DOJ seeks more time for SeaWorld criminal investigation

Former CEO, spokesman among witnesses authorities may question

Attorneys with the U.S. Department of Justice informed a federal judge Monday that they need at least two more months to conduct a criminal fraud investigation into SeaWorld Entertainment Inc., court records show.

The DOJ is seeking to extend a temporary stay in a class-action lawsuit filed against SeaWorld by a group of investors.  The shareholders claim company executives misled them about the impact the 2013 documentary "Blackfish" was having on theme park attendance in the months after the film debuted.

In a motion filed late Monday, DOJ attorneys asked U.S. District Judge Michael Anello to prohibit the parties in the lawsuit from conducting depositions of seven current and former SeaWorld employees including former Chief Executive Officer James Atchison and former Vice President of Communications Fred Jacobs. read more »

Jeweler to the Stars Flees as India Seethes Over Bank Fraud

Nirav Modi brightened Kate Winslet’s earlobes and made Taraji P. Henson’s collarbone glitter.

A jeweler to the stars, Mr. Modi attained wealth and fame at home in India in a few short years. He socialized with British royalty and rubbed elbows with Donald Trump Jr. He opened an opulent outlet on Madison Avenue in New York. In January, he met with Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister and no relation, at the annual gathering of the world’s elite in Davos, Switzerland.

Today, he is on the run.

About a week after Mr. Modi grinned for the cameras with the prime minister, a state-run Indian bank told regulators that it had found nearly $1.8 billion in fraudulent transactions linked to the jeweler’s account. Indian officials now accuse Mr. Modi, his family and business associates of assembling a global empire with nearly $3 billion in money obtained illegally, mostly from government-run banks. He denies wrongdoing.

The chase has enraged and captivated India at a time when the public increasingly believes the country’s debt-laden government banks are enriching its flashiest, most corrupt business tycoons. Parliament sessions have deteriorated into screaming matches, with political opponents exchanging accusations of collusion with the jeweler. read more »

Colorado sanctions two more in growing Ponzi scheme that allegedly took seniors nationally for $1.2 billion

Some 450 investors in Colorado paid in about $57 million to the scheme

Two more securities brokers in Colorado were ordered to stop selling products from a California company that federal authorities say ran a $1.2 billion nationwide Ponzi scheme.

The two brokers — Gerald Kagarise of Colorado Springs and James Campbell of Woodland Park — brings to six the number of Colorado-based financial planners tied to a federal investigation of the Woodbridge Group of companies, including Woodbridge Mortgage Investment Funds and Woodbridge Wealth of Sherman Oaks, Calif.

A seventh broker, Laurent Carrier of Colorado Springs, voluntarily dropped his securities license as part of the Woodbridge investigation.

The seven planners were separately ordered by a Colorado judge to stop selling financial products that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in December said were the cornerstone to a Ponzi scheme that allegedly ripped off more than 8,400 seniors across the country.

The judge’s orders were announced Tuesday by Colorado Securities Commissioner Gerald Rome. read more »

Justice Dept.: Norway non-profit to pay $2M for violating False Claims Act

The Justice Department on Tuesday settled with a Norwegian non-profit group over allegations it supported groups designated by the United States as "terrorist" before receiving aid from the U.S. government.

The Oslo-based Norwegian People's Aid received several grants from the U.S. Agency for International Development between 2012 and 2016 to provide aid in developing countries in Africa. The Department of Justice said before receiving the grants, NPA had provided material support to Iran, Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine -- all of which are on the State Department's Sponsors of Terrorism List.

Groups that provide support to any organization on the U.S. terror blacklist are not eligible to receive relief funds from USAID.

The Justice Department said each year it applied for aid, the NPA wrongly indicated on forms it had not and would not provide aid to any organization on the U.S. list. Doing so violated the False Claims Act.

"For years, Norwegian People's Aid obtained grant money from USAID by falsely representing that it had not provided, and would take reasonable steps to ensure that it did not knowingly provide, material support to prohibited parties under U.S. law," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a statement. read more »