Whistleblower News From The Inside -- January 18, 2018

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team

Georgia eye care provider convicted of criminal fraud—Matilda Lynn Prince, an owner of two eye care clinics, has been convicted of 29 counts of health care fraud for billing Medicare and Medicaid for services that were never provided to patients. Prince had previously been excluded from the Medicare and Medicaid programs, yet continued to own and operate the clinics. She would advertise “free eye exams” for senior citizens, perform basic eye exams, but would instead bill Medicare and Medicaid for complex ophthalmological procedures, such as surgeries. USAO Northern District of Georgia

Former public transportation executive sentenced to prison time for fraud—Joseph Erves, a former senior director of MARTA (Atlanta’s rapid-transit system), has been sentence to 2.75 years in prison for a fraud scheme in which MARTA was billed $500k for maintenance services which were never performed. Erves had fake invoices prepared on behalf of maintenance vendors he oversaw, authorized payment under those invoices, and then took kickbacks from the vendors. USAO Northern District of Georgia

Maryland distiller charged with FCPA violations—Mark Lambert, now a distillery owner in Fredrick, Maryland, has been charged in a conspiracy to bribe a Russian atomic energy official to win contracts for his former business, a nuclear fuel transportation company. The indictment released last week alleges that Lambert used fake invoices, Latvian shell companies, and Swiss bank accounts to send eight bribes to the official, roughly totaling $1M. Lambert’s former business partner pleaded guilty to related charges in 2015. Fredrick News-Post