Archive

March 23, 2017

American University of Beirut agreed to pay $700,000 to resolve allegations it violated the False Claims Act by providing material support to three entities that had been included on the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (“OFAC”) Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (the “SDN List”).  According to the government, the university provided material support to three SDN List entities by (1) providing specialized training on a variety of media topics, and (2) including one of the entities in a database on its public website to connect Non-Governmental Organizations with students and others interested in assisting them. DOJ (SDNY)

January 17, 2017

The SEC announced fraud charges against Thomas M. Henderson, an Oakland, California-based businessman accused of misusing money he raised from investors through the EB-5 immigrant investor program.  The SEC alleges that Henderson and his company San Francisco Regional Center LLC falsely claimed to investors that their $500,000 investments would help create at least 10 jobs within several distinct EB-5 related businesses Henderson created, including a nursing facility, call centers, and a dairy operation.  But according to the SEC’s complaint, Henderson jeopardized investors’ residency prospects and combined the $100 million he raised from investors into a general fund from which he allegedly misused at least $9.6 million to purchase his home and personal items and improperly fund several personal business projects.  Henderson also allegedly improperly used $7.6 million of investor money to pay overseas marketing agents, and shuffled millions of dollars along the EB-5 business to obscure his fraudulent scheme.  SEC

February 1, 2017

Jackson State University agreed to pay $1.17 million to settle charges it violated the False Claims act by mismanaging National Science Foundation grants.  Specifically, a 2012 NSF audit identified salary and non-salary expenditures by Jackson State that were unallowable, not allocable, and/or had insufficient, inadequate and/or no supporting documentation.  A subsequent NSF investigation determined that, in preparation for the audit, and subsequently in response to the preliminary audit findings, Jackson State fabricated time and effort reports and provided them to the auditors, and in some instances presented inadequate and/or no supporting documentation.  DOJ (SDMS)

January 31, 2017

– New York announced a settlement with for-profit education company DeVry Education Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries DeVry University, Inc. and DeVry/New York, Inc. (collectively, “DeVry”). The settlement resolves an investigation that revealed that DeVry lured students with ads that exaggerated graduates’ success in finding employment at graduation and contained inadequately substantiated claims about graduates’ salary success. Many of DeVry’s advertisements centered on a claim that 90% of DeVry graduates who are actively seeking employment obtain employment in their field of study within six months of graduation. The Attorney General’s investigation revealed that the 90% claim was misleading because a substantial number of the graduates included in the 90% figure were graduates who were already employed prior to graduating from DeVry. In fact, many of the graduates included in the 90% were employed before they even enrolled at DeVry. Pursuant to the agreement, DeVry will pay $2.25 million in consumer restitution and $500,000 in penalties, fees and costs. NY

January 26, 2017

New Jersey filed two separate actions against home improvement companies and their owners alleging they used deceptive business practices in order to obtain $1.4 million in federal relief funds from 51 homeowners who paid them to repair and elevate their storm-damaged properties. Named in the first Complaint are father and son contractors Paul Zaidinski, Sr., and Paul Zaidinski, Jr., and their Point Pleasant-based company, Shore HL, Inc., which does business as “Shore House Lifters.” Named in the second Complaint are contractor George Rex and his Pleasantville-based companies, Atlantic Coast Housing Lifting, LLC and George Rex Construction, LLC. The defendants engaged in “unconscionable consumer practices” that include taking money from consumers to renovate, rebuild, and/or elevate Sandy-damaged homes and then failing to begin work, performing the work in a substandard manner, and/or abandoning unfinished projects without returning for weeks, months, or at all, according to the State’s Complaints. NJ

January 18, 2017

Illinois filed a lawsuit against Navient Corporation, its subsidiaries Navient Solutions Inc., Pioneer Credit Recovery Inc. and General Revenue Corporation and Sallie Mae Bank, over widespread abuses across all aspects of its business, including student lending, student loan servicing and student loan debt collection. Madigan’s complaint alleges that Navient’s practices harmed borrowers and put the company’s profits before the interests of millions of student borrowers across the country. For decades, Navient and Sallie Mae have been involved in the business of student lending – from the origination of loans, to the servicing of those loans for repayment, and the collection of loans that enter into default. In this time, Madigan alleged that Navient grew its student loan company into one of the country’s largest by engaging in practices that repeatedly harmed borrowers. IL

January 18, 2017

The CFPB sued the nation’s largest servicer of both federal and private student loans, Navient, for systematically and illegally failing borrowers at every stage by providing bad information, processing payments incorrectly, and failing to act when borrowers complained. Navient also used short cuts and deception to illegally cheat many struggling borrowers out of their rights to lower repayments. CFPB

January 11, 2017

Volkswagen AG agreed to plead guilty to three criminal felony counts and pay a $2.8 billion criminal penalty as a result of the company’s long-running scheme to sell approximately 590,000 diesel vehicles in the U.S. by using a defeat device to cheat on emissions tests mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board, and lying and obstructing justice to further the scheme. In separate civil resolutions of environmental, customs and financial claims, VW also agreed to pay $1.5 billion for a total payout of $4.3 billion in criminal and civil penalties. DOJ

December 28, 2016

Florida-based businessman Jason Adam Ogden has agreed to pay more than $1.2 million to settle charges that he misused investor funds intended to create U.S. jobs through the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program.  The SEC alleged that Ogden, the CEO of a pair of smoothie and frozen yogurt franchises called Juiceblendz and Yoblendz, formed AJN Investments LLC to conduct an investment offering in conjunction with the EB-5 program which provides foreign investors a path to permanent residency when their investments create at least 10 jobs for American workers.  Investors were allegedly told that their money would help build and operate Juiceblendz and Yoblendz stores in strip malls and create a sufficient amount of jobs for them to qualify for an EB-5 visa and ultimately a green card.  But, according to the SEC’s complaint, Ogden changed his business model midstream without updating the offering materials, and focused on developing kiosks in sports arenas and university campuses rather than following through the construction of full-size stores.  Not only did this result in smaller-than-promised returns for investors, it also jeopardized their EB-5 program status because kiosks don’t stimulate the same job creation as full-size stores and construction projects.  The SEC further alleged that Ogden improperly siphoned off more than $1 million in investor funds for his personal use, making undisclosed cash transfers to his bank account.  SEC

December 27, 2016

The SEC charged California-based attorney Emilio Francisco with defrauding investors seeking to participate in the EB-5 immigrant investor program.  The SEC alleges that Francisco raised $72 million from investors in China, solicited through his marketing firm PDC Capital, to invest in EB-5 projects that included opening Caffe Primo restaurants, developing assisted living facilities, and renovating a production facility for environmentally friendly agriculture and cleaning products.  According to the SEC’s complaint, Francisco and PDC Capital diverted investor funds from one project to another and outright stole at least $9.6 million that was used to finance Francisco’s own business and luxury lifestyle.  SEC