Category: corporate corruption

Home finance companies General Commercial Group Pty Ltd (formerly known as Urban Commercial Group) and Eden Capital (Australia) Pty Ltd (formerly known as Southside Lending) have each been penalised $50,000 by the Federal Court for failing to cooperate with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). General commercial director Dale Brendan Heremaia and his son, Eden Capital director Benjamin Eden Heremaia, were ordered to pay $30,000 and $20,000 respectively for their roles in the misconduct. The court outcome means for the…

Home finance companies General Commercial Group Pty Ltd (formerly known as Urban Commercial Group) and Eden Capital (Australia) Pty Ltd (formerly known as Southside Lending) have each been penalised $50,000 by the Federal Court for failing to cooperate with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). General commercial director Dale Brendan Heremaia and his son, Eden Capital director Benjamin Eden Heremaia, were ordered to pay $30,000 and $20,000 respectively for their roles in the misconduct. The court outcome means for the…

On January 17, 2023, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division (“AAG”) Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. announced significant revisions to the U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, corporate criminal enforcement policy (“CEP”).[1] The new CEP changes offer additional incentives to companies for voluntary self-disclosures, cooperation, and remediation.  The new CEP reflects an increased emphasis on……

Peru closed its famed tourist site Machu Picchu Saturday as authorities expelled protesters from a Lima university where they have been sheltering as they wage relentless anti-government demonstrations in the capital. Protests demanding the resignation of Peruvian President Dina Boluarte have been ongoing since early December, leaving 46 people dead and prompting the government to impose a state of emergency in violence-hit areas. Authorities announced Saturday yet another protester had died following demonstrations in the country’s south, with the victim…

On January 4, 2023, the Irish Data Protection Commission (“DPC”) announced the conclusion of two inquiries into the data processing practices of Meta Platforms, Inc. (“Meta”) with respect to the company’s Instagram and Facebook platforms. As a result of the investigations, the DPC fined Meta a combined €390 million for breaches of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and, following consultation with the European Data Protection Board (“EDPB”), notably held that Meta can no longer rely on the GDPR’s…

Medical device manufacturer DePuy Synthes, Inc. (DePuy), a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, has agreed to pay $9.75 million to resolve allegations it violated the False Claims Act by paying kickbacks to an orthopedic surgeon based in Massachusetts to induce his use of DePuy products.

Two businessmen, Vladislov Ospiov, 51, a dual Russian and Swiss national, and Richard Masters, 52, a United Kingdom national, are charged in separate indictments unsealed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, with facilitating a sanctions evasion and money laundering scheme in relation to the ownership and operation of the Motor Yacht (M/Y) Tango (International Maritime Organization number 1010703), a $90 million, 255-foot luxury yacht owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg.

A federal judge has ordered Boeing Co to be arraigned on a felony charge stemming from crashes of two 737 Max jets, a ruling that threatens to unravel an agreement Boeing negotiated to avoid prosecution. The ruling by a judge in Texas came after relatives of some of the victims said the government violated their rights by reaching a settlement with Boeing without first notifying the families. U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor ordered Boeing to send a representative to…

Empire Bulkers Limited and Joanna Maritime Limited, two related companies based in Greece, were sentenced today for committing knowing and willful violations of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS) and the Ports and Waterways Safety Act related to their role as the operator and owner of the Motor Vessel (M/V) Joanna.

A New York judge on Friday fined Donald Trump’s family business the maximum penalty possible of $1.6 million for committing tax fraud. The sum, paltry to the billionaire real estate developer’s amassed fortune, is nevertheless symbolically significant as the ex-president eyes the White House again amid a host of legal woes. The Trump Corporation and Trump Payroll Corp., entities of the Trump Organization, were found guilty last month of running a years-long scheme to defraud and evade taxes through falsifying…

The United States has filed a complaint under the National Housing Act of 1934 (NHA) against Bob Dean Jr. and several affiliated corporate entities for misappropriating and misusing the assets and income of four nursing homes in Louisiana before and after Hurricane Ida’s landfall in August 2021. The four nursing homes, all of which were owned and operated by Dean and his companies, and had loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), are Maison De’Ville Nursing Home – Houma,…

A federal district court in San Diego ordered today that over $17 million in restitution be distributed to approximately 800 victims from over 40 different countries due to their investment losses in BitConnect, a massive cryptocurrency investment scheme, which defrauded thousands of investors worldwide. On Sept. 16, 2021, Glenn Arcaro, 44, the top U.S.-based promoter for BitConnect, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Separately, on Feb. 25, 2022, the founder of BitConnect, Satish Kumbhani, was indicted for his…

Allen Weisselberg, a longtime executive for Donald Trump and the star prosecution witness in the criminal trial of the former president’s real estate company, was sentenced on Tuesday to five months behind bars for helping engineer a wide-ranging tax fraud at the Trump Organization. Weisselberg, 75, was expected to be sent to New York’s notorious Rikers Island jail after pleading guilty last August to all 15 counts he faced in an agreement with prosecutors. The Trump Organization’s former chief financial…

  U.S. Department of Justice FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, January 4, 2022 Pennsylvania-based medical device distributor Jet Medical Inc. (Jet) agreed to pay $200,000 to resolve criminal allegations relating to a migraine headache treatment, and Jet and two related companies agreed to pay another $545,000 in a civil settlement involving the same device. In a criminal information filed today in the Southern District of Illinois, the government alleged that between April 2014 and April 2019, Jet introduced into interstate commerce devices…

A Romanian national was sentenced today to 89 months in prison for his role in a transnational, multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud American victims. He is the 24th member of the organized criminal group to be sentenced, of the 28 who were charged. Ionut-Razvan Sandu, 35, of Romania, pleaded guilty in April 2022 to conspiracy to commit a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) offense. Four other defendants pleaded guilty to this offense and were sentenced for their roles in…

Two Dubai entities and several individuals were charged in an indictment unsealed in the District of Maryland recently for their roles in a multimillion-dollar scheme to export non-organic grain into the United States to be sold as certified organic. Hakan Agro DMCC and Hakan Organics DMCC, both based in Dubai, and Goksal Beyaz, Nuray Beyaz and Mustafa Cakiroglu, all of Turkey, were each charged with conspiracy, smuggling, and wire fraud. An initial appearance for Hakan Agro and Hakan Organics was…