Posts Tagged ‘fraud’

Jerry Brown Throws Down – Fighting CNBC Over $200 Million Fraud Action Against State Street Bank

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

CalBuzz, “Political News, Analysis, Commentary and More About California and Beyond,” has amused California Attorney General Jerry Brown so much that he’s sent a message out about it this AM.

Take a look at the video here to see for yourself if JB successfully punk’d the CNBC. Are you LYAO? CNBC’s Michelle Caruso-Cabrera seemed amused, anyway.

MCC on the left and California’s fightingest public representative on the right, temporarily suspending the national interview with a piece of paper:

CNBC copy

Here’s Jer-bear’s missive in full:

“Yesterday I filed a $200 Million dollar fraud action against State Street Bank for ripping off California’s pension funds. In another example of how Wall Street elites poo poo financial abuse in their own backyard, CNBC sneered at this important effort to recover money stolen from California retirees. You can see the interview with CNBC at Calbuzz:
http://www.calbuzz.com/2009/10/lmao-attorney-general-jerry-brown-punks-cnbc/
With respect, Jerry Brown
P.S. – Our new mailing address is 291 3rd Street, Oakland, CA 94607″

On It Goes.

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Jerry Brown Throws Down – Foreclosure Consultants to Register With AG’s Office

Monday, June 1st, 2009

It just came over the Twitter - foreclosure consultants, you know, these people, must now:

1. Submit detailed information about their operations, including copies of the contracts signed by their clients, to the California Attorney General’s Office; und

2. Post a $100,000 bond if they want to continue their operations in the Golden State

Read all about the new rules here and below.

JB only has a quarter million followers on Twitter these days - that’s not much compared with Oprah, she has like a million:

jb-copy

Brown Directs Foreclosure Consultants to Register with his Office and Post $100,000 Bond

Oakland — Continuing his fight against scam artists who “prey on” vulnerable Californians, Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today issued a directive forcing foreclosure consultants to register with his office and post a $100,000 bond by July 1, 2009.

Those who fail to do so will be in violation of state law, subject to criminal penalties of up to a year in jail and fines ranging from $1,000 to $25,000 per violation.

“California is awash with con artists who prey on vulnerable families facing foreclosure,” Brown said. “By forcing foreclosure consultants to submit detailed information to my office and post a $100,000 bond, this registry will help bring long-overdue transparency to this shadowy world.”

Up and down the state, scam artists pose as legitimate foreclosure consultants, promising homeowners they will prevent foreclosure. In reality, these scam artists charge huge up-front costs, but don’t provide an ounce of help.

Earlier this month, Brown’s office prosecuted a scam artist who provided hundreds of homeowners with forged bank documents and directed them to send their mortgage payments to accounts she had created, instead of the homeowners’ lender.

Additionally, Brown’s office has seen a significant increase in the number of complaints from homeowners regarding foreclosure consultants.

The registry unveiled today will provide Californians with information about potential consultants and recourse in the event that a consultant violates the law.

More deets after the jump

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San Francisco’s Kabuki Kitchen Restaurant is Now “Sundance Kitchen”

Monday, March 30th, 2009

It’s a little hazy when this occurred (you know, Japantown is famous for its name changing restaurants), but Kabuki Kitchen at 1865 Post Street has been replaced by Sundance Kitchen. Normally, you could look to the dates of Yelp reviews to help you figure out when a joint’s name has changed, but there are mixed up entries for both Kabuki Kitchen and Sundance Kitchen. Oh well.

Anyway, this place has a new menu and new hours – it’s closed Monday Tuesday and open just 24 hours a week during dindin time (assuming they don’t close early on slow nights, as KK used to do on a regular basis last year).

Click to expand.

And here’s the new menu – it’s just legible enough for you to read, if you want to:

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Jerry Brown Throws Down – Massive Medi-Cal Fraud Case Against Medical Labs

Friday, March 20th, 2009

The phrase of the day is “qui tam.” It’s Latin for “million dollar payday,” assuming of course you are a False Claims Act whistleblower and you win, the way this federal case worked out.

California State Attorney General Jerry Brownannounced this morning news of a case in San Mateo concerning fraud and kickbacks and hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s a doozy. Read all about it in his words, below.

Brown Sues to Recover Hundreds of Millions of Dollars Illegally Diverted from Medi-Cal

LOS ANGELES – Responding to a whistleblower’s allegation of “massive Medi-Cal fraud and kickbacks,” Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. joined legal action against seven private laboratories to recover hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal overcharges to the state’s medical program for the poor.

“In the face of declining state revenues, these medical laboratories have siphoned off hundreds of millions of dollars from programs intended for the most vulnerable California families.” Attorney General Brown said. “Such a pattern of massive Medi-Cal fraud and kickbacks cannot be tolerated, and I will take every action the law allows to recover what is owed,” Brown added.

According to whistleblower Chris Riedel, the CEO of Hunter Laboratories, “I confirmed with the California Department of Health Care Services that these practices were illegal. We then had a choice–either join the other labs in violating the law or be unable to compete for business. We choose to suffer the financial consequence, and follow the law.”

The lawsuit, which is pending in San Mateo Superior Court, contends that the 7 medical labs systematically overcharged the Medi-Cal program over the past 15 years.

Read more, after the jump:

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Million Dollar Payday for San Mateo County Hospital Whistleblower

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

The Stop Snitching movement took a blow with news today of a million dollar payday to Ronald M. Davis, a former employee of San Mateo County. Seems there might have been some irregularities with the way San Mateo Medical Center, the county’s troubled “public safety net” hospital, got dinero from the federales’  Medicare and Medicaid programs:

“The lawsuit was filed under the qui tam or whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act, which permit private individuals called “relators” to bring lawsuits on behalf of the United States and receive a portion of the proceeds of a settlement or judgment awarded against a defendant. The relator in this action will receive $1,020,000 as his statutory share of the proceeds of this settlement.”

The million clams is the 15% statutory minimum of what the Feds are going to get back. Ka ching!

via solidstate

For shame SMMC, for shame.

Let’s get the Feds’ side of the story and then see them pat themselves on the back:

San Mateo County, California, to Pay U.S. $6.8 Million to Resolve False Claims Allegations

Settlement Resolves Allegations Against San Mateo County Medical Center

WASHINGTON, March 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — San Mateo County, Calif., has agreed to pay the United States $6.8 million to resolve allegations that the San Mateo Medical Center (SMMC) submitted false claims to the United States in connection with payments from the Medicare and Medicaid programs, the Justice Department announced today.

The government alleges that SMMC falsely inflated its bed count to Medicare in order to receive higher payments under Medicare’s Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) adjustment. The DSH adjustment is an extra Medicare payment available to hospitals that meet certain requirements, including having 100 or more acute care beds.

In addition, the government alleges that San Mateo County improperly obtained federal payments under the Medicaid program for services provided to patients at Institutes of Mental Disease (IMDs) who were between the ages of 22 and 64. Such services are ineligible for federal funding, and San Mateo County was required to separately report them to the California Department of Mental Health so that the state could ensure that no federal funds were used to pay for them. Medicaid (known as Medi-Cal in California) is a program funded jointly by federal and state funds. The settlement covers conduct from 1997 to 2007.

More deets after the jump.

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Yelp Fraud Involving Robert Redford’s Restaurant in San Francisco?

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

Here it is, the Kabuki Kitchen, owned by Sundance Studios, at 1865 Post Street in Japantown. On this night at around 8:00-something PM, it appeared to have just one customer. 
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The term “Yelp Fraud” would apply to reviews that are deceptive, such as those from a business owner posing as a customer to praise his own products. Do you see any of that possibly going on here?

One recent posting with a five-star rating: “Best of the best! The new Executive Chef Mark Lackie has completely revamped the menu.” Look a little suspicious to you? Notice any others? Exclamation points are a clue.

As for the restaurant itself, it appears to close early on a regular basis for want of customers.

For what it’s worth, three cheers for SunDance founder Robert Redford and SunDance itself for putting a boatload of money into the Kabuki theatre complex. It must be tough getting a new restaurant off the ground, especially without having a liquor license from the get go. Kabuki Kitchen certainly looks nice, as this photo from Eater SF shows, but $13 burgers might seem too costly for some.

Keep on trying Bob/SunDance! We’re rooting for you.

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