A federal grand jury has returned a superseding indictment against an executive at three different healthcare staffing agencies in the Las Vegas area, charging him with wage fixing and wire fraud.
On Sept. 7, a Las Vegas grand jury returned a six-count felony indictment against Eduardo Lopez.
While serving as an executive for three home health agencies in Las Vegas, Mr. Lopez allegedly worked with unnamed co-conspirators to suppress and eliminate competition for the services of nurses by fixing the wages of those employed by the agencies from March 2016 through May 2019. Mr. Lopez oversaw the recruitment, hiring, retention and assignments of nurses and other healthcare staff at each company, which were not named by the Justice Department.
In December 2021, Mr. Lopez sold his healthcare staffing company for more than $10 million and falsely represented to the buyer that federal law enforcement was not investigating him or the business, according to the indictment. The Justice Department alleges Mr. Lopez fraudulently concealed the conspiracy and investigation after FBI agents had questioned Mr. Lopez, served him with a grand jury subpoena addressed to his company, and seized his cell phone.
Wage fixing is a violation of the Sherman Act and carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine for individuals and a maximum penalty of a $100 million fine for corporations. A violation of the wire fraud statute carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
Mr. Lopez was first indicted by a Las Vegas grand jury in March. The one-county felony indictment alleged wage fixing; the charges of wire fraud were added to the Sept. 7 superseding indictment.