Drinker Biddle has been hit with a complaint accusing one of its partners of improperly briefing a client on details of a Miami health care fraud investigation that he learned about while serving as a federal prosecutor.

The lawsuit claims a joint venture to establish a drug rehab center fell apart after attorney Antonio Pozos linked one of the parties in the deal to a massive Medicaid fraud case.

Hackensack University Medical Center and Carrier Foundation signed a deal with Jonathan Lasko, a manager of drug detox centers, in June 2017 to establish a rehab facility in Mahwah, New Jersey, the complaint said. But HUMC and Carrier, a behavioral health care provider in Belle Mead, New Jersey, pulled out in February after Carrier's counsel at Drinker Biddle advised them that Lasko was a “person of interest” in the Medicaid fraud investigation. Lasko is suing and says the information against him is “false, inaccurate and/or misleading” and was not a sufficient basis to abandon the joint venture.

Lasko said the source of the information was Pozos, who joined Drinker Biddle's Philadelphia office in January after three years in the Justice Department's criminal fraud section. Lasko alleged libel, false-light defamation and tortious interference with prospective business relations against Pozos and Drinker Biddle. The suit also brings a claim for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing against HUMC and Carrier. The suit seeks $17 million in damages.

Lasko and his company, JNL Management, asserted Pozos should have kept information about the Medicaid probe to himself.

The suit said officials of HUMC told a lawyer for Lasko on Feb. 16 that they would not proceed with the joint venture because a Drinker Biddle lawyer told them Lasko was tied to the case against Philip Esformes. In July 2016, Esformes, who owns over 30 skilled nursing and assisted living centers in South Florida, was indicted in a $1 billion Medicare fraud scheme.

When Assistant Attorney General Caldwell announced the indictment, he said it was “the largest single criminal health care fraud case ever brought against individuals” by federal prosecutors.

Enformes is set for trial Oct. 1 before U.S. District Judge Robert N. Scola Jr.

Drinker Biddle told the HUMC officials the Justice Department “is not done with” Lasko, and Enformes has a financial interest in Lasko's JNL company, the suit claims. In addition, the HUMC officials told Lasko's lawyer that Drinker Biddle told them Lasko has a business relationship with a man known as “Mr. Delgado,” who is involved in the Esformes case, and Lasko is under investigation for possibly referring patients to Esformes' facilities.

Brothers Gabriel and Guillermo Delgado have reached Medicare fraud plea deals with the government and have cooperated with investigators against Enformes.

“Even, assuming arguendo, that the statements were true, they should not have been disclosed by Pozos as, at a minimum, Pozos committed a violation of his duty of confidentiality. There may be additional improprieties committed by Pozos, including, without limitation, violations of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, as well as state bar rules and federal regulations, but that is not for this matter,” Lasko's suit stated. There is no publicly available information about the allegations, Lasko said in the suit.

Carrier and HUMC face a count for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.

JNL attorney Holly Schepisi said she was told the information about Lasko came from Drinker Biddle through a “recently hired partner who was formerly with the DOJ,” the complaint said.

If HUMC and Carrier went ahead with the drug rehab center, Lasko said his company would have received revenue of $29 million over the next 20 years, with profits of $16.4 million.

Pozos and Drinker Biddle would not comment on the case. Lasko's lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtstein of Cohen Tauber Spievack & Wagner in New York, also declined to comment.

Mary Jo Layton, a spokeswoman for HUMC parent Hackensack Meridian Health, declined to comment. Shannon Hurley, a spokeswoman for Carrier, also declined to comment.