Fraud ring mastermind ordered to repay ICBC $350,000

A sophisticated fraud ring with ties to eastern Europe has been ordered to pay ICBC more than half a million dollars for their elaborate scheme to stage car thefts and resell vehicles with phony identification numbers.

Read more here.

Man Tries to Cover Crash By Reporting Stolen Vehicle

Even though a witness saw him crash his 1991 Honda Civic into a telephone pole after racing with another car, William Pena still reported the car stolen to police and his insurance company, police said.

Police said the witness saw Pena get out of the car and talked to him again later when he returned to Abbott and South Union streets to retrieve his Honda Civic later the same day on March 25.

Read more here.

"Easy Money" Attracts People to Fraud

Jose Rodriquez told police that he agreed to be a front seat passenger in a staged accident six years ago after being promised he could make an easy $4,000.

The two men who approached him on Essex Street convinced him that he could make even more money by getting others involved, according to Rodriquez, who recruited his then-16-year-old brother to participate.

Read more here.

Gainesville Man Accused of Stealing Almost $2 Million

Gainesville insurance agent James Sirmans Jr. is in a San Diego jail awaiting extradition on a charge of first-degree grand theft after allegedly pocketing $1.8 million in premiums for policies he took out on 20 sham businesses he started.

Sirmans, 58, has operated Rubicon Insurance for 24 years and Rubicon Realty & Investments for 16 years. The phone numbers to both Gainesville businesses are disconnected.

Read more here.

Fraud Fighters Get Extra Help

All too often, they have no idea what hit them.

People defrauded of their homes or victimized in other property scams are wracked with despair when they realize they've been conned. Many times, they don't even know how it happened.

"I love to help figure it out," said Glenn Gulley, a real estate fraud investigator with the Stanislaus County district attorney's office. "You get to put all the pieces to a puzzle. There is not a more satisfying job in the world."

Read more here.

Identity Theft in San Fran Takes Months to Investigate

With the mortgage meltdown, collapse of financial institutions and exposure of Bernard Madoff and the like, one would think now would be a good time to have all hands on deck for fraud investigations.

In San Francisco, one would be wrong.

The Police Department's fraud unit has been whittled to eight investigators, less than half of the 19 it had in 1990.

Read more here.

TX Voter Fraud Case Continues

On Monday, the District Attorney’s Office officially began their investigation into the allegations of voting fraud in the recent Gonzales City Council election for the District 1 seat.

The investigation centers around write-in candidate Charles Roaches, and Gonzales City Councilman Russell Grant of District 2. The allegations are that Grant helped Roaches with his campaign by going door-to-door in District 1, and asking residents to sign mail-in ballot applications.

Read more here.

With Economy Down, Vehicle Give-Ups on Rise

The Ohio Department of Insurance has warned that "vehicle give-ups" are on the rise, but local police departments aren't seeing the trend.

Vehicles are "given up" when owners go to extreme measures so they can destroy or dispose them. People do this because they cannot afford the vehicle, ran up too many miles on a lease or want to collect the insurance, Joel Demory said.

Demory is the auto fraud investigator for the ODI. He's heard of people trying to report their car stolen with scorched eyebrows. The car was found, burnt. Another person had a car with high-end rims and a stereo system. However, when the car was discovered, its factory rims had been replaced, Demory said.

Read more here.

Woman Pleads Guilty in Phone Fraud Case

An Augusta woman has admitted scheming to defraud more than 50 people, mostly elderly women, over the telephone by posing as a fraud investigator for a credit card company.

Read more here.

Sob Story Woman Accused of Fraud

First, she said she was a wounded Iraq War veteran, and showed a scar on her stomach to prove it.

Then, the Georgia woman said her mother had been killed in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. And finally, she explained her lack of money, clothes or a home on the fact other close family members had been killed in Hurricane Katrina.

The story was so sad and heartrending that Manatee County resident Trudy Johnson, who met the woman outside a Georgia hotel in June, asked her to come to Bradenton to live with her and her husband until she got her life turned around.

In the end, though, April Arrington Edwards' stories were shown to be mostly, or perhaps completely, fabricated.

Read more here.

Fraud Accountants a Growing Field in Declining Economy

When Ron Forster conducts interviews, he watches his subjects as much as he listens to them. He monitors their eyes. He watches their arms. He notes where they place their hands.

Even a seemingly innocuous gesture -- an interviewee moving his hand away from his face right before answering a sensitive question -- could be a sign that a subject is lying.

And you thought accounting was boring.

Mr. Forster is a forensic accountant -- a growing subset of the accounting field focusing on uncovering financial fraud.

Read more here.

Fraud Investigation Growing Strong

One of the few growth industries in the current economic climate? Fraud investigators.

Allegations of fraud are increasing, as the financial crisis drags on. As a result, reports the New York Times, people who are skilled at following the money have rarely been more in demand.

The FBI is recruiting new hires to work on a glut of cases -- it had more than 1600 open mortgage-fraud investigations at the end of fiscal 2008, almost twice as many as two years earlier.

And private fraud investigation firms are enjoying boom times. The number of certified examiners is said to be up 10 percent compared with last year.

Read more here.

Madoff Pleads Guilty to Ponzi Fraud

Saying he was "deeply sorry and ashamed," Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty Thursday to pulling off perhaps the biggest swindle in Wall Street history and was immediately led off to jail in handcuffs to the delight of his seething victims. Madoff, 70, could get up to 150 years in prison when he is sentenced in June.

In refusing to let the disgraced financier remain free on bail until then, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin noted that Madoff had the means to flee and an incentive to do so.

The plea did not satisfy many investors who had hoped Madoff would be forced to name any family members or others who helped him swindle them out of billions of dollars. He pleaded guilty to all 11 charges against him — with no deal with prosecutors — meaning he is under no obligation to disclose names and tell authorities where the money went. He is not believed to be cooperating with prosecutors.

Read more here.

Police Warn Against Internet Fraud

Finding a thief who preys on his victims through the Internet can be like chasing a ghost, investigators said.

In the past week, two Aiken area residents trying to sell jewelry learned the hard way that criminals will target even reputable trade papers.

Aiken Public Safety investigators said the two recent victims lost collectively in excess of $15,000 when they tried to sell their rings through buying an advertisement in a national trade paper. The victims didn't know each other but purchased similar ads trying to sell their rings to interested buyers.

Read more here.

Tulsa (OK) to Hire Fraud Investigator

The City of Tulsa plans to hire a fraud investigator, after federal officials revealed a public corruption case Thursday that cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

Two former city workers and four local businessmen are accused of fraud and bribery. Larry Baker and Albert Martinez were high-ranking officials in Tulsa's engineering department.

The businessmen charged include Harlen Yocham of Yocham Enterprises; Max Wolf, president of Horizon Construction, Kenneth Shoemaker, president of FBS, Inc. and FBS Engineering; as well as Stewart Franklin, an accountant for FBS, Inc.

Tulsa city councilors are now questioning the checks and balances in place to detect fraud.

Read more at KJRH.com.

Operator of Christian Non-Profit Indicted in Fraud

Edward Purvis, the man who promised churchgoing investors in Arizona and 12 other states he could make them wealthy while funding Christian causes, was indicted Friday on 43 counts of fraud and theft.

Authorities accuse the 40-year-old Chandler man of operating a multimillion Ponzi-scheme through Nakami Chi Group Ministries International.

"These are very serious charges," Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said Friday. "Several hundred years (of prison) are in the offing."

The indictment comes on the heels of an $11 million restitution order imposed last month on Purvis and his partner Gregg Wolfe and their wives by the Arizona Corporation Commission, which regulates the sale of securities in the state.

Read the rest at The Arizona Republic.

Spain Opens Fruad Probe Against Madoff

Spain's anticorruption prosecutor has opened an investigation into Bernard Madoff's alleged fraud, which may cost clients of Banco Santander, the nation's largest lender and the owner of US-based Sovereign Bancorp, $3.1 billion.

The probe began last month, said an official at the prosecutor's office who asked not to be identified.

For more information, visit The Boston Globe.

Hotline Clogged in Fraud Investigation

Investors who fear they were fleeced by Richard S. Piccoli of Amherst and his Gen-See Capital Corporation, accused of running a multimillion- dollar Ponzi scheme, clogged a hotline that federal investigators set up Friday.

Postal inspectors said they spent all day taking information from investors but admitted that many were unable to get through.

“It’s been overwhelming,” Postal Inspector Raymond Williams said of the calls.

Read more at The Buffalo News.

Learn How to Avoid Health Care ID Theft

New federal regulations aimed at detecting potential health identity theft are changing some procedures at Grand Valley businesses.

Patients checking in at local hospitals or physicians’ offices can now expect to show photo identification at every visit. That wasn’t always the case, local hospital officials said.

In November, a new regulation from the Federal Trade Commission required all financial institutions and creditors to develop an identity theft prevention program. Health care providers fit into the category of creditor because they can extend credit to patients and report people to collection agencies.

Read more at the Grand Junction Sentinel.

Fraud Investigation Business Booms in Weak Economy

Scott Stern was shot once and stabbed four times during his 12-year military- and law-enforcement career.

A long scar on his left knee from one attack is a permanent reminder of why Stern decided to take the security and investigation skills he honed in the public sector into private industry 14 years ago.