CHICAGO—The former chief executive of the Chicago public school system will plead guilty to federal charges she received kickbacks and bribes in exchange for steering district contracts to a former employer, her lawyer said Thursday.
The indictment of Barbara Byrd-Bennett, announced by prosecutors earlier in the day, is the latest blow to the nation’s third-largest school system, which is facing a growing fiscal crisis. Ms. Byrd-Bennett resigned in late spring during the federal probe.
Federal prosecutors charged the 66-year-old with 15 counts of mail fraud and five counts of wire fraud in connection with the scheme in which two firms that train school administrators received more than $23 million in no-bid contracts. The two related firms, Supes Academy and Synesi Associates, and their former owners Gary Solomon and Thomas Vranas, were also charged in the indictment.
Federal prosecutors in Virginia have filed felony and misdemeanor charges against flooring giant Lumber Liquidators late Wednesday afternoon.
The company, which is headquartered in Toano, Va—in between Richmond and Newport News—has been under investigation by federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations for more than two years.
A bill of criminal information filed by federal prosecutors charged the company with one count of entry of goods by means of false statements and four counts of violations of the Lacey Act related to the transportation and importation of illegally harvested lumber.
WASHINGTON—A Miami physician was charged in an indictment unsealed today with participating in a Medicare fraud scheme that caused losses of more than $20 million.
Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer of the Southern District of Florida, Special Agent in Charge George L. Piro of the FBI’s Miami Field Office and Special Agent in Charge Shimon Richmond of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Miami Regional Office made the announcement.
Henry Lora, M.D., 51, of Miami, was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud; and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, receive health care kickbacks and make false statements relating to health care matters.
The FBI has foiled four plots by gangs in Eastern Europe to sell nuclear material to ISIS in the last five years, an investigation has revealed.
Authorities working with the federal law enforcement agency have stopped criminals with Russian connections that sought to sell radioactive substances to the Middle Eastern extremists.
The latest known case came in February this year, when a smuggler offered a huge cache of deadly cesium – enough to contaminate several city blocks – and specifically sought a buyer from the Islamic State group.
The US Department of Justice is preparing to release roughly 6,000 inmates from federal prisons later this month under new sentencing guidelines.
The inmates’ crimes were predominantly nonviolent drug offenses, but under mandatory minimum sentencing laws enacted during the crack and cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and ’90s they were sentenced to many years behind bars, according to federal law enforcement officials.
“The inmates from federal prison nationwide will be set free by the department’s Bureau of Prisons between October 30 and November 2,” according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to the Washington Post. “Most of them will go to halfway houses, and home confinement before being put on supervised release.”
Former United Nations General Assembly President John Ashe accepted more than $500,000 in bribes from Chinese businesses in exchange for help obtaining lucrative investments and government contracts, according to federal court documents unsealed Tuesday, sparking an investigation into whether bribery is “business as usual at the U.N.”
In exchange for the money, federal prosecutors say Ashe used his position as Permanent Resident to the United Nations for Antigua and Barbuda and General Assembly head to introduce a U.N. document in support of a real estate project being developed by Chinese billionaire Ng Lap Seng.
Prosecutors say some of the bribe money was used to pay for Ashe’s family vacation and to construct a basketball court at his home in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. He opened two bank accounts to receive the funds and then underreported his income by more than $1.2 million, officials said.
A pharmacist in Nebraska has pleaded guilty to what is possibly the largest case of Medicaid fraud in the state. Scott Tran, owner of Tran Pharmacy, submitted hundreds of fraudulent claims for tobramycin solution (Tobi) in the names of his customers’ children, The Journal Star reported. By pleading guilty on September 29, 2015, Tran agreed to a restitution of $14.4 million. Assistant US Attorney Alan Everett told The Journal Star that the government could recoup close to $3 million from the pharmacist’s home, store, bank accounts, stocks, and life insurance policies. US Magistrate Judge Cheryl Zwart noted that Tran will not likely serve as a pharmacist ever again. “In a profession such as yours, employment is a major concern. Do you understand that?” Zwart asked, according to The Journal Star. “Yes, your honor,” Tran said. – See more at: http://www.pharmacytimes.com/news/pharmacist-admits-to-144-million-medicaid-fraud#sthash.7qbjI7jF.dpuf
According to a July Gallup poll, public approval of Congress has fallen to near-record lows. On average, 34% of the population approves of a given Congress. The current 114th Congress has a 17% approval rating.
Americans have reason to be concerned. According to GovTrack.us, the last two Congresses have enacted fewer laws than any other Congress since 1947. And the 114th Congress may just surpass them all in terms of doing nothing.
House Speaker John Boehner has argued that “We ought to be judged on how many laws we repeal”—not by the laws they pass. Even by that metric, Boehner’s Congress is still underperforming as a law must be passed to repeal another one.
MORE THAN 10 years ago, Robert Gold sought to do what many Americans have dreamed of their whole lives: patent an idea.
Gold developed a breakthrough in wireless communications that would help people speak to one another with less interference and greater security.
Then it disappeared like a dropped call.
The Department of Defense concluded that his invention could be a national security threat in the wrong hands and slapped Gold’s patent application with a so-called “secrecy order” in 2002, which prevented him from discussing the technology with anyone. Five years later, his attorney succeeded in lifting the order, but by then, it was too late.
Nurses Registry and Home Health Corp., and the estate of its former owner, Lennie House, have agreed to a judgment against them for $16 million to resolve allegations of health-care fraud, U.S. Attorney Kerry Harvey announced Thursday.
