The owner of a Baton Rouge, La., durable medical equipment (DME) company, a medical doctor and two patient recruiters were each convicted late yesterday for their roles in a $4.7 million Medicare fraud scheme.

After a six-day trial, a jury in the Southern District of Florida found Judith Negron, 40, guilty of 24 felony counts, including conspiracy to commit health care fraud, health care fraud, conspiracy to pay and receive illegal health care kickbacks, conspiracy to commit money laundering, money laundering and structuring to avoid reporting requirements.

Jose Nunez, 63, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joan A. Lenard in Miami to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

Online search engine Google Inc. has agreed to forfeit $500 million for allowing online Canadian pharmacies to place advertisements through its AdWords program targeting consumers in the United States, resulting in the unlawful importation of controlled and non-controlled prescription drugs into the United States.

Minnesota Transit Constructors Inc. (MnTC), a joint venture comprised of Granite Construction, C.S. McCrossan Inc. and Parsons Transportation Group, as well as a number of subcontractors, have agreed to pay the United States $4.6 million to resolve allegations that they knowingly submitted false claims related to a federally-funded transit construction project in Minneapolis.

Caridad Guilarte, 54, and Clara Guilarte, 57, each pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Jose Rosario, 54, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gerald E. Rosen in the Eastern District of Michigan.

Miami-area resident Farah Maria Perez, a registered nurse, pleaded guilty today for her participation in a $25 million Medicare fraud scheme involving false billings for home health services.

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TriWest Healthcare Alliance Corporation, a contractor to TRICARE Management Activity, has agreed to pay $10 million to resolve civil false claims allegations.

A Hammond, Ind., man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., to 14 years in prison for operating an online business that sold counterfeit credit cards encoded with stolen account information.

CSK Auto Corporation, a specialty retailer of automotive parts and accessories and formerly a publicly-traded company, has agreed to pay a $20.9 million penalty to resolve securities law violations stemming from a corporate earnings manipulation and double-billing scheme.

Accenture LLP has agreed to pay the United States $63.675 million to resolve a whistleblower lawsuit.

Maxim Healthcare Services Inc., one of the nation’s leading providers of home healthcare services, has entered into a settlement to resolve criminal and civil charges relating to a nationwide scheme to defraud Medicaid programs and the Veterans Affairs program of more than $61 million.

The Department of Justice today announced grants to nearly 150 American Indian and Alaskan Native nations providing $118.4 million to enhance law enforcement practices, and sustain crime prevention and intervention efforts in eight purpose areas.

BP Amoco Corp., Amoco Production Company, BP Exploration & Oil Inc., BP America Inc., Atlantic Richfield Company and Vastar have agreed to pay the United States $20.5 million to resolve claims that the companies violated the False Claims Act by knowingly underpaying royalties owed on natural gas produced from federal and Indian leases.

Miami resident Lawrence Duran, the owner of a mental health care company, American Therapeutic Corporation (ATC), was sentenced today to 50 years in prison for orchestrating a $205 million Medicare fraud scheme.

Saudi Arabia-based Tamimi Global Company Ltd has agreed to pay the United States $13 million to resolve criminal and civil allegations that the company paid kickbacks to a Kellogg Brown &s operations in Iraq and Kuwait.

Federal, state and Bay-area officials announced a comprehensive civil settlement with the owners and operators of the M/V Cosco Busan, resolving all natural resource damages, penalties and response costs that resulted from the ship striking the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in 2007, and subsequent oil spill in the San Francisco Bay.

Ten Miami-area residents pleaded guilty today and yesterday in U.S. District Court in Miami for their participation in a $25 million home health Medicare fraud scheme.

– Alan James Watson, 46, of Clinton Township, Mich., pleaded guilty today to fraudulently soliciting and accepting $40 million from more than 750 members of his investment club and losing nearly all of it through non-disclosed, high-risk investments.

CH2M Hill Hanford Group Inc. has agreed to pay the United States $1.5 million to resolve allegations that it knowingly submitted false claims and paid kickbacks relating to a contract to operate and manage mixed radioactive waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Nuclear Site in the state of Washington.

A former captain in the U.S. Army Reserve stationed in Afghanistan was sentenced today to 120 months in prison for soliciting $1.3 million in bribes from contractors involved in U.S.-funded reconstruction efforts and participating in a conspiracy to traffic heroin from Southeast Asia.

Guidant LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Boston Scientific Corp. of Natick, Mass., has agreed to pay the United States $9.25 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations.

Maritza Vidal, 44, and Richard Diaz, 26, each pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joan A. Lenard to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

Trident Seafoods Corp., one of the world’s largest seafood processors, has agreed to pay a $2.5 million civil penalty and invest millions in seafood processing waste controls to settle alleged violations of the Clean Water Act.

Two principals of A&O Resource Management Ltd. have been sentenced for their roles in a $100 million life settlement fraud scheme, which included more than 800 victims across the United States and Canada.

Science Applications International Inc. (SAIC); its subcontractor, Applied Enterprise Solutions LLC (AES); AES CEO Dale Galloway; and former government employees Stephen Adamec and Robert Knesel will pay the United States $22,676,000 to resolve allegations of false claims in a whistleblower suit.

The Department of Justice today reached a settlement with Morgan Stanley that requires Morgan to pay $4.8 million for violating the antitrust laws by entering into an agreement with KeySpan Corporation that restrained competition in the New York City electricity capacity market.

Osman Norales, Genaro De La Fuente, Francisco Ramirez and Ulises Linares were indicted on charges of conspiring to defraud the United States.

LHC Group Inc. has agreed to pay $65 million, plus interest, to the federal government to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act for false home healthcare billings to the Medicare, TRICARE and Federal Employees Health Benefits programs.

A federal court has permanently barred John E. Rogers and two of his companies, Sugarloaf Fund LLC and Jetstream Business Limited, from promoting tax shelters that allegedly use distressed Brazilian debt to lower customers’ reported income improperly.

Neil P. Campbell, 61, of Queensland, Australia, pleaded guilty today before Judge Rosemary M. Collyer in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to one count of accepting an illegal payment as an agent of an organization receiving federal funds.

As part of Attorney General Eric Holder’s call for cost-cutting measures to streamline operations and reduce spending during a time of constrained funding, the Department of Justice today announced that it will realign functions in various offices, lower lease costs by consolidating or reducing office space and continue to look for ways to more effectively utilize the department’s resources.

Attorney General Eric Holder today joined Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory and Director of the Office of Community Oriented Policing (COPS) Bernard Melekian to announce more than $15 million in grant awards to agencies in Ohio through the 2011 COPS Hiring Program.

A Costa Rican company, its president and its auditor were charged in a superseding indictment filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va., for their alleged roles in a $670 million fraud scheme involving victims throughout the United States and abroad.

Oracle Corp. and Oracle America Inc. have agreed to pay $199.5 million plus interest for failing to meet their contractual obligations to the General Services Administration.

Martin Tasis was sentenced today to 10 years in prison for his leading role in a $9.1 million Detroit-area Medicare fraud scheme.

A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chemist pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Court Judge Deborah K. Chasanow in the District of Maryland to one count of securities fraud and one count of making false statements, related to a $3.7 million insider trading scheme that spanned nearly five years.

The United States has reached a final settlement of a long-running lawsuit by the Osage Tribe of Oklahoma regarding the United States’ accounting and management of the tribe’s trust funds and non-monetary trust assets.

American pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. has agreed to pay $14.5 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations related to its marketing of the drug Detrol.

The U.S. government has filed civil forfeiture complaints against approximately $70.8 million in real and personal property, which the government alleges is the proceeds of foreign corruption offenses and was laundered in the United States.

DFine Inc. of San Jose, Calif., has agreed to pay the United States $2.39 million to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act that the company paid kickbacks to induce physicians to use certain of the company’s devices that are used in treating spinal fractures.

Ekpedeme Obot, 35, of Houston, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal in Houston.

Twelve individuals, including three medical doctors, a doctor of osteopathy and a chiropractor, were charged today in the Eastern District of New York for their roles in separate health care fraud schemes that resulted in the submission of more than $95 million in false claims to the Medicare program.

Zafar Mehmood, 45, allegedly masterminded a $30 million scheme involving the submission of fraudulent claims submitted to Medicare for services that were medically unnecessary and/or never provided through at least four home health agencies.

Two individuals – a loan officer and a title agent – have been sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge William P. Dimitrouleas in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., for their participation in a nationwide $2.5 million reverse mortgage fraud scheme.

The United States alleged that the Pompano Beach, Fla.,and Jacksboro, Tenn., companies manufactured and sold Zylon bulletproof vests despite possessing information showing that the Zylon materials degraded quickly over time and were not suitable for ballistic use.

Beatriz Torres-Cruz, 50, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joan A. Lenard in Miami to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of solicitation of health care kickbacks.

Federal officials announced a civil settlement with the state of California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) resolving claims brought by the Presidio Trust and the U.S. Army resulting from Caltrans’ construction and operation of Highway 1 (also known as Park Presidio Boulevard) through the Presidio of San Francisco.