The United States and 16 states have joined in two whistleblower suits filed in the District of Massachusetts against the drug manufacturer, Wyeth, alleging that the company knowingly failed to give the government the same discounts it provided to private purchasers of its drugs, as required by laws governing the Medicaid program.

Aventis Pharmaceutical Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC, has agreed to pay the United States $95.5 million to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by misreporting drug prices in order to reduce its Medicaid Drug Rebate obligations. The settlement resolves allegations that between 1995 and 2000, Aventis and its corporate predecessors knowingly misreported best prices for the steroid-based anti-inflammatory nasal sprays Azmacort, Nasacort and Nasacort AQ.

Donald Charles Collier III, 45, of Carpinteria, Calif., pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge George H. Wu to one count of mailing child pornography.

Carlton Moore, formerly an officer with the Memphis Police Department, pleaded guilty on Thursday in federal court in Memphis, Tenn., to three counts of violating civil rights for stealing money from motorists while acting under color of law. Moore faces up to three years in prison.

A former executive of Philadelphia-based Nexus Technologies Inc. pleaded guilty today in connection with his participation in a conspiracy to bribe Vietnamese government officials in exchange for lucrative contracts to supply equipment and technology to Vietnamese government agencies, in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

Miami physician Roberto Rodriguez, 54, was sentenced today to 97 months in prison for his role in a Medicare fraud scheme involving HIV infusion services.

John D. Stacey, a resident of Phoenix, was convicted today of income tax evasion, corrupt interference with the due administration of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and multiple counts of fraudulent use of a social security number. A federal jury convicted Stacey of all counts of the indictment following a three week trial before Judge Neil V. Wake in Phoenix.

Arthur Sease IV, a former Memphis Police Department officer, was sentenced today to a prison term of life plus 255 years by Chief Judge Jon P. McCalla in Memphis, Tenn. A jury convicted Sease in February 2009 of 44 counts of civil rights, narcotics, robbery, and firearms offenses.

A federal jury in Los Angeles convicted a physician assistant late yesterday for his role in a $7.7 million Medicare fraud scheme.

Joseph McNealy, a former Jackson, Miss., computer systems administrator, was sentenced today to 70 months in prison for receiving and possessing images of child pornography.

Carl Courtright III, of Granite City, Ill., was sentenced today to life plus 10 years in prison for production of child pornography and other offenses.  A federal jury convicted Courtright of one count of production of child pornography, two counts of possession of child pornography, one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of bank fraud following a five-day trial in March 2009.

William Travis Brown, 39, of Sellersburg, Ind., was convicted today by a federal jury in Indianapolis of transporting and possessing child pornography. Brown was charged on July 8, 2009, in an amended indictment with one count of transportation and one count of possession of child pornography.

Mark Edwin Cairnes, 51, of Jonestown, Texas, has been charged with advertising, receiving and possessing child pornography. A grand jury in the Western District of Texas returned the indictment against Cairnes on July 21, 2009, which was unsealed today after his arrest yesterday in Jonestown.

Robert Restuch, 69, of Bullhead City, Ariz., pleaded guilty yesterday to one count of mailing child pornography. As part of his plea agreement, Restuch admitted that he entered a U.S. Post Office in Bullhead City and mailed a package that contained more than 600 images of child pornography, including images depicting children less than 12 years old.

Johnny Pires, 24, of Middleboro, Mass., was convicted today by a federal jury in Boston of attempting to receive child pornography and possessing child pornography.

Charles Brown, 54, of Mesa, Ariz., was sentenced today to five years in prison and lifetime supervised release following his prison term for receiving child pornography.

Michael D. Doyle, 41, of Woburn, Mass., was sentenced today to four years in prison for possessing images of child pornography. Doyle also was sentenced to nine years of supervised release following his term in prison by U.S. District Court Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. The court accepted Doyle’s guilty plea to a one-count information charging possession of child pornography, which was filed on April 22, 2009.

Detroit area physical therapist Jay Jha, 45, pleaded guilty today to participating in a conspiracy to defraud the Medicare program of approximately $18.3 million.

Madhatta Haipe, a citizen of the Philippines, has been extradited from the Philippines to face trial in the District of Columbia for various crimes relating to the hostage taking of U.S. and Philippine citizens in 1995.

Jeffrey Robert Libman, 42, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., pleaded guilty in Miami today to one count of receiving child pornography.

Robert P. Merz was sentenced to life in prison today for advertising, transporting, receiving and possessing child pornography.

Steven W. Allen, an attorney who operated a legal practice in Mesa, Ariz., and Allen P. Goodmansen, a certified public accountant who operated an accounting practice in Mesa, were indicted Wednesday for conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and for aiding in the filing of false income tax returns for clients of an offshore tax shelter scheme.

Timothy L. Lantz was sentenced today to 15 years in prison for transporting child pornography in interstate commerce and failing to update his sex offender registration in violation of the Adam Walsh Act.

The Department’s Civil Rights Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today jointly announced an agreement with the owners and managers of Pina’s Mobile Home Park in Daphne, Ala., to settle allegations of discrimination against families with children. Under the consent decree, approved today in federal court in Mobile, Ala., the defendants must pay up to $104,130 to victims of discrimination and an additional $30,000 to the government as a civil penalty.

Mark Edwin Cairnes of Jonestown, Texas, pleaded guilty today to advertising and possessing child pornography.

Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden, along with federal and local officials today officially unveiled the new Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) Strike Force site in Phoenix.

The OCDETF Program -- now in its 27th year -- is a model of interagency coordination, innovation, and teamwork, and is the cornerstone of the Justice Department’s anti-cartel strategy.

James M. Tanksley, 52, pleaded guilty today to receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography and was sentenced to 80 months in prison.

Michael Wildridge, 41, pleaded guilty today to transportation and possession of child pornography and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Donald Collier, 45, was sentenced today to nine years in prison for mailing child pornography.

Gunther Wenzek, a German national, pleaded guilty today before District Judge Anna J. Brown, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, to one count of smuggling coral into the United States at the port of Portland, Ore.

BASF Corporation has agreed, under a Clean Air Act settlement filed today in federal court in Beaumont, Texas, to reduce the use of refrigerant chemicals that destroy the earth’s stratospheric ozone layer.

Mylan Pharmaceuticals, UDL Laboratories, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals and Ortho McNeil Pharmaceutical have entered into settlement agreements for a total of $124 million to resolve claims that they violated the False Claims Act by failing to pay appropriate rebates to state Medicaid programs for drugs paid for by those programs.

Solomon Nathaniel of Sterling Heights, Mich., pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Detroit to participating in a conspiracy to defraud the Medicare program.

Troy, Mich., resident Syed Aziz pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Detroit to participating in a conspiracy to defraud the Medicare program.

Donald Mathias, 64, has been indicted for allegedly traveling to the Philippines in 2007 and 2008 to engage in sexual conduct with minors.

The nation’s largest nursing home pharmacy, Omnicare Inc. of Covington, Kentucky, will pay $98 million, and drug manufacturer, IVAX Pharmaceuticals of Weston, Florida, will pay $14 million to resolve allegations that Omnicare engaged in kickback schemes with several parties, including IVAX.

Judge S. Thomas Anderson sentenced Carlton Moore to 27 months in prison and one year of supervised release after Moore pleaded guilty to stealing money from motorists while acting under color of law.

Jeffrey Robert Libman, 42, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was sentenced to 87 months in prison today for receiving child pornography.

Wayne Nelson Corliss, 60, of Union City, N.J., was sentenced to 235 months in prison today in Newark, N.J., on three charges of traveling in foreign commerce with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct and a single count each of producing and possessing child pornography.

A federal jury in Indianapolis convicted William Travis Brown on July 23, 2009, of one count of transportation and one count of possession of child pornography.

Robert Restuch, 70, of Bullhead City, Ariz., was sentenced today to five years in prison for mailing child pornography.

Isaac White, formerly an officer with the Memphis Police Department, pleaded guilty today to using excessive force and causing bodily injury. White faces up to 10 years in prison for the civil rights violation.

Detroit-area residents Baskaran Thangarasan, Sandeep Aggarwal and Wayne Smith pleaded guilty this week for their roles in connection with several Detroit-area health care fraud schemes.

University of Phoenix has agreed to pay the United States $67.5 million to resolve allegations that its student recruitment policies violated the False Claims Act.

Mark Edwin Cairnes, 51, was sentenced today to 292 months in prison and lifetime supervised release following his prison term for advertising and possessing child pornography.

Donald Mathias of Davie, Fla., pleaded guilty today to engaging in sex tourism in the Philippines.

Visiting Physicians Association, which is based in Farmington Hills, Mich., will pay the United States and the state of Michigan $9.5 million to settle allegations that the association violated the False Claims Act by submitting false claims to Medicare, TRICARE and the Michigan Medicaid program.

Johnny Pires, 24, was sentenced today to five years in prison and five years of supervised release following his prison term for attempting to receive and possessing child pornography. Pires was also ordered to register as a sex offender.

John D. Stacey of Mesa, Ariz., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Neil V. Wake to 77 months in prison and ordered to pay $1.5 million dollars in restitution on Jan. 7, 2010.