Government Enforcement Actions

April 5, 2016

Michael Pucciarelli of Staten Island, New York, and Badge Trading LLC, will pay a $280,000 civil monetary penalty for non-competitively entering into and reporting numerous non-bona fide exchanges of physicals transactions to ICE Futures U.S., Inc. and ICE Clear U.S., Inc.  CFTC

April 5, 2016

A federal court has ordered UAE residents Heet Khara and Nasim Salim to pay $2.69 million in civil penalties for spoofing in the gold and silver futures markets.  CFTC

April 5, 2016

A former resident of Portland, Oregon was sentenced to 37 months in prison for her role in a tax refund fraud scheme. Tataneisha White, 43, admitted to conspiring with multiple individuals, including Jasmine Mason, Shawntina Ware and Brandon Leath, all of Portland, to file more than 227 false income tax returns claiming more than $1 million in fraudulent refunds. The false information on the tax returns included fictitious W-2 wages and inflated withholding amounts to generate tax refunds ranging from $1,000 to $12,000. White also admitted that she and her co-conspirators shared personal identifying information and employer information with each other to file the false returns. In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones ordered White to serve three years of supervised release and pay restitution to the IRS in the amount of $626,750. DOJ

April 4, 2016

New Jersey announced that a former Morris County investment advisor was sentenced to seven years in prison for fabricating and mailing more than 100 financial account statements that inflated 14 of her clients’ accounts by a combined $818,000. In December, Janet Fooshee, also known as Janet Gurley and Janet Katz, pleaded guilty to defrauding more than two dozen retirees and others over a 10-year period beginning in 2003. In addition to fabricating account statements, she admitted stealing approximately $151,000 from four clients, receiving more than $191,539 in unlawful investment advisor fees, defrauding another client out of almost $81,000, and stealing the identities of at least eight corporations. NJ

April 4, 2016

The Department of Justice announced a federal indictment charging Diane L. Kroupa, 60, and her husband, Robert E. Fackler, 62, with conspiring with each other to evade assessment of taxes. Each defendant is charged with conspiracy, tax evasion, making and subscribing false tax returns and obstruction of an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audit. According to the indictment and documents filed in court, between 2004 and 2012, Kroupa and Fackler conspired to evade their tax obligations. Kroupa was appointed to the U.S. Tax Court on June 13, 2003, for a term of 15 years, but she retired on June 16, 2014. During the same period, Fackler was a self-employed lobbyist and political consultant who owned and operated a business known as Grassroots Consulting. According to the indictment and documents filed in court, as part of the conspiracy to defraud the United States, Kroupa and Fackler fraudulently claimed personal expenses as Grassroots Consulting business deductions. Additionally, in 2006, Kroupa and Fackler allegedly concealed documents from their tax preparer and an IRS Tax Compliance Officer during an audit. During a second audit in 2012, Kroupa and Fackler caused misleading documents to be delivered to an IRS employee in order to convince the IRS employee that certain personal expenses were actually business expenses of Grassroots Consulting. DOJ

April 1, 2016

Florida announced more than $170,000 in fraudulent taxpayer dollars reclaimed from multiple bank accounts owned by Christina Benson, owner of Tranquility Health Care Solutions in Orlando. Benson used Tranquility to recruit homeless men and women to pose as patients and billed Medicaid for services not provided and not warranted. Additionally, Benson allegedly used untrained personnel, some with criminal arrest records, in her scheme. On March 9, 2016, Benson plead guilty to one count of Medicaid provider fraud, a first-degree felony. FL

April 1, 2016

A Montgomery County, Alabama resident pleaded guilty today to one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. According to court documents, James Vernon Battle, 30, used stolen personal identification information to prepare and file at least 335 false federal income tax returns for tax years 2013 and 2014 that fraudulently claimed more than $400,000 in tax refunds. Battle obtained the stolen personal identification information from Wendy Huff. Huff worked at two loan companies in Montgomery, Alabama. Battle directed the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to issue the requested refunds via prepaid debit cards and U.S. Treasury checks. Those prepaid debit cards and checks were sent to various addresses in Montgomery, including Huff’s residence. Battle also brought several U.S. Treasury checks to Huff’s workplace where she used her position to cash them. Huff returned half of the proceeds to Battle and kept the balance for herself. Battle faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the wire fraud charge and a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison for the aggravated identity theft charge, which will be in addition to any other term of imprisonment he receives. He also faces substantial monetary penalties and restitution. DOJ

March 31, 2016

Pennsylvania announced the arrest of a Crawford County couple accused of stealing approximately $132,000 from the local moose lodge where they served in administrative roles. According to criminal complaints filed in the case, the money was allegedly stolen between May 2011 and October 2014 from Moose Lodge No. 2505, located in East Fairfield Township, Crawford County. Investigators allege the couple stole the money during a time when they incurred significant gambling losses. PA

March 31, 2016

The CFTC filed a civil enforcement action against Hendrik A. Van Beuningen of Brookhaven, Georgia, and his company, DeBrink Trading Fund I, LLC of Atlanta, Georgia, alleging fraud, misappropriation, and issuing false statements in connection with a commodity pool they operated.  CFTC

March 31, 2016

The FTC filed a complaint in federal district court alleging that Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc. and several other drug companies violated antitrust laws by using pay-for-delay settlements to block consumers’ access to lower-cost generic versions of Opana ER and Lidoderm. Following more than a decade of FTC challenges to pay-for-delay settlements, the enforcement action is the first FTC case challenging an agreement not to market an authorized generic – often called a “no-AG commitment” – as a form of reverse payment. FTC