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Article: Feds spotlight Miami as capital of COVID-19 fraud, from business to employee benefits

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Feds spotlight Miami as capital of COVID-19 fraud, from business to employee benefits

JAY WEAVER,  26 March 2021

A year ago, Congress agreed to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on benefits for small businesses and employees devastated by the coronavirus pandemic.

Of course, the government’s handout helped the struggling economy. But it also opened the door for a menagerie of con artists to fleece the federal relief program to get rich quick.

Among them: a South Florida man alleged to have bought a Lamborghini for $318,000 with millions in COVID-19 relief loans; a Broward County tax preparer who purportedly pocketed huge commissions for filing $28 million worth of phony business loan applications; and a former NFL player from Miami accused of stealing people’s identities to collect $300,000 in unemployment insurance benefits. Continue reading “Article: Feds spotlight Miami as capital of COVID-19 fraud, from business to employee benefits”

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Article: Former Central Prison employee charged with embezzlement

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Former Central Prison employee charged with embezzlement

Kevin Kuzminski,  26 March 2021

A former Central Prison employee is being charged with embezzlement.

Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman says Micheal Ragan was indicted with one count of embezzlement over $100,000, two counts of obtaining property by false pretense over $100,000 and three counts of obtaining property by false pretense under $100,000.

The alleged amount of total misappropriated funds was $266,557.22 over a close to 8-year period.

“The Department of Public Safety took swift action once this matter came to their attention to bring in law enforcement and to conduct an internal audit to identify any loss of funds to the State and to ensure appropriate steps were taken to prevent further loss and to seek justice on behalf of the State’s taxpayers,” Freeman said.

“I appreciate their cooperation and the work of the State Bureau of Investigation’s Financial Crime Unit. This is a first step in a process in which the defendant is entitled to a presumption of innocence. We will work diligently to ensure justice is achieved in this matter.” Continue reading “Article: Former Central Prison employee charged with embezzlement”

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Article: Tense YMCA board scrambles to replace CEO amid scandal

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Tense YMCA board scrambles to replace CEO amid scandal

David Hammer / Eyewitness Investigator,  26 March 2021

NEW ORLEANS — The Dryades YMCA board of directors held a tense meeting Friday and had to scramble to deal with the retirement of its longtime president and chief executive officer as state and local police looked into allegations of employees’ falsified background checks.

It was the first time the board had met since a scathing letter earlier this month from New Orleans Public Schools alleged fake employee background checks at James Singleton Charter School, a public K-8 school run by and housed in the historic Y in Central City.

The board members gave the Y’s departing president and CEO, Doug Evans, a standing ovation after he made brief comments. He spent 45 years working for one of the few formerly segregated Black YMCA’s left in the country. Evans touted his team’s work supporting and educating the Central City community, providing youth programs and teaching water safety. Continue reading “Article: Tense YMCA board scrambles to replace CEO amid scandal”

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Article: Glass Houses Acquisition Corp. – EX-1.1 – – UNDERWRITING AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE COMPANY AND JEFFERIES LLC – March 26, 2021

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Glass Houses Acquisition Corp. – EX-1.1 – – UNDERWRITING AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE COMPANY AND JEFFERIES LLC – March 26, 2021

Fintel, 26 March 2021

Introductory. Glass Houses Acquisition Corp., a Delaware corporation (the ?Company?), proposes, upon the terms and subject to the conditions set forth in this agreement (this ?Agreement?), to issue and sell to the several underwriters listed on Schedule A hereto (the ?Underwriters?) an aggregate of 20,000,000 units of the Company (the ?Units?). The 20,000,000 Units to be sold by the Company are called the ?Firm Securities.? In addition, the Company has granted to the Underwriters an option to purchase up to an additional 3,000,000 Units as provided in Section 2. The additional 3,000,000 Units to be sold by the Company pursuant to such option are collectively called the ?Optional Securities.? The Firm Securities and, if and to the extent such option is exercised, the Optional Securities are collectively called the ?Offered Securities.? Jefferies LLC (?Jefferies?) has agreed to act as the representative of the several Underwriters (in such capacity, the ?Representative?) in connection with the offering of the Offered Securities for sale to the public as contemplated in the Prospectus (as defined below) (the ?Offering?).

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Article: ‘A harm-production factory’: Crown casino faces scrutiny over problem gambling

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‘A harm-production factory’: Crown casino faces scrutiny over problem gambling

Ben Butler,  26 March 2021

Triads, shopping bags full of cash, money laundering – if you’ve been following the inquiry into Crown Resorts run by New South Wales authorities, you might think there aren’t many allegations left to be hurled at the casino operator.

But a royal commission into the operation of the James Packer-controlled group’s flagship casino in Melbourne could expose it to fresh attack over a problem its critics have long claimed is rife at the complex: problem gambling.

Opening the inquiry on Wednesday, royal commissioner Ray Finkelstein said there was “no practical utility” in going over the same territory dealt with by the NSW inquiry, which reported to state parliament in February. Continue reading “Article: ‘A harm-production factory’: Crown casino faces scrutiny over problem gambling”

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Article: Ex-Mexico Governor Linked to Drug Cartels Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering in U.S.

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Ex-Mexico Governor Linked to Drug Cartels Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering in U.S

Mary Anne Webber,  26 March 2021

A former governor of Tamaulipas, Mexico on Thursday pleaded guilty in a Texas court for taking over $3.5 million in bribes for government contracts, which he then laundered in the United States.

Tomas Yarrington Ruvalcaba, 64, was the governor of Tamaulipas from 1999 to 2005. Yarrington walked into U.S. District Judge Hilda Tagle’s courtroom shortly before 1 p.m. Continue reading “Article: Ex-Mexico Governor Linked to Drug Cartels Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering in U.S.”

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The Largest Fraud In The History Of Financial Markets

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The Largest Fraud In The History Of Financial Markets

As ordinary retail investors rush to acquire physical silver, they are not only “FOLLOWING THE MONEY” in the example of gold and silver grab by central banks, hedge funds, sovereign wealth & family office funds, and high-net worth investors, but also ON A MISSION to force the truth to come out.

John Adams, chief economist at Good As Gold Australia, returns to Liberty and Finance to announce the latest breaking updates in the PHYSICAL SILVER GRAB, which has become a cause and a mission of the little guys and gals to GET REAL, DEMAND TRUE MONEY, and DRAIN THE SWAMP.

Continue reading “The Largest Fraud In The History Of Financial Markets”

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Article: A Massive Increase in Trading in GameStop by Dark Pools Owned by the Mega Wall Street Banks Coincided with the Spike in its Share Price

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A Massive Increase in Trading in GameStop by Dark Pools Owned by the Mega Wall Street Banks Coincided with the Spike in its Share Price

Pam Martens and Russ Martens,  26 March 2021

If the Securities and Exchange Commission is not taking a hard look at the involvement of Dark Pools owned by the biggest banks on Wall Street during the meteoric spike in the price of GameStop shares in late January, then we have to conclude that it doesn’t want to actually get at the truth.

Wall Street On Parade spent one hour combing through the Dark Pool trading data available through Wall Street’s self-regulator, FINRA, and the evidence of Dark Pools’ involvement in the dodgy trading in GameStop is striking. (GameStop is a New York Stock Exchange listed company and it has been trading like a penny stock operated out of a boiler room – raising questions about the integrity of U.S. markets.

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Article: Ex-Glencore Trader Pleads Guilty to Manipulating Oil Prices

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Ex-Glencore Trader Pleads Guilty to Manipulating Oil Prices

Joel Rosenblatt, Malathi Nayak and Javier Blas, 25 March 2021

(Bloomberg) — A former Glencore Plc trader pleaded guilty to manipulating an oil price benchmark, allowing the world’s largest commodities trader to profit from the price swings and enriching himself.Emilio Heredia appeared by video conference on Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco and admitted to a conspiracy in which he directed buy and sell orders that pushed fuel oil prices up and down.

Heredia, 49, faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Justice Department lawyer Matthew Sullivan told the judge that Heredia, who became a naturalized citizen in 2016, could lose his immigration status and be removed from the U.S. But Sullivan also said Heredia had agreed to cooperate with the government as it investigates further.

Glencore has said it is cooperating with authorities. Continue reading “Article: Ex-Glencore Trader Pleads Guilty to Manipulating Oil Prices”

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Article: Crypto Must Apply Safety Lessons of the Existing Financial System

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Crypto Must Apply Safety Lessons of the Existing Financial System

Rick McDonell,  25 March 2021

There is a revealing, albeit slightly morbid, maxim that “safety standards are written in blood.” Humans and human-created systems generally tend to be reactive rather than proactive when it comes to developing protective rules. Nevertheless, today’s construction workers and consumers are more shielded from danger than those of the past because we’ve learned from prior mistakes.

Rick McDonell was the executive secretary of the Financial Action Task Force from 2007 until 2016. Prior to that, he was chief of the United Nations Global Program against Money Laundering at the UNODC. He is now executive director of ACAMS, the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists.

The same dynamic exists in financial regulation, where it could be said that “financial standards are written in fraud.” For example, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission didn’t exist in the first iterations of the stock market. It was only after “Black Tuesday,” the 1929 stock market crash so severe that it was a major contributing factor to the Great Depression, that new laws and regulations were introduced that continue to define modern finance. But the world has morphed into two: the real world and the virtual world. The old rules do not suit either of them.

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Article: Texas man pleads guilty to $24.8 million PPP loan scheme involving luxury cars

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Texas man pleads guilty to $24.8 million PPP loan scheme involving luxury cars

Alison Medley,  25 March 2021

Federal investigators didn’t mince words when a Texas man admitted to using COVID-19 relief funds for lavish expenditures, including a Bentley Convertible, Porsche Macan and Corvette Stingray.

Coppell native Dinesh Sah, 55, pleaded guilty to orchestrating a $24.8 million PPP scam that used small business loans to purchase opulent homes and expensive cars, according to the Department of Justice.

“As the nation was crippled by a global pandemic, Sah fraudulently obtained over $17 million in PPP funds intended to help legitimate small businesses and spent that money on luxury cars and multiple homes,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicholas L. McQuaid of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division stated in response to the case.

In order to get control of millions in PPP loans, Sah submitted 15 fraudulent applications filed under different names of businesses he owned or controlled, according to the Justice Department. Through eight separate lenders, Sah managed to obtain $24.8 million in PPP loans by misrepresenting the number of employees on his payroll and amount of expenses therein. Investigators eventually discovered the incongruities on Sah’s applications, the Justice Department stated. Continue reading “Article: Texas man pleads guilty to $24.8 million PPP loan scheme involving luxury cars”

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Article: CFTC hits former fuel-oil trader with $100,000 penalty for market manipulation

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CFTC hits former fuel-oil trader with $100,000 penalty for market manipulation

Reuters, 25 March 2021

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has settled charges against a former fuel oil trader for market manipulation, the regulator said in a statement on Thursday.

Emilio José Heredia Collado admitted to manipulating, and attempting to manipulate, a U.S. fuel oil benchmark. The CFTC hit Heredia with a $100,000 civil penalty and permanently banned him from trading commodity interests, the statement said.

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Article: Report: Robinhood Is Building A Platform To Democratize IPOs

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Report: Robinhood Is Building A Platform To Democratize IPOs

Sarah Hansen, 25 March 2021

Robinhood is working on a platform that will allow its users to buy into initial public offerings, Reuters exclusively reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the process, marking another push by the popular investment app to democratize investment opportunities that are traditionally only available to big banks and Wall Street firms.

The allocation of IPO shares is a complex process—it doesn’t happen the same way for every listing and can depend on the type of industry and market conditions at the time. In general, the majority of available shares go to institutional investors. Some shares can also be reserved for retail investors, who are then able to buy them through their brokerage firms. More established and wealthier retail investors often have a better chance of receiving IPO shares than lay people, especially in popular listings. Continue reading “Article: Report: Robinhood Is Building A Platform To Democratize IPOs”