7 results for 'cat:"Fraud" AND cat:"Conspiracy"'.
J. Higginson finds the district court properly convicted defendant for wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy. Defendant committed extensive fraud in connection with student loan applications submitted on behalf of real and fictional students. He concealed his identity as a paid application preparer, also falsely representing student eligibility, qualifications and academic history, and paying people to impersonate students. Though post-trial counsel suggested defendant was delusional, and without the ability to understand the proceedings, the district court conducted a careful evaluation of his lack of history of irrational behavior, his demeanor and behavior at trial, and medical records and opinions regarding his competency. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Higginson , Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 23-30069, Categories: Competence, fraud, conspiracy
J. Richman denies the petition for rehearing on the health care professionals' various convictions regarding a multi-million dollar surgery-referral kickback conspiracy. The out-of-network hospital paid surgeons to refer patients, incentivizing the patients by waiving financial responsibility beyond what the surgery would cost in-network. Though the hospital owners say proceeds received from private insurers do not fall within the forfeiture statute because the insurers were not part of the conspiracy, receiving kickbacks for the privately insured patients was still part of the conspiracy. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Richman , Filed On: March 8, 2024, Case #: 21-10292, Categories: fraud, conspiracy
J. Reynolds Fitzgerald finds that the lower court properly convicted defendant of murder, conspiracy, weapon possession, and life settlement fraud in a murder-for-hire scheme to collect on an insurance policy taken out on an employee. Evidence supported the verdict, including cell phone records, surveillance footage, and license plate readers that mapped codefendants' trip from defendant's house in Delaware to the victim's neighborhood in New York and then back to Delaware. Meanwhile, testimony supported the fraud count since defendant initially alleged he and the victim were domestic partners before admitting to an insurance agent that they were not. Affirmed.
Court: New York Appellate Divisions, Judge: Reynolds Fitzgerald, Filed On: January 25, 2024, Case #: 112096, Categories: fraud, Murder, conspiracy
J. Leinenweber denies the “ComEd Four’s” motions for acquittal or, in the alternative, a new trial. The Four consist of the ex-CEO of energy company Commonwealth Edison, a former lobbyist for ComEd, a company consultant and a former Democratic Illinois state representative. They were convicted last May on multiple bribery, fraud and conspiracy charges for their roles in the company’s admitted efforts to bribe Illinois legislators between 2011 and 2019. Though the Supreme Court plans to hear a challenge to a bribery law central to the government’s case against the four, the court finds that, as the laws were understood in May, the jury correctly interpreted the evidence and rendered fair verdicts.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Leinenweber, Filed On: January 4, 2024, Case #: 1:20cr812, NOS: Other - Forfeiture/Penalty, Categories: fraud, conspiracy, Bribery
[Consolidated.] Per curiam, the Fifth Circuit finds the trial court properly convicted all defendants for multiple charges stemming from a multi-million-dollar conspiracy involving fraudulent certification of patients as eligible for hospice care. The certifying doctor admitted that he did not know whether the patients were eligible even as he signaled to Medicare that they were. All evidence supports the convictions. An involved nurse did not meet her burden of showing that she was “among the least culpable.” Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: November 3, 2023, Case #: 21-11225, Categories: fraud, conspiracy, Accomplice Liability
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Per curiam, the Fifth Circuit finds the trial court improperly convicted and sentenced defendant for a wire-fraud investment conspiracy. The prosecution failed to identify several victims and the court relied on a victim whose injury occurred before defendant’s involvement. The district court lacked jurisdiction to modify the restitution order to add more victims, and defendant’s appeal waiver does not prevent him from raising the argument. The government does not dispute the issues and its motion to remand is granted. Remanded.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: August 8, 2023, Case #: 22-10368, Categories: fraud, conspiracy, Jurisdiction
[Consolidated.] J. Ripple finds that the lower court properly convicted five defendant of conspiring to defraud the Small Business Administration to obtain government-backed loans. All but one of the disputed loans were ineligible for any amount of SBA guarantee, and the one that did intentionally disguised the diversion of one-third of the loan proceeds from business uses, causing the loan to quickly default. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Ripple, Filed On: August 7, 2023, Case #: 21-3326, Categories: fraud, conspiracy