Latest news with #ConsumerProtectionBranch
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US Justice Department unit for drug and food safety cases being disbanded
By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A Justice Department unit that handles criminal and civil enforcement of U.S. food and drug safety laws is being disbanded as part of an ongoing cost-cutting campaign by President Donald Trump's administration, according to three people familiar with the matter. About 215 people work for the Consumer Protection Branch, part of the Justice Department's Civil Division, including attorneys, support staff and law enforcement agents. It was listed as a possible target for cuts in a March memo by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, first reported by Reuters. A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Although it is located in the Civil Division, the Consumer Protection Branch is an unusual office because its work involves a hybrid of criminal prosecutions and civil enforcement. It handles criminal cases to enforce the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, a federal law that makes it a crime to sell or distribute adulterated or misbranded food or drugs. It also enforces statutes for the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The three sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the plans for disbanding the Consumer Protection Branch. Two of the sources said that the more than 100 attorneys who work in the unit were notified on Thursday about the plans to break it up. Attorneys from the unit who handle criminal cases will be relocated to the department's Criminal Division while the rest of the unit's employees will remain in the Civil Division, the three sources said. Some who do primarily legal defense work for the Food and Drug Administration will be transferred to the Justice Department's federal programs branch, they said. It remains unclear where others will be placed, according to two of the sources. The target date to complete the changes is by the end of the current fiscal year, which is September 30, one of the sources said. The plans to disband the branch were reported earlier by the American Prospect news outlet. The Consumer Protection Branch has been at the heart of some high-profile cases. Walgreens this week reached a settlement with the Justice department in a case involving the branch and agreed to pay $350 million for illegally filling unlawful opioid prescriptions and filing false claims to the government. Prosecutors from the branch also brought the criminal case against former executives at Peanut Corporation for crimes that led to a 2009 outbreak involving more than 700 cases of salmonella poisoning.
Reuters
25-04-2025
- Business
- Reuters
US Justice Department unit for drug and food safety cases being disbanded
WASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters) - A Justice Department unit that handles criminal and civil enforcement of U.S. food and drug safety laws is being disbanded as part of an ongoing cost-cutting campaign by President Donald Trump 's administration, according to three people familiar with the matter. About 215 people work for the Consumer Protection Branch, part of the Justice Department's Civil Division, including attorneys, support staff and law enforcement agents. It was listed as a possible target for cuts in a March memo by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, first reported by Reuters. here. A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Although it is located in the Civil Division, the Consumer Protection Branch is an unusual office because its work involves a hybrid of criminal prosecutions and civil enforcement. It handles criminal cases to enforce the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, a federal law that makes it a crime to sell or distribute adulterated or misbranded food or drugs. It also enforces statutes for the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The three sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the plans for disbanding the Consumer Protection Branch. Two of the sources said that the more than 100 attorneys who work in the unit were notified on Thursday about the plans to break it up. Attorneys from the unit who handle criminal cases will be relocated to the department's Criminal Division while the rest of the unit's employees will remain in the Civil Division, the three sources said. Some who do primarily legal defense work for the Food and Drug Administration will be transferred to the Justice Department's federal programs branch, they said. It remains unclear where others will be placed, according to two of the sources. The target date to complete the changes is by the end of the current fiscal year, which is September 30, one of the sources said. The plans to disband the branch were reported earlier by the American Prospect news outlet. The Consumer Protection Branch has been at the heart of some high-profile cases. Walgreens this week reached a settlement with the Justice department in a case involving the branch and agreed to pay $350 million for illegally filling unlawful opioid prescriptions and filing false claims to the government. Prosecutors from the branch also brought the criminal case against former executives at Peanut Corporation for crimes that led to a 2009 outbreak involving more than 700 cases of salmonella poisoning.
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
DOJ will investigate doctors who provide trans care to minors, attorney general says
Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo this week seeking to further curtail access to transgender health care for minors. In the memo, Bondi said the Justice Department will use a variety of existing U.S. laws to investigate providers of such care, as well as drug manufacturers and distributors. She directed U.S. attorneys to use laws against female genital mutilation to investigate doctors who 'mutilate' children 'under the guise of care' and to prosecute these 'offenses to the fullest extent possible.' 'I am putting medical practitioners, hospitals, and clinics on notice: In the United States, it is a felony to perform, attempt to perform, or conspire to perform female genital mutilation ('FGM') on any person under the age of 18,' Bondi wrote. 'That crime carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years per count.' Bondi also directed the Consumer Protection Branch of the DOJ's Civil Division to investigate potential violations of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act by drug manufacturers and distributors who engage "in misbranding by making false claims about the on- or off-label use of puberty blockers, sex hormones, or any other drug used to facilitate' a minor's gender transition. And she directed the Civil Division's Fraud Section to investigate potential violations of the False Claims Act by physicians who submit 'false claims … to federal health care programs for any non-covered services related to radical gender experimentation.' (She included as an example of this a physician prescribing puberty blockers to a minor for gender-transition care but reporting it to Medicaid as being for early-onset puberty.) Robin Maril, an assistant professor of constitutional law at Oregon's Willamette University, said Bondi's memo doesn't change any existing laws. Doctors, she said, will not be breaking the law by continuing to treat trans minors if they live in a state where such care is still legal. She also noted that Medicaid fraud and defrauding the government are already crimes. 'The bulk of this is just showing how they're going to use resources and investigate,' Maril said. 'That's not a law change. It's meant to have a chilling effect on physicians providing access to necessary care, fearing that it will be characterized as chemical and surgical mutilation of children.' She added that the memo's call on whistleblowers to report 'knowledge of any such violations' could further make doctors afraid of being reported. It's unclear what type of procedure would be considered female genital mutilation 'under the guise of care' according to Bondi's interpretation of U.S. law. The FBI defines it as 'partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injuries to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.' Transition-related care for minors can encompass a range of treatments, including talk therapy for younger children, puberty-blocking medications for adolescents and hormone therapy for older teens. Bondi's memo specifically mentions gender-affirming surgeries, which are not recommended for minors. In rare cases, older teens can receive a double mastectomy, or removal of the breasts. It's also unclear if Bondi's directives would conflict with federal and state anti-discrimination laws. A provision in the Affordable Care Act, for example, prohibits physicians who are providing federally funded services from discriminating based on sex. The Biden administration issued a notice interpreting that provision to include protection based on gender identity, but the Trump administration rescinded that notice in February. Some advocates argue the provision's protections and some state nondiscrimination laws still apply. Since the 1980s, medical providers have prescribed puberty blockers, which temporarily stop puberty, to children who start puberty too early, according to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and they've used them off label to treat trans adolescents since the 1990s. Major medical associations in the U.S., such as the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association, support access to transition-related care for minors and oppose restrictions on it. Despite this, Bondi's memo refers to this type of care as 'radical gender experimentation,' and it cites research conducted by an advocacy group that opposes gender-affirming care for minors. That group found that, from 2019 to 2023, 14,000 children received treatment for gender dysphoria — the medical term for the distress caused by the misalignment between one's gender identity and sex assigned at birth — and 5,700 had surgery. However, trans advocates have noted that the rate of breast surgeries among adolescents who are cisgender, meaning not transgender, is much higher. For example, in 2011, more than 14,000 breast reduction procedures were performed in the United States on adolescent boys to correct gynecomastia, a benign condition that causes enlarged breast tissue, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Bondi's memo is the administration's latest attempt at restricting trans health care. Just over a week after his inauguration, President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order aimed at curtailing transition-related care for minors by prohibiting federal funding for such care and threatening to withhold grants from hospitals and medical universities that provide the care, among other restrictions. At least two judges have temporarily blocked that order from taking effect. Over the last few years, 27 states have enacted measures restricting access to transition-related care for minors. The Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision soon in a lawsuit against such a restriction in Tennessee, which could affect minors' access to care nationwide and potentially care for trans adults under federally funded health programs. This article was originally published on
NBC News
24-04-2025
- Health
- NBC News
DOJ will investigate doctors who provide trans care to minors, attorney general says
Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo this week seeking to further curtail access to transgender health care for minors. In the memo, Bondi said the Justice Department will use a variety of existing U.S. laws to investigate providers of such care, as well as drug manufacturers and distributors. She directed U.S. attorneys to use laws against female genital mutilation to investigate doctors who 'mutilate' children 'under the guise of care' and to prosecute these 'offenses to the fullest extent possible.' 'I am putting medical practitioners, hospitals, and clinics on notice: In the United States, it is a felony to perform, attempt to perform, or conspire to perform female genital mutilation ('FGM') on any person under the age of 18,' Bondi wrote. 'That crime carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years per count.' Bondi also directed the Consumer Protection Branch of the DOJ's Civil Division to investigate potential violations of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act by drug manufacturers and distributors who engage "in misbranding by making false claims about the on- or off-label use of puberty blockers, sex hormones, or any other drug used to facilitate' a minor's gender transition. And she directed the Civil Division's Fraud Section to investigate potential violations of the False Claims Act by physicians who submit 'false claims … to federal health care programs for any non-covered services related to radical gender experimentation.' (She included as an example of this a physician prescribing puberty blockers to a minor for gender-transition care but reporting it to Medicaid as being for early-onset puberty.) Robin Maril, an assistant professor of constitutional law at Oregon's Willamette University, said Bondi's memo doesn't change any existing laws. Doctors, she said, will not be breaking the law by continuing to treat trans minors if they live in a state where such care is still legal. She also noted that Medicaid fraud and defrauding the government are already crimes. 'The bulk of this is just showing how they're going to use resources and investigate,' Maril said. 'That's not a law change. It's meant to have a chilling effect on physicians providing access to necessary care, fearing that it will be characterized as chemical and surgical mutilation of children.' She added that the memo's call on whistleblowers to report 'knowledge of any such violations' could further make doctors afraid of being reported. It's unclear what type of procedure would be considered female genital mutilation 'under the guise of care' according to Bondi's interpretation of U.S. law. The FBI defines it as 'partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injuries to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.' Transition-related care for minors can encompass a range of treatments, including talk therapy for younger children, puberty-blocking medications for adolescents and hormone therapy for older teens. Bondi's memo specifically mentions gender-affirming surgeries, which are not recommended for minors. In rare cases, older teens can receive a double mastectomy, or removal of the breasts. It's also unclear if Bondi's directives would conflict with federal and state anti-discrimination laws. A provision in the Affordable Care Act, for example, prohibits physicians who are providing federally funded services from discriminating based on sex. The Biden administration issued a notice interpreting that provision to include protection based on gender identity, but the Trump administration rescinded that notice in February. Some advocates argue the provision's protections and some state nondiscrimination laws still apply. Since the 1980s, medical providers have prescribed puberty blockers, which temporarily stop puberty, to children who start puberty too early, according to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and they've used them off label to treat trans adolescents since the 1990s. Major medical associations in the U.S., such as the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association, support access to transition-related care for minors and oppose restrictions on it. Despite this, Bondi's memo refers to this type of care as 'radical gender experimentation,' and it cites research conducted by an advocacy group that opposes gender-affirming care for minors. That group found that, from 2019 to 2023, 14,000 children received treatment for gender dysphoria — the medical term for the distress caused by the misalignment between one's gender identity and sex assigned at birth — and 5,700 had surgery. However, trans advocates have noted that the rate of breast surgeries among adolescents who are cisgender, meaning not transgender, is much higher. For example, in 2011, more than 14,000 breast reduction procedures were performed in the United States on adolescent boys to correct gynecomastia, a benign condition that causes enlarged breast tissue, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Bondi's memo is the administration's latest attempt at restricting trans health care. Just over a week after his inauguration, President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order aimed at curtailing transition-related care for minors by prohibiting federal funding for such care and threatening to withhold grants from hospitals and medical universities that provide the care, among other restrictions. At least two judges have temporarily blocked that order from taking effect. Over the last few years, 27 states have enacted measures restricting access to transition-related care for minors. The Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision soon in a lawsuit against such a restriction in Tennessee, which could affect minors' access to care nationwide and potentially care for trans adults under federally funded health programs.
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Yahoo
Senior citizens, told they won a lottery, lost $236,000 to a North Miami Beach fraudster
Returning to the lottery scam he knew too well will cost a North Miami Beach man about three years of his freedom after sentencing in Miami federal court. The time sentence to 34-year-old Akiel Doman after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud is 44 months. Doman will have to serve at least 85% of that sentence or just over 37 months (three years, one month) in addition to the money part of the sentence, $234,995 in restitution. Unfortunately, it cost Doman's victims $236,000, according to the guilty plea, and most of those victims were senior citizens. They were Doman's alleged victims in 2015, according to a 2018 complaint by the U.S. Department of Justice's Consumer Protection Branch filed a complaint. Doman signed a consent decree that neither admitted nor denied the allegations in the complaint, but did prohibit him from having anything to do with a prize promotion fraud or money transmitting business. That was in March 2019. Doman violated that by May 2020, according to his guilty plea. All versions of the lottery fraud involve making people think they've won a large amount of money and convincing them that to get that large amount, they have to hand over a small or medium amount of money. As Doman's guilty plea said, his cronies would call a target, say they were with a lottery or sweepstakes and claim a prize such as a car or millions in cash awaited them. All they needed to do was pay the fees or taxes up front and they'd get their prize. 'Doman's co-conspirator gave the victims specific instructions on how, and to whom, to send money for the purported fees or taxes,' Doman's admission of facts said. 'In connection with this scheme, different victims sent money to Doman through different means. At least one victim, KC, deposited money directly into Doman's bank account ($9,000). Another victim sent money to Doman's accomplice who transferred it to Doman via Zelle.' Using Zelle to transmit money during a fraud is wire fraud. Some sent money by mail — mail fraud. Violating the injunction counts as criminal contempt of court. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service's Miami office investigated this case, which was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Bertha R. Mitrani. 1. If you didn't play, you didn't win. This is the flip side of 'You have to be in it to win it' — if you're not in it, you can't win it. 2. If someone asks you to pay a fee to collect your prize, it's a scam. 3. While you'll have to pay taxes on winnings, 'prepayment of taxes' to the company running the contest isn't a thing. As the U.S. Postal Service said in its Consumers Guide to Sweepstakes and Lotteries, 'Remember, you pay taxes only to the Internal Revenue Service.'
