Nov 28, 2022 | White Collar Crime
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Montenegro extradited Richard Ayvazyan and his wife, Marietta Terabelian, to the U.S. to serve multi-year prison sentences for conspiring to defraud COVID-19 relief programs. According to the DOJ, Mr. Ayvazyan and...
Nov 28, 2022 | False Claims Act
The DOJ announced that a federal jury convicted Rhonda Sutton, an unlicensed medical assistant, for conspiracy to commit health care fraud. According to evidence presented at trial, Sutton conspired to certify Medicare beneficiaries for illegitimate home health...
Nov 22, 2022 | False Claims Act
The DOJ announced that Wise Services Inc. (Wise), an Ohio subcontractor serving the oil and gas industry, agreed to pay $302,500 to resolve allegations of causing fraudulent invoices to be submitted to the Department of Energy (DOE). It was alleged that Wise submitted...
Nov 22, 2022 | Fraud Investigations
On Friday, November 18, 2022, a North Carolina federal jury found Michael Mandel Baldwin guilty of securities fraud and wire fraud. Baldwin, a 53-year old Virginia-based pastor, was found to have fraudulently coaxed investors into giving him money for a purported...
Nov 22, 2022 | False Claims Act
Health care provider Sutter Health, based out of Sacramento, California, has agreed to a $13 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve allegations that Sutter Health violated the False Claims Act by billing Medicare, Medicaid and other federal...
