crime news

Passenger Sues Uber After Other UberPOOL Passenger Cuts Her Face With Knife

Passenger Sues Uber After Other UberPOOL Passenger Cuts Her Face With Knife

UberPOOL lets you shave a bit of money off your ride by sharing the car with other passengers headed in the same direction. As with any situation involving strangers put together in a confined space, there exists the possibility of everything from awkward silence to romance to violence. The question is: Should Uber be held responsible when an UberPOOL ride goes horribly, horribly wrong? [More]

Police Looking For Daughter Who Assaulted Mom With McDonald’s Cheeseburger

Police Looking For Daughter Who Assaulted Mom With McDonald’s Cheeseburger

A woman in Indianapolis is wanted for alleged assault with a ketchup-y weapon, after an argument at a local McDonald’s resulted in someone taking a partially eaten cheeseburger to the face. [More]

Ken Fager

Former NFL Player Will Allen Sentenced To 6 Years For Ponzi Scheme

Will Allen, a former first-round draft pick for the New York Giants who also played for the Miami Dolphins (and was technically a member of the New England Patriots, though he never played a game), has been sentenced, along to six years behind bars for his part in a Ponzi scheme that authorities say swindled $35 million from investors who thought they were lending money to pro athletes. [More]

bluwmongoose

FBI Attorney: Tech Companies Are Helping Dumb Criminals By Providing Quality Encryption

Much of the debate about encrypted devices and messaging services has been centered on more sophisticated criminal or terrorist activities, where the people involved are actively searching out ways to avoid detection by law enforcement. However, the FBI’s top attorney contends that tech companies may be inadvertently giving dimwitted crooks a leg up by making quality encryption so widely available. [More]

For-Profit Prisons Could See Boost With Trump’s Executive Order To Open New Detention Centers

For-Profit Prisons Could See Boost With Trump’s Executive Order To Open New Detention Centers

While much of today’s news about President Trump’s latest executive order is the directive to build his often-promised wall along the border between Mexico and the U.S., the order also directs the federal government to get to work immediately on building — or contracting out — detention centers along that border, providing a potential boon to the for-profit prison industry. [More]

John Abella

Feds Shut Down Two Massive Illegal Robocall Operations

Fighting robocalls might seem as pointless as chasing a greased pig, but occasionally you’re able to get your slick mitts on a slippery swine and hold on, if only for a moment. Today, the Federal Trade Commission managed to nab a pair of particularly large robocalling pigs, who have allegedly been violating the Do Not Call Registry for at least five years. [More]

Rob Lawton

FBI Paid Multiple Best Buy Employees After Finding Illegal Content On Computers

As we told you last spring, lawyers for a California doctor accused of possessing child pornography claimed that the FBI had paid a Best Buy employee as an informant. Recently released court documents confirm that multiple Best Buy/Geek Squad staffers received money from the agency after telling the FBI about finding illegal content on customers’ devices. [More]

Mike Mozart

Convict Sues Verizon For $72M For Allowing Him To Commit ID Theft

A Florida man serving ten years in prison for fraud and theft is now suing Verizon Wireless, claiming the company was negligent by not preventing him from using the company’s wireless service and products to commit his his latest identity theft. [More]

State Files Consumer Protection Lawsuit Against Man Accused Of Using Facebook To Trick Women Into Sex

State Files Consumer Protection Lawsuit Against Man Accused Of Using Facebook To Trick Women Into Sex

Washington state prosecutors are using state consumer protection laws to go after a man — already facing multiple criminal charges of rape — that they claim spent years misleading women about his job, and even his gender, with the goal of misleading women into sleeping with him in exchange for a non-existent shot at stardom. [More]

The.Comedian

Former Pharma Execs Face Felony Charges For Generic Drug Price-Fixing

Federal prosecutors have charged both the former CEO and president of a New Jersey pharmaceutical company with illegally conspiring to fix prices on generic drugs, marking the first time the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division has prosecuted a case involving generic medications, and could be the first domino in a series of charges still to come against others. [More]

Court Clears Backpage.com CEO Of Pimping Charges

Court Clears Backpage.com CEO Of Pimping Charges

There’s no doubt you can procure an escort’s services on Backpage.com. There is also evidence that underage sex workers have been using the site to find customers. However, a California court has ruled that — contrary to allegations made by the state’s attorney general — Backpage’s hosting of these ads is not the same as actual pimping. [More]

Former Pharma Execs Accused Of Boosting Fentanyl Sales By Bribing Doctors With Sham Speaking Engagements

Former Pharma Execs Accused Of Boosting Fentanyl Sales By Bribing Doctors With Sham Speaking Engagements

Fentanyl is an incredibly potent opioid painkiller; it acts quickly and powerfully, but doesn’t last as long as others, meaning its medical application is limited. So if you’re a drug company trying to boost sales of your new fentanyl spray, how do you sell more of a product that very few people have a real need for? You could bribe doctors with paid “speaking engagements,” take them out and show them the “best nights of their life,” all so they write prescriptions for patients who probably shouldn’t be getting your drug. [More]

(Jason Daniel Brown)

United Gets Off Easy, Pays $2.4M Penalty For Using Planes To Chauffeur Airport Exec To Vacation Home

Last year, United Airlines CEO Jeff Smisek abruptly resigned amid a federal investigation into allegations that the airline had provided illegal special favors to an official in charge of Newark Liberty International Airport — including relaunching a route to South Carolina that just happened to be near a home owned by that official. United has now agreed to pay $2.4 million to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into these allegations — just a tiny portion of the financial benefit the airline received as a result of this back-room dealing. [More]

(frankieleon)

Feds Give Up Trying To Hold Bank Of America Accountable For Countrywide’s “Hustle” Mortgage Scam

A nasty four-year legal battle between the Justice Department and Bank of America over a massive mortgage-related scam run by Countrywide Financial has come to a whimpering conclusion, with the DOJ opting to not appeal its most recent defeat in the case. [More]

Mike Mozart

Generic Drug Companies Could Soon Face Criminal Price-Collusion Charges

The pharmaceuticals industry has come under heavy scrutiny in recent years for soaring prices, though much of the attention has focused on name-brand drugs with no or minimal competition. However, multiple news reports now claim that some generic drug companies could soon face federal criminal charges over allegations that they colluded on price. [More]

Creepy Uber Driver Allegedly Gropes Passenger, Shows Up Outside Her House Later

Creepy Uber Driver Allegedly Gropes Passenger, Shows Up Outside Her House Later

A Silicon Valley Uber driver has been arrested and accused of sexual battery and stalking after not only allegedly groping and kissing a female passenger, but then showing up outside of her house later that evening. [More]

funky_abstract

Professional Pooper Scooper Accused Of Impersonating Secret Service Agent To Score Hotel Discount

A Pennsylvania man who reportedly runs a business picking up dog droppings has apparently stepped into a major mess of his own making. According to federal prosecutors, he used forged documents to pretend to be a Secret Service agent to score a discount hotel room and then to try to get out of a traffic violation. [More]

Backpage Executives Seek Dismissal Of Pimping Charges

Backpage Executives Seek Dismissal Of Pimping Charges

Earlier this month, the Attorney General of California took the unusual step of charging the CEO of classifieds site Backpage and two of the company’s major shareholders with pimping and conspiracy to commit pimping. At the time, AG Kamala Harris said that Backpage was “unlawfully designed…to be the world’s top online brothel.” Now the company’s lawyers are seeking dismissal of those charges. [More]