Fraud

Washington, D.C., Nov. 5, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a pair of lawyers for tipping inside information in exchange for kickbacks as well as six Wall Street traders and a proprietary trading firm involved in a $20 million insider trading scheme.    » read more »

Hedge Fund Managers, Professional Traders and Senior Corporate Executive Among Newly Charged in $33 Million Scheme

Washington, D.C., Nov. 5, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced additional charges in its insider trading enforcement action against billionaire Raj Rajaratnam and Galleon Management LP by charging 13 additional individuals and entities, including three hedge fund managers, three professional traders at New York-based Schottenfeld Group, and a senior executive at Atheros Communications, a California-based developer of networking technologies.    » read more »

Scheme Involved U.S. Military Contracts Awarded in Kuwait

November 5, 2009 -- A civil lawsuit was filed today against a former U.S. Army officer and three contracting firms related to an alleged bribery scheme in connection with the awarding of contracts for services in Kuwait. Former Army officer John Cockerham Jr., who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, previously pleaded guilty to criminal charges along with another former officer, James Momon Jr.    » read more »

U.S. Also Files Complaint Against Two Atlanta-Based Nursing Home Chains and Their Principals

November 3, 2009 -- WASHINGTON — The nation’s largest nursing home pharmacy, Omnicare Inc. of Covington, Kentucky, will pay $98 million, and drug manufacturer, IVAX Pharmaceuticals of Weston, Florida, will pay $14 million to resolve allegations that Omnicare engaged in kickback schemes with several parties, including IVAX, the Justice Department announced today. Approximately $68.5 million of the settlement proceeds will go to the United States, while $43.5 million has been allocated to cover Medicaid program claims by participating states.    » read more »

November 3, 2009 -- As part of a continuing effort to identify the latest cyber crime trends and warn the public, the FBI today released the following information:

Within the last several months, the FBI has seen a significant increase in fraud involving the exploitation of valid online banking credentials belonging to small and medium businesses, municipal governments, and school districts. In a typical scenario, the targeted entity receives a “spear phishing” e-mail which either contains an infected attachment, or directs the recipient to an infected website.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., Oct. 30, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged the former chief financial officer of a San Francisco private investment firm and six of his relatives and friends with insider trading, alleging that their scheme collectively reaped more than $8 million in illicit profits from unlawful trades in the securities of Tempur-pedic International, Inc. and Acxiom Corporation.    » read more »

October 28, 2009 -- WASHINGTON -- Bill J. Allen and Richard L. Smith were each sentenced in separate hearings today for their participation in a corruption scheme in which they provided approximately $395,000 in corrupt payments to public officials from the state of Alaska, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division. Allen and Smith were sentenced in U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska by U.S. District Court Judge John W. Sedwick.    » read more »

Health Care Fraud Enforcement Act Will Strengthen Tools To Investigate Health Care Fraud

WASHINGTON -- October 28, 2009 – Following a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday on “Effective Strategies for Preventing Health Care Fraud,” Senator Patrick Leahy joined with Senator Ted Kaufman (D-Del.) to introduce the Health Care Fraud Enforcement Act. The legislation is also cosponsored by Committee members Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). Leahy chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.    » read more »

Hundreds of Thousands Illegally Taking Advantage of Credit, Costing Taxpayers Over $100 Million

October 29, 2009 -- Washington, DC - With new reports that hundreds of thousands are illegally taking advantage of a tax credit to help get first-time homebuyers into the housing market without actually purchasing a home, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand today co-sponsored legislation that would crack down on fraud and improve oversight of the first-time homebuyer tax credit.

The U.S. Treasury Department Inspector General released a report this month revealing167 schemes and over 100,000 individual cases of fraud related to the first-time homebuyer tax credit - costing taxpayers over $100 million.    » read more »

Franken Calls On Health Care Reform Leaders to Simplify Administrative Processes and Crack Down on Fraud

Washington, D.C. -- Oct 27, 2009 – U.S. Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) wrote to Chairmen Baucus (D-Mont.) and Harkin (D-Iowa) and Senator Dodd (D-Conn.) to urge them to include administrative simplification measures already adopted in Minnesota as part of the national health care reform efforts.

“Doctors and nurses should spend their time and resources dealing with patients, not paperwork,” said Sen. Franken. “I’m proud that Minnesota has been a leader in simplifying administrative processes. If the nation follows our example, we can save this country billions.”    » read more »

High-Ranking Corporate Executives Also Charged in Scheme That Generated More Than $25 Million in Illicit Gains

Washington, D.C., Oct. 16, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged billionaire Raj Rajaratnam and his New York-based hedge fund advisory firm Galleon Management LP with engaging in a massive insider trading scheme that generated more than $25 million in illicit gains. The SEC also charged six others involved in the scheme, including senior executives at major companies IBM, Intel and McKinsey & Company.    » read more »

October 16, 2009 -- Former General Services Administration (GSA) Chief of Staff David H. Safavian was sentenced today to one year in prison on charges of obstruction of justice and making false statements in connection with the investigation into the activities of former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

In addition to the prison term, Safavian was sentenced today to two years of supervised release by U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman of the District of Columbia.    » read more »

WASHINGTON, October 2 – The Senate last night passed an amendment by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would require the Department of Defense to calculate how much the Pentagon pays companies that committed fraud.

The measure, added to a defense appropriations bill, also would make the Pentagon recommend how to penalize contractors that repeatedly cheated the government out of hundreds of millions of dollars.    » read more »

Senator introduces bill to make it easier for employees to report waste and fraud in government contracting

October 1, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – With the federal government spending $530 billion on contracts in 2008 alone, people who blow the whistle when they see waste or fraud are more important than ever. Yet, most employees of government contractors currently don’t have adequate whistleblower protections to safeguard them from retaliation.

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill plans to change that in order to encourage more people to step forward and report fraud, waste and abuse by introducing legislation to extend ground breaking whistleblower protections to all government contractors.    » read more »

New County-By-County Report Estimates More Than Half a Million New York Seniors Fall Victim to Consumer Fraud

September 16, 2009 -- Washington, D.C. - To combat fraud and protect seniors, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand today unveiled her plan to crack down on financial fraud against seniors, increase penalties on those scamming seniors, increase awareness of criminal tactics, and hold workshops across New York on financial literacy to empower seniors to protect themselves and their life savings.

A new report from Senator Gillibrand's office estimates that over half a million New York seniors fall victim to consumer fraud each year.    » read more »