Ken is a seasoned litigator, tireless advocate and trusted advisor to his clients. His practice focuses on government investigations and enforcement matters, qui tam defense and False Claims Act litigation, white collar criminal defense, healthcare regulatory and compliance counseling, and complex commercial litigation.
Until 2018, Ken served as Chief of Healthcare Fraud for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, Civil Division. In his ten years as an Assistant United States Attorney, Ken litigated and resolved some of the Eastern District’s most significant fraud matters, successfully tried several cases and argued numerous cases before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Ken supervised more than twenty AUSAs handling healthcare fraud matters and oversaw a diverse practice group that included cases against pharmaceutical companies, laboratories, hospital systems, home health agencies, physician practice groups, medical device companies, billing entities and individual physicians. In investigating and prosecuting these actions, Ken worked closely with federal agents from the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Food & Drug Administration. Ken also worked in close partnership with attorneys from the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit within the New York State Attorney General’s Office.
During his time as an AUSA, Ken also handled some of the nation’s largest mortgage fraud cases. In 2012, after years of intensive investigation, he successfully resolved a mortgage fraud case against Countrywide Financial for $1 billion, which was at the time the single largest mortgage fraud recovery under the False Claims Act. In 2015, Mr. Abell’s investigation against Bank of America was incorporated into the $16.65 billion National Mortgage Settlement, which remains the United States’ largest recovery ever against a single entity.
Immediately prior to founding Abell Eskew Landau (AEL), Ken was a partner and the Chair of the Healthcare Fraud and White-Collar Criminal Defense Practice Group at one of the largest law firms on Long Island. In that capacity, Ken helped scores of clients navigate high-stakes government investigations and successfully resolved several civil and criminal matters.
Ken is a frequent speaker on healthcare issues, having spoken at conferences and symposiums more than three dozen times on issues such as Medicare and Medicaid fraud, drug diversion, qui tam actions under the False Claims Act, matters under the Anti-Kickback Statute and government enforcement priorities.
Ken began his legal career as a commercial litigator at a prominent litigation boutique in Chicago. Thereafter, he was a law clerk to the Honorable Theodore H. Katz in the Southern District of New York, before joining the United States Attorney’s Office in 2008.