False Claims

WASHINGTON -- The House on Thursday passed a new Stolen Valor Act in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down an earlier law making it a crime to lie about military medals. The court ruled in June that falsely claiming military honors, while "contemptible," was protected by the 1st Amendment. The new measure, passed 410 to 3, makes it a crime to fraudulently claim to be a medal recipient " with intent to obtain money, property or other tangible benefit. " “The need to protect the honor, service and sacrifice of our veterans and military personnel is as strong today as it has ever been," said Rep. Joe Heck (R-Nev.)

The family of Mickey Mantle has applied a corkscrew to Grey Flannel Auctions. On May 3, the auction house announced it would be auctioning an authentic Mantle bat at the end of May. Oh, and it said there was something special about this particular bat: It was corked. The auction announcement was accompanied by a statement from John Taube, a professional bat authenticator, which said, "During our examination of the bat, we noticed a circular area .75 inches wide in the center of the top barrel.

The Federal Trade Commission has sued longtime bulb manufacturer Lights of America Inc., charging that some of the company's energy-saving LED bulbs don't burn nearly as brightly or as long as advertised. Light emitting diode bulbs made by the Walnut company are sold at major national retailers, such as Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Costco. The suit alleges that Lights of America made false claims about the performance of some bulbs on its packaging and marketing materials beginning in 2008.

When two groups supporting rival Los Angeles City Council candidates met on a street in Little Armenia last week, an afternoon of vote canvassing turned into an altercation. Two 17-year-old campaign workers for candidate John Choi claim they were stopped and threatened with violence by two men who are backing Mitch O'Farrell, Choi's opponent in the 13th Council District race. They allege that after they called a supervisor to come to the scene, a third man then approached and brandished a gun. Supporters of O'Farrell deny that account, saying it was the Choi workers who sparked the confrontation by falsely claiming that a prominent Armenian American leader had endorsed Choi.

Rep. Wes Cooley, a GOP freshman who dropped his reelection bid earlier this year after being accused of lying about his background, was indicted on charges he falsely claimed in official state voter guides that he had served in Korea. The 64-year-old Oregon congressman could get up to 10 years in prison and $200,000 in fines if convicted of twice making false statements.

Sen. Dave Durenberger (R-Minn.) pleaded innocent Thursday to charges of falsifying his Senate expense account to collect $3,825. Durenberger has denied any criminal wrongdoing and said in a statement Thursday: "I am absolutely confident that I will be exonerated in a trial and I look forward to vindication." His lawyer asked U.S. District Judge Stanley S. Harris to transfer the case to a federal court in Minnesota. There was no immediate ruling on that request.

Three government agencies, including the California attorney general, filed suit Wednesday against Herbalife International, claiming that the fast-growing Los Angeles-based marketer of nutrition and weight-loss products made false health claims about its products and employed an illegal "endless chain" scheme to market them.

A Garden Grove nutrition company accused of making false claims about its diet products and operating an illegal pyramid scheme has settled a consumer protection lawsuit, the state attorney general's office said Wednesday.

A former Vista Municipal Court clerk who filed a false expense claim with the county was sentenced Thursday to perform 300 hours of volunteer work and pay the county $677.20. Jo Allen, 45, of Oceanside, was placed on three years' probation by San Diego Superior Court Judge Barbara Gamer, who also fined Allen $200. Allen was fired recently. She had worked for William Hartford, 40, of Fallbrook, who resigned in January as administrator for the Vista Municipal Court.

A federal jury awarded Allstate Insurance Co. $3 million in damages against a building contractor and others for filing false claims after the Northridge earthquake, attorneys said Monday. Allstate lawyers charged that the contractor, an engineering company and an insurance adjuster submitted inflated invoices for work that was unnecessary or never performed at properties in Malibu and across the San Fernando Valley.

FBI agents arrested a Century City man for allegedly running a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that primarily targeted the Persian-Jewish community in Los Angeles, according to the U.S. attorney's office. Shervin Neman, whose given name is Shervin Davatgarzadeh,   31, was indicted on two counts of wire fraud and one count of mail fraud. He was taken into custody Friday morning. His victims allegedly lost more than $3 million, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles.

Two Caltrans technicians tasked with doing foundation testing for construction projects claimed over 260 hours they didn't work, and one of them falsified testing data on 10 projects, according to an investigative report Thursday by state Auditor Elaine Howle. The supervisor for the two technicians failed to require them to obtain preapproval for overtime, or to review records available to confirm that they did the work they claimed, said the report, which was based on a whistle-blower complaint in 2009.

Medicare is investigating reports that CVS Caremark Corp., the country's second-largest drugstore chain, has refilled prescriptions and submitted insurance claims without patients' approval, according to an official with knowledge of the matter. The Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has launched the investigation into CVS' refill practices, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the case and therefore requested anonymity.

Aside from Mitt Romney's threat to defund Big Bird, the most commonly cited quip in his debate with President Obama may have been: "Mr. President, you're entitled as the president to your own airplane and to your own house, but not to your own facts. " The remark could have applied almost equally to Romney, who charters a private campaign plane, has no shortage of houses and, like Obama, displayed a flexible attitude toward matters of fact Wednesday night in the first presidential debate.

WASHINGTON -- The House on Thursday passed a new Stolen Valor Act in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down an earlier law making it a crime to lie about military medals. The court ruled in June that falsely claiming military honors, while "contemptible," was protected by the 1st Amendment. The new measure, passed 410 to 3, makes it a crime to fraudulently claim to be a medal recipient " with intent to obtain money, property or other tangible benefit. " “The need to protect the honor, service and sacrifice of our veterans and military personnel is as strong today as it has ever been," said Rep. Joe Heck (R-Nev.)

Former President Bill Clinton's exhaustive endorsement of President Obama's reelection Wednesday night was stocked with statistics on nearly every major issue of the election, from healthcare to job creation and the national debt. With frequent off-the-cuff citations of facts and figures, Clinton's speech was sure to be scoured by the army of fact-checkers that has been kept busy with the truthiness (instead of truthfulness) of the 2012 election. For the most part, the fact police gave Clinton high marks.

The former head of a Ventura drug and alcohol treatment program has been indicted on four counts of submitting false claims to obtain county money. Thomas E. Chaloupka, 48, was arrested Sunday as a result of the indictment, returned Friday by the Ventura County Grand Jury. He was released Monday after posting $5,000 bail. Chaloupka is the former manager of Khepera House Inc., which operates a residential rehabilitation program and a halfway house on West Harrison Avenue.

In the first fraud convictions related to the hundreds of millions of dollars being doled out for earthquake relief, four people have agreed to plead guilty to falsely claiming to have lived in the Northridge apartment building where 16 people died, authorities said Monday.

TAMPA, Fla. - Paul Ryan mostly got raves for the “optics” of his speech Wednesday night before the Republican National Convention, winning the image battle on the biggest night of his young political life. But by the time the reviews came piling in after midnight, the Republican vice presidential nominee had taken a serious beating for straying repeatedly from the facts. The GOP's newly minted Boy Wonder, just 42, bent or ignored the record on issues ranging from Medicare, to President Obama's debt-reduction commission, to the closing of a GM plant in his Wisconsin hometown, to the beneficiaries of federal stimulus spending - according to a couple of fact-check organizations and news outlets such as the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post.

The shooter who injured a security guard at the Family Research Council headquarters in Washington was given “license to shoot an unarmed man” by those who criticized the conservative organization's policies and beliefs, the council president said Thursday. The comments by Tony Perkins came after suspect Floyd Lee Corkins was charged in federal court with transporting firearms and ammunition across state lines and assault with the intent to kill while armed.  Corkins, 28, walked into the lobby of the council's downtown building on Wednesday and told a security guard, “I don't agree with your policies,” police said.