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DOJ Enforcement Actions

					
The Department of Justice is the principal federal agency authorized to enforce the laws and defend the interests of the United States. As such, it oversees the enforcement of the False Claims Act, the foundation of the American whistleblower system, as well as numerous other laws.


The agency traces its origins to the Judiciary Act of 1789 which created the Office of the Attorney General, and the 1870 Act to Establish the Department of Justice, which established the agency as “an executive department of the government of the United States” with the Attorney General as its head.


The agency is comprised of numerous divisions with the Civil Division and in some instances, the Criminal Division, overseeing investigations and prosecutions under the False Claims Act. The U.S. Attorneys Office of the federal district where the False Claims Act case is filed also plays a key role in False Claims Act enforcement.


Below are summaries of recent DOJ settlements or successful resolutions under the False Claims Act as well as other successful prosecutions for fraud and misconduct. If you believe you have information about fraud which could give  rise to a claim for a whistleblower reward, please contact us to speak with one of our experienced whistleblower attorneys.

				

			

			
						
					
			

	
		
		

			

				
				
April 5, 2016

				 Mohammad Rafiq, owner of Detroit-area home health care agency Perfect Home Health Care, was sentenced to 57 months in prison and to pay roughly $3.5 million in restitution (and forfeit the same amount) for his role in a $3.4 million health care fraud scheme.  According to admissions made as part of his plea agreement, Rafiq paid physicians and recruiters to refer Medicare beneficiaries to Perfect and sign medical documents falsely certifying they required home health care.  Rafiq also directed patient recruiters and Perfect employees to pay cash kickbacks to Medicare beneficiaries in exchange for signing multiple blank physical therapy records.  DOJ				 			
	
		
		
	


 			




	
		
		

			

				
				
April 5, 2016

				 California gastroenterologist Ali S. Vaziri agreed to pay $400,000 to settle charges he violated the False Claims Act by billing Medicare for patient office visits that reflected more time and services than he actually spent with patients and for patient office visits that were required to be billed together with routine colonoscopies as one charge.  DOJ (NDCA)				 			
	
		
		
	


 			




	
		
		

			

				
				
April 1, 2016

				 Sharon Iglehart, a former attending psychiatrist at Riverside General Hospital in Houston, was sentenced to 144 months in prison and to pay roughly $6.4 million (and forfeit the same amount) for her role in a $158 million Medicare fraud scheme involving false claims for mental health treatment.  According to evidence presented at trial, Iglehart and others engaged in a scheme to defraud Medicare by submitting through Riverside fraudulent claims to Medicare for partial hospitalization program services, an intensive outpatient treatment for severe mental illness, when the patients for whom Riverside billed did not receive the services.  In fact, evidence proved that most of the Medicare beneficiaries rarely saw a psychiatrist and did not receive intensive psychiatric treatment at all.  To date, 12 other individuals have been convicted based on their roles in this scheme, including former Riverside president Earnest Gibson III.  DOJ				 			
	
		
		
	


 			




	
		
		

			

				
				
April 1, 2016

				 Carlos Rodriguez Nerey, a patient recruiter for several Miami-area home health agencies, was convicted for his role in a fraud and kickback scheme that resulted in the submission of millions of dollars in fraudulent claims to Medicare.  According to evidence presented at trial, Nerey claimed to work at a staffing company called Sweet Life Staffing Inc. but was in fact a patient recruiter for D&D&D Home Health Inc. and Mercy Home Care, Inc., two fraudulent home health care agencies in Miami.  Nerey created a shell company for the purpose of accepting kickbacks from Mercy and D&D&D and received approximately $250,000 as a result of his role in the scheme.  DOJ				 			
	
		
		
	


 			




	
		
		

			

				
				
March 30, 2016

				 Chung Yu Yeung (aka Louis Yeung), former vice president of Eastern Tools and Equipment Inc., a California wholesale equipment company that sold portable generators to retailers across the country, pleaded guilty to fraud charges in connection with a bank fraud scheme.  Yeung admitted that he and his co-conspirators defrauded Pasadena-based East West Bank in connection with a line of credit for Eastern Tools by misrepresenting to the bank Eastern Tools’ accounts receivable and its financial statements.  Eastern Tools ultimately defaulted causing more than $9 million in losses to the bank.  DOJ				 					 

						
Tagged in:
													  Financial Institution Fraud, 
												
						

					
	
							
	
		
		
	


 			




	
		
		

			

				
				
March 29, 2016

				 The pest control corporation Terminix International Company agreed to pay $10 million in criminal fines, community service and restitution payments to settle charges of violating the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act for illegally applying fumigants containing methyl bromide in multiple residential locations in the U.S. Virgin Islands, including the condominium resort complex in St. John where a family of four fell seriously ill last year after the unit below them was fumigated.  DOJ				 					 

						
Tagged in:
													  Environmental Fraud, 
												
						

					
	
							
	
		
		
	


 			




	
		
		

			

				
				
March 29, 2016

				 Former Navy noncommissioned officer Donald P. Bunch was sentenced to 24 months in prison for accepting cash bribes from vendors while he served in Afghanistan.  According to the plea agreement, Bunch worked as a U.S. Navy E8 senior chief at the Humanitarian Assistance Yard at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan.  The HA Yard purchased supplies from local Afghan vendors for use as part of the Commander’s Emergency Response Program, which enabled U.S. military commanders to respond to urgent humanitarian relief requirements in Afghanistan.  Bunch admitted accepting roughly $25,000 in bribes from the vendors for securing for them more frequent and lucrative contracts.  Bunch sent greeting cards stuffed with proceeds of the bribes to his wife and used the money to pay for the construction of a new home.  DOJ				 					 

						
Tagged in:
													  Bribery and Bid-Rigging, 
													  Defense Contract Fraud, 
												
						

					
	
							
	
		
		
	


 			




	
		
		

			

				
				
March 28, 2016

				 Tennessee-based defense contractor Kilgore Flares Company and one of its subcontractors, New York-based ESM Group Inc., agreed to pay $8 million to resolve charges they violated the False Claims Act by selling defective and illegally imported infrared countermeasure flares to the U.S. Army and, for ESM, knowingly evading U.S. customs duties.  The allegations first arose in a whistleblower lawsuit filed under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act by Reade Manufacturing Company, a domestic manufacturer of magnesium powder which is used in the flares.  The company will receive a whistleblower award of $400,000 from the proceeds of the government’s recovery from ESM.  Whistleblower Insider

 				 					 

						
Tagged in:
													  Customs Fraud, 
													  Defense Contract Fraud, 
													  FCA Federal, 
													  Whistleblower Case, 
													  Whistleblower Eligibility, 
													  Whistleblower Rewards, 
												
						

					
	
							
	
		
		
	


 			




	
		
		

			

				
				
March 25, 2016

				 Damian Mayol, the president of Miami-based transportation company Transportation Services Providers Inc. was sentenced to 60 months in prison and to pay $26.8 million in restitution (and forfeit the same amount) for his role in a health care fraud scheme involving three mental health centers that resulted in the submission of approximately $70 million in false Medicare claims.  According to evidence presented at trial, Mayol and his co-conspirators used his company to coordinate the payment of illegal kickbacks to recruiters, who in return referred patients to three now-defunct community mental health centers -- R&S Community Mental Health Inc., St. Theresa Community Mental Health Center Inc. and New Day Community Mental Health Center LLC -- for costly partial hospitalization program services that were not medically necessary or not actually provided.  DOJ				 					 

						
Tagged in:
													  Anti-Kickback and Stark, 
													  Lack of Medical Necessity, 
													  Medical Billing Fraud, 
													  Medicare, 
												
						

					
	
							
	
		
		
	


 			




	
		
		

			

				
				
March 25, 2016

				 U.S. Navy Capt. Daniel Dusek was sentenced to 46 months in prison for giving classified information to a foreign defense contractor in exchange for prostitutes, luxury travel and other gifts.  He is the highest-ranking official charged in a massive Navy bribery scandal.  Dusek admitted he used his influence as Deputy Director of Operations for the Seventh Fleet, headquartered in Yokosuka, Japan, and later as executive officer of the USS Essex and the commanding officer of the USS Bonhomme Richard, to benefit Leonard Glenn Francis and his company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia.  DOJ				 					 

						
Tagged in:
													  Bribery and Bid-Rigging, 
													  Defense Contract Fraud, 
												
						

					
	
							
	
		
		
	


 			


											

						

								

									
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