can reinforce each other's narratives without a factual basis, all while evading accountability.
The lawsuit alleges that the government's discredited investigation and pervasive prosecutorial misconduct, dating back to 2016, destroyed a 300-employee company, which was ranked amongst the fastest growing technology companies in America by the Inc 500 and the Deloitte Technology Fast500. Mr. Meshkin's recent innovations in the healthcare industry have earned him positive acclaim across influential business media outlets such as Forbes, underscoring the significant impact of his work.
The widely publicized indictment of Brian Meshkin, along with 11 others including leading clinicians at National Spine and Pain Centers, received extensive media coverage from sources including the Orange County Business Journal, OC Register and San Diego Union Tribune. It was marred from its inception by significant government misconduct, including the lead FBI Special Agent reviewing and sharing attorney-client privileged information with prosecutors, as well as the fabrication and misrepresentation of evidence, among other issues. Additionally, the Government provided evidentiary electronic files from Proove to his defense counsel during the criminal proceedings and the Government added a pejorative derogatory phrase into the file names of the electronic files provided to Mr. Meshkin's defense counsel. When Mr. Meshkin's defense counsel asked about the Government's effort to rename many electronic files, including privileged documents, with a file name inclusive of this derogatory phrase in a meet and confer letter, AUSA Green and his investigative team explained that the renaming of those files was a "technical glitch." These governmental abuses, among many others, spanned more than five years before being exposed in a series of court filings which culminated in the DOJ asking the court to dismiss the entire case "in the interests of justice."
Preston Brock, Associate Attorney:
"PHLK and Mr. Meshkin will ensure restitution is secured and that the Government and all parties who partook in this injustice are held to account. Said parties include Special Agent Leah Chambers and Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph 'Josh' Greene, who left the U.S. Attorney's San Diego Office shortly after dismissing Mr. Meshkin's case. Our office has retrieved all materials seized by the FBI during the 2017 search of Proove, and our own investigation is ongoing.
Notably, we were surprised to find Mr. Meshkin's personal laptops among the seized materials, neither of which were present at Proove when it was searched in 2017. Rather, the laptops were being stored at Mr. Meshkin's personal residence, which was not searched by the FBI at any point before or after the search of Proove was executed. The FBI has not offered any explanation for its possession of Mr. Meshkin's personal laptops, and our office intends to discover the means by which they were obtained.
All relevant parties have received official communications from PHLK today informing them of their responsibility to retain records for what is termed a "litigation hold." In filing suit against the Federal Government today, we begin our unrelenting process of securing justice and restitution for Mr. Meshkin."
Images of two damaged personal laptops from Mr. Meshkin mysteriously returned by the FBI following the dismissal. Neither laptop was stored at the two Proove office locations searched on June 7, 2017. On the date of the FBI's search, both laptops were located at Mr. Meshkin's personal residence, then shared by his ex-wife and former Proove General Counsel, Catherine Meshkin, Esq. It is unclear how they came to be in the FBI's possession and no explanation has been offered.
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Brian Plante, Managing Partner:
"As we allege in the Complaint, this case involves serious government misconduct in the investigation and prosecution of Mr. Meshkin. The Complaint details the misconduct, which began in 2017 when the DOJ misrepresented evidence to obtain a search warrant, improperly executed the search warrant by confiscating privileged material in violation of Mr. Meshkin's constitutional rights, falsified FBI reports to cover up the misconduct, and continued to prosecute the case even after being provided with exculpatory evidence proving that Proove's business practices complied with all applicable laws. The government's wrongful prosecution of Mr. Meshkin lasted for five years, until the DOJ was pressed by the Federal District Court Judge in the case to explain its conduct. Unable to do so and fearing they had been exposed, the government immediately dismissed the case 'in the interests of justice.' We are confident in our case and look forward to our civil justice system holding the government accountable and compensating Mr. Meshkin for everything he has lost."
Following the dismissal of Mr. Meshkin's case in December of 2022, he has stated that he intends to take legal action against those who harmed him to protect others from similar injustices, as well as continue his life-long mission of lifting the lives of others, inclusive of the launching of new predictive health and genetics companies to finish the mission he started:
"There has been extensive damage to my character, life, and business for years by a few bad actors at the Department of Justice and their network of complicit parties who have lied extensively," states Meshkin, "Sadly, these types of prosecutorial abuses in healthcare are commonplace, and the spread of lies and misinformation in the media is well-established. It is my sincere hope that this action will help spare others the pain and suffering that this situation caused to so many, and I hopefully can recoup some of what was taken from me. Personally, I am so grateful for my religious faith that has given me the strength to choose to be better, rather than bitter. After so many years of building a well-respected reputation, it's been hard to lose so much, both personally and professionally. I give all the credit and glory to our loving and caring Heavenly Father, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and my wife, Kerry, who have been by my side through all the trials and tribulations of these last several years. I learned at a young age that when you go through difficult times, one of the best things you can do is to help support others who are going through similar things, or help prevent such tragedies from happening to others. After going through this awful experience, it is my hope that I can use what I have learned in some small way to help prevent these types of injustices from happening again.
I am continuing my life's journey, which has been focused on saving and improving the lives of many and I am hopeful to see what this 'comeback story' holds."
About Plante Huegunin Lebovic Kahn LLP:
Plante Huegunin Lebovic Kahn LLP ("PHLK") is a premier civil litigation firm with a team of trial attorneys that possess the skill, experience, and perseverance to win. The firm represents individuals, small businesses, and Fortune 500 companies in litigated matters throughout the country, with offices in Irvine, Roseville, Phoenix, Denver, Las Vegas, Dallas, Seattle, and Washington D.C. For more information, please visit PHLK's website.
About Brian Meshkin:
Brian Meshkin is an award-winning social entrepreneur. He is currently the Executive Chairman of two new companies - Outcomeus and Proove Genomics - recently featured in Forbes. Over the past six years, Brian has led social impact investment group Profound Ventures, which has a portfolio of device, diagnostic, therapeutic, and digital health companies trying to alleviate human pain and suffering, where they have helped raise over $150M into those ventures. Previously, Brian was the founder and CEO of Proove Biosciences, the leading precision pain medicine company. Brian was the 2016 Emerging Technology Company CEO of the Year Award Winner of the OCTANe High Tech Awards (HTA), a two-time finalist for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year in Orange County, and a 2016 Excellence in Entrepreneurship Winner from the OC Business Journal. Previous to Proove, Brian founded nutritional genetics firm, Salugen (acquired by Sherbrooke Equity), was a Team Leader at the e.Lilly venture fund - a division of Eli Lilly & Company, former manager of digital health at Johnson & Johnson for the company's largest product and helped direct new products and marketing for Prometheus Laboratories (acquired by Nestle Health Sciences). According to ResearchGate, Brian is among the top 15% in the world as a published researcher of peer-reviewed scientific papers and several book chapters. He routinely speaks on entrepreneurship, innovation, and precision medicine at various conferences across North America.
Media Inquiries:
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Email: Everly@republicist.com
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