Turkey fumes at Sweden in NATO membership dispute
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 the European Union designate as “terrorists”. But the now-closed Today’s Zaman newspaper’s editor-in-chief Bulent Kenes was the only person Erdogan…
BioTelemetry Inc and subsidiary CardioNet LLC to Pay More than $44.8 Million for False Claims
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 in many cases by technicians who were not qualified to perform such tests. The United States alleged that CardioNet improperly…
Advanced Bionics LLC to Pay Over $12 Million for Alleged False Claims for Cochlear Implant Processors
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 certain tests or standards,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Department of Justice’s Civil…
CytoDyn Inc: Two Biotech CEOs Charged in Securities Fraud Schemes #leronlimab
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 engaged in a conspiracy to defraud investors through false and misleading representations and material omissions relating to CytoDyn’s development of…
Jan 6 panel calls for insurrection, fraud charges against Trump
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 defraud the United States — after an 18-month probe into the storming of Congress on Jan 6, 2021. At least…
Corporate and White-Collar Enforcement in 2023–24
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 says latest launches tested 1st spy satellite
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 and Incheon, a city just west of Seoul, in an apparent attempt to show the North is pushing to acquire…
Honeywell UOP to Pay Over $160 Million to Resolve Foreign Bribery Investigations in U.S. and Brazil
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.
Epic Games Inc., Developer of Fortnite Video Game, Agrees to $275 Million Penalty and Injunction for Alleged Violations of Children’s Privacy Law
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 Rule), and the Federal Trade Commission Act. Epic Games will also be subject to a permanent injunction regarding children’s personal…
January 6 committee expected to announce referral of multiple criminal charges against Trump to DOJ
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 for Trump, according to the source. The referral recommendations will be presented at a committee meeting on Monday and the…
Federal Financial Aid Fraud Scheme: Apex School of Theology Sham University
Five individuals were sentenced yesterday for conspiring to defraud the U.S. Department of Education’s financial aid programs of over $12 million in federal funds. According to court documents, from around August 2010 through May 2018, the defendants created and ran an elaborate sham university – the Columbus, Georgia, satellite campus of Apex School of Theology (Apex Columbus). Anderson, the former Director of Apex Columbus, enrolled hundreds of individuals who were not qualified and who had no desire to obtain a…
US ‘botched’ executions reach all-time high, report finds
Los Angeles, California – While the use of the death penalty continues to decline in the United States, a new report has found that “botched” executions reached a new high this year. In its annual report on the use of capital punishment in the country, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) said on Friday that seven of the 20 attempted executions by US states in 2022 were “visibly problematic”. That included a case in which Alabama officials struggled to insert…
Portuguese Data Protection Authority fines the National Institute of Statistics € 4.3 million
On 2 November 2022, the Portuguese Data Protection Authority (“CNPD”) issued a Decision imposing a fine of € 4,300,000 (four million three hundred euros) to the National Institute of Statistics (“INE”) for multiple violations in the processing of data subjects’ sensitive data during the Census 2021 operation. Background On the 27th of April 2021, after launching an investigation into the transfer of personal data from INE to Cloudflare (a U.S. service provider engaged by INE for the operation of the…
Theranos President Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani Sentenced to More Than 12 Years for Fraud, Jeopardized Patient Health and Bilked Investors
Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani was sentenced today to 155 months (12 years, 11 months) in federal prison for fraud that risked patient health by misrepresenting the accuracy of Theranos blood analysis technology and that defrauded Theranos investors of millions of dollars, announced United States Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds, Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge Robert K. Tripp, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Assistant Commissioner for Criminal Investigations Catherine A. Hermsen, and U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) San Francisco Division…
Former Twitter Employee 42 Prison Sentence for Acting as Foreign Agent, Selling User Data
WASHINGTON – A California man was sentenced yesterday to 42 months in federal prison for his role in accessing, monitoring and conveying confidential and sensitive information that could be used to identify and locate Twitter users of interest to the Saudi Royal Family. Ahmad Abouammo, 45, formerly of Walnut Creek and currently residing in Seattle, was convicted of acting as a foreign agent without notice to the Attorney General, conspiracy, wire fraud, international money laundering and falsification of records in…
Ocenture LLC and Carelumina LLC Settle Allegations of Kickbacks, Genetic Testing Fraud Scheme
Ocenture LLC, a privately held company headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, and its subsidiary, Carelumina LLC (collectively, “Ocenture”), have agreed to pay $3 million to resolve allegations that they caused the submission of false claims to Medicare by paying and receiving kickbacks in connection with genetic testing samples. The United States alleged that Ocenture participated in a genetic testing fraud scheme with other marketers and clinical laboratories. As part of the alleged scheme, Ocenture solicited genetic testing samples from Medicare beneficiaries…
