Financial Fraud Investigations Overwhelm FBI

(NEWSER) - A short-staffed FBI is laboring to keep up with white collar crime linked to the nation's financial crisis, the New York Times reports. FBI officials predicted millions of dollars' in mortgage fraud years ago, but the Justice Department wanted agents focused on counter-terror. When the FBI warned of a fraud "epidemic" in 2004, only 15 of its 13,000 agents were on the case. More»

Cabinet secretaries to meet on wasteful spending

(NEWSER) - The Justice Department has managed to recover some $5.6 billion lost to fraud over the 2011 fiscal year, officials will announce today. Civil fraud accounted for some $3.4 billion, with the rest attributable to criminal fraud, insiders tell the Washington Post . Much of the money was recovered by so-called Medicare Strike Fraud Forces, which track down millions in fraudulent claims. It's yet another step forward in the crackdown on fraud: Such recoveries have climbed 167% since 2008. More»

Scheme could cost federal pension agency more than $1B

(NEWSER) - The FBI charged 11 people yesterday in connection with a massive fraud scheme that saw hundreds of Long Island Rail Road workers allegedly fake disabling injuries so that they could retire early and collect their pensions. Among those arrested are two doctors who together approved cases handing $121 million to workers who allegedly made up or exaggerated their ills—and unless the government can stop the disbursements, those cases could wind up costing a federal pension agency $1 billion, the New York Times reports. More»

Accused 'treated' dead people, ran Florida housing scheme

(NEWSER) - The Obama administration notched yet another win for its Medicare fraud team yesterday, as the Justice Department announced the arrests of 91 fraudsters from across the country, accused of bilking Uncle Sam for a combined $295 million. “The defendants allegedly treated the Medicare program like a personal piggy bank,” said one department official. Doctors and nurses were among the perps, accused of a variety of schemes; one particularly brazen Detroit doctor billed for “treatment” he’d given to dead people, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. More»

US investigation gets serious

(NEWSER) - The FBI's investigation into allegations that News of the World reporters hacked the phones of 9/11 victims must be heating up, because Attorney General Eric Holder himself will meet with families of the dead next month to discuss the probe's progress, the Guardian reports. A lawyer for 20 of the families says he’ll be taking as many of his clients as he can to the meeting in Washington on Aug. 24. More»