Reports

A federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging Nichelle Henson, age 35, of Baltimore, Maryland, for false statements and bank fraud in connection with fraudulent applications Henson allegedly filed to obtain Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans in the names of multiple businesses. The indictment was returned on December 7, 2021 and unsealed today. Henson will have her initial appearance virtually on Thursday, December 16, 2021, at 2:15 p.m., before U.S. Magistrate Judge A. David Copperthite.

This review was initiated by the Office of Legislative Audits, and it represents an expansion of an earlier limited review that was undertaken based on a joint request from the chairs of the Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs and the House Health and Government Operations Committees for a review of two COVID-related emergency procurements. This current report includes the results of our review of the emergency procurement and accountability of medical supplies from Blue Flame Medical. In addition, during the course of our review, we identified 848 emergency procurements...

Odunayo “Baba” Oluwalade, age 25, of Windsor Mill, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to a federal wire fraud conspiracy in connection with a scheme purporting to sell COVID-19 vaccines.

At the time we initiated this review, the Montgomery County Council had appropriated almost $24 million through three separate resolutions to provide rental assistance to residents negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The appropriations funded the COVID-19 Rental Assistance Program, administered by the Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County and the COVID-19 Rental Relief Program administered by the Department of Health and Human Services. We conducted this review to determine (1) if vulnerabilities exist in either program that create opportunities for fraud or abuse...

A federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging three Maryland men on federal charges related to a scheme to fraudulently obtain more than $2.7 million in unemployment benefits.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland has seized the two domains of usahealthwarehouse.com and walmartpandemicgrant.com. The website domain usahealthwarehouse.com purported to sell and distribute a trademarked Covid-19 vaccine while the walmartpandemicgrant.com domain claimed to be the legitimate website for the Walmart Foundation and offered purported “funds and resources” to those affected by COVID-19. Instead, both domains were allegedly used to collect the personal information of individuals visiting the sites in order to use the information for nefarious purposes...

The Office of the Inspector General recently concluded an investigation to determine if an applicant for County restaurant relief grants provided false or misleading information on grant applicants to secure pandemic-related grant funds. We found that the applicant received $10,000 from the County's Public Health Emergency Grant Program, $3,094.96 from the County's Reopen Montgomery program, and $10,000 from phase one of the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation Restaurant Relief program.

U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander today sentenced Robert Lee Snowden Jr., age 45, of Owings Mills, Maryland, to 78 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and for aggravated identity theft, in connection with a series of fraud schemes perpetrated between 2013 and 2020. Additionally, Judge Hollander ordered that Snowden pay restitution of $1,021,583.72.

The Department of Justice today announced criminal charges against 14 defendants, including 11 newly-charged defendants and three who were charged in superseding indictments, in seven federal districts across the United States for their alleged participation in various health care fraud schemes that exploited the COVID-19 pandemic and resulted in over $143 million in false billings.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland has seized “healthbridgescience.com,” “global-pandemic-vaccines.com,” and “genobioscience.com” all of which purported to be the websites of actual biotechnology companies developing treatments for the COVID-19 virus but instead were allegedly used to collect the personal information of individuals visiting the sites, in order to use the information for nefarious purposes, including fraud, phishing attacks, and/or deployment of malware. Individuals visiting those sites now will see a message that the site has been seized by the federal...