Chinese Businessman Charged With Conspiring To Steal Trade Secrets
WASHINGTON – Chi Lung Winsman Ng, aka Winsman Ng, 64, a Chinese businessman residing in Hong Kong, was indicted yesterday for conspiring to steal General Electric’s (GE) trade secrets involving the company’s silicon carbide MOSFET technology worth millions of dollars. “Winsman Ng and his co-conspirators allegedly chose to steal what they lacked the time, talent or money to create,” said Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “Theft of American intellectual property for the benefit of foreign firms deprives American companies of the fruits of their creativity and American workers of their jobs. The Department will do all it can to disrupt this illegal and economically destructive conduct.” “As alleged in the indictment, Winsman Ng conspired to steal trade secrets from General Electric to start a competitor,” said Attorney for the United States, Elizabeth C. Coombe, for the Northern District of New York, Acting Under Authority Conferred by 28 U.S.C. § 515. “This scheme, and others like it, seek to undermine American ingenuity, which often depends on maintaining the secrecy of technological advances. We will continue to work with the FBI to hold accountable those trying to steal trade secrets from innovative companies in our district.”
Former Air Force contractor pleads guilty to illegally taking 2,500 pages of classified information
DAYTON – A former contractor with the United States Air Force pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court today to illegally taking approximately 2,500 pages of classified documents. Izaak Vincent Kemp, 35, of Fairborn, was charged on Jan. 25 by a Bill of Information. According to court documents, Kemp was employed as a contractor at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) from July 2016 to May 2019, and later as a contractor at the U.S. Air Force National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC). While working at AFRL and NASIC – both located on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Fairborn – Kemp had Top Secret security clearance. Despite having training on various occasions on how to safeguard classified material, Kemp took 112 classified documents and retained them at his home. Law enforcement discovered the more than 100 documents, which contained approximately 2,500 pages of material classified at the SECRET level, while executing a search warrant at Kemp’s home on May 25, 2019.
German charged with espionage for allegedly passing parliament floor plans to Russia
BERLIN — A German man has been charged with espionage for allegedly passing information on properties used by the German parliament to Russian military intelligence, prosecutors said Thursday. The suspect, identified only as Jens F. in line with German privacy rules, worked for a company that had been repeatedly contracted to check portable electrical appliances by the Bundestag, or the lower house of parliament, federal prosecutors said in a statement. As a result of that, he had access to PDF files with floor plans of the properties involved. The Bundestag is based in the Reichstag building, a Berlin landmark, but also uses several other sites.
Prison Time for Scheme to Frame Nurse for HIPAA Violations
A Georgia man has been sentenced to federal prison in an unusual case in which he portrayed himself as a whistleblower while falsely reporting to authorities that a hospital worker committed criminal HIPAA violations. On Tuesday, the Department of Justice said Jeffrey Parker of Rincon, Georgia, was sentenced to six months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of making false statements. Parker also was fined $1,200. Prosecutors say Parker admitted that he “engaged in an intricate scheme” in October 2019 when he contacted the U.S. Justice Department, claiming that a former acquaintance who worked at an unidentified Savannah hospital had violated HIPAA’s privacy provisions.
Postal Employee Pleads Guilty to Stealing Medication Intended for Veterans
ABINGDON, Va. – A former employee of the United States Postal Service pleaded guilty last week in United States District Court in Abingdon to stealing mail containing medication that was intended for United States Veterans, Acting United States Attorney Daniel P. Bubar announced. Ammie Hale, 45, Raysal, West Virginia, pleaded guilty today, without a plea agreement, to all charges in the indictment against her – three counts of theft of mail by an employee of the postal service for stealing mail on February 26, 2020, July 1, 2020, and August 5, 2020; and one count of making false statements. At sentencing, Hale faces a maximum statutory penalty of up to 20 years in prison. A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for June 2, 2021, at 2:30 p.m.
IRS Employee Charged with Tax Fraud
Memphis, TN – Linda Williams, 52, of Memphis, Tennessee, an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax examiner, was indicted for defrauding the IRS by filing false tax returns for various tax payers in the Memphis area. Williams claimed over $500,000 in false deductions for these citizens. Many of these citizens were unaware of the false deductions discovered on their tax returns. D. Michael Dunavant, U.S. Attorney, announced the indictment today. According to the indictment, from 2015 to 2017, Williams executed a scheme to prepare and file false tax returns for friends and family members. The tax returns contained false deductions to inflate tax payers’ refunds. Specifically, these deductions were pertaining to medical expenses, charitable contributions and business expenses. Williams would then take a portion from the refunds and transfer the funds to her personal bank account.
Former Cargill Employee Is Indicted For Extensive Bribery And Kickback Scheme
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A federal grand jury sitting in Charlotte has indicted Michael A. Kennedy, 55, of Charlotte, on conspiracy and honest services wire fraud charges, for his role in an extensive bribery and kickback scheme that defrauded his employer, Cargill, announced Andrew Murray, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Robert R. Wells, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Charlotte Division and Tommy D. Coke, Inspector in Charge of the Atlanta Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which oversees Charlotte, join U.S. Attorney Murray in making today’s announcement. According to allegations in the indictment, Kennedy was a senior employee within Cargill’s division of strategic sourcing. Choung “Shawn” Nguyen was a procurement manager within the same division and reported to Kennedy. Brian Ewert was co-owner and primary sales representative of WDS, Inc., also known as Women’s Distribution Services, Inc. (WDS), a South Carolina-based company that provided non-raw materials and services to Cargill and its affiliates.
Former Cape Cod Bookkeeper Sentenced for Embezzlement Charges in Two Criminal Cases
BOSTON – A Cape Cod woman was sentenced today in two separate criminal cases for embezzling more than $1.5million from two previous employers. Greenan admitted to embezzling funds from a Hyannis company for which she handled bookkeeping and payroll services. From October 2014 until she was terminated in March 2018, Greenan embezzled $1,135,460, including 536 occasions when she wired funds from the store’s operating bank account to pay her credit card bills. Greenan doctored the company bank statements and internal records to make the payments to her credit cards appear to be legitimate expenses, and also failed to report any of her illegal income to the IRS over the five year duration of the embezzlement scheme, thereby evading more than $325,000 in federal taxes.
Howard University Employee Pleads Guilty to Healthcare Fraud Government Continues Crackdown on People Who Defraud Medicaid
WASHINGTON – Folashade Adufe Horne, 51, of Laurel, Maryland, pled guilty on February 17, 2021 in federal court to defrauding the D.C. Medicaid program out of more than $370,000. At various times between January 2014 and June 2020, Horne was employed by four different home health agencies to serve as a personal care aide for D.C. Medicaid beneficiaries. Horne also was employed full-time by Howard University during this same period. The home health agencies employed Horne to assist Medicaid beneficiaries in performing activities of daily living, such as getting in and out of bed, bathing, dressing, and eating. Horne was supposed to document the care she provided to the Medicaid beneficiaries on timesheets and then submit the timesheets to the home health agencies, which would in turn bill Medicaid for the services that she rendered.