Law Enforcement | WPN World People News

URS E & C Holdings Inc., a successor in interest to the global design and construction company Washington Group International Inc. (WGI), has agreed to pay $9 million to settle allegations that WGI submitted false claims in connection with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) contracts, the Justice Department announced on January 6.

The Department of Justice announced Tuesday that Wisconsin-based Novum Structures LLC (Novum) has agreed to enter a guilty plea and pay $3 million to resolve its criminal and civil liability arising from its improper use of foreign materials on construction projects involving federal funds.

A resident of Bowie, Maryland, pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal charges for his involvement in a far-reaching identity theft and tax fraud scheme in which he assisted in the filing of fraudulent federal income tax returns seeking more than $4.4 million in refunds, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips for the District of Columbia, Special Agent in Charge Thomas Jankowski of the Washington Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Inspector in Charge David G. Bowers of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s (USPIS) Washington, D.C., Division and Assistant Inspector General for Investigations John L. Phillips of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

A Ontario, Canada, man was sentenced to 135 months in prison Monday following his conviction for one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and commit theft of government funds, one count of making a false claim against the United States and two counts of transferring stolen money in foreign commerce, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul Jr. of the Western District of New York.

A federal court has ordered a Baltimore-area importer of marble and granite to pay its payroll taxes as they become due, the Justice Department announced on Janurary 4. Judge Ellen L. Hollander of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland entered a permanent injunction requiring Alexander Stone Inc. d/b/a MMG Marble & Granite and its owners, Soultana Efthimiadis and Kyriakos Efthimiadis, to pay their federal payroll tax liabilities as they became due and owing.

Emanuel L. Lutchman, 25, was arrested and charged by criminal complaint with attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a designated foreign terrorist organization. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Westchester businessman SELIM ZHERKA was sentenced Tuesday to 37 months in prison on charges that he conspired to make false statements to a bank in order to receive millions of dollars in loans and to file materially false tax returns with the IRS. ZHERKA pled guilty to the conspiracy on August 27, 2015, before U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel, who imposed the sentence. In addition to the prison sentence, ZHERKA was ordered to forfeit $5.23 million in ill-gotten gains and to pay a $1.5 million fine.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday that Coloplast Corp., a manufacturer of ostomy and continence care products, and Liberator Medical Supply, Inc., a medical products supplier, have agreed to pay $3,160,000 and $500,000, respectively, to resolve allegations that Coloplast paid unlawful kickbacks to several medical suppliers, including Liberator, to induce them to conduct promotional campaigns designed to refer individual users to Coloplast products.

Victor R. DeAnthony, Jr., 47, of Leesburg, pleaded guilty Tuesday to wire fraud for embezzling up to $3.5 million from a business based in Herndon.

The co-owners of a home health company in Dallas and two nurse employees were charged in an indictment unsealed Monday for their alleged participation in a $13.4 million health care fraud scheme involving fraudulent claims for home health services.