Washington — A federal judge in New York will decide soon which shareholder to appoint in a class-action securities fraud suit lodged against Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, its CEO Sergio Marchionne and chief financial officer Richard Palmer.
The suit was filed against the company in September after the automaker agreed to a $105 million settlement with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to settle charges it mishandled nearly two dozen recalls covering 11 million vehicles.
A veteran Philadelphia congressman’s son was found guilty Thursday of federal bank and tax fraud charges.
Chaka “Chip” Fattah Jr. was convicted of 22 of 23 counts alleging that he misspent loans and some of the nearly $1 million in education funds he got as a school management subcontractor. The jury acquitted him of one count of tax fraud.
Vatican investigators have accused the shadowy organisation known as the Pope’s merchant bank of money laundering,insider trading
and market manipulation, it has emerged.
Details of the alleged crimes committed by the institution, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See (APSA), said to have been between 2000 and 2011, have been passed to authorities in Italy and Switzerland. Investigators say the illicit activity involved bank accounts held in these countries.
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) Three people, including two from northwest Florida, have been sentenced as part of a plea agreement concerning fraud charges.
39-year-old Jermaine Winters of Coleman, Florida, 24-year-old Senora Cotton of Chipley, Florida, and 23-year-old Rosetta Presley also of Chipley were sentenced in federal court Monday for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft in connection with the electronic filing of false federal income tax returns.
According to a press release from the US Attorney’s Office, During their guilty pleas, Winters, Cotton, and Presley admitted that, between July 2011 and July 2012, they conspired to file fraudulent tax returns using the stolen identities of assisted-living facility residents who lived at the Dogwood Inn in Bonifay, Florida, as well as clinical laboratory patients from the Sun Laboratory Services in the Tampa, Florida area, and others.
Authorities arrested two people for credit card fraud in Lemon Grove last week.
Lasaro Quijano, 30, and Bunthi Im, 29, were arrested after officers found numerous fraudulent credit and ID cards, meth and other drugs and a stolen handgun. A search of the couple’s vehicle revealed credit card making materials and items purchased with the fraudulent cards.
A top federal bee scientist from South Dakota says he’s being punished for publicizing work on pesticides and pollinators.
Jonathan Lundgren’s research found bees and monarch butterflies can be harmed by a widely used class of insecticides. In a whistleblower case filed Wednesday, the United States Agriculture Department entomologist alleges he faced retaliation because of his research.
Federal prosecutors are accusing seven individuals of conspiring to fraudulently charge more than $2 billion to a program set up to help people affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
In an indictment unsealed Thursday, the Department of Justice alleged that the defendants submitted false claims on behalf of 40,000 individuals in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and other Gulf states without their consent. The agency also said the defendants stole victims’ identities, using their names, addresses, Social Security numbers and other personal information to create phony legal clients for litigation against BP stemming from the spill.
Tampa, FL – United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III announces the return of an indictment charging LaJoyce Caldwell Houston (49) and Eric Houston (54) with conspiracy, theft of government property, and money laundering conspiracy. LaJoyce Houston is also charged with obtaining information from a protected computer with the intent to defraud and aggravated identity theft. If convicted, each faces a maximum penalty of 5 years in federal prison for the conspiracy count, up to 10 years in federal prison for each of the theft of government property counts, and up to 20 years’ imprisonment for the money laundering conspiracy count. LaJoyce Houston also faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison for the computer intrusion count and 2 years’ imprisonment for the aggravated identity theft count, to be served consecutive to any term of imprisonment imposed for the theft of government property and computer intrusion counts. The indictment notifies the couple that the United States intends to seek a forfeiture money judgment in an amount to be determined, but at least $239,116.91, which is traceable to the proceeds of the offenses.
CHICAGO — Dennis Hastert pleaded guilty Wednesday to evading banking laws in a hush-money scheme, averting a potentially lurid trial by agreeing to a deal with prosecutors that recommends the former House speaker serve no more than six months in prison.
More than a dozen employees of a Buffalo, NY, firm are accused of lying to, threatening, and bullying thousands of people across the US in what officials say is the biggest debt-collection fraud ever prosecuted. Some 15 employees of Four Star Resolution have been charged with fraudulently collecting $31 million, NBC News reports. An indictment states that the firm’s “elite” team used “particularly aggressive and egregious tactics,” including sending fake legal documents, “in attempting to trick consumers into paying debts.” In some cases, collectors tried to squeeze more money out of the victims than they owed, according to the indictment.