Eideard

A federal indictment charges 14 people, including an 88-year-old doctor and two operators of a Los Angeles clinic, with running a scheme to illegally obtain and distribute OxyContin pills, carried out largely through insurance fraud. The indictment stemmed from of a two-year investigation. Ten of the defendants were arrested Thursday morning, officials said.

The distribution ring was allegedly run out of Lake Medical Group, where doctors reportedly wrote prescriptions for the powerful painkiller to uninsured patients who did not need it, federal officials said. Defendants also allegedly obtained the pills from pharmacies by fraudulently billing public insurance programs such as Medicare.

Then members of the organization allegedly resold more than 1 million pills on the street for $23 to $27 a pill, raking in millions of dollars in profits.

The indictment also alleged that in some cases the defendants stole people’s identities and Medicare beneficiary information so they could obtain the OxyContin.

Clinic operators Mike Mikaelian, 43, of East Hollywood and Anjelika Sanamian, 52, of Van Nuys allegedly orchestrated the scheme. Two doctors — Morris Halfon, 88, and Eleanor Santiago, 73 — are accused of prescribing the pills to people who had no medical need for them. The other defendants allegedly assisted in the plot by serving as runners, recruiters or posing as patients.

Throw away the key!

In the largest alleged BP oil spill-related scam uncovered to date, federal authorities on Thursday charged two Floridians with taking $340,000 in funds intended for victims of last year’s environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Justice Department officials said Joseph Harvey, 51, and Anja Kannell, 41, of Delray Beach, Florida, appeared in federal court in Miami on Thursday to face indictments for mail fraud, wire fraud and aggressive identity theft. Prosecutors said the defendants claimed the money from a $20 billion fund set up to help legitimate victims of the spill recover lost income.

Justice officials said they have brought charges in at least 30 cases in which individuals tried to recover funds to which they were not entitled. This was the biggest case yet, according to the Justice Department.

Harvey and Kannell are accused of filing phony claims using 34 assumed identities of actual Florida residents. These claims were complete with names and Social Security numbers, though they had fictitious addresses in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. Officials say the defendants instructed that all the funds be sent to an account they controlled in Texas.

Anyone wonder why the paperwork in disaster recovery and aid continues to grow beyond reason? Fact remains that a significant, small portion of our populace is dedicated to ripping off our tax dollars. [Yes, I mean beyond the Republican and Democratic parties]

Given the checks and balances introduced as part of the IT updates by the Obama administration, I have a sense that the arrest rate for crooks like this is getting better. Which means that Congress will probably try to cut the budget.

A former Missouri prison inmate has admitted running an identity theft scheme from behind bars, the U.S Attorney’s office said.

Danwine Dewayne Renard, 47, pleaded guilty Wednesday afternoon to four felony charges: conspiracy to commit mail, wire and bank fraud; aiding and abetting bank fraud; and two counts of aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft.

Renard was serving time in various Missouri prisons for check kiting and other charges. For more than two years beginning in July of 2008, Renard advised his co-conspirators via phone calls and letters from prison, prosecutors said.

Renard and others obtained personal information in the name of others and Renard’s co-conspirators used those IDs to open bank accounts in Madison and St. Clair counties and elsewhere, prosecutors said.

They would then deposit bogus checks in the accounts and use ATMs to withdraw money that didn’t really exist. They also wrote bad checks on the accounts, prosecutors said. Losses due to the scheme topped $200,000, court documents show.

When he gets out of prison, next time, he’s going to work for Goldman Sachs. Or Congress.

I doubt if federal regulators or anyone charged with Congressional oversight does their job any better than whoever is supposed to be keeping an eye on Missouri felons.

An Anchorage police officer accused of being an illegal immigrant using a fake identity has been arrested and charged with passport fraud, federal prosecutors said on Friday.

The Anchorage Police Department patrolman known as Rafael Espinoza is in truth a Mexican citizen named Rafael Mora-Lopez, said Karen Loeffler, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska.

The false identity was discovered after Mora-Lopez, 47, sought renewal of his passport, Loeffler said, and used suspicious information that triggered an investigation by the State Department and other federal agencies.

“We discovered that there were two people using all of the same identifiers,” she said.

Mora-Lopez was arrested on Thursday, immediately after the use of Espinoza’s identity was confirmed, and discharged from his job, Loeffler said.

Anchorage Police Chief Mark Mew said Mora-Lopez, posing as Espinoza, passed all background checks when he was hired in 2005, including fingerprint checks. Mew described Mora-Lopez as a “sterling” officer with a good reputation and a “very professional” manner.

Must have been a very “professional” fingerprint check, too.

No one was curious about someone born in 2004 wanting to buy one of these?

A Milwaukee police officer has been charged with stealing a 7-year-old Racine boy’s Social Security number to make purchases including a high-end Mercedes-Benz, according to a criminal complaint.

Lymon L. Taylor, 33, is charged with felony identity theft in Waukesha County. If convicted, he faces up to six years in prison…

According to the criminal complaint, Milwaukee detectives were investigating identity theft by another man, Lee Ellis, who led them to Taylor…

Ellis told detectives he and Taylor discussed how to improve their credit ratings and found a company in California that promised to fix credit for $2,500 a person, according to the complaint.

The two men plus a third, who has not been charged, received what looked like Social Security numbers, the complaint says. They were told to use their own name and the new numbers as their Social Security number. They also were told to use an address other than their own because addresses are associated with a person’s credit rating, which in their cases were bad, according to the criminal complaint…

Taylor, who previously had purchased six vehicles with his true Social Security number, used the fraudulently obtained number to buy a 2007 Mercedes-Benz S550 from Ernie Von Schledorn in Menomonee Falls in June, according to the complaint, which cites special agent Michael Clemens of the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General…

The Social Security number Taylor used actually belongs to a boy in Racine.

Detective Charles Shepard…contacted the boy’s father, who said he wanted whoever was using the number to be prosecuted…

Shepard interviewed employees at the car dealership and A-B Credit Union, which authorized the loan, asking how someone could buy an expensive car with no credit history.

A fresh Social Security number would bring a high credit score, according to the credit union. That credit score coupled with a good job would be good enough to buy such a car, they said.

The music goes round and round and it comes out here. Someday, somewhere, there will be a police department that checks up on the boys in blue on the street. That coppers often think they are above the law – doesn’t help, either.

A Fort Lauderdale man who prosecutors said ran an identity theft ring that broke into people’s cars while they attended funerals was sentenced to nine years in federal prison Friday.

Oscar Diaz, 30, must also pay almost $130,000 in restitution to 50 victims from Florida, Maryland and several other states under the terms of a plea agreement he reached with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Baltimore…

Prosecutors said Diaz, and several other co-defendants from Broward County, worked together to steal the identities and use them to get cash. Some of them broke into vehicles that were parked outside churches, day care centers, parks, gyms and cemeteries up and down the East Coast, then impersonated the victims at their banks — even donning wigs to disguise themselves, according to court records.

“Diaz’s co-conspirators would even follow funeral processions in order to target cars parked at graveyards,” according to a press release from Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein.

Diaz says he hopes to get treatment for his problems with substance abuse while he’s in prison. I think that depends on how easy it to get drugs and booze in whichever slammer he gets to spend the next nine years.

Federal workers at the General Services Administration are on alert against identity theft after an employee sent the names and Social Security numbers of the agency’s entire staff to a private e-mail address.

The agency, which manages federal property, employs more than 12,000 people. Officials apologized to employees for the incident in a letter dated Oct. 25 — almost six weeks after the breach occurred. The agency said it had paid for employees to enroll in a one-year program to monitor their credit reports, along with up to $25,000 in identity theft insurance coverage.

The letter was signed by Casey Coleman, the chief information officer, and Gail Lovelace, the agency’s senior privacy official. Neither returned calls or e-mails for comment.

They issued a statement about continuing to “evolve our protocols” to protect employee privacy. They should try limiting access to sensitive data to people who know where the on/off switch is on their computer.

Documents show that officials first notified employees on Sept. 28. But workers who spoke with The New York Times said they did not learn of the incident until early November, when the letters arrived in the mail. Previous notices had been sent as security alert e-mails, which employees said they received frequently and often ignored…

The agency explained to employees that one worker had apparently transmitted the file containing the personal data by accident while seeking “work-related assistance,” and that it had not been forwarded. Those involved had cooperated, and the computer that received the data was scrubbed clean by agency technicians.

Uh-huh.

Four of the five losers

Five Rochdale men have been jailed for using iTunes music gift vouchers to launder money in an internet scam.

The men used stolen credit card numbers to buy £750,000 worth of vouchers to sell at cheaper prices through eBay. They were caught when police stopped one of the men during a search at Hull port in 2007 and seized his laptop.

It led them to orchestrator Suhail Tufail, 26, who admitted fraud charges and was jailed for five years at Manchester Crown Court.

In May 2007, Humberside Ports police stopped three men – including Mohammed Arfan Rasool and Imran Aslam – as part of a routine search when they arrived from Amsterdam.

A “suspicious” laptop belonging to Rasool was seized and examined by Greater Manchester Police’s economic crime unit.

When officers examined the hard drive, along with two other computers found at his home, they found the details of more than 7,000 bank cards. The same details were found on computers seized from Tufail. They later discovered that many of the details had been used to fraudulently purchase iTunes gift certificates.

It emerged that Tufail developed the idea of buying the vouchers and then selling them at a reduced price to launder cash from the cards…

An eBay spokesperson said the company had worked closely with police to provide evidence and was “delighted” with the sentences.

“Criminal activity is not tolerated on our site and we will continue to work alongside law enforcement agencies to ensure that anyone who attempts to commit fraudulent activity on eBay won’t get away with it,” they added.

I imagine Steve Jobs was sort of pleased, as well.

I recall iTunes gift cards being shut down last time we went to use one as a birthday present – and it’s satisfying to know the details of the “gift card scam” that was the explanation for the quick stop.

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

A man who created a website trading in stolen financial information linked to tens of millions of pounds in losses has been jailed for nearly five years.

Renukanth Subramaniam, 33, founded Darkmarket, a “Facebook for fraudsters” where criminals could buy and sell credit card details and bank log-ins.

The site was shut down in 2008 after an FBI agent infiltrated it, leading to more than 60 arrests worldwide.

Subramaniam admitted conspiracy to defraud at Blackfriars Crown Court. He also pleaded guilty to mortgage fraud…

Prosecutor Sandip Patel said the case was “extraordinary” because it was founded and promoted over the internet. “They were able to utilise modern technology in a way which gave them the capability to commit theft on an unprecedented scale… with no more than a dishonest will, a laptop, a mouse and internet access,” he said. “In short, it was a Facebook for fraudsters…”

It even operated a secure payment system, allowing users to “review” the criminal services on offer – creating a “one-stop-shop for criminals the world over”…

Also sentenced was Darkmarket user John McHugh, 66, of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, who had the sign in “Devilman” and created fake credit cards that were sold through the site.

He was jailed for two years for conspiracy to defraud.

Sounds like it couldn’t have happened to a nicer couple of guys.

Har!

A group, including a number of DJs, have been accused of making hundreds of thousands of pounds by buying their own music online with stolen credit cards.

It’s alleged the gang put their own music on Apple iTunes and Amazon and spent about £459,000 buying it back – claiming nearly £200,000 in royalties.

Nine people were arrested in London and the Midlands after a joint operation with a new E-crime unit and the FBI.

The gang are alleged to have used 1,500 stolen credit cards.

Detective Chief Inspector Terry Wilson, from the Met’s Police Central E-Crime Unit (PCeU) said: “This has been a complex investigation to establish what we believe to be an international conspiracy to defraud Apple and Amazon.

The nine people arrested are being held on suspicion of conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering.

I imagine their music sucked as badly as their ethics.