Tag: Frauds and Swindling

The U.S. Volunteers in Ukraine Who Lie, Waste and Bicker

They rushed to Ukraine by the thousands, many of them Americans who promised to bring military experience, money or supplies to the battleground of a righteous war. Hometown newspapers hailed their commitment, and donors backed them with millions of dollars. Now, after a year of combat, many of these homespun groups of volunteers are fighting […]

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4 People Accused of $13 Million in Pro Athlete Fraud Schemes

Four people were arrested Thursday and charged with collectively defrauding four professional men’s basketball players out of more than $13 million, according to Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. In one scheme, three players were allegedly persuaded to purchase more than $5 million worth of life insurance policies […]

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Sex, Lies and … Trump. What More Can You Ask For?

One thing we can be sure of: If this Stormy Daniels thing hurts Donald Trump politically, it will be for reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with sex. Nobody cares whether or not the two of them once had an, um, intimate assignation. Although I do enjoy recalling that Daniels has referred to it as […]

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Guo Wengui, Exiled Chinese Billionaire, Charged With Fraud in New York

Guo Wengui, a fugitive Chinese billionaire, was arrested on Wednesday morning in New York on charges that he orchestrated a complex conspiracy to defraud thousands of his online followers out of $1 billion, the authorities said. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said Mr. Wengui, 52, was charged with “lining his pockets with the money he stole,” […]

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The F.B.I. Has an Art Crime Team. And These Days, It’s Busy.

For years they operated largely under the radar, though the work they did had the potential to capture the public’s imagination. Fraudulently obtained Super Bowl rings. The return of paintings stolen from churches in Peru. A man who recycled modest art he bought online into more expensive works by expertly crafting fake provenance documents. Now […]

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George Santos Is Accused by Ex-Roommate of Involvement in Fraud Scheme

In April 2017, the Seattle police arrested a Brazilian man they had caught installing a card- skimming machine on an A.T.M. near the famed Pike Place Market. As officers investigated, they connected the man to a Florida address where he once lived with George Santos, now a Republican congressman from New York. The man, Gustavo […]

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Former Partner of Victor Rivera Admits to Homeless-Shelter Bribe Scheme

Mr. Rivera helped found the Bronx Parent Housing Network in 2000 on a shoestring budget, and he expanded the organization into one of the largest operators of homeless shelters in New York City. His organization received more than $274 million in city money to run dozens of homeless housing sites from 2017 to 2021. But […]

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Donald Trump Faces Several Investigations. Here’s Where They Stand.

Yet in the early weeks of his tenure last year, Mr. Bragg developed concerns about the strength of that case and decided to abandon the grand jury presentation, prompting the resignations of the two senior prosecutors leading the investigation. Understand the 4 Criminal Inquiries Into Donald Trump Card 1 of 5 Intensifying investigations. No former […]

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The Essential Patricia Highsmith

Though I have been a reader of crime fiction all of my adult life, I avoided the work of Patricia Highsmith (1921-95) until my early 30s. Bleak worldviews weren’t the issue; perhaps it was the unconscious feeling that spending too much time in Highsmith’s brain might alter mine irrevocably. What finally opened the trapdoor was […]

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A Tangled Tale of Gun Parts, Identity Theft and the Ease of Buy Now, Pay Later

In late summer, a delivery service dropped off two packages containing $5,000 in gun parts and accessories at a house in Chino Hills, a community in Southern California. The packages, containing parts for a Glock handgun, an AR-15-style rifle and other weapons, had been shipped from Primary Arms, a gun seller in Houston. The components […]

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‘It’s Disgusting’: The Con Artists Who Exploit Mass Shootings

Hours after a gunman stalked the campus of Michigan State University last month, killing three students and injuring five others, fund-raisers in the names of the victims began to proliferate. Not all of the initiatives were legitimate, the university later informed the Michigan attorney general’s office. Experts say it is part of a troubling pattern […]

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A Timeline of the Events in the Alex Murdaugh Murder Case

The criminal case against Alex Murdaugh, the former lawyer accused of killing his wife and son, is part of a web of accusations, investigations and lawsuits that have accompanied the downfall of a member of one of South Carolina’s most prominent legal dynasties. Mr. Murdaugh was for years a well-known lawyer specializing in civil litigation. […]

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Ex-Attorney General in Arizona Buried Report Refuting Voter Fraud Claims

Mark Brnovich, a Republican who served as Arizona’s attorney general until January, buried the findings of a 10,000-hour review by his office that found no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, newly released documents reveal. The documents were released on Wednesday by Mr. Brnovich’s successor, Kris Mayes, a Democrat who took office […]

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Ozy Media’s Carlos Watson Arrested on Fraud Charges

Carlos Watson, the founder of the troubled digital start-up Ozy Media, was arrested and charged with fraud by federal investigators, according to court filings this week. Prosecutors said in a court document dated Wednesday that Mr. Watson had “engaged in a scheme to defraud Ozy’s potential investors, potential acquirers, lenders and potential lenders” by misrepresenting […]

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The ‘Murdaugh Murders’ in South Carolina: What to Know

WALTERBORO, S.C. — The killing of a mother and son. Millions of dollars in stolen funds. Fresh investigations into a fatal boat crash and a housekeeper’s deadly fall. The tragic circumstances swirling around a lawyer and his family in South Carolina became only more perplexing over time, leading to several arrests, stunning twists — and […]

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Judge Signals Jail Time if Bankman-Fried’s Internet Access Is Not Curbed

Judge Kaplan noted that the hearing was not called to consider bail revocation, “but it could get there, conceivably.” A lawyer for Mr. Bankman-Fried, Mark S. Cohen, called the government’s proposal “draconian,” noting that it would prevent his client from doing research or viewing evidence. He also denied that Mr. Bankman-Fried had committed any wrongdoing […]

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Why Adani’s $100 Billion Loss Hasn’t Tanked India’s Markets

When shares of the Adani Group, until recently India’s largest conglomerate, began their free fall late last month, shedding more than $100 billion in days, some observers worried that the collapse could bring down the country’s capital markets, and with them the Indian economy. That would be a frightening prospect not just for India but […]

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Bad Checks, Puppies and George Santos. What Could Go Wrong?

A month after he declared his intention to run for Congress in 2020, George Santos asked an old lawyer friend to do him a favor. Police in Pennsylvania were seeking him on a theft charge, but it was all a mistake. Could she help clear things up? She agreed, recalling later that the charge was […]

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Gautam Adani’s Rise Was Intertwined With India’s. Now It’s Unraveling.

Gautam Adani began the year as one of the richest men who ever lived, an upstart billionaire whose conglomerate, one of India’s largest, had surged in value by 2,500 percent in five years. That rise, as he portrayed it, wasn’t his alone: It was inseparable from the “growth story” of India itself. His companies’ goals […]

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Allen Weisselberg, Former Trump Executive, Could Face More Fraud Charges

Manhattan prosecutors this week warned that they might file new fraud charges against Allen H. Weisselberg, a longtime top executive at Donald J. Trump’s real estate business — increasing pressure on Mr. Weisselberg to cooperate in a broader investigation into the former president, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Mr. Weisselberg, the Trump […]

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