“Corporate evasion is corporate fraud,” the California Attorney General declares in a March 22, 2022 press release accompanying an unclaimed property complaint the State has filed alleging systemic failure to report and remit unclaimed funds by a healthcare provider. The complaint alleges that the company, a chain of occupational and urgent care clinics, violated the California Unclaimed Property Law and the California False Claims Act when it failed to remit millions of dollars in unclaimed overpayments, refund checks, and other monies due to the State as unclaimed property.1 The complaint alleges these funds were deliberately concealed from the State rather than just negligently unreported.
The entry of the California Attorney General into an unclaimed property enforcement role raises the stakes for companies that have failed to comply with state escheat law. In this new litigation, the complaint suggests that ongoing failure to comply was a key factor in the Attorney General’s decision to pursue this matter as a false claims lawsuit, rather than as an audit by the State Controller’s office. According to the complaint, the company’s auditors had identified non-compliance with unclaimed property laws as early as 2004, along with failures to process timely refunds and the ongoing accumulation of customer credit balances. The company allegedly knew of its state filing obligations for many years, and management was advised of the issue multiple times between 2004 and 2018....
Turkish base fake news in Armenia For several days, a video has been circulating on social media claiming that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan allegedly signed a “secret agreement” with EU ...