More corporate crime charges coming: Attorney General Holder

Reuters, by Aruna Viswanatha, WASHINGTON, Tue Mar 6, 2012

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder delivers a national security speech

 regarding the Obama administration's ongoing counter terrorism efforts

during  his visit to the Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago, 

March 5, 2012. (Credit: Reuters/Jeff Haynes)

(Reuters) - The Justice Department plans to take action in the coming months against individuals involved in corporate fraud, Attorney General Eric Holder said on Tuesday, adding that fines against companies are not enough of a deterrent.

"We're gonna make some news with regard to holding individuals responsible for things we tend to think of as corporate crimes," Holder said at a meeting of state attorneys general in Washington.

The comments came in response to a question from Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli about individual prosecutions in Medicare fraud cases, but Holder said the remarks applied "more generally" to corporate fraud.

In the corporate fraud area, the Justice Department has received especially sharp criticism for not bringing more cases against entities and individuals who played a role in the 2007-2009 financial crisis.

Federal judges in recent months have also criticized other enforcement agencies for bringing cases against corporations while limiting any action against individual employees who may have been responsible for the conduct.

In the most notable example, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in November threw out Citigroup's proposed $285 million settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over the sale of toxic mortgage debt, and called the fine "pocket change" for the company.

Holder echoed that sentiment on Tuesday and said: "Especially when you look at the securities field, there have been far too many repeat offenders."

"It can't simply be that you make billions of dollars and then you pay hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties. That's not a disincentive," he said.

The remarks come as a new federal-state working group gets under way to investigate the pooling and sale of home loans that contributed to the financial crisis.

The group, which President Barack Obama announced during his State of the Union address in January, has held meetings and is moving forward with its investigations, Holder said.

The department has sent 16 civil subpoenas in its investigation, Holder said, five more than had been revealed during a January press conference.

Reuters reported last week those subpoenas appeared to overlap with previous investigations undertaken by the SEC, suggesting that the Justice Department was treading on cases the SEC has struggled to bring for years.

A Justice Department spokeswoman said last week the working group is "marshaling parallel efforts" and "pooling resources" to investigate those responsible for misconduct.

(Reporting By Aruna Viswanatha; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

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We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Lives For A Life Changing Newsflash! – Mar 5, 2012 (Channelled through Greg Giles)

“…  All your life you have waited for the good news, and that day has finally come. Very soon you will witness large-scale mass arrests all ov...er the world of many men and women who you have come to know as our world's political and financial leaders. These arrests will reach high into the U.S. Government and include many members of the financial and banking worlds. Many of these names you will immediately recognize, though some you may not immediately recognize, but all have actively taken part in serious crimes against the people, leaving our nations bankrupt why they looted our hard earned money. …”

Peres to tell AIPAC: Israel not 'rushing into war' with Iran

The Israeli president will also thank Obama for the assistance he has given Israel during the three-and-a-half years of his presidency.

Haaretz, by Barak Ravid, 4 Mar 2012

WASHINGTON, D.C. - President Shimon Peres will meet with President Barack Obama in the U.S. capital on Sunday. Peres will also tell delegates of pro-Israel lobby AIPAC that Israel is not rushing into a war with Iran.

President Shimon Peres (Photo: GPO)

Ahead of his meeting with the American leader, Peres will deliver a speech to AIPAC in which he will express his support for, and faith in, the friendship between Israel and the United States. He will also thank Obama for the political and security assistance he has given Israel during the three-and-a-half years of his presidency to date. 

Sources close to Peres told Haaretz on Saturady that the Israeli president's speech will focus mainly on the debt that Israel owes the U.S., the American people and Obama for the close ties between the two countries.

Peres will tell delegates attending the AIPAC conference that Israel should "get back to the basics" of the Israeli-American relationship, and that "sometimes it does no harm to say 'Thank you'." Peres will conclude his speech by saying he is "confident that the United States will always stand by Israel."

Peres will also dedicate a large portion of his speech to Iran, telling delegates that "Israel is not rushing into war. We are a country that always seeks out peace and peace is always our preferred option, but our enemies should make no mistakes. We have fought six wars that were forced upon us and we have won them all. If another war is forced upon us, we will fight it and we will win it."

Peres will also talk about the importance of renewing negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Peace, he will say, is not just in Israel's interest, it is "a moral duty for the Jewish people."

Immediately after Peres' speech, Obama will take to the podium. The American leader is not expected to unveil any new initiative on the Iranian issue. Instead, he will reiterate a message he has been relaying for several months - that the United States will not allow the Islamic Republic to become a nuclear-armed power. Obama is expected to focus on the series of measures that his administration has taken to tighten security cooperation with Israel.

Sources close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, do not believe that Obama's speech will include anything dramatic on the Iranian issue, but, rather, that it will stress the severity of the threat posed by a nuclear-armed Iran and the United States' commitment to thwarting Tehran's aspirations on this front.

Netanyahu, who began his North America trip on Friday in Canada, told the Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, that the international community should not allow what he called "Iran's relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons" to succeed.

Binyamin Netanyahu said to Barack Obama: 'When it comes

 to security, Israel has the sovereign right to make its own 

decisions.' Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

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(Religions – Zionism - March 1, 2012 - Matthew Channelled by Suzanne Ward)

9. It can be no other way—simply, this is the physics that governs life in this universe. As Earth continues apace into successively higher planes, nothing with low vibrations in any form—physical bodies, subversive plans, theft, dishonesty, unjust laws and imprisonment, bigotry, cruel customs and deeds—can survive.

10. Moving on, no, it will not be quite like religions being “totally discarded and replaced by universal laws in the Golden Age.” When the truths come forth that science and spirit are one and the same and that religious dogmas were originated by early leaders of church and state to control the masses, people whose consciousness has risen beyond the constraints of third density will adhere to the spiritual aspects of their respective religions and the devised, controlling aspects will fall by the wayside.

11. One of the truths to come forth is that Zionism, which by dark intent has been made synonymous with Judaism, actually is a bellicose political movement within the Illuminati, and its aim for more than six decades has been to create conflict and instability in the entire Middle East. Zionists, who have wielded powerful influence within and behind major governments and their military forces, do NOT represent the Jewish peoples in Israel or anywhere else. And, like all other Illuminati factions, they have been committed to that cabal’s goal of global domination.

12. Although Semites are of diverse national origins and religions, the Zionists have been successful in convincing many that “anti-Semitic” is exclusively prejudice against the Jewish peoples and opposition to Israel’s right to defend itself from its “enemies.” By means of that blatant distortion, they obtained not only world sympathy, but also massive defense funding from Israel’s allies, most especially the United States, all of which served to increase the Illuminati’s vast profits from their industrial-military machine.

13. In addition to controlling the masses through dogmatic teachings, religions have served the dark purpose of divisiveness to such an extent that it resulted in centuries of trauma and bloodshed. Witness the Crusades, wars between Catholics and Protestants, pogroms against Jews, executions of “blasphemous” individuals who refused to “recant.”  (Read More …)

"Matthew preparing us for the Golden Age." -  Jan 19, 2012 (Channelled by Suzy Ward)

Some Sponsors Rush Away From Limbaugh’s Show

ABC News, Mar 3, 2012

  (Image Credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

                                                 

Four sponsors have severed ties with Rush Limbaugh’s radio show after the outspoken host called law student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute.”

National advertisers LegalZoom, Quicken Loans and Sleep Number along with West Coast ad buyer The Sleep Train announced this week they were pulling all advertisements.

“We don’t condone negative comments directed toward any group. In response, we are currently pulling our ads from Rush with Rush Limbaugh,” Sleep Train wrote on Twitter.

Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown Law Student, was thrust into the spotlight this week after Limbaugh called her a “slut” for her stance on a new insurance mandate that requires employers to cover the cost of contraception.

“What does it say about the college co-ed Sandra Fluke, who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex, what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute,” Limbaugh said Wednesday.

The radio host’s comments caused customers to lobby advertisers to pull their money from the show or risk losing business.

The California-based Sleep Train has enjoyed a relationship with Limbaugh since it opened its first store in 1985.

Founder Dale Carlsen told the Sacramento Bee in 2006 that Limbaugh was introduced to him through an ad sales representative.

“The ad guy said, ‘Now he’s a little bit controversial, but he needs a bed, would you take care of him?’ ” Carlsen said. “I needed every sale that I could get at that time, so I said, ‘Yeah, bring him in and I’ll take care of him.’ ”

Not only did advertisers feel the heat, bit Limbaugh’s shot at Fluke has been drawn into presidential politics. President Obama called Fluke Friday to make sure she was okay, Fluke said.

The three Republican candidates have been less eager to discuss Limbaugh, a favorite of conservatives.

When asked about Limbaugh today, Newt Gingrich criticized Obama’s phone call to Fluke.

“I think the president will opportunistically do anything he can,” Gingrich said after a rally at the Back Porch Saloon. “I think the most important use of language in the last week has been the president’s apology to religious fanatics, and I want to stay focused on what the president has said, and I think what he said was inexcusable and is exactly the wrong policy at a time of life and death, and playing political games is irrelevant as far as I’m concerned.”

Mitt Romney was more measured in his response.

“I’ll just say this, which is, it’s not the language I would have used,” Romney told an Ohio crowd.

Rick Santorum called Limbaugh’s comments “absurd,” but said Limbaugh was just being an entertainer.

Sandra Fluke said President Obama told her that her

parents "should be proud"

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(Photo: YouTube/rightwingwatch.org)

.

American TV dramas take aim at amoral super-rich elite

New shows such as Revenge, Ringer, GCB and Downwardly Mobile win viewers with stories of inequality, covering ground where US politicians fear to tread 

guardian.co.uk, Paul Harris New York, Saturday 3 March 2012

Revenge rivals Emily Thorne (played by Emily Vancamp) and Victoria
Grayson (played by Madeleine Stowe). Photograph: Colleen Hayes/ABC

It sounds so nice in theory. A hyper-rich American family, amoral to the core and living in the wealthy playground of the Hamptons, get their thoroughly deserved comeuppance at the hands of an ordinary American girl whose own family they destroyed.

In the age of the Occupy Wall Street movement that has popularised the concept of the 99% and demonised the activities of the elite 1%, no wonder such a story has a strong pull for the American public.

Of course, this is fantasy, not reality. While American politicians show little real sign of exacting much meaningful punishment on Wall Street bankers and the hyper-rich, the same cannot be said for US television, in the form of the new hit show, Revenge.

The ABC series, which began in the autumn, has won an audience of millions with a story that is aimed at bringing down at least one family of "one percenters". They are the Graysons, embodied by the evil matriarch of the clan, Victoria, played by the actress Madeleine Stowe. They live an exalted life of wealth and snobbery in the Hamptons area of Long Island, which has long been the playground for New York's elite. Victoria's husband, Conrad, is chief executive of the distinctly capitalist-sounding Grayson Global.

Their nemesis is Emily Thorne, played by Emily VanCamp, whose innocent father was sent to jail by the Graysons, and who returns to the Hamptons incognito to wreak her revenge.

But, in a time of hesitant recovery from the Great Recession, many are seeing the story as a 99% versus 1% narrative. "The Graysons themselves do stand in for the 1%. They are so extremely venal," said Jace Lacob, a television columnist for Newsweek.

Yet, bad as the Graysons are, the methods Thorne employs to exact revenge are extreme, from computer hacking to arson. Blood is spilled and people die. It is a long way from the tradition of camp American TV dramas such as Dallas, Dynasty and daytime soap operas, where the rich and their lifestyles are to be aspired to, not destroyed. "The show reveals the downside of wealth and materialism. These are people who are morally corrupt. It is a takedown of the ruling class," said Lacob.

Others go further, seeing Thorne as a cipher for the frustrations and unhappiness of ordinary Americans. "There is a little bit of Emily in all of us," said Richard Laermer, a celebrity expert and head of RLM, a public relations company. Nor is Revenge alone as a new drama with a political undertone. Ringer, another TV series, features one twin from a poor background assuming the identity of her identical sister, who is wealthy and has a summer house in… yes, you guessed it, the Hamptons. The twin, Bridget Kelly, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, has to navigate the morally dubious, twisted ways of her dead sister's elite social life.

Then there is GCB, a new comedy drama that explores the shallow social mores of a group of wealthy Texan socialites. The heroine has fallen on hard economic times and as a result has become a better person.

Roseanne Barr, whose hit 1990s sitcom Roseanne was a rare primetime depiction of American working-class life, is meanwhile producing a pilot for Downwardly Mobile, a show where she plays the boss of a mobile-home park full of the economic casualties of the Great Recession.

However, if American audiences are showing a sudden political edge in their viewing, it is not one that extends to their foreign TV viewing habits. While Revenge may be a surrogate for the anger of the 99% at the American economic elite, viewers are at the same time big fans of Downton Abbey, which has become a huge hit in America.

Revelling in class warfare and rooting against the 1%, it seems, is something reserved for the current moment in their homeland. Or to put it another way, no one watching these shows was kicked out of their home or lost their jobs due to the actions of a British aristocrat. Thus an American audience can enjoy and admire the goings-on at Downton.

"The rise of Downton has happened because it is trapped in amber at a specific moment in time. There is a safe distance," said Lacob. The same cannot be said for a drama featuring super-rich Americans or powerful financiers. In popular culture, at least, some American viewers are now out for a little payback.

Nazi ties unbroken in post-war government

Deutsche Welle, 3 Mar 2012

Civil servants with ties to the Nazi Party were the rule rather than the exception after World War II, according to several studies. The German government has set out to investigate this dark period of its history.

Investigators made a chilling discovery in November 2011: What had seemed to be unrelated 10 murders of victims of Turkish and Greek origin between 2002 and 2007 were in fact a series of racially-motivated murders committed by a neo-Nazi terror cell. Critics allege that security agencies like the police and particularly the Office for the Protection of the Constiution had failed completely - and that they had possibly even turned a blind eye to the neo-Nazi terrorists.

Parliamentary committees and a joint federal-state commission have been charged with investigating the state's missteps. The question that worries many is whether whether neo-Nazi sympathizers may still occupy high German offices.

Post-1945 careers unbroken by a Nazi past  

Hans Globke's government career
spanned  the Nazi era and post-war
democracy

In the early days of West Germany after the war, right-wing sympathizers were certainly present in government offices.

The better part of the Nazi's bureaucratic apparatus and personnel was simply reinstated after 1945, and silence about officials' own past shaped the intellectual climate in government institutions.

The most prominent example of a career unbroken by a Nazi past is that of Hans Globke, who served as chief of staff and a close advisor to Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in the 1950s. Globke had formerly worked in the Nazi administration as a lawyer who wielded significant influence in creating the Nuremberg Race Laws. That legislation built the foundation for the discrimination and persecution against Jews that led in part to the Holocaust.

Globke's case does not lend itself to generalizations about the Nazi elite's post-war fate. But it is significant that systematic investigations into continuities within the government's personnel came so late after the end of the war.

Investigations into the past  

Guido Westerwelle with the authors
of "Das Amt und die Vergangenheit"

There is still much research to do when it comes to uncovering how careers in German bureaucracy continued before and after 1945. The German Foreign Ministry led the way in 2005, when then-Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer commissioned several historians to investigate the Ministry's past. The result was published in 2010, under the title "Das Amt und die Vergangenheit" (The Office and the Past).

In the summer of 2011, the Social Democrats (SPD) and Green Party succeeded in their calls for a non-partisan committee to examine the continuities and breaks among staff in governmental agencies. The goal is to arrive at a "definitive concept for coming to terms with the Nazi past." The petitioning parties would like the federal government to present such a concept.

But the former Director of the Institute for Cultural History Horst Möller and historian Michael Stolleis advised the parliament not to issue "wide-ranging research proposals without a problem-oriented program," and also to avoid the appearance of "politically-motivated assignments."

Political influence and limited access to documents 

Reinhard Gehlen: a general
 under Hitler, later an intelligence
director after the war

In the case of historians commissioned to investigate the past of the German Intelligence Service, political influence was in fact too big, says intelligence expert Erich Schmidt-Eenboom.
 
He also claims that the researchers unduly accepted guidelines from the head of the BND.

The research commission's leader Klaus-Dietmar Henke as well as BND head Gerhard Schindler disagree, with the latter having promised to provide "the greatest possible transparency."

The disagreements over investigating the German Intelligence Service's past demonstrate the challenges involved with such research. In the case of an intelligence service, the entanglement with the Nazi regime is likely to be much more significant than in, for instance, the ministry for agriculture. It becomes apparent, too, in the fact that the German Intelligence Service was led by Reinhard Gehlen, a general in the military during Hitler's rule, and other high-ranking Nazis.

Not even a thorough investigation into the BND's history will answer all questions, remarked Michael Hollmann, head of the Federal Archives located in Koblenz. At a parliamentary hearing, he made it clear that historians will be able to access most of the documents they requested, but not all of them.

Hollmann stressed that restricting documents doesn't represent an arbitrary exercise of power.

"The protection of sources and methods must, as in journalism, be accepted," otherwise the agencies could "close up shop," Hollmann said.

'Relatively high' continuity after 1945

In December last year, the federal government replied to an appeal issued by the Left Party, which had wanted to know how German political institutions had dealt with the Nazi past.

For West Germany, the federal government's commission noted that after the war's end, "continuities in personnel among civil servants was relatively high." Experts estimate that on average 70 percent of the personnel were able to continue their work without problems after 1945 despite having been employed in ministries and agencies during Nazi rule.

Some even suggest that figure could be closer to 90 percent.

How could democracy emerge? 

Micha Brumlik say the Allies are
to credit for the emergence of
democracy in western Germany

For historian Micha Brumlik it is not the personnel of the federal ministries that can be credited with the fact that a democracy emerged successfully in western Germany after 1945. The Allies were the real initiators, he argued, noting that former Nazi Party, SS and Gestapo members could hardly be expected to have pushed for democracy.

 

And Dresden-based historian Klaus-Dietmar Henke wonders how democracy could have functioned so well "despite the lingering poison of Nazism and the lack of change among staff."

Part of the answer is likely that the several hundred thousand Nazi followers and even the remaining Nazi culprits adjusted quickly to the new times out of concern for their careers, just as they did in 1933 when the Nazis took power.

Though disagreements have emerged and much work remains, uncovering such networks in the State Department and well beyond has been a rewarding task - on that point, the experts in the German Parliament agree.

Author: Marcel Fürstenau / gsw

Editor: Andrea Rönsberg

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Some Wall Streeters Facing Tough Times On Just $350,000 A Year

MSNBC News, by msnbc.com staff, Mar 1, 2012

Pity the poor investment bankers.

Facing a sharp decline in revenue from banking and trading, many Wall Street firms have trimmed 2011 discretionary pay, according to a Bloomberg News report, and that has translated into shrinking paychecks and widespread unease.

Wall Street types like Andrew Schiff, director of marketing for broker-dealer Euro Pacific Capital, are feeling the pain.

Schiff told Bloomberg that his reduced bonus means his $350,000 salary doesn’t cover his family’s private-school tuition, a Kent, Conn., summer rental and the upgrade they would like for his 1,200-square- foot Brooklyn duplex.

“I feel stuck,” Schiff told Bloomberg. “The New York that I wanted to have is still just beyond my reach.”

Cue the tiny violins.

Across Wall Street, smaller bonus checks are making upscale lifestyles harder to maintain, Bloomberg reports, based on interviews with bankers, accountants, therapists, advisers and headhunters.

At Goldman Sachs and Barclays Capital, the cuts were at least 25 percent, Bloomberg said, while Morgan Stanley has capped cash bonuses at $125,000.

However, Bloomberg also notes that median household income in 2010 was $49,445, according to the U.S. Census Bureau — lower than the previous year and less than 1 percent of Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein’s $7 million restricted-stock bonus for 2011.

Richard Scheiner, a 58 year-old real-estate investor and hedge-fund manager, told Bloomberg that he spends about $500 a month to park one of his two Audis in a garage and at least $7,500 a year each for memberships at the Trump National Golf Club and a gun club in upstate New York.

He also pays $17,000 a year on food, health care, boarding and a daily dog-walker (who charges $17 each per outing) to look after a labradoodle named Zelda and a rescued bichon fries named Duke.

But to make ends meet he has sold two motorcycles he doesn’t use and makes do with his Porsche 911 Carrera 4S Cabriolet, which he called “the Volkswagen of supercars,” Bloomberg said.

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Australian Treasurer Hits Out at Billionaires

Australian Treasurer Hits Out at Billionaires

Jakarta Globe, March 02, 2012

Julia Gillard, Australia’s prime minister, center, walks with Craig Emerson,
 minister for trade, left, and Wayne Swan, treasurer. Swan on Friday singled
 out three of his country’s billionaire mining magnates by name in an unusual and
high-profile attack on what he called “vested interests.”

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Sydney. Australia’s Treasurer Wayne Swan on Friday singled out three of his country’s billionaire mining magnates by name in an unusual and high-profile attack on what he called “vested interests.”

In an opinion piece for The Monthly magazine, Swan argued that a minority of the country’s wealthiest were using their power and money to oppose good public policy and economic reforms designed to benefit the majority.

Politicians, he said, had a choice “between standing up for workers and kneeling down at the feet of the Gina Rineharts and the Clive Palmers”.

Rinehart is the wealthiest woman in the Asia-Pacific with a fortune estimated at $18 billion built on her iron ore projects while Palmer’s wealth comes primarily from coal.

Last month Rinehart increased her stake in press group Fairfax to 12.8 percent, while Palmer has also said he would consider a Fairfax investment amid fears they are attempting to expand their influence.

Swan also took aim at Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, executive chairman of Fortescue Metals and one of the country’s richest men.

“A handful of vested interests that have pocketed a disproportionate share of the nation’s economic success now feel they have a right to shape Australia’s future to satisfy their own self-interest,” he said.

“This poison has infected our politics and is seeping into our economy. Though these vested interests have not yet prevailed, every day their demands get louder.”

The Monthly is one of Australia’s most highbrow publications.

Swan highlighted the “ferocious and highly misleading” campaigns waged against the Labor government’s mining tax and carbon pricing plans.

Australia’s controversial tax on the country’s mining boom is due to start on July 1 with the proceeds put towards funding infrastructure, pensions and tax cuts for small businesses.

The government originally wanted a 40 percent tax on all extraordinary profits generated by resources firms as the nation enjoys unprecedented demand for its vast mineral deposits.

But that was scrapped in favour of a 30 percent tax only on iron ore and coal super-profits after a furious and intense campaign from the powerful and wealthy mining industry.

The country’s tax on pollution also met fierce resistance. The scheme will levy a price of Aus$23 (US$24.85) per tonne on carbon pollution before moving to an emissions trading scheme in 2015.

“I fear Australia’s extraordinary success has never been in more jeopardy than right now,” Swan said.

“We must fight a pitched battle against the influence of vested interests that seek to shape public policy to their own excessive benefit and at the expense of our middle-class society.”

Agence France-Presse

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Please watch the newly updated trailer for "Heist: Who Stole the American Dream?," the new, explosive documentary from Frances Causey and Donald Goldmacher exposing the roots of the American economic crisis and the destruction of the American dream. Visit www.Heist-TheMovie.com for more information on how to see the feature film and how to Take Action in restoring democracy and economic justice in the United States.

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Exclusive: Undercover Grandma Catches Medicare Fraud on Tape

ABC News, By Megan Chuchman (@megcourtney) and Brian Ross (@brianross), March 1, 2012

In the wake of an ABC News undercover investigation, federal authorities in Texas are investigating how an active 82-year-old grandmother was diagnosed as homebound, with a range of ailments that she did not have, including Type 2 diabetes, opening the door to potentially tens of thousands of dollars in Medicare payments for home health care, supplies and equipment she did not need.

A hidden camera recorded the undercover grandmother's visit to a doctor in McAllen, Texas, where she told the doctor and nurses she exercised regularly and, other than some hypertension and arthritis, was in excellent health.

Doris Ace, grandmother to ABC News

 producer Megan Chuchmach, went

undercover  as part of an ABC News 

investigation in McAllen, Texas.

"I've really enjoyed good health all my life, God's been good to me," the doctor was told by Doris Ace, the grandmother of ABC News producer Megan Chuchmach.

Yet the official certification sent to Medicare for home health care services indicate she was homebound and suffered from two internal infections, incontinence and needs "assistance in all activities, unable to safely leave home, severe sob," an abbreviation for shortness of breath.

Mrs. Ace had specifically told the doctor and her nurses she did not suffer from incontinence or shortness of breath.

On a patient referral form for home health care service, signed by the doctor, our undercover grandmother was also wrongly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, even though she was not given a blood test which doctors say is the only way to authoritatively diagnose diabetes.

The overall diagnosis of the undercover grandmother's health could have provided the justification for what could be tens of thousand dollars a year worth of unneeded treatment and medical supplies and equipment, federal investigators said in an interview to be broadcast tonight on ABC News' "World News with Diane Sawyer" and "Nightline".

"That's fraud," said Tim Menke, senior adviser for investigations in the Inspector General's office at the Department of Health and Human Services.

"Our Medicare system is an honor system," said Menke after viewing the files and the ABC News undercover tape of the doctor's office visit. "And there's not much honor left in the system when you see things like that."

McAllen is considered a hotbed of Medicare fraud by the Inspector General's office which has already brought cases against a number of doctors and health care agencies and has many others under investigation.

"The fraud indicators are off the charts," said Menke of McAllen and surrounding towns in the Rio Grande Valley. "We have ten of the top physicians who have billed nearly $200 million in one specialty last year alone."

Nationwide, the Inspector General's office estimates that $60 billion dollars of taxpayer money is lost to unchecked Medicare fraud every year.

"We've seen it in Miami, Detroit and now in McAllen and it's very, very common," he said.

"They're lying in order to steal from you and me and the taxpayers," he added.

The McAllen doctor, Dr. Padmini Bhadriraju declined to comment to ABC News but denied any wrongdoing through her lawyer.

The lawyer, John Rivas, said the doctor acknowledged an "error" in the diabetes diagnosis for ABC News' undercover grandmother on the patient referral form but said, "this section was filled out by someone other than Dr. Bhadriraju," even though he confirmed the doctor did fill out the majority of the form and signed it in her handwriting.

Her signature served as certification that "my clinical findings support that this patient is homebound."

The doctor's lawyer said neither the doctor nor others in her office knew who filled in the incorrect diabetes diagnosis.

Rivas also said the doctor played no role in the official certification form sent to Medicare, although records show she billed Medicare for the review of the form and its plan of care.

"The records provided by ABC News do not support any allegations of fraud. It would be irresponsible journalism to air a story on Medicare/Medicaid fraud using this referral as an example when there is clearly no evidence of fraud," he added in a letter to ABC News.

ABC News ended the undercover investigation before any medical supplies or equipment could be billed to Medicare based on the false diagnosis.

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Scientists credited on ghostwritten articles 'should be charged with fraud'

THE GREAT CON JOB - DYLAN RATIGAN (April 8 2010)

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