Former Charlotte School Of Law Professor Defrauded Taxpayers

Charlotte School of Law and its parent company Infilaw are the subjects of many recent lawsuits filed by former students. But now there's one filed by a professor in June of 2016. It had been under seal for more than a year because the federal government was investigating her allegations. The lawsuit says the now-closed school defrauded taxpayers out of $285 million by accepting unqualified students, manipulating grades and pursuing other methods to keep failing students enrolled – all in an effort to continue to collect tuition paid through federal loans.

Former Charlotte School of Law Professor Barbara Bernier filed the lawsuit last June under the False Claims Act, which means it's a whistleblower's lawsuit. Those lawsuits are sealed for at least 60 days to give the government time to decide whether to intervene. In this instance, the U.S. Attorney's office in Orlando requested it be sealed up until this month because it was investigating the allegations. read more »

US to African looters: You can’t go scot free anymore

The United States has sent a strongly worded warning  to corrupt African political office holders, who illegally enrich themselves at the expense of their poor people,  that they would no longer go scot free. They will be investigated, held accountable and punished. The warning was given by US Department of Justice after a New York court jailed Mahmoud Thiam, a  50 year-old former minister of mines and geology of the Republic of Guinea, who was living big in America on the bribe  he collected from a Chinese company. He was jailed seven years. He will spend three of the years under supervised release, for laundering bribes paid to him by executives of China Sonangol International Ltd. (China Sonangol) and China International Fund, SA (CIF). read more »

U.S. accuses retired colonel of Haitian bribery scheme

A retired U.S. Army colonel was arrested on Tuesday on charges that he conspired to bribe senior Haitian officials in connection with a planned $84 million port development project in the Caribbean country, U.S. prosecutors said.

Joseph Baptiste, a dentist who served on the board of a company that promoted the project, solicited bribes from undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation agents posing as potential investors, federal prosecutors in Boston said.

Baptiste, a resident of Fulton, Maryland, was arrested in his home state, prosecutors said.

He was charged in a criminal complaint filed in Boston federal court with conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and to commit money laundering. read more »

Action for Defrauding a Program for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities Settles for Approximately $2 M

Two Bay Area companies and the two individuals who head them will pay approximately $2 million to resolve federal and state False Claims Act allegations that they knowingly overbilled a program designed to serve Californians with developmental disabilities, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced today. read more »

Credit Suisse Sued by Billionaire in Singapore and New Zealand

Georgian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili sued Credit Suisse Group AG in Singapore, New Zealand and Bermuda, alleging the bank must have known about the actions of a former employee who forged trades to cover losses from other customers’ accounts.

Ivanishvili, an ex-prime minister of the former Soviet republic, filed the claims in Auckland at the New Zealand High Court on August 7, then in Bermuda 10 days later and in Singapore on August 25, court documents show. The lawsuits ask courts in the three jurisdictions to force the bank to hand over documents in the Georgian’s case against a Credit Suisse banker and makes unspecified claims for losses that Ivanishvili’s lawyers say they are still calculating. read more »