R.I. U.S. Attorney’s Office: A Renoir, a sports car, Japanese swords and more

PROVIDENCE – A famous Renoir painting, 2006 Ford GT sports car and an assortment of Japanese swords were some of the assets collected and sold by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island in fiscal 2015.
The office, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $8,261,533 in asset forfeiture actions in fiscal 2015. Forfeited assets deposited into the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund are used to restore funds to crime victims and for a variety of law enforcement purposes, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha.
The release said the financial litigation unit, working with the asset forfeiture unit, collected $2,389,896.28 through its Asset Forfeiture Restoration Program.
That included $2,339,210.22 collected from Rocco DeSimone, a former Rhode Island art dealer convicted of defrauding investors in 2011 and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
The release said that assets that were either sold or returned directly to victims include a 2006 Ford GT sports car which sold at auction for $189,000, a painting by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir known as “Paysage a Cagnes,” which sold at auction for $551,500, and numerous Japanese swords.
Neronha said the office also collected $6,130,353.07 in criminal and civil actions in fiscal 2015. Of this amount, $2,626,122.75 was collected in criminal actions and $3,504,230.32 was collected in civil actions.

In addition, Rhode Island also worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Department of Justice to collect an additional $16,878,661.95 in cases pursued jointly with these offices. A total of $16,878,401.95 was collected in civil actions.

In 2015, collections included $2,605,661 from American Access Care in a settlement to resolve allegations of violations of the False Claims Act; $8 million collected in cooperation with the Eastern District of Wisconsin from PharMerica Corp. in settlement of allegations of violations on the Controlled Substances Act; collection of $450,000 from CVS Health Corp. in settlement for allegations of violations of the Controlled Substances Act; and, $127,500 from Wal-Mart Inc. in settlement of False Claims Act violations for claims submitted to Medicaid.
“The mission of this office is broad in scope, and includes a commitment to protect the public’s financial and other resources. Public or private, those who harm the environment, engage in financial fraud, or take financial advantage of victims or the public generally, will continue to receive the full attention of both this office’s civil and criminal divisions, as will those who pose a threat to national security, who violate the public trust, who commit crimes of violence, or who engage in sex trafficking, particularly of minors,” Neronha said in a statement.

No posts to display