Dover – Attorney General Beau Biden announced that a former nurse at the Delaware Hospital for the Chronically Ill has been arrested and charged with numerous crimes related to her alleged use of fraud and forgery to obtain prescription drugs that were intended for patients at the facility.

Danielle M. Tharp-Strouse, 31, of the 6100 block of Mud Mill Road in Camden, was arrested on March 21, 2014 by Biden’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. She has been charged with three felony counts of Obtaining a Controlled Substance by Misrepresentation or Fraud or Forgery, seven counts of Second-Degree Forgery and one count of Falsifying a Business Record.  After being arraigned Tharp-Strouse was released on $51,000 unsecured bond.

“Healthcare professionals taking medication intended for their patients has played a role in the alarming increase in prescription drug abuse we have experienced in Delaware and beyond,” Biden said. “We’re acting to stop this type of criminal activity, which can endanger patients’ lives and cost millions of dollars in fraud for the Medicaid program and for private insurance plans.”

The investigation began on March 19, 2013 when an administrator at the Delaware Hospital for the Chronically Ill reported to the Smyrna Police Department that an employee had been illegally obtaining Oxycodone, a powerful prescription painkiller. The Smyrna Police Department turned the investigation over the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, and its ongoing investigation found that between February 1, 2013 and March 18, 2013 Tharp-Strouse allegedly forged the signatures of other registered nurses and licensed practical nurses who worked at the hospital on Controlled Substances sheets indicating the drugs had been given to patients. In reality, Tharp-Strouse allegedly kept the drugs for personal use.

The Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit’s team of prosecutors, investigators, and other support staff investigates and prosecutes abuse, neglect, drug diversion and financial exploitation occurring in facilities which receive Medicaid funding. The Unit is also charged with protecting taxpayers and healthcare programs by investigating and prosecuting fraud committed by providers.

Biden encouraged anyone who may know of Medicaid fraud or who suspects patient abuse, neglect, mistreatment, and financial exploitation in nursing homes and other facilities to contact the Delaware Medicaid Fraud Control Hotline at (302) 577-5000.    Anonymous tips are accepted.

A booking image of Tharp-Strouse

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Wilmington – Attorney General Beau Biden today announced that the Delaware Department of Justice Investor Protection Unit has obtained an indictment charging Michael A. Kwasnik with theft, securities fraud, sale of unregistered securities, and acting as an unregistered broker dealer following its investigation of a scheme to defraud investors. Kwasnik, age 45, of Marlton, New Jersey, was indicted March 17, by the New Castle County Grand Jury.

“We are protecting  Delaware’s investors and enforce our securities laws,” Biden said. “I urge any investor who believes they may be a victim of investment fraud to contact our Investor Hotline at (302) 577-8424.”

The indictment charges Kwasnik with soliciting Delaware victims on multiple occasions between May 2010 and September 2010. In addition to 4 counts of theft, the indictment charges Kwasnik with 4 counts of securities fraud, 4 counts of selling unregistered securities, and 4 counts of acting as an unregistered agent. Delaware law prohibits misrepresentations in the sale of securities, requires that securities for sale in Delaware be registered with the State, and requires persons selling securities in Delaware to be properly licensed with the Attorney General’s Investor Protection Unit.

The Attorney General’s Office, through its Investor Protection Unit, enforces the Delaware Securities Act, which regulates the sale of investment products and the activities of investment professionals in Delaware. The Unit investigates and prosecutes securities fraud and licensing violations by investment brokers and advisers. Delaware investors are encouraged to report suspected incidents of investment crime and fraud by calling the Attorney General’s Investor Hotline at (302) 577-8424.

This case is being handled for the Investor Protection Unit by Deputy Attorneys General William Green and Stephen McDonald, Special Investigator Kevin Lange, and Paralegal Courtney Patas.

The Delaware Department of Justice reminds the public that an indictment is merely an allegation and is not evidence of guilt. Defendants are presumed innocent and are entitled to a jury trial at which the state bears the burden of proving each charge beyond a reasonable doubt.

Delaware Dept. of Justice, representing  DNREC Secretary O’Mara, serves Mike Davidson Enterprises, LLC with state’s first Chronic Violator Complaint

DOVER (March 21, 2014) – After repeatedly disregarding environmental compliance orders and flouting other regulatory requirements from the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, Mike Davidson Enterprises, LLC, a resource recovery and recycling facility in Camden, has been served by the Delaware Department of Justice and the Attorney General’s Office with the state’s first Chronic Violator Complaint. The complaint seeks $8.3 million in restitution to cover the costs of loading, transportation, and proper disposal of the more than 100,000 tons of material on the premises at Mike Davidson Enterprises, LLC (MDE) and imposes an administrative penalty of up to $10,000 per day for each violation against MDE as a chronic violator.

The Chronic Violator Complaint was served after MDE continually “demonstrated an unwillingness to comply with a resource recovery permit issued by the Solid and Hazardous Waste Management Section, and engaged in a pattern of willful neglect and reckless disregard” for DNREC’s regulatory programs.

“Designating a facility as a chronic violator is an enforcement tool of last resort to be used when all other regulatory authorities have failed to achieve compliance,” said DNREC Secretary Collin O’Mara. “The reckless actions of MDE combined with their willful disregard for our numerous enforcement efforts to protect public health and the environment through all other available options fulfills the definition of a chronic violator. We will work with Attorney General Beau Biden to see this case to conclusion in ensuring that the citizens of Delaware are not left with an environmental and economic burden.”

“Polluters cannot be allowed to treat fines as simply a cost of doing business,” said Atty. Gen. Biden, whose office worked with legislators to update the state’s Chronic Violator law in 2011. “Those who ignore our environmental protection laws and repeatedly illegally pollute our air, water and soil will face significant financial consequences. Protecting our natural resources has a direct impact on Delawareans’ quality of life. The Department of Justice looks forward to working with Secretary O’Mara to hold chronic polluters accountable.”

The chronic violator complaint notes that compliance violations at MDE dating back to January 2010 – just two months after MDE received a resource recovery permit from DNREC – have been totally disregarded by the facility. Fourteen more compliance assessments by DNREC through May 2012 all showed continuing violations at the facility. A cease and desist order issued by Sec. O’Mara in June 2012 required that MDE take immediate action regarding contamination of the site by arsenic and chromium; it too was disregarded.

Two months later, a Secretary’s Order and Notice of Conciliation was issued by DNREC directing MDE to cease distributing its contaminated mulch product, to remove the contaminated mulch from the premises, and to provide assurance that the site was not contaminated by excessive levels of arsenic, chromium, or PCB’s. MDE declined conciliation and requested a hearing before the Environmental Appeals Board – which found in favor of DNREC.

In a Secretary’s Order issued April 29, 2013, Sec. O’Mara upheld suspension of MDE’s resource recovery permit while allowing the company three months to bring the facility into compliance with the permit requirements and applicable law, with the suspension in effect until compliance could be certified by DNREC. MDE was warned, according to the complaint served by the Attorney General’s office, that “failure to bring the facility into full compliance within three months could result in substantial daily penalties and commencement of the process to designate” Mike Davidson Enterprises LLC as the state’s first chronic violator.

Some three months later, on August 9, 2013, Secretary O’Mara revoked MDE’s permit, “due to the complete failure to comply with” DNREC’s enforcement actions. Cited in the revocation were MDE’s improper storage and failure to dispose of over 100,000 tons of waste; exceeding analytical parameters for Arsenic, Chromium, and PCBs; failure to submit periodic reports as required; storing large quantities of solid waste outside the permitted area; improper acceptance and storage of prohibited waste; and grossly inadequate financial assurance. Sec. O’Mara also observed that approximately 70,000 tons of waste had been illegally added since the notice of violation in May 2012, which detailed the existing violations and the actions required to correct them.

MDE “clearly chose to operate the facility as an unauthorized, mismanaged landfill, not the recycling facility that was intended,” Sec. O’Mara noted in the order. MDE continued over time to ignore all orders to remove the waste material and to remediate the site. Showing further disregard, MDE owner Mike Davidson abandoned the Camden facility, leaving massive piles of waste behind. Last month the waste piles caught fire and burned, then smoldered for days.

According to the chronic violator complaint, “Given the revenue generated under (MDE’s) plan of operation, there is no indication that any of the violations are attributable to inadequate capitalization or funding. Simply put, (MDE owner Mike Davidson) has had the resources to run the operation cleanly and according to his own plan and the terms of the permit, but has chosen instead to retain such funds for his own use, rather than make necessary investments in the business. Noncompliance here is not attributable to any inability to modernize or maintain the facility or its mechanical integrity, or to any lack of training or risk management; but rather an intentional refusal to respect the law.”

Delaware’s Chronic Violator Complaint law was modernized by the 146th General Assembly through Senate Bill 92 with House Amendment 1, sponsored by Senator David McBride and Representatives Michael Mulrooney, Quinn Johnson, and Debra Heffernan.

HB 246 would make debit card theft and unlawful use equivalent to credit card fraud.

DOVER – Criminals caught stealing or misusing debit cards would face the same penalties as credit card thieves under legislation crafted by Rep. Trey Paradee in cooperation with Attorney General Beau Biden’s office.

House Bill 246, introduced today, would update Delaware’s criminal code and broaden the “unlawful use of a credit card” statute to include debit cards and other types of payment cards. Prosecutors have encountered cases where the state’s credit card fraud law is not sufficient to charge and convict some defendants.

“The Department of Justice has told us that there is a loophole in state law that has allowed a person to escape credit card fraud charges because of outdated language. This is a serious issue that needs to be fixed so more criminals don’t fall through the cracks,” Rep. Paradee said. “Whether the case involves a debit card or a credit card, stealing is stealing, and it’s no less damaging to the person whose finances are thrown into upheaval by the thief.”

In 2012, a judge dismissed 22 counts of credit card fraud against a man who used his girlfriend’s PNC Bank debit card to gamble at Delaware Park without her permission, even though the man confessed to doing so. Because of the narrow definition of “credit card” under current Delaware law, the defendant’s attorney was able to argue successfully for the dismissal of the charges. The defendant was convicted of misdemeanor theft offenses only.

“Thieves using a debit card to commit their crimes should not be able to avoid being held accountable because of a technicality,” Attorney General Biden said.

Debit cards are different than credit cards because they are used to deduct funds directly from a bank account, similar to writing a check or withdrawing cash. When a purchase is made with a credit card, the amount due is paid by the credit card bank, which then bills the cardholder at a later date and charges interest, like a loan.

The draft measure effectively replaces the definition of “credit card” and numerous references to it in the state’s criminal code with the term “payment card,” which would include debit and check cards, credit cards, EBT cards and any other type of device or item “for the use of the cardholder in obtaining money, goods, services, or anything else of value.” The definition also extends to the number assigned to any such card, to cover cases where a thief commits a crime without using the physical card.

Convictions for various payment card crimes in Delaware range from misdemeanors to felonies that include mandatory jail time.

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COPA would require sites to shield children from tracking, block certain types of advertisements, remove material posted by minors on request

DOVER – Recognizing the rapidly evolving capabilities of technology designed to mine user data online and target advertisements to specific website visitors, Rep. Darryl Scott and Attorney General Beau Biden introduced legislation Tuesday designed to protect the online privacy of children and ensure greater control over content posted online by minors.

The Child Online Protection Act outlines several key provisions that websites would be required to implement for users in Delaware, including a requirement to comply with requests from users to take down material they posted as minors, even if the person making the request is no longer a minor. This rule would cover websites and mobile applications, but would not allow a user to request the removal of content posted by another person.

House Bill 261 also prohibits website hosts from targeting advertising for products such as alcohol, drugs, tobacco and weapons to users they know are under the age of 18. The bill also would prevent sites from gathering “personally identifiable information” from known minor users for the purpose of targeting any advertisements to them. Personally identifiable information includes home address, email address, phone numbers and geolocation data.

“We’ve already agreed as a society that children should not be exposed to ads for products like alcohol and cigarettes, this legislation attempts to bring those values to the digital realm,” said Rep. Scott, D-Dover. “Young people spend a lot of their time online surfing websites and using social networking sites, and they can easily be subjected to ads that are not age-appropriate. We know from history that laws are often slow to evolve in the face of new technology, but it’s vitally important that the law stay current when it comes to protecting our children.”

“Kids share way too much information about themselves online, and the pictures they post when they are young can come back to haunt them when they apply for their first job or apply for college,” said Attorney General Biden. “This bill will help protect kids’ privacy now and in the future.”

In order to enforce its provisions, the bill would also require sites to use some form of age verification for users whose information would be tracked or stored. Website hosts found to be in violation of COPA rules would be subject to prosecution by Biden’s Consumer Protection Unit under the state’s existing Consumer Fraud Act and face penalties of up to $10,000 per violation.

The legislation is modeled on a similar California law, the first and only of its kind in the nation so far. HB 261 has been assigned to the House Telecommunications, Internet and Technology Committee.