A doctor from Pasadena who falsely certified that at least 79 Medicare and Medi-Cal patients were qualified for hospice care because they were terminally ill – when, in fact, the vast majority of them were not dying – has been sentenced to four years in federal prison.

Boyao Huang, 43, was sentenced on Monday by United States District Judge S. James Otero. In addition to the prison term, Judge Otero ordered Huang to pay $1,344,204 in restitution.

At the conclusion of a two-week trial in May, Huang was found guilty of four counts of health care fraud for participating in a scheme related to the Covina-based California Hospice Care (CHC). Between March 2009 and June 2013, CHC submitted approximately $8.8 million in fraudulent bills to Medicare and Medi-Cal for hospice-related services, and the public health programs paid nearly $7.4 million to CHC. read more »

Einstein Exchange Group Inc. to Pay More than $600,000 for Solicitation Fraud and Misappropriation in Commodity Pool Scheme

All of Pool Participants’ Funds Were Misappropriated to Pay “Monthly Returns” to Participants and for Personal and Business Expenses 

 the Respondents fraudulently solicited, accepted, and received approximately $401,000 from at least 30 individuals to participate in a commodity pool to trade off-exchange forex and commodity futures, among other investments, but they did not trade any of these funds and had no active trading accounts in their names. Instead of trading these funds, the Order finds that the Respondents misappropriated all of pool participants’ funds, which were used by Respondents to make payments of “monthly returns” to pool participants and to pay for personal and business expenses, including travel, meals, car payments, payment of traffic violations, and purchases at luxury retailers like Louis Vuitton. read more »

Wells Fargo Blasts ‘Nonsensical’ Sanction Bid By Relators

Wells Fargo Bank has blasted a request for sanctions by whistleblowers in a False Claims Act suit accusing the bank of adding illegal fees to government-backed Veterans Administration mortgages, telling a Georgia federal court that claims it didn’t fully comply with discovery requests were "nonsensical."

Former mortgage brokers Victor Bibby and Brian Donnelly filed their suit under seal in March 2006, alleging Wells Fargo and other institutions defrauded military veterans and taxpayers of hundreds of millions of dollars through illegal fees in government-backed loans, including overcharging veterans who refinanced existing home loans guaranteed by the VA, in violation of the FCA. read more »

Former Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd Settles SEC Lawsuit

Daniel Mudd, former Chief Executive Officer of Fannie Mae (FNMA.OB), agreed to pay the U.S. government $100,000 to settle allegations that he misled investors about the mortgage backer's exposure to subprime loans during the run-up to the financial crisis.

Three former Freddie Mac executives settled a similar Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit against them in April 2015.

The SEC brought the case against Mudd and two other Fannie Mae executives in December 2011 amid calls from the public for more individuals to be held responsible for the financial crisis. The cases hinged in part on the definition of what constituted a "subprime mortgage." The other two executives settled in September 2015. read more »

Apollo Charged With Disclosure and Supervisory Failures

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that four private equity fund advisers affiliated with Apollo Global Management have agreed to a $52.7 million settlement for misleading fund investors about fees and a loan agreement and failing to supervise a senior partner who charged personal expenses to the funds.

An SEC investigation found that the Apollo advisers failed to adequately disclose the benefits they received to the detriment of fund investors by accelerating the payment of future monitoring fees owed by the funds’ portfolio companies upon the sale or IPO of those companies.  The lump sum payments received by the Apollo advisers essentially reduced the portfolio companies’ value prior to their sale or IPO and reduced amounts available for distribution to fund investors. read more »

Akerman Drops FCA Client After Judge Rips Firm's Work

 A Florida federal judge on Friday allowed Akerman LLP to stop representing a Florida dermatologist accused of brazen False Claims Act violations, a move that follows several court rulings criticizing the law firm’s management of the case.

U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore granted a recent request to withdraw as counsel by Akerman lawyers Jacqueline M. Arango, Sandra J. Millor and George Volsky. The trio had been representing dermatologist Gary L. Marder and his clinic, which are accused of illicit billing in an FCA suit joined by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Akerman attorneys cited an eye-popping array of factors in their motion to withdraw. Most significant, they wrote, were three recent orders from the court that were “critical of Akerman” and “created a substantial and material conflict of interest between Marder and Akerman in which Akerman's personal interests are now at odds with Marder's interests.” read more »