PATIENT RECRUITER FOR LUANT & ODERA INC. IS CONVICTED FOR FRAUD

The following is an excerpt from the Department of Justice web site:

Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Houston Federal Jury Convicts Patient Recruiter of Medicare Fraud Involving Claims of Hurricane Damage to Power Wheelchairs
To Date, Six Individuals Guilty of Federal Crimes for Roles in Scheme
WASHINGTON – Marion Beverly Metoyer, a patient recruiter for a Houston durable medical equipment (DME) company, was convicted today by a Houston federal jury of health care fraud related to a power wheelchair fraud scheme, the Departments of Justice, Health and Human Services (HHS) and the FBI announced.
After a four-day trial, Metoyer, 57, of Dayton, Texas, was convicted on one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, three counts of health care fraud, one count of conspiring to receive illegal kickbacks for referring Medicare beneficiaries, and two counts of receiving illegal kickbacks for referring Medicare beneficiaries.
According to evidence presented at trial, Helen Etinfoh was the owner and operator of Luant & Odera Inc., a Houston-area DME company doing business as Tonni Medical Equipment & Supplies. Metoyer was a recruiter for Luant who was paid kickbacks in exchange for providing the company with beneficiaries in whose names bills could be submitted to Medicare. Etinfoh and other co-conspirators submitted false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for medically unnecessary DME, including power wheelchairs, wheelchair accessories and motorized scooters.
Evidence at trial showed that, based on representations from Metoyer and other recruiters, Luant would bill Medicare under a special code that designated the power wheelchairs as replacements for wheelchairs lost during hurricanes that hit the Houston area in fall 2008. In fact, the hurricanes did not damage the wheelchairs. Certain beneficiaries testified that they did not even have a power wheelchair before receiving the ones provided to them by Luant. Luant used the hurricane code because it allowed the company to submit claims to Medicare without a doctor’s order.
At trial, beneficiaries in whose names claims were submitted to Medicare testified that recruiters whom they had never met, including Metoyer, came to their homes and offered them free power wheelchairs in exchange for their Medicare information. The power wheelchairs were often billed to Medicare at more than $6,000 per chair.
Etinfoh was previously convicted by a federal jury of health care fraud in April 2010, and was sentenced to 41 months in prison. Paula Whitfield, a patient recruiter for Luant, was also convicted by a federal jury in April 2010, and was sentenced to 21 months in prison. Melvin Barnes, Johnnie Lee Andrews and Monica Rene Perry, each a patient recruiter for Luant, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and await sentencing.
At sentencing, Metoyer faces maximum penalties of 10 years in prison for the health care fraud conspiracy; 10 years in prison for committing health care fraud; five years in prison for conspiring to receive illegal kickbacks for referring Medicare beneficiaries; and five years in prison for receiving an illegal kickback for referring a Medicare beneficiary. A sentencing date has not been set.
Today’s guilty jury verdict was announced by Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney José Angel Moreno of the Southern District of Texas; Acting Special Agent-In-Charge Russell D. Robinson of the FBI’s Houston Field Office; Special Agent-in-Charge Mike Fields of the Dallas Regional Office of HHS’s Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG), Office of Investigations; and the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU).
The case was tried by Trial Attorney Laura Cordova and Assistant Chief Sam S. Sheldon of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. The case was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas and the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.
Since their inception in March 2007, Strike Force operations in nine locations have obtained indictments of 1,000 individuals who collectively have falsely billed the Medicare program for more than $2.3 billion. In addition, HHS’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.”

SEC CHARGES UBS FINANCIAL INC. WITH RIGGING MUNI BOND TRANSACTIONS

The following is an excerpt from the SEC web site:
“May 4, 2011
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged UBS Financial Services Inc. (UBS) with fraudulently rigging at least 100 municipal bond reinvestment transactions in 36 states and generating millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains.
To settle the SEC’s charges, UBS has agreed to pay $47.2 million that will be returned to the affected municipalities. UBS and its affiliates also agreed to pay $113 million to settle parallel charges brought by other federal and state authorities.
When investors purchase municipal securities, the municipalities generally temporarily invest the proceeds of the sales in reinvestment products before the money is used for the intended purposes. Under relevant IRS regulations, the proceeds of tax-exempt municipal securities must generally be invested at fair market value. The most common way of establishing fair market value is through a competitive bidding process in which bidding agents search for the appropriate investment vehicle for a municipality.
The SEC alleges that during 2000 to 2004, UBS’s fraudulent practices and misrepresentations undermined the competitive bidding process and affected the prices that municipalities paid for the reinvestment products being bid on by the provider of the products. Its fraudulent conduct at the time also jeopardized the tax-exempt status of billions of dollars in municipal securities because the supposed competitive bidding process that establishes the fair market value of the investment was corrupted. The business unit involved in this misconduct closed in 2008 and its employees are no longer with the company.
According to the SEC’s complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, UBS played various roles in these tainted transactions. UBS illicitly won bids as a provider of reinvestment products, and also rigged bids for the benefit of other providers while acting as a bidding agent on behalf of municipalities. UBS at times additionally facilitated the payment of improper undisclosed amounts to other bidding agents. In each instance, UBS made fraudulent
misrepresentations or omissions, thereby deceiving municipalities and their agents. As bidding agent UBS steered business through a variety of mechanisms to favored bidders acting as providers of reinvestment products. In some cases, UBS gave a favored provider information on competing bids in a practice known as “last looks.” In other instances, UBS deliberately obtained off-market ”courtesy” bids or arranged “set-ups” by obtaining purposefully non-competitive bids from others so that the favored provider would win the business. UBS also transmitted improper, undisclosed payments to favored bidding agents through interest rate swaps. In addition, UBS was favored to win bids with last looks and set-ups as a provider of reinvestment products.
Without admitting or denying the allegations in the SEC’s complaint, UBS has consented to the entry of a final judgment enjoining it from future violations of Section 15(c) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. UBS has agreed to pay a penalty of $32.5 million and disgorgement of $9,606,543 with prejudgment interest of $5,100,637. The settlement is subject to court approval.
In a related enforcement action, the SEC barred former UBS officer Mark Zaino from associating with any broker, dealer or investment adviser, based upon his guilty plea last year in a criminal case charging him with two counts of conspiracy and one count of wire fraud for engaging in misconduct in the competitive bidding process involving the investment of proceeds of tax-exempt municipal bonds. The Commission recognizes Zaino’s cooperation in the SEC’s investigation as well as investigations conducted by other law enforcement agencies.
This is the SEC’s second settlement with a major bank in an ongoing investigation into corruption in the municipal reinvestment industry. In December 2010, the SEC charged Banc of America Securities LLC (BAS) with securities fraud for similar conduct. In that matter, BAS agreed to pay more than $36 million in disgorgement and interest to settle the SEC’s charges, and paid an additional $101 million to other federal and state authorities for its misconduct.
The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Deputy Chief Mark R. Zehner and Assistant Municipal Securities Counsel Denise D. Colliers, who are members of the Municipal Securities and Public Pensions Unit in the Philadelphia Regional Office. The SEC’s investigation is continuing.
The SEC thanks the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their cooperation and assistance in this matter. The SEC is bringing this enforcement action in coordination with the Department of Justice, Internal Revenue Service and 25 State Attorneys General.”