This archive includes posts from our “Catch of the Week” series, in which the Whistleblower Insider blog highlights particular government enforcement actions. Return to:
Catch of the Week: Texas-Sized Indictment for $2 Billion Tax Fraud
Posted 10/16/20
Everything sure is bigger in Texas. Bigger hair, bigger churches, bigger stadiums, bigger ranches, and bigger sky. Oh, and as of this week, bigger billionaires committing bigger frauds!
On Thursday, federal prosecutors in California chargedRobert T. Brockman, a Houston tech executive, with hiding $2 billion in income from the Internal Revenue Service. True to Texas form, David L. Anderson, the U.S. attorney...
Catch of the Week: 345 Charged in $6 Billion National Health Care Fraud and Opioid Takedown
Posted 10/2/20
In the largest health care fraud and opioid enforcement action in the Justice Department’s history, 345 defendants—including more than 100 doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals—face charges for submitting over $6 billion in false or fraudulent claims to federal and private insurers. Defendants stand accused of submitting $4.5 billion in fraudulent claims linked to telemedicine, $845 million...
Catch of the Week: DOJ Charges North Korean and Malaysian Nationals for Bank Fraud, Money Laundering and Sanctions Violations
Posted 09/11/20
The Department of Justice announced a criminal complaint charging Ri Jong Chol, Ri Yu Gyong, North Korean nationals, and Gan Chee Lim, a Malaysia national, for conspiracy to violate North Korean Sanctions Regulations, bank fraud, and conspiracy to launder funds. The DOJ said defendants allegedly established and utilized front companies that transmitted U.S. dollar wires through the United States to purchase...
Catch of the Week: Bank of Nova Scotia Fined for Commodities Fraud and False Statements to Investigators
Posted 08/21/20
Self-disclosure offers wrong-doing corporations a path to leniency: Fess up, the government says, and we’ll go easier on you. But as the Bank of Nova Scotia learned, you had better reveal the full extent of the problem, or you are just making your problem worse.
The Bank had made a self-disclosure that secured it's leniency and an $800,000 deal for charges of commodities fraud. When the CFTC later determined...
Catch of the Week: Interactive Brokers Pays $38 Million for Failures in Money-Laundering and Supervision
Posted 08/14/20
Brokerage firm Interactive Brokers LLC will pay $38 million in penalties to settle charges from multiple U.S. market regulators regarding its anti-money laundering practices, including alleged failures to file suspicious activity reports (SARs). The discount broker has paid an $11.5 million penalty to settle charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission over the deficiencies in its internal controls that...
COVID Frauds of the Week: Fraud on Stimulus Programs and Consumers
Posted 07/31/20
Like the virus itself, fraud that exploits the COVID-19 pandemic just will not go away, so we are back with another installment of our continuing series highlighting related government enforcement actions. This week, we saw a continued enforcement focus in two areas: fraud on stimulus programs and consumers.
Stimulus Fraud
Three charges this week highlighted the government’s ongoing efforts to expose and bring...
Catch of the Week: Indivior Agrees to Pay $600 Million to Settle Opioid Fraud Case
Posted 07/31/20
The latest in our Catch of the Week series features Indivior Solutions’ (“Indivior”) agreement to pay $600 million to resolve criminal and civil liability associated with the marketing of the opioid-addiction-treatment drug Suboxone. This is in addition to the $1.4 billion resolution with Indivior’s former parent, Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC (“RB Group”) that was previously announced in 2019. Suboxone is a...
COVID Fraud of the Week: Washington State Man Charged with Attempting to Launder COVID-19 Relief Money
Posted 07/24/20
On July 23rd, the Department of Justice announced that Mukund Mohan, a Washington state tech company executive, was taken into custody for allegedly laundering money he fraudulently received through the COVID-19 related Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”). After receiving funds through the program, Mohan allegedly transferred over $230,000 to his personal brokerage account. These charges mark another instance of...
COVID-19 Frauds of the Week: Fake Employees and Fake Treatments
Posted 07/17/20
Taxpayers, rightfully upset about large companies such as Shake Shack and Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse claiming large sums of Paycheck Protection Program money from the Small Business Administration, should consider shifting some of their ire to applicants posing as the original intended recipients—small businesses—who are getting in on the grift. And for fraudsters who prefer to market unproven products rather than...
Catch of the Week: Novartis Pays $729 Million to Settle Two Kickback Cases on Heels of $345 Million Foreign Bribery Settlement
Posted 07/2/20
This week and last, pharmaceutical manufacturer Novartis reached three settlements involving very different forms of unlawful kickbacks and bribes. First, this week the company agreed to pay a total of $678 million to resolve a New York case alleging that it paid inflated “speaking fees” and provided other incentives to doctors to induce them to prescribe Novartis drugs. Second, Novartis will pay $51.25...