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Criminal Proceedings

This archive displays posts tagged as involving criminal law proceedings relevant to whistleblowers. You may also be interested in our pages:

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July 3, 2019

A Florida man convicted in February of causing the collapse of one of the largest banks in Puerto Rico has been sentenced to 30 years in prison and ordered to pay $103 million in restitution to the FDIC.  Jack Kachkar had fraudulently secured $142 million in loans from Westernbank of Puerto Rico by presenting fake invoices from his company, Inyx Inc.  When he failed to repay the loans, the bank suffered a catastrophic loss that forced it to close.  DOJ; USAO SDFL

July 2, 2019

Dean Volkes, the owner and former CEO of Long Island-based reverse pharmaceutical distributor Guaranteed Returns, and Donna Fallon, the former CFO, have been sentenced to five years in prison and one year in prison, respectively, for their roles in the company's theft of customer property.  Guaranteed Returns managed pharmaceutical returns for its customers including hospitals, pharmacies, long-term care facilities, and Dept. of Defense facilities, when those customers sought to return expired or other drugs to manufacturers for a refund; customers paid a fee to Guaranteed Returns for managing this process.  While Guaranteed Returns told customers that it would hold their "indate" (not yet expired) drugs and return them to the manufacturers for refund after they expired, in fact, the individual defendants and the company returned the drugs to manufacturers and kept the full value of the returned products, diverting refunds into company internal accounts.  Evidence at trial established that the company stole more than $100 million from over 13,000 clients.  In addition to their prison sentences, defendants were ordered to forfeit proceeds and pay restitution in excess of $200 million in total.  USAO EDPA

June 28, 2019

Following his conviction for illegally obtaining $11 million in contracts intended for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, a government contractor and his company have been ordered to pay $3.2 million, with $400,000 to be paid by the contractor, Andrew Otero, and $1.8 million to be paid by his company, A&D General Contracting.  Otero has also been sentenced to 1.5 years in prison.  USAO SDCA

Question of the Week — Three Years in Prison for Insider Trading – Too Harsh or Not Harsh Enough?

Posted  06/28/19
stock market numbers
A London judge sentenced former UBS compliance officer Fabiana Abdel-Malek and day trader Walid Choucair to three years in prison for insider trading. At trial, the jury saw evidence suggesting that Abdel-Malek and Choucair were in constant communication as the compliance officer learned of potential takeover deals and other confidential company information through UBS’s internal databases. Abdel-Malek and Choucair...

June 26, 2019

A patient recruiter in Michigan has been sentenced to 5 years in prison and ordered to pay $1.5 million in restitution for taking part in a three-year scheme to defraud Medicare. Defendant Sophia Eggleston had allegedly solicited and received kickbacks in exchange for her referrals, causing Medicare to pay $1.5 million to a home health agency connected to the fraud scheme.  DOJ

June 19, 2019

The former CEO of Quintillion, a telecommunications company in Alaska, has been sentenced to 5 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $896,698 for defrauding investors of more than $270 million.  In order to secure funding to build a high-speed fiber optic cable system, Elizabeth Pierce had presented two New York investment companies with contracts that made it appear as if Quintillion was guaranteed revenue of nearly $1 billion.  Unbeknownst to investors and her own staff, however, the contracts were allegedly forged and the actual contracts she’d negotiated would generate only a fraction of that amount.  Quintillion eventually reported her to the DOJ.  USAO SDNY

June 7, 2019

Robert A. Glazer and Marina Menino have been found guilty at trial for their actions directing a Medicare fraud scheme that billed $33 million to the government.  Menino received kickbacks from Glazer in exchange for recruiting patients for his Glazer Clinic.  Glazer then billed Medicare for services the patients did not need or did not receive, referred them to medically unnecessary home health or hospice services, and ordered durable medical equipment that they did not need or receive. Defendants will be sentenced in September 2019. DOJ; USAO C.D.Cal.

June 6, 2019

Joseph Bailey, the CEO of NYC-based children's clothing companies Stargate Apparel, Inc. and Rivstar Apparel, Inc., has been arrested, and the government has filed a civil complaint in intervention against all three, arising from their alleged actions in falsifying records regarding the value of goods imported to the U.S. in order to evade customs duty payment obligations.  Defendants allegedly engaged in double-invoicing schemes whereby a Chinese manufacturer would provide both a "pay by" invoice with the actual price, and a second, lower invoice, to be presented to Customs and Border Protection, or a "commercial invoice" and a second "sample invoice" in a larger amount, because sample goods are not subject to customs duties.  The schemes were first brought to the attention of federal law enforcement by a whistleblower who filed a lawsuit under the False Claims Act. USAO SDNY

June 5, 2019

Opioid manufacturer Insys Therapeutics will pay $225 million to resolve federal criminal and civil claims against it regarding the unlawful marketing of its drug Subsys, including the payment of kickbacks to providers through sham "speaker programs" that rewarded practitioners who increased their Subsys prescribing, as well as jobs for prescribers' relatives and friends, and lavish meals and entertainment.  $195 million of the settlement will be paid to resolve False Claim Act allegations in five separate whistleblower lawsuits in which the government intervened in 2018; the whistleblower reward shares have not yet been determined.  To resolve the criminal claims, Insys will pay $2 million and forfeit $28 million; its operating subsidiary will plead guilty to wire fraud and related charges.  In addition, Insys entered into a five-year Corporate Integrity Agreement and a five-year deferred prosecution agreement. Previously, five former Insys executives were convicted of racketeering in connection with Subsys marketing.  DOJ; USAO Mass

June 3, 2019

Princess Cruise Lines Ltd. and its parent company Carnival Cruise Lines & plc will pay a $20 million criminal penalty for violating its probation resulting from a 2017 criminal proceeding in which the companies paid a $40 million penalty.  The companies were subject to ongoing compliance monitoring as a result of the earlier proceeding, and that monitoring detected numerous ongoing violations.  Defendants admitted to failing to implement an effective compliance program, seeking to evade their compliance obligations, falsifying records, and illegally discharging waste.  DOJ
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