Category: US Department of Justice

Source: United States Department of Justice

The Justice Department announced today the findings from its pattern or practice investigation into conduct by the City of Worcester, Massachusetts, and the Worcester Police Department (WPD).

According to the findings, the City of Worcester and WPD engage in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprives people of rights secured by the U.S. Constitution and federal law.

Specifically, as detailed in the investigative report, the Justice Department finds that:

• WPD uses excessive force, including unjustified uses of tasers, police dogs and strikes to the head. Officers rapidly escalated minor incidents by using more force than necessary, including during encounters with people who have behavioral health disabilities or are in crisis. WPD’s use of excessive force violates the Fourth Amendment.
• WPD has allowed certain officers at times to engage in outrageous government conduct and violate the constitutional rights of women suspected of being involved in the commercial sex trade by engaging in sexual contact while undercover as part of official investigations. This violates the 14th Amendment’s Due Process Clause.

The department’s investigation also describes serious concerns about some credible reports that officers have sexually assaulted women under threat of arrest and engaged in other sexual misconduct; and concerns that WPD lacks adequate policies and practices to respond to and investigate sexual assaults by officers and others. Finally, the department raised concerns that WPD engages in racially discriminatory policing.  

Deficiencies in policies, training, supervision, and accountability contribute to the city and WPD’s unlawful conduct.

“Our comprehensive investigation revealed that the Worcester Police Department uses excessive force and has allowed undercover police officers to engage in sexual contact with women suspected of being involved in the commercial sex trade,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “This is the first time the department has issued a pattern or practice finding involving sexual misconduct by officers. We look forward to working with city officials to institute reforms that build on their own preliminary efforts but that will fully bring an end to these unlawful and unconstitutional practices. The Justice Department is committed to standing firm against sexual misconduct in all its forms.”

“Excessive force and sexual misconduct at the hands of officers who took an oath to serve and protect deeply diminishes the public’s trust in its sworn officers” said U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy for the District of Massachusetts. “The actions by certain officers who engaged in this conduct are not a reflection of the many hard working and ethical officers at the WPD who did not engage in such misconduct or the thousands of police officers around the Commonwealth who serve with honor every day. While the findings announced in today’s report are serious and sobering, today we start a new chapter. We look forward to working with the City of Worcester and the new leadership of the Worcester Police Department to implement reforms that will prevent these kinds of incidents from reoccurring.”

The Justice Department opened this investigation on Nov. 15, 2022, pursuant to 34 U.S.C. § 12601 (Section 12601), which prohibits law enforcement officers from engaging in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprives people of rights protected by the Constitution or federal law. The investigation was conducted by career attorneys and staff in the Civil Rights Division’s Special Litigation Section and the Civil Rights Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.

The report acknowledges the changes already made by the City and WPD and identifies additional remedial measures that the department believes are necessary to address its findings. The department is committed to working collaboratively with the City and WPD to address and remedy the harms the investigation identified.

The department will also be seeking input from the Worcester community on remedies to address the investigation’s findings. Members of the public may submit recommendations by email at community.wpd@usdoj.gov or by phone at 617-275-8756.

The Justice Department will hold a webinar at 6:00 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 9, to provide more information about the findings. Members of the public are encouraged to attend. Please email community.wpd@usdoj.gov to register.

Information about the Civil Rights Division is available at www.justice.gov/crt. Information about the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts is available at www.justice.gov/usao-ma.

Source: United States Department of Justice

A Florida man was sentenced today to 15 years in prison for his role in a wide-ranging conspiracy to defraud Medicare by billing over $67 million for medically unnecessary genetic testing.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Jose Goyos, 38, of West Palm Beach, was employed at a call center that engaged in deceptive telemarketing calls targeting thousands of Medicare beneficiaries and their physicians. Goyos managed the so-called “doctor chase” division of the call center, which contacted the primary care physicians of targeted Medicare beneficiaries and tricked these medical providers into ordering medically unnecessary genetic tests based on medical paperwork that the call center created. For example, Goyos directed call center employees to falsely represent to providers that the Medicare beneficiaries were “mutual patients” who had requested these genetic tests and that the beneficiaries had medical conditions justifying genetic testing, when neither statement was true.

Goyos and his co-conspirators then used those doctors’ orders to submit claims to Medicare for expensive and medically unnecessary genetic tests. The results of these tests often were not sent to the Medicare beneficiaries’ primary care physicians and were not used in the treatment of the beneficiaries.

In total, between May 2020 and July 2021, Goyos and his co-conspirators submitted over $67 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare, of which Medicare paid over $53 million.

In October 2023, a jury convicted Goyos of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Nine additional Florida residents were previously sentenced for their roles in the conspiracy:

• Daniel M. Carver, 38, of Boca Raton, was sentenced to 16 years and eight months in prison.
• Thomas Dougherty, 42, of Palm Beach, was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
• John Paul Gosney Jr., 42, of Parkland, was sentenced to seven years and 11 months in prison.
• Galina Rozenberg, 42, of Hollywood, was sentenced to four years in prison.
• Michael Rozenberg, 61, of Hollywood, was sentenced to four years in prison.
• Ethan Macier, 25, of Boynton Beach, was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison.
• Louis “Gino” Carver, 33, of Boca Raton, was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison.
• Ashley Cigarroa, 32, of North Lauderdale, was sentenced to two years and six months in prison.
• Timothy Richardson, 31, of Lantana, was sentenced to two years in prison.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida; Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey B. Veltri of the FBI Miami Field Office; and Special Agent in Charge Stephen Mahmood of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG) Miami Regional Office made the announcement.

The FBI and HHS-OIG investigated the case.

Trial Attorneys Reginald Cuyler Jr. and Andrew Tamayo, along with former Trial Attorney Patrick J. Queenan, of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sara Klco, Marx Calderon, and Sandra Dermici for the Southern District of Florida are handling asset forfeiture.

The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat health care fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program. Since March 2007, this program, currently comprised of nine strike forces operating in 27 federal districts, has charged more than 5,400 defendants who collectively have billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $27 billion. HHS-OIG and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services work collaboratively as Strike Force partners to hold providers accountable for their involvement in health care fraud schemes. More information can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.

Source: United States Department of Justice

Note: View the indictment here.

A four-count indictment was unsealed today charging Hang Sun, also known as Cody Sun, with conspiracy, wire fraud, smuggling, and a violation of the Arms Export Control Act for his role in an illegal scheme to send export-controlled defense-related technical data to China and to unlawfully supply the Department of Defense (DOD) with Chinese-origin rare earth magnets for aviation systems and military items.  

The indictment alleges that between January 2012 and December 2018, the defendant conspired to send approximately 70 drawings containing export-controlled technical data to a company located in China without a license from the U.S. government, in violation of the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. The technical data drawings were the property of two U.S. companies and related to end-use items for aviation, submarine, radar, tank, mortars, missiles, infrared and thermal imaging targeting systems, and fire control systems for DOD.

The indictment further alleges that Quadrant Magnetics imported rare earth magnets that were smelted and magnetized by a company in China. Quadrant then sold these magnets to two U.S. companies which included them in components sold to DOD for use in the F-16, the F-18, and other defense assets in violation of the Defense Acquisition Regulations System (DFARS). Under the DFARS specialty metal clause, rare earth magnets sold to DOD must be produced in the United States or an approved country. China is not an approved country.  Quadrant Magnetics and three of its employees were separately charged in a superseding indictment filed in the Western District of Kentucky on Dec. 5, 2023.

If convicted, Sun faces statutory maximum penalties of up to five years in prison for conspiracy; 20 years in prison for wire fraud; 20 years in prison for exporting technical data without a license; and 10 years in prison for smuggling goods from the United States. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, Director Kelly P. Mayo of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), U.S. Attorney Michael A. Bennett for the Western District of Kentucky, Executive Assistant Director Robert Wells of the FBI’s National Security Branch, and Special Agent in Charge Karen Wingerd of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Cincinnati Field Office made the announcement.

The DCIS, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, IRS-CI, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General are investigating the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joshua Judd and Christopher Tieke for the Western District of Kentucky and Trial Attorneys Alexander Wharton and Leslie Esbrook with the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an allegation. 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 issued the following statements from Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco on today’s ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in TikTok, et al. v. Garland:

“Today’s decision is an important step in blocking the Chinese government from weaponizing TikTok to collect sensitive information about millions of Americans, to covertly manipulate the content delivered to American audiences, and to undermine our national security,” said Attorney General Garland. “As the D.C. Circuit recognized, this Act protects the national security of the United States in a manner that is consistent with the Constitution. The Justice Department is committed to defending Americans’ sensitive data from authoritarian regimes that seek to exploit companies under their control.”

“We welcome today’s decision,” said Deputy Attorney General Monaco. “This ruling confirms that the law Congress passed — and the Justice Department’s work to defend it — have never been about restricting free speech but rather breaking the ties that bind TikTok to the regime in Beijing. This law protects Americans from the national security risks posed by the current ownership of TikTok in a manner that is consistent with the Constitution.”

Source: United States Department of Justice

A federal court ordered an Elkin, North Carolina, pharmacy to pay a $500,000 penalty and enjoined the pharmacy and its pharmacists from dispensing controlled substances, including opioids, without taking steps to help ensure the drugs will not be abused or diverted.

The consent decree resolves a complaint filed by the United States on Nov. 27, which alleged that Elk Pharmacy Inc., Larry Irwin, the pharmacy’s owner and pharmacists Susan Baker, S. Jason Couch, Beth Pence and Lori Wyble filled prescriptions in violation of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). The complaint alleges that the defendants dispensed prescription opioids while disregarding numerous “red flags” — that is, obvious indications of drug abuse, drug diversion and drug-seeking behavior. For example, according to the complaint, the defendants filled dangerous combination prescriptions; filled prescriptions for long-term, high-dose opioids that exceeded known recommendations for treating pain; filled prescriptions for patients who appeared to be “shopping” for doctors or pharmacies; and filled prescriptions written by prescribers known to be suspected of illegal prescribing, including one doctor who the North Carolina Medical Board had barred from prescribing controlled substances.

“Pharmacists have a duty to help protect consumers from the life-threatening dangers of controlled substance abuse,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The department will continue to work with its law enforcement partners to hold medical professionals accountable when they fail to fulfill that duty.”

“Pharmacists are trained professionals who cannot simply rubber-stamp doctors’ prescriptions,” said U.S. Attorney Sandra J. Hairston for the Middle District of North Carolina. “They have an independent responsibility to ensure that the prescriptions they fill are for a legitimate medical purpose.”

“The pharmacists at Elk Pharmacy Inc. had a corresponding responsibility, along with the prescribing practitioners, to only dispense prescriptions for a legitimate medical purpose,” said Special Agent in Charge Robert J. Murphy of the DEA Atlanta Division. “The DEA will continue to pursue healthcare providers who are not in compliance with mandatory regulations.”

The defendants agreed to settle the suit and be bound by a consent decree of permanent injunction. The injunction entered by U.S. District Judge Thomas D. Schroeder for the Middle District of North Carolina prohibits the defendants from filling certain “red flag” prescriptions and requires the defendants to fill other orders only after receiving documentation justifying the prescriptions.

The government was represented by Senior Litigation Counsel Donald R. Lorenzen of the Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch and Assistant U.S. Attorney Cassie Crawford for the Middle District of North Carolina, with substantial assistance from DEA Diversion Investigator Heidi Crater and Intelligence Analyst William J. Morris of the DEA Greensboro Resident Office’s Diversion Group.

For more information about the enforcement efforts of the Consumer Protection Branch visit www.justice.gov/civil/consumer-protection-branch.

The claims resolved by the consent decree announced today are allegations only. There has been no determination of liability.