Pulaski fin'l corp hit by 'elaborate fraud' by own commercial loan customer

Pulaski Financial Corp. has uncovered an "elaborate fraud" perpetrated against the bank by one of its commercial loan customers.
The customer, who claimed to be in the business of leasing equipment, appears to have created false documents to purchase assets that didn't exist and that were the subject of fictitious leases, according to a statement from Pulaski Financial, which is the holding company for Pulaski Bank. Pulaski's exposure to the customers consisted of an outstanding loan balance of $7 million, minus $631,000 in collateral held by the bank.
Pulaski is charging off the entire amount of the unsecured exposure, resulting in an after-tax charge to earnings of $3.9 million.
As a result of the discovery of the fraud, Pulaski reported revised financial results for the fourth quarter ended Sept. 30.

http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/morning_call/2013/11/pulaski-hit-by-elaborate-fraud.html

Sept 2013: Seven detained in alleged Gazprom shareholder fraud

Seven men have been detained in Moscow on suspicion of having embezzled 500 million rubles (over $15.4 million) of Gazprom shares, RIA Novosti reported Tuesday.
The fraud scheme allegedly occurred earlier this year, according to the Russian law enforcement agencies, which withheld further details.
The suspects were reportedly detained when they attempted to embezzle shares of the state-controlled Sberbank in the amount of 80 million rubles ($2.4million).

http://www.themoscownews.com/business/20130917/191927060/Seven-detained-in-alleged-Gazprom-shareholder-fraud.html

3 Men Indicted for $23m Iraqi Dinar Fraud

A federal grand indicted three men from the Toledo area for their roles in the operation of a $23 million fraud scheme involving the sale of Iraqi dinar currency and two non-existent hedge funds, said Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, and Kathy Enstrom, Special Agent in Charge, IRS-Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati field office.
Those indicted are: Bradford L. Huebner, 66, of Ottawa Hills, Ohio; Charles N. Emmenecker, 66, of Sylvania, Ohio, and Michael L. Teadt, 67, of Maumee, Ohio.
Rudolph M. Coenen, age 47, of Jacksonville, Florida, has already pleaded guilty to crimes related to his role in the conspiracy.
The men are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud. Huebner is also charged with multiple counts of money laundering, structuring and willful failure to file currency and transaction reports.
As a result of the defendants’ conduct, investors lost about $23.8 million from dinar sales and more than $700,000 from the sale of non-existent hedge fund “seats” and “placements,” according to the indictment.
“These defendants made false statements time and again to convince people to part with their savings and hard-earned cash,” Dettelbach said. “The fact that they falsely claimed one member of the conspiracy was wounded while fighting in Iraq is particularly egregious.”

http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/2014/01/01/three-indicted-for-23m-dinar-fraud/

Canadian man accused in penny stock fraud caught in Thailand

A Canadian man accused of masterminding an international penny stock fraud scheme that swindled investors worldwide of more than $140 million has been arrested in Thailand.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations says Sandy Winick, 55, was arrested over the weekend, just days after authorities rounded up seven of his alleged accomplices.
Canadians Gregory Ellis, 46, and Kolt Curry, 38, were taken into custody Aug. 13, along with five Americans accused of helping to carry out what authorities have called one of the largest penny stock frauds in history.
Curry's father, 63-year-old Gregory Curry, is still at large and the FBI said he's believed to be living in or near Bangkok, Thailand.

Alleged 'pump and dump' scheme

It's alleged the defendants were involved in a massive "pump and dump" scheme — buying controlling interests in sketchy startup companies, then artificially inflating their value by promoting them in fictitious emails, social media messages and news releases.
Court papers say the defendants then victimized the same investors by convincing them to pay advance fees in return for helping them sell their securities or join lawsuits to reclaim their losses.
The sales campaign generated more than $120 million in investments, while the fees scheme brought in some $20 million, authorities said.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canadian-accused-in-penny-stock-fraud-caught-in-thailand-1.1340651

Five tips on protecting your business and customers from fraud

Protecting your business

If you are a business or start-up, especially one which is a platform serving many users and accepting payments on that platform, you should be thinking about fraud risk and how exposed your platform might be to this risk. John Canfield, VP of Risk for WePay – a payments API provider powering hundreds of platforms, shares his top five tips on protecting your business in his own words below.

1. Know your enemy

First, you have to understand whom the enemy of your platform or marketplace is. You might not realize that there are lots of different kind of fraud and loss – including merchant identity fraud, merchant credit risk and buyer identity fraud. Most likely, you’ll be concerned with collusion fraud. What this means is someone setting up a merchant or fundraiser account with a fake or stolen identity, then using stolen credits and fake buyer identities to pay their own merchant account. They get the money and disappear, but you are stuck with the charges.

2. Simple tools to start

One of the first things you can do is actually pretty traditional. Using a vendor like Experian, Equifax, or Lexis-Nexis, you can validate that your user’s identity is a real one that matches their database. If needed, you can also check their business credit and history.

3. Social data as your secret weapon

However, to get more advanced, you should consider social data. It is easy enough to do a social search based off an email address – you can see whether someone has a Facebook or LinkedIn profile and whether it matches a verified email they gave you. A long-established social profile that matches their name and e-mail is an asset they have that is difficult for a fraudster to synthesize. WePay uses social data and algorithms to power our own Veda^TM risk analysis engine. 

http://agbeat.com/business-news/five-tips-protecting-business-customers-fraud/

 

XYZ Business Involved in Wire Transfer Fraud at Ghana Bank

XYZ Business can report on authority that national service personnel were allegedly involved in the fraudulent wiring of huge sums of money from the Ghana Commercial Bank’s vault into some private accounts.

Investigations by XYZ Business have revealed that management of the state-owned bank has taken criminal action against the national service personnel, who allegedly were part of those who masterminded the entire fraudulent operation.

It is not yet clear how much money the syndicate succeeded in siphoning from the bank’s vault, nor for how long the crime went on, before the fraud was detected.

The operation was allegedly coordinated with the connivance of the bank’s IT department.
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=297114

Feb 2013: Russia offers pardon to thousands jailed for business fraud

Russia’s lower house of parliament has approved a pardon for thousands of prisoners convicted of business-related crimes.
The amnesty will apply to those who have committed offences such as insurance fraud, business fraud, money laundering and tax evasion. Around 9,000 prisoners are expected to benefit.
The bill was put forward by President Putin last month. He hopes it will improve the development of new business and change the way that the courts treat financial disputes.

http://www.euronews.com/2013/07/02/russia-offers-pardon-to-thousands-jailed-for-business-fraud/

University Mall business boom was tax fraud

TAMPA - Business at a jewelry kiosk in University Mall exploded in September 2011, according to the Secret Service, which says M. Gold and Diamonds can thank the proceeds of tax refund fraud for its new customers.
The federal government is asking a judge to allow it to keep $379,798 seized from a business account believed to contain the proceeds from identity theft tax refund fraud deposited on debit cards. The cards were used to make purchases at the kiosk.
Kiosk owner Aneel Mohammad is not charged with any crime.
The civil forfeiture case raises a question facing local merchants: Should they question purchases made with prepaid debit cards in the face of evidence that the cards are favored by identity thieves who file bogus tax returns?
Mohammad’s lawyer, Michael B. Germain, said Mohammad didn’t know where his customers got their money. “If people were purchasing goods from his store with fraudulently obtained tax refunds, he wasn’t aware of it at the time,” Germain said.
http://tbo.com/news/business/feds-university-mall-business-boom-was-tax-fraud-b82501296z1

As Target fallout continues, incidents of fraud emerge

For some Target (TGT) customers, the nightmare is just beginning.
With Target's security breach, thieves didn't stop at swiping payment card numbers belonging to 40 million customers. Criminals also stole data, such as addresses and emails, for up to 70 million Target shoppers. Unfortunately, the data breach may end up creating a bigger headache if criminals use it for identity theft, as one woman recently discovered.
Lauren Campbell, a dermatologist in Texas, told CBS station KHOU-TV that after her data was stolen in the Target hack, a thief or thieves applied for cards in her name, buying everything from toys to diamond rings.
While fraudulent credit-card charges are bad, identity theft such what Campbell experienced can potentially be much more damaging. Clearing up cases of false identity can be time-consuming and challenging, given that victims may need to file a police report, plus contact the Federal Trade Commission and the fraud units of the three credit reporting agencies.
Campbell told KHOU that she received an American Express card in her name, but that it was clearly fraudulent: the thief’s photo, that of a woman unknown to her, was shown on the reverse side.
“That someone is running around pretending to be me, using my name to commit crime, that really bothers me,” Campbell said. She added, “I like how she sprang for an executive card. That was a nice touch.”
With cases of identity theft such as this, many victims never find out about the bogus accounts until they’re contacted by bill collectors about outstanding balances they know nothing about, according to the FTC.
For identity theft victims who receive collection notices, they must dispute all or part of the debt within 30 days of receiving a notice, the FTC notes.
Authorities arrested two Mexican citizens this week, alleging they used cards that contained the account information of South Texas residents. The alleged criminals, 27-year-old Mary Carmen Garcia and 28-year-old Daniel Guardiola Dominguez, were found with 96 cloned or counterfeit cards under their clothes, which authorities said were made from data stolen during the Target breach. 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/as-target-fallout-continues-incidents-of-fraud-emerge/

U.S. plans new bank fraud cases in early 2014 - attorney general

The U.S. Justice Department plans to bring civil mortgage fraud cases against several financial institutions early in 2014, using as a template the case that ended last month in JPMorgan Chase & Co's $13 billion settlement, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said on Wednesday. In an interview with Reuters, Holder would not say which companies or how many could face lawsuits but said the Justice Department was in contact with them and it was hard to say whether the talks would lead to settlements. "It is my hope that the next round of these cases will be filed soon after the new year." JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank, agreed last month to pay $13 billion to end a series of government investigations into its marketing and sale of mortgage-backed securities.

http://www.robinspost.com/business-news/daily-business-news/768833-business-news-exclusive-us-plans-new-bank-fraud-cases-in-early-2014-attorney-general.html

Oil fraud lands Richardson businessman 30 years

The chairman of an oil and gas promotions company was sentenced to 30 years in prison Friday on charges he defrauded investors out of $2.5 million.
David Lewis, chairman of Always Consulting Inc. in Richardson, was found guilty by a federal judge in September on multiple counts of securities fraud after a federal investigation into one of Lewis’ oil and gas projects in Oklahoma.
The 52-year-old Lewis was accused by the U.S. attorney’s office of making false statements to investors and using their funds to prop up the company.

http://www.dallasnews.com/business/energy/20140124-oil-fraud-lands-richardson-businessman-30-years1.ece

Hospital Chain Said to Scheme to Inflate Bills

Every day the scorecards went up, where they could be seen by all of the hospital’s emergency room doctors.

Physicians hitting the target to admit at least half of the patients over 65 years old who entered the emergency department were color-coded green. The names of doctors who were close were yellow. Failing physicians were red.

The scorecards, according to one whistle-blower lawsuit, were just one of the many ways that Health Management Associates, a for-profit hospital chain based in Naples, Fla., kept tabs on an internal strategy that regulators and others say was intended to increase admissions, regardless of whether a patient needed hospital care, and pressure the doctors who worked at the hospital.

This month, the Justice Department said it had joined eight separate whistle-blower lawsuits against H.M.A. in six states. The lawsuits describe a wide-ranging strategy that is said to have relied on a mix of sophisticated software systems, financial incentives and threats in an attempt to inflate the company’s payments from Medicare and Medicaid by admitting patients like an infant whose temperature was a normal 98.7 degrees for a “fever.” 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/24/business/hospital-chain-said-to-scheme-to-inflate-bills.html?_r=0