Law Enforcement | WPN World People News

A Houston, Texas, man pleaded guilty on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in Houston to one count of theft of public money, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson of the Southern District of Texas.

A Brooklyn, New York, business owner on Wednesday pleaded guilty to two counts of filing false tax returns, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

A resident of Bowie, Maryland, was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty in January 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, on May 3, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips of the District of Columbia, Special Agent in Charge Thomas Jankowski of Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Inspector in Charge Maria L. Kelokates of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Washington Division and Assistant Inspector General for Investigations John L. Phillips of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

On Saturday, a jury in New Orleans convicted the owner of a health care company for her role in a $3.2 million Medicare fraud scheme operating in and around New Orleans.

A former FBI special agent pleaded guilty for stealing over $136,000 of drug proceeds seized during the execution of search warrants in 2014 and falsifying reports and tampering with a witness, on May 2 .

Charges were filed on April 28 against 25 Miami-area defendants in three separate cases for their alleged participation in various schemes to defraud Medicare of approximately $26 million in false claims through the Medicare Part D program.

Two men who conspired to file more than 1,200 false tax returns using stolen identities were sentenced to prison on April 28, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney George L. Beck Jr. of the Middle District of Alabama.

The Department of Justice announced on April 27 that pharmaceutical companies Wyeth and Pfizer Inc. have agreed to pay $784.6 million to resolve allegations that Wyeth knowingly reported to the government false and fraudulent prices on two of its proton pump inhibitor (PPI) drugs, Protonix Oral and Protonix IV. Pfizer, which is headquartered in New York City, acquired New Jersey-based Wyeth in 2009, approximately three years after Wyeth had ended the conduct that gave rise to the settlement.

A number of tax return preparation businesses in the Birmingham, Alabama area unlawfully understate their customers’ income tax liabilities and overstate refunds by making deliberate misstatements on the returns, according to a new civil lawsuit filed by the Justice Department on April 27.