Buck Naked Politics

Justice Department Cracks Down on Medicare Fraud (Again)

by Deb Cupples |  As I've been saying since I started blogging nearly three years ago, waste, fraud and abuse on the part of private contractors have contributed heavily to our nation's outrageous health care costs.  [Examples are linked at the end of this post.]

Medicare is known for being a target of contractors' waste, fraud, and abuse -- and contractors often got away with it during the Bush Administration, due to Mr. Bush's tendency to turn a blind eye to the bad conduct of private companies.

How rampant is Medicare fraud?  The Justice Department states that -- in 2008, alone -- Medicare Fraud Strike Forces "secured 588 criminal convictions; obtained 337 civil administrative actions against individuals and organizations who were committing Medicare fraud, and recovered more than a $1 billion in health care fraud monies under the False Claims Act."  

Yesterday, the Justice Department announced that it is at least planning to focus on preventing Medicare fraud (kudos to the Justice Department):

SEC Goes After Chicago Investment Firm, Freezes Assets

by Deb Cupples |  It's not just big guys like Bernie Madoff that are allegedly robbing ordinary folks via investment schemes.  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reports:

"The Securities and Exchange Commission has obtained an emergency court order freezing the assets of a Chicago-area investment adviser [i.e., Nutmeg Group LLC] and two of its principals who are alleged to have misappropriated more than $4 million in client assets by transferring them to third parties, and incorrectly reported the net asset and other investment values to investors.

"The SEC charged The Nutmeg Group LLC, owner and managing member Randall Goulding, and chief compliance officer David Goulding for misappropriating client assets, making misrepresentations to their clients, failing to comply with Nutmeg's custodial obligations, and failing to keep required books and records. The Honorable Judge William J. Hibbler of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois temporarily enjoined the defendants from violating antifraud, custodial, and recordkeeping provisions of the federal securities laws and imposed a freeze of Nutmeg's assets."

If you're concerned about falling prey to fraud, you might check out the Investor's Watchdog and the Investors Watchblog.

Two Execs Sentenced to 20+ Years for Fraud, etc.

by Deb Cupples | The Justice Department tells us:

"Two former National Century Financial Enterprises (NCFE) executives were sentenced today for their roles in a scheme to deceive investors about the financial health of NCFE.... NCFE, formerly based in Dublin, Ohio, was one of the largest health care finance companies in the United States until it filed for bankruptcy in November 2002."

Ex-NCFE president Lance Poulsen (age 65) got 30 years in prison and three years supervision after he serves.  Ex-director and officer Rebecca Parrett (age 60) got 25 years in prison.  The two were also ordered to forfeit $1.7 billion in property and to pay restitution of $2.3 billion. 

Perhaps this will give government officials some ideas re: the handling of perpetrators of the massive financial frauds that led to the massive meltdown of our nation's financial system.

Ex-Congressional Staffer Pleads Guilty to Selling Influence

by Deb Cupples |  Another head is rolling over the corrupt schemes of lobbyist-turned-prison-inmate Jack Abramoff.  This head belongs to Ann Copland, who pleaded guilty to corruption-related crimes.  Copland worked for an un-named U.S. Senator from 1979-2009.  From 2002-2004, she worked on issue relating to Native American tribes. 

  The Justice Department reports:

Hitachi Among Others to Plead Guilty to Price Fixing re: LCD Monitors

by Deb Cupples |   The Justice Department reports:

"Japanese electronics manufacturer Hitachi Displays Ltd., agreed to plead guilty and pay a $31 million fine for its role in a conspiracy to fix prices in the sale of Thin Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Display panels (TFT-LCD) sold to Dell Inc., the U.S. Department of Justice announced today.

"A one-count felony charge filed today in U.S. District Court in San Francisco charges Hitachi Displays Ltd., a subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd., with participating in a conspiracy to fix the prices of TFT-LCD sold to Dell for use in desktop monitors and notebook computers from April 1, 2001, through March 31, 2004....

U.S. Export-Import Bank Employee Indicted for Bribery

by Deb Cupples |  The U.S. Justice Department reports:

"Maureen Njideka Edu, a/k/a Maureen N. Scurry, 42, of Potomac, Md., was indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington on Feb. 20, 2009, for conspiring to solicit and accept bribes and to deprive the United States and the Ex-Im Bank [Export-Import Bank of the United States] of her honest services, as well as substantive counts of bribery, honest services wire fraud and filing a false tax return....

"According to the indictment, Edu worked for the Ex-Im Bank from May 2000 to October 2004 as a business development specialist covering Africa and focused on sub-Saharan Africa, which included the West African nation of Nigeria. During the course of her work, according to the indictment, Edu was introduced to Nigerian businessmen who were seeking to buy certain products and services from a Kentucky-based technology company in a deal worth approximately $44 million."

UBS Settlement: is Swiss "Right Wing" as Corrupt as American "Right Wing"?

by Deb Cupples |  Switzerland's "Right Wing" seems to share a primary function with its American cousin: the zealous protection of its country's corporations and wealthiest individuals -- even when those interests clash with the interests of the host nation and other nations of the world.

Last week, Swiss-based bank UBS agreed to pay $780 million to settle criminal and civil cases after U.S. investigators found evidence that UBS had broken multiple U.S. laws while helping thousands of wealthy Americans dodge taxes. (SEC)

UBS also agreed to disclose to U.S. officials some of the names of those high-level American tax dodgers.  Secrecy is the key when one is trying to dodge U.S. tax laws, right?

Switzerland's "Right Wing" party is angry over the bank's having to disclose those tax dodgers' names -- likely because future U.S. tax dodgers will be less likely to send their money to UBS.

Reuters reports:

Bush Takes Back Pardon of a Big GOP Donor's Son

by Damozel | Suddenly, for reasons best known to himself, Bush is so worried about "the appearance of impropriety" that he took back a pardon he'd already granted!  It says so here:

President Bush took the remarkable step yesterday of reversing a pardon that he granted the day before to a Brooklyn, N.Y., real estate developer, whose relatives contributed more than $40,000 to Republicans before his clemency petition was filed with the White House.

Newt Gingrich Denounces RNC for Attacks on Obama; While Rove Argues that Obama Should Ignore Fitzgerald's Request Not to Discuss the Case

by Damozel | Rove, of course, is a great one for ignoring legal process.  But that's not the most interesting thing here---indeed, it is hardly interesting at all.

What's interesting is McCain and Newt both showing that old friends can still surprise us. (Politico)  As Ben Smith says, Gingrich went even further than McCain, writing what Sam Stein at HuffPost allows is "a rather scathing" letter:

I was saddened to learn that at a time of national trial, when a president-elect is preparing to take office in the midst of the worst financial crisis in over seventy years, that the Republican National Committee is engaged in the sort of negative, attack politics that the voters rejected in the 2006 and 2008 election cycles.

Was Jackson Working with the Government in the Blago Case?

by Damozel | Nobody knows. Reports allege that he has been working with the US attorney's office "for at least a decade." (CNN 1)  It does appear that in 2003 he reported to the US attorney's office an attempt by Blago to solicit a campaign donation from Jackson.  . 

Blagofest Part 2: The Identity of "Candidate Number 5" & Speculation as to the Identity of the Identity-as-yet-unconfirmed Candidates

by Damozel | So anyway, we've established that this scandal is going to mean aggro for Obama.  There it is.  What about the other hopefuls who hoped to sit in the Perilous Seat?

It seems that Ambinder was right and that the"Senate Candidate #5" with whom Blagojevich suggested he might cut a deal was, indeed, Jesse Jackson, Jr.  (ABC News)Jackson Jr.'s attorney James Montgomery confirmed that the Chicago congressman is "Senate Candidate #5" but said "Jackson has never authorized anyone to seek the Governor's support in return of money, fundraising or other things of value."  (ABC News)

Blagofest Part 1: Aggro and "Suspicion by Association" for Obama & Others Whose Names Blagojevich Mentioned (Updated with Extra Sarcasm!)

by Damozel | With all the controversy swirling round Blago, the big question in the media---and of course on the right--- is whether they are going to be able to show that Obama's incoming administration was in some way implicated.  There's no evidence that it is, mind you, and plenty of evidence that he isn't (except in the same way he was "tainted" by knowing Ayers or Rezko), but there's no doubt that it's going to be the main thing the media is going to be talking about till something else comes along to replace it. 

Farewell to "Uncle Ted"---BEGICH BEATS STEVENS

by Damozel | When all the votes were counted, Alaska rejected the Senate bid of the convicted felon. I should be happy, damn it.  I am happy.  On the other hand....poor old man, I can hardly bear to look at his picture.  When I do, I feel like crying.  He looks like my grandfather.  And---oh, God; I can hardly bear it---"The loss came on Stevens' 85th birthday. The 40-year incumbent is the longest serving Republican in the history of the U.S. Senate." (Anchorage Daily News).

From the same source:

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens lost his job to Mark Begich on Tuesday, putting an end to the era of "Uncle Ted" as the dominant force in Alaska politics

Palin Pal Republican Sen. Ted Stevens Convicted on all Seven Felony Counts

By Damozel |  There's a reason he's served for 40 years as Alaska's senator.

A legendary figure in Alaska politics since joining the U.S. Senate in 1968, Stevens has steered billions of dollars to the state from his seat on the Senate Appropriations Committee.(Bloomberg)

Can you say "earmarks"?

Sadly--the man is 84 years old--Stevens is yet another Republican thought the laws don't apply to him.  Amazingly, it turns out that they do.

This is What a Real Democrat Looks Like---Crooks & Liars: "Alan Grayson Shows That Support For Our Vets Means Something More Than Hot Air"

Great piece by Nicole Belle on Alan Grayson, who we pray will be elected so he can set an example for certain spineless Democrats who always cave under pressure.  Somehow, I can't see that ever happening with Grayson.  He's not in my district, but that doesn't matter to me; he's the sort of Democrat I want to see leading the next generation in Congress.

Belle writes:

Alan Grayson, the progressive Democrat running... in Orlando [against] Ric Keller, has had some of the best press of anyone running for Congress this year. The Vanity Fair feature about his work fighting for taxpayers against Iraq war profiteers is powerful and the article Harper's did on Keller...probably has had a great deal to do with why Grayson is ahead of Keller in all the polling-- ahead and widening the gap.

Two Jacks in the Box: Jack Abramoff Gets 4 Years; Halliburton Subsidiary Chief Albert "Jack" Stanley Gets 7 Years and $10.8 Million in Restitution

by Damozel | Judge Ellen S. Huvele said that Abramoff had engaged in "a consistent course of corrupt conduct." (NYT) 

Judge Ellen S. Huvelle of Federal District Court here ordered that Mr. Abramoff serve the time for corruption and tax offenses uncovered by an influence-peddling investigation that touched Republican leaders in Congress and midlevel officials in the Bush administration, among others.(NYT)

His sentence was less than the usual 11 years due to his "extensive cooperation."

McClellan to Obama: Don't Investigate/Prosecute War Criminals or Torturers

Posted by Damozel |  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[W]hen asked what advice he would give to a President Barack Obama or Democratic Congress on the matter of handling former Bush officials, McClellan speaks now of the perils of probing the past.

New Evidence re: Sen. Stevens Indictment

Yesterday's Washington Post reported:

"Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) quickly turned a $5,000 Florida condo investment into a profit of more than $100,000 in a questionable transaction that federal prosecutors would like to introduce as evidence at his trial next month on charges that he lied on financial disclosure forms...."

Conyers Comments on Mukasey's Unwillingness to Prosecute

Recently, U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey publicly said that he would not be criminally prosecuting Justice Department employees (and ex-employees) over the reportedly illegal hiring practices, because Mukasey thinks that the violations were not criminal. I've no idea whether Mukasey is right, but the proclamation seems a bit premature given that investigations are still ongoing.

Yesterday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers responded to Mukasey's public statement.  I got the press release via email, and it's not yet up at the Committee's website, so I can't link to it.  I did, however, copy and paste Conyers' response below:

Senator Ted Stevens Indicted

Today Sen Stevens was indicted by an Alaska Grand Jury (CNN).  The indictment is here. Stevens, 84, is the man who once memorably described the internet as 'a series of tubes,' poor thing.  Almost one year ago today, Deb Cupples wrote:

In 2000, Sen. Stevens' house underwent major remodeling, turning the one-story structure into a two-story structure and roughly doubling its size.  The building contractor reportedly was paid by a Veco executive (Anchorage Daily News). Perhaps coincidentally, Veco has received $30 million in federal contracts since 2000 (WaPo citing FedSpending.org).

In May, two Veco executives pled guilty to bribery and other charges (Justice Dept.). One Veco exec admitted to laundering campaign donations by illegally reimbursing the employees who actually gave them (WaPo).  (BN-Politics)