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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Aaron Wilbert Freeman of Rome, Georgia, pled guilty last week in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia to one count of conspiracy and one count of wire fraud after a jury had been selected in his trial, according to a press release by the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Northern District of Georgia,  Freeman operated a "scale house" for the Temple-Inland Company where trucks carrying timber were weighed and drivers were issued a "scale ticket" as proof of delivery of the timber. Freeman was alleged to have manipulated the scale house's computer system to note multiple deliveries of timber where in fact there was only a single delivery. Freeman allegedly recruited delivery drivers, co-defendants Kevin Fields, Jason Joseph, Roger Carthern, Andrew Carthern, David Carthern, Robert Frank Ferguson and Bonner Tate to redeem false scale tickets with timber suppliers. The alleged co-conspirators are alleged to have laundered the monies gained through various accounts, and to have split the profits with Freeman. The scheme allegedly netted approximately $4 million. All of the defendants were indicted in November of 2009.

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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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