MARYLAND NEWS

A 45 year old Maryland man was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison and 3 years of supervised release for conspiring to commit bribery at the Aberdeen Proving Ground. In addition, the Court ordered him to forfeit $111,794.83, which is equal to the value of the bribes he received. Source: US Attorney, District of Maryland

Earlier this year, a Maryland woman found herself scammed out of $18,000. A spoof phone call mimicking a U.S. Customs Official led to her depositing the money into a Bitcoin ATM. Across the state, Marylanders lost over $160 million to the crimes last year.  Commentary on a U.S. Senate bill at MarylandReporter.com

A Baltimore City Circuit Judge allowed the case to proceed on four counts, including one, a fraud and deceit claim. It’s a somewhat rare allegation in landlord-tenant disputes due to the high bar required to prove it, according to legal experts who specialize in the practice area. Source: Baltimore Banner

An assisted living program that was licensed by the state to provide housing and related services to individuals on Medicaid. After a referral from the Maryland Department of Health, the Office of the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud and Vulnerable Victims Unit conducted an investigation into the assisted living program of the LLC licensed by the state to provide housing and related services to individuals on Medicaid. The state’s Medicaid Fraud Unit found that the LLC had housed four Medicaid recipients at locations that had not been inspected, approved, or licensed by the state from at least January 10, 2020, through February 17, 2022, putting the residents’ health and safety at risk. The Medicaid program had paid the LLC nearly $142,000 for these serves. The Court granted a default judgment against the LLC and ordered a payment of $425,940.54, which is triple the amount of the state’s damages. Source: Maryland Attorney General

Former Potomac, Maryland, co-CEO of crypotocurrency disaster FTX decided to take to the career-oriented social media platform, Linkedin, Thursday to announce his “new position” as a prison inmate at Federal Correctional Institution Cumberland. Source: Baltimore Sun and msn.com.

According to court documents, from September 2020 through October 2021, a Bowie, Maryland man conspired with the owner of a business entity to devise and execute a scheme to defraud federally-insured banks and credit unions in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and elsewhere. Source: US Attorney, District of Minnesota

Two Chinese nationals living in Maryland are heading to prison after the Justice Department said they conducted a yearslong iPhone repair scheme that cost Apple $2.5 million. Source: USA Today via msn.com

Recent amendments to the Maryland Workplace Fraud Act go into effect. Employers who knowingly misclassify an employee as an independent contractor may face an increased penalty of $10,000 (previously $5,000) for each employee who was not properly classified by the employer. Source: jdsupra.com

The Integrity and Compliance Office, created by state law, gives its new leader, Frank Turner,  the power to compel testimony and subpoena information.  Source:  WTOP

According to the criminal  complaint, from at least March 2023 through July 2023, the suspect and his co-conspirators contacted the victims by mail or over the phone and convinced them that they had won millions of dollars in a lottery or sweepstakes but were required to send payment in advance for taxes and other fees before they could receive their winnings.  The suspect and his co-conspirators caused the victims to send payments for the purported taxes and other fees through wire transfer, by gift card, by sending cash or checks through the U.S. Mail, by other interstate commercial carrier, and by other payment methods.  According to the complaint, the victims lost at least $9.5 million to the lottery scheme. Source: US Attorney, District of Maryland