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Companies Cigna Corp FollowNEW YORK, Oct 17 (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors in Manhattan said on Monday they have filed a civil lawsuit against Cigna Corp (CI.N) accusing the health insurer of overcharging the government's Medicare Advantage program by making it appear patients were more ill than they actually were. Medicare Advantage is a program in which private insurers provide coverage to patients who opt out of the traditional Medicare program. Cigna this month announced it would expand its Medicare Advantage Plan next year. The two cases are among several Justice Department civil lawsuits against companies participating in Medicare Advantage. Enrollment in Medicare Advantage has doubled since 2013 to about 28.7 million, or approximately 49% of all eligible Medicare beneficiaries, government watchdog MedPac said in July.

☆ DOJ seeks 6 months in jail, $200,000 fine for Steve Bannon for contempt of Congress
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Kevin Breuninger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Steve Bannon, advisor to former President Donald Trump, speaks to the media as a protester stands behind him, outside of the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal prosecutors recommended Monday that former Trump White House aide Steve Bannon face six months in jail and a $200,000 fine for defying a subpoena from the congressional probe of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Prosecutors said Bannon deserved the longer sentence "because a person could have shown no greater contempt than the Defendant did in his defiance of the Committee's subpoena." Trump and many of his allies, including Bannon, falsely claimed for months before the riot that the election was rigged for President Joe Biden. They also criticized Bannon, who hosts a right-wing online talk show, for disparaging members of the committee in the media.

☆ A man and his stepson were charged with assaulting police officers on Jan. 6 after telling investigators, 'conservatives don't protest, they have jobs'
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-15 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A man and his stepson were arrested this week on several Capitol riot charges. Prosecutors say Richard Slaughter and Caden Paul Gottfried fought cops in a Capitol tunnel Jan. 6. Richard Slaughter, 40, and Caden Paul Gottfried, 20, were arrested and charged Wednesday for their role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Gottfried was also in the tunnel and used his body weight to push against the guarding officers, according to prosecutors. Slaughter was sworn in as an Orting School District school board director in December 2021.

The Justice Department in its petition to the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon exceeded her authority when she named the special master to vet the more than 11,000 seized documents. The Justice Department is investigating whether Trump broke the law by taking government records to his Florida estate after leaving office in January 2021. Now, the Justice Department is appealing the rest of Cannon's order. Prosecutors said in a court filing this week they had turned over the bulk of the seized records for Trump's attorneys to review.

☆ AT&T Illinois to pay $23 million to settle corruption probe related to bribing former politician
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

AT&T Illinois has agreed to pay a $23 million fine to resolve a federal probe into its illegal efforts to influence former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, who also faces new charges for his role in the scheme, prosecutors announced Friday. In what could spell trouble for Madigan, prosecutors also said the company agreed to cooperate with any related investigations. As the Democratic speaker of the solidly Democratic-led Illinois House, Madigan, nicknamed the velvet hammer, wielded immense power. According to prosecutors, Madigan used his speaker role and various other positions of power to further his alleged criminal enterprise. According to prosecutors, AT&T admits that in 2017, it arranged for a Madigan ally to receive the payments through a lobbying firm that had done work for the company.

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Share this -Link copiedCommittee votes to subpoena Trump The committee voted on Thursday unanimously to subpoena Trump. Trump would not be the first president to be subpoenaed, nor would he be the first former president subpoenaed by Congress. "Even before the networks called the race for President Biden on Nov. 7th, his chances of pulling out a victory were virtually nonexistent, and President Trump knew it," Kinzinger said. “At times, President Trump acknowledged the reality of his loss. “What did President Trump know?

That's based on a Secret Service email from 9:09 a.m. "The head of the President’s Secret Service protective detail, Robert Engel, was specifically aware of the large crowds outside the magnetometers," Schiff said. A Secret Service report at 7:58 a.m. said, "Some members of the crowd are wearing ballistic helmets, body armor carrying radio equipment and military grade backpacks." On Dec. 26, a Secret Service field office relayed a tip that had been received by the FBI, Schiff said. Trump would not be the first president to be subpoenaed, nor would he be the first former president subpoenaed by Congress.

☆ No jail time for Cuba Gooding Jr. in forcible touching case
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. resolved his New York City forcible touching case Thursday with a guilty plea to a lesser charge and no jail time after complying with the terms of a conditional plea agreement reached in April. Gooding, 54, faces no additional penalties and, by replacing his misdemeanor plea with a plea to a noncriminal violation, he will not have a criminal record. Gooding pleaded guilty in April to a misdemeanor charge that he forcibly kissed a worker at a New York nightclub in 2018. Judge Curtis Farber earlier had ruled if the Gooding case went to trial, prosecutors could have called two additional women to testify about their allegations that Gooding also violated them. Along with the criminal case, Gooding is accused in a lawsuit of raping a woman in New York City in 2013.

☆ Russian Oligarch’s Property Manager Charged With Helping Evade Sanctions
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Dylan Tokar | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +2 min

Graham Bonham-Carter was indicted by a grand jury in the Southern District of New York on sanctions evasion conspiracy and wire fraud charges. Newsletter Sign-up WSJ | Risk and Compliance Journal Our Morning Risk Report features insights and news on governance, risk and compliance. PREVIEW Mr. Bonham-Carter, 62 years old, worked primarily as a property manager for Mr. Deripaska, according to the recent indictment. Mr. Bonham-Carter also attempted to illegally transfer artwork purchased by Mr. Deripaska from a New York auction house to London, they said. Mr. Bonham-Carter couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

☆ Fake billionaire fugitive Justin Costello had gold bars, $60K in cash, Mexican pesos and phony ID when FBI nabbed him
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Dan Mangan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

An FBI SWAT team caught the fugitive, Justin Costello, in a remote area near San Diego on Oct. 4. He was carrying a backpack loaded with six one-ounce gold bars worth $12,000, U.S. currency worth $60,000, another $10,000 in Mexican pesos and banking cards and checkbooks, prosecutors said in a court filing. Cash and gold bars as detailed in court filing in US District court in San Diego in case of former fugitive Justin Costello. Instead, he "became a fugitive," prosecutors wrote. When agents arrested him, Costello "stated he was surprised agents had found him because he turned his phone off."

☆ British businessman charged over helping Russian oligarch evade U.S. sanctions
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Luc Cohen | Thomson Reuters | Reports On The New York Federal Courts. Previously Worked As A Correspondent In Venezuela | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW YORK, Oct 11 (Reuters) - British businessman Graham Bonham-Carter was arrested on U.S. charges of conspiring to violate sanctions placed on Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, prosecutors said on Tuesday. Bonham-Carter was arrested in the United Kingdom, and federal prosecutors in Manhattan said they will seek his extradition. Prosecutors said Bonham-Carter made payments for U.S. properties owned by Deripaska and tried to move the aluminum magnate's artwork in the United States overseas. A lawyer for Bonham-Carter, who is also charged with wire fraud, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Prosecutors said Bonham-Carter has worked for entities controlled by Deripaska since around 2003, and managed his residential properties in the United Kingdom and Europe.

☆ Men charged in stock fraud case involving a small-town NJ deli are set to appear in federal court
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Jack Stebbins | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Federal prosecutors have described the case as a tale of international fraud and betrayal. Peter Coker Jr., 53, the son of Coker Sr., is based in Hong Kong and is considered at large. Federal authorities sought to jail Coker Sr. before agreeing to a conditional release. The men are charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy to manipulate securities prices. The peculiarities surrounding Your Hometown Deli first caught the eye of hedge-fund manager David Einhorn in 2021.

☆ Feds plan to call Leonardo DiCaprio and former Trump White House chief of staff John Kelly at trial of Fugees rapper Pras Michel
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-10 | by ( C. Ryan Barber | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Pras Michel, a founding member of the Fugees hip-hop group, is standing trial in DC next month. He's accused of illegally lobbying Trump officials to resolve an inquiry into the 1MDB scandal. In a court filing Sunday, prosecutors revealed a witness list that includes DiCaprio and top Trump administration officials, including former White House chief of staff John Kelly and former national security advisor H.R. As part of the scheme, prosecutors said, Michel recruited about 20 so-called "straw donors" who made campaign contributions with Low's money. Michel is charged with violating both FARA and that other statute, known as 951, in his alleged lobbying schemes.

☆ Stanford investigating report of a rape in basement of a university building
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-09 | by ( Julianne Mcshane | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Stanford University is investigating after a woman reported having been raped in the basement of a campus building Friday, the school announced Saturday, marking the second report of a rape on the elite Northern California campus in as many months. The alert indicates that the woman had made a report not with police but instead with a "mandated reporter," who then notified campus police. The university defines mandatory reporters as certain employees or people affiliated with the university, including contractors and volunteers, who are legally obligated to report specific crimes. Friday's reported assault follows another rape alleged to have occurred in a campus bathroom in August, according to an alert from that time. A spokesperson for the university did not respond to a question about whether the reported assaults Friday and in August might be connected.

☆ The Justice Department's sex trafficking investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz seems stalled, attorneys say
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-08 | by ( Marc Caputo | Marc Caputo Is A Senior National Political Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +21 min

Those included a stalking charge for falsely smearing a political rival as a pedophile, identity theft and sex trafficking the same 17-year-old who is the alleged victim in the Gaetz case. The alleged victim, who turned 18 in December 2017, did not answer requests for comment from NBC News. Also according to that plea agreement, the alleged victim falsely claimed she was of age on her SeekingArrangement profile. The Gaetz investigation became public in March 2021, after The New York Times reported the general contours of the investigation. The potential witnesses in the federal government’s inquiry into Gaetz is not limited to Greenberg, the alleged victim and Gaetz’s ex-girlfriend.

A senior member of the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group, pleaded guilty Thursday to seditious conspiracy, the most serious charge that has been leveled against individuals tied to the Jan. 6 riot. Five other members of the Proud Boys, including the group's former national chairman, Enrique Tarrio, were indicted in June on seditious conspiracy and other charges. Donohoe, of Kernesville, North Carolina, pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting or impeding officers. Few defendants have pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. More than 850 people have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 insurrection, and over 350 have pleaded guilty.

☆ Ex-Barbados Official Loses Appeal of Bribe Laundering Conviction
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-05 | by ( Richard Vanderford | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

A former Barbados government official has lost an appeal to overturn a U.S. conviction for laundering bribes connected to insurance contracts through a New York business. Though Mr. Inniss contested the charges at trial, on appeal his lawyer didn’t argue over whether the bribery occurred. Instead, he tried to argue that the conduct wasn’t technically money laundering because Mr. Inniss didn’t launder the money after it was sent from the dental business. The appeals court also rejected arguments from Mr. Inniss that the jury instructions were faulty. Mr. Inniss is incarcerated in a prison outside Detroit and scheduled to be released in January, according to Federal Bureau of Prisons records.

☆ Pop singer Shakira ordered to stand trial on tax fraud charges in Spain
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

BARCELONA, Spain — A Spanish judge on Tuesday approved a trial for Colombian pop singer Shakira on charges of tax fraud. Prosecutors are seeking an 8-year prison sentence and a hefty fine if she is found guilty of tax evasion. Shakira, 45, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and rejected a deal with authorities to avoid going to trial. The court based in the town of Esplugues de Llobregat near Barcelona said that Shakira will face six counts of tax fraud. Shakira, whose full name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, has been linked to Spain since she started dating soccer player Gerard Pique.

☆ Oath Keepers on trial: A high-stakes seditious conspiracy case could reveal new details about plotting for Capitol attack
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( C. Ryan Barber | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Jury selection is set to start in the trial of five Oath Keepers charged with seditious conspiracy. Oath Keepers plan to argue they were waiting on January 6 for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act. "We aren't getting through this without a civil war," Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes wrote on November 5, 2020, according to court records. On Tuesday, jury selection began in the trial of Rhodes and four other Oath Keepers members confronting the most serious charges to date in a prosecution stemming from the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. "We must now do what the people of Serbia did when Milosevic stole their election," Rhodes wrote on November 7, referring to Slobodan Milošević.

Oath Keepers militia founder Stewart Rhodes uses a radio as he departs with volunteers from a rally held by U.S. President Donald Trump in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. October 10, 2019. In addition, the defendants who physically entered the Capitol building - Watkins, Meggs and Harrelson - are charged with property destruction. The Oath Keepers is an anti-government militia whose membership includes current and former U.S. military and law enforcement personnel. Dozens of members or associates of the Oath Keepers have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack. Another four Oath Keeper defendants accused of seditious conspiracy will go to trial on Nov. 29.

☆ $100 million N.J. deli scheme leads to federal charges against a father and his son
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Dan Mangan | Dan Mangan Is A Reporter Covering Health Care For Cnbc.Com. | Mangan Has Been A Journalist For More Than Years | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Your Hometown Deli, the business at the center of the probe, was located in Paulsboro, New Jersey, over the Delaware River from Philadelphia. The parent company, Hometown International, had merged with a bioplastics company. The $100 million New Jersey deli, as Your Hometown Deli came to be known, was first brought to the public’s attention by investor David Einhorn in a letter to clients. The securities fraud and securities price manipulation counts carry maximum penalties of 20 years in prison and a $5 million fine. The conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to manipulate securities prices counts each carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Your Hometown Deli, the business at the center of the probe, was located in Paulsboro, New Jersey, over the Delaware River from Philadelphia. The parent company, Hometown International, had merged with a bioplastics company. The $100 million New Jersey deli, as Your Hometown Deli came to be known, was first brought to the public's attention by investor David Einhorn in a letter to clients. The securities fraud and securities price manipulation counts carry maximum penalties of 20 years in prison and a $5 million fine. The conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to manipulate securities prices counts each carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

In lieu of being incarcerated, he agreed to complete a court-supervised treatment program at Hennepin County Veterans Court. Minnesota’s new law establishes a consistent set of standards for every criminal court in the state, depending on the offender’s criminal history and the severity of the crime. But the Hennepin County Veterans Court has started to see some of its early impacts. At least 22 veterans have graduated its treatment program since the law went into effect on Aug. 1, 2021. The lack of data on the issue led the Council on Criminal Justice to launch a national commission to examine over the next two years why so many veterans land behind bars.

☆ Michigan GOP gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon mocks 2020 kidnapping plot against Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-24 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Michigan GOP gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon mocked the kidnapping plot against Gov. "Gretchen Whitmer sure is good at taking business hostage and holding it for ransom," Dixon said. Two men were convicted in the plot, in which they sought to kidnap Whitmer from her vacation home. Insider contacted Dixon's campaign office for comment, but didn't immediately receive a reply Saturday. "Tudor Dixon's comments are dangerous, an insult to law enforcement who keep us safe, and utterly disqualifying for the role of Michigan governor," he said.

☆ A QAnon supporter who told police to 'go arrest the vice president' at the Capitol riot and then scaled the walls of the Capitol building and chased an officer up a staircase has been convicted for Ja
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-24 | by ( Yelena Dzhanova | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Douglas Jensen of Iowa was convicted on Friday for his participation in the Capitol riot, the AP reported. Jensen showed up at the riot wearing a shirt that showed his support of the QAnon movement. He showed up at the riot wearing a T-shirt that had a "Q" on it, representative of his commitment to the QAnon movement, they alleged. In the midst of the scene, he also told officers to "go arrest the vice president," prosecutors said, per the AP. Two days after the riot, Jensen turned himself in to the Des Moines Police Department because "he thought he was in trouble," the statement of facts says.

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