Clients escape Medicaid Fraud charges in New York September 22, 2009
Posted by whitecollarcrimenews in My Cases.Tags: Medicaid fraud
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Today was a great day as I worked out another great result for some really nice clients. My clients, a husband and wife, applied for Medicaid in New York a few years ago. Problem was, they indicated that they didn’t own any property when, in fact, they owned property in New Jersey.
About a month or so ago, they received a letter from the New York City Human Resources Administration that indicated that they were the subjects of a Medicaid Fraud investigation. As they already had the deed for the house, it didn’t look good on paper. However, the clients had a good explanation but I knew that words wouldn’t cut it.
Even though my client’s owned the house on paper, their children were the defacto owners of the house as they lived there while the clients lived in New York. The children paid for everything associated with the house and did not pay rent to the parents. In order to make this go as easy as possible, I spent weeks working with the clients to get the documentation necessary to show that all of this was true.
I also spoke to the investigator ahead of time and worked much out with him. As a result, when I showed up for the interview with the clients, everything went really smooth. I was expecting the worse but it was great. The investigators were happy that I had copies of all of the documents for them which they brought to their supervisor.
Once criminal charges were off the table, we worked on a payment plan for the money that they owe since they were not eligible for Medicaid. I worked out a 14 year, no-interest payment plan. In addition, I shaved thousands off of the total amount that they owed. In the settlement agreement, New York State agreed not to prosecute my client or take any other action against them.
It goes without saying that the clients were very, very happy. If you are under investigation for Medicaid fraud in either New York or New Jersey, call me today.
Ex-payroll clerk indicted for official misconduct September 22, 2009
Posted by whitecollarcrimenews in News.Tags: official misconduct
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Tanis Colelli, Highlands, New Jersey was a payroll clerk for the Atlantic Highlands borough Board of Education. She is accused of creating an additional payroll account for herself and collecting multiple paychecks from it totaling about $11,500.
Colelli resigned from her job some time ago after a random audit uncovered the additional payroll account. The school district notified local police of the inconsistencies in the account after a review of the information and interview of school personnel. As a result, she was charged with second degree official misconduct; third-degree theft by deception, forgery and uttering a forged instrument; and fourth degree falsifying records.
Like all of these cases, I wonder if she has been able to get a good attorney. I assume she hasn’t. Some defense attorneys complain about the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office but I always work well with them. If she had a good attorney, this case could have probably been worked out already. I know because I have done it many times.
However, (I’ll assume guilt for a second) when people steal money, there is usually a good reason they risk everything. As a result, they don’t keep money around for an attorney and thus, the case rarely turns out well. Unless a good attorney can get in there and turn this around, she’ll be in prison.
Story is here.
Operation Bid Rig 3 Update: 2 more plea out September 18, 2009
Posted by whitecollarcrimenews in News.Tags: Operation Bid Rig III
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This case is moving really quick. Today, Edward Cheatam an ex-Jersey City education and housing official admitted that he took $70,000 in bribes and introduced a government informant to an several Democratic officials who also took bribes. They include: state Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith, former Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, former Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, former Jersey City council candidate Louis Manzo and Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini.
He also said that he funneled $15,000 in illegal contributions to the campaign of Jersey City’s Democratic Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy in exchange for his and Beldini’s help securing approvals for a luxury condominium building. While Healy has not been charged, I think the hammer is about to drop. For his credit, Healy said that he donated any campaign contributions from the defendants to charity. Beldini has pleaded not guilty, for now.
Also today, Denis Jaslow a Hudson County board of elections investigator. admitted to accepting $15,500 for introducing the informant to Joseph Castagna, a Jersey City health officer, and Michael Manzo, a former candidate for the city council.
At this point, I’ll be shocked if more than a small handful of these guys go to trial. I would not be shocked if none of them do.
Story is here.
Cohen gets to see his child pornography again September 18, 2009
Posted by whitecollarcrimenews in News.Tags: child pornography, Neil Cohen
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In a victory for defense attorneys in New Jersey, the New Jersey Supreme Court denied cert with regard to the App Div’s decision that was rather ground breaking. In State v. Neil Cohen, the App Div finally said that defense counsel can view, in the privacy of their offices, the child pornography at issue in the case.
I’m sorry, but I don’t buy the argument from the State. The State’s job is to make the defense’s job as difficult as possible. Justice be damned. That is all it is about. I doubt any defense attorneys really need to see this child porn any more than it is necessary. However, there is a need to view this in a professional manner away from the prying eyes of the State so that you can defend your client. Thankfully, it is finally permitted. Maybe some of these cases will actually go to trial.
Story is here.
Hackers indicted in bot-for-sale scheme and DDOS attacks September 15, 2009
Posted by whitecollarcrimenews in News.Tags: computer crime, computer fraud
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Distributed Denial of Service attacks (or DDOS attacks) are nothing new. But this case is interesting because it is alleged that these hackers allegedly tried to sell their software. That aspect of it is rare as far as I know and it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out. As a defense attorney, you can argue that your client is just being a stupid young person by engaging in this behavior (assuming you are focused more on mitigation then winning the case). However, when profit is the motive, the mitigation arguments kinda go out the window.
DALLAS—Two men, Thomas James Frederick Smith and David Anthony Edwards have been charged in a federal indictment with conspiring to intentionally cause damage to a protected computer and commit computer fraud. Edwards, of Mesquite, Texas, and Smith, most recently of Parris Island, South Carolina, have both entered not guilty pleas and are on pre-trial release. Trial has been set for November 16, 2009, before U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle.
The indictment alleges that from summer 2004 through October 2006, Smith, a/k/a “Zoot,” “TJ,” and “kingsmith007,” and Edwards, a/k/a “Davus,” conspired together to cause the transmission of a program, information, code, or command, by using an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) network, to cause damage to a protected computer. An “bot,” is a program running on an IRC client that responds automatically to commands that are sent to it through the IRC server. An IRC “botnet” is a large number of computers infected with bots.
Basically, Smith and Edwards allegedly searched the Internet for vulnerable computers, and once a vulnerable computer was hacked into, they planted a malicious program on it. That malicious program code caused all the compromised computers to login to an IRC chat room. Once the compromised computers were logged into the IRC chat room, Smith and Edwards remotely controlled the behavior of the compromised computers, such as causing all of the compromised computers to simultaneously participate in a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack. Smith and Edwards also accessed, without authorization, websites and either defaced the site, or in the case of one webhost server, “published” its client database.
In trying to sell the bot to a potential botnet purchaser, Smith demonstrated the partial capabilities of the bot to the potential purchaser by causing a portion of the botnet to engage in a DDOS by flooding an IP address at ThePlanet.com, an internet-hosting company in Dallas.
I would like to know more about Edwards’ knowledge of the proposed sale. If he wasn’t really involved, than he may have a better chance of working out a great plea if he flips on Smith. Looking at the chat records will be key.
Will 72 year old man go to prison for stealing quarters? September 13, 2009
Posted by whitecollarcrimenews in News.Tags: official misconduct
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I’ve said it before and I will keep saying it. New Jersey’s official misconduct statute needs to be thrown out. It is really leading to absurd results. Here is the latest example.
Albert L. Peter is a 72-year-old Wildwood resident who served as a meter collector and repairman for several years. He has been charged with theft and official misconduct and as a result, he could face more than 10 years in prison if convicted.
Peter was arrested on July 20th and fired shortly after. That arrest was the result of Wildwood police officer Gary DeMarzo allegedly seeing Peter put bank bags into his car. Two bank bags containing $980.60 were later found by the police even though they believe that he stole about $1,450 overall.
Let’s assume he is guilty for a second. I’m sure he has no record and he is 72 years old! Does he really need to be in prison for stealing less than $1500? If he stole $74,000 from a private employer, he would be looking, at the worst, probation. But, since he is a government worker, he is facing official misconduct charges which will land him in prison for 5 to 10 years. If you think that makes sense, please explain it to me.
Hopefully, he will have a good attorney that can work this case out before indictment. He should get PTI, but if he gets a plea to the theft charge with a suspended sentence, that would be nice too. Hopefully, the State uses some common sense and doesn’t drop the hammer on this guy.
Story is here.
PNC Bank teller and others charged with identity theft September 13, 2009
Posted by whitecollarcrimenews in News.Tags: money laundering, theft by deception
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Babatune Ibironke, a PNC bank teller, his wife, Eryn Brown, and John Caldwell Jr., an accomplice, were charged with several counts of identity theft, theft by deception and conspiracy to commit those crimes. The State alleges that Ibironke created two bogus bank accounts to steal $66,000 from a legitimate account. Caldwell was charged with conspiring with Ibironke to use a debit card to collect the money. Ibironke is also charged with money laundering and computer theft for accessing accounts while he worked at the bank. If that wasn’t bad enough, he is also charged with witness tampering for allegedly asking two witnesses not to identify him.
The second indictment charged Ibironke with attempted theft by deception for allegedly trying to collect federal income tax returns that were filed by eight other people. He is also alleged to have provided information to his wife, who also worked at the same PNC Bank branch which enabled her to open five other fraudulent accounts. They were both charged with conspiracy, attempted theft by deception and identity theft. Brown was also charged with computer theft.
Yet even a third indictment charged Ibironke with trying to apply for a passport using Caldwell’s name in Roselle. He was charged with two counts of false swearing, two counts of falsifying records and two counts of presenting a fraudulent driver’s license as a result. In addition, Ibironke and Caldwell were also charged with identity theft, conspiring to commit identity theft and presenting false identification.
Ibironke is really facing a gauntlet here with the three indictments. He also faces a huge risk by taking all three cases to trial. The money laundering charge is going to be the biggest problem. He needs an attorney that will wrap this up sooner rather than later.
Story is here.
You need an attorney that has a plan, not just a fancy ad September 12, 2009
Posted by whitecollarcrimenews in My Cases.Tags: Insurance Fraud
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Really nice client hired me this week with plenty of time for me to work out a good result. However, this could have went bad if she stuck with her former attorney that didn’t seem to have a plan. The funny thing is, I really like the firm she hired and was a little surprised that she was unhappy with them.
She received a letter from the State about a year ago that indicated that she was under investigation for insurance fraud. She hired this firm because they had a big fancy ad that advertised white collar crime. She reported that the attorney made a few calls and sent out a letter. After that, he said the case was over and it appears that nothing else was done.
Well the State did not agree that the case was over. They spent the next year investigating the case and a few weeks ago, they sent out a grand jury subpoena. Needless to say, she was very upset that this was sent to her when she was told the case was over. I asked her if attorney did this or that and she said no, just a few calls and a letter.
I can’t repeat myself enough. Your attorney needs a plan. Trial prep needs to start today. Investigations need to start today. Of course, all of this will depend on how much the client can afford but this client had the money to really lock people into statements and review her files. Had that been done, the attorney would have probably found out that this case is not over by far.
Luckily for her, there is still plenty of time to resolve this. I have hit the ground running researching the issues, reviewing all of her files, etc.
Client waits to hire me and gets arrested as a result September 12, 2009
Posted by whitecollarcrimenews in My Cases.add a comment
I can’t repeat myself enough. If you even think that you could be facing an investigation or arrest, call an attorney. If your business partner has been arrested, call an attorney. If your office, store, house, etc has been raided, call an attorney right away!
My client, an owner of a car rental company had his NJ office raided a few weeks ago. He lives in another state and he had a local attorney helping him out. He waited a few weeks to call me. Thankfully, he hired me right away instead of “thinking about it” or “talking it over with his wife” “digesting it” o whatever phrase some people use to avoid hiring an attorney. However, within hours he was arrested and now must spend several days in jail until he can be bailed out.
In his defense, he did call an attorney but not one in New Jersey. His out of state attorney was in contact with the Detective but there was some miscommunication and the Detective felt as though he was being jerked around so he sent out the warrant and my client was picked up. Had he called me a few days prior, I would have reached out to the Detective and worked out his surrender. He would not have been in jail at all.
Former Merrill Lynch financial adviser accused of stealing $500K from clients September 10, 2009
Posted by whitecollarcrimenews in News.Tags: theft by deception
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Its not a good time to be a financial advisor with a bad track record. Law suits and arrests may be around the corner. However, this case seems to have some actual substance behind it.
Stephen Severio, a former Merrill Lynch financial adviser from Fair Haven was indicted today on charges he stole more than $500,000. He is charged with theft by deception, misappropriation of entrusted funds, commercial bribery and attempted theft by deception.
Severio was a financial adviser with Merrill Lynch in Red Bank for five years. The State alleges that he started advising some of his clients two years ago to withdraw their funds from the firm’s accounts and reinvest them outside the company. This practice is a violation of industry standards and of Merrill Lynch policy according to the State.
He allegedly told clients that he could get them in investment vehicles outside Merrill Lynch that would yield annual returns of between 15 and 20 percent. However, instead of investing the money they gave him, he allegedly cashed their checks at a check-cashing business.
The State suspects that he spent the money on drugs. Red Bank police records allegedly show Severio and two 21-year-old women were arrested on July 6, 2008 on charges of cocaine possession. If I’m his attorney, I’m going with the drug defense here. Unless this press release is way off base, its his best shot at staying out of prison. He needs to get into rehab now if he hasn’t done so already.
Story is here.
