East Texas lab company, owners to pay $3.75M for false Medicare claim

Elite Lab Services, LLC, along with its husband-and-wife owners Gerard and Suzanne Dengler, will pay the United States $3.75 million after billing Medicare for tens of thousands of miles that were never driven by Elite Lab’s personnel, announced Acting United States Attorney Brit Featherston.

“The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas continues to combat white-collar fraud at every turn,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Featherston.  “Medicare is designed to ensure that this country’s elderly have access to vital health care services.  Unfortunately, some providers fraudulently raid these limited public funds for purely personal gain—misconduct that our office will tirelessly prosecute.” read more »

Cemex says US securities commission investigates new cement plant in Colombia

Said on Friday received a subpoena from United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seeking information to determine whether there have been any violations of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)

Says subpoena is related to irregularities reported by CEMEX regarding new cement plant being built by CEMEX Colombia read more »

Former Guinean Minister of Mines Charged with Receiving and Laundering $8.5 Million in Bribes from Chinese Companies

The former Minister of Mines and Geology of the Republic of Guinea was arrested and charged today with laundering proceeds from bribes that he allegedly received from two Chinese companies that are part of a Chinese conglomerate in exchange for official actions he took to secure valuable mining rights for the conglomerate.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York, Assistant Director Stephen Richardson of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, and Assistant Director in Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. of the FBI’s New York Field Office made the announcement.

“Former Minister Thiam is accused of enriching himself at the expense of the people of the Republic of Guinea,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell.  “We cannot allow the United States to be a safe haven for the spoils of official corruption.  The department is committed to pursuing both those who pay bribes, and also the corrupt officials who receive them.” read more »

Starbucks Brews Up a Tax Storm as Apple Gets Set to Fight EU

Starbucks Corp. attacked “manifest errors” by European Union competition watchdogs as details of the coffee chain’s appeal of a 30 million-euro ($32 million) tax repayment order were made public for the first time.

In the Starbucks case, the commission said a Dutch unit paid millions of euros to a U.K.-based arm of the company that isn’t taxed in Britain, in exchange for a technique to roast coffee beans. Exaggerated tax-deductible royalty payments for this technique may have allowed Starbucks to unfairly lower its Dutch taxes. read more »

Former Gators, Jags linebacker indicted for health care fraud, money laundering

Former University of Florida and Jaguars linebacker Monty Grow was indicted in federal court on Tuesday with conspiracy to defraud the United States to pay and receive health care kickbacks, health care fraud, money laundering and causing the misbranding on drugs while held in sale. The U.S. Southern District of Florida released the indictment on its website, and Grow was the subject of a report on the CBS Evening News.

Grow, 45, a Tampa resident, is being charged with receiving around $20 million in kickbacks from a Broward County compounding pharmacy in exchange for recruiting and referring patients covered by Tricare, a health care insurance program that covers — according to its website — uniformed service personnel and their families, military retirees and their families, National Guard reservists and their families, former military spouses and Medal of Honor recipients. read more »

Will The Sapin II Anti-Corruption Law Shepherd France Into A New Era Of Transparency?

The French national assembly has finally voted on the final text of its new anti-corruption law, which joins the ranks of 20 national anticorruption laws globally. The law is intended as a civil, preventive instrument and has a positive obligation on companies at its core. It does not significantly interfere with existing laws and sentencing guidelines on corruption and “traffic d’influence,” and it doesn’t require a predicate offense to kick in. In short, it looks and feels different from its UK and American counterparts in subtle but important ways. read more »

China to seek extradition of 200 arrested in Spain for fraud

China will seek the extradition of more than 200 of its citizens arrested in Spain in a crackdown on gangs that ran call centers that swindled 16 million euros ($17 million) from compatriots at home, a Chinese official said Wednesday.

Spanish National Police said the gangs made contact with people in China, pretending at first they were friends or family and warning them of fraud scams. In later calls, they pretended to be police investigating the scams and convinced many of the victims to put money in bank accounts run by the gangs.

Police said they have dismantled 13 call centers run out of houses in towns around Madrid and the eastern cities of Barcelona and Alicante.

The operation Tuesday was carried out in conjunction with Chinese authorities, who launched the investigation.

Surprise: Stealing $300,000 In Deposits Is Bank Fraud, Supreme Court Rules

File this one under nice try: The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled against a man who argued  stealing $300,000 of an acquaintance's bank deposits didn't fit the definition of bank fraud. His reasoning? The bank itself didn't lose a dime.

The Supreme Court not surprisingly rejected that argument in Shaw v. U.S., ruling unanimously that the federal bank-fraud statute, which outlaws any "scheme to defraud a financial institution," also outlaws schemes to defraud a customer by stealing the money he has on deposit at the bank. Since banks use deposits to fund loans, the money that technically belongs to depositors also belongs to the bank. read more »

Investors, Exchanges Both Claim SEC's Favor At 2nd Circ.

A group of investors and seven national securities exchanges that dispute whether the exchanges enjoy absolute immunity from lawsuits told the Second Circuit on Monday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's amicus brief supports their conflicting arguments, as the investors attempt to revive their "Flash Boys"-inspired suits that were thrown out of district court.

The investors, who allege the exchanges and dark pool operator Barclays Capital Inc. gave high-frequency traders an unfair advantage, pointed to the SEC's views that the exchanges do not enjoy absolute immunity and are subject to the jurisdiction of district courts, while the exchanges said the SEC brief confirmed that everything the plaintiffs challenged was approved by the agency.

“As to the court’s first question, the commission opined that the securities laws do not divest the district court of subject matter jurisdiction over this case,” the investors argued in their brief. “As to the second question, the commission told this court that the defendant exchanges are not entitled to absolute immunity from suit for the challenged conduct.” read more »