Category: US Department of Justice

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A Mississippi pharmacist pleaded guilty today and a Louisiana marketer pleaded guilty on Aug. 12 in the Southern District of Mississippi for their roles in a multi-million-dollar scheme to defraud TRICARE and private insurance companies by paying kickbacks to distributors for the referral of medically unnecessary prescriptions. The conduct allegedly resulted in more than $180 million in fraudulent billings, including more than $50 million paid by federal health care programs.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Gary Stein, a licensed chiropractor in Levittown, New York, has paid the United States $290,197.24 to resolve civil allegations that he submitted false claims to the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) for services that he did not provide to a federal employee receiving Federal Employees Compensation Act (FECA) program benefits.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Jacksonville, Florida – U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Corrigan has sentenced Travis Ryan Pritchard (38, Green Cove Springs) to 35 years in federal prison for producing an image of a 15-year-old child being sexually abused and one count of possessing an image of a prepubescent child being sexually abused. Pritchard was also ordered to serve a lifetime term of supervised release and to register as a sex offender.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Two Nigerian nationals, Johnson B. Ogunlana, age 25, of Edgewood, Maryland, and Samson A. Oguntuyi, age 29, of Atlanta, Georgia, pleaded guilty on the eve of trial to federal charges related to schemes to defraud financial institutions, retail establishments and other business victims, often using the stolen personal information of individual victims. Specifically, Ogunlana pleaded guilty on August 23, 2021 to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and mail fraud, access device fraud, aggravated identity theft, and theft of mail by a postal employee. Yesterday, Oguntuyi pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and mail fraud, bank fraud, and aggravated identity theft.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

CINCINNATI – Frank Morris, 73, of Cincinnati, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to using the identity of a deceased childhood friend to obtain more than $120,000 in Social Security and SNAP food stamp benefits. Morris also compiled a criminal record in the victim’s name over the 50-year span in which Morris used the identity.