Kickbacks

The National Education Assn. faces a federal lawsuit accusing it of breaching its duty to members by recommending a high-cost retirement plan in exchange for millions of dollars from the managers of the plan. The suit, which seeks class-action status, was filed by two of the 57,000 schoolteachers who the suit says invested $1 billion in a so-called 403(b) retirement plan endorsed by the NEA.

WASHINGTON — The General Services Administration's inspector general is investigating possible kickbacks and bribes in an agency already shaken by a scandal over a pricey Las Vegas-area conference, he told a congressional hearing Monday. In response to questions from Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Brian Miller said he was investigating "all sorts of improprieties, including bribes, possibly kickbacks. " "We do have other ongoing investigations," Miller said, adding that witnesses told him waste was "widespread" in the GSA's Pacific Rim region, which staged the Las Vegas-area conference for nearly $823,000 in 2010.

A Northridge doctor and three other physicians have been charged with paying illegal kickbacks to a medical referral firm that is under investigation for workers compensation fraud. The physicians allegedly paid for patient referrals from L.A. Management, a former Sherman Oaks firm under investigation for possibly paying kickbacks to get patients from companies that process workers' compensation claims for some employers and insurers. The investigation of L.A.

A fugitive in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum corruption case said he was in "the jungles of Brazil" and will not return to face trial in an alleged kickback scheme because he shouldn't have been charged. "Let 'em come over here and get me," Tony Estrada, a former Coliseum janitorial contractor who portrays himself as a whistle-blower done wrong, told The Times in a telephone interview. Estrada, who has been charged with embezzlement and conspiracy, said Monday he came forward more than a year ago with canceled checks and other evidence that showed he was making secret payments to the stadium's then-general manager, Patrick Lynch.

Federal law prohibits kickbacks among brokers and others in home real estate deals. That sounds pretty straightforward: You can't give money to someone simply for steering a home buyer or refinancer to a particular title agency, mortgage lender or escrow company without providing any actual services to the consumer. Yet as four recent legal settlements suggest, there is still plenty of action underway at the fringes of the law, where technology and creative financial arrangements are raising new questions about what's permissible and what's not. Take the multimillion-dollar settlement July 11 between the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Fidelity National Financial Inc., the country's highest-volume title insurance and settlement services company.

California and three dozen other states formed a task force Friday to investigate whether the abuses alleged at a New York state retirement fund are taking place at public pension agencies across the country. The announcement marks the latest expansion of a pay-to-play probe that has increasingly revealed California connections. New York Atty. Gen.

California regulators are taking aim at giant drug maker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., accusing it of bribing doctors and pharmacists to use its products by offering thousands of cash kickbacks, gifts and "happy hours" with the Los Angeles Lakers. The case against the drug company was developed with the help of former Lakers player Lucius Allen and his wife, Eve, who worked for Bristol-Myers and provided access to the basketball team, according to a lawsuit made public Friday. Doctors and family members were invited to Lakers Dream Camps arranged by the company, the lawsuit said.

An executive at a Hollister defense contractor pleaded guilty Monday to three federal charges of accepting $3,000 in kickbacks to provide work for a Fullerton company. Donald Cleveland, a manager at Quantic Industries Inc., faces a sentence of 30 years in prison and a $750,000 fine. He remained free on bond Monday until his sentencing, which is scheduled for Jan. 8 in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana. Cleveland was accused of taking kickbacks from Richard J. Kern, an executive at in Fullerton.

Medtronic Inc., the world's largest maker of electronic heart-rhythm implants, agreed to pay $40 million to settle civil claims that its Sofamor Danek unit paid kickbacks to get doctors to use the company's spinal products. The U.S. government alleged that Minneapolis-based Medtronic paid kickbacks in the form of sham consulting deals and royalties, as well as lavish trips.

The city's former water superintendent has pleaded guilty to taking kickbacks in return for shipping used city-owned water meters to a recycler. Barry Holland, 60, entered the plea Friday in federal court. Prosecutors say that between 1999 and 2005 he accepted more than $10,000 in cash and $15,000 worth of machinery -- two air motors and a tapping machine. Holland retired in 2006. His attorney, Stewart Katz, declined to comment. As part of his plea agreement, Holland has agreed to repay the city $10,372 and cooperate in the ongoing investigation.

Days after his arrest on multiple corruption charges, the former general manager of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum pleaded guilty to a single criminal count of conflict of interest, avoiding a trial and possible lengthy prison sentence. Patrick T. Lynch will do no prison time as part of Wednesday's plea deal and must repay $385,000 that he allegedly received from a Coliseum contractor as part of a kickback scheme. He also will be placed on three years' probation. Lynch, who faced up to 15 1/2 years behind bars, is one of six men who were charged last week in a sweeping, 29-count indictment alleging bribery, embezzlement, conspiracy and conflict of interest at the historic, taxpayer-owned stadium.

In other circumstances, San Clemente would be having a season to cherish. The Tritons are 8-0, jogging memories as to the last time the program enjoyed this kind of start. "I believe 1978, some people say 1976," interim Coach Jon Hamro , who played for San Clemente in 1979 and 1980, said Saturday. Actually, a check of the records shows it was 1975, when the Tritons went unbeaten and untied before losing to La Habra Sonora in the second round of the playoffs. The interim tag attached to Hamro's title hints at the trouble that rocked the Tritons less than three weeks before their season opener.

Federal law prohibits kickbacks among brokers and others in home real estate deals. That sounds pretty straightforward: You can't give money to someone simply for steering a home buyer or refinancer to a particular title agency, mortgage lender or escrow company without providing any actual services to the consumer. Yet as four recent legal settlements suggest, there is still plenty of action underway at the fringes of the law, where technology and creative financial arrangements are raising new questions about what's permissible and what's not. Take the multimillion-dollar settlement July 11 between the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Fidelity National Financial Inc., the country's highest-volume title insurance and settlement services company.

Here is roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. Burglary season — The summer months of July and August typically have the highest rate of home burglaries, in part because many people leave town for vacations, the Better Business Bureau said in a recent alert. Homeowners should consider installing security systems before they vacation this summer, the BBB said. Homes without such systems are about three times as likely to be burglarized as those with the systems, it said.

The settlement of a major class-action suit is shedding new light on a controversial real estate practice that home buyers and sellers typically know little about: fees paid to realty brokers and agents for promoting home warranty policies. The case involves potentially thousands of buyers and sellers who bought warranty coverage from American Home Shield Corp. between May 2008 and March of this year. American Home Shield is the dominant player in the home warranty field, with sales of $657 million in 2010, according to the company.

WASHINGTON - Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay $70 million to settle U.S. charges that it paid bribes and kickbacks to win business overseas, the first major pharmaceutical company to settle since the Obama administration began its scrutiny of the industry more than a year ago. Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay a $21.4 million fine to settle criminal charges and pay more than $48.6 million in disgorgement and interest to settle charges by the...

A federal grand jury has launched a criminal investigation into allegations that Apria Healthcare Group Inc. gave kickbacks to medical providers in exchange for receiving patient referrals, the home health-care company disclosed. The Costa Mesa company, which supplies oxygen, drug infusion and other services to patients at home, said the grand jury is looking into allegations raised in a whistle-blower lawsuit filed last year in an Atlanta federal court.

A federal jury acquitted a military subcontractor Monday of charges that he paid $26,000 in kickbacks to obtain repair and maintenance work at March Air Force Base in Riverside County and at Pearl Harbor Naval Base in Hawaii. After a weeklong trial, the jury also found Jeffrey Bygum, 40, not guilty of conspiracy and witness tampering.

What a difference a dance makes. Eighteen months ago, the Cali Swag District consisted of four largely anonymous Inglewood teenagers making R&B/hip-hop hybrids and everything in between. They got nowhere. Then it filmed the video for "Teach Me How to Dougie," the biggest domestic dance phenomenon since Soulja Boy taught a nation of online video novices how to "Crank Dat" in 2007. Go on YouTube. You have your choice of the O.G. version, the sleek "Dougie 2.0" made with Capitol Records money, and a star-studded remix with Bow Wow and B.o.B.

California regulators are taking aim at giant drug maker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., accusing it of bribing doctors and pharmacists to use its products by offering thousands of cash kickbacks, gifts and "happy hours" with the Los Angeles Lakers. The case against the drug company was developed with the help of former Lakers player Lucius Allen and his wife, Eve, who worked for Bristol-Myers and provided access to the basketball team, according to a lawsuit made public Friday. Doctors and family members were invited to Lakers Dream Camps arranged by the company, the lawsuit said.