Wheelchair
The Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced that Michael Mann, owner of Seattle-based Wheelchairs Plus Inc., will pay $2.7 million for Medicaid fraud allegations. The Attorney General’s Office claims that Mann billed the Medicaid program for 119 new wheelchairs when he was actually delivering used wheelchairs to the poor and disabled statewide.
Almost the real thing
The virtual pet website Neopets is being sued for $5 million in a class action lawsuit over allegations that the company violated California law by automatically renewing customer memberships. The lead plaintiff known as John Doe filed the Neopets class action lawsuit after discovering that the virtual pet subscription continuously renewed customer accounts yet failed to make it known in a discernible way.
Here kitty kitty
The makers of seafood-based Fancy Feast cat food products face a potential $5 million class action lawsuit over allegations that the company supports slave labor by purchasing the cat food products from an international company known for using “sea slaves.” The plaintiff and a group of California residents filed the Fancy Feast class action lawsuit accusing Nestle of knowing the fish they use in their seafood-based pet food is probably produced using slave labor. The company omits this information from consumers.
Pump the brakes on a settlement
A settlement over the infamous Delorean used to time travel in the 1985 film “Back to the Future” has stalled in court. In 2014, the widow of automaker John DeLorean sued a Texas company she said has been illegally using the DeLorean name. The DMC-12, known simply as “the DeLorean” was driven by Michael J. Fox in the movie and has since gained a cult following. The suit alleges that DMC of Texas has been illegally using the DeLorean name to sell hats, pens, notebooks, key chains and other items, and has illegally licensed the name and images to other companies including Nike, Mattel, Urban Outfitters and Apple. The company has never been formally affiliated with the one DeLorean started.
Access denied.
A former sales executive was fired when she uninstalled on application on her company phone that kept track of her GPS location 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Myrna Arias, a former sales executive for money transfer service Intermex, claims that her boss, John Stubits, fired her shortly after she uninstalled the job-management Xora application that she and her colleagues were required to use. It was her job to travel across Central California, visiting bodegas (mini marts) and Hispanic business owners to convince them to install Intermex machines. After two months on the job, Intermex forced Arias and other employees to download the Xora app onto their company phones. Arias says it relied on the app to keep track of employees travel. The company also told them they needed to keep their phones on all day, every day.