Wells Fargo employees sue over funds in retirement plans

Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) faces a new U.S. lawsuit claiming that it funneled more than $3 billion of employee retirement savings into expensive, underperforming proprietary mutual funds to enrich itself.

The proposed class-action lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in federal court in Minnesota, accused the third-largest U.S. bank of "self-dealing and imprudent investing" by steering 401(k)contributions to its Wells Fargo Dow Jones Target Date funds. read more »

United States Settles Lawsuit Against Energy Department Contractors for Knowingly Mischarging Costs on Contract at Nuclear Waste Treatment Plant

The Justice Department announced today that Bechtel National Inc., Bechtel Corp., URS Corp. (predecessor in interest to AECOM Global II LLC) and URS Energy and Construction Inc. (now known as AECOM Energy and Construction Inc.) have agreed to pay $125 million to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act that they made false statements and claims to the Department of Energy (DOE) by charging DOE for deficient nuclear quality materials, services, and testing that was provided at the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) at DOE’s Hanford Site near Richland, Washington.  The settlement also resolves allegations that Bechtel National Inc. and Bechtel Corp. improperly used federal contract funds to pay for a comprehensive, multi-year lobbying campaign of Congress and other federal officials for continued funding at the WTP. read more »

Arizona Medicaid contractors sentenced for health-care fraud

Operators of two Fort Defiance medical transportation companies have been sentenced to prison for health-care fraud after collecting more than $3 million from a government health program for thousands of trips that never occurred, federal prosecutors said.

Sylvia Begay, 50, who operated Hozho Nahasdlii Health Care at Home, was sentenced this week in U.S. District Court to two years and four months in federal prison. She will also be subject to three years of supervised release and must pay more than $2.1 million in restitution. read more »

U.S. top court rejects financier Stanford's Ponzi scheme appeal

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Texas financier Robert Allen Stanford's bid to overturn his conviction and 110-year prison sentence for running what prosecutors called a $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme that bilked investors in 113 countries.

The justices left in place the imprisoned Stanford's appeal of an October 2015 ruling by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld his 2012 conviction and sentence arising from one of the largest such frauds ever uncovered in the United States.

Federal prosecutors said he ran a scam for two decades that defrauded some 30,000 investors and centered on the sale of fraudulent high-yielding certificates of deposit through his Antigua-based Stanford International Bank.

They said he used investor funds to make risky investments, pay bribes and fund a lavish lifestyle including mansions, yachts and private jets. Authorities uncovered the scheme in 2009. read more »

Jury smacks ManTech with $2.1M in damages for firing whistleblowers

ManTech International will have to pay at least $2.1 million to two former employees who claimed they were fired after filing a False Claims Act lawsuit.

A jury ruled in favor of Kevin and Muge Cody, husband and wife, on Nov. 18 and ordered that the company pay them $800,000 in compensatory damages and $1.35 million in back pay damages. The total amount could go higher after front pay damages are assessed. The couple claims they were fired by the company after they raised False Claims Act allegations that the company knowingly underbid the costs of a contract for maintaining mine resistant vehicles and then billed the government claiming the higher costs were unexpected. read more »