Guilty plea: A former Amedisys official has pleaded guilty to wire fraud after being accused of using a fake film tax credit scheme to divert more than $7.6 million to his personal bank accounts, the Associated Press reports. Baton Rouge U.S. Attorney Walt Green said in a Thursday news release that Michael David Pitts, 41, was the vice president of tax for Amedisys from January 2005 to July 2014 and used his position to defraud the company. Green says Pitts was responsible for all corporate tax matters for Amedisys and had the ability to purchase tax credits for the purpose of reducing and paying state income taxes in the places where the company operated. Green says Pitts’ guilty plea to one count of wire fraud carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. No sentencing date has been set.
In production: Exxon Mobil Corp announced this week that oil production has started ahead of schedule at the Julia oil field, located 265 miles southwest of New Orleans more than 7,000 feet beneath the water’s surface. According to a news release, the first production well is now online, and a second well will be online in coming weeks. The initial development phases uses subsea tie-backs to the Chevron-operated Jack/St. Malo production facility, which Exxon says reduces the need for additional infrastructure and enhances capital efficiency. “This initial production will provide ExxonMobil with insight into the potential future development of the reservoir,” says Neil Duffin, president of ExxonMobil Development Co. The Julia oil field was discovered in 2007 and comprises five leases in the ultra-deepwater Walker Ridge area of the Gulf of Mexico. ExxonMobil, which operates the oil field, and Statoil Gulf of Mexico LLC each hold a 50% interest in the Julia unit.
Refused: China’s Ministry of Justice has sent back a lawsuit in which thousands of U.S. homeowners say a Cabinet-level agency should pay for damage to their homes from defective drywall made in China. The Associated Press reports the ministry says it won’t serve the legal papers because the agency is immune to such suits and the legal service would infringe on China’s sovereignty. U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon has ruled that Taishan Gypsum Co. Ltd. must pay for damages from the drywall it made. He’s considering damages for as many as 4,000 homeowners in six states. The brief letter from Beijing became part of the court record this week, about 21 months after lawyers for the homeowners sued the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, or SASAC, which oversees 117 state-owned companies. It was dated April 8.
