Jailed Barclays Libor Traders Appeal Convictions in U.K. Court

Three former Barclays Plc traders sentenced for as long as 6 1/2 years over their roles in manipulating the Libor interest-rate benchmark are appealing their convictions.

Jay Merchant, 45, Alex Pabon, 38, and Jonathan Mathew, 35, all filed appeals in recent weeks, according to a court clerk and their lawyers. All three are appealing their convictions and Merchant is also appealing his 6 1/2 year sentence. Mathew was sentenced to 4 years and Pabon was given 2 years and 9 months. read more »

Company Punished for Severance Agreements That Removed Financial Incentives for Whistleblowing

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that a California-based health insurance provider has agreed to pay a $340,000 penalty for illegally using severance agreements requiring outgoing employees to waive their ability to obtain monetary awards from the SEC’s whistleblower program.

According to the SEC’s order, Health Net Inc. violated federal securities laws by taking away from departing employees who wanted to receive severance payments and other post-employment benefits the ability to file applications for SEC whistleblower awards. read more »

Miami Man Pleads Guilty to Fraud Charges for Role in $4.2 Million Home Health Care Scheme

A Miami man pleaded guilty today to charges related to his role in a $4.2 million home health care fraud scheme.

As part of his guilty plea, Collado Gonzalez admitted that in approximately March 2014, he was recruited by Mildrey Gonzalez and Milka Alfaro, the owners of Golden Home Health Care Inc. (Golden), a home health care agency in Miami, to falsely and fraudulently represent himself to be Golden’s owner.  Collado Gonzalez further admitted that in return for hiding Mildrey Gonzalez’s and Alfaro’s ownership interests, he received a monthly payment and periodic bonuses from them, despite the fact that he did not do any actual work for Golden.  Instead, he simply signed Medicare applications and other documents for the purpose of facilitating submission of claims to Medicare and concealing Mildrey Gonzalez’s and Alfaro’s ownership interests, he admitted. read more »

Former Goldman Sachs Trader Settles Fraud Charges

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that the former head trader in residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) at Goldman Sachs has agreed to be barred from the securities industry and pay $400,000 to settle charges that he repeatedly misled customers and caused them to pay higher prices.  

An SEC investigation found that Edwin Chin generated extra revenue for Goldman by concealing the prices at which the firm had bought various RMBS, then re-selling them at higher prices to the buying customer with Goldman keeping the difference.  On other occasions, Chin misled purchasers by suggesting he was actively negotiating a transaction between customers when he was merely selling RMBS out of Goldman’s inventory. read more »

Hedge Fund Manager Charged

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges against a hedge fund manager and his firm accused of paying terminally ill individuals to use their names on purportedly joint brokerage accounts so he could purchase investments on behalf of his hedge fund and redeem them early by invoking a survivor’s option.

An SEC examination of investment advisory firm Eden Arc Capital Management uncovered the scheme alleged by the SEC Enforcement Division in an order instituted today.  Donald Lathen of New York City allegedly used contacts at nursing homes and hospices to identify patients with less than six months to live, and he successfully recruited at least 60 of them by paying $10,000 apiece to use their names on accounts.  When a patient died, Lathen allegedly redeemed investments in the accounts by falsely representing to issuers that he and the terminally ill individuals were joint owners of the accounts.  Lathen’s hedge fund was the true owner of the survivor’s option investments.  Issuers paid out more than $100 million in early redemptions as a result of the alleged misrepresentations and omissions by Lathen and Eden Arc Capital. read more »

Relator Slams Raytheon's Take On Escobar In $1B FCA Row

A whistleblower suing Raytheon for allegedly defrauding the government over the course of a $1 billion weather satellite contract urged a California federal judge to reject the company’s bid to dodge the False Claims Act case Monday, saying Raytheon has wildly over-exaggerated the standard the Supreme Court recently laid out in Escobar for FCA claims.

Firing back against Raytheon’s motion to dismiss, Steven Mateski wrote in an opposition brief that Raytheon’s argument that the Escobar decision established rigorous pleading standards for FCA plaintiffs was untrue, and one that “makes a mockery of the special trust and confidence which should exist between the government and its defense contractors.” read more »

Judge Cracks Whip On Medicaid Kickback Settlement Talks

A Georgia federal judge suggested Monday that the U.S. government and Tenet Healthcare Corp. either finalize a supposedly pending settlement of civil and criminal probes into whistleblower allegations that Tenet defrauded Medicaid by distributing kickbacks for referrals of pregnant immigrants, or else prepare for trial.

In an Aug. 1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Tenet had indicated that it offered $514 million to end a criminal inquiry and False Claims Act case that the U.S. Department of Justice joined in 2014, a significant jump from the $238 million offer the hospital chain made back in February. read more »