Whistleblower Group

Constantine Cannon Partner Gordon Schnell Quoted in Bloomberg and Law360 On Zafirov Appeal of False Claims Act Constitutionality

By the Constantine Cannon Whistleblower Team Last Friday, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held argument on the Constitutionality of the whistleblower (or qui tam) provisions of the False Claims Act.  These are the provisions of the Civil War era statute that authorizes private parties to bring lawsuits on behalf of the Government against those that defraud the Government.  Over the past few decades, the...

Canadian Man Charged by SEC for $18M+ Investor Fraud Scheme

By the Constantine Cannon Whistleblower Team The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Nathan Gauvin, a Canadian citizen, along with his entities -- Blackridge, LLC, Gray Digital Capital Management USA, LLC, and Gray Digital Technologies, LLC -- with conducting two fraudulent securities offerings that raised over $18 million from investors in the U.S. and internationally. The SEC alleges that Gauvin...

FinCEN Imposes $3.5M Fine on Paxful for Enabling Illicit Transactions

By the Constantine Cannon Whistleblower Team On December 9, the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced it imposed a $3.5 million civil penalty on Paxful, Inc. and Paxful USA, Inc. for willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), the key U.S. anti-money laundering law. Paxful, a peer-to-peer convertible virtual currency trading platform, facilitated over $500...

Owners of Wound Graft Companies Pay Big for False Claims Act and Kickback Violations -- DOJ Reinforces Zero Tolerance for Healthcare Fraud

By the Constantine Cannon Whistleblower Team Last Friday (December 12), the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the major sentencing, forfeitures, and penalties imposed on the owners of several Arizona wound graft companies for a $1.2 billion healthcare fraud scheme.[1]  DOJ described the action -- against Alexandra Gehrke and her husband Jeffrey King -- as “the first prosecution of its kind.”

What Was the...

Mindpath Pays $1.9M To Settle False Claims Act Allegations of Healthcare Fraud

By the Constantine Cannon Whistleblower Team Last week (December 2), the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that North Carolina’s largest behavioral practice Mindpath Care Centers -- along with its former officers Jeff Williams, Abigail Sheriff, and Sarah Williams -- paid $1.9 million to settle allegations they violated the False Claims Act by fraudulently billing Medicare for Psychotherapy and medication...

Virtu Agrees to Pay $2.5M to Settle SEC Lawsuit Concerning Customer Data

By the Constantine Cannon Whistleblower Team Virtu Americas LLC recently agreed to pay a civil penalty of $2.5 million to the SEC to settle claims that Virtu violated securities laws by making materially false and misleading statements regarding information barriers to prevent misuse of customer data.[1]  This settlement and final judgment resolves a case that the SEC brought against broker-dealer Virtu Americas...

Swiss Automation is the Latest to Settle False Claims Act Allegations of Cybersecurity Fraud

By the Constantine Cannon Whistleblower Team Last Friday (December 5), the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Illinois-based Swiss Automation Inc. agreed to pay roughly $420,000 to settle allegations it violated the False Claims Act by failing to provide proper cybersecurity protections for its machine parts drawings for Department of Defense (DOD) prime contractors.[1]  The settlement is just the latest...

Georgia Man Sentenced for $24 Million Medicare Fraud and Kickback Scheme

By the Constantine Cannon Whistleblower Team On December 2, Georgia-based Patrick C. Moore Jr. was sentenced to 46 months in prison and required to pay more than $7.2 million in restitution for his involvement in a scheme that involved paying and receiving illegal kickbacks to persuade Medicare beneficiaries to undergo unnecessary genetic testing.[1]

Patrick C. Moore’s Alleged Kickback Scheme

Court documents...

Private Equity Firm Fined $11.4M by OFAC for Violating Russian Sanctions

By the Constantine Cannon Whistleblower Team Chicago-based IPI Partners LLC, a former private equity firm, has agreed to pay over $11.4 million to the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to resolve allegations that it violated Russian sanctions by accepting investments tied to an oligarch.[1]

The Settlement

IPI Partners’ settlement focuses on acquiring, developing, and...