YASunidos responded with charges of "serious irregularities" during the verification process, including "fraud", "manipulation" of materials and "violations of Ecuadorians' participatory rights", and has now appealed to the NEC requesting it rescind its previous decision and does a re-count.
While a certain amount of variation is tolerated, Mr. Wagner said, "the standard for fraud is a misrepresentation of material fact".
"In the spirit of the recently passed health reform legislation, UnitedHealthcare moved quickly to eliminate the practice of rescissions, except in cases of fraud or intentional misrepresentation of material fact," said Gail Boudreaux, president of UnitedHealthcare.
UnitedHealthcare, "has ended its limited use of rescissions effective immediately, except in cases of fraud or intentional misrepresentation of material fact," the company announced on Wednesday in a clear admission that it was engaged in the practice as a matter of policy.
The underlying claim made by the government is that over a 50-year period the tobacco industry has engaged in a campaign of fraud, "material misrepresentations, half-truths, deception and lies that continue to this day," all to minimize the health effects of smoking and to suggest that so-called light cigarettes are less harmful than they actually are.
The categories of material have included fraud, drug trafficking and terrorism, but the criteria at any one time are secret and are not subject to any public debate.
An indictment charges Mr. Ford with two counts of wire fraud and four counts of concealment of material facts in connection with two schemes it says yielded more than $800,000 for Mr. Ford.
However, the language of the law still allows companies to rescind coverage in case of "a covered individual who has performed an act or practice that constitutes fraud or makes an intentional misrepresentation of material fact as prohibited by the terms of the plan or coverage".
The rescission law, according to the legislation, "shall not apply to a covered individual who has performed an act or practice that constitutes fraud or makes an intentional misrepresentation of material fact as prohibited by the terms of the plan or coverage".
In the computer, the agents found "a treasure trove of fraud and hacking material," including files containing 1,200 credit card numbers and bookmarked Web sites pertaining to theft of identity, the prosecutor, Mr. Etra, said in court.
