Law Enforcement | WPN World People News

MetLife Home Loans LLC has agreed to pay the United States $123.5 million to resolve allegations that MetLife Bank N.A. (MetLife Bank) 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 February 25.

The former mayor of the municipality of Río Grande, Puerto Rico, was sentenced Wednesday to 64 months in prison and ordered to forfeit $39,000 for soliciting and receiving cash bribes from a contractor who sought construction inspection contracts with the municipality.

A federal grand jury has returned a superseding indictment against two brothers late on February 23, adding conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering charges arising from a scheme in which they filed 30 fraudulent tax returns seeking refunds of more than $204 million, announced U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein of the District of Maryland, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Kelly of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Washington, D.C., Field Office.

A Miami man pleaded guilty to health care fraud charges in connection with a $5 million scheme to defraud Medicare on February 24.

A Milledgeville, Georgia, couple were found guilty of tax fraud following a three-day jury trial for skimming more than $1.5 million in cash from their business without disclosing the income, the Department of Justice announced.

Two South Florida medical doctors and their wives have agreed to settle allegations that they violated the False Claims Act when their wives accepted sham marketer salaries in exchange for their husbands’ referrals to a home health care company called A Plus Home Health Care Inc., the Justice Department announced on February 23. Under the settlements, Dr. Alan and Lynn Buhler will pay to the United States $1.047 million and Dr. Craig and Cynthia Prokos will pay $90,000. Dr. Buhler practices in Plantation, Florida, and Dr. Prokos practices in Jupiter, Florida.

A U.S. resident in North Carolina was arrested for allegedly making a fraudulent claim on the fund set up to compensate victims of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, announced Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division on February 23.

Four men are scheduled to appear in Northbridge Magistrates Court on serious drug charges following a successful operation conducted by the Western Australian National Anti-Gangs Squad (NAGS) on February 21.

The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont stated that Michael Petruccelli, 49, of Rutland, Vermont has been charged with distributing crack cocaine in Rutland, Vermont in a two-count indictment returned on February 4, 2015. Petruccelli pled not guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge John Conroy to the charges against him. Judge Conroy ordered that Petruccelli be detained pending trial in light of Petruccelli’s prior criminal record and drug addiction issues.

On February 13, the Department of Justice announced that an Illinois physician, Dr. Michael J. Reinstein, pleaded guilty to a federal crime for receiving illegal kickbacks and benefits totaling nearly $600,000 from two pharmaceutical companies in exchange for regularly prescribing an anti-psychotic drug — clozapine — to his patients.