Dec 7, 2022 | Civil Matters, Criminal Matters
On December 2, the Department of Justice announced two former Mississippi Department of Corrections officials were indicted for alleged excessive force against an inmate or “deprivation of rights under color of law.” According to court documents, both Jessica Hill, a...
Dec 2, 2022 | Criminal Matters, Government Investigations, Health Care Fraud, White Collar Crime
On November 30, 2022, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals issued a significant decision affecting sentencing in white collar crime cases. In United States v. Banks, the defendant was convicted on fraud and other related charges. As alleged by the government, the...
Nov 29, 2022 | Civil Matters, Criminal Matters
On November 28, Fulton Superior Court Judge Robert C.I. McBurney granted Defendants’ Motion to Quash the grand jury indictment that charged six current and former Fulton County detention officers who were facing several charges, including felony murder. The attorneys...
Nov 28, 2022 | Business Litigation
On Monday, November 21, 2022, Georgia’s State-wide Business Court agreed to transfer an $18 million development contract dispute to the Superior Court of Bryan County. The defendants, Ford Field & River Club Inc. and Ford Field & River Association Inc.,...
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 28, 2022 | Government Contract, Government Investigations, White Collar Crime
On Monday, November 28, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear Percoco v. United States, a case involving the “honest-services fraud statute” and whether a private citizen can be convicted for bribery and fraud. The case involves a former New York state...
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...
