MILLIS, Mass. — A former police officer fired and indicted for fabricating a story about a shootout with a mystery gunman in September and calling in a fake bomb threat to the high school was found dead at his home on Thanksgiving.
Bryan Johnson, 24, was pronounced dead early Thursday, the Norfolk district attorney’s office said in a statement.
WASHINGTON—A Las Vegas man pleaded guilty today to conspiracy for his role in an investment fraud scheme that promoted fraudulent investment opportunities and caused more than $5 million in losses to investors.
Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Daniel G. Bogden of the District of Nevada and Special Agent in Charge Laura A. Bucheit of the FBI’s Las Vegas Field Office made the announcement.
Joseph Micelli, 62, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Kent J. Dawson of the District of Nevada to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud. His sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 23, 2016.
As part of his plea, Micelli admitted that he conspired with others in the United States and Switzerland to promote investments and loan instruments that he knew to be fraudulent. The conspirators told victims that, for an up-front payment, a Swiss company known as the Malom Group A.G. would provide access to lucrative investment opportunities and substantial cash loans. In connection with his plea, Micelli admitted that he held himself out to investors as an attorney, when in fact he had lost his license to practice law. In addition, as part of an effort to defraud an investor who held an equity stake in a corporation that had filed for bankruptcy, Micelli submitted a sworn affidavit to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Hampshire, in which he made false statements about the Malom Group’s ability to provide financing to the debtors.
For the eighth year running, The Economist Intelligence Unit, commissioned by Kroll, surveyed senior executives from around the world operating in a wide variety of sectors and functions in order to assess the current fraud environment.
The overall observation is that fraud has continued to increase, with three quarters (75%) of companies reporting they have fallen victim to a fraud incident within the past year, an increase of 14 percentage points from just three years ago. The number of businesses suffering a financial loss as a result of fraud has also increased, from 64% in the previous survey period to 69% this year.
Two of the most powerful men in New York state government are on trial for corruption at the same time. Voter turnout is lower than it’s been in decades. And polls show the public is as distrustful as it is apathetic.
Yet it’s business as usual in Albany, where top lawmakers shrug off questions about ethics and campaign finance reform while a crisis of corruption and confidence shakes one of America’s most powerful and important capitols.
“No one cares. No one votes. Everyone thinks everyone in government stinks,” said Assemblyman Todd Kaminsky, a Long Island Democrat and former corruption prosecutor. “We are living the worst-case scenario.”
Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–November 20, 2015. Damacio Diaz, 43, of McFarland, California, a detective with the Bakersfield, California, Police Department (BPD), was arrested today, charged with abusing his position of trust as a police detective when he conspired with and assisted a narcotics dealer in the operation of the dealer’s drug organization, announced U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner of the Eastern District of California, Special Agent in Charge Monica M. Miller of the FBI’s Sacramento Division, DEA Special Agent in Charge John J. Martin, Acting Special Agent in Charge Thomas McMahon of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) and Bakersfield Police Chief Greg Williamson. The charges are contained in a 16-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury yesterday.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — An upstate New York investment adviser who admitted bilking investors out more than $10 million has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Former Schenectady resident Scott Valente was also ordered to pay $8.2 million in restitution at his sentencing Friday in Albany.
The 58-year-old Valente pleaded guilty in May to securities fraud and other charges stemming from his activities with his company, the ELIV Group of Albany.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A university professor and his wife were convicted Friday of defrauding NASA by letting graduate students and researchers do all the work on a $700,000 project.
Lehigh University engineering professor Yujie Ding and his wife, Yuliya Zotova, told NASA that their startup company would develop a cutting-edge sensor used to track climate change, The Morning Call of Allentown reported (http://goo.gl/6uMWwh).
Zotova, 41, who has a doctorate in physics, was supposed to run the project and oversee the work of graduate students and research fellows in her husband’s laboratory at Lehigh. The students never saw her there, prosecutors said.
Former terrorist turned CIA double agent Morten Storm
tells Megyn Kelly in the 1st video below that America should expect to be hit by ISIS attacks within the next two weeks. With unverified reports coming in that UPS planes were recently discovered flying in hundreds or potentially thousands of ‘refugees’ under the cover of darkness as reported in the 3rd video below, all American eyes should be open as ISIS issues more cowardly yet terrifying threats to cities in America.
High level officials in the Bush and Obama administrations have allegedly been involved in a multi-billion dollar corruption scheme, according to allegations aired on Monday. “Thirteen presidential appointees (ten Obama, three Bush) are embroiled in a multi-billion dollar corruption scandal being probed by the U.S. Department of Justice and four inspector generals,” WikiLeaks said in a statement. This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address: "http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/WikiLeaks-Alleges-Massive-US-Government-Fraud-Scandal-20151116-0030.html". If you intend to use it, please cite the source and provide a link to the original article. www.teleSURtv.net/english
For the second time in a month, one of New York State’s biggest political figures is going on trial in a case brought by a federal prosecutor crusading against corrupt elected officials.
Jury selection begins Monday in Manhattan federal court in the extortion and bribery trial of former Senate leader Dean Skelos and his son, Adam.
Dean Skelos, 67, was the state’s most powerful Republican before his May arrest on charges that he abused his position to make hundreds of thousands of dollars for his 33-year-old son. He stepped down from his leadership post but retained his Senate seat.
The arrests came several months after the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara, brought corruption charges against one of the state’s most powerful Democrats, state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Silver, who quit his leadership post after his arrest, is accused of earning $5 million through extortion and bribery. His trial began two weeks ago.
All three men insist they will be vindicated at trial and are presenting a vigorous defense.
“This is a prosecution that should never have been brought in the first place,” Dean Skelos told reporters after a court hearing Friday.
The Skelos trial is expected to showcase a facet of politics that is more bare knuckles than the evidence that has surfaced in the Silver trial, where jurors are being told that the longtime politician disguised bribes as legal fees.