Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said he is investigating Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield over the Aug. 15 loss of a laptop computer that contained confidential information on nearly 19,000 health care providers in Connecticut that do business with the insurance carrier.
Blumenthal said the company might have violated state law by losing the information and failing to notify providers in a timely manner. The laptop contained health provider names and some Social Security numbers and tax identity information.
Anthem is a subsidiary of Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc.
Greenwich resident Frederic Bourke Jr. was sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay a $1 million fine following his conviction in July of attempting to bribe officials in Azerbaijan.
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Bourke is co-founder of Dooney & Bourke, a Norwalk-based handbag design company.
U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin sentenced Bourke, 63, for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, while allowing for the possibility that Bourke himself was a victim.
Bourke reportedly plans to appeal the verdict.
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Federal authorities arrested two Fairfield County men in connection with an ongoing investigation of Galleon Group, charging them and a dozen others with orchestrating a $20 million insider-trading scheme, allegedly the largest ever in connection with a hedge fund.
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Craig Drimal, 53, was arrested in mid-October at his Weston home. Drimal worked in the New York City office of Galleon Group, though was not a direct employee of the company.
Pleading guilty to federal securities charges in connection with the case was New Canaan resident Gautham Shankar, 35, a trader with Schottenfield Group L.L.C.
Prosecutors said they are seeking up to 25 years in prison and more than $5 million in fines for both Drimal and Shankar.
According to the complaint, in September 2007 Drimal provided an individual with a piece of paper listing the stock symbols of four companies and disclosed that Marlborough, Mass.-based 3Com Corp. was going to be acquired. Drimal is said to have told that individual to destroy the list and to be careful trading in these securities because there were no public rumors that the companies on the list were to be bought, but likened the opportunity to “shooting fish in a barrel.”
Last week, Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP announced it would acquire 3Com for $2.7 billion.
In a press conference, the head of the SEC”™s enforcement division described cloak-and-dagger measures by defendants to avoid detection, including the use of code names and destroying evidence.
“There should be a moment ”“ hopefully before you”™re holding a bag of cash delivered to you by somebody code-named ”˜the Octopussy”™ ”“ that causes anyone in a position to tip or trade inside information to think twice before taking such a misguided step,” said Robert Khuzami, head of the SECs enforcement division. “And if you find yourself chewing the memory card in your cell phone to destroy any record of your misconduct, something has gone terribly wrong with your character.”
The former corporate controller of Expand International of America Inc.”™s Stratford office pleaded guilty to embezzling $2.5 million, using the money to buy vintage sports cars.
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Federal prosecutors said Stratford resident Steven DeCecco, 51, directed hundreds of unauthorized wire transfers from his employer”™s bank accounts to his, along with colleague Jaime Hoff who pleaded guilty last month and awaits sentencing.
Expand International sells portable displays for use at trade shows and other events. The company is based in Stockholm, Sweden.
