American Morning
Organized crime's new target: Medicare and Medicaid
Organized crime gangs are exploiting a new target for illegal profit: Medicare and Medicaid.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/10/22/arrest.jpg caption="Two members of a Nigerian organized crime ring are charged with defrauding Medicare of $6 million."]
Experienced in running drug, prostitution and gambling rings, crime groups of various ethnicities and nationalities are learning it's safer and potentially more profitable to file fraudulent claims with the federal Medicare program and state-run Medicaid plans.
"They're hitting us and hitting us hard," said Timothy Menke, head of investigations for the Office of Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services. "Organized crime involvement in health care fraud is widespread."
Los Angeles is among the hot spots for health care fraud, where Russian, Armenian and Nigerian gangs have been caught by federal agents.
Crime boss Konstantin Grigoryan, a former Soviet army colonel, pleaded guilty to taking $20-million from Medicare; Karapet "Doc" Khacheryan, boss of a Eurasian crime gang, was recently convicted with five lieutenants of stealing doctor identities in a $2-million scam, and last Thursday two Nigerian members of an organized crime ring, Christopher Iruke and his wife, Connie Ikpoh, were charged with bilking Medicare of $6-million dollars by fraudulently billing the government for electric wheelchairs and other expensive medical equipment.
Watch: Organized crime hits Medicare 
The two have entered pleas of not guilty and are being held in a federal detention center. "They deny any allegations of wrongdoing," said their attorney James Kosnett.
Defrauding government-run health care programs involves stealing two types of identities: those of doctors, who bill for services, and patients, whose beneficiary numbers entitle them to medical care and necessary equipment. Criminals are expert at collecting both.
Suit: Madoff offices were 'North Pole' of cocaine
CNN
NEW YORK (CNN) - A new lawsuit alleges that convicted swindler Bernie Madoff financed a cocaine-fueled work environment and a "culture of sexual deviance," and he diverted money to his London, England, office when he believed federal authorities were closing in at home.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/CRIME/10/22/madoff.lawsuit/art.bernie.madoff.afp.gi.jpg caption="A new lawsuit alleges Bernie Madoff financed a sex-and-drugs workplace with investors' money."]
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in New York's State Supreme Court, was brought on behalf of former investors and seeks unspecified punitive damages and compensation.
Beyond that, it offers a look at what the plaintiffs' attorneys say was once Madoff's multimillion-dollar empire and what is now his world in a federal prison in North Carolina.
Among the allegations in the 264-page lawsuit are that during the mid-1970s, Madoff began sending employees to buy drugs for company use.
The complaint alleges that some employees and investors were aware of the drug purchases, and that BMIS [Bernard Madoff Investment Services] was known by insiders as the "North Pole" in reference to the excessive amount of cocaine use in the work place.
Protecting yourself at work
All this week we've been investigating the threat of violence at work. So far we've looked at how to recognize the warning signs and what to do if it happens.
Today, we have some practical steps to keep yourself safe. CNN's Alina Cho reports for part three of our special series "When Co-Workers Kill."
When co-workers kill: Workplace violence on the rise
For Johna Lovely, who lives in Presque Isle, Maine, news coverage last month of Annie Le’s murder, allegedly by a co-worker at Yale University, brought back painful memories of the day she lost her daughter. “It brought everything back,” Lovely said. “I just cried and cried.”
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/10/07/sperrey.erin.art.jpg caption="Erin Sperrey was killed by a co-worker on January 2, 2005 in Caribou, Maine."]
Lovely’s youngest daughter, Erin Sperrey, was killed by a co-worker on January 2, 2005. Sperrey was a supervisor for a fast food restaurant in Caribou, Maine. She was working the overnight shift with one other employee – Christopher Shumway.
Shumway is now serving 45 years for beating Sperrey to death.
Nationwide, 517 people were murdered at work last year according to government statistics. And while that number is down 52 percent since 1994, an American College survey found things like bullying, harassment, and physical altercations are up.
Laurence Barton, who studies workplace violence at the American College, a nonprofit educational institution that trains financial services professionals, says that kind of violence is becoming epidemic.
“The call volume to human resource officers, to their EAP programs, to counselors is sky rocketing,” Barton says. “We are absolutely in a period right now of among the highest periods of threats at work in certainly recent memory.”
That doesn’t surprise Lovely and her daughter, Amanda. They’ve worked tirelessly since Erin Sperrey’s death to stop workplace violence. They’ve set up a fund in Erin’s name (erinsfund.org) and have traveled around Maine to convince companies to install panic buttons, connected to police departments, so employees in danger can get immediate help. They thought armed with Erin’s story it would be a cinch. They were wrong. They told us just eighteen companies out of hundreds agreed to install new security systems or educate their employees about workplace violence.
Suspect in Yale killing due in court
(CNN) - The suspect in the killing of Yale pharmacology graduate student Annie Le is due in court Tuesday morning in Connecticut, according to the court docket.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/CRIME/10/06/yale.student.killing/art.clark.booking.jpg caption="Raymond J. Clark III, 24, was arrested and charged with murder. His bail was set at $3 million."]
Raymond Clark, a lab technician at Yale, has been charged in Le's death and is being held in lieu of $3 million bail. Clark, 24, has not entered a plea.
The body of 24-year-old Le was found inside a wall of a Yale lab building on September 12 - the day she was to be married. She had been strangled, the Connecticut medical examiner's office later said.
Clark, of Branford, Connecticut, is not a Yale student, but has worked as a lab technician at the university since 2004. He lived with his girlfriend, who also is a Yale lab technician, according to police in New Haven, Connecticut.
A Yale faculty member described Clark's job as maintaining colonies for animals used in research. The lab is in the basement of the building where Le's body was found.
A motive in Le's killing was unclear, but police said they were treating the case as workplace violence.
Special series: When Co-workers Kill
Travolta testifies about day son Jett died
CNN
NASSAU, Bahamas (CNN) - John Travolta spoke publicly for the first time Wednesday about his desperate efforts to save his teenage son's life after he suffered a seizure at the family's vacation home in the Bahamas in January.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/CRIME/09/23/travolta.testimony/art.travolta.cnn.jpg caption="John Travolta and Kelly Preston leave a courthouse in the Bahamas Wednesday."]
Travolta testified in the criminal trial of a paramedic and former Bahamian senator, who are charged with a plot allegedly designed to extort $25 million from the actor.
Travolta and his wife, actress Kelly Preston, have remained secluded for most of this year. Friends have described their deep grief over the death of 16-year-old Jett Travolta.
Jett was found unresponsive by a nanny at the home on the island of Grand Bahamas, where the family was spending a New Year's holiday, he said.
A family friend with a medical background helped in urgent efforts to revive Jett, Travolta said.
"We continued CPR and my wife was holding his head," said Travolta. His wife sat in the Nassau courtroom, sometimes crying as she watched the testimony.
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