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The is the principal federal agency authorized to enforce the laws and defend the interests of the United States. As such, it oversees the enforcement of the False Claims Act, the foundation of the American whistleblower system, as well as numerous other laws.
The agency traces its origins to the Judiciary Act of 1789 which created the Office of the Attorney General, and the 1870 Act to Establish the Department of Justice, which established the agency as “an executive department of the government of the United States” with the Attorney General as its head.
The agency is comprised of numerous divisions with the Civil Division and in some instances, the Criminal Division, overseeing investigations and prosecutions under the False Claims Act. The of the federal district where the False Claims Act case is filed also plays a key role in False Claims Act enforcement.
Below are summaries of recent DOJ settlements or successful resolutions under the False Claims Act as well as other successful prosecutions for fraud and misconduct. If you believe you have information about fraud which could give rise to a claim for a whistleblower reward, please contact us to speak with one of our experienced whistleblower attorneys.
November 20, 2018
The owner of Venezuelan news network Globovision, Raul Gorrin Balisario, has been charged in an international money-laundering conspiracy that included the payment of millions of dollars in bribes to two high-level Venezuelan officials to secure the rights to conduct foreign currency exchange transactions at favorable rates for the Venezuelan government. Two others pleaded guilty to charges arising under the same scheme. Alejandro Andrade Cedeno, the former Venezuelan national treasurer, admitted to receiving over $1 billion in bribes. Gabriel Arturo Jimenez Aray, the former owner of Banco Peravia in the Dominican Republic, admitted that he conspired with Gorrin and others to acquire the bank, through which he helped launder bribe money and other proceeds of the scheme. ;November 20, 2018
Gray Wesley Barrow, a doctor and co-owner of Louisiana Spine & Sports LLC, a pain management clinic in Baton Rouge, has pleaded guilty to receiving approximately $336,000 in unlawful kickbacks. According to the plea, between 2014 and 2016 Barrow sent urine specimens collected from his patients to a drug testing laboratory that agreed to pay him a percentage of the reimbursements paid to the laboratory by health care benefit programs including Medicare. ;November 20, 2018
Peter Cash Doye and Raquel Reid were convicted for defrauding lenders into providing over $50 million in loans purportedly secured by four multi-million dollar mansions in La Jolla and Del Mar, California. Doye, an executive at several real estate investment firms, and Reid, a broker, created forged real estate lien “releases” and recorded fraudulent records at the San Diego County Recorder’s Office to make it appear that the loans had been paid off so they could obtain additional loans from new lenders. Reid notarized the forged documents, helping to make the fraudulent paperwork appear authentic.November 19, 2018
In a deferred prosecution agreement, Société Générale S.A. will pay penalties of $1.34 billion to federal and state prosecutors and regulators in relation to criminal charges that SG violated sanctions laws by processing billions of dollars in illegal transactions involving Cuban credit facilities through the U.S. financial system on behalf of entities subject to U.S. economic sanctions. According to a stipulated statement of facts, from approximately 2004 through 2010, SG operated 21 credit facilities that provided significant money flow to Cuban banks, entities controlled by Cuba, and Cuban and foreign corporations for business conducted in Cuba, primarily for the finance of oil transactions between a Dutch commodities trading firm and a Cuban corporation with a state monopoly on the production and refining of crude oil in Cuba. The total penalties include: $717.2 million in civil forfeitures; $81.265 million to the Federal Reserve; $53.9 million to the Office of Foreign Assets Control; $325 million to the New York State Department of Financial Services; and, $162.8 million to the New York County District Attorney.