The former executive director of a Salvation Army donation storage and distribution centre has been found guilty of a massive fraud involving selling donated items meant for shelters and food banks — including toys donated through the Christmas Toy Mountain campaign — for profit.

David Rennie was found guilty of several fraud-related offences on Wednesday by Ontario Court Justice Sandra Bacchus.

She found that after Rennie was appointed executive director of the centre in January 2010 he developed a relationship with a wholesaler, Umaish “Tony” Ramrattan. Rennie began allowing Ramrattan to pick the best donations — toys and food that was far from its expiry date — and take it to another warehouse and sell it for a profit. Trucks laden with donations from Nestle and Sun laundry detergent were rerouted to this second warehouse operated by Ramrattan.

The scheme took place under the guise of selling surplus donations to Ramrattan so he could use that money to buy goods the Salvation Army was in need of — like meat, canned protein and kosher food, Bacchus found. But staff at the Railside warehouse, the location of the donation centre, became concerned that their shelves were empty and the quality of the donations they were sending out were declining — while Rennie continued to authorize Ramrattan to take donations to sell. Records seized by police show Ramrattan took away far more in donations than he returned in purchased goods, Bacchus found.

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The former chief of fire service for the U.S. Air Force received 14 months in federal prison for mishandling a defense contract and stealing more than $100,000 raised for charity and using it for gambling, vacations and to pay off credit cards, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

On Wednesday, Chief U.S. District Judge William Griesbach in Milwaukee sentenced James E. Podolske Jr., 59, of Panama City, Fla., and him to pay a $5,000 fine and almost $50,000 in restitution to the charities, according to court records.

Podolske pleaded guilty, admitting that while an official with the U.S. Air Force, he knowingly disclosed Defense Department contract bid information to give an advantage to a corporate defense contractor, the release said.

Podolske also admitted that between 2009 and 2013, he used his position to defraud about 25 businesses and individuals out of tens of thousands of dollars per year intended for charity. He organized an awards banquet and “charity” golf outing to coincide with a conference sponsored by the International Association of Fire Chiefs.

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PHOENIX — Prosecutors have accused a one-time Arizona resident of being the ringleader of an elaborate health-care fraud that netted him and eight others nearly $2 million in bogus health-insurance claims.

Nicholas Scaffidi, 35, was charged earlier this month with fraud, money laundering and multiple counts of theft in connection with a scheme that prosecutors say began September 2014 during the first year of the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

Investigators identified Scaffidi as the leader of a group that included his wife and seven accomplices, who they allege routinely visited out-of-network hospital emergency rooms with vague complaints of illnesses and demanded that doctors order a series of expensive tests.

Former Republican Assemblyman Robert Schroeder has pleaded guilty to charges he stole nearly $1.9 million from people who loaned him money and wrote more than $3.4 million in bad checks to other creditors.

Schroeder entered his plea Friday in Somerset County Superior Court, just days before his trial was set to begin.

He pleaded guilty to a charge of second-degree misconduct by a corporate official.

He also entered a guilty plea to issuing bad checks on behalf of his four companies: All Points International Distributors, Inc., Hercules Global Logistics, LLC, RS Consultants, LLC and RGS Bergen, LLC.

The theft by deception charge will be dismissed as part of the plea deal, but his attorney, John Whipple, said the misconduct charge encompasses all the counts in the indictment.

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Illinois is now the second state to punish Wells Fargo for its phony accounts scandal. On Monday the state joined California in suspending investment activitywith the bank for a year.

Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf has claimed he first heard about the creation of fake accounts in 2013, but only on “CBS This Morning,” one whistleblower says she alerted the company years earlier.

“I started noticing what I thought were honest mistakes. But then these honest mistakes, you know, became a very clear pattern,” Yesenia Guitron said.

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Federal prosecutors announced Tuesday that Armed Forces Foundation ex-president Patricia P. Driscoll would be indicted on charges of fraud, tax evasion, and interfering with the administration of internal revenue laws.

Driscoll, 38 of Ellicott City, Md., resigned from her position at the Washington-based charity, where she’d worked for 12 years, on July 12 after an ESPN report on her alleged improprieties.

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A former lawyer from Marin County has pleaded guilty to defrauding investors out of more than $2.5 million.

James Seltzer, 67, of Belvedere, who specialized in securities law, admitted victimizing more than 10 investors between October 2007 and May 2011.

In his plea agreement, he said he told his victims he would use their funds to invest in securities, but actually put much of the money in his bank accounts and used it for personal and business expenses.

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA – So what happens when you work for a bank and get caught creating phony accounts that steals money from customers? For one you get fired, but we`re not just talking about one rogue employee here.

Over 5,000 workers have been shown the door after being caught creating over 1.5 million fake bank accounts. Why? It was all in the name of meeting those all-important sales goals.

While the sales team was hitting their quotas Wells Fargo customers were getting hit in the pocket. Some people were charged overdraft fees when their money had been unknowingly moved from their account to fund a fake one opened in their name.

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Amtrak’s inspector general has launched a fraud and conflict of interest investigation involving the system’s police chief.

Media outlets report that affidavits filed in federal court state Chief Polly Hanson was involved in preparing a contract that ABS Consulting won in 2014, but didn’t disclose the nature of her relationship with ABS’ Kerry Thomas. Court records state Thomas and Hanson have apartments in the same building and co-own a Delaware condo. The investigation, first reported by WTTG-TV, is also examining whether Thomas and ABS violated the False Claims Act and contract terms.

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