Month: August 2024

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The Justice Department announced today that, as of Aug. 2, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma has entered permanent injunctions that bar three Tulsa, Oklahoma-area men and two companies from running a fraudulent medical debt collection scheme that targeted current and former servicemembers and older Americans.

In its civil complaint, the United States alleged that Christopher Parks, 63, Christopher Noah Parks, 31, and Stephen Miller, 39, sent thousands of fraudulent debt collection notices on Assured Collections LLC and Assured Financial LLC letterhead to consumers nationwide. The letters demanded thousands of dollars in payment purportedly for medical devices that some consumers received for past medical procedures, such as leg compression devices used to prevent blood clots after surgery. The United States alleged that defendants had no authority to collect any debt from those consumers and that the debts for which defendants sought repayment were in many cases illusory — i.e., consumers did not actually owe the money, but many paid it anyway. The complaint further alleged that Christopher Parks and his co-defendants knew that the debt collection notices were fraudulent yet continued to harass consumers and demand payments. 

According to court documents, Christopher Parks directed significant aspects of the scheme while spending time in prison on other healthcare fraud charges. For example, recorded telephone calls obtained from the facility where Parks had been incarcerated revealed that Parks directed Stephen Miller to switch names and operate under Assured Financial LLC instead of Assured Collections LLC after numerous consumers filed Better Business Bureau complaints accusing Assured Collections LLC of fraud.   

Under the terms of their civil consent decrees, defendants agreed to be permanently enjoined from, among other things, engaging in any future billing and debt collection activities and accepting any future payments from any consumer who received a debt collection notice from Assured Collections LLC or Assured Financial LLC. Additionally, defendants agreed to disclose the consent decrees to any current, prospective and/or future employee, employer, business partner, client or associate engaged in the healthcare or debt collection industries.

“The department is committed to preventing vulnerable consumers from being harmed by false claims about debts they purportedly owe,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “I am thankful for the tireless efforts of our investigative partners who were integral to our success in this case.” 

“Christopher Parks, a former attorney, devised a scheme to defraud Northern District of Oklahoma citizens of millions of dollars while he was in prison for a previous healthcare fraud scheme,” said U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson for the Northern District of Oklahoma. “Defendants were brought to justice for their brazen scheme through a collaborative effort between the department and our investigative partners. My office will zealously pursue fraudsters who swindle citizens of their hard-earned money.” 

“Protecting the integrity of the healthcare system for our military members and their families is a top priority of the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS),” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Ryan Settle of the DCIS Southwest Field Office. “DCIS will continue to work with its law enforcement partners and the Justice Department to hold fraudsters accountable for their illicit activities and to ensure America’s service members are not victimized.”

“Preserving veterans’ access to world-class health care is a priority for the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (VA OIG), and we will investigate anyone who would seek to exploit VA’s programs and services,” said Special Agent in Charge Kris Raper with the VA OIG’s South Central Field Office. “The VA OIG is grateful to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Justice Department’s Consumer Protection Branch and our law enforcement partners for their efforts to achieve justice in this case.”

In an unrelated case brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Oklahoma, Christopher Parks was sentenced in October 2023 to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to offer and pay health care kickbacks as part of a scheme where consumers were steered to obtain prescriptions from Parks-controlled compounding pharmacies. Parks is also currently awaiting trial in the Eastern District of Texas on other federal criminal healthcare fraud charges stemming from his billing practices as the principal of a company called USA Medical.

The VA-OIG, DCIS, Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, Department of Labor Office of Inspector General and FBI investigated the case.

Trial Attorney Wesline N. Manuelpillai and Assistant Director Patrick R. Runkle of the Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch and Assistant U.S. Attorney Marianne Hardcastle for the Northern District of Oklahoma prosecuted the case.

If you or someone you know is age 60 or older and has experienced financial fraud, experienced professionals are standing by at the National Elder Fraud Hotline at 1-833-FRAUD-11 (1-833-372-8311). This Justice Department hotline, managed by the Office for Victims of Crime, can provide personalized support to callers by assessing the needs of the victim and identifying relevant next steps. Case managers will identify appropriate reporting agencies, provide information to callers to assist them in reporting, connect callers directly with appropriate agencies and provide resources and referrals, on a case-by-case basis. Reporting is the first step. Reporting can help authorities identify those who commit fraud and reporting certain financial losses due to fraud as soon as possible can increase the likelihood of recovering losses. The hotline is open Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET. English, Spanish and other languages are available.

More information about the department’s efforts to help American seniors is available at its Elder Justice Initiative webpage. For more information about the Consumer Protection Branch and its enforcement efforts, visit www.justice.gov/civil/consumer-protection-branch. Additional information about the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Oklahoma can be found at www.justice.gov/usao-ndok. Elder fraud complaints may be filed with the Federal Trade Commission at www.reportfraud.ftc.gov/ or at 877-FTC-HELP. The Justice Department provides a variety of resources relating to elder fraud victimization through its Office for Victims of Crime, which can be reached at www.ovc.gov.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Shujun Wang, 75, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Chinese descent, an academic and author who helped start a pro-democracy organization in Queens, New York, that opposes the current communist regime in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), was convicted today on all four counts of an indictment charging him with acting and conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government without prior notification to the U.S. Attorney General, criminal use of identification and making false statements to law enforcement.

“This defendant infiltrated a New York-based advocacy group by masquerading as a pro-democracy activist all while covertly collecting and reporting sensitive information about its members to the PRC’s intelligence service,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “Today’s verdict demonstrates that those who would seek to advance the Chinese government’s agenda of transnational repression will be held accountable.”

“The indictment could have been the plot of a John LeCarre or Graham Greene spy novel, but the evidence is shockingly real that the defendant led a double life, pretending for years to be an activist for democracy while he was secretly passing information to the Chinese government,” said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York. “The defendant was a perfect stooge for the PRC, a well-known academic and founder of a pro-democracy organization who was willing to betray those who respected and trusted him. When confronted with his shameful conduct, Wang lied to the FBI, but today’s verdict revealed the truth of his crimes and now he will face the consequences.”

“This conviction underscores the FBI’s commitment to countering espionage schemes by holding those accountable who collect U.S. activist information for the benefit of China,” said Executive Assistant Director Robert Wells of the FBI’s National Security Branch. “Any support for transnational repression is unacceptable, and the FBI works diligently with its partners to seek out and bring to justice those who support such activities.”

Wang is one of the founders of the pro-democracy Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang Memorial Foundation, an organization located in Flushing, Queens, whose members are well-known pro-democracy dissidents who oppose the current government of the PRC. But instead of promoting democracy in the PRC, Wang, at the direction of PRC government officials, used his position within the Memorial Foundation and his status within the Chinese diaspora community to collect information about prominent activists, academics and dissidents, and reported that information to the PRC government.

According to court documents, since at least 2006, Wang operated under the direction and control of his co-defendants – four officials of China’s Ministry of State Security, which is responsible for the PRC’s foreign intelligence collection. At the MSS’ direction, Wang gathered information on people and groups that the PRC considers subversive, such as Hong Kong democracy protestors, advocates for Taiwanese independence and Uyghur and Tibetan activists, both in the United States and abroad. Wang conducted face-to-face meetings with MSS officials while on trips to the PRC and used an encrypted messaging application to receive taskings from his co-defendants and to send and receive written messages and files.

Wang often memorialized the information he collected in email “diaries” to be accessed by the MSS. These “diaries” included details about Wang’s private conversations with prominent dissidents, as well as the activities of pro-democracy activists and human rights organizations. Law enforcement recovered from Wang’s residence approximately 163 “diary” entries that he wrote to He, Ji, Li and Lu and other MSS officials. Additionally, in connection with his work for the MSS, Wang possessed telephone numbers and contact information belonging to Chinese dissidents.

Wang made materially false statements to federal law enforcement, falsely denying that he had contacts with PRC officials or the MSS. Over the course of three separate interviews, between 2017 to 2021, Wang repeatedly denied having any contact with individuals from the Chinese intelligence agency. During one of the interviews, in 2019, Wang was interviewed by federal law enforcement agents at John F. Kennedy Internation Airport in Queens, after he returned from China. Wang falsely stated that he had no contact with anyone from the Chinese government and that he had no Chinese government contact information. 

The verdict followed a one-week trial. Wang’s co-defendants in the espionage and transnational repression scheme, Feng He, Jie Ji, Ming Li and Keqing Lu are MSS officials who remain at large. Wang is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 9, 2025 and faces up to 25 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ellen Sise and Nina Gupta for the Eastern District of New York and Trial Attorney Garrett Coyle of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section prosecuted the case. 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Earlier today, a complaint was unsealed in Brooklyn charging Asif Merchant, also known as Asif Raza Merchant, 46, with murder-for-hire as part of an alleged scheme to assassinate a politician or U.S. government official on U.S. soil. Law enforcement foiled the charged plot before any attack could be carried out. Merchant is in federal custody.

“For years, the Justice Department has been working aggressively to counter Iran’s brazen and unrelenting efforts to retaliate against American public officials for the killing of Iranian General Soleimani,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The Justice Department will spare no resource to disrupt and hold accountable those who would seek to carry out Iran’s lethal plotting against American citizens and will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to target American public officials and endanger America’s national security.”

“This dangerous murder-for-hire plot exposed in today’s complaint allegedly was orchestrated by a Pakistani national with close ties to Iran and is straight out of the Iranian playbook,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “A foreign-directed plot to kill a public official, or any U.S. citizen, is a threat to our national security and will be met with the full might and resources of the FBI.”  

“The complaint unsealed today underscores, yet again, that those who engage in lethal plotting on U.S. soil will face the full force of the American justice system,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “The targeting of former and current officials by foreign actors is an affront to our sovereignty and our democratic institutions and the Department of Justice will use every possible tool to expose and disrupt this egregious activity.”

“Working on behalf of others overseas, Merchant planned the murder of U.S. government officials on American soil,” said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York. “This prosecution demonstrates that this office and the entire Department of Justice will take swift and decisive action to protect our nation’s security, our government officials and our citizens from foreign threats

“Fortunately, the assassins Merchant allegedly tried to hire were undercover FBI Agents,” said Acting Assistant Director Christie Curtis of the FBI New York Field Office. “This case underscores the dedication and formidable efforts of our agents, analysts and prosecutors in New York, Houston, and Dallas. Their success in neutralizing this threat not only prevented a tragic outcome but also reaffirms the FBI’s commitment to protecting our nation and its citizens from both domestic and international threats.”

According to allegations contained in the complaint and related publicly filed court documents, Merchant orchestrated a plot to assassinate a politician or U.S. government official on U.S. soil. In approximately April 2024, after spending time in Iran, Merchant arrived in the United States from Pakistan and contacted a person he believed could assist him with the scheme. That person reported Merchant’s conduct to law enforcement and became a confidential source (the CS). 

In early June, Merchant met the CS in New York and explained his assassination plot. Merchant told the CS that the opportunity he had for the CS was not a one-time opportunity and would be ongoing. Merchant then made a “finger gun” motion with his hand, indicating that the opportunity was related to a killing. Merchant further stated that the intended victims would be “targeted here,” meaning in the United States. Merchant instructed the CS to arrange meetings with individuals whom Merchant could hire to carry out these actions. Merchant explained that his plot involved multiple criminal schemes: (1) stealing documents or USB drives from a target’s home; (2) planning a protest; and (3) killing a politician or government official. 

At that meeting, Merchant began planning potential assassination scenarios and quizzed the CS on how he would kill a target in the various scenarios. Specifically, Merchant asked the CS to explain how a target would die in different scenarios. Merchant told the CS that there would be “security [] all around” the person. 

Merchant stated that the assassination would occur after he left the United States and he would communicate with the CS from overseas using code words. The CS asked whether Merchant had spoken to the unidentified “party” back home with whom Merchant was working. Merchant responded that he had and that the party back home told him to “finalize” the plan and leave the United States.

In mid-June, Merchant met with the purported hitmen, who were in fact undercover U.S. law enforcement officers (the UCs) in New York. Merchant advised the UCs that he was looking for three services from them: theft of documents, arranging protests at political rallies, and for them to kill a “political person.” Merchant stated that the hitmen would receive instructions on who to kill either the last week of August or the first week of September, after Merchant had departed the United States. 

Merchant then began arranging means to obtain $5,000 in cash to pay the UCs as an advance payment for the assassination, which he eventually received with assistance from an individual overseas. On June 21, Merchant met with the UCs in New York and paid them the $5,000 advance. After Merchant paid the $5,000 to the UCs, one of the UCs stated, “now we’re bonded,” to which Merchant responded “yes.” The UC then stated “Now we know we’re going forward. We’re doing this,” to which Merchant responded “Yes, absolutely.”  

Merchant subsequently made flight arrangements and planned to leave the United States on Friday, July 12, 2024. On July 12, law enforcement agents placed Merchant under arrest before he could leave the country. Merchant has stated that he has a wife and children in Iran and a wife and children in Pakistan.

The FBI is investigating the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sara K. Winik, Gilbert Rein, and Douglas Pravda for the Eastern District of New York and Trial Attorneys David Smith and Joshua Champagne of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section are prosecuting the case.

A criminal complaint is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.