Fiat crime (financing terror, money laundering, fraud, ponzi, etc.)

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How Fakes, Frauds And Scams Came With Walmart’s Digital Boom​

Sep 19, 2025 #CNBC
In its race to rival Amazon and become the next great “everything store,” Walmart leveraged its brick-and-mortar empire to grow into a major player online. And it didn’t take long for the world’s biggest retailer to build a massive digital marketplace with hundreds of millions of products and thousands of third-party sellers. But Walmart’s digital boom has a little known and much darker underside – where some sellers steal the identities of legitimate businesses so they can peddle counterfeit and sometimes dangerous products to unsuspecting customers. After CNBC shared its reporting with Walmart, the company began tightening its vetting process for both products and sellers and says it has a “zero-tolerance policy for prohibited or noncompliant products.” CNBC’s Gabrielle Fonrouge has the story.
15:31
 

Scam kingpins who ran billion-dollar criminal empire sentenced to death in China​

A court in China has sentenced 11 people to death for their roles in a billion-dollar family-run criminal empire built on online scam and gambling operations in a remote border region of Myanmar, and for the deaths of workers who tried to escape.

Eleven members and associates of the Ming crime family were sentenced to death on Monday by the Wenzhou Intermediate People’s Court in eastern China’s Zhejiang Province, according to a court statement.

The Ming family is one of the so-called “four families” of northern Myanmar — mafia-like crime syndicates accused of running hundreds of compounds dealing in internet fraud, prostitution and drug production, and whose members hold prominent positions in the local government and militia aligned with Myanmar’s ruling junta.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...o-death-in-china/ar-AA1Nzpn4?ocid=socialshare
 

Startup founder Charlie Javice sentenced to 7 years in prison for defrauding JPMorgan Chase​

  • Charlie Javice, founder of a startup acquired by JPMorgan Chase in 2021 for $175 million, was sentenced to seven years in prison Monday for defrauding the bank by overstating how many customers the fintech firm had.
  • A jury found Javice and her chief growth officer Olivier Amar guilty on three counts of fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit fraud.
  • Javice said she felt profound remorse for her actions and asked for forgiveness from JPMorgan, employees of the startup, shareholders and investors.
Charlie Javice, founder of a startup acquired by JPMorgan Chase in 2021 for $175 million, was sentenced to just over seven years in prison Monday for defrauding the bank by overstating how many customers the fintech firm had.

In March, a 12-person jury found Javice and her chief growth officer Olivier Amar guilty on three counts of fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit fraud. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of 12 years.

More:

 
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The 'stupidity' of 300 investment bankers tricked by a 20-something founder is a lesson in due diligence​

  • Fintech wunderkind Charlie Javice must serve seven years in prison for conning JPMorgan Chase out of $175 million.
  • Some 300 bankers vetted the 2021 purchase of her startup, but it took a year to learn its 4 million users were fraudulent.
  • The judge said he took that into consideration, but ultimately decided "fraud remains a fraud."
"Stupidity."

"Very poor due diligence."

"Someone who is a fool."

On Monday, a Manhattan judge used all of these terms to describe the JPMorgan Chase bankers who fell victim to a fraud perpetrated by fintech entrepreneur Charlie Javice.

Read it all:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/com...in-due-diligence/ar-AA1NzTha?ocid=socialshare
 

How the British Crown Funded Pirates to Build an Empire​

Oct 3, 2025 The Financial History Files
The British Empire wasn’t built on fair trade. It was built on piracy.
In this video, The Financial Historian uncovers how Queen Elizabeth I and the English Crown turned pirates like Francis Drake and Henry Morgan into state-backed privateers, unleashing them on Spanish treasure fleets and colonial cities. Their raids captured fortunes so vast they paid off England’s debts, enriched investors, and laid the foundation of empire.
This isn’t just swashbuckling adventure. It’s economic history — theft turned into financial policy. And the lessons still matter today. Because when governments need money, they always find their pirates.

9:11
 

Wells Fargo customer of ‘years and years’ loses $4,000 hours after depositing check — but bank denies fraud claims, won’t return money. Here’s why​

A Houston woman paid a steep price, literally, for a simple bank deposit that she made at her local Wells Fargo branch.

Willie Delane told her local Fox 26 network that on September 15 she deposited a life insurance check totalling $10,000 into her Wells Fargo bank account.

“I've been with Wells Fargo for so long, years and years” she said in the story. This is why, when she received a text roughly nine hours later saying that there was something fishy with a transaction involving her account, she called customer service. (1)

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/per...money-here-s-why/ar-AA1OQelD?ocid=socialshare
 

Libor - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The Biggest Financial Crime You’ve Never Heard Of​


Oct 22, 2025 The Financial History Files
For decades, the world’s biggest banks quietly manipulated the price of money itself — the interest rates that determined your mortgage, your student loan, and your country’s debt. This is the story of the LIBOR scandal — how a handful of traders at Barclays, UBS, and JPMorgan turned a global benchmark into a private casino.
The Financial Historian breaks down how the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) really worked — how it shaped $350 trillion in contracts, how it was rigged in secret chat rooms, and why the system depended on “trust” that never existed. We explain derivatives, interest rate swaps, and the hidden incentives that made small manipulations worth billions.
This isn’t just a story about greed — it’s about how the financial system rewards deception, punishes transparency, and turns trust into a tradable asset. LIBOR may have been replaced by SOFR, but the same forces still control the price of money today.
If you want to understand how global finance really works — and who profits when the system bends — this is the video you can’t afford to miss.

12:47
 

Former Owner of Collapsed Nursing Home Empire Sentenced to 36 Months’ Imprisonment For $38 Million Tax Fraud Scheme

A New York man was sentenced to 36 months in prison for his role in a $38 million employment tax fraud scheme involving nursing homes he owned across the country.
www.justice.gov

The case of a felon who paid lobbyists nearly $1 million to seek a Trump pardon​

In April, Alina Habba, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, extolled her office’s role in the sentencing of a former nursing home magnate to three years in prison for defrauding the government of $38 million. The man, Joseph Schwartz, was alleged to have overseen a “collapsed nursing home empire” and “willfully” failed to pay employment taxes, Habba’s announcement said.

Around that time, Schwartz paid $960,000 to two lobbyists “seeking a federal pardon,” according to their lobbying filing.

While many people have sought pardons from President Donald Trump, few could afford to spend such a sum to seek their freedom. The disclosure provides a rare look at how federal convicts are maneuvering to gain clemency during Trump’s second term and at some of the people offering to help them.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/poli...k-a-trump-pardon/ar-AA1QYYYa?ocid=socialshare
 

A Ponzi Schemer Freed by Trump Strikes Again​

Dec 15, 2025
Eli Weinstein is a convicted fraudster who stole millions of dollars from investors at the height of the pandemic. He was able to do so because President Donald Trump during his first term commuted his 24-year sentence for a previous conviction. Now Weinstein is said to be planning to ask Trump for clemency again.
Within months of his release in 2021, Weinstein returned to scamming, stealing from unsuspecting victims until he was caught and convicted again, this time sentenced to 37 years in prison. While the administration contends it carefully weighs all petitions, the case points up what critics argue is a radical new system of how presidential clemency is granted, one where financial resources, connections and politics govern who goes free and who does not.

19:20

0:00 The cost of clemency
1:37 The deal
3:04 Eli Weinstein’s second chance
4:45 Doing something good for the world
5:42 The puppet master
7:26 The brink of destruction
10:52 The story isn’t over
13:34 The purpose of clemency
15:31 The system
17:08 Out of chances?
 

Scammers, spies and triads: inside cyber-crime’s $15tn global empire | FT Film​

Dec 18, 2025 #scammer #spies #triads
From industrial-scale fraud factories to influence operations and underground banking, Chinese organised crime groups are revolutionising law enforcement's understanding of transnational crime. The FT reports on the globalisation of scamming syndicates and the proliferation of crime-as-a-service tools.

29:15
 

Update

JPMorgan left holding $74M legal bill as fraud settlement backfires​

JPMorgan Chase faces a $74 million invoice for defending the executive it accuses of defrauding it in a $175 million startup acquisition. The sprawling bill, detailed across dozens of pages, covers first-class flights, luxury hotels, catered meals, and even a $13.57 Spotify subscription, as court orders compel payment amid ongoing appeals.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/com...lement-backfires/ar-AA1TB42J?ocid=socialshare
 

More

He was a perfect hire — until a U.S. company exposed him as a likely North Korean operative

He was a perfect hire — until a U.S. company exposed him as a likely North Korean operative.
www.nbcnews.com
 

Everett Stern - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The Banking Story They Didn't Want Told with Everett Stern | DEEP FOCUS with John Kiriakou​

Mar 20, 2026
In this episode of Deep Focus, former CIA officer John Kiriakou speaks with whistleblower Everett Stern about exposing one of the largest banking scandals in modern history. Stern reveals how, while working as an anti-money laundering compliance officer at HSBC, he discovered evidence that billions of dollars were being moved through the financial system for drug cartels and terrorist organizations. Just weeks into the job, Stern made the life-altering decision to report what he found to authorities and the media, triggering a massive international investigation.
Stern describes the personal cost of blowing the whistle—from losing his career and financial stability to facing threats and public attacks on his credibility. The conversation explores corruption in the global banking system, the challenges whistleblowers face when institutions fail to act, and why protecting truth-tellers is essential for national security and democracy. It’s a powerful look inside the realities of whistleblowing, accountability, and the fight to expose wrongdoing at the highest levels.

35:53
 

Former Kentucky bank manager charged with fraud, theft​

A former bank manager in Ludlow, Kentucky, appeared in court Wednesday to face nearly two dozen counts, including bank fraud and theft by a bank employee.

Reagan France, who was employed by Home Savings Bank from 2015 to 2024, allegedly made over 100 unauthorized transactions on customer accounts, according to court documents. She became bank manager in 2023.

The indictment doesn’t tally alleged losses, but the FBI and the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office counted losses above $300,000, local CBS affiliate WKRC reported.

More:

 

Florida pastor and son’s $8 million COVID fraud case comes to bizarre end​

It was one of the strangest Covid fraud cases brought by the Justice Department, with the kind of wild details that seemed ripped from a Hollywood script.

There was an $8.4 million pandemic relief loan based on records purportedly signed by a dementia-stricken accountant. Bags of shredded documents were discovered in a Mercedes SUV. Cellphones were found inside pouches specially designed to block radio frequencies to keep them from being tracked. And there were allegations of faked mental health problems that recalled the notorious case of mobster Vincent “The Chin” Gigante.

Read the rest here:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/f...s-to-bizarre-end/ar-AA24Iq8c?ocid=socialshare
 

He joined the US Army to escape a $47 million fraud case. It was the worst hiding place he could have picked.​

The most-wanted financial fugitive in Poland thought he had found the perfect hiding place. To disappear, Marcin Pióro did not flee to a non-extradition haven or buy a new identity on the black market. He enlisted in the United States Army. The 46-year-old chief executive, accused of running one of the largest fintech frauds in Polish history, reported to Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri for Basic Combat Training, betting that a green recruit in a uniform was the last place anyone would look for a white-collar fugitive.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/h...ould-have-picked/ar-AA24FvpB?ocid=socialshare
 

Entrepreneur promoted on X investor show faces fraud indictment​

An entrepreneur featured on Going Public—the investor show promoted by Elon Musk’s X last year as a tentpole of its original-content strategy—has been indicted on allegations of fraud connected to his real estate business.

The federal mail fraud indictment against Dutch Mendenhall, 46, relates to his management of funds including RAD Diversified REIT, a real estate business that advertised widely on social media to recruit investors.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crim...fraud-indictment/ar-AA24FsqX?ocid=socialshare
 

Maryland man convicted of flying off with $15M from private jet club, renting luxury Florida home​

A federal jury in Maryland has convicted the owner of a private jet charter company for running a multi-million dollar scam that swindled clients out of $15 million, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.

Patrick Britton-Harr, 43, of Annapolis, Maryland, was found guilty of six counts of wire fraud. Court evidence revealed that Britton-Harr used his company, AeroVanti, to pitch a “one-time membership opportunity” to elite “Top Gun” members. He convinced these clients to wire upfront payments of $150,000, promising the money would be held securely in escrow and used to purchase specific private aircraft. In return, members were promised a block of heavily discounted flight hours.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crim...ury-florida-home/ar-AA24S37g?ocid=socialshare
 

Dan stumbled across an ATM glitch that gave him 'unlimited' money... then he spent $1.6million​

An Australian man who blew $1.6million after discovering a banking glitch has opened up about the wild lifestyle he enjoyed before his conscience got the better of him.

Late one night in early 2011, bartender Dan Saunders, from Wangaratta in country Victoria, stumbled across a technical fault in National Australia Bank's ATM system.

The then-29-year-old found the loophole after transferring $200 from his credit card to his bank account, which had just $3.

The ATM said the transaction failed, but the money appeared nonetheless.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...spent-1-6million/ar-AA26jb0B?ocid=socialshare
 

THE BANKER'S GHOST

A billionaire's suspicious death. A Lebanese central banker's offshore billions. And the trail of ignored warnings that led to one of Europe's biggest financial scandals.
shortstopmedia.substack.com
 
Inside North Korea’s Operation to Conquer the U.S. Job Market | WSJ Documentary

Aug 12, 2026
North Korea has built a secret workforce inside American companies. Using stolen identities, AI tools and U.S. accomplices, its operatives have cheated their way into remote jobs in an effort to earn money for Kim Jong Un’s regime. The FBI says there are likely thousands of them applying for jobs across America and hundreds of millions of dollars have been funneled back to the regime.
WSJ’s documentary exclusively follows a single cell of these operatives. Drawn from a trove of leaked data—browser history, emails, calendars and never-before-seen screen recordings pulled from the team’s own computers—our yearlong investigation offers a rare look at how North Korea’s undercover workers get hired.

32:00
 

Senior immigration official and alleged moneyman caught accepting $960K in bribes for citizenship favors: prosecutors​

An allegedly corrupt senior immigration official and his sleazy moneyman are accused of manipulating the US immigration process and approving citizenship applications for nearly $960,000 in bribes, authorities said on Friday.

Investigators discovered the reported racket through WhatsApp messages between former senior United States Citizenship and Immigration Services officer Lukman Owolabi Ganiyu, his financial accomplice Adeniyi Akeem Somoye, and individual citizenship applicants.

The pair, located in Texas, bypassed standard procedures by funneling bribe-paying applicants directly to Ganiyu — skipping key steps in the immigration process like criminal background checks, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/othe...vors-prosecutors/ar-AA2bEd8P?ocid=socialshare
 
Those sound like Nigerian names. ...
... Most of the citizenship applications they dealt with came from African countries, according to prosecutors. ...
Click to expand...

Of course.

What interests me about the story is "Investigators discovered the reported racket through WhatsApp messages ...". How did investigators see them?
 
pmbug said:
How did investigators see them?
Click to expand...

Asked Grok. Here's the reply...............

Investigators identified extensive WhatsApp messages (thousands of them) and hundreds of calls among Lukman Owolabi Ganiyu, Adeniyi Akeem Somoye, and various immigration applicants during the alleged scheme (roughly December 2019–March 2026), but publicly available sources do not detail the precise technical or legal method used to access or view the content of those messages.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas (and related reporting) states that agents “identified” or “discovered” these communications as part of the investigation into the alleged multi-year corruption scheme. Ganiyu (a former Senior Immigration Services Officer at USCIS) is accused of using his position to approve or expedite immigration benefits (including Forms I-130, I-485, I-751, and N-400) in exchange for payments, often bypassing normal procedures such as interviews, supervisory review, jurisdictional rules, and background checks. Somoye is alleged to have helped collect and manage the money (hundreds of thousands of dollars total, with some reports citing figures in the high six figures for Ganiyu via Zelle/Cash App/cash and higher transfer volume involving Somoye).

The case was investigated by the USCIS Office of Investigations, DHS Office of Inspector General, and FBI Dallas Field Office. A federal criminal complaint charging both with conspiracy to receive illegal gratuities by a public official was filed around August 31, 2026; they were arrested September 2, 2026. Each faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. The complaint and news summaries treat the WhatsApp material as key evidence linking the defendants to applicants and corresponding payments/approvals, but they do not describe how the messages were obtained (e.g., via device seizure and forensic extraction under warrant after arrest or earlier, cooperation from applicants, legal process directed at service providers, or other means).

Such details are often contained in the underlying complaint affidavit or later discovery/motions and are not always fully released in initial press materials. As of the latest public reporting, the precise “how” has not been disclosed beyond the fact that investigators reviewed the communications. The charges remain allegations; both men are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
 

Convicted ex-Connecticut official flees to Greece before sentencing for bribery​

A former Connecticut deputy budget director who was convicted on 21 federal charges related to bribery and extortion fled to Greece before his sentencing hearing in court Thursday, according to his lawyer and prosecutors.

Konstantinos Diamantis, 70, escaped the country before he could have faced 10 to 12 years in prison as requested by the prosecution. He was accused of extorting private contractors for bribes between 2018 and 2021 in exchange for helping the companies keep and obtain work on school construction contracts. If he wasn't paid, Diamantis allegedly threatened to terminate the contracts.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/othe...cing-for-bribery/ar-AA2crLwQ?ocid=socialshare
 

Maryland Nurse Pleads Guilty to Health Care Fraud Conspiracy for Role in $14 Million D.C. Medicaid Scheme​

Vera Nyiawung, 34, a registered nurse from Bowie, Maryland, pleaded guilty today in connection with a $14 million health care fraud scheme that billed D.C. Medicaid for mental health services that were never provided or were grossly inflated, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.


D.C. Dentist Sentenced to 24 Months in Prison for Scheme to Defraud D.C. Medicaid of $3.4 Million​

Today, Steven A. Price, 70, of the District of Columbia, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 24 months in prison for conspiring to defraud D.C. Medicaid of $3.4 million, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.


Georgia Man Sentenced for Using Defunct Trucking Company to Steal More Than $170,000 in COVID-19 Relief Funds​

Preston Fleming, 68, of Ducula, Georgia was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to 6-months of home confinement in connection with a scheme to fraudulently obtain more than $170,000 in COVID-19 disaster relief loans for a trucking company that had ceased operating years earlier, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.
 

Glamorous influencer posing with cash busted in money laundering probe​

A TikTok influencer who is also the daughter of a notorious drug lord has been arrested as authorities investigate a $25.8 million money laundering scheme tied to her father.

Michelle Jamileth Macías Penarrieta, 23, was arrested alongside her mother, Inda Mariela Penarrieta Tuarez, on Sunday in Sabana de Torres, a small town in northeastern Colombia.

The two women are the daughter and wife of infamous Ecuadorian narcotrafficker Adolfo 'Fito' Macias, the leader of the Los Choneros gang, which was designated as a terrorist group by the US last year.

In January 2024, Fito escaped an Ecuadorian prison where he was serving a 34-year sentence for drug trafficking and murder.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/othe...laundering-probe/ar-AA2dhaHV?ocid=socialshare
 
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