Contact

Click here for a confidential contact or call:

1-212-350-2774

Archive

Page 1 of 1

Catch of the Week: AECOM

Posted  10/30/23
Flooded Traffic Light Sign
Last week's Department of Justice (DOJ) Catch of the Week goes to Dallas-based architecture and engineering firm AECOM.  Last Tuesday (October 24), the company agreed to pay $11.8 million to settle charges it violated the False Claims Act by improperly billing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for disaster assistance funding in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster...

Catch of the Week: Archdiocese of New Orleans pays $1 million to Resolve Katrina-Related Allegations, Highlighting Importance of Enforcement in Disaster Recovery Fraud

Posted  11/19/21
New Orleans Jackson Square
We’ve covered this before: natural disasters and fraud against the government often go hand in hand. The government, through agencies and programs such the FEMA and the federally-backed flood and crop insurance programs, can distribute enormous sums of money very quickly in the wake of hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and the like. Distributing lots of money quickly after natural disasters gets immediate help to...

Catch of the Week – Sour Grapes: Fruit-Broker Squashed for Role in Defrauding Federal Crop Insurance

Posted  08/13/21
Grapes
The manager of a California fruit broker learned the hard way that it doesn’t pay to assist in defrauding the Federal Crop Insurance Program.  The manager, at the behest of a grape farmer who sold crops through the broker, altered the farmer’s records to reflect lower-than-actual sales.  The falsified records assisted the farmer to claim crop-losses falsely and receive insurance-reimbursements funded by the...

Destruction from Recent Hurricanes Could Rain Down Fraud

Posted  09/28/17
By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Hurricane Irma has ripped through Florida and is expected to have caused about $50 billion of damage, with Harvey and Maria causing billions more. Most private insurance policies limit coverage to damage from fire, wind, and a variety of other catastrophic causes. However, almost no private insurers in the United States cover any damage caused to homes by flood waters. Flood...

Justice Department Announces Department-Wide Response to Disaster Fraud

Posted  09/27/17
By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Closely following a series of destructive hurricanes from which parts of the U.S. are only beginning the long road to recovery, the Justice Department issued a memorandum to each of the nation’s U.S. Attorney’s Offices and to law enforcement agencies setting department-wide policies for responding to disaster fraud. The memo, announced yesterday, provides guidance on...

Beware of Fraud in the Aftermath of Hurricane Harvey

Posted  09/5/17
By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team As the floodwaters begin to recede in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey and the torturous clean-up effort begins, there is a new threat emerging from this latest environmental disaster -- fraud. It is a concern not only for the victims of Harvey, but also for the volunteers trying to help with the relief effort. This from a recent NPR interview with Corey Amundson, the United...