Arthur Laffer, the right-wing economist who is second only to Reagan in right-wing masturbation fantasies for allegedly proving that lowering taxes increases revenue (it doesn't), has been sued for his alleged involvement in a Ponzi scheme that bilked investors of at least $3.1 million.
No one pays attention to the dumb "Terms of Service" on most websites, but the White House is pushing to make them legally binding. That would outlaw providing "any false personal information" on Facebook (did you really watch Inside Job?). It would criminalize Googling before you can sign a binding contract (looking at you, 17-year-old honors-class delinquents). And it would make illegal any "inaccurate, misleading, or false information" on your Match.com profile.
The Secret Service is raising alarms about a so-called "black money" scam operating in the Northeast that's already relieved three idiots of $170,000. So if someone approaches you with a huge amount of cash that looks like it's been blacked-out with magic marker, don't trust them. Here's how the scam works.
Prosecutors in Santa Monica, CA have filed 19 criminal charges against the gold sellers Goldline International for allegedly running a "bait and switch operation" using prominent spokespeople like Fox News' Glenn Beck.
Citigroup has agreed to pay $285 million to settle charges that it packaged and sold a bunch of mortgage-backed securities in 2007 that it knew would drop in value, and then bet that they would in fact drop in value, making money off the suckers it sold them to.
The Queens DA office announced today that more than 100 people have been busted in a massive identity theft ring. The defendants are charged with stealing more than $13 million over 16 months, starting in 2010.
So, here is the kind of care you can expect if you are a migrant worker in China who cuts off his own thumb in an accident: The doctor will, over your objections, replace the missing thumb with one of your toes. Aaaaand... that's basically it. You say your foot hurts and your new thumb-toe is useless? No, sorry, that's actually not true: "Huiyang Bone-setting Hospital... insists that the thumb has recovered." We tend to agree with this commenter: "Strongly recommended that the doctor transplant his buttocks onto his head!" [ChinaSmack]
Don Lapre — the boyish infomercial shyster who lulled millions of insomniacs into pants-wetting states of catatonia via the relentless repetition of the phrase "tiny classified ads!" — has committed suicide inside an Arizona prison cell. Lapre, 47, was facing 41 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and promotional money laundering in connection with his latest snake oil scam, "The Greatest Vitamin in the World," which parted 220,000 suckers with $52 million.
After reading some books about banking, Denny Ray Hardin set up a website, created 2,000 fake promissory notes, and opened up "the Private Bank of Denny Ray Hardin" (not necessarily in that order) from his home in Kansas City. How entrepreneurial! And illegal.
The Associated Press checked in with 325 charities founded in the wake of 9/11, many of which are still active. Most of them were doing nice things! But a bunch were doing ethically dubious, borderline fraudulent things, frittering away millions of benevolently bestowed dollars.
A "Jewish Indiana Jones." The very words conjure up thrilling scenes of cliff-hanging, deli-sampling adventure! And that's precisely what a mild-mannered Jewish bookstore owner from Maryland was passing himself off as, in what has turned out to be nothing more than an extremely clever con.
Dunkin Donuts may finally have found the edge it needs to cripple Starbucks and Krispy Kreme: Prostitutes. And also ATM hacking. Just the thing to pump up that stock!
Saying you follow the Moorish Science faith has become the new "I'm 1/16th Cherokee," at least among financial fraudsters. All across our great, greedy nation, people are falsely claiming Moorish Scientist status in order to file phony legal documents, avoid paying taxes, and declare one's self above the law, among other illegal things.
Are you sure that your doctor is a real doctor? It can be difficult to tell! For example, if he gives you a bottle of pills called "Prosperous Farmer Dietary Supplements" that expired in 2002, he is probably not credentialed.
The massive hack attack that hit Sony's PlayStation Network has a bunch of gamers freaking out. For good reason! The latest scuttlebutt is that hackers are trying to sell a database of 2.2 million PlayStation owners' credit cards on underground forums.
Condé Nast and the feds are trying to recover $8 million the company paid a Texas man after he sent an e-mail invoice—one e-mail—pretending to be the magazine conglomerate's printer. They just can't get the digital space right.
God's favorite investment banker, Goldman Sachs chief Lloyd Blankfein, made a shitload of money last year! Originally we thought he made $13.2 million in 2010 but, according to Bloomberg News today, it turns out he nearly doubled his 2009 take with a $19 million compensation package:
Fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have been under investigation in Italy for tax evasion for some time, but now the ongoing scandal —they duo are accused of selling their company to avoid taxes—may lead to fraud charges.
Time to check in with an old friend: Jason Hope—the Arizona entrepreneur whose $500,000 Christmas party made him the "Party King of Scottsdale" and ignited fake-baked nightlife warfare—is getting sued. Verizon Wireless has launched a legal battle against 26 people and companies they say are fleecing consumers with "premium messaging services," i.e., when your grandma gets a spam text message that enters her into an automatic billing cycle without her consent. Verizon says Hope is "the mastermind behind defendants' fraudulent and deceptive practices."
The New York Times interviewed a "noticeably" thinner Bernie Madoff in prison and, wouldn't you know it, he said that "unidentified banks and hedge funds were somehow 'complicit' in his elaborate fraud," and also this:
