Fraud

If you’re a gambler who believes that the house always wins, think again. It may take an organized criminal effort to beat them, but casinos aren’t invulnerable. Consider that yesterday, Phuong Quoc Truong was sentenced for his role in a scheme by the "Tran Organization" to cheat casinos across the United States.

A third former employee of Rubin/Chambers, Dunhill Insurance Services Inc., also known as CDR Financial Products (“CDR”), pleaded guilty today for his participation in bid-rigging and fraud conspiracies related to contracts for the investment of municipal bond proceeds and other related municipal finance contracts, the Department of Justice announced. CDR is a Beverly Hills, CA-based financial products and services firm. 

There’s a fascinating story in the paper this morning about a lawsuit against current and former SEC commissioners stemming from the fraud involving CMKM Diamonds. The plaintiffs are seeking $3.87 trillion – plus unspecified punitive damages – and it alleges a vast government conspiracy involving the SEC, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. 

Last year, as part of its “Operation Clean Sweep,” the Federal Trade Commission filed charges against a number of entities in an effort to crack down on credit repair scams. In one case, it charged Advantage Credit Repair LLC and Mark D.

The New York State Commission on Public Integrity issued a report today that is likely to end the battle being waged by New York State Governor David Paterson to retain his position as governor until the end of his term. The reason? Yankees tickets. 

The Times is reporting now that Thaksin Sinawatra, the former prime minister of Thailand and a telecommunications billionaire, must give up $1.4 billion of his $2.3 billion in assets for “unscrupulous” business transactions. 

The article, by Seth Mydans and Thomas Fuller, is online at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/27/world/asia/27thai.html?hp=&pagewanted=print.

On October 6, Raymond B. Harding, the one time leader of New York's Liberal Party, pleaded guilty in a New York state court to a class E felony and a class A misdemeanor.

We knew there was some Noir missing from the Pinot Noir we’d bought from E & J Gallo. Now, a French judge has confirmed that we were right: poorer quality wine was mislabeled as higher quality and sold to Gallo. Declaring “there has been fraud,” the judge delivered a harsh, albeit suspended, prison sentence to several of the guilty wine producers/traders, and imposed fines.

U.S. citizens and residents have an obligation to report to the Internal Revenue Service on Schedule B of a U.S. Individual Income Tax Return (Form 1040) whether that individual had a financial interest in, or signature authority over, a financial account in a foreign country in a particular year by checking “Yes” or “No” in the appropriate box and identifying the country where the account was maintained.   Moreover, U.S.

Bank of America, its former CEO Kenneth D. Lewis, and its former CFO Joseph L. Price have been charged with duping shareholders and the federal government to complete a merger with Merrill Lynch. According to a lawsuit filed today by N.Y. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Bank of America’s management intentionally failed to disclose massive losses at Merrill so that shareholders would vote to approve the merger.