Sam Bankman-Fried, the former chief executive and founder of cryptocurrency trading platform FTX Trading, was hit with a wave of civil and criminal enforcement charges brought by numerous agencies this week for orchestrating a scheme that some are calling a simple, but massive case of embezzlement. On Dec. 11, Bankman-Fried Read More
Lafarge, a French multinational construction conglomerate, and its now-defunct Syrian subsidiary, Lafarge Cement Syria (LCS), pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide illicit payments and resources to two U.S.-designated foreign terrorist groups: the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and the al-Nusrah Front (ANF). These companies further admitted to negotiating Read More
Enforcement against foreign bribery on a global scale has hit an historic low, according to a report by Transparency International. In Transparency International’s report, “Exporting Corruption 2022,” 43 signatories to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention were assessed, along with China, India, Hong Kong SAR, and Singapore. Together, the countries analyzed account Read More
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged two insurance executives and their Malta-based registered investment adviser, Standard Advisory Services Limited, for defrauding clients out of more than $75 million through undisclosed transactions that benefited themselves and their companies. In a statement, Osman Nawaz, Chief of the Division of Enforcement’s Complex Read More
A federal grand jury ordered Eli Lilly to pay more than $61 million to a former executive of a network of regional drug wholesalers over allegations the drug manufacturer underpaid rebates required under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program. Under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program, the rebates drugmakers must pay are Read More
A lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission alleges Walmart turned a blind eye to fraudsters who used its money transfer services in its stores to scam consumers out of hundreds of millions of dollars, so that the retail giant could pocket the fees. Calling the allegations “factually flawed,” Walmart Read More
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it took another step in clamping down on the booming blockchain technology space, charging two Florida men and their Cayman Islands company for allegedly selling more than $30 million of securities to investors in fraudulent offerings over the course of a year. The Read More
The medical device company Avanos Medical agreed to pay $22 million to resolve criminal charges relating to fraudulent misbranding of its surgical gowns. The company was charged under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA), for the mislabeling of its MicroCool surgical gowns. It also faced charges for obstruction of Read More
Ohio-based public utility holding company FirstEnergy will pay a $230 million fine for its connection to a bribery scheme to entice lawmakers to pass a $1 billion bailout for two of its nuclear power plants. The U.S. Justice Dept. charged the company with conspiring to commit honest services wire fraud, Read More
The European Union has launched a new law enforcement agency to investigate crimes such as corruption and tax fraud. Its first order of business will be to look for fraud in how the billions of dollars in EU COVID-19 relief funds are being spent. Launched in the wake of the Read More
