Whistleblower News From The Inside — February 10, 2016

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Is it Time to Reconsider the CFTC Whistleblower Program? -- Taxpayers Against Fraud commentary on how the CFTC whistleblower program is doing.  TAF Monsanto pays $80M penalty for accounting violations -- The St. Louis-based agribusiness agreed to make the payment to settle charges it violated accounting rules and misstated company earnings as it pertained to its flagship product Roundup.  SEC Taming drug prices by...

Whistleblower News From The Inside — February 8, 2016

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team HSBC to Pay $470 Million to Settle State and Federal Claims of Mortgage Origination, Servicing, and Foreclosure Abuses -- HSBC will provide relief to consumers and payments to federal and state parties, and agrees to be bound to mortgage servicing standards and subject to independent monitoring of its compliance with the agreement.   DOJ Commodity Futures Trading Commission has spent more on administrative costs of its...

Whistleblower News From The Inside — February 1, 2016

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Sonoma County government agencies join statewide case alleging overcharging in wireless bills -- The suit alleges that Verizon, Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile overcharged at least 42 California public agencies more than $100 million. Constantine Cannon represents the whistleblower who filed the initial complaint under the California False Claims Act. Santa Rosa Press-Democrat Tampa radiology group will pay $8.7 million to settle whistleblower suit alleging billing of unnecessary procedures -- Rose...

January 29, 2016

Amalya Cherniavsky and her husband Vladislav Tcherniavsky, the former owner and former operator of California-based durable medical equipment supply company JC Medical Supply were sentenced  for their roles in a $1.5 million Medicare fraud scheme.  They were ordered to pay $614,418 in restitution and Tcherniavsky was ordered to serve 51 months in prison.  The evidence at trial demonstrated that they paid illegal kickbacks to patient recruiters in exchange for patient...

January 27, 2016

Mohammed Elsaleh, owner and operator of former Houston-area ambulance company National Care EMS agreed to settle allegations that he and the company provided kickbacks to various nursing facilities and hospitals in exchange for rights to the institutions’ more lucrative Medicare and Medicaid transport referrals.  The settlement calls for Elsaleh to pay $125,000 to resolve the “swapping” allegations made against him and the company.  Elsaleh’s brother, Husam Alsaleh, the owner and...

December 21, 2015

The SEC charged Donald Toomer, a Las Vegas-based financial advisor, in connection with previously filed fraud charges against Samuel DelPresto.  The SEC alleges that Toomer, to assist DelPresto in demonstrating liquidity and market demand for his microcap stocks, agreed to buy shares of three microcap stocks in client accounts in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks.  In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District...

August 12, 2015

Vicente E. Garcia, a former vice president for SAP SE, agreed to pay $92,395 to settle charges by the SEC that he violated the FCPA by bribing Panamanian government officials to procure software license sales for SAP.  An SEC investigation found that Garcia orchestrated a scheme to pay $145,000 in bribes to one government official and promised to pay two others in order to obtain four contracts to sell SAP...

April 15, 2014

The SEC charged San Diego-based investment advisory firm Total Wealth Management and its owner and CEO Jacob Cooper with misleading investors and breaching their fiduciary duties to clients by entering into undisclosed revenue sharing agreements through which they paid themselves kickbacks or so-called “revenue sharing fees.”  They failed to disclose to clients the conflicts of interest created by these agreements as they recommended the underlying investments to clients and investors...

January 14, 2016

Nery Cowan, a consultant and Medicare biller for Greater Miami Behavioral Healthcare Center Inc., pleaded guilty in connection with a $63 million health care fraud and money laundering scheme.  Behavioral Healthcare is a now-defunct Miami-area partial hospitalization program (PHP) that purported to provide intensive treatment for severe mental illness.  Specifically, Cowan directed the payment of kickbacks to patient brokers and others in exchange for Medicare beneficiary referrals and admitted concealing...

January 8, 2016

Damian Mayol, the president of Miami-based transportation company Transportation Services Providers Inc., was convicted for his role in a health care fraud scheme involving three mental health centers based in Miami that resulted in the submission of approximately $70 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare.  According to evidence presented at trial, Mayol used his company to coordinate the payment of illegal health care kickbacks to recruiters, who in...