Archive

August 28, 2015

EDF Resource Capital Inc. and its CEO, Frank Dinsmore, agreed to resolve allegations they violated the False Claims Act and otherwise failed to remit payments owed to the Small Business Administration under the 504 loan program.  Under the settlement agreement, EDF and Dinsmore agreed to make payments and turn over certain assets to the US for a total settlement of approximately $6 million.  DOJ

August 24, 2015

Ayman Shahid, former president of Discovery Sales Inc., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud.  DSI was the sales arm of affiliated residential construction companies, including Discovery Home Builders and Albert D. Seeno Construction Co.  Shahid admitted he conspired with others to fraudulently cause bank underwriters to approve mortgage loans for unqualified buyers during the height of the financial crisis.  DOJ

August 13, 2015

Florida investment advisor Gignesh Movalia pleaded guilty to perpetrating a $9 million investment fraud scheme involving Facebook stock.  Specifically, Movalia, who was the founder and manager of OM Global Investment Fund LLC, solicited investments by falsely touting access to pre-IPO shares of Facebook which he then used for and lost in other investments that he concealed from investors.  DOJ

July 17, 2015

New Jersey-based construction management company Louis Berger International Inc. admitted to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and agreed to pay a $17.1 million criminal penalty to resolve charges it bribed foreign officials in India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Kuwait to secure government construction management contracts.  Specifically, from 1998 through 2010, the company and its employees orchestrated $3.9 million in bribe payments concealed as “commitment fees,” “counterpart per diems,” and other payments to third-party vendors.  DOJ

July 16, 2015

Neil Godfrey, owner and operator of payment processing company Check Site Inc., pleaded guilty to fraud in connection with the unauthorized withdrawal of millions of dollars from consumers’ bank accounts.  Specifically, Godfrey admitted he used Check Site Inc. to assist at least two merchants that operated websites purportedly offering payday loans but that instead simply stole money from the consumers’ bank accounts.  DOJ

July 14, 2015

Hector Hernandez, a Miami-area real estate developer and owner of the mortgage company Great Country Mortgage Bankers, pleaded guilty to a mortgage fraud scheme involving federally insured mortgages that caused losses of $64 million to the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).  Specifically, while most of Great Country’s potential borrowers did not qualify for the FHA-insured loans, Hector Hernandez and his business partner, Aleida Fontao, directed Great Country employees to falsify important documents in the potential borrowers’ loan applications to make them appear qualified.  DOJ

June 26, 2015

Jim Wang, the former Executive Vice President and President of Global Business Operations for Qualcomm Inc. was sentenced today to 18 months in prison and fined $500,000 for his role in a three-year insider trading scheme.  DOJ

June 16, 2015

Florida defense and government contracting company IAP Worldwide Services Inc. agreed to pay a $7.1 million penalty to resolve charges it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by conspiring to bribe Kuwaiti officials in order to secure a government contract there.  DOJ

June 15, 2015

Joseph Sigelman, the former co-chief executive officer of BVI oil and gas company PetroTiger Ltd., pleaded guilty to conspiring to pay bribes to a foreign government official in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).  At his plea hearing, Sigelman admitted to conspiring with co-CEO Knut Hammarskjold, PetroTiger’s former general counsel Gregory Weisman, and others to make illegal payments of $333,500 to David Duran, an employee of the Colombian national oil company, Ecopetrol.  Sigelman admitted to making the payments in exchange for Duran’s assistance in securing a $45 million oil services contract for PetroTiger. DOJ

June 1, 2015

Memphis-based First Tennessee Bank agreed to pay $212.5 million to resolve allegations it — through its subsidiary First Horizon Home Loans Corporation — violated the False Claims Act by originating and underwriting mortgage loans insured by the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Federal Housing Administration (FHA) that did not meet applicable requirements.  Whistleblower Insider