Corruption Ledger

As the U.S. deals with its deadliest overdose crisis to date, a national crime-prevention group is calling on the Justice Department to clamp down on social media’s role in the spread of fentanyl, the drug largely driving a troubling spike in overdose deaths among teenagers. The National Crime Prevention Council sent a letter Wednesday to Attorney General Merrick Garland, calling…

Zyno Medical LLC (Zyno), a medical device manufacturer headquartered in Massachusetts, has agreed to pay $493,140 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by causing the submission of claims to Medicare in connection with the intravenous (IV) administration of medication using devices Zyno knew were materially defective. The settlement announced today resolves allegations that Zyno knowingly distributed…

German authorities said on Thursday they had arrested an employee of its foreign intelligence service (BND) on suspicion of sharing state secrets with Russia this year and thereby committing treason. Police arrested the suspect, a German citizen identified as Carsten L, on Wednesday in Berlin, the federal prosecutors office said. It said police also raided his flat and workplace as…

A former chairman and two other senior officials of major business suit retailer Aoki Holdings Inc admitted in court Thursday to having bribed a former Tokyo Olympic organizing committee executive to become a sponsor for the sporting event held last year. Hironori Aoki, 84, along with two others, has been charged with providing a total of 28 million yen to…

The Kremlin on Thursday accused Kyiv and Washington of turning a deaf ear to its concerns and charged the United States was using Ukraine as a battleground to weaken Russia. It came as President Vladimir Putin insisted Russia was aiming for a speedy end to the fighting. “Our goal is… to end this conflict. We are striving for this”, he…

Meta Platforms Inc CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative-backed Byju’s —​​India’s largest online education firm — has been accused of bullying parents to buy courses. What Happened: India’s National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, or NCPCR, said the edtech company is targeting first-generation learners and forcing parents to buy courses after purchasing their phone numbers, ANI reported. Priyank Kanoongo, the…

Turkey on Tuesday lashed out at Sweden’s refusal to extradite a top reporter that Ankara has demanded in exchange for its ratification of Stockholm’s NATO membership bid. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants Sweden to return dozens of people that he suspects either of involvement in a failed 2016 coup or of membership of a banned Kurdish militia that Washington and…

BioTelemetry Inc. and its subsidiary CardioNet LLC, both headquartered in Pennsylvania (collectively “BioTelemetry”), have agreed to pay $44,875,000 to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by knowingly submitting claims to Medicare, TRICARE, the Veterans Health Administration, and the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program for heart monitoring tests that were performed, in part, outside the United States, and…

Advanced Bionics LLC, a Valencia, California-based manufacturer of cochlear implant system devices, has agreed to pay more than $12 million to resolve allegations that it misled federal health care programs regarding the radio-frequency (RF) emissions generated by some of its cochlear implant processors. “The United States expects device manufacturers to provide accurate information when they claim that their devices meet…

A federal grand jury in the District of Maryland returned an indictment that was unsealed today charging two men for their roles in schemes to defraud investors in CytoDyn Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company (OTCQB: CYDY) based in Vancouver, Washington. According to court documents, Nader Pourhassan, 59, of Lake Oswego, Oregon, and Kazem Kazempour, 69, of Potomac, Maryland, allegedly…

The panel probing last year’s assault on the U.S. Capitol on Monday recommended Donald Trump be charged with crimes including insurrection — raising the stakes in an investigation that could put the former president in jail. The House of Representatives select committee called for the indictment — as well as charges of obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to…

As 2022 comes to a close, is it possible to predict a trend for corporate and white-collar enforcement by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2023? Yes: enforcement will increase in 2023, and it will increase yet more in 2024. Understanding the Department as a dispersed, human institution that responds to incentives explains why.

North Korea said Monday it fired a test satellite in an important final-stage test for the development of its first spy satellite, a key military capability coveted by its leader Kim Jong Un along with other high-tech weapons systems. The North’s official Korean Central News Agency also released low-resolution, black-and-white photos showing a space view of the South Korean capital…

According to the company’s admissions and court documents, between 2010 and 2014, Honeywell UOP conspired to offer an approximately $4 million bribe to a then-high-ranking executive of Petróleo Brasileiro S.A (Petrobras) in Brazil. Specifically, Honeywell UOP offered the bribe to secure improper advantages in order to obtain and retain business from Petrobras in connection with Honeywell UOP’s efforts to win an approximately $425 million contract from Petrobras to design and build an oil refinery called Premium.

The Department of Justice, together with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), today announced a settlement that, if approved by a federal court, will require Epic Games Inc. (Epic Games) to pay $275 million in civil penalties as part of a settlement to resolve alleged violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA…

The House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, is expected to announce it will refer at least three criminal charges against former President Donald Trump to the Justice Department, including insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the federal government, according to a source familiar with the matter. The committee’s final recommendations could include additional charges proposed…