Federal Criminal Defense Blog : Georgia Federal Criminal Defense Lawyer & Attorney : Gillen Withers & Lake Law Firm : White Collar Crime, RICO, Trial : Atlanta, Savannah, GA

A doctor and four employees of Atlanta Medical Group, a pain management clinic, in Cartersville, Bartow County, were arrested last week by FBI agents, according to Examiner.com. Dr. James Chapman, Jason Cole Votrobek, Jesse Violante, Roland Rafael Castellanos and Tara Atkins have been indicted in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia for allegedly distributing hundreds of thousands of oxycodone pills.

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The government charges that the defendants sought to see as many patients as possible and issue as many prescriptions for the drug as possible, while failing to conduct sufficient medical examinations. The defendants are also charged with using non-physician staff to issue prescriptions for oxycodone. The clinic is alleged to have made millions of dollars despite having been in operation for approximately one year. The defendants are alleged to have concealed the profits in numerous bank accounts with third-party names.

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A Judge in Oshawa, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto, acquitted six former executive of Royal Group Technologies on Friday, according to the Toronto Star. Royal Group is a manufacturer of plastic materials for the housing construction industry. The company is a subsidiary of Georgia Gulf Corporation, an Atlanta-based, manufacturer and marketer of chlorovinyls and aromatics, which purchased Royal Group in 2006 for $1.7 billion.

The executives, including Royal Group's founder, Vic De Zen, president Doug Dunsmuir, former chief financial officers Ron Goegan and Gary Brown, ex vice-president Luciano (Lu) Galasso and accounting director Gordon Brocklehurst, were charged with fraud in 2006 relating to a purchase of a property in Vaughan, Ontario, in 1998 for $20.5 million by a company tied to the defendants, which was then re-sold on the same day to Royal Group for $27.4 million. The defendants were also charged over their receipt of more than $2 million in bonuses for the sale of a subsidiary of Royal Group in 2002. The defendants were charged following an investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's Market Enforcement Team, designed to combat white collar crime.

The defendants' counsel argued that the defendants satisfied all disclosure requirements, and that the bonuses appeared in Royal Group's annual circular. Mr. Justice Richard Blouin acquitted the defendants immediately after hearing final oral arguments. The trial ran a total of 49 days, beginning last April. Canada's Federal Public Prosecution Service will determine whether or not to appeal the Judge's decision.

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Balli Aviation Ltd., a subsidiary of United Kingdom-based Balli Group, PLC, pled guilty on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to charges of illegally exporting Boeing 747 aircraft from the United States to Iran. Balli Aviation had agreed in a plea agreement to pay a $2 million fine and to be placed on corporate probation for five years, as reported on the PM Newswire. The information against the company alleged that, from 2005 through 2008, the company conspired to export three Boeing 747 aircraft to Iran without obtaining the required export licenses from the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), or required permission from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Balli Aviation was charged with purchasing the aircraft through a subsidiary, Blue Sky Companies, with financing from a private Iranian airline, Mahan Air, and with entering into a lease agreement with Mahan Air.

Balli Aviation and Balli Group announced on Friday that they have also reached a $15 million settlement of a parallel civil action with BIS and OFAC. Balli Aviation and Balli Group also had their export privileges revoked for five years, however this condition was suspended on the condition of the companies' payment of the civil penalty and refraining from committing any further violation of export laws. The companies must also submit to independent audits of their export compliance program for five years with the results being reviewed by BIS and OFAC. Former Chancellor of Britain, Lord Lamont, is a non-executive director for Balli Group.

Businesses considering engaging in trade abroad in countries which may be subject to sanctions or restrictions by the U.S. should examine both BIS' export control rules and requirements and OFAC's information on sanctions programs and also consult with counsel.

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The culture of corruption of some foreign nations may heavily influence to U.S. companies doing business abroad to play along in order to be competitive. Regardless of the competitive disadvantages, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) stands as a serious deterrent to engaging in bribery or kickbacks in business transactions abroad. The force of the FCPA was demonstrated once again on Thursday, when two former executives of Willbros International, a subsidiary of Willbros Group, an engineering-construction firm headquartered in Houston, were sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas for participating in a $6 million bribe of Nigerian officials to secure a contract for a major natural gas pipeline. As reported by the Houston Chronicle, Jason Edward Steph and Jim Bob Brown had pled guilty to violating the FCPA. U.S. District Judge Sim Lake sentenced Steph to 15 months imprisonment and Brown to a year and a day. Willbros Group has also agreed to pay $32.3 million under a deferred adjudication settlement.

The bribe was made in relation to a $387 million natural gas pipeline project in the Niger Delta known as the Eastern Gas Gathering System. Steph and Brown gave bribes to Nigerian officials to ensure that Willbros was awarded the contract, at one point keeping $1 million in a suitcase.

The prosecution requested consideration for Steph and Brown based on their cooperation with and assistance to the government. Steph told the court that he was doing what his superiors had told him to do.

Brown's attorney pointed out at the sentencing hearing that Brown had been threatened, kidnapped, beaten and shot at while in Nigeria. The court noted the corrupt conditions in Nigeria, observing that one of the Nigerian officials bribed is currently running for office. However, the court stated that it wanted to send a message to the business community in sentencing Steph and Brown.

Another former executive, Kenneth Tillery, remains a fugitive in the case.

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