Law Enforcement | WPN World People News

Three men have been arrested and approximately five kilograms of border controlled precursors have been seized following a 14 month joint investigation involving the NSW Police Force State Crime Command Firearms Squad, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (ACBPS).

Assistant Attorney General John P. Carlin of the National Security Division and U.S. Attorney S. Amanda Marshall of the District of Oregon announced that Reaz Qadir Khan, 50, a naturalized U.S. citizen residing in Portland, Oregon, pleaded guilty to the crime of accessory after the fact for providing assistance to individuals connected to the 2009 suicide bomb attack at the headquarters of Pakistan’s intelligence service that killed approximately 30 individuals and injured 300 more on February 13.

A long-time Chicago psychiatrist pleaded guilty to a federal crime for receiving illegal kickbacks and benefits totaling nearly $600,000 from pharmaceutical companies in exchange for regularly prescribing the anti-psychotic drug clozapine to his patients on February 13. The defendant, Dr. MICHAEL J. REINSTEIN, also agreed to pay the United States and the State of Illinois $3.79 million to settle a parallel civil lawsuit alleging that, by prescribing clozapine in exchange for kickbacks, Reinstein caused the submission of at least 140,000 false claims to Medicare and Medicaid for the clozapine he prescribed for thousands of elderly and indigent mentally ill patients in at least 30 area nursing homes and other facilities, federal and state law enforcement officials announced on February 13.

A former bank president was charged for his role in a bank fraud scheme in which he is alleged to have hidden underperforming and at-risk loans from the bank and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), among others, announced Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Michael J. Moore of the Middle District of Georgia on February 12.

A campaign finance manager and political consultant pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Virginia for coordinating $325,000 in federal election campaign contributions by a political action committee (PAC) to a Congressional campaign committee on February 12. This is the first criminal prosecution in the United States based upon the coordination of campaign contributions between political committees.

The Department of Justice announced Thursday that California-based C.R. Laurence Co. Inc., Florida-based Southeastern Aluminum Products Inc. and Texas-based Waterfall Group LLC have agreed to pay $2,300,000, $650,000 and $100,000, respectively, to resolve a lawsuit brought by the United States under the False Claims Act alleging that the companies engaged in schemes to evade customs duties on imports of aluminum extrusions from the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The companies sell shower doors and shower enclosures made with the PRC-manufactured aluminum extrusions.

AstraZeneca LP, a pharmaceutical manufacturer based in Delaware, has agreed to pay the government $7.9 million to settle allegations that it engaged in a kickback scheme in violation of the False Claims Act, the Justice Department announced on February 11. AstraZeneca markets and sells pharmaceutical products in the United States, including a drug sold under the trade name Nexium.

Two sergeants with the U.S. Army have pleaded guilty for accepting bribes from Afghan truck drivers at Forward Operating Base Gardez, Afghanistan (FOB Gardez), in exchange for allowing the drivers to take thousands of gallons of fuel from the base for resale on the black market, announced Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Michael J. Moore of the Middle District of Georgia.

A Springdale, Arkansas, man was convicted by a jury in the U.S. District Court located in Fayetteville, Arkansas, of tax crimes, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Conner Eldridge of the Western District of Arkansas on February 11.

The former operator of the wireless technology company Distributive Networks LLC (Distributive Networks) pleaded guilty in federal court to willfully failing to pay more than $900,000 in employment taxes, Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Larry J. Wszalek of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced on Fedruary 10.