Former Oil & Gas Office Manager To Serve 4 Years In Prison For Embezzling Over $1.2 Million From Employer – May 18, 2020
Christa Jackson worked as an office manager at AllPoints Pipe Service Inc., where she had access to company checks and accounting systems. From February 2010 to June 2017, she made company checks out to herself and her husband and forged the signature of the company’s owner on those checks. It also alleged she initiated electronic transfers from company bank accounts to third parties for her own benefit and created false invoices to conceal her embezzlement.
Former Indianapolis Teachers’ Union President Sentenced To Prison For Embezzling Over $154,000 – May 18, 2020
Rhondalyn Cornett began working as a teacher with Indianapolis Public Schools in 1994. In 2013, she became the president of the Indiana Educators Association (IEA), a division of the Indiana State Teachers Association who represents all the teachers in the Indianapolis Public Schools, the largest school district in Indiana.
Shortly after attaining the presidency, Cornett began a four-year long scheme of embezzlement from the IEA, and ultimately the teachers themselves. The scheme began in 2014, and lasted until her resignation in 2018. She stole over $154,000 from the teachers who serve the most economically disadvantaged students in the state.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdin/pr/former-ips-teachers-union-president-sentenced-federal-prison
Texas Paralegal In U.S. Attorney’s Office Helped Tip Off Mexican Drug Cartel Associates Of Investigation – May 14, 2020
A paralegal specialist working for a U.S. Attorney’s Office in Texas has been accused of helping a Mexican drug cartel smuggle large amounts of cocaine, heroin, and meth into the U.S.
Jennifer Loya worked at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas in San Antonio since March 2017. According to federal court records, Loya’s sister, Kimberly, is married to Roland Gustamante, an associate to the leader of the Cartel del Noreste.
One degree of separation from a Mexican drug cartel should have been uncovered during a background investigation. Unfortunately, most USAO employees are only given cursory background checks for “public trust” positions. A full TS background would have likely uncovered this connection.
Veteran Affairs (VA) Employee Pleads Guilty To Embezzling $70,000 – May 14, 2020
Michael Donaher worked as an Inventory Management Specialist for the Veterans Affairs Medical Facility in Brockton and was responsible for purchasing various equipment necessary for use in the facility. Donaher conducted fraudulent transactions using his government-issued purchase cards and routed the proceeds to his personal bank account. Donaher attempted to conceal these fraudulent purchases by making it appear as if the purchases were made through a large company that the VA frequently used for legitimate business, when, in fact, they were actually made through a company Donaher created through Square, Inc., a mobile payment company. These purchases were not for actual items ever received by the VA. Furthermore, Donaher attempted to hide this fact by annotating the items as having been received within the VA’s accountability system. Donaher fraudulently routed approximately $70,000 of VA funds to his personal account since the scheme began in 2016.
Real Estate Development Consultant Agrees To Plead Guilty To Bribery Scheme That Enriched L.A. City Councilmember And Associates – May 13, 2020
George Chiang plead guilty to a federal offense for participating in a wide-ranging “pay-to-play” scheme in which developers bribed public officials – including a member of the Los Angeles City Council – to secure official acts that would benefit their projects.
Chiang admitted that he participated in a criminal enterprise called the Council District A Enterprise (CD-A Enterprise). The enterprise was led by a member of the Los Angeles City Council and involved individuals engaged in a course of conduct – including bribery and honest services fraud – designed to enrich themselves, to conceal their activities from authorities and the public, and to maintain and advance their political power.
The public officials involved in the CD-A Enterprise received cash; consulting and retainer fees; political contributions; tickets to concerts, shows, and sporting events; and other gifts in exchange for affecting the success of development projects.
Former Cleveland Clinic Employee And Chinese “Thousand Talents” Participant Arrested For $3.6 Million Wire Fraud – May 13, 2020
Dr. Wang knowingly failed to disclose to National Institutes of Health (NIH) that he had an affiliation with and held the position of Dean of the College of Life Sciences and Technology at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) and received grant funds from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (CNSF) for some of the same scientific research funded by the NIH grant. Dr. Wang’s false representations and promises led NIH to approve and fund grants to Dr. Wang and his research group at CCF.
Dr. Wang participated in the Thousand Talents Program, a program established by the Chinese government to recruit individuals with access to or knowledge of foreign technology and intellectual property. China provided $3 million in research support to enhance the facilities and operations at HUST. Dr. Wang received free travel and lodging for his trips to China, to include a three-bedroom apartment on campus for his personal use. This also occurred at the time Dr. Wang was receiving NIH grant funds yet failed to disclose this affiliation to the NIH.
China Naval Officer Given Jail Time For Stealing Classified Materials – May 11, 2020
Prosecutors in 2018 searched the residence of Chief Petty Officer Hung Ching-Cheng, where he had stored downloaded materials from the Kang Ding-class frigate, 130 files of which were highly classified military documents.
Hung was in charge of the frigate’s telecommunications systems and used his duties to enter the vessel’s Combat Information Center, where he downloaded the high-level military and national security materials, investigators said, adding that the downloading started in 1998, still occurred in 2003 and ended in January 2017.
After prosecutors presented the evidence for his indictment, the Chinses Navy discharged Hung.
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2020/05/11/2003736194
Former University Professor Sentenced For Hiding Income From Chinese Thousand Talents Program – May 11, 2020
According to the charges and other information presented in court: In late 2011, while employed at Emory University, Dr. Xiao-Jiang Li, joined the Thousand Talents Program, a Chinese-government talent recruitment initiative that targets professors and researchers to work in China. Starting in 2012 and continuing until 2018, Li, while still working at Emory University researching, among other things, the use of large animal models to investigate Huntington’s disease, also worked at two Chinese universities — first at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and then at Jinan University — conducting similar large animal model research. Over those six years, Li earned at least $500,000 in foreign income that he never reported on his federal income tax returns.
Office Manager Of Substance Abuse Treatment Clinic Sentenced To Jail For Soliciting Kickbacks And Obstructing Justice – May 11, 2020
Theresa Merced, the office manager of a substance abuse treatment clinic in Jackson previously admitted that, between December 2018 and August 2019, she solicited kickbacks from the CEO of a toxicology lab in exchange for urine drug test referrals. In August 2019 the CEO delivered to Merced a $4,000 check as part of a larger package of promised inducements, which she caused to be cashed. When Merced was questioned about the check by law enforcement agents in September 2019, she denied knowledge of it, and stated that the $4,000 was probably a loan from the lab CEO to her husband. Shortly after her interview with the agents concluded, Merced called the lab CEO and asked that he alter the lab’s financial records so that the entry for the $4,000 check would say “rent/loan,” consistent with the lie she told the agents.
Former Co-Owner And CEO Of Pharmacy Pleads Guilty In Prescription Fraud Drug Billing Scheme – May 11, 2020
John Adams of Panama City Beach, Florida entered a guilty plea to one count of conspiring to commit health care and mail fraud, 16 counts of health care fraud, one count of conspiring to pay kickbacks to a prescriber, and seven counts of spending the proceeds of health care fraud. According to the plea agreement, Adams stipulated to a 10-year sentence.
Adams is the former owner and chief executive officer of Northside Pharmacy doing business as Global Compounding Pharmacy. Mr. Adam’s guilty plea brings the total number of defendants who have pled guilty in the larger investigation to 23. Those who have previously pled guilty include two nurse practitioners, the COO, a vice president of sales, an operations manager, a district manager, and multiple sales representatives. Trial against the four remaining defendants is set for June 29, 2020:
Two Marines And Navy Sailor Indicted In $65 Million Nationwide Pain Cream Fraud Plot That – May 4, 2020
Marines Jeremy Syto and Daniel Castro and U.S. Navy member Kyle Adams are the newest suspects in a conspiracy that spans the nation and includes a Tennessee medical clinic, a Utah pharmacy and a prominent Mississippi businessman. Together, these conspirators convinced Marines in California to sign up for thousands of unnecessary prescriptions for compounded skin cream, then billed the military for more than $14,000 per tube of cream..
The scheme worked like this: A team of recruiters in California would convince Marines and other military members to sign up for prescriptions they didn’t need by paying them kickbacks of about $300 per month. Two doctors, Susan Vergot and Carl Lindblad, who worked at the Choice MD clinic in Cleveland, Tennessee, then wrote the prescriptions without ever examining the military members. The prescriptions were then sent to The Medicine Shoppe, a pharmacy in Utah, which mailed the skin creams to the Marines and sent the bill to Tricare, a military insurance program.
Adams, Castro and Syto, who at the time were on active duty at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, allegedly help recruit other military members into the conspiracy.
University of Arkansas Professor Arrested for Wire Fraud – May 4, 2020
Simon Saw-Teong Ang, 63, of Fayetteville, Arkansas, was arrested on Friday, May 8, 2020, on charges related to Wire Fraud.
Ang was charged with one count of Wire Fraud. The complaint charges that Ang had close ties with the Chinese government and Chinese companies, and failed to disclose those ties when required to do so in order to receive grant money from NASA. These materially false representations to NASA and the University of Arkansas resulted in numerous wires to be sent and received that facilitated Ang’s scheme to defraud.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/university-arkansas-professor-arrested-wire-fraud