Neighbors Who See Stabbing Kick Ass
Top 5 White Collar Crimes: Defense Contractor KBR Busted For Overcharging US Government
Friday, April 9, 2010 at 6:00 am
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"White Collar Crime" tends to conjure an image of greying white dudes in suits menacingly tapping their fingers together like Mr. Burns over heaps of cash. Not mothers and daughters of the Midwest. But, alas, fraud is blind to creed, class, color, and gender. Or something like that.
While most mothers and daughters enjoy bonding over rom-coms or a day of shopping, the Tumbo women prefer their mother-time while ripping off recently widowed men.
In July, authorities in Niles, Michigan received a tip from a man who said he'd received a call from a woman claiming to be a credit union employee. She said that his wife, who'd recently died, had an outstanding credit card debt and that someone would be more than happy to come over and collect a check from him to settle up the debt.
44-year-old Bettye Tumbo did, indeed, show up at the man's house to collect the check -- and then cashed it right away.
Then, in January, something similar happened to a man recently widowed in Kentucky. This time, however, it wasn't Bettye who called, but her 27-year-old daughter Christina Tumbo. She also claimed that the man's deceased wife had an outstanding credit card balance and convinced him to provide personal information. Like mother, like daughter -- Christina then secure a credit card in her name with his banking information.
After investigating the woman for nine months, the two were arrested this week and charged with fraud. Bettye immediately pled no contest to attempted larceny, while her daughter still awaits extradition back to Michigan.
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4. Michael Clair
In 2002, Medicaid suspended Massachusetts dentist Michael Clair after he was caught filing false claims. But that didn't stop 51-year-old Clair from continuing with his shenanigans.
Clair simply began hiring other dentists, through whom he continued to file fraudulent claims, over $130,000 worth to be exact.
But that isn't even the worst of it.
In order to make some extra dough, Clair began using paper clips in his unwitting patients' root canals instead of stainless steel posts. He'd then claim the cost of the proper materials, hoping to scam a few extra bucks. That's right. Clair was putting office supplies in people's mouths.
On Thursday, he appeared in court, where he stood accused of larceny, assault and battery, and illegally prescribing drugs. Clair, who now lives in Maryland, was also ordered to stay away from his victims.
He has plead not guilty.
3. Daniel Rigmaiden
While Arizona's U.S. District Attorney was surely blown away with the extent of Daniel Rigmaiden's crimes, he was also quite impressed.
After all, Rigmaiden had developed an immensely elaborate scheme by which he was able to fraud the IRS of almost $4 million.
The 29-year-old began working his scam in 2006. From his tiny Santa Clara, California apartment -- rented, of course, under an alias -- Rigmaiden, an expert hacker, collected more than 1,900 social security numbers -- mostly those of dead people -- and began e-filing fraudulent tax returns in their names. Through 2008, Rigmaiden collected more than $3 million in tax refunds.
It wasn't until 2007 that the feds began investigating the case after receiving an anonymous tip. Still, it took years to finally catch up to Rigmaiden, who had developed a complex web of 170 bank accounts and 190 IP addresses in order to remain hidden.
Rigmaiden didn't work alone. At least one co-conspirator has been named -- 43-year-old Ransom Carter of Phoenix, California. In May 2007, the feds were able to link Carter to at least one of the bank accounts used by the thieves.
But it wasn't until 2008 that investigators focused in on a man they only knew as the "Hacker." That's when the feds opened an undercover bank account into which the "Hacker" unwittingly made deposits. Still, he was one step ahead of the feds, who were unable to trace any of his IP addresses.
Though one of the "Hackers" co-conspirators was arrested in April 2008, the group's leader continued to rake in the tax refunds. It wasn't until the feds were able to trace the address of one of the checks to California that the "Hacker" -- Rigmaiden -- was finally apprehended.
As the federal government continued to investigate the extent of the theft, it offered Rigmaiden a chance to cooperate in its investigation. He declined, asked to represent himself, and asked that his case be unsealed.
On March 26, the court finally made Rigmaiden's case public. In it, he is indicted with a whopping 74 counts of various types of fraud and identity theft.
His buddy Carter still remains a fugitive of the law.
2. Efren Mendez and Damian Beltran
It's not just the fact that Efren Mendez and Damian Beltran stole. It's the fact that they stole from AIDS patients that has landed them the number 2 spot on today's list.
Mendez was the vice president of the Research Center of Florida. Beltran was a medical assistant. Together, the men submitted more than $21 million in Medicare claims between 2003 and 2004. Medicare paid out over $10 million.
The claims in question were for HIV patients who either received smaller doses than their treatment required or no treatment at all. In some cases, they were even working with patients, who agreed to receive kickbacks for allowing Mendez and Beltran to submit the faulty claims in their names.
On Thursday, Mendez and Beltran both pled guilty to falsifying documents and paying out bribes.
Each of them faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.
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1. KBR
Kellogg, Brown, & Root -- better known as KBR -- is no stranger to lawsuits or accusations of malfeasance. As one of the biggest private defense contractors in America, KBR has made something of an art out of war profiteering. It massaged nice government contracts out of Lyndon B. Johnson during the Vietnam War and received the Restore Iraqi Oil contract without any competition from other bidders through its good friend Dick Cheney.
But it's been the company's work with the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan that has really made it so infamous. In 2005, the company made the news when Jamie Leigh Jones, a KBR employee working in Iraq in 2004 and 2005, was gang raped by her fellow employees. Instead of punishing those involved, KBR covered-up the incident. The company was not only caught with possession of her rape kit -- from which crucial evidence had gone missing -- but the company had also ordered guards to lock her up in a shipping container, where she was held for more than 24 hours without food or water. Better yet, when Jones went to sue the company, it claimed she couldn't, because her contract bound her to mandatory arbitration. Thankfully, the US court hasn't agreed.
Then, in 2008, the company made headlines again when it was slapped with yet another federal lawsuit -- this time for human trafficking.
As if that weren't bad enough, hundreds of military personnel are involved in a class-action lawsuit against KBR for exposing them to contaminated water, food, and improperly incinerated human remains. As part of KBR's contracts with the US military, the company is in charge with feeding and providing clean water to troops.
Despite all the bad publicity, the U.S. government not only refrained from taking any action against the company, but even rewarded it with new contracts.
Fortunately, it appears that things are changing. Sort of.
On Thursday, the Justice Department finally announced it's first lawsuit against the company. Not only has KBR done a shit job in Iraq, but it's also been overcharging the government for its shoddy work.
In the civil suit, the government is claiming that KBR provided false statements and overcharged the government for its unauthorized hiring of private security firms to protect its higher ups. While it seems the least horrific of KBR's crimes -- and an odd maneuver, seeing as the government had no trouble bringing criminal suits against other contractors (i.e. the Public Warehousing Company of Kuwait) for overcharging the government -- it's a lawsuit nonetheless.
The bad news in this suit is that KBR is still allowed to bid on government contracts -- unlike other companies who have faced the same accusations.
It must be nice to be the most evil company in America.
Read last Friday's Top 5 White Collar Crimes: Sean Hannity's Freedom Alliance Charity Squanders Funds Meant for Veteran Families.
Tags: Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Iraq, Maryland, Massachusetts, Top 5 White Collar Crimes, Washington D.C.
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