Watchdog Bytes

Former Asian chamber head in trouble with TEA, state says

The former head of the Asian Chamber of Commerce of Austin is accused of submitting false payroll records to the Texas Education Agency, which, if true, was not nice. 

Mai Nguyen was indicted last month on charges she secured execution of a document by deception, with a value of between $20,000 and $100,000, according to the Texas State Auditor's office. The charge is a third-degree felony. Nevertheless, she hasn't been arrested. 

(Due to the disturbing nature of this post, please enjoy the calming picture to the left.)

Nguyen is accused of seeking reimbursement of payroll expenses through an English Literacy and Civics Education grant, according to the results of a probe by the State Auditor’s Office’s Special Investigations Unit.

The TEA administers enable grantees to create programs to teach immigrants English and American government.  The ACOC  received grants between 2002  to 2005, and it operated as a nonprofit in Austin until 2006.  

 

-- Darren Barbee

 

Pepsi’s Challenge: Hire people with minor criminal offenses

Pepsi Beverages has agreed to pay $3.13 million and provide job offers and training to resolve a race discrimination lawsuit filed in Minneapolis by the federal government. The thorny issue was Pepsi not wanting to hire people convicted of “minor” crimes. More than 300 African Americans were adversely affected when Pepsi applied a criminal background check policy that disproportionately excluded black applicants from permanent employment, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Under Pepsi’s former policy, job applicants who had been arrested pending prosecution were not hired for a permanent job even if they had never been convicted of any offense. “Pepsi’s former policy also denied employment to applicants who had been arrested or convicted of certain minor offenses. The use of arrest and conviction records to deny employment can be illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when it is not relevant for the job, because it can limit the employment opportunities of applicants or workers based on their race or ethnicity,” according to the EEOC. During the course of the EEOC’s investigation, Pepsi adopted a new criminal background check policy. In addition to the monetary relief, Pepsi will offer employment opportunities to victims of the former criminal background check policy who still want jobs at Pepsi and are qualified for the jobs for which they apply. The company will supply the EEOC with regular reports on its hiring practices under its new criminal background check policy. “When employers contemplate instituting a background check policy, the EEOC recommends that they take into consideration the nature and gravity of the offense, the time that has passed since the conviction and/or completion of the sentence, and the nature of the job sought in order to be sure that the exclusion is important for the particular position. Such exclusions can create an adverse impact based on race in violation of Title VII,” said Julie Schmid, Acting Director of the EEOC’s Minneapolis Area Office.

-- Darren Barbee

$49,000 reimbursement for taking money slipped Texas CPA's mind, SEC says

Either a Richardson CPA has no head for numbers or was fibbing (the SEC uses the ugly word “lying”) when he testified that he wasn’t aware of a $49,350 payment to an employer he was accused of ripping off several years ago. 

Bryan N. Polozola pleaded guilty Jan. 12 to criminal charges of lying to federal regulators (or suffering temporary criminal amnesia, take your pick), according to the Securites and Exchange Commission. 

In 2005, LollaPolozola was accused by a financial regulatory body of taking the money from his former employer for personal use, according to the SEC. He consented to being barred from association with any firms under what was then the National Association of Securities Dealers. 

Alas, he sang a different song in September. “During questioning in September 2011, Polozola falsely testified to SEC staff that he was not aware of a $49,350 payment made on his behalf to his former employer,” the SEC alleged.

OK, so there were a couple of problems with this testimony. Chiefly that Polozola was aware that his attorney had repaid the $49,350 to the former employer as reimbursement of the funds he had supposedly taken for his personal use, according to the SEC said. Oh, and the payment was made at Polozola’s direction and with Polozola’s funds.

“Truth in testimony is the first principle of a fair and effective enforcement program,” said Robert Khuzami, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “This guilty plea is a stark reminder that those who lie in SEC investigations will face an SEC committed to working closely with the criminal authorities to ensure that they are held accountable.”

-- Darren Barbee

Manslaughter? Aggravated assault? DWI? Give that man a state license, judge finds

Talk about casualty insurance. Mitchell Wade Ragland has a rap sheet for assault, aggravated assault, voluntary manslaughter and driving while intoxicated in Grayson County. 

Now he wants to try his hand at the insurance business. Would Ragland be, like, a good neighbor? An administrative law judge this month said she thinks so. She recommended that Ragland should get a license as a property and casualty insurance adjuster. 

Ragland's voluntary manslaughter and aggravated assault arose when he was attacked by four individuals and stabbed several times, resulting in a collapsed lung, according to court documents. Although wounded, he retrieved his firearm from his truck and shot two of the people who attacked him, killing one of them. He was given probation for five years. 

In most cases, a voluntary manslaughter conviction would warrant denial of an application. “His actions
were not those of a murderer but of someone presumably scared, certainly injured and dying, and trying to protect himself,” Administrative Law Judge Wendy K.L. Harvel wrote in her proposal for decision.

Ragland successfully completed his probation a number of years ago and has no further criminal record other than the 1998 guilty plea to misdemeanor DWI. “DWI is not a violent crime, and is not an indication that Mr. Ragland would behave inappropriately under stressful situations,” Harvel found.

The Texas Department of Insurance will still have final say in whether Ragland gets a license. 

-- Darren Barbee

Plano man accused of sham marriage to gain citizenship, ripping off government, feds say

A Plano man either has a lot of explaining to do to his wife or the government after being accused of entering a sham marriage to obtain citizenship, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

A federal indictment says Okey F. Nwagbara, 45, entered into a fraudulent marriage and provided false statements to immigration officials.

The government says Nwagbara fibbed about: 1) being married for the past three years and living with his U.S. citizen spouse; 2) having zero children despite having two; 3) saying he hadn’t claimed to be a U.S. citizen when in fact he had stated that on a mortgage application in January 2006.

Nwagbara, who has been a naturalized citizen since 2008, was the owner of Advanced MedEquip & Supplies Ltd., a durable medical equipment business in Richardson. Oh by the way, Nwagbara, who is in federal custody, has also been indicted in a healthcare fraud case with a co-defendant on felony charges related to accusations that they defrauded Medicare of more than $500,000.

Nwagbara’s court-appointed attorney in both cases, Edwin Tomko of Dallas, said he is in the process of formulating a strategy for his client's defense.

Nwagbara faces three counts of making a false statement in an immigration document and three counts of unlawful procurement of naturalization.

If convicted, Nwagbara faces 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine for each count in the marriage case. Also, Nwagbara’s status as a U.S. citizen will be revoked by court order.

 -- Darren Barbee

Yippee! Department of Homeland Security's audit somewhat mildly better

Break out the balloons and inhale some helium: The Department of Homeland Security achieved a
milestone by getting an audit that wasn’t incredibly horrible. 

Say it again, this time in a squeaky voice: The qualified opinion is a step toward a “clean” audit opinion. 

Since its creation in 2003, DHS has had problems with financial accounting.

Last year, a financial audit of the balance sheet of the department threw out a number of recommendations for the department to improve its financial management.

In 2009, its IT was shaky, impacting its financial accounting. And so on. Read more on this blog.

-- Darren Barbee

 

 

Texas officials: Supreme Court to review 2,400 or 2,700 page Obamacare bill

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is pleased that the Supreme Court has accepted a challenge to “Obamacare” and that the “federal health care law is closer to an end.”

One oddity: He says the the law is 2,700 pages. 

Congressman Michael Burgess also voiced support for the judicial review via email, saying that the the Patient and Protection Affordable Care Act  “has exceeded its authority by requiring that every American obtain health insurance by 2014.”

He says Americans don’t want a 2,409 page bill. 

Naturally, this made us curious. Who can’t count? Looking at the actual bill, there are 2,409 pages, though one page is left blank (presumably that’s where the death panel legislation is written in invisible ink). 

However, numerous web postings say the bill is 2,700 pages and the Internet, which is now sentient, is never wrong. In the meantime, we’re waiting for a response from Abbott’s office on where they got their number. 

Update: The AG says "we use that number because it is, in my searches, the most-commonly-referred-to figure. This includes the reform bill plus the reconciliation bill that was passed a few days later," said Lauren Bean, deputy communications director for Abbott. Bean also said that in the multistates' petition to the Supreme Court, we refer to the health care reform law as being a 2,700 page law. Here's the brief. 

-- Darren Barbee

Hold it: Urination situation costs Texas company $30,000

An Irving company will pay $30,000 to a disabled man after flunking its part in a drug test. 

G2 Secure Staff, which provides staffing to aviation companies and employs about 3,500, refused to allow a man who couldn’t urinate to take an alternative drug test for a job, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 

The company wouldn’t give the man a pass even though he had end-stage renal disease, meaning his kidneys weren’t functioning and he was physically unable to go.

The man asked to take a drug test using a hair sample rather than a urinalysis as an accommodation for his disability. G2 wouldn’t budge.

The man was denied a job as a shift supervisor despite successfully completing all of the requirements for obtaining the position, according to the EEOC.

“This was a situation where based on EEOC’s allegations in the complaint, EEOC contends that the employer could have easily made the requested accommodation and avoided this entire process,” said Lynette A. Barnes, Regional Attorney for the EEOC’s Charlotte District. The man had applied for a shift supervisor at G2’s Raleigh-Durham International Airport in Raleigh, N.C., according to the feds.  

-- Darren Barbee

Plato indicted in Texas; Socrates not being sought

Richard M. Plato, a three time loser and disbarred lawyer, faces fraud charges for alledgedly selling promissory notes supposedly backed by a company’s interest in oil and gas leases. 

Now Truth! (At least according to authorities.) The company was in debt, and Plato is accused of using the money on himself and his mistresses (and maybe his wife), according to the Texas State Securities Board. About 40 people invested $5 million, according to the indictment. Plato was indicted late last month.

Also charged were a business partner, Michael Derek Walker, and Tammy Renee Norris, described in an indictment as Plato’s “long-time mistress.” Plato diverted investors’ money to pay personal expenses for himself, his wife, his brother and “mistresses" (plural), according to the board.

Plato didn’t mention to investors that Baytown-based Momentum Production Corp. was $1 million in debt when it started issuing the notes. Plato also failed to mention his three felony convictions on federal fraud-related charges or the $30 million restitution he owes as a result of those convictions, the board said.

As a Greek philospher once said, “All the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in exchange for virtue.”

Yeah, try that line with your mistress. 

 

 

 

-- Darren Barbee

Houston physician/fraudster about to make an 11-year house call

Dr. Christina Joy Clardy, 61, is headed to that big waiting room in the federal pen for 135 months (a little over 11 years) for her role in a massive health care fraud conspiracy that billed government health care programs $45 million. 

The Houston MD has been ordered to pay $15.6 million in restitution to Medicare and Medicaid, or roughly 312,000 co-pays, according to the feds. Watchdog hopes she continuously gets hounded by collection phone calls for the money while she’s in the prison chow line. 

Clardy was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, 14 counts of health care fraud and three counts of mail fraud in May, according to federal authorities. City Nursing Services of Texas billed more than $25 million worth of physical therapy services under Clardy’s physician provider numbers between January 2007 and August 2008.

- Darren Barbee