Criminal Proceedings Archives - Page 25 of 37

November 22, 2019

South Korea-based Samsung Heavy Industries Company Ltd. will pay $75 million in a global settlement of allegations that it engaged in an unlawful scheme to bribe government officials in Brazil. Half of the total settlement, $37.74 million, will be paid to resolve a U.S. criminal action that the company violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act; the other half will be paid either to Brazilian authorities on or before November 25, 2020, or to the U.S. Samsung was alleged to have paid millions to a Brazil-based intermediary, knowing and intending that those funds would be used to bribe officials at the Brazilian state-owned Petrobras in order to obtain a shipbuilding contract for Samsung. DOJ; USAO ED VA

Tagged in: Criminal Proceedings, FCPA, Financial and Investment Fraud,

November 21, 2019

Jin K. Chung was sentenced to 10 years in prison following his guilty plea on charges related to a foreign exchange trading scam he created and ran. Chung started two companies, SNC Asset Management, Inc., and SNC Investments, Inc., advertising them as highly successful foreign exchange trading firms and promising investors annual returns between 24% and 36%. Hundreds of individual investors opened accounts with SNC; Chung deposited their money bank accounts he controlled and sent them phony statements. In his guilty plea, Chung acknowledged that more than 400 victims lost over $60 million as a result of his scam. Chung was originally charged in 2009, but not extradited from South Korea until 2019. USAO ND Cal

Tagged in: Criminal Proceedings, Financial and Investment Fraud, Foreign Exchange, Ponzi Schemes,

November 18, 2019

Daniel Norton, the owner of former DOD contractor Emerson Company, has been sentenced to 8 years in prison following his guilty plea on charges that he fraudulently obtained government contracts and obstructed justice. According to the evidence at trial, Emerson Company had been debarred in 2011, but Norton used front companies to fraudulently secure purchase orders for parts to be supplied to the military. In violation of contract Buy-American requirements, Norton filled the purchase orders by supplying non-conforming products manufactured in China, even where the contract called for a specific part from an American manufacturer. In addition to his prison sentence, Norton was ordered to pay $2.4 million in restitution, and forfeit property valued at over $1 million. USAO SD OH

Tagged in: Criminal Proceedings, Defense Contract Fraud, Government Procurement Fraud, Trade Agreements,

November 14, 2019

Following a guilty plea in 2018, Sandra Haar was sentenced to five years in prison and has agreed to sell 13 properties, including former clinic properties, to resolve civil claims under the False Claims Act that she and the non-profit provider of health and dental services she ran, Horisons Unlimited, submitted fraudulent claims to Medi-Cal, including claims for services rendered by unlicensed providers, claims for services that were not rendered at all, and claims for unnecessary services. Haar was also alleged to have received thousands in kickbacks from a laboratory in exchange for sending Horisons patients to the lab. Haar will be excluded from Medicare participation for 20 years; the former Horisons CFO, Norman Haar, will be excluded for 15 years. USAO ED Cal

Tagged in: Criminal Proceedings, FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Medicaid, Medical Billing Fraud, Provider Fraud,

November 7, 2019

Tower Research Capital, LLC, a proprietary trading firm, has been ordered to pay a record $67.4 million for engaging in a manipulative and deceptive spoofing scheme from 2012 to 2013. The Commission found that when Tower traders had genuine orders on one side of the market, they would also place orders on the other side that they intended to cancel before execution, intending to create a false impression of supply and demand to induce other market participants to trade against their genuine orders. The judgment for over $32.6 million in restitution, $10.5 million in disgorgement, and $24.4 million in civil monetary penalty is reportedly the largest ever ordered in a spoofing case. Tower also entered into a deferred prosecution agreement in a settlement with DOJ, crediting their monetary settlement with the CFTC and imposing compliance obligations. CFTC; DOJ

Tagged in: Criminal Proceedings, Fraud in CFTC-Regulated Markets, Market Manipulation and Trading Violations,

November 6, 2019

Winston Shrout, who became a fugitive after being sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2017, has been captured and returned to custody. Shrout led seminars promoting the use of fraudulent financial instruments as a means to avoid taxes, and sold materials for the preparation of such fraudulent instruments. In addition, Shrout failed to file tax returns from 2009 through 2014. DOJ

Tagged in: Abusive Tax Shelters, Criminal Proceedings, Tax Fraud,

October 30, 2019

Outcome Health, the trade name for ContextMedia LLC, will pay $70 million and enter into a Non-Prosecution Agreement with the U.S. to resolve allegations that the company, which sells digital advertising to be displayed in medical offices -- its primary customers are pharmaceutical companies -- fraudulently sold advertising inventory that it did not have. To conceal this, Outcome and its executives falsified reports to customers, claiming to have delivered advertising to the contracted number of screens, and inflated patient engagement metrics. This fraudulent activity resulted in an overstatement of Outcome's reported revenue, and Outcome used those fraudulent financial statements to obtain almost $1 billion in debt and equity financing in 2015 and 2016. DOJ

Tagged in: Accounting Fraud, Criminal Proceedings, Financial and Investment Fraud, Misrepresentations,

October 28, 2019

Atheir Amarrah, the owner of Michigan-based Prompt Care Home Health Services Inc, has been sentenced to 5 years in prison and ordered to pay $1 million in restitution after pleading guilty to paying recruiters for referrals to Medicare beneficiaries. In his guilty plea, Amarrah also admitted to billing Medicare for claims tainted by illegal kickbacks. DOJ

Tagged in: Anti-Kickback and Stark, Criminal Proceedings, Healthcare Fraud, Home Health and Hospice, Medicare,

October 23, 2019

Gary Frank was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison following a guilty plea on charges related to his fraudulent business scheme. Frank claimed to run a multi-million dollar company, Legal Coverage, Ltd., through which employers could offer legal services as part of their employee benefits package. Based on these misrepresentations -- in fact, the company had very little revenue -- Frank obtained over $30 million in loans from financial institutions, which he used to fund his own extravagant lifestyle. Frank was also ordered to pay restitution of $33.7 million. USAO EDPA

Tagged in: Criminal Proceedings, Financial and Investment Fraud, Misrepresentations,

Unitrans/Anham - Procurement Fraud/Defense ($45 million)

Constantine Cannon represented multiple whistleblowers in a False Claims Act case alleging Unitrans International and Anham FZCO violated the US sanctions regime against Iran in securing military contracts to provide food and transportation to US troops. In December 2019, Unitrans agreed to pay $45 million to resolve criminal and civil charges relating to the matter. Our clients received a whistleblower award of 28.5% of the government's civil recovery. Read more -- Washington Post, DOJ, CC.

Tagged in: Certifications, Contract Non-Compliance, Criminal Proceedings, Defense Contract Fraud, FCA Federal, Government Procurement Fraud, Trade Agreements, Whistleblower Rewards,

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