Three Ohio health-care companies pay $19.5 million to settle whistleblower cases

The operators of three health-care companies operating in Ohio, including Columbus, have agreed to pay $19.5 million to resolve allegations that their companies falsified Medicare claims, federal authorities announced Monday.

The settlement resolves two whistleblower lawsuits filed against Foundations Health Solutions Inc., Olympia Therapy Inc. and Tridia Hospice Care Inc. and their executives, Brian Colleran and Daniel Parker. The companies and executives had business addresses in the Cleveland suburb of North Olmsted.

Prosecutors called Colleran the “principal architect of the schemes.” Neither he nor Parker could be reached for comment Monday.

The settlement will reimburse Medicare but also pay about $2.9 million to Vladimir Trakhter, a former Olympia employee, and a total of $740,00 to Paula Bourne and La’Tasha Goodwin, former Tridia employees in Columbus.

Trakhter sued in 2011 and Bourne and Goodwin did likewise the following year under the federal False Claims Act. The act permits private individuals to sue on behalf of the government for false claims and to share in any recovery. read more »

Foreign Corruption Laws Might Be The Final Nail In The Gupta Coffin

Bribery beyond borders and the possibility of foreign prosecution

Evidence of graft piling against multinational companies named in the Gupta emails might have more to answer to than just local laws.

Despite mounting evidence of global, networked corporate corruption with the Gupta family at the centre of the web, South Africa's public unit responsible for investigating organised crime -- the Hawks -- is yet to announce progress into its investigation into the Gupta emails.

Damning as evidence contained in the emails might be, the might of foreign rather than local laws and prosecuting bodies might be the nail in the coffin for the Guptas and their corporate cliques in light of seemingly slow -- or possibly no -- progress by the South African state's penal bodies. read more »

Ex-Owner of US Consulting Firm Jailed for Bribing Foreign Official

The former owner of a US financial consulting firm was sentenced to five years in jail for bribing an official at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Justice Department said in a press release.

US District Judge Paul Diamond imposed the jail sentence and also ordered Harder to forfeit $1.9 million.

Harder admitted to paying approximately $3,500,000 in bribes to Andrej Ryjenko, an official and senior banker at EBRD, in exchange for Ryjenko referring EBRD clients to Chestnut. read more »

Ethereum Millionaires Might Be Attracting Attention From Regulators

Just recently Bitcoin.com has been covering the ongoing case between the U.S. tax agency, the IRS and its dealings with the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. However, bitcoiners are not the only ones being observed by taxation officials as regulators are growing concerned about ethereum traders this year accumulating millions of dollars in gains in a pseudo-anonymous manner. read more »

$16 Million Binary Options Fraud Scheme

he Commodity Futures Trading Commission  today announced that a federal district court has unsealed a civil CFTC Complaint with the Middle District of Florida on July 10, 2017, charging Jason B. Scharf of Valley Village, California, a worldwide web of companies he controlled, including CIT Investments LLC, a Nevada limited liability corporation; Brevspand EOOD, a Bulgarian business entity; CIT Investments Ltd., a Marshall Islands business entity; CIT Investments Ltd., an Anguillan business entity; and A & J Media Partners, Inc., a California corporation, together with affiliate marketers Michael Shah and his company Zilmil, Inc., both of Jacksonville, Florida, with unlawfully soliciting and accepting more than $16 million in connection with illegal binary options contracts. Scharf also does business as Citrades.com and AutoTrading Binary.com, according to the Complaint. read more »

Former Employee of U.S. Government Contractor in Afghanistan Pleads Guilty to Accepting Over $250,000 in Kickbacks From Subcontractor

A former employee of a U.S. government contractor in Afghanistan pleaded guilty today to accepting over $250,000 in illegal kickbacks from an Afghan subcontractor in return for his assistance in obtaining subcontracts on U.S. government contracts. read more »

Former head of South Korean geoscience center convicted of laundering $1 million in bribes

The former head of South Korea’s earthquake research center was convicted this week of laundering more than $1 million in bribes from two seismological companies, including one based in Pasadena, that paid him in exchange for insider information.

After a four-day trial, a federal jury convicted Heon-Cheol Chi, a 59-year-old resident of South Korea, of one count of transacting in criminally derived property, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. The jury failed to reach a verdict on five other counts of money laundering.

Chi’s conviction hinged on the jury’s determination that the payments were illegal under South Korea’s bribery laws. Prosecutors said Chi abused his public position by accepting kickbacks, but his attorney argued that consulting agreements are common in South Korea and that the law was not properly explained to the jury. read more »

Biofuel Company Owners Sentenced for Conspiracy and Fraud Charges

The co-owners of an Indiana biofuel producer were sentenced today in the Northern District of Indiana by Senior Judge James T. Moody, announced the Justice Department.

Fred Witmer, 46, and Gary Jury, 58, of Triton Energy LLC and Gen2 Renewable Diesel LLC pleaded guilty to conspiracy, fraud, and false statements in October 2016. Witmer and Jury were sentenced to 57 months in prison and 30 months in prison, respectively. According to their pleas, Witmer and Jury generated over $60 million in fraudulent tax credits and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) renewable fuel credits (RIN credits). Witmer admitted to fraudulently claiming tax credits and RIN credits on non-qualifying renewable fuel and to deceiving the purchasers of his RIN credits. Although Witmer represented that the fuel was used as transportation fuel, he admitted selling it to be made into fire starter logs and for asphalt and cement production. Jury admitted conspiring to fraudulently claim tax credits and to providing false statements to the EPA. read more »