Norfolk FBI Celebrates Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month

On May 31, 2012, the Norfolk FBI celebrated Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month at the Norfolk Field Office to pay tribute to the generations of Asian and Pacific Islanders who have enriched America’s history.

Special guest Delegate Ron Villanueva spoke about the history of Asian-Pacific Heritage Month and his personal experiences growing up in the United States as a Filipino American. Delegate Villanueva was the first Filipino-American elected to Virginia state government.

Other guests included Mr. Nony Abrajano, Regional Chair, National Federation of Filipino Associations of America, and Mr. Leo Bierneza, who performed special music. “Our lives are enhanced when we understand and appreciate many cultures,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge John Boles.

Each year, the Norfolk FBI promotes social and cultural diversity by organizing special-emphasis programs for its employees. This year’s theme is “Striving for Excellence in Leadership, Diversity, and Inclusion.”

Gardendale Woman Indicted for Bank Fraud and Tax Evasion

BIRMINGHAM—A federal grand jury today indicted a Gardendale woman on charges related to the embezzlement of more than $600,000 from her employer, U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance; Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division Special Agent in Charge Rodney E. Clarke; and FBI Special Agent in Charge Patrick J. Maley announced.

Donna Taylor, 49, is charged with bank fraud and tax evasion in a 15-count indictment filed today in the U.S. District Court.

Taylor was the office secretary for Wilbert of Birmingham LLC. Between 2007 and April 2010, Taylor embezzled about $645,217 from her employer and failed to report this amount on her tax returns, according to the indictment.

The IRS and the FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth A. Holt is prosecuting the case.

Members of the public are reminded that an indictment contains only charges. A defendant is presumed innocent of the charges, and it will be the government’s burden to prove a defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.

Journey Through Indian Country Part 1

Fighting Crime on Tribal Lands

Driving along a remote dirt road on the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico recently, a rancher crested a ridge and noticed two animals intent on something in a nearby ditch. As he approached, one of the scavengers loped away—the other looked up, its mouth glistening with blood. The rancher guessed one of his sheep had been attacked, but he soon discovered something much different: the discarded body of a murder victim. It was going to be another busy day for our agents in Indian Country.

By law, the FBI is responsible for investigating the most serious crimes within Indian Country—homicide, child sexual assault, and violence against women among them. The numbers of such offenses are striking: approximately one out of every four violent crimes prosecuted federally by the Department of Justice occurs on Indian reservations.

Investigating crimes on native lands poses a unique challenge for FBI personnel and their law enforcement partners. Working in Indian Country, as we call it, often means operating in isolated, forbidding terrain where cultural differences abound. Some older Native American people, for example, do not speak English. Dwellings may lack electricity or running water. On many reservations there are few paved roads or marked streets. Agents might be called to a crime scene in the middle of the night 120 miles away and given these directions: “Go 10 miles off the main road, turn right at the pile of tires, and go up the hill.” In some areas, crime scenes are so remote that cell phones and police radios don’t work.

Investigators must also deal with the emotional strain of the work—the brutality and frequency of the crimes can take a toll.

“The work our people are doing on the reservations is truly front-line,” said Carol K.O. Lee, special agent in charge of our Albuquerque office. “Agents have to be independent and adaptable to get the job done, because even with the excellent help of our law enforcement partners like the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the territory is so vast you rarely have the resources you need.”

Nationwide, the FBI has investigative responsibilities for about 200 federally recognized Indian reservations. More than 100 agents in 19 of the Bureau’s 56 field offices work Indian Country matters full time—and we’ve represented federal law enforcement on tribal lands since the 1920s. In New Mexico, home to a portion of the Navajo Nation—the largest reservation in the country, occupying an area bigger than the state of West Virginia—agents investigate cases against a backdrop of majestic mesas and stark beauty.

The murdered man mentioned above was found eight miles from the nearest paved road, not far from the landmark Shiprock formation sacred to the Navajo people. “The victim went out drinking with a bunch of guys and ended up dead,” said Special Agent Mike Harrigan, who supervises an Indian Country squad. The body has been identified and the death has been ruled a homicide, Harrigan explained, and investigators are tracking down leads. He noted that if the rancher hadn’t happened by, or the body had been dumped a few feet further from the road, “there is a good chance the victim never would have been discovered. Unfortunately, killings like this are all too common in Indian Country.”

Despite the difficulties they face, the dedication and commitment of FBI personnel in Indian Country has helped make Native American communities safer, said Special Agent in Charge Lee. “We have a long way to go, but we are definitely making a difference.”

‘Gravity of Violence’

Ken Gonzales, New Mexico’s U.S. Attorney, points out that there are “a lot of good things happening in Indian Country, a lot of efforts by our Native-American leaders to bring jobs to the reservations and to improve access to education.”

But the state’s top law enforcement officer is also painfully aware of the “gravity of violence” seen on Indian reservations. “It’s a kind of brutality that I don’t think a lot of people understand completely,” he said. “It’s really quite startling.”

Homicides, child sexual assaults, and domestic violence against women are commonplace, Gonzales said. “It’s widely known that Native American women suffer violent crime at a rate three and a half times greater than the national average. One third of all Native American women will be raped in their lifetimes. So these are serious issues.”

Gonzales said that since becoming U.S. Attorney in 2010, “I’ve put the work of Indian Country very high on my list of things to get done. I created a stand-alone section—we call it our Indian Country Crime Section—and we’ve stocked it with some of our best and brightest Assistant U.S. Attorneys. Their job is to do nothing but Indian Country work.”

The prosecutors work closely with the FBI. “We maintain a very regular and open line of communication with the agents working in Indian Country,” Gonzales said. “So it makes for a very good working relationship. The FBI has a very strong presence in many of these communities. They have been doing very difficult work, and doing it in a very good way, for many years. My office relies tremendously on their expertise.”

Next: Investigators, ambassadors, and role models.

CBP and World BASC Organization Sign Joint Statement

Herndon, Virginia — U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the World Business Alliance for Secure Commerce Organization (World BASC) signed today at CBP’s National Targeting Center a Joint Statement which recognizes the mutually beneficial working relationship of promoting and enhancing supply chain security throughout the Americas and the Caribbean.

CBP Acting Commissioner David V. Aguilar, International World BASC President Fermin Cuza, and Chairman of the Board of Directors for the World BASC Organization Raul Saldias, signed the Joint Statement, which recognizes the value of cooperation between CBP and this private, non-for profit organization in the area of supply chain security.

CBP’s Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program has been partnering very closely with the World BASC Organization for over 10 years now. The signing of this Joint Statement formalizes that relationship and challenges both parties to continue to work together to promote safe and secure world commerce.

“The World BASC Organization with its 2,500 companies in 14 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean helps us to support CBP’s mission of securing the international supply chain by the work that the World BASC does with thousands of companies in the region: counseling and working with these companies so that they are better prepared to successfully face the challenges and threats of the 21st century”, said Acting Commissioner David V. Aguilar.

“We believe that this Joint Statement sends a clear message by the most important Customs administration in the world, that customs and the private sector need to step up their efforts to work together in securing the international supply chain” said Mr. Cuza.

C-TPAT is a voluntary government-business initiative to build cooperative relationships that strengthen and improve overall international supply chain and U.S. border security. C-TPAT recognized that U.S. Customs and Border Protection can provide the highest level of cargo security only through close cooperation with the ultimate owners of the international supply chain such as importers, carriers, consolidators, licensed customs brokers, and manufacturers.

The World BASC Organization is a non-for profit, privately led international business alliance created in 1996 to promote secure international trade in cooperation with governments and international organizations. The BASC currently operates chapters in 14 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean and has a membership of over 2,500 certified companies.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation's borders at and between official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.

McAllen Urologist and Wife Charged with Health Care Fraud

HOUSTON—A federal grand jury has returned a three-count superseding indictment against Dr. Hossein Lahiji and his wife, attorney Najmeh Vahid Lahiji, both of McAllen and San Antonio, Texas, United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson announced today. The indictment, alleging conspiracy to commit health care fraud and health care fraud, was returned just a short time ago in Houston.

The three-count indictment accuses the Lahijis of conspiring to defraud multiple health care benefit programs, specifically Medicare, Medicaid, Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Humana, and United Healthcare from January 2003 through February 24, 2012. The indictment alleges they submitted false and fraudulent claims in connection with the use of unlicensed, unqualified medical personal and billed for medical services not rendered.

The Lahijis allegedly submitted claims to these health care benefit programs for urology services performed by Dr. Lahiji when, in fact, he was actually traveling outside the state of Texas and outside the United States. Individuals who actually performed these “urology services,” according to the indictment, were only licensed as medical assistants and did so without any supervision from any physician or other qualified, licensed personal. This is in violation of protocols established by Medicare, Medicaid, private health insurance, as well as the state of Texas.

The scheme also involved specific days where Dr. Lahiji claimed to treat between 65 to 117 patients per day during the office hours of 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. According to allegations, false and fraudulent representations were made, including that Dr. Lahiji had conducted a “consultation” for another physician when, in fact, he had performed routine medical services for a patient of his own, a practice known as “upcoding.” The indictment further alleges a false representation that the patient’s medical situation had necessitated a comprehensive physical examination and the taking of a comprehensive medical history when the situation had actually not required these actions. Dr. Lahiji did not even perform such an exam nor taken such a history, according to the indictment.

The indictment also contains two substantive counts of health care fraud occurring on July 1, 2009 and July 28, 2009.

Dr. Lahiji is a physican investor in the physican-owned hospital Doctor’s Hospital at Renassiance in Edinburg, Texas, according to public records.

The Lahijis each face a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 on each count, if convicted.

The Lahijis were originally charged in an indictment returned January 11, 2011, in the Southern District of Texas. They are also charged in the District of Oregon on unrelated federal charges. They are currently on bond and are expected to appear in court on these charges in the near future.

The investigation leading to the charges in this case was conducted by the FBI and the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys Carolyn Ferko and Jim McAlister are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until convicted through due process of law.