DOJ ANNOUNCES SETTLEMENT WITH HEALTHCARE COMPANY IN HIV DISCRIMINATION CASE

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Justice Department Settles with Ohio Healthcare System Over HIV Discrimination

The Justice Department announced today that, as part of its Barrier-Free Health Care Initiative, the department has reached a settlement with Genesis Healthcare System (Genesis) to resolve claims that Genesis discriminated against a woman with HIV in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  Genesis operates a healthcare system that includes a hospital, a network of more than 300 physicians, and multiple outpatient health care centers throughout southeastern Ohio.

Title III of the ADA prohibits public accommodations, such as healthcare providers, from discriminating against people with disabilities, including HIV.  Following an investigation, the department found that Genesis discriminated against a woman with HIV when one of its primary care physicians refused to accept her as a new patient because of her HIV.  Genesis refused to accept her as a patient despite the fact that she was only seeking a general practitioner for medical care unrelated to HIV.  As a result, the woman had to seek medical treatment at the local emergency room for non-emergent health issues.  The department’s investigation revealed that it was this doctor’s practice to refer any patients with HIV seeking a primary care physician to an HIV specialist.

“Exclusion of patients with HIV creates unfair and illegal barriers to medical care for people with HIV,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta for the Civil Rights Division.  “Under the law, healthcare providers cannot deny care or refer a patient to a specialist unless the decision is based on current medical knowledge about the particular patient and condition, not on stereotypes about a disability.  The ADA prohibits these types of discriminatory barriers, and the Justice Department is committed to tearing them down.”

Under the settlement, Genesis Healthcare System must pay $25,000 to the victim of discrimination, and $9,000 as a civil penalty.  In addition, it must train its staff on the ADA, develop and implement a non-discrimination policy, and report to the department every time a person with HIV (or who is suspected of having HIV) is denied or discharged as a patient, with a written justification for the decision.

This settlement agreement is part of the department’s Barrier-Free Health Care Initiative, a partnership of the Civil Rights Division and U.S. Attorney’s offices across the nation to target enforcement efforts on a critical area for individuals with disabilities: access to health care.

SANDEN CORP. PLEADS GUILTY TO PRICE FIXING REGARDING AUTOMOBILE PARTS

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Sanden Corp. Agrees to Plead Guilty to Price Fixing on Automobile Parts Installed in U.S. Cars

Sanden Corp., an automotive parts manufacturer based in Gunma, Japan, has agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $3.2 million criminal fine for its role in a conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition for the purchase of compressors used in air conditioning systems sold to Nissan North America Inc. for installation in vehicles manufactured and sold in the United States and elsewhere, the Department of Justice announced today.

According to a one-count felony charge filed today in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit, Sanden conspired to fix the prices of compressors sold to Nissan.  In addition to the criminal fine, Sanden has agreed to cooperate in the department’s ongoing investigation.  The plea agreement is subject to court approval.

“Today’s charge is the latest in the Antitrust Division’s ongoing investigation of automobile parts suppliers,” said Brent Snyder, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement program.  “The division continues to vigorously prosecute companies and individuals that seek to maximize their profits through illegal, anticompetitive means.”

The department said that Sanden and its co-conspirator held meetings and conversations to discuss and agree upon the bids and price quotations submitted to Nissan for the purchase of compressors used in automotive air conditioning systems.  Sanden’s involvement in the conspiracy lasted from as early as August 2008 until at least April 2009.

Including Sanden, 33 companies and 50 individuals have been charged in the department’s ongoing investigation into price fixing and bid rigging in the automotive parts industry.  All of the charged companies have pleaded guilty or have agreed to plead guilty and to pay a combined total of more than $2.4 billion in fines.

Sanden is charged with fixing prices in violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum penalty of a $100 million criminal 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 charge is the result of an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into price fixing, bid rigging and other anticompetitive conduct in the automotive parts industry, which is being conducted by the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement sections and the FBI.  Today’s charges were brought by the Antitrust Division’s New York Office and the FBI’s New York Field Office, with the assistance of the FBI headquarters’ International Corruption Unit.

Labor Department News Releases Update

Labor Department News Releases Update

$5.15 BILLION SETTLEMENT REACHED TO CLEANUP CONTAMINATED LAND

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

Friday, January 23, 2015

Historic $5.15 Billion Environmental and Tort Settlement with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. Goes into Effect

A historic settlement reached with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Kerr McGee has gone into effect, allowing funds to be disbursed for cleanups across the country, announced Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden for the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York, and Assistant Administrator Cynthia Giles of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

This settlement resolves fraudulent conveyance claims brought by the United States and the Anadarko Litigation Trust, the trust against Anadarko Petroleum Corporation and its affiliates, the defendants, in the bankruptcy of Tronox Inc. and its subsidiaries.  Today, pursuant to the settlement agreement, the defendants paid $5.15 billion, plus interest, to the trust.  The trust is expected to distribute more than $4.4 billion to fund environmental clean-up and for environmental claims.  The settlement constitutes the largest payment for the clean-up of environmental contamination ever obtained in a lawsuit brought by the Department of Justice.

 “This recovery will lead to cleanups across the country that will undo lasting damage to the environment, including contamination of tribal lands, by Kerr-McGee’s businesses,” said Assistant Attorney General Cruden.  “This result emphatically demonstrates the Justice Department’s commitment to environmental justice for all Americans, and it fulfills the department’s promise to hold accountable those who pollute and those who try to foist their responsibility for cleanup on the American taxpayer.”

“The Kerr-McGee Corporation spent decades despoiling our nation’s natural resources, leaving a toxic legacy for communities across the nation, from Sidney, New York, to the Navajo nation,” said U.S. Attorney Bharara.  “Then, Kerr-McGee tried to escape the consequences of its misdeeds by transferring its most valuable assets to affiliates, leaving an insolvent shell behind, unable to pay its environmental liabilities.  As today’s historic payment shows, the government will not allow polluters to escape paying for the damage they inflict on our land, water and people, and we will hold accountable those who attempt to shield themselves from responsibility behind improper corporate transactions.”

“If you pollute the environment, you should be responsible for cleaning it up,” said EPA Assistant Administrator Giles.  “From the Navajo Nation to low income neighborhoods across America, more than $4.4 billion will be put to work cleaning up toxic pollution.  This historical environmental cleanup will have a lasting impact on American communities.”

As noted by U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest, in approving the settlement in November, this case arises from a “series of transactions by the Kerr-McGee Corp. that resulted in the spin-off of Tronox, which Kerr-McGee left saddled with the massive environmental and tort liabilities it had accumulated over the course of decades of operating in the chemical, mining, and oil and gas industries, but without sufficient assets with which to address these liabilities.”  For this reason, as the district court explained, both the United States and the Tronox estate, now represented by the trust, brought fraudulent conveyance claims against the defendants.

On April 3, 2014, the United States announced this settlement resolving the claims against the defendants, which was then subject to a period of public comment and judicial approval.  After receiving and considering comments from the public, the United States sought approval of the settlement agreement, and on Nov. 10, 2014, the district court approved the settlement as “fair and reasonable.”  The deadline for any appeals from the district court’s decision passed on Jan. 20, 2015, without any appeals having been taken and therefore the settlement agreement went into effect on Jan. 21, 2015.

Today, under the settlement agreement, the defendants paid $5.15 billion, plus interest from Apr. 3, 2014, to the trust.  Pursuant to the terms of prior agreements in the Tronox bankruptcy, the government estimates that more than $4.4 million of this recovery will be paid to the United States, state governments, the Navajo nation and four environmental response trusts created in the bankruptcy to clean up contaminated property.  An estimated more than $600 million will be paid to a trust created to pay tort victims.

This case was handled by the Environmental Protection Unit and the Tax and Bankruptcy Unit of the Office’s Civil Division.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert William Yalen is in charge of the case, which he handled along with Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Pantoja and Alan S. Tenenbaum, Katherine Kane, Frederick S. Phillips, Marcello Mollo, and Erica Pencak of the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Division. Resources