Category: Security

A federal judge has set a trial date in the criminal fraud case against Boeing, the latest step in the grinding legal process following two fatal 737 MAX crashes six years ago.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor on Tuesday set a trial date, potentially changing the course of the prosecution after several months of behind-the-scenes discussions between Boeing and the Justice Department.

After the crashes in 2018 and 2019, which killed a total of 346 people, the Justice Department charged Boeing with fraud related to allegations that the company intentionally misled safety regulators about a new software system on the MAX.

Boeing agreed in July to plead guilty, part of a plea deal with the Justice Department, but O’Connor rejected the deal in December. That sent Boeing and the Justice Department back to discussions.

O’Connor had set an April 11 deadline for Boeing and the Justice Department to provide an “update on how they plan to proceed.”

But on Tuesday he vacated that deadline and set a trial for June 23 in Fort Worth, Texas.

The families who lost loved ones in the MAX crashes welcomed the news of a trial on Tuesday. They have pushed for the Justice Department to do more to hold Boeing accountable and hope a trial will lead to that result.

“We are pleased to see Judge O’Connor set this case for trial,” said Sanjiv Singh, an attorney who is representing 16 families who lost loved ones in the first crash, in Indonesia in 2018. “We hope that the Justice Department will agree that a corporate entity which killed hundreds of people and endangered millions of lives should be held accountable.”

A Boeing spokesperson said Tuesday the company and the Justice Department “continue to be engaged in good faith discussions regarding an appropriate resolution of this matter.”

In the years since the fatal crashes, Boeing has twice entered into deals with federal prosecutors that would have allowed the company to avoid trial.

In 2021, Boeing and the Justice Department entered into a deferred prosecution agreement that set conditions for the company to meet over the next three years. Days before that agreement expired, a panel blew off a 737 MAX plane in January 2024, leading to fresh concerns about Boeing’s quality and manufacturing processes.

The Justice Department determined in May that Boeing had violated the terms of the deferred prosecution agreement, opening the door to a trial or plea deal.

In July, Boeing and the Justice Department agreed on a plea deal, which would have required Boeing to pay a $244 million fine, commit $455 million to improve compliance, quality and safety programs, and hire an independent monitor to oversee its processes.

O’Connor rejected that deal in December in part because the government said it would consider diversity when selecting the independent monitor.

That monitor was one of the few things that set the plea deal apart from the earlier deferred prosecution agreement, and something that the families who lost loved ones in the crashes had been hoping to see.

Catherine Berthet, who lost her daughter Camille Geoffroy in the second fatal crash in Ethiopia in 2019, said in a December statement she was “relieved” O’Connor rejected the plea deal. She was hopeful that decision would lead to more accountability for the company, though she knew the victims’ families would have to remain “vigilant” in order to get there.

“I am confident that justice will be served and that there is only one way to achieve this: a fair trial,” Berthet said.

Since the December order rejecting the plea deal, Boeing and the Justice Department have repeatedly asked the court for more time to continue discussions.

On Monday, in an unexpected turn, the Wall Street Journal reported that Boeing was seeking to withdraw its guilty plea agreement.

The company hoped to benefit from “more lenient treatment” from President Donald Trump’s Justice Department, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

O’Connor set a trial date the next day.

Mark Lindquist, another attorney representing some victims’ families, said Tuesday it appears “the judge has lost patience with Boeing.”

“His message seems to be, ‘accept responsibility or go to trial. No more delays,’” Lindquist said.

There’s no guarantee that Boeing goes to trial even though there’s a date set. The company and the Justice Department could agree on another plea deal, attorneys representing the victims’ families said.

Still, attorney Paul Cassell said, “we’re pleased with today’s order. The families have waited more than four years for justice in this case. In light of today’s order, the families won’t have to wait any longer than June 23.”

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© 2025 The Seattle Times.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Former North Dakota State Senator Raymon “Ray” Everett Holmberg, a Republican, was sentenced on Wednesday to 10 years in prison after repeatedly traveling to Europe and paying to “sexually exploit children.”

In a Wednesday press release, the U.S. Department for Justice announced that court documents showed the 81-year-old lawmaker traveled to Prague in the Czech Republic roughly 14 times between 2011 and 2021. During the former lawmaker’s trips, Holmberg “paid for sex acts with boys” while staying at a brothel that “catered to men looking to engage in commercial sex with adolescent boys.”

The Justice Department explained that Holmberg used the name “Sean Evans” as an alias since he did not want his name to be included on the brothel’s registry due to his position as a North Dakota state senator. Additionally, witnesses told law enforcement officials that the 81-year-old visited a public park in Prague to “procure sex from underage boys.”

“Holmberg also used the ‘Evans’ alias to tell friends about his trips and encourage them to travel to Prague. In these communications, Holmberg shared an image of an adolescent boy that he called ‘his twink,’ and said that ‘no one is ever to [sic] young . . . remember Prague,’” the Justice Department stated. “He emailed a different friend a link to a brothel in Prague and suggested that they go that summer, writing: ‘The boys rent at around $60 . . .  (sex is extra).’” 

READ MORE: Child molesters to face death penalty under new bill in Idaho

Holmberg’s email added, “It will be decadent but oh so much fun bro. What happens in Prague—Stays in Prague.”

In addition to the email, the Justice Department said the former Republican lawmaker “boasted” that he had “engaged in sexual activity” with 12-year-old and 15-year-old boys during his trips to Europe.

In Wednesday’s press release, the Justice Department said Holmberg’s history of sexually exploiting minors was “not limited” to his overseas trips. Law enforcement officials said the former lawmaker also had an online relationship with a 16-year-old Canadian boy and pretended to be close in age to the boy “to manipulate the Canadian teen into taking images of himself engaging in sexually explicit conduct and sending them to Holmberg.”

According to The Post Millennial, the 81-year-old resigned from his position in 2022 and was later indicted on federal charges in October of 2023. The outlet noted that Holmberg previously served as the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee in the North Dakota State Senate and was the head of Legislative Management.

In a statement obtained by KFGO following Holmberg’s sentencing, North Dakota lawmakers said, “Ray Holmberg’s evil crimes require reflection and careful review of policy to determine how best to combat crimes against children. In the coming months, we intend to do that with sober judgment and a firm resolve.”

Former Louisiana Sen. J. Bennett Johnston, a Democrat who chaired the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and who fought off a surprisingly strong challenge from David Duke in 1990, died Tuesday. He was 92.

Johnston, a moderate Democrat who served from 1972 through 1997, was a strong defender of nuclear energy and a mild-mannered lawmaker prone to deal-making in a state often known for populist flamethrowers.

His election to the Senate came after he unsuccessfully ran for Louisiana governor in 1971; he lost to Edwin W. Edwards in a Democratic runoff, which nonetheless gave him the name recognition to successfully run for Senate a few months later.

He either led the Senate Energy and Natural Resources panel or served as ranking member from 1973 to 1996 at a key time for U.S. energy policy, with his chairmanship overlapping with Middle East conflicts that impacted the price of foreign oil and a nuclear reactor accident at Three Mile Island in 1979.

Johnston proposed and shepherded through the Energy Policy Act of 1992, which rewrote the nuclear licensing provisions of federal law, encouraged conservation, increased competition in electric-power markets and included extensive provisions regarding liquid natural gas. He also worked on natural gas deregulation and served on the Appropriations and Budget committees.

In mid-1986, he challenged then-Minority Leader Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia for that leadership slot. But when the Democrats regained the majority that fall, Byrd was widely regarded as the likely Senate majority leader, leading Johnston to quit the race.

He later sought to challenge Byrd again in 1988. This time, the job went to George J. Mitchell of Maine.

Before being elected to the Senate, Johnston served in the Louisiana House from 1964 through 1968 and in the Louisiana Senate from 1968 through 1972.

A 1994 CQ profile said his voting habits represented “a rare blend of a Southern social conservative and a loyal liberal Democrat.” He backed then-President Bill Clinton’s economic stimulus plan and the Family and Medical Leave Act, but opposed several bills involving gun control and the effort to lift the ban on gays in the military.

He remained on the fence when the Clinton administration sought backing for its 1994 health care overhaul and was one of six Democratic senators to vote against Clinton’s budget plan in 1993.

He was not without legislative disappointments. He was forced to abandon his effort to update the 1872 Mining Law. And he was devastated after House lawmakers cut the superconducting super collider, a Texas-based atom smasher that would have generated millions of dollars of spending in Louisiana for magnet production.

One of his great political challenges came in 1990 when he faced then-state legislator David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader. Johnston beat him in part through an ad campaign showing Duke at cross burnings and giving white power salutes.

After his retirement, he founded a Washington lobbying firm, Johnston & Associates.

According to The New York Times, he is survived by his wife, Mary, and four children: J. Bennett Johnston III, Hunter Johnston, Mary Johnston Norriss and Sally Roemer, the wife of former U.S. Rep. Tim Roemer of Indiana, and 10 grandchildren.

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© 2025 CQ-Roll Call, Inc

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Viral videos shared on social media show Vice President J.D. Vance firing machine guns alongside U.S. Marines at Quantico in Virginia on Wednesday.

According to Breitbart, Vance, who previously served in the U.S. Marines, fired the M27 5.56 infantry assault rifle, the 5240B machine gun, the 5107 .50 caliber sniper rifle, and the M101 105mm Howitzer. The outlet noted that Vance also tested a drone system during his visit with the Marines on Wednesday.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Vance shared a video of himself shooting machine guns alongside the Marines at Quantico. “Become VP, get to shoot machine guns with Marines,” Vance wrote. “Not a bad gig!”

Vance can also be seen firing at a rifle range in a video shared by media personality Rogan O’Handley. O’Handley said Vance took two shots from “hundreds of yards away.”

“1 was a head shot and the other was center mass,” the media personality tweeted. “They say every Marine is a rifleman and JD just proved it.”

VP Vance joined fellow Marines on the rifle range and took 2 shots from hundreds of yards away

1 was a head shot and the other was center mass

They say every Marine is a rifleman and JD just proved it pic.twitter.com/LR7ivnv4Gj

— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) March 26, 2025

In a third video, the vice president can be seen serving lunch and talking with Marines at Marine Corps Base Quantico.

NOW: Vice President JD Vance is serving lunch to fellow Marines in Quantico

He’ll make an incredible Commander-in-Chief one of these days! pic.twitter.com/9zfyZx5aAT

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) March 26, 2025

During his visit with the Marines at Quantico, Vance higlighted the Trump administration’s approach to military leadership and the departure from the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives pushed under the Biden-Harris administration.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, we believe in a very simple principle. We don’t care who you are, where you came from,” Vance said. “We don’t care what skin color you are. We care about excellence, and we care about patriotism.”

READ MORE: Pic: 500+ Marines, sailors deployed on US warship as ‘ready-response force’

The vice president added, “No more quotas, no more ridiculous mumbo-jumbo. No more diversity trainings. We believe the real strength and the real diversity in the United States Marine Corps is that you all come from every walk of life, come from every corner of America, and you have got the strength and the purpose to win the nation’s wars.”

VP VANCE: “Under President Trump’s leadership, we believe in a very simple principle. We don’t care about who you are or where you came from. We care about excellence and patriotism. No more quotas, no more diversity training.”

MARINES GO WILD pic.twitter.com/4TixRUw3ge

— TheBlaze (@theblaze) March 26, 2025

In his speech to the Marines at Quantico, Vance explained that he had to leave in the middle of a meeting with President Donald Trump on Wednesday, who gave a message for the vice president to pass along to the Marines during his visit.

“The president of the United States said that he wanted me to tell you two things,” Vance said. “First of all, that he loves you, and second of all, that he’s proud of you.”

VP Vance to Marines at MCB Quantico: “The president of the United States said he wanted me to tell you two things. First of all that he loves you, and second of all that he’s proud of you.” pic.twitter.com/w5JmWbjNw4

— Off The Press (@OffThePress1) March 26, 2025

Following his visit with the Marines at Quantico, Vance shared a picture from his speech to the U.S. service members on Wednesday, saying, “Extremely proud of our US Marines, and honored to get to visit with them today in Quantico. Semper Fi!”

Law enforcement officials have arrested the suspect who allegedly set multiple Teslas on fire and fired multiple gunshots into Tesla vehicles at a Tesla Collision Center in Las Vegas last week.

In a Thursday press release, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada announced that 36-year-old Paul Hyon Kim was arrested by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officials on Wednesday and was charged with one count of arson and one count of unlawful possession of an unregistered firearm. The press release noted that Kim was in federal custody and was scheduled for a detention hearing on Friday prior to a preliminary court hearing on April 10.

In Thursday’s press release, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said, “The Department of Justice has been clear: anyone who participates in the wave of domestic terrorism targeting Tesla properties will suffer severe legal consequences. We will continue to find, arrest, and prosecute these attackers until the lesson is learned.”

According to Fox News, police officials said Kim drove a black Hyundai Elantra near the Tesla Collision Center and approached the Tesla facility on foot, dressed in black clothes and gloves. Officials said the suspect also concealed his face during the “targeted attack.”

The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada said, “During the investigation, it was determined that Molotov cocktails and a .30 caliber AR-style firearm were used to damage and destroy five Tesla vehicles, and graffiti was sprayed to write ‘Resist’ on the front of the building.”

READ MORE: FBI launches new task force as domestic terrorists target Tesla

Fox News reported that police officials also accused the suspect of using a rifle to damage surveillance cameras.

“On March 26, law enforcement officials executed various state search warrants related to this case, including a search warrant at Kim’s residence,” Thursday’s press release stated. “Inside the residence, they found various firearms, including an AR style rifle consistent with the firearm used in the March 18, 2025 incident and with a suppressor on it, a black gun belt with a pouch and a small drop of pink paint residue, a black hoodie, face masks, and a handwritten note with what appeared to be an escape plan.”

During a Thursday press briefing, Spencer Evans Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent in Charge Spencer Evans confirmed that Kim will face additional federal charges for last week’s Tesla attack.

“There’s nothing courageous or noble about firebombing private property and terrorizing your local community,” Evans said. “The self-righteous mob that’s cheering you on today to commit acts of violence on their behalf will leave you high and dry and forget about you tomorrow. And at the end of the day, you and you alone will be held responsible and face the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence.”

Collision during the night between a Taiwanese Navy ship and a Chinese fishing vessel off the central coast of the island. The incident did not cause any injuries, but led to the opening of an investigation to clarify responsibility.

According to a statement from the Taiwan Naval Fleet Command, the collision occurred at 00:38 local time, about 45 nautical miles (72.5 kilometers) from the coastal city of Taichung. The military unit involved is a Chung Ho-class tank landing ship, which collided with a Chinese-flagged vessel in circumstances yet to be determined. Taiwanese authorities have confirmed that no one on board the two vessels was injured and that the damage sustained by the military ship did not compromise navigational safety. However, an investigation has been launched to determine the exact dynamics of the incident.

The Naval Fleet Command said the investigation will be “completed in accordance with relevant regulations to clarify responsibilities.” At the moment, no official statements have been received from the Chinese authorities regarding the incident. The clash comes amid rising maritime tensions between Taiwan and China, with ongoing disputes over sovereignty and the presence of Chinese vessels in waters near the island. It remains to be seen whether the episode will have diplomatic repercussions or will be treated as an isolated incident.

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© 2025 GMC S.A.P.A. di G. P. Marra.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Eric McCullough spent months looking for an affordable place of his own but then moved into an apartment with his daughter, his only option to make ends meet.

McCullough, 59, lives on disability insurance and said he could not find apartments or houses for rent that he could afford on those payments alone.

“The magic question, to me, is what do people consider affordable?” he asked. “Who do they make these affordable houses for when the people who need it most can’t afford them?”

Nearly 900,000 Floridians struggle with the same issue, and many end up spending too much on rent, meaning more than 30% of their monthly income goes to housing costs, according to a recent report from the University of Florida’s Shimberg Center for Housing Studies. And the latest studies indicate that, despite extensive efforts from the public and nonprofit sectors, the number of affordable units in Central Florida has been falling.

Paying too much in rent limits what they can spend on food, health care and other bills and foils plans to save for a down payment on a house, the center said.

Florida’s “cost-burdened” renters include 123,738 people in Lake, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties, making up about 30 percent of all renters in the region.

Florida has been in a construction boom that in 2023 alone added more than 138,000 new single family homes and more than 50,500 new apartments to the state’s housing inventory — but that has not helped many lower-income residents, the center said.

The median wage in the Orlando metro area is $45,000, and residents earning that should pay about $1,100 a month for housing, but there are fewer and fewer rentals available at that price, said Anne Ray, manager of the Florida Housing Data Clearinghouse at the Shimberg Center.

Orange County, for example, added more than 77,000 rental units in the last decade that cost more than $1,200 a month. The number of apartments renting for less than that fell by nearly 32,000, she said.

“The stock of more affordable housing has gone down, even as the overall supply has gone up,” Ray said.

An apartment complex called the The Cannery, part of Orlando’s new Packing District development, opened in 2022, for example, and advertises studios available for $1,870 and two-bedroom units going for about $2,400.

Central Florida’s job market includes many positions in tourism, hospitality and food service, and they are often low paying.

“We have a lot of people who are working full-time in jobs that clearly don’t pay enough to allow you to afford what rents are on the market,” Ray said.

The rising cost of single-family homes impacts renters, too. “People who might have bought a house before are renting and competing with people who might be a little lower down on the income scale,” she said.

Housing prices in Central Florida hit a record high in 2024, according to the Orlando Regional Realtor Association. The median home sale price in the region was $380,000 in December, up 3.5 percent from a year earlier. The data included sales of single-family homes as well as condominiums, duplexes and townhouses in Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia counties.

The Orlando Housing Authority, mostly funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, provides housing assistance for about 4,600 low-income residents.

But inflation has outpaced HUD’s 2.5% annual cost-of-living adjustments, said Vivian Bryant, the local agency’s president, making it hard to help all those who need housing assistance.

“The gap between available resources and growing needs continues to widen,” she said, with a growing population adding to the problem.

Orlando resident Jermain Shonola, who grew up in Central Florida, has seen both the population and the costs grow over the years.

His apartment complex near the intersection of Holden Avenue and South Orange Blossom Trail recently raised the rent, but Shonola said finding another place is hard, especially as he wants a bigger space.

“Where I live, a one-bedroom is an average of $1,500, but they’re not nearly big enough,” he said. “When you look at a lot of new places, they have waiting lists. They have affordable apartments open, but people have been waiting for months sometimes to get in.”

McCullough, who now lives with his daughter, said he didn’t believe complaints about the lack of affordable housing until he went on disability and began a search, finding out that many online advertisements for affordable apartments omitted the hundreds of dollars in fees that would keep him from moving in.

In one instance, McCullough said, an online apartment ad targeted at Orlando residents on disability insurance listed units on their website for $440 per month, a price he could afford on his $1,000 monthly disability allowance. But when he toured the apartment, McCullough said he was told the cheapest units were $1,000 a month, not including required security deposits.

Other places he searched were also out of reach.

“I would tell them that I’m on a fixed income, I get a certain amount each month, I’m disabled and I’m a senior citizen,” he said.

Bryant said the region needs to find ways to build more housing its residents can afford. Construction experts say rising property insurance costs in Florida contribute to the affordable housing problem, with some developers saying such units are not financially feasible.

“We are caught in a difficult position where the resources needed to build affordable housing simply aren’t enough, yet demand continues to surge,” Bryant said. “Without significant investment in housing solutions, Central Florida’s affordability crisis will only deepen, leaving many families struggling to find a place to call home.”

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© 2025 Orlando Sentinel.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A search effort for four missing U.S. Army soldiers remains “ongoing” despite NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte suggesting on Wednesday that the soldiers had died during a training mission in Lithuania.

In a Thursday press release, U.S. Army Europe and Africa said, “The M88 Hercules armored recovery vehicle the four missing U.S. Soldiers were operating during a training exercise has been located in Lithuania.”

U.S. Army Europe and Africa explained that the military vehicle was found by the U.S. Army, the Lithuanian Armed Forces, and other Lithuanian officials “submerged in a body of water” that was located in a training area. U.S. Army Europe and Africa added, “Recovery efforts are underway by U.S. Army and Lithuanian Armed Forces and civilian agencies.”

Talking with reporters on Wednesday, Rutte suggested that the four missing U.S. soldiers had died during the training mission. “This is still early news so we do not know the details,” he said. “This is really terrible news and our thoughts are with the families and loved ones.” 

Following the secretary general’s comments, Allison Hart, a NATO spokesperson, tweeted, “On the 4 US soldiers missing in a military exercise in Lithuania, the search is ongoing. We regret any confusion about remarks @SecGenNATO delivered on this today. He was referring to emerging news reports & was not confirming the fate of the missing, which is still unknown.”

READ MORE: US soldiers charged for selling military secrets to China

U.S. Army Europe and Africa reported that the four U.S. soldiers, who are all from the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, went missing during a “tactical training” mission near Pabradė, Lithuania.

Addressing the training incident in a Wednesday statement on X, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote, “Four of our brave soldiers from 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division are currently missing in Lithuania. They were conducting scheduled tactical training. Our prayers are with their families, teammates, the entire unit—and everyone conducting search operations. Nothing our troops do — whether in combat or in training — is ever routine. We will not rest until our troops are found.”

As recovery efforts continue in Lithuania for the four missing U.S. soldiers, Lt. Gen. Charles Costanza, commanding general of the V Corps, thanked the Lithuanian Armed Forces and the first responders who “quickly came to our aid in our search operations.”

“It’s this kind of teamwork and support that exemplifies the importance of our partnership and our humanity regardless of what flags we wear on our shoulders,” Costanza added.

Actor and comedian Joe Gatto has canceled upcoming dates of his comedy tour and entered an in-patient treatment facility in the wake of recent sexual assault and harassment allegations.

Gatto, who starred in TruTV’s hidden-camera show “Impractical Jokers” from 2011 to 2021, said in a statement Wednesday that he had voluntarily started treatment at an undisclosed facility, according to People.

The announcement comes less than a week after a woman took to social media to accuse the Staten Island-born improv actor of sexual assault.

In a series of since-deleted TikTok videos shared on March 20, the woman said the assault happened in 2023 when she was 19.

Three days later, a second woman came forward with different allegations against the 48-year-old comedian, which she described as sexual harassment.

The woman, who worked for the comedian during his “Impractical Jokers” days, told People that as soon as she turned 18, Gatto’s behavior changed and he became very flirtatious. He would allegedly inquire about her sex life and ask for back massages, once even inviting her to his room and asking to cuddle, she said.

Gatto, a married father of two, has denied the allegations but admitted that his past “poor judgment” had led to a breach of trust with those he loves most.

In a statement on Wednesday, Gatto said that after “having taken some time to reflect” he decided to “voluntarily enter an in-patient program to continue working on myself.”

He also thanked his friends, fans and “especially [his] family for all of their support — never more so than over the last few days.”

In late 2021, Gatto announced that he and his wife had decided to split after eight years of marriage. Two years later, he said in an Instagram post that the two had reconciled.

Gatto’s latest comedy tour, Let’s Get Into It, kicked off in Lafayette, Indiana, on Feb. 13 and is currently scheduled to end in Atlanta on Nov. 14.

According to Ticketmaster, the event organizer has canceled most of his dates through the end of June. Refunds will be automatically issued to the original payment method used at purchase.

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© 2025 New York Daily News.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A massive pension plan in California alleges UnitedHealth Group has engaged in a wrongful profit-making scheme through its Medicare Advantage business that wasn’t disclosed, allowing top executives to reap millions in stock trades based on nonpublic information, according to an amended lawsuit filed in Minnesota this month.

The Eden Prairie-based health care giant blasted the complaint, saying in a legal filing that it substitutes page volume for substance, ignores government support for the company’s Medicare Advantage practices and misreads records showing executives actually increased their stock holdings, “which is the opposite of selling to profit from alleged fraud.”

The 158-page complaint in the U.S. District Court of Minnesota, filed last year and amended late last week, incorporates allegations of questionable Medicare Advantage billing practices at UnitedHealth Group that were detailed in separate investigative reporting projects last year by the Wall Street Journal and the online publication STAT.

CalPERS, the pension fund that manages $500 billion in assets for public sector retirees in California, is lead plaintiff in the putative class-action complaint, which was brought on behalf of purchasers of UnitedHealth Group common stock between Sept. 22, 2021 and Feb. 20, 2025.

“As the nation’s largest public pension fund, CalPERS purchased more than 1.8 million shares of UnitedHealth stock during (a two-year portion of) the period covered by the lawsuit,” the California Public Employees’ Retirement System said in a statement to the Minnesota Star Tribune. “Our court filings … state that the pension fund posted losses of more than $76.3 million in the investment (between March 14, 2022, and Feb. 27, 2024) due to the alleged actions of UnitedHealth — larger losses than any other plaintiff.”

UnitedHealth Group is parent company for UnitedHealthcare, the nation’s largest health insurer, and Optum, a fast-growing health services business that provides IT consulting, pharmacy benefits and a national network of outpatient medical clinics.

The clinics, and their interaction with the company’s Medicare Advantage health plans, have been a focus of the recent investigative journalism reports as well as the CalPERS lawsuit.

UnitedHealth Group insists the complaint fails to show any false or misleading statements, doesn’t specify what laws the company allegedly violated and contradicts the fact that the federal agency running Medicare “has consistently found that programs like the one the plaintiff complains about are legal, provide significant benefits for the health care system and are heavily scrutinized to deter abuse.”

CalPERS sued UnitedHealth Group nearly 20 years ago when the company was rocked by allegations that Dr. William McGuire, the CEO at the time, wrongly realized enormous personal wealth via “backdated” stock options.

The new lawsuit names the company as a defendant along with Brian Thompson, the UnitedHealth Group executive who was killed on a New York City sidewalk in December while walking to a company investor conference. Chief executive Andrew Witty also is a defendant in the CalPERS litigation, along with Stephen Hemsley, the UnitedHealth Group board chair who served as chief executive for more than a decade after McGuire stepped down.

Executives made millions in stock trades while making or causing to be made false or misleading statements that pushed up the value of the company’s stock, according to the lawsuit. In particular, they sold more than $100 million in stock, the complaint alleges, after learning of a nonpublic investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice that was later reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The amended lawsuit alleges securities fraud and reads like an unauthorized biography of the giant health care corporation, describing the Minnesota origins of UnitedHealth Group in the 1970s and allegations the company has grown by gaming landmark federal laws passed in 1997 and 2010.

The earlier statute launched a program known as Medicare Part C, in which health insurers sell Medicare Advantage health plans offering a privatized version of government health insurance benefits for seniors. The lawsuit outlines a series of accusations related to UnitedHealthcare’s huge growth within Medicare Advantage and a scheme to allegedly game a system via “upcoding,” where insurers get paid more for covering patients suffering more health problems.

“UnitedHealth induced providers to find new diagnoses by paying bonuses to providers who upcoded,” the lawsuit states. “UnitedHealth trained providers to use ‘buddy codes,’ that is adding multiple new diagnoses based upon existing ones. UnitedHealth also purposefully leveraged its HouseCalls program, whereby the Company would dispatch nurse practitioners to members’ homes to perform physical assessments in search of new diagnoses, even if they were not medically supported.”

The lawsuit includes accounts from seven confidential witnesses, including a primary care physician dubbed “CW3,″ who described corporate pressure to change how physicians treated Medicare Advantage (MA) patients after Optum in late 2018 became majority shareholder in the doctor’s clinic.

“The clinic became hyper focused on converting non-MA members to being members of UnitedHealth’s MA program, which was communicated through weekly emails, meetings, and outreach from clinic’s managed care department,” the lawsuit alleged.

“Due to pressure from management, (the doctor and staff) began prioritizing CW3’s UnitedHealth MA members over CW3’s other patients. CW3 also described a widespread campaign at the clinic to maximize the (diagnosis) codes for each of the clinic’s UnitedHealth members in order to increase risk-adjustment scores.”

The lawsuit alleges UnitedHealth Group has gamed rules under the federal Affordable Care Act of 2010 that regulates the “medical loss ratio” (MLR) of health insurers.

These rules force health plans to spend between 80% and 85% of member premiums on health care for patients, rather than administrative costs and insurer profits. The lawsuit alleges UnitedHealth Group bypassed MLR restrictions by having its health insurance division pay for services provided at Optum clinics and cites a STAT report that said rates were higher than clinics received from another national insurer.

“UnitedHealthcare could collect premiums, send patients to Optum Health for treatment, and pay itself (through Optum) for the requisite level of healthcare needed to satisfy the MLR requirements,” the lawsuit states. “Designing its corporate structure in this way allowed UnitedHealth to circumvent the ACA’s MLR restrictions and retain greater profits on both the insurance side and the provider side of the ledger.”

CalPERS also alleges UnitedHealth misled investors about data firewalls within its Change Healthcare subsidiary, which Optum acquired for about $13 billion in 2022. UnitedHealth disclosed in February 2024 that Change Healthcare had been breached in the largest known health care computer-hacking incident in years, affecting 190 million people.

UnitedHealth has stressed that a court hearing in a Justice Department challenge to the acquisition found UnitedHealth Group had policies and incentives to protect information, including with respect to internal firewalls.

A motion from UnitedHealth in February to dismiss the original complaint did not address the allegations on medical loss ratios, but argued plaintiffs had failed to define the alleged upcoding in Medicare Advantage while noting Medicare allows companies to use health risk assessments, chart reviews and other measures to find additional diagnoses.

The federal government performs audits “that measure the accuracy of risk-adjusted diagnoses, including those identified through House Calls visits,” the company said.

And on executive stock trades, UnitedHealth Group argued that defendants increased their overall holdings, calling this “the last thing they would do” if the goal had been to dump stock to avoid losses. Plus, sales were submitted for preclearance by the company’s legal team, “hardly the action of fraudsters trying to profit from improper insider trades.”

UnitedHealth Group has until May 20 to file a motion to dismiss the amended complaint.

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