News

October 4, 2012 — Federal prosecutors have alleged that Wells Fargo engaged in reckless and fraudulent mortgage lending practices that cost the Federal Housing Administration hundreds of millions of dollars in insurance claims when many of those mortgage loans failed. The civil suit accuses Wells Fargo of hiding the true risk of at least 6,320 mortgages insured by the Federal Housing...

October 1, 2012 — Dentist Kristi Ayn Liebau-Grassi has pleaded guilty to felony charges that she billed the Pennsylvania Medicaid Program for procedures that were medically unnecessary or that were not actually provided. If the case had gone to trial, Dr. Liebau-Grassi would have faced many of her former patients and their parents in court. The alleged fraud occurred between 2008 and 2011,...

Jean-Luc Veraguas, a patient broker from the Miami area, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for his role in a $200 million Medicare fraud scheme. Mr. Veraguas has also been ordered to pay restitution amounting to $1.8 million, jointly and severally with his co-conspirators.

Patient Broker Defrauded Medicare By Recruiting Medicare Beneficiaries.

In May 2012, Mr. Veraguas...

Louisiana resident Henry Lamont Jones, who owns multiple durable medical equipment (DME) companies, has been sentenced to serve 15 years in prison for participating in a number of Medicare fraud schemes, according to the Justice Department. Mr. Jones has also been ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $13,397,759, jointly and severally with his convicted...

Michael Lindley, a former employee of the Gallup Organization, filed a whistleblower lawsuit under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act alleging that the Gallup Organization overcharged the U.S. government on contracts to provide polling services. The Justice Department has announced that it will join the lawsuit.

Wisconsin neurosurgeon Arvind Ahuja has been convicted in federal court on charges of tax fraud based on Dr. Ahuja’s failure to report $8 million in income in 2009. Mr. Ahuja will not be sentenced until January 2013, and until then he is free on bond.

Dr. Ahuja moved millions of dollars from accounts in the U.S. to...

Florida-based law firm Holland & Knight will pay $25 million to settle a three-year lawsuit accusing the firm of failing to spot evidence that its client Arthur Nadel was engaged in a Ponzi scheme, according to Reuters. But first the settlement must be approved by the federal district court presiding over the case. Mr. Nadel, a hedge-fund manager, engaged in a Ponzi scheme that cost...

After pleading guilty to Medicaid fraud and tax evasion, Chad Shedron, owner of Family PharmaCare Inc., has been sentenced to 57 months in prison for defrauding the Indiana Medicaid program of $3,521,961.22. In addition, Mr. Shedron is required to repay the $3,521,961.22 that he fraudulently claimed from the Indiana Medicaid program plus an additional $527,670.99 in back taxes for tax years...

Jawad Ahmad has pleaded guilty in federal court to managing a psychotherapy fraud scheme that defrauded the Medicare program of $13.8 million. After he is sentenced in November, Mr. Ahmad could serve as much as 10 years in prison and could have to pay a $250,000 fine.

After Mr. Ahmad’s...

Self-proclaimed “visionary tax attorney” Scott A. Waage of California has been permanently barred, along with his law firm, from preparing federal tax returns or providing tax advice. Mr. Waage did not admit the allegations against him, but he did agree to the injunction. According to the Justice Department, Mr. Waage’s tax fraud schemes cost the Treasury more than $10.7...