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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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October 30, 2018

The owner of a Virginia-based nonprofit called JOBS Community Development Corporation has been convicted of defrauding the USDA's Summer Food Service Program. In order to obtain over $800,000 in federal funds, Shaun Brown allegedly falsified reimbursement claims and supporting documents to show grossly inflated numbers for meals served to low income children by her nonprofit. Furthermore, with federal funds, she allegedly ordered quantities of food that was so far in excess that she had to know it could never be used. Instead, her employees were directed to dump the food on a pig farm and behind buildings around town. For theft of government funds and other fraud charges, she faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. USAO EDVA

October 30, 2018

A Mississippi man has been sentenced to almost 20 years in prison for defrauding 320 investors in 14 states of more than $165.5 million dollars in what is being called the largest Ponzi scheme to come out of that state. From 2011 to 2018, Arthur Lamar Adams told investors that his company, Madison Timber Properties, LLC, bought and sold timber rights and that investments would go toward financing contracts with lumber mills. To further the scheme, he falsified timber deeds, forged signatures, and created fraudulent documents for investors. USAO SDMS

October 29, 2018

Three people have been indicted by a federal grand jury for deceiving a now defunct bank and the FDIC from 2009 to 2010. Joseph Natale, the former CEO of First State Bank, Albert Gasparro, an investment advisor, and Gary Ketchum, a business owner, allegedly duped the bank into paying them $715,000 in fees for a $7 million investment, which turned out to be primarily comprised of the bank's own funds. To further the fraud, Ketchum then took out loans amounting to $176,000 from the bank and, together with the other two defendants, misrepresented the misconduct to the bank and the FDIC. If convicted of all 13 counts of fraud, the three face decades in prison and millions of dollars in fines. USAO NJ

October 29, 2018

Matthias Krull, a former executive of Swiss bank Julius Baer Group Ltd., was sentenced to ten years in prison following his guilty plea to charges arising from his involvement in an international scheme to launder more than a billion dollars embezzled from Venezuela’s national oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA or PDVSA.  DOJ

October 18, 2018

Dr. Felmor Agatep, a Florida-based doctor, has plead guilty to receiving kickbacks and defrauding TRICARE over prescriptions to outrageously expensive and medically unnecessary pain and scar creams. According to the DOJ press release, a one month supply of the creams in question cost more than $16,000 when made by a compounding pharmacy. At some point in late 2014, Agatep agreed to receive kickbacks from a marketing group of $100 per TRICARE patient in exchange for writing prescriptions for these creams. In just a month and a half, Agatep allegedly wrote a total of 265 prescriptions, which amounted to a bill of $4.4 million for TRICARE. He now faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. USAO MDFL

October 17, 2018

A former financial advisor turned online sportswear retailer has been convicted of numerous counts of fraud for running a $20 million Ponzi scheme. Between 2014 and 2017, Dawn Bennett allegedly convinced investors to invest in her company, DJB Holdings, by misrepresenting its financial health and the investment risks. With the money she obtained from 46 investors, many of them elderly, Bennett paid legal expenses and repaid earlier investors. After the fraud was discovered, Bennett allegedly arranged to have priests in India perform protective spells on her behalf. Unfortunately for her, the spells did not work as intended, and she now faces a lifetime in prison. USAO MD

October 17, 2018

An investment advisor who owned and operated an investment firm called CM Capital Management LLC has plead guilty to running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded 53 investors of $6.1 million over the course of 13 years. In at least 13 of those cases, the investors with Edward Lee Moody, Jr.'s firm were elderly people who had entrusted him with their life savings. Instead of investing the funds on his clients' behalf, Moody used them to buy securities for himself, as well as buy a home, make car payments, and travel. To cover his tracks, he paid earlier investors using funds obtained from newer investors and created falsified statements that showed earned returns. Yet the reality was that in most of those cases, Moody hadn't even opened brokerage accounts for his clients, let alone buy securities on their behalf. He now faces a sentence of decades in prison at his sentencing in February. USAO EDVA

October 16, 2018

Two doctors and three nurses were sentenced to prison for their roles in fraudulently billing Medicare $11 million through claims submitted by two companies—Timely Home Health Services Inc., a home health provider, and Boomer House Calls, a house call provider, both in the Dallas area. The scheme allegedly took place from 2007 to 2015 and involved falsifying records so it appeared that Medicare beneficiaries received home health services when in fact they did not. The five defendants will serve sentences ranging from as little as 6 months to as much as 10 years in prison. DOJ

October 16, 2018

A Medicaid transportation provider, its president, and a driver have been sentenced to pay a $10,000 fine and serve 2-4 years in prison for stealing a total of $1.2 million from New York's Medicaid program. The driver who was sentenced, Haimid Thompson, was accused of paying a Medicaid recipient to enroll in services from his employer and submitting falsified logs showing daily trips on behalf of the recipient. He was ordered to pay $23,598. The company, 716 Transportation, Inc., was sentenced to a fine of $10,000, and the president, Wossen Ambaye was ordered to pay restitution of $900,497, for knowing the services billed were not actually provided. NY AG

October 15, 2018

The heir of a family skincare business has been sentenced to almost 3 years in prison for multiple counts of tax fraud. James Wright of B&P Company, Inc.—which has been selling a wrinkle reduction product called Frownies since 1889—allegedly diverted money from the company to a series of entities that he then used to fund personal expenses. Through a company he called The Remnant, Inc., Wright paid rent and utilities for himself and other immediate family members. Through a private foundation he called Fore Fathers Foundation, he paid high school and college tuition for his five children. According to the DOJ press release, Wright had previously pleaded guilty to concealing income through trusts. In addition to the new prison sentence, he is ordered to pay almost restitution of $150,000. DOJ
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