According to this Today Show investigative piece, Seniors are being scammed by incarcerated crooks pretending to be their snot-nosed Grandchildren. Oh humanity!

Stephanie Madoff, the wife of Bernie Madoff's son Mark, wants to change her last name to "Morgan," for obvious reasons. So if you come across a "Stephanie Morgan," you know...we're sure she's nice and all. [WSJ. Pic via]

Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), who died in 2007, was a staunch defender of "traditional values" and a prime mover in the impeachment of Bill Clinton. And according to documents obtained by Gawker, the FBI thought he was on the take.

After two board members were charged with theft and sexual harassment, members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference marched through Atlanta "with signs...calling the [SCLC's own] board members thieves and liars." The view from the mountaintop is unspeakably beautiful. [NYT]

Happy Goldman Sachs Bonus Day! As we mentioned earlier, Goldman announced today that its 2009 bonuses will total $16 billion, spread (very unevenly) among its 32,500 employees. We thought we'd take a look at how they spend our money.

Heath Care Industry Rule Number Four Thousand and Eighty: DC lobbyists are shady. And exactly how shady are the lobbyists of Washington DC who worked both sides of the health care debate? They ghostwrote speeches for politicians lining their pockets.

Irving Picard has the thankless job of divvying up the remaining crumbs of Bernie Madoff's empire among the Madoff victims. But Irving Picard is going to be much more popular now that he's finally suing Madoff's family, for everything.

Mark Dreier will spend twenty years in prison for defrauding investors out of $400 million.

Are politicians unscrupulous, money-hungry backslappers who would treat even the worst dictator like a visiting dignitary if they thought it might land them a nice photo-op and some municipal donations that they could tout in their campaign literature? Yes, according to a mischievous prank. Islom Karimov is the "President" of Uzbekistan, by virtue of vote fraud, repression, "disappearing" of dissidents, and other fun tactics. So Cityfile posed as an Uzbekistani official to see how many New York politicians would be willing to set up a meeting with Karimov. A lot, it turns out!

The Times ran a long story on the front page of its Business section yesterday about Gary Milby, an "oil man" who has swindled investors out of millions of dollars. What has he done with his ill-gotten gains? Bought lots of shit for his spoiled teenage daughter, apparently. Her name is Ariel, and both she and dad were featured on an episode of MTV's apocalyptic teenage hatefest "My Super Sweet 16." And the show was so over-the-top that it caught the attention of the feds, speeding up the investigation of Milby's wrongdoing [NYT]. First time ever "My Super Sweet 16" has displayed redeeming social value! Below, a clip from the show, leading up to Ariel's "Fairytale" party. Here's a fairy tale, mean girl: your wealth. Ha ha.