Saturday, March 16, 2013

EPA ORDERS MORE DREDGEING OF KALAMAZOO RIVER TO CLEAN UP PIPELINE SPILL

FROM: U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
EPA Orders Enbridge to Perform Additional Dredging to Remove Oil from Kalamazoo River


CHICAGO (March 14, 2013) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today issued an administrative order that requires Enbridge to do additional dredging in Michigan’s Kalamazoo River to clean up oil from the company’s July 2010 pipeline spill. EPA’s order requires dredging in sections of the river above Ceresco Dam, upstream of Battle Creek, and in the Morrow Lake Delta.

EPA has repeatedly documented the presence of recoverable submerged oil in the sections of the river identified in the order and has determined that submerged oil in these areas can be recovered by dredging. The dredging activity required by EPA’s order will prevent submerged oil from migrating to downstream areas where it will be more difficult or impossible to recover.

Enbridge has five days to respond to the order and 15 days to provide EPA with a work plan. Dredging is anticipated to begin this spring and is not expected to result in closures of the river. EPA’s order also requires Enbridge to maintain sediment traps throughout the river to capture oil outside the dredge areas.

On July 26, 2010, Enbridge reported that a 30-inch oil pipeline ruptured near Marshall, Michigan. Heavy rains caused the spilled oil to travel 35 miles downstream before it was contained.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

TWO FREIGHT FORWARDING COMPANIES AGREE TO PLEAD

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICECompanies Agree to Pay a Total of $18.9 Million in Criminal Fines

WASHINGTON — Two Japanese air freight forwarding companies have agreed to plead guilty and to pay criminal fines totaling $18.9 million for their roles in a conspiracy to fix certain fees in connection with the provision of air freight forwarding services for air cargo shipments from Japan to the United States, the Department of Justice announced today. "K" Line Logistics Ltd. has agreed to pay a $3,507,246 criminal fine and Yusen Logistics Co. Ltd. has agreed to pay a $15,428,207 criminal fine.

Including today's charges, as a result of this investigation, 16 companies have either pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty and have agreed to pay criminal fines totaling more than $120 million.

"Consumers were forced to pay higher prices on the goods they buy every day as a result of the noncompetitive and collusive service fees charged by these companies," said Bill Baer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division. "Prosecuting these kinds of global, price-fixing conspiracies continues to be a top priority of the Antitrust Division."

Freight forwarders manage the domestic and international delivery of cargo for customers by receiving, packaging, preparing and warehousing cargo freight, arranging for cargo shipment through transportation providers such as air carriers, preparing shipment documentation and providing related ancillary services.

According to charges filed separately today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, "K" Line Logistics and Yusen Logistics engaged in a conspiracy to fix and to impose certain freight forwarding service fees, including fuel surcharges and various security fees, charged to customers for services provided in connection with air freight forwarding shipments of cargo shipped by air from Japan to the United States from about September 2002 until at least November 2007.

According to the charges, the companies carried out the conspiracy by, among other things, agreeing during meetings and discussions to coordinate and impose certain freight forwarding service fees and charges on customers purchasing freight forwarding services for cargo shipped by air from Japan to the United States. The department said the companies levied freight forwarding service fees in accordance with the agreements reached and engaged in meetings and discussions for the purpose of monitoring and enforcing adherence to the agreed-upon freight forwarding service fees.

Each company is charged with price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum $100 million fine for corporations. The maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine.

Today's charges are the result of a joint investigation being conducted by the Antitrust Division's National Criminal Enforcement Section, the FBI's Washington Field Office and the Department of Commerce's

Monday, March 11, 2013

Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. and Oppenheimer Alternative Investment Management, LLC

Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. and Oppenheimer Alternative Investment Management, LLC

U.S. JUSTEICE DEPARTMENT GENERATED ALMOST $2 BILLION FROM CONSUMER FRAUD CASES

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Friday, March 8, 2013
Justice Department Secures Nearly $2 Billion in Consumer Protection Cases in 2012
Through Consumer Protection Branch, Civil Division Successfully Combatted Consumer Fraud Schemes
The Justice Department’s Consumer Protection Branch secured nearly $2 billion in criminal fines, forfeiture, restitution, and civil disgorgement in 2012, Stuart F. Delery, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, announced today at the Consumer Protection Working Group’s Second Annual Consumer Protection Summit. Since 2009, the consumer protection efforts of the Civil Division, working with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices around the country, have led to recoveries of more than $5.89 billion, over 140 criminal convictions, and total prison sentences exceeding 327 years.

"This summit and our other outreach efforts are essential to the fight against consumer fraud. But our real strength lies in the cases brought by the attorneys in the Consumer Protection Branch every day. The results the branch achieved in 2012 are outstanding, and reflect the determination of this Department of Justice to combatting consumer fraud," said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Delery, who serves as a co-chair of the Consumer Protection Working Group of the President’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. "The Consumer Protection Branch’s extraordinary work enforcing federal consumer protection laws has reached new levels, and is evidence that the department has made protecting consumers a top priority."

The summit brings together over two dozen state and federal agencies to highlight some of the most significant issues facing consumers today: consumer debt, nutritional supplements, money and imposter scams and tax-related fraud. The summit exposes some of the most egregious fraud schemes, provides information on how consumers can protect themselves, and shares what the Consumer Protection Working Group is doing to combat fraud in these areas.

Recently reorganized, the Consumer Protection Branch deploys powerful enforcement tools in creative ways to protect the most vulnerable consumers from myriad forms of fraud and abuse, including financial fraud, new forms of telemarketing fraud, and immigration services fraud.

In 2012, for example, the branch prosecuted three Missouri individuals for their roles in a scheme to defraud consumers seeking immigration-related services. These individuals worked for a company that defrauded legal immigrants who were trying to abide by the rules. The firm falsely told consumers that it employed paralegals who would help customers correctly fill out immigration forms, that it handled excess call volume for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and that fees paid to the firm included government processing fees. All three defendants in the case pled guilty to conspiring to defraud consumers.

Collaborating closely with state Attorneys General and other federal agencies, t he Consumer Protection Branch has been instrumental in the department’s effort to hold accountable those who, in violating the law, contributed toward the 2008 financial crisis. Earlier this year, the department filed a civil lawsuit against the credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s alleging that S&P engaged in a scheme to defraud investors in structured financial products known as Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS) and Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs). The lawsuit, brought under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA), alleges that investors, many of them federally insured financial institutions, lost billions of dollars on CDOs for which S&P issued inflated ratings that misrepresented the securities’ true credit risks. The complaint also alleges that S&P falsely represented that its ratings were objective, independent, and uninfluenced by S&P’s relationships with investment banks when, in reality, S&P’s desire for increased revenue and market share led it to favor the interests of these banks over investors. The Consumer Protection Branch played a key role in investigating and bringing the case, along with the Federal Programs Branch of the Civil Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.

The Consumer Protection Branch has also responded to the financial crisis by aggressively pursuing various forms of financial fraud, including foreclosure rescue schemes targeting distressed homeowners. For instance, in 2012, the branch successfully prosecuted four individuals in connection with a firm that claimed to assist homeowners at risk of foreclosure. The defendants represented that homeowners’ properties would be sold to investors, but that the present homeowners could stay in their homes. The defendants designed sham sales to straw purchasers, created false loan applications and documents, pocketed the equity drawn out of the sham sales, and then allowed the loans to go into foreclosure. Victims lost their equity, and most were forced to move out of their homes. The defendants were sentenced to prison for terms of up to five and a half years.

In addition to playing a prominent role in the Consumer Protection Working Group, and organizing the annual Consumer Protection Summit the Consumer Protection Branch has employed new techniques to enhance its outreach and prevention efforts. For instance, the Branch has conducted webinars to educate financial institutions on the dangers of working with payment processors who may facilitate fraudulent schemes. It has also engaged consumer advocacy groups in new ways, and sought to create new partnerships with state attorneys general and military legal assistance providers.

While continuing to innovate, the branch has also sharpened its focus in traditional areas of enforcement, such as ensuring the safety of pharmaceutical products, medical devices, food, and dietary supplements. Health care fraud cases were the sources of the Consumer Protection Branch’s largest recoveries in 2012. The branch brought enforcement actions and criminal prosecutions in response to a number of violations, including the misbranding of pharmaceuticals, deficient manufacturing processes, the sale of adulterated and unsafe products, and the resale of prescription drugs that had been diverted from lawful channels of distribution. The branch recovered more than $1.9 billion in criminal fines and forfeiture and secured 16 criminal convictions in connection with these cases.

"Whether consumers are targeted by scammers looking to cheat them or manufacturers of food or pharmaceuticals that put profit ahead of consumer safety, the department will bring to bear its expertise and all available tools to root out conduct that harms consumers," said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Delery. "The success of the Consumer Protection Branch demonstrates our unwavering commitment to the protecting the health and safety of Americans."

Another key component of the Consumer Protection Branch’s work is defense of the decisions of government agencies charged with protecting consumers. In 2012, the branch successfully defended cases involving, for example, the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of various generic drugs to increase consumers’ market choices and the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) interpretation of a provision of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) that requires lenders to disclose certain information to consumers. The branch was also instrumental in securing court orders requiring major tobacco companies to place statements on their websites, on cigarette packages, and at retail stores correcting past false statements that they had been making about the safety of their products.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Delery expressed his gratitude and appreciation for the dedicated public servants who work tirelessly to protect consumers. These individuals include attorneys, investigators, paralegals and other personnel throughout the Civil Division, the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, the Department of Health and Human Services, the FDA, the FTC, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Postal Inspection Service and other federal and state agencies.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

INJUNCTIONS ISSUED AGAINTS COMPANIES CHARGED WITH COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING FRAUD

FROM: COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION

Federal District Court in New York Enters Order of Permanent Injunction against Defendants Agape World, Inc. and Agape Merchant Advance LLC, Charged with Defrauding Customers in Commodity Futures Trading Scheme

Defendants are permanently banned from the futures industry

Washington, DC
- The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced today that it obtained a federal court Order against Defendants Agape World, Inc. and Agape Merchant Advance LLC (the Agape Entities), charged by the CFTC with defrauding customers of tens of millions of dollars in a commodity futures trading scheme (see CFTC Press Release 5606-09, January 27, 2009). The Consent Order of Permanent Injunction, entered by Judge Leonard D. Wexler of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, imposes permanent trading and registration bans against the Agape Entities and permanently bars them from engaging in any commodity-related activity.

In 2009, the CFTC charged the Agape Entities and Defendant Nicholas Cosmo, formerly of Lake Grove, N.Y., and the Agape Entities’ owner, with engaging in a fraudulent scheme in which tens of millions of dollars were solicited from investors to invest in bridge loans and merchant advances. Instead, according to the Complaint, the defendants used a significant portion of those funds to engage in unauthorized commodity trading, which resulted in tens of millions of dollars in losses that were never disclosed to investors.

In a related criminal case, Cosmo sentenced to 300 months in prison and ordered to pay over $179 million of restitution to defrauded investors

Previously on October 1, 2012, Judge Wexler entered a Default Judgment and Permanent Injunction Order against Cosmo, which imposed a $240 million civil monetary penalty, permanent trading and registration bans, and other equitable relief against him (see CFTC Press Release
6402-12, October 25, 2012). In a related criminal case, United States of America v. Nicholas Cosmo, Docket No. CR-09-255 (DRH), Judge Denis R. Hurley sentenced Cosmo to 300 months in prison and ordered him to pay over $179 million of restitution to investors. Pursuant to a December 11, 2010, Preliminary Order of Forfeiture, Cosmo agreed to forfeit approximately $409.3 million. Cosmo is currently incarcerated.

The Agape Entities are debtors in a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy proceeding pending before Judge Dorothy T. Eisenberg in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York (see In re Agape World, Inc. et al., Case No. 09-70660 (DTE). Notice of the proposed Consent Order was provided to all interested parties to the bankruptcy proceeding and no objections were filed.

The CFTC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Postal Inspection Office, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The CFTC Division of Enforcement staff members responsible for the action are Elizabeth C. Brennan, Philip Rix, Steven Ringer, Lenel Hickson, Stephen J. Obie, and Vincent McGonagle.