Before You Invest Your Money » Department Of Justice

Julian Tzolov apprehended by Department of Justice

Before You Invest — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:44:00 +0000

(Bloomberg) — Julian Tzolov, the fugitive former Credit Suisse Group AG broker who was charged with bail jumping, has been arrested, Assistant Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Daniel Spector said in a letter to court filed today. Authorities in Marbella, Spain have taken Tzolov into custody following an international manhunt after he disappeared in New York in May.

Tzolov, who’s accused of fraudulently selling clients subprime mortgages linked to auction-rate securities, was declared a fugitive in June. He is accused of a $400 million fraud.

The arrest comes as U.S. prosecutors filed new charges against former Credit Suisse broker Eric Butler, who is scheduled to go to trial next week for fraudulently selling clients subprime mortgages linked to auction-rate securities.

Butler and Tzolov were accused yesterday in a 14-count indictment in federal court in New York of wire fraud in an illegal scheme to sell securities. Butler is scheduled for trial on July 20 in the original case.

Julian Tzolov, 35, was arrested Sept. 4, 2008 at Kennedy Airport after returning from his native Bulgaria to face charges. Since then he has been free on $3 million bail. He was wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet around his ankle when he left his Fifth Ave. apartment on May 9.

Julian Tzolov apprehended by Department of Justice is a post from: Before You Invest Your Money

Stanford funds restricted by UK investigators

Before You Invest — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:39:00 +0000

More than $100 million in assets held by Texan financier Allen Stanford at a number of financial institutions in London have been seized by British financial investigators.

Mr Stanford is expected to hear today (June 30th) if he can be freed on bail ahead of his trial. He was arrested in the US earlier this month for alleged money laundering, multi-billion dollar fraud and obstruction of justice.

It is thought the funds currently restricted by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office were bought as part of a suspected investment fraud scheme worth $7 billion. Mr Stanford has pleaded not guilty to involvement in the scam.

The restraining order placed on the assets was requested by the US Department of Justice.

According to the Times, Mr Stanford could face up to 375 years in prison if he is convicted. He is accused of duping up to 30,000 people by selling them certificates of deposit with high rates of return from a bank that “vastly exaggerated” its assets.

The Wall Street Journal reported that during a bail hearing yesterday, prosecutor Gregg Costa claimed Mr Stanford had both the means and incentive to flee.

But, defence attorney Dick DeGuerin said Mr Stanford poses no flight risk, as he is penniless.

Stanford funds restricted by UK investigators is a post from: Before You Invest Your Money

Aviva USA, Batteries.com report data breaches – mxlogic.com – 3 Jun 2009

Before You Invest — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:05:00 +0000

Insurance company Aviva USA and online merchant Batteries.com have reported data breaches and possible identity theft in recent filings with the New Hampshire Department of Justice.

Aviva said in a legal notice dated May 28th that malware learned on one of its computers was responsible for the theft of customer information, including Social Security numbers (SSN), names and addresses.

As required under New Hampshire law, data breaches that affect residents of the state must be reported to the department. Letters from both companies were posted to the department’s website in recent days.

Batteries.com reported to the state that its server was hacked for a period of several weeks beginning on February 25th until the company noticed the security breach sometime in March.

The company said the data breach resulted in the exposure of names, addresses and credit card information belonging to a number of Batteries.com customers, including 865 New Hampshire residents.

“A handful of Batteries.com customers also have reported unauthorized use of their credit card accounts that is believed to be tied to this hacking,” the legal notice said.

Aviva said only one New Hampshire resident was affected by its data breach, but it would be notifying nationwide customers beginning May 29th and offering identity theft insurance coverage of $25,000.

Aviva USA, Batteries.com report data breaches – mxlogic.com – 3 Jun 2009 is a post from: Before You Invest Your Money

Swiss banks report record number of suspicious transactions

Before You Invest — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:20:00 +0000

Switzerland’s Money Laundering Reporting Office (MLRO) received a record number of suspicious activity reports related to money laundering from the country’s banking sector last year, according to reports.

The federal department of justice and police (FDJP) said the combined value of assets covered by the reports also hit a record high, doubling from 2007 to hit $1.65 billion.

In total, the MLRO received 851 suspicious activity reports during 2008, up from 795 the year before.

The banking sector accounted for 67 per cent of the warnings, the FDJP noted.

Fraud and in particular investment fraud accounted for the majority of reports, with 38.5 per cent of the total, while another 9.5 per cent of suspicious activity was linked to bribery.

The FDJP said that in most of these cases, the corruption was taking place abroad, with money then deposited into Swiss accounts.
Switzerland was recently included on the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s ‘grey list’ of territories that do not comply with international standards on sharing tax information.

The country denies being a tax haven.

Swiss banks report record number of suspicious transactions is a post from: Before You Invest Your Money

No more veil of secrecy : Swiss Bank to Give Up Depositors’ Names to Prosecutors

Before You Invest — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 01:57:00 +0000

In a significant break from Switzerland’s tradition of banking secrecy, UBS AG has agreed to turn over to the U.S. government the names of about 250 account holders and pay a $780 million fine as part of a deal to settle a U.S. criminal probe, the Department of Justice said.

UBS must abide by terms of the settlement or risk being indicted, in what’s known as a deferred prosecution agreement. The U.S. government has been conducting a wide-ranging tax-evasion probe over the Swiss bank’s offshore private-banking services for wealthy Americans.

No more veil of secrecy : Swiss Bank to Give Up Depositors’ Names to Prosecutors is a post from: Before You Invest Your Money

Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Company (“Lilly”) will pay federal and state governments more than $1.4 billion

Before You Invest — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:52:00 +0000

Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Company (“Lilly”) will pay federal and state governments more than $1.4 billion to remedy a wide-ranging, off-mark marketing scheme for its prescription drug, Zyprexa(R). This settlement is the largest qui tam settlement in the history of the Fake Claims Act. Stephen A. Sheller, a well-known mass tort and class action lawyer from Philadelphia, filed the first Complaint in the case in February 2003, bringing the off-mark drug allegations to the government under seal as required by law. Today, after six years, the Department of Justice settled with Lilly the allegations that six former Lilly drug marketing representative whistleblowers brought to Sheller.Lilly will pay more than $1.4 billion for its illegal off-mark marketing of the antipsychotic drug, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced. Zyprexa is Lilly’s top-selling drug with worldwide sales of nearly $40 billion since its approval in 1996.In today’s settlement, Lilly will pay $800 million in civil penalties and plead guilty to criminal charges, paying an additional $600 million fine. The six whistleblowers who brought the Complaint against the drug company will share in approximately 18 percent of the federal and qualifying states’ recoveries, Sheller said.Related complaints filed by other law firms in 2005, 2006 and 2007 were ultimately consolidated into Sheller’s first-filed Complaint.”The reason the settlement and fine are record-breaking is because Eli Lilly perpetrated an outrageous fraud on the American government and taxpayers” said Sheller.
The whistleblowers represented by Sheller, two with 27 or more years’ service at Lilly, expressed concern through proper channels about Lilly’s improper marketing practices. All six whistleblowers were eventually fired or forced to resign. One sales representative, who also is a pharmacist, contacted the company hotline regarding unethical sales practices but received no response, according to the Complaint.

Zyprexa is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) for very limited conditions – schizophrenia and a specific type of bipolar disorder. Under FDA rules, prescription drug manufacturers and marketers may only promote their products for approved uses.

To boost sales, Eli Lilly marketed Zyprexa for numerous off-mark uses including Alzheimer’s, depression and dementia according to Sheller’s Complaint.
Eli Lilly’s off-mark sales strategies were very effective. The government’s investigation found that a substantial amount of Zyprexa sales were for off-mark uses, particularly in children and the elderly

Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Company (“Lilly”) will pay federal and state governments more than $1.4 billion is a post from: Before You Invest Your Money