Miami Massage Clinic Owner Accused Of Insurance Fraud

The owner of a Miami massage clinic has been charged with insurance fraud. Thirty year old Judith Gonzalez is accused of billing insurance companies nearly $250,000 in fraudulent claims and coaching patients on how to commit personal injury protection fraud. Also charged in the probe were a physician’s assistant and 14 patients. Gonzalez, who is the owner of the Flamingo Health Corporation, has operated several other clinics. The state Division of Insurance Fraud and the Miami-Dade Public Department’s Public Corruption Investigation Bureau conducted an undercover investigation which revealed the scheme.

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Donor who fled over fraud charges is set to return to Britain

Nick Clegg defended his party's decision to hold on to the £2.4m donated by the millionaire fraudster Michael Brown, who is back in Europe and facing extradition to the UK. Mr Brown was flown from the Dominican Republic to Madrid at the weekend and is now awaiting return to the UK under a European Arrest Warrant. The fraudster achieved national fame when he gave £2.4m to the Liberal Democrats to see them through the 2005 general election. No other Liberal Democrat backer has been able to come near to matching his munificence, and yesterday Mr Clegg dismissed a suggestion that the Liberal Democrats are morally obliged to give the money back. He told BBC's Sunday Politics programme: "This was something that happened before I was even an MP, let alone leader of the Liberal Democrats. What I have been told is that the Electoral Commission, in 2009, looked at this exhaustively and they categorically concluded that the money was received in good faith and all the controls and checks that should have been made were reasonably made by the Liberal Democrats at that time." He added that he was "very pleased" that Brown is returning to face justice. At his trial in 2008, Brown was convicted of posing as an investor to persuade people to part with money which he used to fund an extravagant lifestyle, including a Mayfair flat, a £2.5m private jet, and a personalised Range Rover. Among his victims was the Manchester United boss, Martin Edwards, who gave him around £7m after being assured that the money would be invested and bring substantial returns. After his conviction at Southwark Crown Court, Brown fled to the Caribbean, and was sentenced in his absence to seven years in prison. In January, he was arrested by local police in the town of Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic, on a separate fraud charge. A City of London Police spokesman said: "Michael Brown was deported from the Dominican Republic and landed in Madrid on Saturday morning, accompanied by officers from the Dominican Republic. "City of London Police will be taking the appropriate steps to bring him back to the UK, via a European Arrest Warrant." Detective Superintendent Bob Wishart said: "The City of London Police is pleased that after four years evading British justice, Mr Brown is a step closer to returning to the UK to start his prison sentence."

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Australia’s parliamentary speaker, Peter Slipper, stepped aside after allegations of sexual harassment and expenses fraud

Australia’s parliamentary speaker, Peter Slipper, stepped aside after allegations of sexual harassment and expenses fraud, weakening Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s grip on power and ability to pass legislation. Deputy Speaker Anna Burke, a lawmaker from Gillard’s Labor party, will replace Slipper as he contests the claims, he said in a statement yesterday. He denied allegations in a Federal Court lawsuit that he made “unwelcome sexual advances” toward a male adviser and misused taxpayer-funded travel vouchers. Enlarge image Julia Gillard, Australia's prime minister. Photographer: Mark Graham/Bloomberg Enlarge image Peter Slipper, speaker of the Australian House of Representatives, stepped down amid allegations of sexual harassment and fraud. AP Photo/The Office of Peter Slipper MP Gillard’s minority government has been relying on Slipper to boost its numbers in the lower house since he defected from the opposition coalition to become speaker in November. His decision to step aside to fight the claims means Labor, already battling near record-low poll ratings, faces losing its one-seat majority when parliament reconvenes next month and debates the annual budget on May 8. “It makes it more difficult for Gillard to manage the parliament with the speaker tainted, and it makes her government look as if it’s almost unmanageable,” said John Wanna, a professor of public administration at the Australian National University in Canberra. “It keeps clouds hanging over the Gillard government but it’s not necessarily terminal.” Police Probe In the April 20 lawsuit, James Ashby, who started working for Slipper in December, alleges he made “unwelcome sexual comments” and “unwelcome suggestions of a sexual nature” between January and March 2012. He also accuses Slipper of handing signed, blank travel vouchers to the driver of a vehicle in which they travelled. Australian police said they will probe the allegations of expenses fraud. “The allegations include both a claim of criminal behavior and a claim under civil law,” Slipper said in his statement. “It is appropriate for me to stand aside as speaker while this criminal allegation is resolved.” Slipper, who in his role enforces rules and procedures, said he will return to the position when the criminal allegations are proven to be false. Gillard’s ‘Integrity’ Tony Abbott, leader of the Liberal-National opposition, said the matter raised fresh questions about the “integrity” of the government and the prime minister. Gillard backed Slipper in the speaker’s role in a “desperate bid to shore up her own numbers and seems to indicate this is a prime minister who will do anything, anything at all to assist her position in the parliament,” Abbott said in an interview with the Seven Network today. Gillard, in Singapore for talks with government officials, said in a statement yesterday that Slipper’s decision to step aside was “appropriate.” The opposition leader sought to link the Slipper affair to another that’s overshadowing the government -- allegations against Labor lawmaker Craig Thomson. He denies claims he used a union credit card to pay for prostitutes before entering parliament in 2007. Abbott is demanding that Gillard pressures Thomson to cooperate with police inquiries and to ensure a report by Australia’s workplace tribunal, which is probing the affair, is released immediately. Minority Government Support for Labor sat near a record low in an opinion survey published last week before an election required by the end of 2013. Labor’s support of 29 percent trails Abbott’s coalition by 19 percentage points, according to a Newspoll published in the Australian newspaper April 17. Gillard formed a government in 2010 after the nation’s closest election in seven decades ended Labor’s majority. She has had to rely on the support of independent and Greens lawmakers to secure the 75 votes needed to pass legislation in the 150-member House of Representatives. The Greens party and two of those independent lawmakers, Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott, today reiterated their support for the government, the Associated Press reported. In November 2011, Gillard gained a two-seat majority after then-speaker Harry Jenkins, a Labor lawmaker, quit and was replaced by Slipper. That majority was cut to one in January when independent lawmaker Andrew Wilkie withdrew his allegiance to Gillard, saying she broke a promise to tighten gambling laws.

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Swiss arrest former SNC-Lavalin executive for alleged corruption

In a major strike against alleged corruption involving Canadian construction giant SNC-Lavalin in North Africa, Swiss authorities have arrested former top executive Riadh Ben Aïssa, who parted ways with the company last February. The allegations concern “corruption, fraud and money laundering related to business dealings conducted in North Africa,” Jacqueline Buhlmann of Switzerland’s federal prosecution agency, the Office of the Attorney General, confirmed to the Toronto Star. Word of the arrest of Ben Aïssa, who had close ties to the regime of former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi and especially his son Saadi, comes after the RCMP, accompanied by a Swiss investigator, raided the head office of the company in Montreal on April 13. The search took place at the request of Swiss authorities. A spokesperson for SNC-Lavalin said Sunday that the company is aware of Ben Aïssa’s arrest but has no specific details of his status. “If crimes have been committed by Mr. Ben Aïssa or any other former employee, the company believes that they should be held accountable,” Leslie Quinton said in a statement. Buhlmann indicated that the arrest is the result of a criminal investigation that began as far back as May 2011. Ben Aïssa is currently in prison. He has reportedly been held since mid-April. SNC-Lavalin’s business dealings in Libya have become a major ethical and financial crisis for the company, which has seen its stock price plummet in recent months. The company’s chief executive officer was forced out last March on the same day a damning internal review was released, which focused on $56 million in missing payments. It was revealed that Pierre Duhaime had breached the company’s code of ethics in approving the payments without authorization after the chief financial officer had rejected them. The review was prompted by improper payments allegedly made by Ben Aïssa to commercial agents. The company refused to provide details on the projects, but said it “believed” the payments weren’t related to Libya. The review also did not specify how the payments were made, through which banks, or where. Switzerland is the world’s largest offshore financial centre. Duhaime was forced out following the departures in February of Ben Aïssa, the executive vice-president of construction, and Stéphane Roy, the company controller. Ben Aïssa was “believed to have direct and significant knowledge about most of the investigated transactions,” but did not co-operate with the internal investigation on the advice of his lawyer, the review stated. Clouding the alleged improper business dealings is the connection Ben Aïssa and Roy have with Ontario consultant Cynthia Vanier, who sits in a Mexican prison. Roy travelled to Mexico City last fall to meet with Vanier, who was at the same moment arrested by Mexican police in connection with an alleged attempt to spirit Saadi out of Libya during that country’s revolution, and smuggle him to Mexico. Vanier, who denies any connection to a Mexico-related plot, had been previously hired by the SNC executives to complete a “fact-finding” mission in Libya to determine, among other things, how the company could securely re-establish its business interests there. She produced a report widely seen as very pro-regime, which was praised by Roy. SNC at first denied any involvement with Vanier. It now pleads ignorance, saying that any work mandates Vanier performed for the company “may have been outside the permitted scope of authority of those who assigned them.” Roy is also the subject of a probe by the RCMP commercial crimes section, according to a CBC report. Ben Aïssa, a native of Tunisia, began his career at SNC-Lavalin in 1985 and quickly gained a reputation for his ability to obtain contracts in the Middle East. In 2002, he was named senior vice-president for the Middle East and North Africa, and general manager of the country’s Libyan office. Five years later he was promoted to lead the company’s lucrative construction division. During that time Ben Aïssa, who worked out of the company’s offices in Montreal and Tunis, helped secure huge Libyan contracts worth billions, including, among others, ones for a new airport for Benghazi and a new prison. Ben Aïssa developed a close relationship with two of Gadhafi’s sons, including Saadi. SNC also covered Saadi’s expenses during a lavish trip he made to Canada in 2008. After he left the company, Ben Aïssa denied he’d been forced to resign, as the company suggested, and threatened to sue. The company is co-operating with authorities to “obtain the answers required about situations concerning ex-employees as expeditiously as possible,” Quinton added in her statement. Neither Ben Aïssa’s Montreal spokesperson nor his lawyers returned requests for comment.

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Credit card fraud websites shut down on three continents

Three men have been arrested and 36 criminal websites selling credit card information and other personal data shut down as part of a two-year international anti-fraud operation, police have confirmed. The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), working with the FBI and US Department of Justice, as well as authorities in Germany; the Netherlands; Ukraine; Australia and Romania, swooped after identifying the sites as specialising in selling card and bank details in bulk. The move comes as a blow to what is a growing black market for stolen financial data. Detectives estimated that the card information seized could have been used to extract more than £500m in total by fraudsters. SOCA claimed it has recovered more than two and a half million items of compromised personal and financial information over the past two years. “The authorities have shut down 36 websites but it is difficult to know how many other people had access to that data. They could spring back up somewhere else if a gang is not eradicated completely,” said Graham Cluley of internet security firm Sophos. He added: “This is big business and, just as in any legitimate company there are people who specialise in different things, so there are those who actually get their hands on the personal data and those who sell it on; they are not often the same person.” An investigation by The Independent last summer found that scammers were making a “comfortable living” getting their hands on sensitive information and selling it online. Card details were being offered for sale for between 4p and £60 per card – depending on the quality – according to one source in the business. Some cards would be sold with incomplete or unreliable information; others ready to use. Some of the card details for sale on the websites shut down by SOCA were being sold for as little as £2 each. Investigators said that the alleged fraudsters were using Automated Vending Carts, which allowed them to sell large quantities of stolen data. They are said to be a driver of the growth in banking fraud over the last 18 months because of the speed with which stolen data can be sold. Lee Miles, Head of Cyber Operations for SOCA said: “This operation is an excellent example of the level of international cooperation being focused on tackling online fraud. Our activities have saved business, online retailers and financial institutions potential fraud losses estimated at more than half a billion pounds, and at the same time protected thousands of individuals from the distress caused by being a victim of fraud or identity crime.” An alleged operator in Macedonia was one of those arrested, while two British men accused of buying the information were also detained. Britain’s Dedicated Cheque & Plastic Crime Unit also seized computers suspected of being used to commit fraud.

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