Archive

June 17, 2014

The Justice Department, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and virtually every state attorney general in the country, reached a $968M settlement with SunTrust Mortgage Inc., the mortgage lending arm of SunTrust Bank, to resolve charges of mortgage origination, servicing, and foreclosure abuses.Whistleblower Insider

June 2, 2014

A federal jury convicted Michael Baker and Michael Gluk, the former CEO and former CFO of Texas-based medical device manufacturers ArthroCare Corp., for orchestrating a fraud scheme that resulted in shareholder losses of over $400M. Evidence at trial demonstrated that Baker and Gluk masterminded a scheme to artificially inflate sales and revenue through a series of end-of-quarter transactions involving several of ArthroCare’s distributors beginning in 2005 and continuing until 2009. Baker, Gluk and other ArthroCare employees determined the type and amount of product to be shipped to distributors based on ArthroCare’s need to meet Wall Street analyst forecasts, rather than distributors’ actual orders. ArthroCare then reported these shipments as sales enabling the company to meet or exceed internal and external earnings forecasts. DOJ

May 15, 2014

Marubeni Corporation, a Japanese trading company involved in products and services in a broad range of sectors around the world, including power generation, was sentenced today for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by paying bribes to high-ranking government officials in Indonesia to secure a lucrative power project. The company signed a plea agreement admitting its criminal conduct and agreeing to pay an $88M fine. DOJ

April 9, 2014

Hewlett-Packard Russia agreed to plead guilty to felony violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for bribing Russian government officials to secure a large technology contract with the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation. In addition, the US entered into criminal resolutions with HP subsidiaries in Poland and Mexico relating to FCPA violations for contracts with Poland’s national police agency and Mexico’s state-owned petroleum company. In total, the three HP entities will pay more than $108M in criminal and regulatory penalties. DOJ

March 19, 2014

Marubeni Corp., a Japanese trading company involved in power generation, pled guilty to violating the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and agreed to pay a criminal fine of $88M for its participation in a scheme to bribe high-ranking government officials in Indonesia to secure a lucrative power project. DOJ

February 4, 2014

JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay $614M for violating the False Claims Act by knowingly originating and underwriting non-compliant mortgage loans submitted for insurance coverage and guarantees by the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Federal Housing Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The allegations were first raised in a qui tam lawsuit filed under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act. DOJ

January 20, 2016

The CFTC announced that it filed a civil enforcement action charging Kevin J. Davis of Ponca City, Oklahoma with acting as an unregistered commodity pool operator, failing to operate his commodity pool as a separate legal entity, accepting funds from pool participants in his own name, and commingling pool participants’ funds with his own.  CFTC

January 13, 2016

Otkritie Capital International, Ltd., a London-based financial services company, agreed to pay a $140,000 penalty to settle charges that it violated CFTC Regulation 30.4 by permitting two of its U.S. customers to trade futures and options in foreign markets while not registered as a futures commission merchant.  CFTC

January 13, 2016

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois entered a default judgement order against Nikolai S. Battoo, BC Capital Group S.A., BC Capital Group International Limited, and BC Capital Group Holdings S.A. on charges that they operated a global commodities futures and option fraud scheme, requiring the defendants to pay $294,246,741 in restitution, a $147 million civil penalty, and to disgorge $49 million received as ill-gotten gains.  CFTC

January 7, 2016

The CFTC filed a complaint against Ghassan Tawachi (a/k/a Marco Tawachi) and his firm, Intelligent Trades, LLC, alleging the defendants fraudulently marketed commodity futures trading software, under which Tawachi indirectly controlled the trading of his customers’ commodity futures accounts and collected substantial fees for the use of his trading software. In all, the defendants allegedly defrauded clients of over $479,755.  CFTC