fraud

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Ponzi Victims Will Be Tax Nightmare for IRS

Service expects to refund $7-$10 billion in taxes paid on fake income

(Newser) - The work of fraudsters such as Bernie Madoff and R. Allen Stanford will complicate the IRS’ job as tens of the thousands of victims attempt to reclaim taxes paid on income that went up in smoke, Time reports. The IRS estimates that refunds due victims to Madoff alone could total...

Madoff Jail Won't Be as Bad as Shawshank: Expert

(Newser) - The next big question for Bernie Madoff: Just how bad will prison be? It’s unlikely the disgraced financier will get cushy Club Fed accommodations, CNNMoney reports. Ed Bales, a consultant who prepares inmates for jail, says such facilities were shut down years ago. But Madoff can take heart, he...

Judge Orders 'Ashamed' Madoff to Jail on Guilty Plea

(Newser) - Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty this morning to all 11 felony charges against him, saying he was "sorry and ashamed" for his criminal acts. The judge accepted the plea and revoked Madoff's bail, bringing cheers from spectators in the courtroom. Madoff was escorted out in handcuffs and will remain in...

Court May Tell Madoff to Go Directly to Jail

Ponzi master to plead guilty today, bail could be revoked

(Newser) - Bernie Madoff will head to court today to plead guilty to all 11 charges against him, and there’s every chance he won’t be going home afterward, the New York Times reports. The big question hanging over today’s hearing is whether the court will revoke Madoff’s bail....

Trader's $400M Loss Behind Merrill's London 'Irregularity'

(Newser) - A rogue Merrill Lynch trader appears to have posted some $400 million in undisclosed losses in recent months, the Financial Times reports, covering his tracks with the “irregularity” the firm’s London branch is currently investigating. Alexis Stenfors, now suspended, reported $120 million in gains in 2008’s fourth...

Madoff May Plead Guilty
 Madoff May Plead Guilty 
updated
Mar 6, 2009 11:03 AM CST

Madoff May Plead Guilty

Lawyers indicate that a plea deal is pending

(Newser) - Prosecutors filed court papers today indicating Bernard Madoff may be ready to plead guilty to charges arising from one of the biggest financial frauds in history. Madoff, 70, is scheduled for court twice next week, including a Tuesday appearance to waive any potential conflicts of interest involving his lawyer and...

Doubt Cast on $50B Figure in Madoff Case

Insiders think real losses closer to $20B; no one really knows

(Newser) - Bernard Madoff and $50 billion. His name and that number have become inseparable in describing the enormity of what has been called the largest white-collar fraud in history. Investigators claim Madoff himself told them that he stole $50 billion, but it is becoming increasingly clear that the number may be...

Facebook Identity Cops Diss Real Yodas, Batmans

(Newser) - Facebook has a thing against funny names, particularly if they’re actually yours, the Washington Post reports. Caitlin Shaw, who wanted to add her maiden name, Batman, to her profile, endured weeks of back-and-forth emails, while Starkiller Unleashed sails through. Facebook says it scrutinizes the real applicants because they are...

'Rockefeller' Fights False Name Charges

Con man just gave cops name he'd used for 15 years: defense

(Newser) - The con man who went by “Clark Rockefeller” attempted today to dismiss charges he gave police a fake name when arrested last year, the Boston Globe reports. Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter told police arresting him for absconding with his 7-year-old daughter that he was Clark Rockefeller—as he had told...

Mandela's Ex Poised for Return to Power

Critics none too pleased by new role for ex-convict Winnie

(Newser) - Placed high on her party’s list of future MPs, Nelson Mandela’s ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela is set to return to a central role in South Africa’s government, the Guardian reports. Such a position is already sparking controversy surrounding Madikizela-Mandela's past—including a 2003 fraud conviction when she was...

SEC Overlooked Stanford Fraud in 2003

Former employee warned agency, others of 'Ponzi scheme'

(Newser) - A former employee of Sir Allen Stanford warned the SEC in 2003 of an “illegal Ponzi scheme” involving his firms, but regulators brushed off the allegations, the Financial Times reports. The whistleblower also told another regulatory body that one of Stanford’s companies was “engaged in a Ponzi...

Feds: Florida Prof Scammed NASA for $3.4M

Research cash blown on cars, condos, charge court filings

(Newser) - Federal agents have seized the property of a University of Florida professor accused of shuttling millions in NASA grants into his family's bank accounts, the Houston Chronicle reports. Nuclear scientist Samim Anghaie, who has worked on developing fuels for future Mars missions, submitted "multiple fraudulent certified contract proposals to...

FBI Arrests High-Ranking Stanford Exec

Investment officer faces SEC obstruction charges

(Newser) - FBI agents have arrested the chief investment officer of Stanford Financial Group, accusing Laura Pendergest-Holt of obstructing an SEC fraud investigation. The SEC has been investigating allegations of an $8 billion investment fraud involving Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford's financial group. Pendergest-Holt, arrested in Houston, will appear in court tomorrow....

Wiesel: Put 'Psychopath' Madoff in Prison

(Newser) - Author and Nazi hunter Elie Wiesel, who lost $15.2 million in foundation money and a good chunk of his own fortune to Bernie Madoff, railed today against the “psychopath” financier, the New York Post reports. “He should be put in a solitary cell with a screen, and...

Feds: Swindlers Blew $500M on Horses, Houses, Teddies

Another day, another fraud casee

(Newser) - A pair of money managers who once co-owned the New York Islanders hockey team have been charged by federal prosecutors with treating $550 million in client investments like their own "personal piggy bank," reports Reuters. Paul Greenwood, 61, and Stephen Walsh, 64, managing general partners of WG Trading...

Stanford Bank in Antigua Missing $8B

'It appears to be a Ponzi scheme,' investigator says

(Newser) - Investigators rummaging around Allen Stanford's Antiguan bank have confirmed media reports that $8 billion is missing, the Times of London reports. “The $8 billion you hear about in the media isn’t there,” one official told customers outside the Stanford International Bank. "It appears to be a...

Stanford Loses Cozy Caribbean Domain

Mexican drug lord laundered money there

(Newser) - R. Allen Stanford is an institution in Antigua—so much so that some residents call the Caribbean island “Stanford Land”—and now the country is reeling from the SEC fraud case against him. The country has seized Stanford’s bank, but it’s still facing questions about its...

Yanks' Damon Stung by Stanford Scandal

(Newser) - Two New York Yankees—Johnny Damon and Xavier Nady— have had their finances frozen by the SEC in connection with the Stanford fraud scandal, Fox Sports reports. Both players kept their money in Stanford banks, and the SEC says they should have access to it in a few days. But...

Madoff Bought No Stocks—for 13 Years

(Newser) - The trustee liquidating Bernard Madoff’s companies said today the disgraced financier appears not to have purchased any securities for his clients for “perhaps as much as 13 years,” Bloomberg reports. It was “cash in and cash out,” Irving Picard said. "It was all just...

Madoff Bust Stokes Anti-Semitism in Palm Beach

(Newser) - Bernard Madoff’s alleged mega-fraud and the large number of Jewish investors he apparently snookered is stoking anti-Semitic feeling in tony Palm Beach, ABC News reports. “It is a terrible thing to say, but some of the WASPs are delighted, they take great pleasure in this,” said an...

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