It’s a day of the week ending in “y,” which can only mean one thing: Another national company’s payment system has been compromised. This time, it’s the Sonic Drive-In fast food chain, where potentially millions of credit card numbers may have been stolen. [More]
crime news
Feds Accuse Adidas Execs Of Bribing NCAA Basketball Players & Coaches
By 9.26.17
Basketball coaches at some of the country’s biggest names in college athletics, and executives at one of the biggest names in athletic apparel, now face federal charges involving allegations that schools and student athletes were getting paid to lock players into deals with financial advisers, endorsers, and even tailors. [More]
Only One Bank Was Indicted For Mortgage Fraud Tied To The 2008 Collapse — And It Was Innocent
By 9.12.17
If you’ve walked Canal St. in lower Manhattan’s Chinatown, you’ve probably passed by the modest headquarters of Abacus Federal Savings, a family run community bank that has served New York City’s Chinese immigrant population for more than three decades. It’s more than a mile away — and a world apart — from the more famous banks on Wall Street whose reckless behaviors during the housing bubble led to trillions of dollars in economic loss, the failure of financial institutions nationwide, an unprecedented federal bailout of the banking and auto industries, and continued fraud by big banks in a rush to foreclose on large numbers of homes as quickly as possible. [More]
Feds Break Up $20M Shoplifting Ring That Stole Clothing From Coast To Coast
By 9.7.17
Federal authorities say they’ve arrested more than a dozen people and broken up a massive shoplifting network that trafficked in some $20 million in apparel and other items stolen from stores all over the country and then sold in Mexico. [More]
Sports Radio Host Arrested In $5.6M Investment Fraud Involving Non-Existent Concert Tickets
By 9.6.17
Longtime New York sports radio personality Craig Carton was arrested this morning on federal charges of securities and wire fraud in connection with a scheme that allegedly tricked investors into thinking their money was being spent on blocks of concert tickets that would then be resold at a huge profit. Problem is, say prosecutors, those tickets didn’t exist, and the money just went to cover Carton’s casino debts. [More]
More Than 1-In-4 Nursing Home Abuse Cases May Go Unreported To Police
By 8.28.17
Just as the Trump administration is attempting to prevent nursing home residents or their families from ever being able to sue longterm care facilities for neglect or fraud, a federal audit claims that an alarming percentage of physical and sexual abuse cases at nursing homes may be going unreported to law enforcement. [More]
Man Racked Up Thousands Of Dollars In Charges At Hotels Without Ever Checking In
By 8.28.17
Like Jimmy McGill lounging in a resort pool while charging drinks to another guest’s room, an apparent con artist in South Carolina recently told police he’s been freeloading his way around the luxury hotels of the Southeast, charging thousands of dollars in purchases to rooms where he was never the guest. [More]
Subway Owner Says Police Ruined Her Business By Falsely Claiming Officer’s Drink Was Spiked With Meth
By 8.14.17
The owner of a Subway franchisee is accusing her local police department of destroying her business and reputation by knowingly making false accusations through the local news that an employee of the restaurant spiked and officer’s drink with methamphetamine. [More]
How Home-Grown Tomatoes And Misread Tea Leaves Led To Pointless Police Raid On Innocent Family’s Home
By 7.28.17
When Bob Harte took his two young kids shopping with him at an organic gardening store in Kansas City, Missouri, he had no idea that he had inadvertently set in motion a series of events that would — eight months later — lead to the Harte family watching helplessly as armed sheriff’s deputies searched every corner of their house for nonexistent evidence of a marijuana grow operation. [More]
Scammers Use Counterfeit Cash At Victoria’s Secret, Get Upset When They Get Their Fake Money Back As Refund
By 6.29.17
The entire point of having counterfeit cash is to get it out of your hands by purchasing things or swapping it out with genuine legal tender. So it doesn’t help if you scam a store into accepting your faux bills and then get greedy by trying to con them a second time, only to end up with the counterfeit money you had in the first place. [More]
2 Years After Being Sentenced, Egg Execs Behind Massive Salmonella Outbreak Are Finally Going To Prison
By 6.28.17
In April 2015, a federal judge sentenced the father and son former executives of the inaccurately named Quality Egg — the company behind a salmonella outbreak that sickened around 60,000 people — to three months in prison, but neither of the two men have begun to serve their sentence, hoping the U.S. Supreme Court would see things their way. But now that the Supremes have snubbed the eggs-executives, it’s finally time for them to do their brief stints behind bars. [More]
Company Stops Selling Cladding Linked To Deadly London Apartment Tower Fire
By 6.26.17
A type of lightweight aluminum cladding made by Arconic (formerly known as Alcoa) has been discontinued after being linked to the deadly fire that claimed at least 79 lives at the 24-story Grenfell Tower in London. [More]
As Opioid Hospitalizations Soar, Report Claims Imprisoning Drug Offenders Doesn’t Affect Overdoses Or Use
By 6.20.17
Since 2005, the rate of opioid-related emergency room visits has doubled and hospitalizations are up 64%. At the same time, many states are sending more people to prison for drug-related offenses. However, a new analysis contends that there is no apparent link between drug imprisonments and reining in the problems associated with the ongoing epidemic. [More]
Customer Accuses Chipotle Of Covering Up For Manager Who Put Spy Cam In Bathroom
By 5.25.17
A woman in Texas claims that not only did a manager at her local Chipotle repeatedly install spy cameras in the restaurant’s female restroom, but that the restaurant and its corporate office covered up the peeping; a charge the Chipotle HQ denies. [More]
Man Behind $1.1M Home Depot Receipt Scam Gets Two-Year Prison Sentence
By 5.16.17
A Texas man who used Home Depot’s program for tax-exempt business purchases to scam more than $1.1 million from the retailer has been sentenced to two years in federal prison and ordered to repay all his ill-gotten gains. [More]
Bumble Bee Agrees To Plead Guilty To Tuna Fish Price-Fixing, Pay $25 Million Fine
By 5.8.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
Bumble Bee Foods, one of the nation’s largest producers of canned tuna, has agreed to plead guilty to federal criminal charges that it conspired with competing companies to fix the price of this common pantry seafood item. [More]
Taco Bell Restaurant Scammed Out Of Thousands By Phone Call From ‘Vice President’
By 4.20.17
One Taco Bell restaurant was scammed out of thousands of dollars via a phony phone call that should have triggered a number of red flags for the employees involved, but apparently did not. [More]
Feds Go After Stock-Picking Writers That Were Secretly Paid To Hype Up Investments
By 4.10.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
The internet is not lacking in prognosticators telling you which stocks you should or shouldn’t buy. If any of these folks are being compensated — even indirectly — to promote an investment, then they are breaking the law. Today, the Securities and Exchange Commission took action against 27 individuals and companies for their part in hyping up investments without disclosing that money had changed hands. [More]
