The Harris County First Chance Intervention Program is an innovative program that the District Attorney's office first introduced in 2014. Police still will arrest any individual who is caught with a small amount of marijuana, i.e., two ounces or less. However, those who qualify for the program c...
Probation under Texas law is a type of community supervision under which you must follow certain rules and conditions for a specified period of time. If you violate the conditions of probation, you risk having your jail or prison sentence revoked, which means that you could end up serving a term ...
Dr. Richard Toussaint, co-founder of the now-bankrupt Forest Park Medical Center in Dallas, has been found guilty on seven counts of health care fraud by a federal jury in Dallas, according to a news report. Toussaint, an anesthesiologist, was found guilty of submitting fake invoices in 2009 and ...
Elizabeth Smith Carmichael, 48, of Lubbock, has pleaded guilty to embezzlement charges after being accused of stealing more than $450,000 from a Colorado ranch where she worked as a bookkeeper and manager from 2009 to 2012, according to a news report. Carmichael worked for the Bear Mountain Ranch...
It is unusual to hear a senior federal judge like Jed Rakoff of the Southern District of New York refer to the U.S. judicial system as “draconian,” but he did in a recent speech before the 11th Annual Harry Frank Guggenheim Symposium on Crime in America at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice...
Two former Houston oil supply company executives — Franklin Marsan, 51, of Spring, Texas, and Eduardo Betancourt, 48, also of Spring — have pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for allegedly taking illegal kickbacks from sales agents, according to the FBI. Federal law pr...
Two North Texas men — Richard Robert Cesario, 44, of Plano and John Paul Cooper, 47, of Southlake — are under felony indictment for allegations they engaged in a health care fraud conspiracy that cost military health system TRICARE more than $65 million in losses, according to the FBI. TRICARE is...
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has sent a two-count indictment against former Texas Gov. Rick Perry back to a district court with orders to dismiss. Perry was charged with two felony counts — coercing a public servant and abusing his official capacity — for his threat to cut off financing fo...
Two Dallas-area physicians and four other healthcare workers have been indicted for allegedly participating in a $13.4 million Medicare fraud scheme involving home health services, according to the FBI. The two doctors — Dr. Angel Claudio, 60, of Hood County, Texas, and Dr. Kelly Robinett, 66, of...
A Nigerian man has been arrested in Dallas, accused of defrauding 17 Texas companies out of more than $600,000 in an elaborate business compromise email (BCE) scheme, according to a news report. Amechi Colvis Amuegbunam, 28, is accused of creating false documents and fake Internet domains and usi...
A San Angelo psychiatrist and a Denton nurse have been convicted of health care fraud in two separate cases. Dr. Robert Hadley Gross of San Angelo pleaded guilty to health care fraud and has been sentenced to six years in federal prison and ordered to repay more than $1.8 million in restitution. ...
Two former directors of American Standard Energy Corp. (ASEN) are being sued in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Texas by the company for allegedly selling company property they didn't own and putting a $20 million sale of the company's assets in jeopardy. ASEN co-founder Ran...
The IRS has accused Texas tycoon Sam Wyly of a tax fraud scheme spanning many years that allegedly defrauded the government of taxes on more than $1.1 billion held in offshore trusts. Wyly is currently on trial in a federal bankruptcy court in Dallas. The IRS is seeking $2.2 billion in back taxes...
In 2014, SAC Capital Advisors portfolio manager Mathew Martoma was convicted of insider trading and sentenced to nine years in prison. Martoma was found guilty of seeking out confidential information about a clinical drug trial that enabled SAC Capital to realize profits of $275 million. Another ...
The owners of Nick's Roast Beef, a highly popular deli located in the North Beverly suburb of Boston, are facing 17 federal criminal charges after the IRS indicted them for nonpayment of taxes. The two owners — Nicholas Koudanis and Nicholas Markos — are 65 and 70 years old respectively. Nick's h...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has vacated a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) order that imposed sanctions against two State Street Bank and Trust Co. executives, saying that the SEC had abused its discretion in assessing liability to the two bankers. In Flannery v. SEC, ...
Three El Paso, Texas, tax return preparers have been convicted by a federal jury of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. by preparing and filing fraudulent federal income tax returns with the IRS. According to court records, the three tax preparers — Belia Mendoza, 60; Margarita Hernandez, 36; and Deni...
A former executive at BearingPoint has been convicted by a federal jury on two counts of making false statements to law enforcement by lying to FBI investigators looking into the political corruption allegations against Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price and others. Helena Tantillo, 59, ...
A Dallas, Texas, securities broker has been sentenced to three years in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $1.5 million in restitution after pleading guilty to one count of securities fraud. Wade Lawrence, 43, worked as a broker in the Dallas office of Oppenheimer & Co., Inc., from June ...
A former D'Hanis, Texas, bank president has been sentenced to two years in federal prison and ordered to pay $817,892 in restitution after pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud and embezzlement. Laurie Mayfield (aka “Laurie H. Scott”), 55, of Fredericksburg, Texas, is the former president of...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has overturned the fraud convictions of former ArthroCare CEO Michael Baker and CFO Michael Gluk, saying that the Austin trial court erred in excluding evidence that implicated other people in the fraud scheme. In June 2014, Baker and Gluk were conv...
The former managing director of Jeffries & Co. who was convicted in March 2014 of defrauding the U.S. Troubled Asset Relief Program and making false statements to the U.S. government has had his conviction overturned. Jesse Litvak was convicted by a Connecticut federal court of defrauding investo...
A Spring, Texas man employed by a subsidiary of oil giant ExxonMobil has been sentenced to more than five years in prison and ordered to pay $1 million in restitution for mineral rights fraud. Steven Fisackerly, 33, was employed as a landman by ExxonMobil subsidiary XTO Energy in Fort Worth. Pros...
According to a recent study published in the Journal of Criminal Justice — From Initial Appearance to Sentencing: Do Female Defendants Experience Disparate Treatment? — there are definite gender disparities in the U.S. criminal justice system and women are generally the beneficiaries of that disp...
A 65-year-old Stephenville, Texas, man has been sentenced in a Kansas City federal court to three years and four months in federal prison without parole for his convictions on charges of money laundering and wire fraud. Lewis Dean McBride, a financial planner and insurance agent, was also ordered...