A top federal bee scientist from South Dakota says he’s being punished for publicizing work on pesticides and pollinators.
Jonathan Lundgren’s research found bees and monarch butterflies can be harmed by a widely used class of insecticides. In a whistleblower case filed Wednesday, the United States Agriculture Department entomologist alleges he faced retaliation because of his research.
Federal prosecutors are accusing seven individuals of conspiring to fraudulently charge more than $2 billion to a program set up to help people affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
In an indictment unsealed Thursday, the Department of Justice alleged that the defendants submitted false claims on behalf of 40,000 individuals in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and other Gulf states without their consent. The agency also said the defendants stole victims’ identities, using their names, addresses, Social Security numbers and other personal information to create phony legal clients for litigation against BP stemming from the spill.
Tampa, FL – United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III announces the return of an indictment charging LaJoyce Caldwell Houston (49) and Eric Houston (54) with conspiracy, theft of government property, and money laundering conspiracy. LaJoyce Houston is also charged with obtaining information from a protected computer with the intent to defraud and aggravated identity theft. If convicted, each faces a maximum penalty of 5 years in federal prison for the conspiracy count, up to 10 years in federal prison for each of the theft of government property counts, and up to 20 years’ imprisonment for the money laundering conspiracy count. LaJoyce Houston also faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison for the computer intrusion count and 2 years’ imprisonment for the aggravated identity theft count, to be served consecutive to any term of imprisonment imposed for the theft of government property and computer intrusion counts. The indictment notifies the couple that the United States intends to seek a forfeiture money judgment in an amount to be determined, but at least $239,116.91, which is traceable to the proceeds of the offenses.
CHICAGO — Dennis Hastert pleaded guilty Wednesday to evading banking laws in a hush-money scheme, averting a potentially lurid trial by agreeing to a deal with prosecutors that recommends the former House speaker serve no more than six months in prison.
More than a dozen employees of a Buffalo, NY, firm are accused of lying to, threatening, and bullying thousands of people across the US in what officials say is the biggest debt-collection fraud ever prosecuted. Some 15 employees of Four Star Resolution have been charged with fraudulently collecting $31 million, NBC News reports. An indictment states that the firm’s “elite” team used “particularly aggressive and egregious tactics,” including sending fake legal documents, “in attempting to trick consumers into paying debts.” In some cases, collectors tried to squeeze more money out of the victims than they owed, according to the indictment.
ABINGDON, VA (WJHL) – Former Bristol Virginia Utilitiesboard chair and former Bristol, Virginia mayor Paul Hurley, 74, pleaded guilty to fraud charges in federal court.
Paul Hurley pleaded guilty to mail fraud and perjury before a federal Grand Jury Monday morning. He faces up to 25 years in prison and has been ordered to pay up to a $500,000 fine.
After years of rampant abuses by undercover Bal Harbour police, the U.S. Justice Department is investigating the millions taken in by the officers who turned a money-laundering sting into a major cash enterprise, spending lavishly on travel and luxury hotels without making a single arrest.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago and the Internal Revenue Service carted away hundreds of confidential files last week of the Tri-County Task Force, including records that show the officers regularly withdrew large amounts of cash from the bank with no receipts to show where it went, according to people familiar with the investigation.
Federal prosecutors say the former CEO of a now-defunct Chicago health care company has pleaded guilty to fraudulently billing the government for $1.8 million.
Prosecutors said Friday that 44-year-Dike Ajiri of Wilmette pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud. Prosecutors say the Chicago-based Mobile Doctors executive altered patient files so that the company could bill Medicare and the Railroad Retirement Board for patient visits at “the highest possible level.” They say he did this even though he knew the visits didn’t qualify for the maximum payments.
Four Sacramento-area residents were sentenced Thursday for their roles in a mortgage fraud scheme.
A federal jury in July found Olga Palamarchuk, 45, of Rancho Cordova, Pyotr Bondaruk, 44, of Sacramento, Vera Zhiry, 35, of Sacramento and Peter Kuzmenko, 37, of West Sacramento guilty of conspiracy to commit mail fraud related to a mortgage fraud conspiracy. Palamarchuk and Bondaruk were also found guilty of making false statements to a financial institution and money laundering, and Zhiry was also convicted of money laundering, according to a U.S. Attorney’s office news release.
U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley sentenced Palamarchuk to five years and 10 months in prison; Bondaruk, to five years and 11 months in prison; and Zhiry to three years and one month in prison. Kuzmenko was sentenced to five years and 11 months in prison, two years of which are to be served consecutively to the 19-year sentence he received in another mortgage fraud scheme.
For two years, investigators decoded text messages, conducted surveillance and leaned on informants to unravel a drug trafficking network that allegedly distributed heroin and methamphetamine in a city park and California prisons.