Month: April 2022

Source: United States Department of Justice News

TUCSON, Ariz. – Yesterday, a federal jury in Tucson found Charles Robert Wright, 61, guilty of attempting to smuggle $204,080 in U.S. currency into Mexico. Sentencing is set for July 6, 2022 before U.S. District Judge Rosemary Márquez.

The facts at trial showed that on April 18, 2021, Charles Robert Wright was the owner, driver, and sole occupant of a Winnebago Adventurer when he attempted to leave the United States through the Lukeville Port of Entry. During outbound inspection, Wright denied transporting over ten thousand dollars in the Winnebago. The vehicle was subjected to an X-ray, which showed abnormalities in the roof. Customs and Border Protection Officers conducted a search of the vehicle and found a non-factory compartment that contained two plastic bags of U.S. currency, which was folded and rubber banded together. Officers also located 10 additional individually wrapped cellophane packages that contained U.S. currency. The total amount of cash found in the vehicle was $204,080. 

Customs and Border Protection completed the interdiction. Homeland Security Investigations, Sells, conducted the investigation in this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew G. Eltringham, District of Arizona, Tucson, OCDETF, is handling the prosecution.  

CASE NUMBER:            21-CR-01031-TUC-RM (MSA)
RELEASE NUMBER:    2022-054_Wright

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For more information on the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/az/
Follow the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, on Twitter @USAO_AZ for the latest news.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

In an indictment unsealed today, a federal grand jury in Chicago charged a former Illinois tax preparer with filing false returns for clients, filing false returns on her own taxes, and wire fraud.

According to the indictment, from 2014 to 2019, Erica Early, formerly of Robbins and Richton Park, prepared income tax returns for her clients that included false education expenses and business income, in an effort to secure refunds from the IRS for the clients that they were not entitled to receive. Early, who was employed by the U.S. Postal Service at the time, allegedly charged clients $1,000 or more for each return. Early also allegedly falsified her personal income tax returns for 2014 through 2018, claiming education credits she knew she was not eligible to receive.

If convicted, Early faces a maximum penalty of three years for each count of filing false tax returns and helping clients file false tax returns, and 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud. She also faces a period of supervised release and monetary penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney John R. Lausch Jr. for the Northern District of Illinois made the announcement.

IRS-Criminal Investigation is investigating the case.

Assistant Chief Matthew J. Kluge and Trial Attorney Boris Bourget of the Tax Division are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Source: United States Department of Justice

“The Justice Department is putting all available resources to use to hold accountable individuals whose criminal actions are enabling Russia’s unjust war in Ukraine. The President’s proposals will give the United States and our international partners critical resources and tools to dismantle the criminal networks that enable sanctions evasion; to freeze, seize, and forfeit kleptocrat assets; and to transfer the proceeds of those assets to remediate the harms the people of Ukraine are enduring from Russia’s aggression.”

~ Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, April 28, 2022

Today, as part of the President’s supplemental budget request to support Ukraine, the Administration will send a package of proposals to Congress that would enhance the Justice Department’s ability to hold the Kremlin and Russian oligarchs accountable for the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. 

In March, Attorney General Garland launched Task Force KleptoCapture, an interagency law enforcement task force led by Justice Department prosecutors that is dedicated to enforcing the sweeping sanctions, export restrictions, and economic countermeasures that the United States has imposed, along with allies and partners, in response to Russia’s unprovoked military invasion of Ukraine. Since that time, the Justice Department has worked with international partners to seize a Russian oligarch’s $90 million luxury yacht and seized approximately $625,000 associated with sanctioned parties held at nine U.S. financial institutions. Those seizures are based on sanctions violations by several specially designated Russian nationals. The Justice Department has also charged Russian oligarchs and their associates for evading sanctions, as well as foreign malign influence operations, arising from illegal efforts to promote Russian propaganda and undermine Ukrainian democracy and society. 

The President’s supplemental budget request and accompanying proposals will give the Justice Department critical resources and tools to impose serious costs for Russia’s unjustified aggression, and to isolate and target the crimes of Russian officials, government-aligned elites, and those who aid or conceal their unlawful conduct. In addition to the Administration’s announced proposal to streamline asset forfeiture proceedings in certain circumstances, the following critical proposals would strengthen the Justice Department’s efforts:

• Enabling the Transfer of the Proceeds of Forfeited Kleptocrat Property to Ukraine to Remediate Harms of Russian Aggression. The proposal would improve the United States’ ability to use forfeited funds to remediate harms caused to Ukraine by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Generally, forfeited funds are used to compensate victims of the crimes underlying the forfeitures and for law enforcement purposes. This proposal would permit the Departments of Justice, the Treasury, and State to work together to return funds forfeited to the U.S. government to remediate harms of Russian aggression toward Ukraine. Providing this authority requires amendments to multiple statutes governing the use of forfeited funds.
• Clamping Down on Facilitation of Sanctions Evasion. This proposal would expand forfeiture authorities under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to reach property used to facilitate sanctions violations enabling the government to take away the violators’ “tools of the trade.” This proposal would amend IEEPA’s penalty provision to extend the existing forfeiture authorities to facilitating property, not just to proceeds of the offenses. 
• Modernizing Racketeering to Include Sanctions Evasion. This proposal would improve the United States’ ability to investigate and prosecute sanctions evasion and export control violations by adding criminal violations of IEEPA and the Export Control Reform Act (ECRA) to the definition of racketeering activity in the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. This proposal would extend a powerful forfeiture tool against racketeering enterprises engaged in sanctions evasion. 
• Expanding the Time Limit to “Follow the Money.” This proposal would ensure that the United States can prosecute violators and seek forfeitures based on foreign offenses more effectively by extending the statute of limitations from five years to 10 years. The change would also extend the statute of limitations for seeking forfeiture of property based on these offenses, as a critical tool to deprive criminals of their ill‑gotten gains.
• Leveraging Foreign Partners’ Ability to Recover Oligarch Wealth. This proposal would improve the United States’ ability to work with our international partners to recover assets linked to foreign corruption. As kleptocrats and other criminals commit crimes and launder money in multiple jurisdictions, this proposal would expand upon existing U.S. law to facilitate enforcement of foreign restraint and forfeiture orders for criminal property. The proposal would improve our ability to take these actions here in the United States in support of international efforts to forfeit criminal property.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A California doctor was sentenced today to 93 months in prison for defrauding Medicare, re-packaging single-use catheters for re-use on patients, and submitting false declarations in a bankruptcy proceeding. 

According to court documents, Donald Woo Lee, 55, of Temecula, recruited Medicare beneficiaries to his clinics, falsely diagnosed the beneficiaries, and provided the beneficiaries with medically unnecessary procedures. Lee billed these unnecessary procedures to Medicare using an inappropriate code in order to obtain a higher reimbursement, a practice known as “upcoding.” In addition, the evidence showed that Lee re-packaged used, contaminated catheters for re-use on patients. These catheters had been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for marketing as single-use only and the re-use of these devices put patients at risk of infection and other bodily injury. Lee submitted claims of approximately $12 million to Medicare for the vein ablation procedures he performed, and received $4.5 million as a result. 

In October 2019, Lee was convicted after a five-day trial, when a jury found him guilty of seven counts of health care fraud and one count of adulteration of a medical device. Lee also pleaded guilty on March 2, 2020, to one count of submitting false declarations in a bankruptcy proceeding. In addition to the term of imprisonment, Lee was sentenced to serve three years of supervised release and ordered to pay more than $4.5 million in restitution to Medicare.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Tracy L. Wilkison for  the Central District of California; Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division; Assistant Director in Charge Kristi K. Johnson of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office; Special Agent in Charge Timothy DeFrancesca of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Los Angeles Regional Office; and Special Agent in Charge Lisa Malinowski of the FDA’s  Office of Criminal Investigations’ (FDA-OCI) Los Angeles Field Office, made the announcement.

The FBI, HHS-OIG, and FDA-OCI investigated the case.

Assistant Chief Alexis Gregorian and Trial Attorney Emily Culbertson of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted the case.

The Fraud Section leads the Medicare Fraud Strike Force. Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, which maintains 15 strike forces operating in 24 districts, has charged more than 4,200 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for nearly $19 billion. In addition, the HHS Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.