Fraud

TERROR FUND 

British taxpayers’ money helped fund al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden after £8bn stolen in HMRC fraud

Over two decades the gang, who operated in London, Buckinghamshire, Birmingham, Northwest England and Scotland, bagged around £8billion of the public's money, an investigation by The Sunday Times revealed.

Part of the colossal sum also came from mortgage and credit card fraud that targeted banks and individuals, the newspaper reports.

The fraudsters allegedly sent 1 per cent of the netted cash - worth £80million - to al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

It is understood the cash was used by the terror group to fund training camps, extremist educational programmes and other terrorist activities.

Top secret intelligence documents held by MI5 are said to show that some of the money reached Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan before he was killed by US special forces in 2011.

Fraud

FBI, EU fraud authorities hold emergency summit on binary options fraud
Fraudulent binary options firms lure their victims into making what they are duped into believing will be profitable short-term investments, encouraging them to “invest” more and more money. But by employing a variety of ruses, the firms ensure that in the overwhelming majority of cases their clients wind up losing all or almost all of their money. Victims frequently lose tens of thousands of dollars or more. The industry has grown and flourished in Israel for the past nine years, scamming hundreds of thousands of victims worldwide out of billions of dollars with little to no intervention from Israeli law enforcement.

Fraud

Intelligence insiders call Russian dossier ‘complete fraud’ – Trump

On Tuesday, CNN and BuzzFeed reported on a secret dossier, compiled by an unidentified former UK intelligence officer, which, the outlets claimed, contained proof that Trump was groomed and supported by Russian intelligence for at least five years and that he was target of potential blackmail by the Kremlin.

Among the revelations in the dossier was a bizarre story of Trump allegedly hiring several prostitutes to “perform a ‘golden showers’ show in front of him” on a bed in the Moscow’s Ritz Carlton Hotel’s presidential suite where Barack Obama and his wife had previously stayed during an official visit to Russia.

Shortly after the story was published, the president-elect blasted the dossier as “fake news” and “a total political witch hunt.”

He also labeled BuzzFeed a “failing pile of garbage” and refused to take a question from a CNN reporter during a news conference this week.

Fraud

FBI tips for online shoppers

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reminds shoppers to beware of cyber criminals and their aggressive and creative ways to steal money and personal information during this holiday season.

Scammers use many techniques to fool potential victims, including fraudulent auction sales, reshipping merchandise purchased with a stolen credit card, sale of fraudulent or stolen gift cards through auction sites at discounted prices and phishing emails advertising brand name merchandise for bargain prices or emails promoting the sale of merchandise that ends up being a counterfeit product.

Scammers often use email to advertise hot-ticket items of the year that may become hard to find during the holidays to lure unsuspecting consumers to click on links. 

Fraud

It's time to talk about fraud in aid agencies

That risk is high. Cultures of trust, challenging environments where staff are overstretched, and high-risk delivery models (such as humanitarian emergencies and remote programme management) all raise it. Our moral missions may encourage us to take poorly managed risks. Estimates of the scale of loss to fraud are between 2% and 5% of an organisation’s income – and many global development workers find that range readily believable. Of the £5.8bn identified as having been channelled through NGOs in humanitarian emergencies in 2013, for example, that range could mean that up to £276m may have been lost to fraud.

Fraud

Justice Department Charges Three in $1 Billion Medicare Fraud Scheme in Florida

The Justice Department on Friday unsealed charges in its largest-ever criminal health-care-fraud case, charging three individuals with using a network of doctors, hospitals and health-care providers across South Florida to improperly bill more than $1 billion to Medicare and Medicaid.

Philip Esformes, the owner of more than 30 Miami-area skilled-nursing and assisted-living facilities, was the project’s mastermind, the indictment alleged. He and two co-defendants, along with other co-conspirators, allegedly paid and received bribes and kickbacks to get thousands of patients admitted to facilities Mr. Esformes controlled.

In those facilities, they were often given medically unnecessary and sometimes harmful treatments, which were then billed to Medicare and Medicaid, according to court papers.

Fraud

Almost one million investors lose £5.3bn in massive China Ponzi scam

Authorities in China have arrested 21 people on suspicion of defrauding almost one million Chinese investors of 50bn yuan (£5.3 billion) after an online peer-to-peer lender turned out to be a giant Ponzi scheme, state media has alleged.

Police used two mechanical diggers for 20 hours to retrieve 1,200 account books that were buried six feet underground as part of the investigation into one of the biggest financial frauds in the country’s history, Xinhua state news agency said.

A total of 21 people were arrested at Ezubao, the company at the centre of the scam, which rose to become China's largest online financing platform in just 18 months.

Fraud

Belgian Scientology could be banned for fraud and other charges

Eleven members of the Belgian branch, as well as two affiliated bodies, the Belgian Scientology church itself, and the church in Europe are being judged. A conviction could lead to a ban in the country. The charges the members of the Church of Scientology are facing include: fraud, extortion, running a criminal organization, violating privacy laws and practising illegal medicine. 
According to the congregation's former treasurer, Scientology Belgium made about €2,000 a week from book sales and €3,000 from courses and training. She said 9.5% of all income went to the mother church in Los Angeles, while 3% was transferred to the European head office in Copenhagen, Le Soir newspaper reported.

Fraud

US Military Pharmacy Fraud Case: Federal Prosecutors Investigate Claims Of False Billing Amid Sharp Increase In Prescription Drug Spending

Federal prosecutors have opened investigations in at least four states into compounding pharmacies that allegedly issued false claims to a U.S. military health insurance program in violation of the federal False Claims Act, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. In Florida, where four pharmacies previously agreed to pay a total of $12.8 million in civil settlements that they allegedly falsely billed military insurance program Tricare, the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Florida, A. Lee Bentley III, said he would pursue "numerous criminal investigations" and would aim to file criminal charges by early 2016.

Fraud

Fraudster tricked lover out of £12,000 and told her: Report me and MI5 will ‘get rid of you’

SOLDIER Alastair Gordon tricked a lover out of £12,000 and told her if she reported him she would be ‘got rid of’ as he was an MI5 agent. Gordon, a Royal Artillery gunner at Baker Barracks in Thorney Island, struck up a relationship with the woman he met on a dating website. Portsmouth Crown Court heard the 37-year-old told the woman he was a retired army major who had served in Afghanistan and left due to an injury but still worked on Thorney Island for the army.
Prosecutor Daniel Sawyer said Gordon would visit the 38-year-old woman’s Gosport home but never stayed the night as he claimed he had to look after his sick mother.

Fraud

How Volkswagen set the pace for the new era of ‘smart fraud’

High-tech fraud seems to be taking place everywhere –­ from the shimmering towers of Wall Street to the seedy world of online adultery. Ashley Madison, the hacked hook-up site for people looking to cheat on their spouses, allegedly set up fembots that sent fake messages to fool male users into thinking that real live women awaited them if they paid a fee to join, instead of fancy bits of computer code. The Federal Trade Commission had evidently not noticed that what appears to be a giant swindle had been going on since 2001.

Smart fraud, such as VW’s emissions scam or Ashley Madison’s robot dates, began to be understood in the late 2000s, when something weird started happening on stock markets.