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The Lexington County Health Services District Inc. d/b/a Lexington Medical Center located in West Columbia, South Carolina, has agreed to pay $17 million to resolve allegations that it violated the Physician Self-Referral Law (the Stark Law) and the False Claims Act by maintaining improper financial arrangements with 28 physicians, the Department of Justice announced on 28 July.

The Justice Department announced on 28 July that the government has filed suit under the False Claims Act against Derish M. Wolff and Salvatore J. Pepe, respectively the former CEO and CFO of Louis Berger Group Inc. (LBG), for conspiring to overbill the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and other government agencies for costs incurred performing reconstruction contracts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries, the Justice Department announced on 28 July. LBG is based in East Orange, New Jersey.

An Austell, Georgia, couple was sentenced to prison for their role in a stolen identity tax refund fraud scheme, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney John A. Horn of the Northern District of Georgia.

U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz for the District of Massachusetts, Director Andrew J. Ceresney of the Division of Enforcement for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Secretary Thomas E. Perez of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), on 26 July announced that State Street Bank and Trust Company, a Massachusetts-based financial institution, agreed to pay a total of at least $382.4 million, including $155 million to the Department of Justice, $167.4 million in disgorgement and penalties to the SEC and at least $60 million to ERISA plan clients in an agreement with the DOL, to settle allegations that it deceived some of its custody clients when providing them with indirect foreign currency exchange (FX) services.

A Spokane, Washington, certified public accountant pleaded guilty on 26 July to three counts of making and subscribing false corporate income tax returns announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Michael C. Ormsby for the Eastern District of Washington.

LATAM Airlines Group S.A. (LATAM), a commercial airline company based in Chile, has agreed to pay a $12.75 million criminal penalty in connection with a scheme to pay bribes to Argentine union officials via a false consulting contract with a third-party intermediary in violation of the accounting provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

The owner of two Arkansas mental health companies that provide inpatient and outpatient mental health services to juveniles was found guilty on 21 July of engaging in a scheme to bribe a former deputy director of the Arkansas Department of Human Services (ADHS), announced Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division.

A Montgomery County, Alabama, resident was sentenced to 48 months in prison for her role in a stolen identity refund fraud scheme, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo, head of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney George L. Beck Jr. of the Middle District of Alabama.

David Samson, 76, of Aiken, South Carolina, and the former chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, on 14 July pleaded guilty to bribery for using his official authority to pressure the parent company of United Airlines Inc. to institute a non-stop flight from Newark, New Jersey, to South Carolina for his personal benefit.

A Jamaica, New York, resident pleaded on 14 July guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.