The VLW Blog

Three former mental health staffers will share a “finders fee” of $1.37 million for their help in uncovering billing fraud at a residential treatment unit for boys. The three were the first to alert government officials to phony Medicaid claims at the Keystone Marion Youth Center. After an investigation, the owner of the facility agreed [...]

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A federal jury has decided former Virginia Beach lawyer Brian Gay stole about $400,000 from the estate of a deceased client. After Monday’s guilty verdict on nine counts, Norfolk U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson revoked Gay’s bond. The Virginian-Pilot reports Gay was led away in handcuffs. Gay had attempted to justify his use of [...]

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Federal authorities in Roanoke Monday arrested former restaurateur Roland “Spanky” Macher on bankruptcy fraud and tax evasion charges. Macher is known as the founder of a chain of “Spanky’s” restaurants in Central and Southwest Virginia. More recently, he gained infamy for towing cars from his parking lot across from Roanoke’s Taubman Museum of Art and [...]

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The University of Virginia’s response to Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s demand for information about global warming research is a petition to set aside the “civil investigative demands” served on the school. The Washington Post reports the motion was filed today in Albemarle County Circuit Court and posts a copy of the 10-page petition and [...]

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Michael Comer, the treasurer of a homeowners group at a Charlottesville-area gated community, is accused of taking more than $666,000 from the organization’s accounts. Comer had been missing since July 1, when he failed to show up for a meeting to discuss an audit of the Glenmore Community Association’s finances, reports The Daily Progress. His [...]

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The Alexandria trial of a former Lousiana Congressman is the first under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He is first and only U.S. public official to be charged under the act, and one of only two individuals in the past five years to go to trial on the charges, reports The Times-Picayune. On Friday, the [...]

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Longtime motorsports leader Larry McClure is off to federal prison for dodging taxes. U.S. Western District Judge James P. Jones sentenced McClure to 18 months for filing a false income tax return, obstructing the federal investigation and lying to Internal Revenue Service investigators, reports the Bristol Herald Courier. In addition, he will have to pay [...]

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A civic leader and former legal secretary has acknowledging stealing thousands from a retired doctor. Jean Neal is charged with one count of embezzlement and 32 counts each of forgery, uttering a forged instrument and obtaining money under false pretenses, reports the Bristol Herald-Courier. Neal worked part time as a private secretary and bookkeeper for [...]

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Texas financier Allen Stanford, accused in an $8 billion fraud case, was located and served with civil papers in Fredericksburg yesterday. Stanford is accused of perpetrating one of the nation’s largest-ever financial frauds, reports The Washington Times. He was ordered to turn over his passport, but was not arrested, nor is he currently facing criminal [...]

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Rick and Susan Garmon still have a Prince William County jury’s finding that a contractor is liable for constructive fraud for using a barrier exterior insulation and finish system on their home. The Garmons testified that they had insisted on a drainable EIFS system, but the contractor had installed a barrier system instead. But Circuit [...]

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