New York Paralegal Blog

Earlier today, at the federal courthouse in Central Islip, Tony Ream was arraigned on an indictment charging him with wire fraud and money laundering in connection with his employment at a Long Island company (the Company). Ream was a credit supervisor for the Company, which was a worldwide distributor of medical and dental supplies with its principal place of business in Melville, New York. Over the course of four years, Ream sent wire transfers totaling approximately $1.6 million from the Company’s bank account to a bank account that he controlled. The arraignment was held before Magistrate Judge Steven I. Locke. Joseph Nocella, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Christopher G. Raia, Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), announced the arraignment. “As alleged, Ream is a thief who abused his authority and betrayed his employer to fund his lifestyle, including paying for the renovations of a re...

OAKLAND, Calif. - New United Motors & Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI), California’s last auto plant, has agreed to contribute to a $6 million settlement fund as part of a class settlement resolving complaints that the company violated federal law when it denied severance benefits to employees on medical leave, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced today.

CHICAGO – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a class race discrimination lawsuit in federal district court here today against Jackson Park Hospital and Medical Center. The EEOC charged that the hospital, on Chicago’s South Side, subjected a class of black female employees to different terms and conditions of employment and segregation in job assignments because of their race. The suit also alleged that at least one of the women was demoted in retaliation for opposing and complaining about unlawful employment practices.

WASHINGTON—Two owners of a fraudulent Detroit-area medical clinic, Martin and Joaquin Tasis, and a man who helped them launder the proceeds of the fraud, Leoncio Alayon, were convicted on 5/6/2011 by a federal jury in Detroit for their roles in a $9.1 million Medicare fraud scheme, the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services (HHS) announced. Martin Tasis and Joaquin Tasis were each convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to pay health care kickbacks and three counts of health care fraud. Martin Tasis was also convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of money laundering, and found not guilty on one money laundering count. Alayon was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and two counts of money laundering. According to evidence presented during the one-week trial, Martin and Joaquin Tasis were owners of Dearborn Rehabilitation and Medical Center (DMRC), a...

MILWAUKEE, Wis. – HCS Medical Staffing, Inc. violated federal law by discriminating against a pregnant employee and then firing her while she was on maternity leave, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed here today. According to the EEOC’s suit, (EEOC v. HCS Medical Staffing, Inc., Case No. 2:11-cv-00402), filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Charles Sisson, owner of the Milwaukee medical staffing company, engaged in escalating negative comments about the upcoming maternity leave of HCS bookkeeper Roxy Leger. Sisson’s statements allegedly included insisting that Leger’s pregnancy was a joke, describing her maternity leave as “vacation,” and insisting that maternity leave should be no longer than two days. The EEOC contends that Sisson then terminated Leger, who had no prior negative comments on her work performance, seven days after she gave birth as she recovered from the delivery of her baby by Caesarean ...

WASHINGTON— A Los Angeles-area man pleaded guilty today to establishing fraudulent medical clinics and using stolen identities of physicians to defraud Medicare of up to $13.6 million, the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services (HHS) announced. Eduard Aslanyan, 37, of Sherman Oaks, Calif., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall in the Central District of California. Aslanyan admitted that between March 2007 and September 2008, he established a series of fraudulent medical clinics in and around Los Angeles to defraud Medicare. Carolyn Vasquez, who pleaded guilty previously to conspiring with Aslanyan to defraud Medicare, recruited physicians to serve as the medical directors of Aslanyan’s fraudulent medical clinics, and helped them negotiate management agreements with Multiple Trading Inc., a shell company Aslanyan owned, which permitted Multiple Trading to manage the day-to-day operations of the clinics. In return for Multiple Trading’s man...

WASHINGTON—Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has agreed to pay a $21.4 million criminal penalty as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice to resolve improper payments by J&J subsidiaries to government officials in Greece, Poland, and Romania in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the Justice Department’s Criminal Division announced today. The agreement also resolves kickbacks paid to the former government of Iraq under the United Nations Oil for Food Program. J&J is headquartered in New Brunswick, N.J., and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The company manufactures and sells medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and consumer health care products.

Rule provides more predictable path to market Today, the FDA announced a final rule that provides a less-burdensome path to market for certain hardware and software products used with medical devices. The rule classifies these products, known as Medical Device Data Systems or MDDS, as Class I or low-risk devices, making them exempt from premarket review but still subject to quality standards. “This rule is a common-sense regulatory approach that provides clarity and predictability for manufacturers of these data systems,” said Jeffrey Shuren, M.D., director of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health. “This shows our flexibility in applying regulations for medical device data systems that are not overly burdensome for manufacturers but continue to assure that data stored, transferred or displayed on these systems remain reliable.”

Allegedly Engaged in Improper Financial Relationship with Referring Physicians WASHINGTON – Detroit Medical Center, a non-profit company that owns and operates hospitals and outpatient facilities in Detroit, has agreed to pay the United States $30 million to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act, the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Statute, by engaging in improper financial relationships with referring physicians, the Justice Department announced today. The Stark Statute and the Anti-Kickback Statute restrict the financial relationships that hospitals may have with doctors who refer patients to them. Most of the relationships at issue in this matter involved office lease agreements and independent contractor relationships that were either inconsistent with fair market value or not memorialized in writing.

EEOC Says Class of Disabled Employees Fired After Taking Medical Leaves of Absence CHICAGO - In a major class lawsuit filed here in federal court, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged that Atlanta-based United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS), the world's largest package delivery company, violated federal law by rejecting an extension of medical leave as a reasonable accommodation for its employees with disabilities. The EEOC's administrative investigation, conducted prior to filing the lawsuit and supervised by Chicago District Director John Rowe, found that UPS violated the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). According to Rowe, Trudi Momsen, an administrative assistant at UPS, took a 12-month leave of absence from work when she began experiencing symptoms of what was later diagnosed as multiple sclerosis. She returned to work for a few weeks, but soon thereafter needed additional time off after experiencing what she believed to be negative side eff...