A recommended DKOS diary/ explained
Corporate crimes that crash ecosystems and economies are dull, hardly the stuff a US attorney general would be interested in.
But DOJ had a busy June.
June 25 Bribery, June 24 tax scams, June 23 Ex-import bank scams, June 23 Health care fraud,June 23 trading protected species and June 22 Medicare fraud, June 22 more bribery.
On June 17 Holder said:
We are here to announce the results of Operation Stolen Dreams – a three and a half month takedown of mortgage fraud schemes throughout the country.
This operation began on March 1, and to date involved 1,215 criminal defendants nationwide, defendants who were allegedly responsible for more than $2.3 billion in losses. In addition, the operation involved 191 civil enforcement actions through which more than $147 million has been ordered recovered, with still millions more pending court approval. This represents the largest collective enforcement effort ever brought to bear in confronting mortgage fraud.
And
Government Alleges Feed Dealers Facilitated, and Profited from, the Export of Nonfat Dry Milk That Was Earmarked for Livestock Ranchers in Drought-Stricken States
WASHINGTON – The United States filed a False Claims Act suit against R&J Feed Co., Jerry Goodwin, Richard Carter and Carter Livestock Inc. in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo., the Justice Department announced today. The United States alleges that the defendants violated the False Claims Act by being involved in the improper export of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-owned nonfat dry milk that was earmarked for livestock producers in designated states.
http://www.justice.gov/...
June 16.
Last night, federal agents arrested Lee Bentley Farkas, the former chairman of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corporation. He has been charged in a 16-count indictment in the Eastern District of Virginia. Court documents allege that Mr. Farkas and others carried out a massive fraud that resulted in losses of more than $1.9 billion and contributed to the failure of TBW, along with Colonial Bank, one of the 50 largest banks in the United States in 2009.
The fraud alleged here is truly stunning in its scale and complexity. In 2009, TBW was one of the largest privately held mortgage lending companies in the United States. According to the indictment, the fraud began as early as 2002 in an effort to conceal significant TBW operating losses. It then evolved over the course of seven years as Mr. Farkas and his co-conspirators sought to misappropriate hundreds of millions of dollars from Colonial Bank and Ocala Funding, a mortgage lending facility that was controlled by TBW and financed by large banks.
http://www.justice.gov/...
June 15.
Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati, Two Ohio Hospitals, and Physician Group to Pay $2.6 Million to Resolve Fraud Allegations
WASHINGTON – The Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati, two of its member hospitals (The Fort Hamilton Hospital and The University Hospital), and University Internal Medicine Associates Inc. have agreed to pay the United States $2.6 million to settle claims that they violated the Anti-Kickback Statute and the False Claims Act by engaging in a kickback-for-referral scheme, the Justice Department announced today.
The Fort Hamilton Hospital is a 310-bed hospital located in Hamilton, Ohio. The alleged scheme involved the hospital’s desire to expand the scope of its cardiology services to include certain interventional cardiology procedures. Under state law, The Fort Hamilton Hospital could only perform the interventional cardiology procedures if it participated in a particular clinical trial involving those procedures.
The government asserted that University Internal Medicine Associates, a physician group based at The University Hospital in Cincinnati, offered to provide the interventional cardiology coverage that The Fort Hamilton Hospital needed for the clinical trial, but only if the hospital agreed to refer cardiology patients and procedures to the physician group on a preferential basis.
http://www.justice.gov/...
June 9
Two Military Officials, Two Contractors and Contracting Company Indicted for Alleged Roles in Bribery and Money Laundering Scheme Related to DOD Contract in Afghanistan
Two U.S. military officials deployed to Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, two Department of Defense (DOD) contractors and a contracting company were charged late yesterday for their roles in an alleged bribery and money laundering scheme related to the award of a DOD trucking services contract in Afghanistan, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Florence Nakakuni for the District of Hawaii.
http://www.justice.gov/...
and also on June 9
Three Upstate New York Men Sentenced to Prison for Environmental Crimes
WASHINGTON—Three men, a father and two sons, were sentenced to prison today in federal court in Syracuse, N.Y., for multiple violations of asbestos-related environmental laws, announced Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resource Division, and Richard S. Hartunian, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York.
Paul Mancuso was sentenced to 78 months in prison, three years of probation and a $20,000 fine. Steven Mancuso was sentenced to 44 months in prison and three years of probation. Lester Mancuso, the father, was sentenced to 36 months in prison and three years of probation. The three men were sentenced today by Frederick Scullin, U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of New York.
After a two-week trial on Oct. 28, 2009, a jury found brothers, Paul and Steven Mancuso guilty of conspiring to defraud the United States, violating the Clean Air Act’s asbestos-related regulations, illegally dumping asbestos in Poland, N.Y, and committing mail fraud. Lester Mancuso pleaded guilty the day before the trial started. Ronald Mancuso, who cooperated with the investigation and prosecution, is scheduled to be sentenced on June 16, 2010.
http://www.justice.gov/...
June 7
The USTP launched investigations of Countrywide, as well as other mortgage lenders, after receiving complaints of chronic accounting irregularities by mortgage servicing companies. Overall, in FY 2009, U.S. Trustees took more than 9,000 formal and informal consumer protection actions, including a large number of actions against mortgage servicing companies. On the Countrywide matter, the USTP worked closely with the FTC in fashioning the consent order announced today.
Under the consent order:
Debtors who were victimized by Countrywide’s wrongful actions will receive compensation;
Countrywide will establish internal procedures and an independent third party will verify compliance with the prescribed procedures, to help ensure that the bills and claims filed in bankruptcy court are accurate; and
Countrywide will provide adequate notice of its charges so debtors do not emerge from bankruptcy only to be required to pay previously undisclosed charges or risk foreclosure.
Pending Bankruptcy Actions Resolved
The consent order resolves the USTP’s challenges to Countrywide’s mortgage servicing practices in litigation throughout the country, including in the bankruptcy cases of In re Atchley, Case No. 05-79232, Adv. No. 08-6092 (Bankr. N.D. Ga. Feb. 28, 2008); In re Hill, Case No. 01-22574 (Bankr. W.D. Pa. June 29, 2008); and In re Sanchez, Case No. 01-42230, Adv. No. 08-1176 (Bankr. S.D. Fla. Mar. 1, 2008). The consent order does not bind non-parties, including debtors.
http://www.justice.gov/...
June 2
Former Haitian Government Official Sentenced to Prison for His Role in Money Laundering Conspiracy Related to Foreign Bribery Scheme
A former official of the Republic of Haiti’s state-owned national telecommunications company was sentenced yesterday to 48 months in prison for his part in a money laundering conspiracy in connection with a foreign bribery scheme, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer of the Southern District of Florida; and Daniel W. Auer, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Miami Field Office.
Robert Antoine, 62, of Miami and Haiti, was also ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Jose E. Martinez to serve three years of supervised release following his prison term. Judge Martinez ordered Antoine to pay $1,852,209 in restitution and to forfeit $1,580,771. Antoine pleaded guilty on March 12, 2010, to conspiracy to commit money laundering.
http://www.justice.gov/...
There are a bunch more, but you'll have to read them on the DOJ Website yourself - because you won't find this stuff on Huffpo or much on DKOS.
The DKOS diary explains
Nevermind all that, the AG office is intent on doing the important dirty work in scourging the ACORN strawman from the face of America. Nevermind all the Corporate crimes and war crimes of the past decade. AG Holder has importantish work to pretend to do, like massive crimes that crash the economy, wreck our ecosystem and drive us into wars based on lies in Iraq.
although the Department of Justice is the defendant in the lawsuit brought by ACORN.
Us gutless centrist Obama apologists are very proud to have helped put into office a US President whose justice department is so actively attacking fraud, scamming, and all the other mainstays of the Republican economy. We, because we are naive people who are mesmerized by picture diaries, do not depend on crappy fiction writing "reporters" for all our news and apply "skepticism" to MSM reports. We are so naive that we understand the difference between "defendant" and "prosecutor" and our blind loyalty to the President makes us think that falsely proclaiming defeat on every issue may not be the best political tactic to motivate voters and convince other Americans to join us.
Thanks goodness there are real progressives out there to explain otherwise.