Month: June 2022

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Gulfport, Miss. – A Mexican national pled guilty to the federal crime of unlawful return of an alien deported or removed after conviction for a felony.

U.S. Attorney Darren J. LaMarca of the Southern District of Mississippi, and Mellissa B. Harper, Acting Field Office Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in New Orleans, made the announcement

According to court documents, Ernesto Coronado-Rodriguez, 36, of Mexico, was arrested on April 12, 2022, after ICE ERO officers conducted a field fugitive operation to locate Coronado-Rodriguez near Wiggins in Stone County, Mississippi. Homeland Security fingerprint databases conclusively identified Coronado-Rodriguez as a previously removed alien who has been removed from the United States on multiple occasions and has been twice convicted of felony unlawful return after removal.  

Prior to his formal removals, Coronado-Rodriguez was allowed three voluntary departures in lieu of removal, which occurred in or about 2003, 2006 and 2009.  Subsequently, he unlawfully returned to the United States, and was formally ordered removed in 2012 by a U.S. Immigration Judge in Dallas, Texas.  Based on this lawful removal order, Coronado-Rodriguez was physically removed from the U.S. to his home nation of Mexico on October 19, 2012. In 2013, he was arrested again by ICE Agents in Lubbock, Texas, and was prosecuted and convicted of unlawful return by an alien after removal. After completion of a 16-month prison sentence, he was physically removed again from the United States in 2014, through Brownsville, Texas.  In 2018, Coronado-Rodriguez again was arrested by Border Patrol Agents near Santa Teresa, New Mexico, and prosecuted again for unlawful return by an alien after removal.   He was again convicted and, following his prison sentence, removed again to Mexico in 2019, through Del Rio, Texas.

Coronado-Rodriguez is scheduled to be sentenced on October 7, 2022 at 10:00 a.m., and faces a maximum penalty of ten years in prison and a $250,000 fine.  After completing any sentence of incarceration, he also is subject to proceedings to remove him from the U.S.  A U.S. District Court Judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stan Harris is the prosecutor for the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

ROCKFORD — An inmate at the United States Penitentiary in Thomson, Ill., was indicted today by a federal grand jury on charges of murder, assault, and possession of a weapon in connection with the death of a fellow inmate. 

HOUSTON A. CLYDE, 25, was charged with second-degree murder, assault resulting in serious bodily injury, and possession of a weapon, according to an indictment returned in U.S. District Court in Rockford.  Arraignment has not yet been scheduled.

The three-count indictment was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Emmerson Buie, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI.  The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica S. Maveus.

According to the indictment, Clyde and the victim were cellmates at USP Thomson.  On Nov. 27, 2020, Clyde stabbed the victim numerous times with a weapon, resulting in fatal injuries.

Second-degree murder carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, while the maximum sentence for the assault charge is ten years imprisonment, and the maximum sentence for the possession of a weapon is five years imprisonment.  If convicted, the Court must impose reasonable sentences under federal sentencing statutes and the advisory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.

The public is reminded that an indictment contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt.  The defendant is presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Today, the Western District of Oklahoma unsealed an indictment charging three individuals with violating federal wire fraud and money laundering statutes in connection with an operation to sell over $88 million of stolen Avaya Direct International (ADI) software licenses, which were used to unlock features of a popular telephone system used by thousands of companies around the globe.

The grand jury charged the following defendants with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 13 counts of wire fraud:  Raymond Bradley Pearce, aka Brad Pearce, 46, of Tuttle, Oklahoma; Dusti O. Pearce, 44, of Tuttle, Oklahoma; and Jason M. Hines, aka Joe Brown, aka Chad Johnson, aka Justin Albaum, 42, of Caldwell, New Jersey. In addition, the grand jury charged both Brad Pearce and Dusti Pearce with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering.

According to the indictment, Avaya Holdings Corporation, a multinational business communications company headquartered in California, sold a product called IP Office, a telephone system used by many midsize and small businesses in the United States and abroad. To enable additional functionality of IP Office such as voicemail or more telephones, customers had to purchase software licenses – which Avaya generated – from an authorized Avaya distributor or reseller. Avaya used software license keys to control access to Avaya’s copyright-protected software and to ensure that only customers who paid for the software could use it. In addition, Avaya required that each software license on an IP Office system be associated with the system’s Avaya Secure Digital (SD) card – a small flash memory card with a unique serial number that plugged into the IP Office manager computer – which the end user had to keep in its possession in order to use the licenses.

According to the indictment, Brad Pearce, a long-time customer service employee at Avaya, allegedly used his system administrator privileges to generate tens of millions of dollars of ADI software license keys that he sold to Hines and other customers, who in turn sold them to resellers and end users around the globe. The retail value of each Avaya software license ranged from under $100 to thousands of dollars.

As set forth in the indictment, Brad Pearce also allegedly employed his system administrator privileges to hijack the accounts of former Avaya employees to generate additional ADI software license keys. Furthermore, he allegedly used these privileges to alter information about the accounts to conceal the fact that he was generating ADI license keys, preventing Avaya from discovering the fraud scheme for many years. Brad Pearce’s wife, Dusti Pearce, is alleged to have handled accounting and helped run the financial side of the illegal business. Hines operated Direct Business Services International (DBSI), a de-authorized Avaya reseller, in New Jersey. He allegedly bought software licenses from the Pearces under his own name and also using an alias, Joe Brown. Hines was the Pearces’ largest customer and significantly influenced how the scheme operated. Hines also received help from Brad Pearce to resell the stolen software licenses. Hines was allegedly one of the biggest users of the ADI license system in the world.

According to the indictment, the Pearces and Hines’ operation not only prevented Avaya from making any money on its stolen intellectual property but also undercut the global market in Avaya ADI software licenses because the Pearces and Hines were selling licenses for significantly below the wholesale price. In fact, Brad Pearce allegedly told Hines that the Pearces’ customers could not obtain same-day ADI software licenses from anyone else for anything even close to the Pearces’ prices, and Hines suggested that he and Brad Pearce work together to “corner” the market in licenses. Altogether, the Pearces and Hines allegedly reaped millions of dollars from the fraud. Moreover, to hide the nature and source of the money, the Pearces allegedly funneled their illegal gains through a PayPal account created under a false name to multiple bank accounts, and then transferred the money to numerous other investment and bank accounts. They also allegedly purchased large quantities of gold bullion and other valuable items. The indictment lists numerous assets subject to forfeiture including cash, gold, silver, collectible coins, cryptocurrency, and real property.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Robert J. Troester for the Western District of Oklahoma, and Special Agent in Charge Edward J. Gray of the FBI’s Oklahoma City Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI conducted the investigation.

Senior Counsel Matthew A. Lamberti of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Julia E. Barry and William Farrior for the Western District of Oklahoma 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 News

Defendant Conspired to Illegally Export U.S. Goods and Technology Without Required Export Licenses

Source: United States Department of Justice 2

Fifteen additional Texas doctors have agreed to pay a total of $2.83 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations involving illegal kickbacks in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute and Stark Law, and to cooperate with the Department of Justice’s investigations of and litigation against other parties.

“The Anti-Kickback and Stark Statutes help protect the integrity of federal health care programs,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “We will continue to pursue both individuals and corporations responsible for schemes that violate these important safeguards.”

“These settlements should reinforce the message that the Eastern District of Texas will not tolerate health care providers who seek to enrich themselves through kickback schemes,” said U.S. Attorney Brit Featherston for the Eastern District of Texas. “We will continue to work with our agency partners to identify those who defraud our taxpayers and we will hold those who have engaged in the schemes responsible.”   

“This outcome is the result of cooperation amongst law enforcement partners focused on upholding the integrity of federal health care programs,” said Special Agent in Charge Miranda L. Bennett of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG). “We will continue to pursue physicians engaging in improper financial relationships to ensure patients are receiving quality medical care.”

The Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits offering, paying, soliciting or receiving remuneration to induce referrals of items or services covered by Medicare, Medicaid and other federally-funded programs. The Stark Law forbids a hospital or laboratory from billing Medicare for certain services referred by physicians that have a financial relationship with the hospital or laboratory. The Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Law are intended to ensure that medical providers’ judgments are not compromised by improper financial incentives and are instead based on the best interests of their patients.

The settlements announced today resolve allegations that 15 Texas doctors violated the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Law by receiving thousands of dollars in remuneration from nine management service organizations (MSOs) in exchange for ordering laboratory tests from Rockdale Hospital dba Little River Healthcare (Little River), True Health Diagnostics LLC (True Health), and/or Boston Heart Diagnostics Corporation (Boston Heart). Little River allegedly funded the remuneration to certain doctors, in the form of volume-based commissions paid to independent contractor recruiters, who used MSOs to pay numerous doctors for their referrals. The MSO payments to the doctors were allegedly disguised as investment returns but in fact were based on, and offered in exchange for, the doctors’ referrals. 

• Louis Coates, D.O., of Garland, Texas, agreed to pay $87,694 to settle allegations that from Sept. 26, 2016, to March 14, 2018, he received kickbacks from an MSO, Herculis MG LLC, in return for ordering laboratory tests from Boston Heart.
• Jason DeMattia, M.D., and Candice DeMattia, M.D., both of Tomball, Texas, agreed to pay $316,142 and $207,009, respectively, to settle allegations that from Aug.1, 2014, to Dec. 31, 2016, they received kickbacks from two MSOs, North Houston MSO Group Inc. and Tomball Medical Management Inc., in return for ordering laboratory tests from True Health and Little River.
• Emanuel Paul (E.P.) Descant II, M.D., of Spring, Texas, agreed to pay $256,466 to settle allegations that from Jan. 5, 2015, through Feb. 3, 2018, he received kickbacks from two MSOs, North Houston MSO Group Inc. and Tomball Medical Management Inc., in return for ordering laboratory tests from Little River.
• Mitchell Finnie, M.D., of San Antonio, Texas, agreed to pay $582,522 to settle allegations that from June 4, 2015, to July 11, 2017, he received kickbacks from two MSOs, Alpha Rise Health LLC and Tango Rise Health Solutions LLC, in return for ordering laboratory tests from Boston Heart, True Health and Little River.
• Mark Le, M.D., of Tomball, Texas, agreed to pay $57,900 to settle allegations that from May 9, 2016, to Sept. 22, 2017, he received kickbacks from two MSOs, North Houston MSO Group Inc. and Tomball Medical Management Inc., in return for ordering laboratory tests from True Health and Little River.
• Richard Le, M.D., of Houston, Texas, agreed to pay $41,000 to settle allegations that from Sept. 29, 2016, to Aug. 24, 2017, he received kickbacks from two MSOs, North Houston MSO Group Inc. and Tomball Medical Management Inc., in return for ordering laboratory tests from True Health and Little River.
• Robert Jeremy Laningham, M.D., and Rodney Jason Laningham, M.D., both of Conroe, Texas, agreed to pay $470,560 to settle allegations that from Aug. 8, 2015, through July 6, 2016, they received kickbacks from two MSOs, SYNRG Partners LLC and Transparity Associates LP in return for ordering laboratory tests from Boston Heart, True Health and Little River.
• Andres Mesa, M.D., of Houston, Texas, agreed to pay $45,484 to settle allegations that from May 1, 2016, to Jan. 9, 2018, he received kickbacks from an MSO, Transparity Associates LP, in return for ordering laboratory tests from Boston Heart and Little River.
• Melissa Miskell, D.O., of New Braunfels, Texas, agreed to pay $100,392 to settle allegations that from July 13, 2015, to Dec. 14, 2017, she received kickbacks from an MSO, Alpha Rise Health LLC, in return for ordering laboratory tests from Boston Heart and Little River.
• Marco Munoz, M.D., of Fort Worth, Texas, agreed to pay $54,280 to settle allegations that from July 7, 2015, to April 6, 2016, he received kickbacks from an MSO, Alpha Rise Health LLC, in return for ordering laboratory tests from Boston Heart and Little River.
• Kozhaya Sokhon, M.D., of the Woodlands, Texas, agreed to pay $160,456 to settle allegations that from Jan. 16, 2015, to May 18, 2018, he received kickbacks from two MSOs, SYNRG Partners LLC and Transparity Associates LP, in return for ordering laboratory tests from Boston Heart and Little River.
• Annie Varughese, M.D., of the Woodlands, Texas, agreed to pay $213,888 to settle allegations that from Sept. 1, 2015, to Nov. 17, 2017, she received kickbacks from three MSOs, SYNRG Partners LLC, Transparity Associates LP, and North Houston MSO Group Inc., in return for ordering laboratory tests from True Health and Little River.
• Paul Worrell, D.O., of Dallas, Texas, agreed to pay $237,487 to settle allegations that from Oct. 9, 2015 to Dec. 31, 2017 he received kickbacks from three MSOs, Ascend MSO of TX LLC, Eridanus MG LLC and BDS Healthcare LLC, dba Vybrem Labs, in return for ordering laboratory tests from Boston Heart, True Health and Little River.

As part of their settlements, the 15 physicians have agreed to cooperate with the Department of Justice’s investigations of and litigation against other parties involved in the alleged violations of law.

“Today’s announcement is another step forward by the Department of Defense, Office of Inspector General’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) and our law enforcement partners to protect the integrity of the military’s health care system, commonly known as TRICARE,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Gregory P. Shilling of the DCIS Southwest Field Office. “We will continue to aggressively investigate and hold those accountable that take advantage of the U.S. government and American taxpayers.”

“The VA Office of Inspector General actively investigates those in violation of the Stark Law and the Anti-Kickback Statute,” said Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey Breen of the South Central Field Office of the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (VA-OIG). “Today’s civil settlements demonstrate the VA-OIG’s ongoing work to hold individuals accountable and protect the integrity of federal healthcare programs.”

Former True Health CEO Christopher Grottenthaler, former Boston Heart CEO Susan Hertzberg, former Little River CEO Jeffrey Madison, and others are defendants in a separate False Claims Act lawsuit in which the United States filed an amended complaint in May 2022. That pending case is captioned United States ex rel. STF, LLC v. True Health Diagnostics, LLC, et al., No. 4:16-cv-547 (E.D. Tex.). If a defendant is found liable for violating the act, the United States may recover three times the amount of its losses plus applicable penalties.

The civil settlements were the result of a coordinated effort between the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch, Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas, with assistance from HHS-OIG, DCIS and VA-OIG. As a result of its efforts, the United States has recovered over $32 million relating to conduct involving Boston Heart, True Health and Little River, including False Claims Act settlements with 33 physicians, two health care executives, and one laboratory. This matter and the related matters were handled by attorneys Christopher Terranova and Gavin Thole in the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch (Fraud Section) and Assistant U.S. Attorneys James Gillingham, Adrian Garcia and Betty Young for the Eastern District of Texas.

The government’s pursuit of these matters illustrates the government’s emphasis on combating health care fraud. One of the most powerful tools in this effort is the False Claims Act. Tips and complaints from all sources about potential fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement can be reported to the Department of Health and Human Services, at 1-800-HHS-TIPS (800-447-8477).

The claims resolved by the settlements are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.