Detroit Judges saying ‘no bond’ to white-collar suspects, especially the foreign ones.

When it comes to bond, judges are lumping some white-collar criminal defendants in the same category as accused killers and rapists.

They’re locking them up.

And they’re doing it more frequently, say defense lawyers and legal experts, who said they believe bond is becoming out of reach for some defendants accused of financial crimes — foreigners in particular.

They say foreign suspects implicated in massive fraud schemes involving millions of taxpayer dollars are having a tough time convincing judges they won’t flee.

As the government sees it, they can’t be trusted.

Authorities argue the defendants have access to loads of cash and have foreign ties. If they’re released before trial, the government says, they’ll likely never be seen again.

In Detroit, several foreign suspects have recently been ordered locked up pending trial: three are Medicare fraud suspects and two are charged in an insurance-fraud-by-arson case.

One defendant — a pharmacist with two children in the U.S. — has pleaded with the court four times to be released, to no avail.

When the government gets a hold of suspects like Zafar Mehmood, it doesn’t let them out of its sight.

Mehmood, records show, is a wealthy Pakistani businessman who owns 16 home health agencies and a mosque in metro Detroit, along with a rice factory, a religious school and a farm in Pakistan. He frequently travels there and sends money to family back home for a cotton-spinning business, records show.

Add up all that wealth and travel, prosecutors say, and there’s no way Mehmood — who is charged with bilking $31 million from Medicare — can be trusted to be released on bond.More at Source

Pharmacist Babubhai Patel, 49, of Canton is charged with running a $57-million prescription drug billing scheme.