New Jersey Man Pleads Guilty to and is Sentenced for Threatening to Kill the CEO and President of Wegmans

ROCHESTER, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Hans Ni, 31, of Trenton, New Jersey, pleaded guilty to sending threatening interstate e-mails to the CEO and president of Wegmans Food Market before U.S. District Court Judge Charles J. Siragusa. The defendant was then sentenced to five years’ probation by Judge Siragusa.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard A. Resnick, who handled the case, stated that Ni is a former Wegmans employee in Princeton, New Jersey. On July 27, 2011, the defendant sent threatening e-mails from the Plainsboro Public Library in Plainsboro, New Jersey, to both the president and chief execute officer of Wegmans in Rochester, impersonating a manager of a Wegmans location in New Jersey.
In the e-mail to the president of Wegmans, Ni stated, “I am going to kill you [first name of president]. I am going to murder you—you race traitor.” In the e-mail to the CEO of Wegmans, Ni stated that “I am going to kill you [first name of CEO]. You are a race traitor. I am going to murder you.” The defendant stated at sentencing that he never intended to harm the CEO or president of Wegmans; rather he was attempting to get the person he impersonated in the e-mails, his former supervisor at Wegmans, in trouble.
The plea and sentencing are the culmination of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Christopher M. Piehota, Special Agent in Charge.

Victory Pharma, Inc. of San Diego Pays $11.4 Million to Resolve Kickback Allegations in Connection with Promotion of its Drugs

WASHINGTON—Victory Pharma Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company headquartered in San Diego, has agreed to pay $11,420,743 to resolve federal civil and criminal liability arising from its marketing of the pharmaceutical products Naprelan, Xodol, Fexmid, and Dolgic, the Justice Department announced today. Under the agreement announced today, Victory entered into a deferred prosecution agreement and paid a criminal forfeiture of $1.4 million to resolve federal Anti-Kickback Statute allegations and paid $9,938,310 to resolve False Claims Act allegations.
The settlement resolves allegations that Victory engaged in a scheme to promote its drugs by paying kickbacks to doctors to induce them to write prescriptions for Victory’s products, including prescriptions for patients covered by Medicare and other federal health insurance programs. The kickbacks included tickets to professional and collegiate sporting events; tickets to concerts and plays; spa outings; golf and ski outings; dinners at expensive restaurants; and numerous other out-of-office events. Victory also encouraged its sales representatives to schedule paid “preceptorships,” which involved sales representatives “shadowing” doctors in their offices. The settlement also resolves allegations that Victory improperly used these preceptorships to induce doctors to prescribe Victory’s products.
“Kickback schemes undermine the integrity of medical decisions, subvert the health marketplace and waste taxpayer dollars,” said Stuart F. Delery, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division. “We will continue to hold accountable those who refuse to play by the rules and provide illegal incentives to influence the decision making of health care providers.”
“This resolution underscores the need for physicians to make treatment decisions based on their own independent medical judgment, without being influenced by kickbacks or other improper benefits,” said Laura E. Duffy, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California. “Protecting taxpayers from health care fraud is a priority of this office. We will continue to work closely with our investigative partners in taking both criminal and civil measures to combat health care fraud.”
The settlement resolves a False Claims Act lawsuit filed in the Southern District of California by Chad Miller, a former sales representative for Victory. The whistleblower, or qui tam, provisions of the False Claims Act permit the whistleblower (or relator) to obtain a portion of the proceeds obtained by the federal government. As part of today’s resolution, Mr. Miller will receive $1.7 million.
“Patients expect health care providers to be concerned only with patients’ best medical interests,” said Glenn R. Ferry, Special Agent in Charge for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General Los Angeles region. “Financial kickbacks betray that patient trust and taxpayers’ expectation that federal and state health dollars be put only to the wisest use.”
FBI Special Agent in Charge Daphne Hearn commented, “Many laws of this nation are put in place to protect our citizens from corrupt practices that may endanger our health and safety. When individuals or businesses operate outside of the fence in order to turn a bigger profit the FBI will pursue them in the justice system.”
Chris Hendrickson, Special Agent in Charge, Western Field Office, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, stated: “The Department of Defense is committed to its partnership with the Department of Justice and other federal and state enforcement agencies to aggressively pursue those who take advantage of taxpayer-funded health care systems for illicit gain. Doctors providing services to our military members and their families should be free from undue influence in prescribing medicines and other care decisions, and DCIS will act swiftly against those who engage in these illegal and unethical acts.”
This settlement is the result of a coordinated effort by the Department of Justice, Civil Division, Commercial Litigation Branch; the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California; the FBI; and the Offices of Inspectors General for Health and Human Services, the Department of Defense, the Department of Labor, the U.S. Postal Service, the Veteran’s Administration, and the Office of Personnel Management.
This resolution is part of the government’s emphasis on combating health care fraud and another step for the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) initiative, which was announced by Attorney General Eric Holder and Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services in May 2009. The partnership between the two departments has focused efforts to reduce and prevent Medicare and Medicaid financial fraud through enhanced cooperation. One of the most powerful tools in that effort is the False Claims Act, which the Justice Department has used to recover $10.1 billion since January 2009 in cases involving fraud against federal health care programs. The Justice Department’s total recoveries in False Claims Act cases since January 2009 are over $13.9 billion.

Felon from Maine Sentenced for Transporting Owensboro Girl Across State Lines with Intent to Engage in Sexual Activity

OWENSBORO, KY—Archie M. Whalen, from Hancock County, Maine, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison today by Chief District Judge Joseph H. McKinley, Jr. for transporting a minor across state lines with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, announced David J. Hale, United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky.
A federal jury in Owensboro, Kentucky deliberated approximately one hour on July 26, 2012, before finding Whalen, age 46, guilty of all charges.
According to testimony presented during the three-day trial, Whalen took a 13-year-old Owensboro girl from her home on September 26, 2009. A multi-state Amber Alert was issued and within 24 hours, and the minor girl was found with Whalen in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, on September 27, 2009.
Whalen was arrested after a Sturgeon Bay Police officer observed the Maine license plate on the vehicle Whalen was driving and conducted a felony traffic stop. The Sturgeon Bay Police acted after being notified by the FBI in Kentucky to be on the lookout for Whalen’s red Ford Explorer with a Maine license plate. According to the minor girl’s mother, a text message on their shared cell phone helped police identify Whalen. The minor girl and her mother had met Whalen while they briefly lived in Maine earlier that month. After the Amber Alert was issued, employees at a McDonald’s in Breckenridge County alerted their local Sheriff’s office that they believed Whalen and the victim had been in the restaurant around 5:30 a.m. Surveillance video obtained by the Breckenridge County Sheriff’s Office and provided to Daviess County authorities was used to confirm Whalen’s identity and that the missing minor was with him. When Whalen’s Maine plate was run by a police officer in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, although no traffic stop was done, law enforcement authorities in Kentucky were able to confirm that Whalen was in Wisconsin and likely headed in the direction of Sturgeon Bay, where one of Whalen’s family members lived.
Whalen has a prior state felony conviction for second-degree assault in New York and a prior federal conviction for unlawful possession of a firearm in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Marisa J. Ford, and it was investigated by the Daviess County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Owensboro Resident Agency, with invaluable assistance and cooperation from the Sturgeon Bay Police Department in Wisconsin; the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department in Maine; the Evidence Response Team in the FBI’s Milwaukee Division; and the Office of the Commonwealth Attorney in Daviess County, Kentucky.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc.

Operation Stateline Sweep Update: Three Defendants Given Lengthy Sentences and One Defendant Pleads Guilty

TEXARKANA, AR—Conner Eldridge, United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas announced today that three men were sentenced and one pled guilty as a result of charges brought during Operation Stateline Sweep, a drug trafficking investigation that took place in 2011. All four of the individuals were part of a 190-count indictment filed in September 2011 that named 66 defendants. The Honorable Susan O. Hickey presided over the cases in federal court in Texarkana, Arkansas.
United States Attorney Eldridge commented, “These sentences are the result of a continued effort to fully prosecute those defendants who were charged as a result of Operation Stateline Sweep. We continue to believe that targeting drug trafficking organizations, many selling drugs near schools and housing facilities, is essential for improving Texarkana and other communities. We remain dedicated to this effort.”
Tavaris Williams, age 28 of Texarkana, Arkansas, was sentenced to 70 months’ imprisonment, six years’ supervised release, and a $100 special assessment. Williams originally plead guilty to distribution of cocaine base within 1000 feet of a public housing authority facility on April 27, 2012. Around December 1, 2010, Williams distributed 22.9675 grams of crack cocaine close to Pinehurst Village in Texarkana, Arkansas.
Derrian Foster, age 32 of Texarkana, Texas, was sentenced to 84 months’ imprisonment, eight years’ supervised release, and a $100 special assessment. Foster pled guilty on August 3, 2012, to distribution of cocaine base within 1000 feet of a public housing authority facility. Around July 8, 2011, Foster, along with another individual, distributed 81.7708 grams of crack cocaine near the Ingrham Homes housing facility.
Adren Brown, age 33 of Texarkana, Texas, was sentenced to 60 months’ imprisonment, three years’ supervised release, and a $100 special assessment. After being indicted, Brown pled guilty on August 3, 2012 to possession of a firearm during a drug trafficking offense. Around July 5, 2011, Brown possessed a .40 caliber semiautomatic pistol while possessing marijuana with the intent to distribute.
Roland Smith, age 25 of Texarkana, Arkansas, pled guilty to one count of the September 2011 indictment, charging possession of crack cocaine with the intent to distribute. Smith has been remanded to custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending sentencing. According to court documents, Smith possessed a total of 4.8518 grams of crack cocaine.
The cases were investigated by the Bi-State Narcotics Task Force, which is composed of representatives of the Texarkana, Arkansas and the Texarkana, Texas Police Departments; the Miller County Sheriff’s Office; and the FBI. Assistant United States Attorney Matthew Quinn is prosecuting the cases for the United States.