Omnicare to pay $28 million to settle charges it got kickbacks from Abbott Labs

Omnicare Inc, the largest nursing home pharmacy in the United States, will pay about $28.1 million to resolve civil charges that it sought and received kickbacks from Abbott Laboratories to promote the drug maker's anti-seizure drug Depakote, the U.S. Justice Department said Monday. read more »

Israeli Executive Extradited and Arraigned on Fraud Charges Involving the Foreign Military Financing Program

An Israeli national was extradited from Bulgaria and arraigned on charges arising from his participation in multiple schemes to defraud a multi-billion dollar United States foreign aid program, the Department of Justice announced today. 

According to the allegations contained in a five-count indictment filed in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut in Hartford, Yuval Marshak, a former owner and executive of an Israel-based defense contractor, carried out three separate schemes between 2009 and 2013 to defraud the Foreign Military Financing program (FMF) and used a company in the United States to launder some of the proceeds of his fraud. read more »

 

 

Former Non-Profit Health Clinics CEO Sentenced to 18 Years for Funneling Millions in Grant Money to Private Companies

BIRMINGHAM – A federal judge today sentenced the former chief executive of two non-profit health clinics for the poor and homeless to 18 years in prison for funneling millions in federal grant money to private companies he formed to contract with the clinics. U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance, FBI Special Agent in Charge Roger C. Stanton, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Veronica Hyman-Pillot, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, Special Agent in Charge Derrick L. Jackson announced the sentence. read more »

Lime Energy, former executives settle SEC accounting fraud case

Lime Energy Co and four former executives have agreed to settle civil charges that they were involved in an accounting fraud at the energy services provider, U.S. regulators said on Monday.

Lime Energy has agreed to pay $1 million to resolve a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Manhattan federal court accusing it of improperly booking $20 million in revenue from 2010 to 2012, the agency said.

"Lime Energy and its then executives engaged in a wide array of wrongdoing, including the improper reporting of a significant amount of fake revenue," Scott Friestad, the SEC's associate director of enforcement, said in a statement. read more »

 

 

Mismanagement cost NY pension $3.8 bln over 8 years –regulator

High fees paid to hedge fund managers whose strategies underperform have together cost New York's public pension system $3.8 billion since 2008, the state's financial regulator said in a report on Monday.

While pension fund managers across the country have cut exposure to overpriced, underperforming investments, the New York State Common Retirement Fund, the nation's third-largest public pension fund, has spent pension system funds chasing performance that continues to fall far short, said Maria Vullo, New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) superintendent, in a statement. read more »

SEC says to monitor partner regulator's brokerage oversight

The Securities and Exchange Commission is leaning more heavily on partner regulator the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to monitor brokerages as it devotes extra staff to oversee the rapid growth of independent financial advisers, a top regulator said Monday.

The move crimps the number of SEC examiners monitoring brokerages, and to make sure FINRA is picking up the slack, the commission formed a group that assesses the Wall Street regulator's efforts at monitoring the sector, said Marc Wyatt, the head of the SEC's Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations at a speech in Washington, D.C.

"(The office) is working to enhance our oversight of FINRA because we will be somewhat more dependent on them for broker-dealer exams in the first instance," Wyatt said, speaking to the National Society of Compliance Professionals.

Starting this month, an additional 20 percent of SEC staff are tasked with examining investment advisers, a group that has increased by 2,000 in 2 years. read more »

2nd Circ. Skeptical Of ‘Big Short’ Adviser’s SEC Challenge

A Second Circuit panel on Friday questioned how “The Big Short”-featured investment adviser Wing Chau would be injured if he is forced to face a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in-house case before bringing a federal challenge to the agency’s administrative proceedings. read more »

 

 

Bank Can't Give Trust Funds To Argentinian Debt Holdouts

A group of investors who hold some of more than $80 billion in debt Argentina defaulted on in 2001 can’t seize funds from a nearly $9.4 billion trust, the Second Circuit ruled Monday, agreeing with a New York federal court that the Argentinian government can’t pay the investors with money it has no right to.

A three-judge panel denied the investors a writ of execution and a turnover order for a portion of the trust, ruling the Argentinian government gave its rights to trustee The Bank of New York Mellon so the bank could distribute money to settling debtholders. The investors have not settled, according to the opinion.

“The republic does not have an interest in the trust funds, the republic is not entitled to possess the trust funds, and the appellants do not have rights to the trust funds that are superior to BNYM’s rights,” the panel wrote in the unpublished opinion. read more »