Chicago dentist gets 3 years for laundering money

From MLive.com:

CHICAGO (AP) — A downtown dentist who pleaded guilty to laundering thousands of dollars for an interstate prostitution ring operating in Illinois, Michigan, Hawaii and elsewhere was sentenced Thursday to three years and a month in federal prison.
Dr. Gary Kimmel, 59, admitted using prostitution money to buy cars including a Corvette, a Land Rover and a Mercedes Benz in his own name that members of the ring used to visit customers.
But Kimmel told U.S. District Judge Blanche M. Manning he is broke.

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Colorado authorities crack down on National 1031 Exchange fraud

From BCBR.com

National 1031 Exchange Service at 1402 28th St. owned by Debra Sue Edwards allegedly "failed to return substantial amounts of money" to at least two customers, Boulder Police said in a press release.
Edwards said the situation was a "business matter."
"We're closing down the business, and any losses will be covered by our insurance," she said.
National 1031 Exchange serves customers who have sold commercial real estate and wish to have the profits from the sale held, tax free, until they locate new property to purchase. The process is allowed by the Internal Revenue Service.
Under the company's contract, Edwards is supposed to return the money when a new property has been located, minus a small handling fee, police said.
But police said they received two complaints saying Edwards allegedly did not return substantial amounts of her customer's money. In one case, a business owner alleged that he had recently sold a property and given National 1031 Exchange more than $1.2 million to hold for him while he searched for a new property.
"When he found a place to purchase, the company wired him some of the money, but he says Edwards failed to return more than $400,000," police said. "After several requests, the victim was told he would have to file a demand letter with the company's insurance provider to collect the additional money."

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Reuters: Fraud detected more often at bankrupt companies

From Reuters:

Bankrupt companies are three times more likely to have been cited for fraud by U.S. regulators, according to a study released on Monday.
The study from Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP also showed that fraud incidents were much more likely to land a company in bankruptcy court.
"Many of the companies that commit financial statement fraud are dealing with adverse performance issues and committing fraud to cover those up," said Toby Bishop, director of the Deloitte Forensic Center. "A significant proportion of them -- 20 percent -- will end up filing for Chapter 11 (bankruptcy protection)."
Fraud-linked bankruptcies like Enron, WorldCom and Adelphia have kept U.S. courts busy for years, and the study revealed that companies that are cited for financial-statement fraud were twice as likely to file for bankruptcy as those that were not cited.

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Federal Government Charges 6 In $40 Million Class-Action Settlement Fraud

From CNNMoney:

Six people have been charged with participating in a scheme to steal more than $40 million in settlement funds from class-action lawsuits.
According to the indictment unsealed in Philadelphia by Acting U.S. Attorney Laurie Magid, the accused submitted numerous false and fraudulent claims in three class-action lawsuits - all of which were eventually settled - between 2001 and 2007.
The class-action defendants were Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. (NDAQ), Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and the former Cendant Corp. agreed to pay a combined $4.5 billion in their settlements.
In each case, accounting firms were used to administer the massive settlements. But the accused used a number of devices, from setting up fake corporations to creating phony brokerage-account statements and other financial documents in an effort to snatch some of the settlement funds, Magid said.
"Class-action lawsuits play a vital role in vindicating the rights of thousands of people with legitimate legal claims," Magid said. The defendants " exploited the system and created their own virtual world, full of false names, fake accounts, and bogus corporations. The only thing real in their world was the intent to deceive."

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Key figure in $5 million eBay fraud gets 27 years

From MSN Money:

A man, who prosecutors described as a leader in a scheme that swindled thousands of eBay bidders and other Internet users out of $5 million, was sentenced Wednesday to 27 years in federal prison.
Adrian Florin Fechet, 39, a Romanian national, received one of the longest sentences in memory for a white-collar offense, prosecutors said.
U.S. District Judge John W. Darrah imposed the lengthy sentence after finding that Fechet was a leader in the scheme and had not taken responsibility for his crime.
Fechet had also engaged in identity theft, Darrah said.

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Vilar Conviced of Fraud

Courtesy of Reuters.com:

Alberto Vilar, a once high-flying New York money manager and arts philanthropist accused of stealing from clients, was found guilty of fraud and money laundering by a U.S. jury on Wednesday.
Vilar was convicted of defrauding clients to pay debts, a scheme that prosecutors say began after a sharp decline in technology stocks hurt performance at his Amerindo Investment Advisers money management firm. He was found guilty by a U.S. District Court jury in Manhattan of all 12 counts he faced.

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Oppenheimer & Co. accused of Fraud

Massachusetts' top securities regulator on Tuesday accused Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. of fraud over the investment bank's sales of auction-rate securities to customers who couldn't access their money after the market for the risky investments froze.

Secretary of State William Galvin's administrative complaint also alleges Oppenheimer executives and managers sold nearly $3 million in their own personal auction-rate securities holdings two weeks before the market collapsed last February, without warning clients of growing risks amid the downturn in the broader credit markets.

Read more at Newsweek.

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Minnesota Billionaire's Fall from Grace

Tom Petters had it all. Rising from a salary of $30,000 per year in 1990 to a estimated worth of $1B in less than twenty years; he was an astounding rising star who would have a fall even more fascinating.

From PostBulletin.com
Over two decades, Petters used his charisma and salesmanship to turn a small liquidation company into a diversified, billion-dollar business with stakes in companies including Polaroid and Sun Country Airlines. He wrote big checks to politicians and pledged millions to universities that named programs and buildings after him.
"I thought that everything he touched turned to gold," said George Wozniak, a Minneapolis travel agency owner who once considered a business deal with Petters. "That's what it looked like."

Read about his fall here.

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Seattle Man Faces $1M Fine

From Seattlepi.com:

A Port Orchard man was convicted Thursday in U.S. District Court on 27 counts including securities fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering.
Charles Nolon Bush, 69, operated various investment entities and accepted more than $35 million in investor funds. He promised high yield investments, but used investor money to fund a lavish lifestyle and pay previous investors in the form of a Ponzi scheme.
Bush fled to Poland, where he was arrested in August 2007. He made his initial appearance in U.S. District Court in February.
To lend legitimacy to the investment scheme, federal prosecutors showed he conducted business from a mansion on a private golf course and from a Safeco Field luxury suite.
Wire Fraud, Mail Fraud, Securities Fraud and Money Laundering are punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $1,000,000 fine.
Bush's sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 6, 2009 in Seattle.

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$33M Mortgage Fraud Bust

A Virginia business man who sought to capitalize on the housing boom is now facing charges after it was discovered that he was liable for fraud of nearly $33M.

According to the Washington Post,

Vijay K. Taneja, 47, admitted that he defrauded banks of at least $33 million through schemes in which he created bogus mortgage loans and obtained funds for the same loans from multiple banks. Prosecutors said the case is the largest in Virginia in at least 20 years.

Taneja is a popular Indian-American businessman who has funded many Indian films and musical acts. Regardless of his patronage for the arts, Taneja faces more than seven years in prison.

Taneja was released as he awaits his January sentancing. He'll be electronically monitored to ensure that he doesn't flee.

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US Scammers Walk Away with $500,000 in Foreign Money

A father and son duo based in Washington state have been found guilty of money laundering and fraud. Both men, outlined in this article from The Spokesman Review took money for false industrial products from businessmen around the world to the tune of $500,000 or more. The son is now in Federal custody while the father will remain out of jail until sentencing.

For more information visit the article here.

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Family of 3 in NY are Convicted of Investment Scam

Newsday.com reports that 55-year-old Ronald Persaud, his 50-year-old wife Esther promised, and their 24 year old son Shawn have been convicted with multiple counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracy. The couple promised to secure millions of dollars in overseas financing for investors to develop ski resorts, theme parks, and large-scale projects in return for a fee. But, after the couple received commissions, they never came through with the money. Their sentencing is set for March 9th.

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UK Taxpayers Money Used for Showgirls

From: Telegraph.co.uk

Taypayers' money spent on showgirls, campaign group claims

British taxpayers' money is being wasted by the European Union on a myriad of "bizarre" schemes, a campaign group has claimed.

Grants include £850,000 for Intertango, a Finnish dance project to further "the internationalisation of Finnish tango" and £1 million to help young Italian women learn a trade as television showgirls in Naples.

A think-tank called Open Europe, which campaigns for more transparency within the EU, included these examples in a list it compiled of the 'Top 100' examples of waste and fraud.

In one case £10 million (12 million Euros) was siphoned away into a secret bank account by authorities in the Belgian city of Charleroi, which spent it on a series of parties and outings including a hunting trip to Belarus.

In another Italian dentist Giovanni Lupo invented a solar panel business to acquire cash from the EU, which he spent on 55 luxury cars include a yellow Ferrari Testarossa. The dentist was part of a larger fraud scheme that drained the EU of more than £60 million (80 million Euros).

British taxpayers contribute almost 10 per cent of the EU's estimated £123 billion budget.

The European Court of Auditors has refused to sign off the EU's books for the last 13 years because of suspected fraud and financial irregularities.

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SFGate: Former ally says he paid off ex-sheriff monthly

A millionaire businessman who allegedly helped launder campaign donations for former Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona testified Thursday that he paid the sheriff a monthly stipend to keep him from taking bribes from others.

Don Haidl, who struck a plea deal with prosecutors in Carona's federal corruption case, said he paid Carona and his campaign manager, George Jaramillo, $1,000 a month each to control their greed. He said he was worried that obligations over small freebies would derail the trio's larger plan to get Carona elected to state office, where he could funnel lucrative side deals and contracts to Haidl.

"They seemed to be obsessed with money and business deals and they didn't seem to understand how the business world works ... and I was very concerned," Haidl said, saying he made the payments from 1998 to 2002. "I didn't want them to be politically obligated to people over a dinner."

The government alleges that over several years the three-term sheriff, his mistress, his wife and a close group of friends accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and kickbacks in exchange for the power of Carona's office.

Prosecutors allege the scheme began as early as 1998, when Carona - an underdog candidate - laundered tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations with Haidl's help.

Carona, 53, has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy, mail fraud and witness tampering. His mistress, Debra Hoffman, has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy, mail fraud and bankruptcy fraud. Carona's wife, Deborah, will be tried separately on a single count of conspiracy.

Read more on the SFGate’s article.

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Press one for Sen. Barack Obama, two for Sen. John McCain

The Star Tribune of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota reports that they've received word about a telephone scheme to collect votes via a telephone.

Freeman said his office has heard from one person who received the call. His office would like to hear any voicemails, text messages or see any caller ID numbers left on telephones related to this scheme. The prosecutors believe many calls were made, here and elsewhere, that may have come from one central call center so they hope to hear from anyone in any jurisdiction.

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Man Sentenced to Nine Years in Prison for Money Laundering Plot

The Examiner reports that a Pakistani national living in both Maryland and Washington has been sentenced to serve 110 months in prison for a money laundering plot and concealing terrorist financing.

The man sentenced, Saifullah Anjum Ranjha, is forty-five years old and plead guilty to charges back in August. The U.S. District Judge Marvin Garbis has ordered Ranjha to forfeit $2,208,000.

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Voter Fraud 2008

Not many would argue against the fact that the 2008 presidential election has been highly contested. The latest controversy that has come out of the campaign is the possibility of Voter Fraud. Some are crying foul over ACORN, while others have been reporting faulty machines that flip flop votes. With the 2000 election still at the forefront of thoughts, many are waiting with bated breath to see if voter fraud will potentially play a role in determining our next President. Fox news recently posted an article titled "Opposing Views: Could Voter Fraud Steal the 2008 Election?" The two views that they highlighted were:

1. We Should Be Worried
2. Voter Discrimination is the Real Fraud

What are your thoughts? Do you think voter fraud will play a role in this election? If so, then what role do you think it will play?

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Ruling in AIG and Berkshire Hathaway Case

The Wall Street Journal reported that the Judge presiding over the fraud case of former insurance executives at AIG, and Berkshire Hathaway has ruled that the conspiracy caused massive losses for investors. Also determined was that over 250 shareholders were harmed by their actions. A sentencing date has yet to be determined, however, the defendants could end up with 16 to 20 years in prison for their actions.

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