Government Enforcement Actions

August 20, 2014

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman and U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch announced they have entered into settlement agreements with New Rochelle nursing home Ralex Services, Inc., doing business as Glen Island Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, to resolve allegations the facility and its owner Leah Friedman submitted tens of thousands of inflated claims to the New York State Medicaid Program. According to the government, the 182-bed Glen Island facility submitted more than 62,000 false claims to New York’s Department of Health from April 2002 to November 2006. The false claims used Medicaid reimbursement rates based, in part, on up-coded Patient Review Instruments (PRIs), which falsely represented the degree of care required by many Glen Island residents. Under the settlement, Glen Island Center and Friedman will return $2.2M to Medicaid. NYAG

August 12, 2014

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced that the Northern Manor Multicare Center nursing home agreed to pay $6.5M to resolve allegations it was not providing services as represented in its claims for payment to Medicaid. NYAG

August 11, 2014

The CFTC entered an Order requiring Jacob N. Stein, individually and doing business as TEPdesign, Inc., to pay restitution of $244,400 to defrauded customers and a $100,000 civil monetary penalty, for committing fraud and misappropriation in connection with a commodity pool that traded leveraged or margined off-exchange foreign currency contracts (forex).  CFTC

August 7, 2014

The CFTC charged Edwin A. Vasquez and his company Vasquez Global Investments with misappropriation, solicitation fraud, and issuing false statements in connection with the operation of an unregistered commodity trading pool.  According to the CFTC Complaint, Vasquez and his company defrauded and deceived at least 19 participants who invested at least $583,491 in a commodity pool commonly known as the VGI pool.  CFTC

August 7, 2014

The CFTC obtained an order against Florida residents John P. D’Onofrio, George E. Sarafianos, Scott D. Piccininni and their Florida companyAmeriFirst Management to jointly pay more than $25M in restitution and a $10M penalty for operating a fraudulent precious metals scheme.  Specifically, the order found the defendants operated an illegal, off-exchange precious metals scheme and made numerous fraudulent misrepresentations, false reports, and statements in connection with the scheme.  CFTC

August 7, 2014

Florida resident Lawrence Scott Spain and his company Palm Beach Capital were ordered to pay $527,000 for engaging in illegal, off-exchange precious metals transactions.  The order stems from a CFTC Complaint filed in May 2014 charging Spain and his company with violating the Commodity Exchange Act by these illegal transactions.  CFTC

August 6, 2014

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced he, along with 40 other state Attorneys General and the District of Columbia, reached a $35M settlement with Pfizer arising from alleged improper marketing and promotion of the immunosuppressive drug Rapamune. New York’s share of the settlement is over $1.7M. Pfizer, as parent of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Inc., agreed to be bound by the judgment and to resolve allegations that Wyeth unlawfully promoted Rapamune. Attorney General Schneiderman’s office served on the Executive Committee of this multi-state investigation. NYAG

August 4, 2014

The CFTC obtained a $13M penalty against Parnon Energy of California, Arcadia Petroleum of the United Kingdom, and Arcadia Energy of Switzerland for manipulating New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) Light Sweet Crude Oil futures contract spreads from January 2008 to April 2008.  CFTC

August 4, 2014

The CFTC obtained a $500,000 judgment against former Citigroup Director John Aaron Brooks for defrauding Citigroup by mismarking and inflating the value of his position in ethanol futures in Citigroup's proprietary account.  Specifically, the court found Brooks cheated and defrauded Citigroup by inflating and mismarking the value of his position in New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) Chicago Ethanol (Platts) Futures contracts by misrepresenting his profits and losses and offsetting and masking the losses in his other futures positions.  By this conduct, Brooks violated the anti-fraud provisions of the Commodities Exchange Act (CEA) and a CFTC Regulation.  CFTC

August 1, 2014

The CFTC filed a civil enforcement Complaint against Southern Trust Metals, Robert Escobio and Loreley Overseas Corp. charging them with violating the Dodd-Frank Act by operating an illegal, off-exchange precious metals scheme involving at least 135 customers who collectively lost $600,000 of the funds they invested.  CFTC