S. Dartmouth Man Guilty In Widower Loan Scam

BrocktonPost
BOSTON - A South Dartmouth man was convicted by a federal jury Wednesday of trying to bilk an elderly widower out of part of his retirement savings and all of an $85,000 loan falsely taken to buy land in Maine.
Richard Souza, 46, of South Dartmouth, was convicted Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Boston and is scheduled for sentencing May 23, according to a state from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston.
The money used in the crime originally came from the retirement savings of an elderly widower whom Souza had befriended.
Souza persuaded the man to use approximately a quarter of his retirement savings to purchase a property in Maine, as well as to take out a loan of over $85,000 by using the property as collateral.
Souza took the loan proceeds for himself and removed the majority of the proceeds from his account to avoid reporting rules that require banks to report cash transactions of over $10,000.
In 2006, Souza withdrew the majority of the proceeds of the Maine property loan in six separate cash
withdrawals of $9,000 each from five different Sovereign Bank branches in the New Bedford area during a two hour period.
Souza faces up to five years in federal prison to be followed by three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.

Illegal Catch Gets Conn. Fisherman $10,000 Fine

BrocktonPost
BOSTON--A Connecticut man was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Boston for trafficking in and making false records for 12,140 pounds of illegally harvested Atlantic striped bass.
Daniel B. Birkbeck, 47, of North Stonington, Conn., was sentenced to serve one year of probation and pay a $10,000 fine as part of a plea agreement, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston.
Birkbeck agreed to forfeit $5,000 in lieu of forfeiting the boat and truck that he used to commit the fishery crimes.
In November 2011, Birkbeck pleaded guilty to a felony charge of transporting and selling 12,140 pounds of striped bass in interstate commerce from Rhode Island to Massachusetts and knowing that the bass were harvested illegally.
Birkbeck, who is licensed as a commercial fisherman in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts, harvested striped bass in Rhode Island waters after the Rhode Island commercial fishing season had closed and transported those fish to Massachusetts for sale.
Birkbeck falsely reported to the Massachusetts Division of MarineFisheries that he had legally harvested the striped bass in Massachusetts waters.
The Lacey Act makes it a crime for a person to knowingly transport and sell fish in interstate commerce when the fish was taken or possessed in violation of state law.
Furthermore, the act also makes it a crime for a person to knowingly make or submit a false record, account, or label for fish which has been transported in interstate commerce.
Commercial fishing for striped bass in Massachusetts and Rhode Island is governed by a quota system overseen by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.
The quota system was enacted in response to declining striped bass populations.
Since 2003, Massachusetts' commercial striped bass quota is about five times that of Rhode Island, and thus, the commercial striped bass season is open longer in Massachusetts than in Rhode Island.

36 Face Racketeering Charges In NY Insurance Scam

BrocktonPost
BROCKTON
Law enforcement officials in New York announced Wednesday charges against 36 defendants involved in a systematic scheme to defraud private insurance companies of more than $279 million under New York’s no-fault automobile insurance law.
The indictment includes racketeering charges against eight members and associates of a criminal organization consisting primarily of individuals of Russian descent who were the owners and controllers of fraudulent medical clinics, as well as 10 licensed doctors and three attorneys.
The alleged scheme identified Wednesday is the largest single no-fault automobile insurance fraud ever charged, and the first case of its kind to allege violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO Act, officials said in a prepared statement.
All of the defendants were arrested this morning in connection with today’s charges.
Thirty-five were taken into custody in New York and New Jersey and were expected to be arraigned in Manhattan federal court this afternoon.
One defendant was arrested in Duluth, Minnesota and will be arraigned Friday in a Minnesota federal court.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “Today’s charges expose a colossal criminal trifecta, as the fraud’s tentacles simultaneously reached into the medical system, the legal system, and the insurance system, pulling out cash to fund the defendants’ lavish lifestyles," he said in the statement.
"As alleged, the scheme relied on a cadre of corrupt doctors who essentially peddled their medical licenses like a corner fraudster might sell fake IDs, except those medical licenses allowed unlawful entry, not to a club or a bar, but to a multi-billion-dollar pool of insurance proceeds,” Bharara said.
FBI Assistant Director in Charge Janice K. Fedarcyk said: “Our investigation uncovered a pattern of lucrative fraud exploiting New York’s no-fault auto insurance system to the tune of more than a quarter-of-a-billion dollars."
The criminal enterprise, while it lasted, was obscenely profitable, Fedarcyk said, adding the scheme not only unjustly enriched the defendants and defrauded insurance companies.
NYPD Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said: “Our undercover officers were treated like thousands of other ‘patients’ receiving therapy, tests, and medical equipment they didn’t need."
The following allegations are based on the unsealed indictment and other documents filed today in Manhattan federal court:
Under New York state law, every vehicle registered in the state is required to have no-fault automobile insurance, which enables the driver and passengers of a registered and insured vehicle to obtain benefits of up to $50,000 per person for injuries sustained in an automobile accident, regardless of fault--the “No-Fault Law”.
The No-Fault Law requires prompt payment for medical treatment, thereby obviating the need for claimants to file personal injury lawsuits in order to be reimbursed.
Under the No-Fault Law, patients can assign their right to reimbursement from an insurance company to others, including medical clinics that provide treatment for their injuries.
New York state law also requires that all medical clinics in the state be incorporated, owned, operated, and/or controlled by a licensed medical practitioner in order to be eligible for reimbursement under the No-Fault Law.
Insurance companies will not honor claims for medical treatments from a medical clinic that is not actually owned, operated, and/or controlled by a licensed medical practitioner.
From at least 2007 through 2012, the so-called No-Fault Organization--the group of arrestees--has engaged in a massive and sophisticated scheme to defraud automobile insurance companies of hundreds of millions of dollars by, among other things, creating and operating medical clinics that provided unnecessary and excessive medical treatments in order to take advantage of the No-Fault Law.
In order to mislead New York authorities and private insurers, the true owners of these medical clinics “Clinic Controllers”, almost all of whom were also members and associates of a criminal organization consisting primarily of individuals of Russian descent, paid licensed medical practitioners, including doctors, to use their licenses to incorporate the professional corporations, through which the medical clinics billed the private insurers for the bogus medical treatments.
These doctors effectively operated as “straw owners” of the clinics.
The Clinic Controllers paid thousands of dollars in kickbacks to runners who recruited automobile accident passengers to receive medically unnecessary treatments from the no-fault clinics.
They also instructed the clinic doctors/straw owners to prescribe excessive and unwarranted referrals for various “modality treatments” for every patient they saw.
The treatments included physical therapy, acupuncture, and chiropractic treatments—as many as five times per week for each—and treatments for psychology, neurology, orthopedics, and audiology.
Clinic doctors also prescribed unnecessary MRI’s, x-rays, orthopedics, and medical supplies. The Clinic Controllers received thousands of dollars in kickbacks for patient referrals from the owners of the modality clinics (“Modality Controllers”), who were members and associates of the same criminal organization to which the members of the No-Fault Organization and Clinic Controllers belonged.
The Clinic Controllers also referred patients to personal injury lawyers who filed bogus lawsuits on behalf of the patients and coached them on what injuries to claim in order to get as many treatments as possible. The personal injury lawyers also paid the Clinic Controllers thousands of dollars in kickbacks for these referrals.
In order to conceal and disguise the millions of dollars in claims paid by the automobile insurance companies, the members of the No-Fault Organization laundered the money through shell companies and corrupt check-cashing services.
Often, checks would be written from the No-Fault or Modality Clinics with the payee line left blank, and in amounts less than $10,000 in order to avoid potential financial institution reporting requirements and other scrutiny.
The checks were then cashed through check-cashers who made the checks payable to shell companies they controlled in order to conceal the true nature and purpose of the checks. The cash was then returned to members of the No-Fault Organization to fund kickbacks and for their personal use.
At other times, the members and associates of the No-Fault Organization paid themselves through their own shell companies and then used the criminal proceeds to fund expensive vacations and to purchase luxury goods.
A chart identifying each defendant, the charges, and the maximum penalties, is below. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken.
Count Charge Maximum Penalty
Count one RICO conspiracy (mail fraud and money laundering) 20 years
Count two Conspiracy to commit health care fraud 10 years
Count three Conspiracy to commit mail fraud 20 years
Count four Conspiracy to commit money laundering 20 years
Defendant Age/Residence Alleged Role in the Scheme Charges Maximum Penalty
Mikhail Zemlyansky 35/Hewlett, NY Clinic/modality controller Counts one, two, three, four 70 years
Michael Danilovich 38/Brooklyn, NY Clinic/modality controller Counts one, two, three, four 70 years
Yuriy Zayonts 40/Staten Island, NY Clinic/modality controller Counts one, two, three, four 70 years
Mikhail Kremerman 41/Staten Island, NY Clinic/modality controller Counts one, two, three, four 70 years
Matthew Conroy 42/Melville, NY Attorney Counts one, two, three, four 70 years
Michael Barukhin 32/Brooklyn, NY Clinic/modality controller Counts one, two, three, four 70 years
Mikhail Ostrumsky 42/Brooklyn/NY Clinic controller Counts one, two, three, four 70 years
Boris Treysler 42/Brooklyn/NY Clinic controller Counts one, two, three, four 70 years
Andrey Anikeyev 37/Fort Lee, NJ Modality controller Counts two, three, four 50 years
Vladimir Grinberg 35/Staten Island, NY Modality controller Counts two, three, four 50 years
Vladislav Zaretskiy 40/Staten Island, NY Clinic/modality controller Counts two, three, four 50 years
Yevgeniy Shuman 33/Brooklyn, NY Clinic manager Counts two, three, four 50 years
Dmitry Slobodyansky 41/Brooklyn, NY Modality controller Counts two, three, four 50 years
Alexander Sandler 57/East Brunswick, NJ Clinic controller Counts two, three 30 years
Gregory Mikhalov 56/Brooklyn, NY Modality controller Counts two, three 30 years
Michael Morgan 33/Port Washington, NY Modality controller Counts two, three 30 years
Mark Danilovich 60/Brooklyn, NY Modality controller Counts two, three 30 years
Jeffrey Lereah 56/Suffern, NY Modality manager Counts two, three 30 years
Dmitry Lipis 44/Brooklyn, NY Clinic manager Counts two, three 30 years
Lynda Tadder 34/Brooklyn, NY Clinic manager Counts two, three 30 years
Maria Diglio 47/Garden City, NY Attorney Counts two, three 30 years
Sol Naimark 53/Flushing, NY Attorney Counts two, three 30 years
Sergey Gabinsky 54/Brooklyn, NY Doctor Counts two, three 30 years
Tatyana Gabinskaya 57/Brooklyn, NY Doctor Counts two, three 30 years
Joseph Vitoulis 42/Valley Stream, NY Doctor Counts two, three 30 years
Lauretta Grzegorczyk 64/Staten Island, NY Doctor Counts two, three 30 years
Eva Gateva 48/Bronx, NY Doctor Counts two, three 30 years
Zuheir Said 64/Bronx, NY Doctor Counts two, three 30 years
David Thomas 42/Hopewell Junction/NY Doctor Counts two, three 30 years
Billy Geris 53/Morganville, NJ Doctor Counts two, three 30 years
Mark Shapiro 46/Brooklyn, NY Doctor Counts two, three 30 years
Robert Della Badia 72/South Salem, NY Doctor Counts two, three 30 years
Michelle Glick 33/Duluth, MN Acupuncture practitioner Counts two, three 30 years
Pavel Poznansky 52/Brooklyn, NY Acupuncture practitioner Counts two, three 30 years
Chad Greenshner 45/Flushing, NY Chiropractic practitioner Counts two, three 30 years
Constantine Voytenko 40/Brooklyn, NY Chiropractic practitioner Counts two, three 30 years

Sex Offender Faces 10 Years For Non-Registration in Mass.

BrocktonPost
Boston--A Kentucky man convicted of a sex offense in 1996 was charged and arrested Thursday, Feb. 23 in federal court with failure to register as a sex offender.
Robert Lee Bowdre, 41, of Louisville, Kentucky., and recently of New Bedford, Mass., was
charged in a criminal complaint with failure to register as a sex offender, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The criminal complaint alleges that between June 17, 2011 and Feb. 8, 2012, Bowdre, who allegedly was required to register as a sex offender, traveled from state-to-state for business, and knowingly failed to register and update his registration.
According to court documents, Bowdre was convicted in 1996 of 1st degree rape and 1st degree sodomy in Kentucky.
If convicted on these charges, Bowdre faces up to 10 years in prison, to be followed by
up to a lifetime supervised release and a $250,000 fine.
Bowdre remains in custody on the federal charge and is scheduled for a detention hearing March 1 in U.S. District Court in Boston.

U.S. Seeks 50 In Puerto Rico On Identity Theft Charges

BrocktonPost WASHINGTON — Fifty individuals from the Savarona area of Puerto Rico to points all across the U.S., including Dorchester, Lawrence, Worcester and Salem are being sought for arrest and face charges in an alleged identity fraud ring to sell Social Security Cards and birth certificates of Puerto Rican U.S. citizens to buyers in the U.S. who fraudulently obtain driver’s licenses, credit cards, passports, and visas. A coalition of federal, state, and local law enforcement officials and agencies led by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, announced today in a prepared statement that 50 men and women were charged in an indictment unsealed in Puerto Rico. "The alleged conspiracy stretched across the United States and Puerto Rico, using suppliers, identity brokers and mail and money runners to fill and deliver orders for the personal identifying information and government-issued identity documents of Puerto Rican U.S. citizens,” said Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department's Criminal Division—one of the agencies involved in the investigation leading up to today’s indictment. “Those willing to buy and sell personal identifying information and documents should take notice of today's actions. The department and our law enforcement partners will not allow this kind of illegal activity to continue," Breuer said in the prepared statement. The indictment alleges that various identity brokers were operating in Rockford, Ill.; Indianapolis; DeKalb, Ill.; Columbus and Seymour, Ind.; Aurora, Ill.; Hartford, Conn.; Clewiston, Fla.; Lilburn and Norcross, Ga.; Salisbury, Md.; Columbus, Ohio; Fairfield, Ohio; Dorchester, Mass.; Lawrence, Mass.; Salem, Mass.; Worcester, Mass.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Nebraska City, Neb.; Elizabeth, N.J.; Burlington, N.C.; Hickory, N.C.; Hazelton, Pa.; Philadelphia; Houston; and Abingdon, Va. The one-count indictment was returned by a federal grand jury on Dec. 29, 2011, and unsealed today. Defendants were arrested today in multiple districts throughout the United States and Puerto Rico and will make initial appearances in federal court in the districts in which they were arrested. In addition, law enforcement agents executed searches as part of an ongoing investigation. The suspects are being charged with conspiracy to commit identification fraud in connection with their alleged roles in a scheme to traffic the identities of Puerto Rican U.S. citizens and corresponding identity documents. The charges are the result of an extensive investigation led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), in partnership with other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, as well as forfeiture. According to the indictment, from at least April 2009 to December 2011, conspirators in 15 states and Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, trafficked the identities of Puerto Rican U.S. citizens, corresponding Social Security cards, Puerto Rico birth certificates and other identification documents to undocumented aliens and others residing in the United States. The indictment alleges conspirators located in the Savarona area of Caguas, Puerto Rico (Savarona suppliers) obtained the Puerto Rican identities and corresponding identity documents. Conspirators in various locations throughout the United States (identity brokers) solicited customers. The identity brokers allegedly sold Social Security cards and corresponding Puerto Rico birth certificates for prices ranging from $700 to $2,500 per set. The indictment alleges that identity brokers ordered the identity documents from Savarona suppliers, on behalf of the customers, by making coded telephone calls, including using terms such as "shirts," "uniforms" or "clothes," to refer to identity documents. Specifically, the brokers asked for "skirts" for female customers and "pants" for male customers in various "sizes," which referred to the ages of the identities sought by the customers. According to the indictment, the Savarona suppliers generally requested that customers' initial payments be sent by the identity brokers through a money transfer service to persons whose names were provided by the Savarona suppliers. Savarona suppliers allegedly retrieved the payments from the money transfer service and then sent the identity documents to the brokers using express, priority or regular U.S. mail. The indictment alleges that various conspirators sent or received money and mail parcels. The conspirators frequently confirmed sender names and addresses, money transfer control numbers and trafficked identities via text messaging. According to the indictment, once the identity brokers received the identity documents, they delivered the documents to the customers and obtained second payments. The brokers generally kept the second payments for themselves as profit. Some identity brokers allegedly assumed a Puerto Rican identity themselves, and used that identity in connection with the trafficking operation. As alleged in the indictment, the customers generally obtained the identity documents to assume the identity of Puerto Rican U.S. citizens and to obtain additional identification documents, such as legitimate state driver's licenses. Some customers allegedly obtained the documents to commit financial fraud and attempted to obtain a U.S. passport. The charges were announced by ICE Director John Morton; Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department's Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Rosa E. Rodríguez-Vélez for the District of Puerto Rico; Chief Postal Inspector Guy Cottrell of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS); Scott P. Bultrowicz, Director of the U.S. State Department's Diplomatic Security Service (DSS); and Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Acting Chief Rick Raven. "The Diplomatic Security Service is firmly committed to working with our law enforcement partners to investigate and bring to justice those who commit document trafficking and identity fraud," said Director Bultrowicz of the U.S. State Department's Diplomatic Security Service. "Fraudulently-obtained documents are frequently used to apply for U.S. passports and visas, two of the most coveted travel documents in the world," he noted. The charges announced today are the result of Operation Island Express, an ongoing, nationally-coordinated investigation led by the ICE HSI Chicago office, in partnership with USPIS, DSS and IRS-CI offices in Chicago. The investigation was also coordinated with the ICE HSI San Juan office. The Illinois Secretary of State Police; Elgin, Ill., Police Department; Seymour, Ind., Police Department; and Indiana State Police provided substantial assistance. The ICE HSI Assistant Attaché office in the Dominican Republic, National Drug Intelligence Center - Document and Media Exploitation Branch and International Organized Crime Intelligence and Operations Center (IOC-2) provided invaluable assistance as well as various ICE, USPIS, DSS and IRS CI offices around the country. The case is being prosecuted by the Criminal Division's Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section, with the assistance of the Criminal Division's Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section, and the support of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Puerto Rico. The U.S. Attorneys' Offices in the Northern District of Illinois, Southern District of Indiana and District of Connecticut provided substantial assistance. The U.S. Attorneys' Offices in the Middle District of Florida, Southern District of Florida, Northern District of Georgia, Western District of Kentucky, District of Maryland, District of Massachusetts, Western District of Michigan, District of Nebraska, District of New Jersey, Western District of North Carolina, Southern District of Ohio, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Middle District of Pennsylvania, Southern District of Texas, Eastern District of Virginia, Southern District of Illinois, Western District of Texas, Middle District of Louisiana and Western District of Virginia also provided invaluable support. A website will be established to provide information about the case to potential victims and the public. Anyone who believes their identity may have been compromised in relation to this investigation may contact the ICE toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE (1-866-347-2423) and its online tip form at www.ice.gov/tipline. Anyone who may have information about particular crimes in this case should also report it to the ICE tip line or website. Anyone who believes that they have been a victim of identity theft, or wants information about preventing identity theft, may obtain helpful information and complaint forms on various government websites including the Federal Trade Commission ID Theft Website, www.ftc.gov/idtheft. Additional resources regarding identity theft can be found at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/pubs/ID_theft/idtheft.html; http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10064.html; http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/cyber/identity_theft; and http://www.irs.gov/privacy/article/0,,id=186436,00.html. An indictment is merely a formal accusation. Defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.

MIT Computer Hacker Faces Charges

BrocktonPost
BOSTON--A federal indictment unsealed Tuesday has charged a Cambridge man with
computer intrusion, fraud, and data theft in computer hacking incidents that targeted the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and JSTOR, a not-for-profit archive of scientific journals and academic work.
Aaron Swartz, 24, was charged in an indictment with wire fraud, computer fraud,
unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer, and recklessly damaging a
protected computer.
The indictment alleges Swartz illegally accessed and distributed more than 4 million scientific works from JSTOR.
If convicted on these charges, SWARTZ faces up to 35 years in prison, to
be followed by three years of supervised release, restitution, forfeiture and a fine of up to $1 million.
“Stealing is stealing whether you use a computer command or a crowbar, and whether you take documents, data or dollars. It is equally harmful to the victim whether you sell what you have stolen or give it away,” said U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz in a prepared statement.
The indictment alleges between September 24, 2010, and January 6, 2011, Swartz
contrived to break into a restricted computer wiring closet in a basement at MIT and to access
MIT’s network without authorization from a computer switch within that closet.
He is charged with doing this in order to download a major portion of JSTOR’s archive of digitized academic journal articles onto his computers and hard drives.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization that has invested heavily in providing an online system for archiving, accessing, and searching digitized copies of over 1,000 academic journals.
It is alleged that Swartz avoided MIT’s and JSTOR’s security efforts in order to distribute a significant proportion of JSTOR’s archive through one or more file-sharing sites.
The indictment alleges that Swartz’s repeated automatic downloads impaired JSTOR’s
computers, brought down some of its servers, and deprived various computers at MIT from accessing JSTOR’s research.
Even after JSTOR and MIT worked to block Swartz’s computers, Swartz allegedly returned with new methods for accessing JSTOR and downloading articles.
The indictment alleges that Swartz exploited MIT’s computer system to steal over four
million articles from JSTOR, even though Swartz was not affiliated with MIT as a student,faculty member, or employee.
In fact, during these events, Swartz was allegedly a fellow at a Boston-area university, through which he could have accessed JSTOR’s services and archive for legitimate research.
At this time, the government is unaware of any personal identifying information having been stolen from JSTOR as a result of SWARTZ’s alleged actions.

Canadian Doctor Pleads Quilty In Illegal HGH Sports Injury Treatments

BrocktonPost
BUFFALO, N.Y.--A Canadian doctor has pleaded guilty to a felony charge of treating American baseball, football, golf and other professional athletes with illegal human growth steroids in violation of several U.S. laws and will face up to three years in jail.
According to a release from U.S. Immigration and Customs, or ICE, Dr. Anthony Galea, 51, of Toronto, Canada, entered his guilty plea Wednesday, July 6 before U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara in Buffalo, N.Y., and faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and forfeiture of $275,000.
In the original affidavit from May, 18, 2010, Galea faced a maximum of 20 years for smuggling charges.
The drugs included human growth hormone, or HGH, and Actovegin, a derivative of calf's blood.
Media reports have said Galea was a former doctor to golfer Tiger Woods and New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez.
The charge stems from an investigation led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations.
Galea admitted traveling to the U.S. numerous times from 2007 through September 2009in order to provide medical treatments to professional athletes, including players in the National Football League and Major League Baseball.
The affidavit supporting the complaint alleges that Galea, who is not a U.S. citizen and who is not authorized to work in the United States, repeatedly entered the United States from 2007 to September 2009 in order to treat numerous professional athletes in the country. The athletes were said to be from Major League Baseball, the National Football League, and the Professional Golfers' Association.
It was alleged that Galea's billings to three athletes from the NFL alone amounted to approximately $200,000.
Galea, who is not licensed to practice medicine in the U.S., admitted traveling to 13locations, including New York City, Miami, Washington, D.C., and Boston to administer four different kinds of treatments.
One type of treatment involved injecting athletes with a mixture containing HGH, while a second type of treatment involved injections of Actovegin.
Federal law requires that drugs intended for human consumption, such as prescription medicines, must be approved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration.
Human growth hormone is not approved by the FDA as a treatment for sports injuries and is banned by most professional sports leagues, including the NFL and MLB.
Actovegin is not approved for any use in humans.
Also participating in this ICE HSI investigation were the FBI; FDA, Office of Criminal Investigations; and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
On June 24, 2010, Mary Anne Catalano, an employee of the defendant in Canada, pleaded guilty before Judge Arcara to making false statements at the border. Catalano is awaiting sentencing in this case.
Judge Arcara scheduled sentencing for October 19, 2011 at 12:30 pm. Galea was released pending sentencing.