U.S. Court Names Hytera Employees Charged in Alleged Motorola Trade-Secret Theft
Several Hytera Inc. employees, including a senior vice president, plotted to steal proprietary technology from their former employer, Motorola Solutions Inc., the Federal Bureau of Investigations alleged in newly unsealed court documents that provide detail on the sprawling trade-secret-theft case.
An affidavit submitted by the FBI and made public this week in Chicago federal court named seven Hytera employees accused of involvement in a scheme to steal technology used to make digital walkie-talkie devices.
Pharmacist Sentenced for $180 Million Health Care Fraud Scheme
According to court documents, Mitchell “Chad” Barrett, 55, now of Gulf Breeze, Florida, and formerly of Mississippi, participated in a scheme to defraud TRICARE and other health care benefit programs by distributing medically unnecessary compounded medications. Barrett was licensed as a pharmacist in Mississippi and was a co-owner of various compounding pharmacies. As part of this scheme, Barrett adjusted prescription formulas to ensure the highest reimbursement without regard to medical necessity. He solicited recruiters to procure prescriptions for high-margin compounded medications and paid those recruiters commissions based on the percentage of reimbursements paid by pharmacy benefit managers and health care benefit programs, including commissions on claims reimbursed by TRICARE. He further routinely and systematically waived and/or reduced copayments to be paid by beneficiaries and members, and utilized a purported copayment assistance program to falsely make it appear as if his pharmacy and its affiliate compounding pharmacies had been collecting copayments.
Doctor Sentenced in $12 Million Medicare Fraud and Device Adulteration Scheme
According to court documents, Donald Woo Lee, 55, of Temecula, recruited Medicare beneficiaries to his clinics, falsely diagnosed the beneficiaries, and provided the beneficiaries with medically unnecessary procedures. Lee billed these unnecessary procedures to Medicare using an inappropriate code in order to obtain a higher reimbursement, a practice known as “upcoding.” In addition, the evidence showed that Lee re-packaged used, contaminated catheters for re-use on patients. These catheters had been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for marketing as single-use only and the re-use of these devices put patients at risk of infection and other bodily injury. Lee submitted claims of approximately $12 million to Medicare for the vein ablation procedures he performed, and received $4.5 million as a result.
Philly VA Hospital Employee Embezzled Nearly $500,000, Feds Say
A former accounting clerk at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center has been accused of embezzling nearly a half-million dollars over four years by filing fraudulent claims for travel reimbursement from the agency.
Federal investigators say Bruce Minor, of Philadelphia, created and approved fake travel expense reports in the names of three employees between December 2015 and September 2019 and then diverted the money into bank accounts he controlled.
Former Assistant Controller Charged with Embezzling Over $3 Million From Pennsylvania-Based Metal Salvage Company
The Indictment alleges that between 2012 and when she was terminated in October 2019, Simpson used her position at Triad to steal company money and use it to pay personal expenses charged to her credit cards and to make payments on personal loans. She allegedly did so by paying her personal credit card bills and loan payments with electronic transfers from the company’s business checking account. The defendant is also alleged to have kept credit cards from employees who had left the company and used them to charge personal expenses including airfare and other entertainment expenses for her family and friends, and to pay her personal tax liabilities and those of other individuals for whom she prepared tax returns. None of these payments or transfers were for legitimate business expenses of her employer. The Indictment further alleges that Simpson failed to report the money stolen from the company as income on her tax returns for tax years 2015 through 2018.
Woori Employee Allegedly Embezzled $47 Million
An employee of Woori Bank was arrested Thursday for allegedly embezzling more than 60 billion won ($47 million).
The bank filed a criminal complaint with the police earlier Wednesday after it lost contact with the employee. According to media reports, the alleged embezzlement was done on three occasions from 2012 to 2018.