Criminal Proceedings

April 14, 2023

Nine defendants will spend a combined 70 years in prison for their respective roles in a $126 million compounding fraud scheme. The co-conspirators defrauded the Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs and TRICARE by submitting false claims and paying kickbacks to patient recruiters and physicians for prescribing certain medications, based not on medical necessity but instead on the drugs’ hefty reimbursement rates. The patients received the compounded medications via mail, despite never requesting, wanting, or needing them. DOJ

March 28, 2023

James K. Couture, a Massachusetts-based investment adviser, defrauded his clients of nearly $3 million from 2009 to December 2019, convincing them to sell portions of their securities to fund large money transfers to an entity Couture controlled—a detail not shared with his clients. Couture consented to a final judgment enjoining him from future violations of the securities laws’ antifraud provisions. Couture will spend 100 months in prison and was ordered to pay approximately $4.7 million in restitution and forfeiture for his deceptive, Ponzi-like scheme. SEC

March 9, 2023

A former Malaysia-based Goldman Sachs investment banker has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for being involved in a massive bribery and money-laundering scheme involving Malaysia’s state-owned 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).  In order to obtain and retain lucrative business for Goldman Sachs, Roger Ng and co-conspirators at Goldman Sachs misappropriated billions of dollars from 1MDB, which they used to pay bribes to 12 government officials in Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates.  Proceeds from the scheme were then laundered through the U.S. financial system.  DOJ

February 24, 2023

Energy & Environmental Investments, LLC (“EEI”) and Energy & Environment, Inc. (“E&E”) have agreed to pay $3.4 million in disgorgement, nearly $1 million in prejudgment interest, and over $1 million in civil monetary penalty to settle SEC charges of conducting a fraudulent securities offering.  A parallel criminal case was filed in California Superior Court in 2021 against EEU’s CEO, Amir Sardari, and former Vice President of Investor Relations, Narysa Luddy, which both have pleaded guilty to.  According to the SEC, EEI employed high-pressure tactics to solicit investments, then misappropriated about 47% of the $9.3 million raised from over 200 investors to cover payroll, marketing, Luddy’s personal expenses, and payments to prior investors.  SEC

December 20, 2022

Following his conviction on charges related to his direction of a Ponzi scheme and the fraudulent sale of purported N95 masks during the pandemic, Christopher Parris was sentenced to 20.3 years in prison.  In the Ponzi scheme, which collapsed in 2018, Parris and co-conspirators – including Perry Santillo, obtained at least $115.5 million from approximately 1,000 investors, with claims that they were investing in a diversified investment portfolio when, in fact, very little investor money was deployed in productive investments.  Parris also pleaded guilty to charges that he defrauded the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs and others between February and April, 2020, by falsely representing that he was able to obtain brand-name N95 masks directly from authorized sources in the United States, when in fact, he had no ready access to such masks or other PPE.  Parris obtained upfront payments totaling approximately $7.4 million from at least eight clients, knowing that he had no access to or ability to obtain or deliver the PPE.  DOJ; USAO WD NY

December 13, 2022

Danske Bank will pay over $2 billion to resolve charges from the SEC and DOJ arising from failures in its anti-money laundering compliance program at an Estonian bank it acquired and began operating as a branch in 2007, and from its failure to disclose the risks posed by the program’s significant deficiencies.  Danske Bank had received information from an internal whistleblower, conducted internal audits, and received information from regulators, from which it knew that the Estonian branch served high-risk customers, including many Russians, who were engaged in billions of dollars in suspicious and potentially criminal transactions; that its internal policies were inadequate; and, that its AML and KYC procedures were not being followed.  Despite this knowledge, the bank made materially misleading statements and omissions that it complied with its AML obligations and that it had effectively managed its AML risks.  These statements mislead investors and U.S. banks and allowed its high-risk customers to gain unlawful access to the U.S. financial system.  Danske agreed to pay an SEC penalty of $413 million and, as part of a criminal plea to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, will forfeit over $2 billion, with $850 million of that amount being credited from separate criminal or civil resolutions with foreign and domestic authorities, including the SEC.  DOJ, SEC, SDNY

December 5, 2022

An opioid abuse treatment facility in New Jersey has agreed to pay $3.15 million and enter into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement to resolve criminal and civil charges relating to alleged violations of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute.  Between 2009 and 2015, Camden Treatment Associates LLC (CTA) allegedly received kickbacks from a related company in exchange for exclusive orders of CTA’s methadone mixing services.  CTA then allegedly submitted false claims to Medicaid and obstructed a Medicaid contractor’s attempt to audit those claims in 2016 by falsifying patient records.  USAO NJ