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Franklin American Mortgage Company has agreed to pay the United States $70 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by knowingly originating and underwriting mortgage loans insured by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Federal Housing Administration (FHA) that did not meet applicable requirements, the Justice Department announced on December 2. Franklin American is headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee.

The former president of a defense contractor providing services to the U.S. military in Iraq was sentenced Tuesday to 12 months and one day in prison for his role in a scheme to pay more than $1.2 million in bribes to U.S. Army contracting personnel in exchange for being awarded lucrative defense contracts, announced Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The United States filed a civil injunction suit seeking to bar James Tarpey, a Montana-based attorney, Project Philanthropy, Inc. (a District of Columbia corporation which does business as Donate for a Cause) and Timeshare Closings, Inc. (a Colorado corporation which does business as Resort Closings, Inc.) from promoting an allegedly abusive timeshare donation scheme, the Justice Department announced on November 24.

Two North Carolina businessmen pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court in the Middle District of North Carolina to conspiracy to defraud the United States, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Ripley Rand of the Middle District of North Carolina.

In a series of related cases announced on November 24, the former chief financial officer (CFO) of a Long Beach, California, hospital, two orthopedic surgeons and two others have been charged in long-running health care fraud schemes that illegally referred thousands of patients for spinal surgeries and generated nearly $600 million in fraudulent billings over an eight-year period.

A Fort Lauderdale, Florida based government contractor pleaded guilty Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to filing a false income tax return, Acting Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo of the Justice Department’s Tax Division announced.

Two Utah companies are running a nationwide abusive scheme that purports to use false tax deductions and claims of the solar energy credit to reduce their customers’ federal income tax liability, according to a complaint filed Monday by the Justice Department. The United States’ complaint seeks to stop Utah companies RaPower-3 LLC and International Automated Systems Inc.; Utah residents R. Gregory Shepard and Neldon Johnson; Nevada company LTB1 LLC and Oregon resident Roger Freeborn, from facilitating and promoting the allegedly abusive tax scheme.

The University of Florida (UF) has agreed to pay the United States $19.875 million to settle allegations that the university improperly charged the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for salary and administrative costs on hundreds of federal grants, the Department of Justice announced on November 20. The grants in question were administered from the UF campuses in Gainesville and Jacksonville, Florida.

Damacio Diaz, 43, of McFarland, California, a detective with the Bakersfield, California, Police Department (BPD), was arrested on November 20, charged with abusing his position of trust as a police detective when he conspired with and assisted a narcotics dealer in the operation of the dealer’s drug organization, announced U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner of the Eastern District of California, Special Agent in Charge Monica M. Miller of the FBI’s Sacramento Division, DEA Special Agent in Charge John J. Martin, Acting Special Agent in Charge Thomas McMahon of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) and Bakersfield Police Chief Greg Williamson. The charges are contained in a 16-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury on November 19.

United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced that John C. Barry, 69, of Portland, pled guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court to embezzlement and making false entries in credit union records.