October 10, 2023

October 10, 2023

Mobile cardiac PET scan provider Cardiac Imaging Inc. (CII), and its founder and owner Sam Kancherlapalli, have agreed to pay over $75 million and over $10 million, respectively, to resolve a qui tam case by former billing manager Lynda Pinto, which alleged the company, Kancherlapalli, and part-owner Richard Nassenstein defrauded Medicare.  In violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute, Stark Law, and False Claims Act, CII and Kancherlapalli allegedly paid kickbacks to...

Scoundrel Spotlight - COVID-19 Fraudster Lourdes Navarro

This week's Scoundrel in the Spotlight is Lourdes Navarro and her husband Imran Shams.  The married pair ran the LA County medical lab Clinical Laboratory Inc. (also called Health Care Providers Laboratory).  Their lab performed COVID-19 screening tests primarily for nursing homes and other facilities catering to the elderly population.  Last Thursday (October 5), Navarro pleaded guilty to fraudulently billing the government and private insurance programs during the COVID-19 pandemic...

October 6, 2023

Two groups of student loan debt relief scammers—SL Finance LLC and owners Michael and Christian Castillo, along with BCO Consulting Services and SLA Consulting Services Inc and owners Gianni Olilang, Brandon Clores, Kishan Bhakta, and Allan Radam—have been ordered to pay a partially suspended $5.8 million each and be permanently banned from the industry.  The defendants pretended to be affiliated with the Department of Education and used their fake position...

Payments News Update – October 6, 2023

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Supreme Court to Consider Debit Fee Case Payments Dive – September 29, 2023 The Supreme Court on Friday granted a petition from a group of North Dakota merchants who brought a case against the Federal Reserve Board in 2021 over the central bank’s setting of a debit card fee cap. The merchants’ petition for review isn’t with respect to the merits of the case, but...

SEC Charges yet Another Company for Violating Whistleblower Protection Rule

On September 29, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that New York-based investment adviser D. E. Shaw & Co. agreed to pay $10 million to settle charges of violating the SEC's Whistleblower Protection Rule.  It is the third SEC settlement in September for violating the rule, which prohibits a company from taking any steps to interfere with a whistleblower's efforts or incentives to report potential securities fraud to the...

October 5, 2023

Software company Blackbaud has agreed to pay $49.5 million to 50 states in connection with a 2020 data breach that exposed the personal information of millions of consumers.  Additionally, the company failed to immediately report, and after failed to reveal the full scope and impact, of the breach.  In addition to the monetary penalty, Blackbaud will overhaul its data security and breach notification practices.  NJ AG; OR AG; PA AG;...

Constantine Cannon's Wyatt Fore Honored in a Category for the 2023 Antitrust Enforcement Awards by the American Antitrust Institute

Constantine Cannon is pleased to announce that the American Antitrust Institute has honored Wyatt Fore for its 2023 Antitrust Enforcement Awards in the category of “Outstanding Antitrust Litigation Achievement by a Young Lawyer.”  AAI’s Antitrust Enforcement Awards recognize leading practitioners and economists, and recipients will be honored at the AAI Awards Night on November 2, following AAI’s Annual Private Enforcement Conference. This award recognizes Wyatt’s role on the case team...

Inside the 2023 Draft Merger Guidelines: A Conversation with Michael Kades

Antitrust Matters provides engaging and timely conversations about competition policy in the digital age. Antitrust has always mattered to consumers and businesses, and to antitrust lawyers and economists, but today it also is in the political and public discourse more than ever. From the prices we pay for food, travel, financial services, payments to the way we interact daily using digital apps and platforms, antitrust touches each and every one...

October 3, 2023

Partner Lloyd Constantine was quoted in a Payments Dive article, Payments bill defies congressional rancor.

Scoundrel Spotlight - Medicare Fraudster Jesus Virlar-Cadena

This week’s Scoundrel in the Spotlight is Jesus Virlar-Cadena, a former medical director of a Texas-based healthcare provider called Merida Group, who was recently sentenced to over four years in prison in connection with a fraudulent scheme involving over $150 million in false Medicare claims, according to a DOJ press release. The Merida Group marketed hospice services to patients with long-term incurable diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia, patients living at nursing homes, and...