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John T. C. Yeh, president of Rockville deaf services business Viable, and three other company executives have been charged in a six-count indictment with conspiracy to defraud the federal government, federal officials said Thursday.
Other executives charged were Viable COO Joseph Yeh, assistant vice president Anthony Mowl and human relations director Donald Tropp. The charges also include submitting false claims and mail fraud. Executives with companies in New York, Texas and other states were similarly charged.
The indictments were part of a national investigation that alleges that the executives illegally took millions of dollars from the Federal Communications Commission's Video Relay Service program by generating fraudulent call minutes.
Yeh and other Viable executives could not be reached for comment on Thursday. Viable, under a cloud since a June visit by federal investigators, has been hit with lawsuits by employees seeking back payment of wages, and has made a purchase agreement with a New York company.
RLJ venture fund raises $355 M
Black Entertainment Television founder Robert L. Johnson's joint venture with Western Asset Management has raised $355 million to qualify for government financing that will enable it to buy banks' toxic assets.
RLJ Western Asset is a minority-owned partnership between Johnson's Bethesda-based RLJ Cos. and Western Asset Management, a fixed-income manager in Pasadena, Calif. RLJ Cos. is involved in financial services, asset management, real estate, hospitality and other businesses.
The venture raised the money from eight investors, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The U.S. Treasury then said the company had become an eligible public-private investment fund.
State board cuts
business programs
Budget cuts approved this week by the state Board of Public Works included $1 million from the tourism board and $453,000 from a program that helps attract movie production.
The panel also took $289,000 from the budget for welcoming centers, slashing three positions and seven contractors. A technology transfer grant program under the Maryland Technology Development Corp. was cut by $200,000, while operating grants to incubators were reduced by $125,000.
The budget for low-cost rural business loans under the Maryland Agricultural and Resource-Based Industry Development Corp. was slashed by $250,000.
The cuts were part of $361.6 million in reductions, bringing total cuts for fiscal 2010 to more than $1 billion, announced this week by Gov. Martin O'Malley (D).
CapitalSource sells
portfolio in $331M deal
Commercial lender CapitalSource Inc. of Chevy Chase plans to sell essentially its entire healthcare lease portfolio to Omega Healthcare Investors Inc. of Hunt Valley.
The sale, including 143 long term care facilities, involves $280 million in cash and $51 million of Omega stock. CapitalSource owns 38 additional long term care facilities not included in this sale, which it expects to sell separately, according to CapitalSource information.
"This transaction is another important step in our ongoing transformation to a bank model," said John K. Delaney, chairman and CEO of CapitalSource, in a statement. "We intend to use the cash proceeds principally to pay down debt, which further strengthens our balance sheet and liquidity. After exploring a number of alternatives in recent months, we believe this direct asset sale is the best result for our shareholders."
FTC seeks contempt order
on BlueHippo
The Federal Trade Commission has asked a federal court to issue a contempt order against Baltimore-based computer finance firm BlueHippo Funding LLC, a company it says collected more than $15 million from consumers based on claims that it would finance their purchases of new computers, but delivered neither the financing nor the financed computers, in violation of a 2008 court order.
The FTC reached a settlement with the company that required the company to pay $3.5 million for consumer redress and barred the defendants from further deceiving customers. The FTC says even after this settlement order was entered by the court, BlueHippo continued to deceive consumers,
According to BlueHippo information, the legal papers filed by the FTC contain inaccurate allegations and attempt to change the terms of the parties' agreement 19 months after the fact. BlueHippo intends to "vigorously" fight these allegations and to take all steps available to it to rebut the FTC's unfounded claims. BlueHippo claims to have shipped many tens of thousands of brand new computers to customers across the country.