An Arizona physician group will pay $4.75 million to resolve allegations that doctors violated the False Claims Act by performing medically unnecessary vein ablations, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced.
Federal agents allege that three cardiologists at Tri-City Cardiology, in the Phoenix metro area, knowingly performed ablations on perforator veins that did not qualify for treatment under accepted standards of medical practice. It is reported that from Jan. 1, 2017, to April 27, 2022, they manipulated records of outward blood flow, the diameter of veins, patient symptoms, and conservative therapy measures to give the appearance that the ablations were justified.
The perforator veins form short connections between deep and superficial veins. Radiofrequency ablation can be used to close veins affected by valve damage and retrograde blood flow.
“Paying for unnecessary medical…
THE HASHFLARE “CLOUD MINING” PONZI SCHEME (GLOBAL/ESTONIA)
Date: February 13, 2025 (Guilty Pleas) Perpetrators: Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turogin
Case Description: This $577 million cryptocurrency fraud remains one of the largest digital asset scams in history, with major legal developments concluding in 2025. Potapenko and Turogin operated “Hashflare,” which they marketed as a massive cryptocurrency mining operation. Hundreds of thousands of victims worldwide purchased “mining contracts,” believing they were renting hash power to mine Bitcoin. In reality, the duo was running a sophisticated Ponzi scheme.
They created fake customer dashboards that showed “real-time” mining profits, but the money being paid out was simply the capital of newer investors. They laundered the proceeds through shell companies to purchase luxury real estate and a fleet of high-end vehicles. After a massive international investigation involving the FBI and Estonian authorities, the pair agreed to forfeit over $400 million in assets. This case underscores the “Cyber-enabled Fraud” warning issued by the FATF in early 2026: as technology evolves, the scale of fraud moves from local millions to global billions in the blink of an eye.
Link to Original: ACFE – High Profile Fraud of 2025