Hundreds of billions of dollars are lost each year due to various types of fraud. Are you interested in staying up-to-date on the latest fraud cases? Check out the Department of Justice and the FBI websites to stay current on fraud cases and other crimes occurring around the country, and learn valuable tips to avoid becoming a victim yourself.
Continue reading to learn about four June 2018 crime investigations and fraud cases posted by the United States Department of Justice involving individuals in the U.S. and abroad.
Cyber-Enabled Financial Fraud
June 11, 2018
United States and Overseas – Federal authorities announced a significant coordinated effort to disrupt Business Email Compromise (BEC) schemes that are designed to intercept and hijack wire transfers from businesses and individuals, including many senior citizens. Operation Wire Wire, a coordinated law enforcement effort by the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of the Treasury and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, was conducted over a six-month period, culminating in over two weeks of intensified law enforcement activity resulting in 74 arrests in the United States and overseas, including 29 in Nigeria, and three in Canada, Mauritius and Poland. The operation also resulted in the seizure of nearly $2.4 million, and the disruption and recovery of approximately $14 million in fraudulent wire transfers.
BEC, also known as “cyber-enabled financial fraud,” is a sophisticated scam often targeting employees with access to company finances and businesses working with foreign suppliers and/or businesses that regularly perform wire transfer payments. The same criminal organizations that perpetrate BEC also exploit individual victims, often real estate purchasers, the elderly, and others, by convincing them to make wire transfers to bank accounts controlled by the criminals. This is often accomplished by impersonating a key employee or business partner after obtaining access to that person’s email account or sometimes done through romance and lottery scams. BEC scams may involve fraudulent requests for checks rather than wire transfers; they may target sensitive information such as personally identifiable information (PII) or employee tax records instead of, or in addition to, money; and they may not involve an actual “compromise” of an email account or computer network. Foreign citizens perpetrate many BEC scams. Those individuals are often members of transnational criminal organizations, which originated in Nigeria but have spread throughout the world. Read More
Wire Fraud, Money Laundering
June 12, 2018
Washington– Eight businessmen, including five Russian nationals and three Syrian nationals, were indicted on federal charges alleging that they conspired to violate U.S. economic sanctions against Syria and Crimea, by sending jet fuel to Syria and making U.S. dollar wires to Syria and to sanctioned entities in Syria without receiving a license from the U.S. Treasury Department.
The indictment was returned in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and involves transactions conducted by Joint Stock Company Sovfracht (Sovfracht), a Russian shipping company and freight forwarder. Read More
Healthcare Fraud
June 13, 2018
Newark, N.J. – The president of Parsippany, New Jersey-based Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services LLC (BLS) and his brother – a senior employee at the now-defunct company – were sentenced to federal prison terms for their respective roles in a conspiracy in which millions of dollars in bribes were paid to physicians for blood sample referrals worth more than $100 million to the company, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.
David Nicoll, 44, of Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, was sentenced to 72 months in prison; Scott Nicoll, 37, of Wayne, New Jersey, was sentenced to 43 months in prison. Each defendant had previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler to an information charging one count of conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Federal Travel Act and one count of money laundering. Judge Chesler imposed the sentences in Newark federal court. Read More
Bid Rigging, Antitrust Violation
Read Article: Real Estate Investor Pleads Guilty to Rigging Bids at Online Foreclosure Auctions
June 20, 2018
Palm Beach County, Florida – Real estate investor Stuart Hankin pleaded guilty for his role in a conspiracy to rig bids, in violation of antitrust law, at online public foreclosure auctions in Florida, the Department of Justice announced. He is the first defendant to plead guilty in this conspiracy.
“Those who corrupt the foreclosure auction process through illegal bid rigging must expect to face the consequences,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “The Division remains committed to rooting out antitrust violations at foreclosure auctions, whether the auction is online or in person, and whether the conspiracy is carried out in person, in text messages, or through other electronic means.” Read More
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