Whistleblower Group

February 17, 2016

Maryland announced that the Office of the Secretary of State has shut down a purported charity for veterans which allegedly falsified marketing materials and other documents and has not accounted for donations. The Secretary of State issued a cease-and-desist order against the Southern Maryland Veterans Association, along with principal Dan Brashear, and alleged former associate Norman Randolph McDonald. In response to multiple complaints, an investigation by the Secretary of State’s Charities and Legal Services Division, aided by the Office of the Attorney General, showed that the organization was allegedly not assisting the housing needs of veterans as claimed in marketing materials. The charity was also not registered with the Secretary of State.

February 17, 2016

The Justice Department announced that an Enterprise, Alabama, resident was sentenced to 48 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release for accepting unlawful kickbacks and tax evasion. According to court documents and statements made in open court, Victor Villalobos, 47, worked for a federal prime contractor at Fort Rucker, Alabama. In 2009, Villalobos approached Maxim Silinsky, a Florida-based subcontractor for this company, and solicited illegal kickbacks on the federal subcontracts that Silinsky held in connection with the federal prime contractor. As part of his plea, Villalobos admitted that from June 2009 to December 2014, he received approximately 57 separate wire transfers totaling more than $1.9 million in kickback payments from various foreign and domestic bank accounts controlled by Silinsky. DOJ

February 16, 2016

New York announced the conviction and sentencing of Frederick E. Monroe, Jr., 59, of Queensbury, New York, for stealing over $5 million from investors by fraudulently soliciting them to reinvest their retirement monies. In December 2015, Monroe pleaded guilty in Albany County Court to Scheme to Defraud, Grand Larceny, Money Laundering and Securities Fraud for luring clients with whom he had established relationships with over his 20-year career as a financial planner, and then diverting their monies for his own personal use, as well as to pay back earlier investors he had defrauded. NY

February 12, 2016

New Jersey Doctor Labib E. Riachi and two companies he owns, Riachi, Inc. and Center for Advanced Pelvic Surgery, agreed to pay $5.25 million to resolve allegations they violated the False Claims Act by billing Medicare and Medicaid for anorectal manometry and electromyography diagnostic tests, even though most of the tests were never performed.  The settlement also resolves charges that they submitted claims to Medicare for physical therapy services that should not have been paid because they were not performed by a qualified therapist.  DOJ (NJ)

February 11, 2016

Morgan Stanley agreed to pay a $2.6 billion penalty “for misleading investors about the subprime mortgage loans underlying the securities it sold” in the period leading up to the financial crisis.  As part of the agreement, Morgan Stanley admitted that it failed to disclose critical information to prospective investors about the quality of the mortgage loans underlying its residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) which ultimately caused investors, including federally insured financial institutions, to lose billions of dollars from investing in Morgan Stanley in the 2006-07 timeframe.  The $2.6 billion civil penalty resolves claims under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA).  In addition, the states of New York and Illinois announced their own settlements with Morgan Stanley for $550 million and $22.5 million, respectively.  When combined with prior settlements with other regulators -- $225 million to the National Credit Union Administration; $1.25 billion to the Federal Housing Finance Agency; $86.95 million to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; and $275 million to the SEC -- this brings to almost $5 billion the total payout by Morgan Stanley in connection with its fraudulent sales of RMBS.  Whistleblower Insider