Dec 12, 2023 | Government Investigations
On December 11, the Department of Justice announced a California man, Keith Berman, CEO and sole director of Decision Diagnostics Corp. (DECN), pleaded guilty to securities fraud, wire fraud, and obstruction of an official proceeding. The charges are related to...
Dec 4, 2023 | federal investigations
Tax return preparer fraud is one of the IRS’ Dirty Dozen Tax Scams, and the government continues its efforts to eradicate it. On November 13, 2023, the Department of Justice announced a federal court was permanently enjoining a Houston-area tax return preparer and her...
Dec 4, 2023 | Government Investigations
On November 16, a federal jury convicted three individuals from Texas for their alleged roles in a prescription compound cream operation, involving claims totaling over $145 million. Dehshid “David” Nourian, Christopher Rydberg, and Dr. Michael Taba, a McKinney-based...
Dec 4, 2023 | Government Investigations
On November 21, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Binance Holdings Limited, the operator of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance.com, pleaded guilty to Anti-Money Laundering (AML) violations, unlicensed money transmitting, and sanctions...
Dec 4, 2023 | federal investigations
In a landmark trial concluding on November 16, two prominent California-based corporate executives, Simon Chu and Charley Loh, faced charges of conspiracy and failure to report information related to defective residential dehumidifiers. Significantly, this case is the...
Dec 4, 2023 | Health Care Fraud
According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), on October 11, Mark Wright, the former CEO of a Utah-based medical device company, pleaded guilty in federal court to misdemeanor charges related to the introduction of misbranded and unapproved medical devices into...
Dec 4, 2023 | Government Investigations, Health Care Fraud
Telemedicine remains on the government’s list of enforcement priorities. The DOJ announced that nurse practitioner Daphne Jenkins pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud for her role in a $7.8 million telemedicine scheme. CG attorneys...
Nov 20, 2023 | False Claims Act
Chilivis Grubman attorneys often remind readers that the False Claims Act (FCA) is not limited to any single industry. Any company or individual submitting claims for payment to the federal government faces the threat of FCA liability if those claims turn out to be...
Nov 20, 2023 | Health Care Fraud
Shiva Akula, the owner and operator of Canon Healthcare, LLC, was convicted by a Louisiana jury of 23 counts of health care fraud. The jury found that Akula defrauded Medicare by overbilling and manipulating various Common Procedural Terminology (“CPT”) codes....
Nov 7, 2023 | Government Contract
On November 2, 2023, the Georgia Court of Appeals reversed a lower Georgia court, which had held that edible products containing delta-8 THC or delta-10 THC were controlled substances under state law. Although the Court of Appeals decision is not binding precedent,...
