Showing posts with label Ken Cuccinelli. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ken Cuccinelli. Show all posts

Friday, August 14, 2020

By Law & Order - DHS, GAO & OIG Transposable Model Of Armiger

By what right do you hold the public trust of office?

Is it time for those extraordinary writs in questioning armiger?

Me thinketh so.

There is a hierarchic structure in the heavens, and when the administration of justice is usurped, by the most nefariously, dubious means and methods, the heavens must fall, in order of law.

#maytheheavensfall



GAO finds acting DHS chief Chad Wolf, deputy Cuccinelli invalidly appointed to posts

GAO said it was referring the matter to the department's inspector general

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Friday said that the appointments of acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and acting Deputy Ken Cuccinelli were made invalidly -- raising questions about the legality of decisions made during their tenures.

“Because the incorrect official assumed the title of Acting Secretary at that time, subsequent amendments to the order of succession made by that official were invalid and officials who assumed their positions under such amendments, including Chad Wolf and Kenneth Cuccinelli, were named by reference to an invalid order of succession,” the report, by Congress' investigative body, concluded.

The GAO investigated how the Trump administration filled posts at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) without Senate confirmation.

It found that, when then-DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned in April 2019, the order of succession dictated that it should have been the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) who took over. Instead, President Trump appointed Kevin McAleenan -- who was then the head of Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The opinion found that DHS mistakenly referred to regulations that spelled out the process for a disaster or catastrophic emergency, rather than an executive order that governed the typical order of succession.

“Mr. McAleenan would have been the appropriate official had Secretary Nielsen been unavailable to act during a disaster or catastrophic emergency. That was not the case here,” the report said.

Before he resigned, McAleenan revised the process to allow combine the two processes -- allowing Wolf and Cuccinelli to be appointed. But, the GAO found, because McAleenan was invalidly appointed, so were the changes he made to the order of succession.

“As such, Mr. McAleenan did not have the authority to amend the Secretary’s existing designation. Accordingly, Messrs. Wolf and Cuccinelli were named to their respective positions of Acting Secretary and Senior Official Performing the Duties of Deputy Secretary by reference to an invalid order of succession, it said.

“We wholeheartedly disagree with the GAO’s baseless report and plan to issue a formal response to this shortly," a DHS spokesperson told Fox News.

The opinion is not binding but is likely to raise questions about the legality of decisions made by Wolf and Cuccinelli during their times at head of the department since taking their posts in November last year -- questions likely to be seized on by those who oppose the Trump administration's tough actions on illegal immigration and its crackdown on violence against federal property in Portland.

GAO said it was not reviewing the legality of the actions taken by the officials and is instead referring it to the department's inspector general.

Under Wolf, the department has taken a number of moves to crack down on illegal immigration at the border and has made a number of agreements with countries south of the border to step the flow of migrants -- including a series of asylum cooperative agreements (ACA) with Northern Triangle countries.

Recently, Wolf’s DHS also ramped up federal presence in Portland and other cities in response to violence aimed at federal property. Federal law enforcement recently agreed with Oregon officials to scale back presence in Portland as long as the federal courthouse officers had been protecting could be kept safe.


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Sunday, November 25, 2012

VA AG Cuccinelli Stops Another Million Dollar CPS Medicaid Fraud Scheme

Cuccinelli does it again! 

Mental Health Service Provider Sentenced to 48 Months for Conspiracy to Commit Health Care Fraud

RICHMOND, Va. – Joseph T. Hackett, 32, of Asheville, N.C., was sentenced today to 48 months in prison, followed by a term of three years of supervised release, for Conspiracy to Commit Health Care Fraud.  He also agreed to forfeit $1,570,041.60 and pay $1,570,041.60 in restitution to the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services.

            Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; and Kenneth T. Cuccinelli, Attorney General of Virginia, made the announcement after sentencing by United States District Judge Henry E. Hudson.  Hackett pled guilty on August 13, 2012.

            According to Court documents, Hackett owned and operated Access Regional Taskforce (“ART”), a Richmond-based Medicaid contracted provider of Intensive In-home Therapy Services for children and adolescents.  Intensive In-home Therapy Services, one of the many mental health services offered by Medicaid in Virginia, are designed to assist youth and adolescents who are at risk of being removed from their homes, or are being returned to their homes after removal, because of significant mental health, behavioral, or emotional issues.  Medicaid requires that Intensive In-home Therapy Service providers employ qualified mental health workers to provide a medically necessary service to at-risk children and adolescents.

      In a statement of facts filed with the plea agreement, Hackett acknowledged that, through ART, he billed Medicaid for services that were not reimbursable because the services did not address a child’s specific mental health issues, were not provided by qualified mental health workers, and were not provided to children who were in actual need of the offered service.  Hackett acknowledged that Medicaid paid ART at least $1,570,041.60 that ART was not entitled to receive.  In addition, he admitted in the statement of facts that Hackett paid Creed Xtreme Marketing Concepts, a.k.a. Creed Extreme Marketing, $545,410.00 for patient referrals.  The owner of Creed, Lorie T. Monroe, was sentenced on June 12, 2012 to 37 months of imprisonment for receiving these referral payments. 
The case was investigated by the Virginia Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance.  Special Assistant United States Attorney Joseph E.H. Atkinson and Assistant United States Attorney Jessica Aber Brumberg prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.

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Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Virginia AG Cuccinelli Recovers $2 Million In Child Welfare Medicaid Fraud


Over my 10 years of monitoring the States Attorney General and how they deal with Medicaid fraud in child welfare, I must announce that I found my second superstar of child welfare false claims prosecutions and recoveries of Medicaid fraud, The Commonwealth of Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.  Roy Cooper will always be #1 in my book.

Which Attorney General wants to be number 3?  Any nominations?  Any predictions?

Mental health service provider pleads guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud

Virginia Attorney General
Ken Cuccinelli 
RICHMOND (August 13, 2012) - Today, a Richmond-based mental health service provider plead guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud for billing Medicaid for services that were not reimbursable because the services did not address a child's specific mental health issues, were not provided by qualified mental health workers, and were not provided to children who were in actual need of the offered service. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Neil MacBride announced that Joseph T. Hackett, 31, of Asheville, N.C., plead guilty to one count of Conspiracy to Commit Health Care Fraud after the plea was accepted by United States District Judge Henry E. Hudson.

Hackett faces a maximum penalty of five years of imprisonment when he is sentenced on November 13, 2012.  He also agreed to pay $1,570,041 in restitution to the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS), the state agency charged with overseeing the Medicaid program in Virginia.

Hackett admitted that he owned and operated Access Regional Taskforce (ART), a Richmond-based Medicaid contracted provider of intensive in-home therapy services for children and adolescents, one of the many mental health services offered by Medicaid in Virginia. Intensive in-home therapy services are designed to assist youth and adolescents who are at risk of being removed from their homes, or are being returned to their homes after removal, because of significant mental health, behavioral, or emotional issues.  Medicaid requires that intensive in-home therapy providers employ qualified metal health workers to provide a medically necessary service to at-risk children and adolescents.

Hackett, through ART, billed Medicaid for services that were not reimbursable because the services did not address a child's specific mental health issues, were not provided by qualified mental health workers, and were not provided to children who were in actual need of the offered service.  Hackett admitted that Medicaid paid ART at least $1,570,041 that ART was not entitled to receive.  In addition, Hackett paid Creed Xtreme Marketing Concepts, a.k.a. Creed Extreme Marketing, $545,410 for patient referrals.  The owner of Creed, Lorie T. Monroe, was sentenced to 37 months of imprisonment for receiving these referral payments.

The case was investigated by the Virginia attorney general's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Virginia Assistant Attorney General and Special Assistant United States Attorney Joseph E.H. Atkinson and Assistant United States Attorney Jessica Aber Brumberg prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on https://pcl.uscourts.gov. 


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