Patient dumping represents one of the darker sides of the medical profession. Physicians take the Hippocratic Oath promising they “will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required.” Unfortunately, hospital administrators don’t take the same oath. These days many seem to care more about the hospital’s financial health rather than the […]
Healthcare Fraud Defendant Bought 20 Cars With Tax Dollars
Prosecutors claim Regina Swims-King defrauded the federal Medicare program out of millions of dollars. She was charged with several counts of healthcare fraud earlier this year but the indictment was sealed and only last week did more details about her alleged spending spree using tax dollars emerge. According to the indictment, Swims-King owns Angelic Hospice, […]
Seattle MD Faces Medicare Fraud Charges
A Seattle physician has been charged with Medicare fraud. Published reports claim Bruce Chen was falsely billing for visiting patients. While that may sound more like an oversight or paperwork error, the government says some of the patients allegedly seen by Chen were dead while at other times he wasn’t even in the United States. […]
"Corruption Part Of County Business" – Whistleblower Post
The front page headline in this morning’s Atlanta Journal Constitution says it all – Grand Jury: Corruption Part of County Business. Some would say we are becoming immune to government corruption but thankfully most people are still outraged. A special grand jury in suburban Atlanta conducted a year long investigation and found corruption at all […]
Whistleblowers to Receive $361,000 in Land Mine Detector Case
Two former executives of CyTerra Corporation became whistleblowers and are now slated to receive $361,000 for their efforts in uncovering pricing problems with their former company. CyTerra manufactures portable land mine detectors for the U.S. military. Earlier this month federal prosecutors settled with the company for $1.9 million. In 2003, the Army contracted with CyTerra […]
Banks Accused of TARP Fund Abuse – Whistleblower Post
by Brian Mahany The Inspector General for the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) issued a stinging report criticizing both small banks and the government itself. One TARP program, the Small Business Lending Fund, was intended by Congress to jump start the economy by getting loans to small business. Instead, some banks simply took […]
Bank Of America vs WikiLeaks
by Brian Mahany It’s been 631 days since Bank of America, Master Card and others have blocked donations to WikiLeaks. For those not familiar with the organization, WikiLeaks is a nonprofit media organization. Since its formation several years ago, both the organization and its spokesperson, Julian Assange, have been surrounded by controversy. Some say that […]
The Secret Life Of A Whistleblower
Whistleblowers are true heroes – their actions save taxpayers billions of dollars each year, help struggling homeowners and sometimes even save lives. The road can be a bit lonely however. This post looks at the story of Kyle Lagow, a former real estate appraiser with Countrywide Financial (now Bank of America). Lagow was recently awarded […]
Appraisal Fraud Alive And Well
by Brian Mahany Mortgage fraud comes in many flavors. We see lenders engaging in predatory lending practices, shady brokers writing bad loans (meaning sure defaults and that means taxpayers holding the bag), banks that defraud their own employees of commissions and of course, loan servicers that engage in widespread foreclosure fraud. Appraisers have their fair […]
HUD Challenges Marketing Services Agreements
by Brian Mahany Because we represent homeowners, mortgage company employees and sometimes the interests of taxpayers (federal false claims act cases), we see new frauds and shady deals in the lending industry just about everyday. Some, like forged documents and phony appraisals, are pretty obvious. Others such as sham “marketing services agreements” are tougher to […]