The Securities and Exchange Commission announced charges on Monday against a payday loan company based in Miami, and its CEO for a securities fraud scheme that raised at least $66 million through the sale of promissory notes to more than 500 retail investors, including members of the South Florida Venezuelan-American community.According to the SEC’s complaint, filed in the United States District…
Two south Florida women were sentenced yesterday for their roles in a conspiracy to fraudulently obtain credit cards that they and other individuals used to purchase over $100,000 of personal cosmetic medical services.The women were sentenced to terms of imprisonment of 44 months and 32 months, respectively, with each term of imprisonment to be followed by three years of supervised…
A South Florida federal judge sentenced a 29-year-old North Miami man last week to 38 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for his role in a sophisticated tax fraud scheme. In addition, the defendant was ordered to pay $454,121.72 in restitution. From 2012 to 2015, the defendant used stolen information of hundreds of victims to electronically…
A 58 year-old man pled guilty on August 31, 2021 in Miami federal court to a felony Information charging him with wire fraud in connection with his fraudulent application to the U.S. Small Business Administration for a low-interest COVID-19 relief loan. According to the facts admitted at the change of plea, during 2019 and 2020 the man was employed on…
Three telemarking company owners were charged for their alleged participation in a $46 million health care fraud, kickback, and money laundering scheme involving the referral of medically unnecessary cancer genetic tests to labs in exchange for kickbacks. According to the indictment, the defendants allegedly participated in a scheme to operate a telemarketing campaign targeting Medicare beneficiaries in an effort to…
Elder fraud has become a priority for federal prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida with the passage of a 2017 federal law combating financial crimes targeting seniors and the implementation of the Elder Justice Initiative by the Department of Justice. Elder Fraud Prosecutions are on the Rise in the Southern District of Florida With a large population of retired…
South Florida is the nation’s capital of mortgage fraud, according to the third quarter 2019 mortgage fraud report by the analytic firm CoreLogic, which found that 241 applications in the metro area of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach raised red flags to lenders. The New York metro area ranked second nationally, with 208 fraud risk applications, followed by the Los Angeles metro…
South Florida is said to be the leader in federal health care fraud indictments and seizures, and is teaching other districts how to prosecute health care fraud cases. In just the past two weeks, there have been two major health care fraud take downs in South Florida – the first charging 30 individuals with an alleged $86 million fraud scheme and the second charging 35…
A total of 30 defendants have been charged with offenses relating to their alleged participation in various schemes to defraud Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance. Those charged include physicians as well as other medical and business professionals. The charges announced involve schemes alleged to have billed Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance companies for medically unnecessary services, such as home health, prescriptions…
A wealthy Miami Beach health care executive, who owned and operated a network of more than 30 nursing homes and assisted living facilities in South Florida, was sentenced last week to 20 years in prison for orchestrating what prosecutors described a massive $1 billion Medicare fraud scheme. The indictment charged the owner of the facilities, along with a hospital administrator and a physician’s assistant…