Consumer Protections

Attorney General Announces New Funding Available for Local Governments Through the 2024-2025 Tobacco Grant Program OAKLAND – California Attorney General Rob Bonta today announced that the California Department of Justice is now accepting proposals for the 2024-2025 Tobacco Grant Program. The program aims to reduce the illegal sale of tobacco products by providing approximately $28.5 million in grant funding to eligible local agencies. Local public...

An indictment was unsealed this week in the Southern District of Florida charging three men for their alleged roles in an approximately $36 million health care fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering scheme that involved submitting false and fraudulent claims for COVID-19 testing to health care benefit programs, including Medicare and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) COVID-19...

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  A Canadian man was sentenced to 10 years in prison in the Eastern District of New York for perpetrating a massive psychic mass-mailing fraud scheme that stole more than $175 million from more than 1.3 million victims in the United States. Following a two-week trial, a federal jury convicted Patrice Runner, 57, a Canadian and French citizen, in June 2023...

A New York man has been resentenced to nine years in prison and ordered to pay $39 million in restitution for his role in a multimillion-dollar health care kickback and tax avoidance conspiracy, after his previous sentence was vacated. According to court documents, Aleksandr Pikus, 48, of Brooklyn, orchestrated a scheme to refer Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries to health care...

A New Jersey doctor has been sentenced to two years in prison and barred from practicing medicine for unlawfully distributing addictive opioids without performing necessary patient assessments. According to court documents and statements made in court, Felicia E. Gonzalez, 65, of Toms River, prescribed oxycodone to three patients without conducting any physical examinations, developing treatment plans, or assessing the patients...

Washington D.C. — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against five registered investment advisers for Marketing Rule violations. All five firms have agreed to settle the SEC’s charges and to pay $200,000 in combined penalties. The five advisory firms are: GeaSphere LLC Bradesco Global Advisors Inc. Credicorp Capital Advisors LLC InSight Securities Inc. Monex Asset Management Inc. The...

A Ukrainian national pleaded guilty last week to his role in two separate and wide-ranging malware schemes involving tens of millions of dollars in losses. “Vyacheslav Igorevich Penchukov was a leader of two prolific malware groups that infected thousands of computers with malicious software. These criminal groups stole millions of dollars from their victims and even attacked a major hospital...

Six Texas men were sentenced a few days ago for their roles in a conspiracy to fraudulently obtain more than $20 million in forgivable Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans that the Small Business Administration (SBA) guaranteed under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Hamza Abbas, 31, Ammas Uddin, 31, and Arham Uddin, 27, all of Richmond, were...

A federal jury convicted a California man yesterday for his role in a scheme to defraud Medicare by billing $2.8 million for hospice services that patients did not need. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Dr. John Thropay, 74, of Arcadia, was the medical director of several hospice companies, including Blue Sky Hospice Inc. located in Van...