Elvis Perez, aka “Pops,” 60, from Bridgeport, Conn., was sentenced on Dec. 17, 2024, to 60 months in prison for his part in a family scheme to scam dozens of people and businesses out of $1 million, according to a DOJ press release. The identity theft scheme spanned multiple states and involved his spouse, Stephanie […]
Todd A. Rosetti and James W. Gunkel, both from Ocean Springs, Miss. and their company Quality Poultry and Seafood (QPS), were sentenced after being charged for their role in food mislabeling that prosecutors say lasted over two decades. QPS is regarded as the top seafood wholesaler on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, according to court documents.
Brett Barber, 45, of Costa Mesa, Calif., was sentenced to 181 months in prison for running fraudulent investment schemes in which most of the victims were elderly citizens. Barber co-owned BNZ Capital One and National American Capital, both based in Newport Beach, Calif.
Liridon Masurica, a 33-year-old Kosovo native, was indicted by the U.S. and arrested by the authorities in Kosovo after he was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit access device fraud and five counts of fraudulent use of unauthorized access devices.
Tony Archuleta-Perkins, 48, formerly from San Francisco but currently living in Palm Springs, pleaded guilty to bank fraud and money laundering on Dec. 11, according to a DOJ Press Release. The crimes were related to a years-long embezzlement scheme that cost Archuleta-Perkins’ former employers $1.3 million.
A man allegedly lied to two U.S. defense contracting companies by concealing that the products he sold to them from his American-based company were repacked goods from the China-based company he owned.
Fourteen people alleged to be North Korean nationals were indicted on Dec. 11 on charges of identity theft, wire fraud and money laundering in a years-long conspiracy to violate U.S. Sanctions, according to a DOJ press release.
On Dec. 5, a federal court sentenced Margaret Ward Heilman, 66, of Darlington County, S.C., and her sister Katherine Ward Gray, 60, of Florence County, S.C., to prison for their involvement in a conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to a Justice Department press release.
Jacob R. Kirkley, a 48-year-old man from Bismarck, Ill., was found guilty on Dec. 4 of five counts of counterfeiting U.S. currency and selling and possessing counterfeit U.S. currency, according to a Justice Department press release.
Kristi Margaret Berge, the 48-year-old founder and CEO of Keep Safe Investments, aka KSI Financial, a planning and investment services firm, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and two years of supervised release for her role in a wire fraud scheme in which millions of client investment funds were misappropriated, according to the […]
Prosecutors unsealed an indictment in November that charges nine people in an alleged multi-state money laundering scheme that yielded millions of dollars from internet fraud and business email compromise (BEC) schemes.
On Nov. 26, a U.S. district court sentenced Evan Bobzin, a 39-year-old man from Chester, Pa., to 24 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release for theft and tax offenses in which he embezzled $2 million, according to a Justice Department press release.
Teresina DeAlmeida, 59, from Warren, N.J., was sentenced to 36 months in prison on Dec. 6 for her part in a scheme to defraud Seton Hall Law School of over a million dollars, according to a DOJ press release. DeAlmedia, her sister Silvia Cardoso, 61, from Warren, N.J., and Rose Martins, 44, from East Hanover, […]
Katherine Mott-Formicola, 54, from Pittsford, N.Y., pleaded guilty on Dec. 3 to charges related to a scheme to inflate various bank accounts artificially, according to a DOJ press release. Mott-Formicola pled guilty to money laundering and financial institution fraud for her “check kiting” scheme that cost the banks millions of dollars.
Cory Zeidman, 63, from Boca Raton, Fla., pleaded guilty on Dec. 4 to charges related to a multi-year, multi-million dollar sports betting scheme, according to a DOJ press release. Zeidman pled guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.
Saint Jovite Youngblood, aka. Koto Youngblood, 52, from Austin, Texas, was sentenced on Dec. 4 to 40 years in prison for charges relating to a scheme to defraud people out of millions of dollars, according to a DOJ press release.
Richard Charles Appelbaum III, 40, from Maryland Heights, Mo., was sentenced on Dec. 5 to three years in prison for his part in a scheme to launder millions of dollars into cryptocurrency, according to a DOJ press release.
Raj Matharu, 31, from Northridge in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, was charged on Nov. 26 with possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine, according to a DOJ press release.
Jimmy Fu, a 63-year-old man from West Hills, Calif., was arrested on Oct. 30, 2024, and subsequently charged with one count of a money laundering conspiracy, according to a Justice Department press release.
University of Colorado Health, doing business as UCHealth, has agreed to pay for allegedly violating the False Claims by automatically upcoding emergency room visits, according to a Justice Department press release.
An ophthalmology practice called Brandon Eye, which has offices in Brandon, Sun City and Plant City, Fla., has agreed to pay $1.3 million to resolve violations of the federal False Claims Act and a similar state statute, according to a Nov. 12 Justice Department press release.
A Macy’s employee made improper accounting entries to the tune of $150 million over three years, which should have been applied toward delivery expenses.
A federal jury in Brooklyn found Avraham “Avi” Tarshish guilty of a conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, according to a new Justice Department press release. Tarshish and a team of co-conspirators cheated mortgage lenders, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, out of millions of dollars.
Frederick E. Cooper and his pharmaceutical company QOL Medical agreed to pay $47 million to resolve allegations that they caused the submission of false claims to federal health care programs by offering kickbacks in the form of free Carbon-13 breath testing services, to induce claims for QOL’s drug Sucraid, according to a Justice Department press […]
A New York man was sentenced to life in prison on Nov. 6 for murdering and dismembering a woman in a plot to cash in on her $200,000 life insurance policy.
Joseph Ponzo, a 51-year-old former police officer from Stoneham, Mass., and his younger brother Christoper, 50, pleaded guilty to a bribery and kickback scheme that netted them millions of dollars from Mass Save contracts, according to a DOJ public statement.
The owner of Red Barn Diesel Performance installed illegal software to circumvent emission control systems required by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Ronald Bauer, a Canadian and United Kingdom citizen who resided in the UK, pleaded guilty for his role in a long-running so-called “pump-and-dump” stock manipulation scheme.
Jeffrey Alan Benjamin, 62, from Jenkinsville, S.C., was sentenced on Nov. 21 to one year and one day for failing to provide accurate information to the energy company SCANA, which caused them to deceive regulators, shareholders and the public, according to a DOJ press release.
Ten people were convicted in federal court for their participation in an identity theft and fraud ring that extended from South Carolina north to New York, south to Florida and west to Texas, touching down in North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Virginia and Missouri along the way.
Brian Logan, 50, an attorney in Frankfort, Ky., pleaded guilty on Nov. 20 to aggravated identity theft, money laundering, wire fraud and bank fraud in a scheme to steal from charities, according to a DOJ press release.
Roberto Munoz, a 29-year-old man from Hialeah, Fla., and Jason Rhodes, a 34-year-old man from Flushing, N.Y., were arrested and charged for their alleged roles as couriers in so-called “grandparent scams” that targeted senior citizens in multiple states, including Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
The son of Ecuador’s former comptroller general has avoided trial by pleading guilty to a multimillion-dollar scheme to launder money on behalf of his father, Carlos Roman Polit Faggioni (Carlos Polit).
Greg Lindberg, 54, currently living in Tampa, Fla., pleaded guilty on Nov. 12 to conspiracy to commit money laundering for his part in a scheme to scam insurance policyholders and regulators, according to a DOJ press release. The scheme took place in multiple areas, including Malta, Bermuda and North Carolina.
Aaron A. Wagner, 42, and Michael Mains, 46, both from Alpine, Utah, were officially indicted on Nov. 6 on 16 counts of financial crimes concerning money laundering and wire fraud, according to a DOJ press release.
Babatunde Francis Ayeni, 33, a Nigerian national living in the United Kingdom, was sentenced to ten years in prison for his part in a years-long scheme that affected 400 people and stole nearly $20 million, according to a DOJ press release.
Darren Barr, 39, from Philadelphia, was sentenced to 57 months in prison on Nov. 6 for his part in a scheme to defraud the Lucas County Auditor’s Office, according to a DOJ press release. Barr organized and collaborated with other co-conspirators, pretending to be county-approved vendors to get over $620,000.
A federal court sentenced Ogheneofejiro Godswill Uzokpa, 28, of Warri, Nigeria, to seven years in prison for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from at least a dozen elderly women in a romance scheme, according to a DOJ press release. The sentence comes after Uzokpa pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count […]
Michael Kestner, a 72-year-old owner of Pain MD and MedManagement, Inc. clinics in Franklin, Tenn., has been convicted of orchestrating a healthcare fraud scheme that involved pressuring vulnerable patients into receiving unnecessary back injections, primarily targeting individuals undergoing opioid addiction treatment.
Ivor Jallah, a 37-year-old pharmacy owner from Dallas, Texas, has been sentenced to federal prison for his involvement in a massive healthcare fraud scheme.
As King Louis XV – the one between the Sun King and the man who brought you the French Revolution – might say, “Après le déluge, les arnaques (after the deluge, the scams).”
Chaojie Chen, 41, a Chinese national living in Chicago, pleaded guilty on Aug. 5, and Li Pei Tan, 46, from Buford, Ga., pleaded guilty on Oct. 30 to conspiracy and money laundering charges in a scheme that involved moving drug money for the Sinaloa and Jalisco Cartels, according to a DOJ press release.
The Justice Department reached a settlement with NH Learning Solutions Corporation (NHLS) over allegations that the company inflated Post-9/11 GI Bill claims.
On Oct. 12, Colby Parks, a 65-year-old former lawyer from Seattle, was indicted for twelve counts of wire fraud for allegedly embezzling from a client’s trust account.
Jeffrey A. Royer, 61, from Montrose, Colorado, was indicted on Oct. 17 on charges of participating in a foreign exchange (forex) trading scheme, according to a DOJ press release. He allegedly defrauded his many investors out of over $1 million.
Allen Onyema, the Chairman, CEO and founder of Air Peace, a Nigerian airline, was charged in a superseding indictment on Oct. 11 with obstruction of justice for submitting false documents to the U.S. government to end an investigation of him.
Aleksandr Viktorovich Ryzhenkov, a Russian national, was charged with using the BitPaymer ransomware variant to perform attacks on numerous victims in Texas and throughout the United States, holding their sensitive data for ransom, according to a public statement by the U.S. Justice Department.
Zishan Alvi, a 45-year-old man from Inverness, Illinois, pleaded guilty on Sept. 30 to his role in a COVID-19 testing fraud scheme, according to a press release by the Justice Department.
Acadia Healthcare, one of the biggest for-profit chains of psychiatric hospitals, has agreed to settle fraud claims alleged by the federal government, according to a Sept. 26 Justice Department statement.
Three members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have been charged with conspiracy, fraud, identity theft and wire fraud for allegedly hacking into accounts of current and former U.S. officials, media, NGOs and U.S. political campaigns, according to a recently unsealed indictment obtained by The Daily Muck.
As of Oct. 2, 2024, Precision Toxicology, doing business as Precision Diagnostics, has settled accusations of False Claims Act violations by agreeing to repay $27 million to the federal government.
Stephen T. Mellinger III, a securities broker, financial advisor, and insurance salesman from Florida, was indicted for a decade-long scheme to operate and promote an illegal tax shelter, stealing from his clients’ funds and money laundering, according to a Justice Department press release.
After being extradited from the United Kingdom in 2022, a Nigerian national was brought to justice for defrauding American businesses and universities of millions of dollars in an email compromise scheme.
Working with the State Department and the Treasury Department, as well as other international and federal law enforcement partners, the DOJ seized cryptocurrency exchange websites and charged two Russian nationals in a billion-dollar money laundering scheme, according to an indictment that was unsealed on Sept. 26.
Oak Street Health, a CVS subsidiary, agreed on Sept. 18 to pay $60 million to resolve allegations that it paid kickbacks to third-party insurance agents, according to a DOJ press release.
Jarett Robert Lewis, a 44-year-old man from Washington D.C, was arrested on Sept. 5 and charged with embezzling more than $320,000 from a non-profit advocacy organization.
Morice Armani Brown, a 24-year-old man from Jamaica residing in Florida, was sentenced to 63 months in prison, with an additional year on supervised release for his role in defrauding an elderly woman from Lenoir City, Tennessee.
Jonathan Freeze, a 65-year-old man accused of conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud, pleaded guilty on Sept. 4 before United States District Judge Robert J. Colville, according to a plea agreement obtained by The Daily Muck.
Dennis W. Haggerty, a 48-year-old man from Burr Ridge, Ill., was sentenced to spend six years and five months in federal prison for misappropriating over $1.85 million in company funds, according to a press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Illinois.
“Ignorance and Empathy” may sound like the title of a Jane Austen novel, but they are two causes of what can be called “innocent” Medicare fraud. However, health care providers must remember two maxims: ignorance of the law is no excuse, and the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
For over 13 years, Alexandria, La., pain management specialist Dr. Michael E. Dole billed Medicare for medically unnecessary urinalyses of his patients, according to a six-count indictment released Sept. 18, the Department of Justice announced in a recent press release.
In a fascinating new case that tests the legality of AI-generated art, Michael Smith, a 52-year-old musician from Cornelius, North Carolina, was arrested and indicted for using sophisticated artificial intelligence to create a streaming music fraud scheme that netted him more than $10 million.
Daniel Jarrett Ridlinghafer, 37, of Marana, Ariz., was indicted on 11 charges of bank, wire and mail fraud by a federal grand jury in Tuscon on Aug. 14, according to a DOJ press release. Ridlinghafer defrauded homeowners out of more than $695,000, prosecutors say.
As of the writing of this report, five Dominican Republic nationals have been extradited to New Jersey in a “grandparent scam” that defrauded hundreds of elderly Americans of millions of dollars. A Bronx man has also been arrested for wire fraud conspiracy in connection with the scheme.
Everyone’s fantasy: a rich relative you never knew about dies and leaves you several million dollars. Your first thought is, “This will change my life.” For 400 U.S. senior citizens who were conned out of $6 million over a five-year period, that statement proved to be all-to-true.
Carlos Corona, a 37-year-old man from South Los Angeles, was sentenced to seven years and three months in federal prison for leading a conspiracy that defrauded banks and credit unions of more than $2.7 million, according to a court judgment in the case.
In March 2016, federal agents seized a 2000-year-old, one-ton ceramic mosaic piece of floor that had been illegally brought into the United States several months earlier.
Two more members of an international fraud ring that preyed on elderly Americans in several U.S. states were sentenced to federal prison on Aug. 16, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Western Michigan announced in a press release. That leaves only the leader, nicknamed “Master,” to have his day in court.
Four years ago, the United States and the world were in the grips of the COVID pandemic. While there were many heroes in that battle, there were also villains.
Owners of the medical practice named Orange Medical Care P.C. from Newburgh, New York, Ashikkumar A. Raval, and Manish A. Raval, were ordered to repay at least $600,000 of a $1.6 million lawsuit by the U.S. federal government, according to a press release by the U.S. Attorney, Southern District of New York.
With great power comes great responsibility. One trusted town clerk didn’t learn this lesson as he decided to steal the town’s money he was hired to protect.
A federal jury convicted Morteza Amiri, a former police officer, of one count of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a scheme to obtain pay raises from the Antioch Police Department, California, by falsely obtaining a university degree.
Mozambique’s former finance minister, 68-year-old Manuel Chang, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Aug. 8 after being convicted of conspiring to commit wire fraud and money laundering in connection with a $2 billion scheme that targeted investors in the United States and other countries.
After eluding authorities for seven years, an Orlando man has been sentenced to almost 5½ years in federal prison for fraud and identity theft, the U.S. Attorney for Central Florida reported in a press release.
The owner of a Spokane Valley medical supply company will pay almost $225,000 for a kickback scheme to bill Medicare for unnecessary medical equipment, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.
A New Orleans man, John M. Spivey, who pled guilty on July 30 to conspiracy to commit Medicare fraud will not be sentenced until April 15, 2025, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a press release.
Long-time Des Peres Alderman John Pound was sentenced on Aug. 1 to five years of probation and ordered to repay $292,305 he embezzled from two clients of his property management company from 2006 to mid-2020, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Missouri.
Christopher Adam Jensen-Tanner, a former escrow company owner from Roswell, New Mexico, has been sentenced to 46 months in prison for defrauding his clients, according to a July 29 press release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, New Mexico District.
A North Carolina/Tennessee healthcare company has been charged in federal court with Medicare fraud, according to a complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.
The U.S. has arrested a former Special Forces soldier and owner of a private security company on charges related to organizing a failed Venezuelan coup in 2020.
In a significant move to combat healthcare fraud, the Justice Department, in coordination with the FTC, filed an amended complaint last month against Cerebral, Inc., a telehealth provider, and its executives.
Magellan Diagnostics, Inc., a medical device company out of Billerica, Massachusetts, pled guilty to federal criminal charges in June over accusations that it concealed a malfunction of a device that recorded incorrectly low lead results in tests it provided for tens of thousands of their patients, many of whom were children, according to a Department […]
Daniel Hurt, of Fort Lauderdale, has agreed to pay the government $27 million to settle allegations that he conspired to violate the False Claims Act (FCA) by submitting fraudulent claims to Medicare for cancer genomic tests (CGx) that were not necessary, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release.
The U.S Secret Service seizes a web domain used in a new type of cryptocurrency con called Pig Butchering, which was used to defraud one victim out of $341,000.
It’s a crime that costs Americans billions. An offense that endangers lives. And no one is immune from the effects of these unlawful acts– they literally affect each and every one of us. The crime is medical fraud.
On May 23, police arrested collectible trading card vendors who prosecutors say defrauded customers of $2 million, according to a press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York.
Last week, prosecutors charged Jiaci Liu with crimes related to a sophisticated fraud scheme aimed at seniors, according to a press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of California.
Two brothers have been arrested following an alleged novel scheme to exploit the very integrity of the Ethereum blockchain to fraudulently obtain approximately $25 million worth of cryptocurrency within approximately 12 seconds, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
Employees at the Sandia National Laboratories worked unnecessary overtime and changed project codes on official paperwork, an internal Department of Energy audit released on April 1 found.
On March 26, Robert M. Clark of Florida pled guilty to charges related to his role in bilking Medicare for more than $30 million, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release.
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