Law Enforcement | WPN World People News

Yesterday, the FBI released bank crime statistics for calendar year 2011. Between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2011, there were 5,014 robberies, 60 burglaries, 12 larcenies, and seven extortions of financial institutions1 reported to law enforcement. The total 5,093 reported violations represent a decrease from 2010, during which 5,641 violations of the Federal Bank Robbery and Incidental Crimes Statute were reported.

A federal grand jury returned an Indictment today charging the mayor of Hamilton Township, New Jersey in connection with $12,400 in bribes he allegedly solicited and accepted in exchange for his official influence to assist a cooperating witness in maintaining the position of health insurance broker with the township’s school district, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Laura Pendergest-Holt, 38, the former chief investment officer of Houston-based Stanford Financial Group, pleaded guilty today to obstructing a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation into Stanford International Bank (SIB), the Antiguan offshore bank owned by convicted financier Robert Allen Stanford.

A medical transport corporation operating in several states, including Alabama and Kentucky, will pay $5.4 million to settle claims that the company improperly billed Medicare, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance for the Northern District of Alabama; U.S. Attorney David J. Hale for the Western District of Kentucky; and Derrick L. Jackson, special agent in charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General for the Atlanta Region.

Three former executives of Fair Financial Company, an Ohio financial services business, were found guilty for their roles in a scheme to defraud approximately 5,000 investors of more than $200 million, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Joseph H. Hogsett, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana; and Special Agent in Charge Robert Holley of the FBI in Indiana announced today.

The former executive director of the American Samoa Special Services Commission (the Commission) was sentenced today in Washington, D.C., to 14 months in prison for conspiracy to steal more than $325,000 in AmeriCorps grant funds, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

LONDON In a dramatic move, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange sought political asylum in Ecuador after taking refuge in its embassy in London Tuesday, days after the supreme court rejected his appeals against extradition to Sweden to face sex crime charges.

Nick Park, also known as Nochol Park, 47, a Northern Virginia businessman, pled guilty today to federal charges in a case involving bribery, kickbacks, and government contracts that were awarded through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of the Army, bringing to nine the number of defendants who have now pled guilty to charges.

United States Attorney Robert E. O’Neill announces the filing of an information charging Sebastian Stewart Oyegun, II (32, Orlando) with theft of government property­.

The owner of multiple area outpatient surgery centers was arrested today on federal fraud and tax charges alleging that he paid bribes and kickbacks to physicians for patient referrals and filed false federal income tax returns that understated his income.