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The Montgomery County Office of the Inspector General initiated a review of Montgomery County's Public Health Emergency Grant (PHEG) Program to determine whether adequate policies, procedures, and controls were in place to efficiently and effectively manage the administration of PHEG awards.

We conducted this review to examine whether adequate policies, procedures, and controls were in place and followed to efficiently and effectively manage the administration and execution of the public Health Emergency Grant Program. We were also concerned that the speed with which the program was implemented may have resulted in errors that disadvantaged intended grant recipients.

The OIG initiated this investigation to determine if DPS employees were obtaining a benefit to which they were not entitled. We were additionally concerned that misapplications of policy were leading to improper payments and further adding to the County's COVID-19 debt burden.

The Montgomery County Office of the Inspector General initiated a review of Montgomery County's purchase of laptop computers to support a mandatory telework order by the Chief Administrative Officer. We sought to determine whether adequate controles were in place during the acquisition, deployment, and subsequent maintenance of the purchased computers.

The Office of the Inspector General recently concluded an investigation to determine if an applicant for County restaurant relief grants provided false or misleading information on grant applicants to secure pandemic-related grant funds. We found that the applicant received $10,000 from the County's Public Health Emergency Grant Program, $3,094.96 from the County's Reopen Montgomery program, and $10,000 from phase one of the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation Restaurant Relief program.

We have conducted a special review of the procurement and related use of COVID tests from LabGenomics, a foreign-based healthcare company. We also reviewed the circumstances surrounding the termination of two State employees after they had raised concerns related to the COVID tests. Our review was initiated based on a joint request from the chairs of the Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs and the House Health and Government Operations Committees for a review of two COVID-related emergency procurements.

U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander today sentenced Robert Lee Snowden Jr., age 45, of Owings Mills, Maryland, to 78 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and for aggravated identity theft, in connection with a series of fraud schemes perpetrated between 2013 and 2020. Additionally, Judge Hollander ordered that Snowden pay restitution of $1,021,583.72.

The Department of Justice today announced criminal charges against 14 defendants, including 11 newly-charged defendants and three who were charged in superseding indictments, in seven federal districts across the United States for their alleged participation in various health care fraud schemes that exploited the COVID-19 pandemic and resulted in over $143 million in false billings.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland has seized “healthbridgescience.com,” “global-pandemic-vaccines.com,” and “genobioscience.com” all of which purported to be the websites of actual biotechnology companies developing treatments for the COVID-19 virus but instead were allegedly used to collect the personal information of individuals visiting the sites, in order to use the information for nefarious purposes, including fraud, phishing attacks, and/or deployment of malware. Individuals visiting those sites now will see a message that the site has been seized by the federal...

U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett sentenced Nicholas Milano White, age 30, of Baltimore, Maryland, on March 30, 2021, to eight years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for the federal charges of conspiracy to steal mail, emergency benefits fraud, and aggravated identity theft. Judge Bennett also ordered White to pay restitution of $29,234, the full amount of the victims’ losses.