Yearly Archives: 2012
Lake Worth Financial Planner Accused of Defrauding Investors
Michael Hardman of Lake Worth, Florida was arrested last week for allegedly defrauding Palm Beach County investors out of more than $1 million. According to police, Hardman is facing one count of organizing a scheme to defraud and multiple counts of grand theft. Police records reflect that Hardman used his position as a tax… Read More »
U.S. Court of Appeals Allows Underbidding Qui Tam Complaint to Continue
A whistleblower has been given the green light by the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to pursue a False Claims Act case against Lockheed Martin Corp. (“Lockheed”). The whistleblower alleged that Loral Systems Co., acquired by Lockheed, knowingly underbid on a federal contract in order to win the contract. The… Read More »
Several Adventist Health Hospitals in Central Florida Named in Whistleblower Suit
Adventist Health, based in Altamonte Springs, Florida, has been named in a lawsuit filed under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act. The whistleblowers allege that several Adventist hospitals engaged in rampant overbilling of federal healthcare programs for more than a decade. The specific hospitals identified in the suit are Florida Hospital… Read More »
U.S. Joins Whistleblower Lawsuit Against California Community Clinic
The Department of Justice announced that the United States has partially intervened in a qui tam action pending in the Northern District of California. The lawsuit brought under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims act is captioned Trinh v North East Medical Services, Inc. North East Medical Services, Inc. (“NEMS”) is a… Read More »
Union Welfare Fund Agrees to Settle False Claims Act Lawsuit For $4.8 Million
The United States Attorney announced a settlement with the District Council 1707, Local 95 Head Start Employees Welfare Fund (“Fund”) regarding allegations that the Fund violated the False Claims Act by overcharging the New York City Administration for Children’s Services (“ACS”), a Head Start grantee, for hospital insurance premiums that the Fund paid. The… Read More »
Government Report Reveals that Some Medicare Fraud Contractors and Medicare Providers are Bedfellows
The inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a report that details the findings of a study into the bids of about 100 Medicare fraud contractors and subcontractors during a nearly 18-month period. The report reveals that two-thirds of the contractors had financial ties to Medicare claims processors, and… Read More »
Whistle-Blower Amendments Apply Retroactively
In the case of Leshinksy v. Telvent, U.S. District Judge, J. Paul Oetken, recently ruled that the whistle-blower amendments to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, contained in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, apply retroactively. Those amendments extend the Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s whistle-blower provisions to subsidiaries of public companies. Employees of subsidiaries… Read More »
Bank of America Settles With Court-Appointed Trustee for Fraudster Nevin Shapiro’s Former Company
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Laurel Isicoff has approved a $5.9 million settlement between the court-appointed trustee for Capitol Investments USA, Inc. (“Capitol”), the company formerly run by jailed Ponzi schemer Nevin Shapiro, and Bank of America Corp. Shapiro and Capitol maintained bank accounts at Bank of America. Bank of America agreed to pay $5.9 million… Read More »
Defense Subcontractor Settles Whistleblower Case
An Alabama-based subcontractor for the U.S. Department of Defense, Robbins, LLC, has settled a False Claims Act retaliation lawsuit brought by its former employee James Brown of Temple, Georgia. According to Brown’s lawsuit, Robbins used an expired ingredient, Elastomag 170, when it made a rubber compound used in making sonar nose cones for U.S…. Read More »
SEC Mulls Civil Charges Against the City of Miami
According to a July 23rd letter from Andre Zamorano, Senior Counsel in the Miami Regional Office of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), SEC investigators intend to recommend that the SEC bring civil charges against the City of Miami for alleged violations of the Securities Acts of 1933 and the Exchange Act of… Read More »