fraud

Dozens of businesses raked in at least $20 million in federal coronavirus relief loans despite appearing ineligible to receive them, a new report says. More than 75 firms got Paycheck Protection Program loans worth at least $150,000 even though they didn’t exist before the spring or failed to meet other criteria for the program, the …

The long-awaited criminal fraud trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes finally has a start date. The disgraced former Silicon Valley wunderkind will appear before a jury in March of next year, US District Judge Edward Davila announced on Tuesday, to face charges that she and ex-Theranos president Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani are accused of peddling bogus …

Federal officials say a convicted felon with mob ties and his wife fraudulently raised more than half a billion dollars from investors for their company, which loaned cash to small businesses at interest rates as high as 400 percent. Convicted felon Joseph LaForte, who goes by the name Joe Mack, and his wife Lisa McElhone …

Suspected fraudsters have infiltrated a loan program meant to help small businesses weather the coronavirus crisis — and the feds are letting them slip through, a watchdog warned. The Small Business Administration’s inspector general has received more than 5,000 complaints from lenders about suspected fraud in the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, which offers aid …

The “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta” star accused of scamming millions out of the government’s coronavirus loan program has now also been charged with running a $5 million Ponzi scheme, prosecutors said. Maurice “Mo” Fayne — who appeared in the reality-TV show’s eighth season — was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury for lying …

Wirecard collapsed on Thursday owing creditors almost $4 billion after disclosing a gaping hole in its books that its auditor EY said was the result of a sophisticated global fraud. The payments company filed for insolvency at a Munich court saying that, with 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion) of loans due within a week, its …

Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun was released on bail following his arrest in connection with the payments company’s $2.1 billion accounting scandal, reports say. Braun, 50,  posted his bail of 5 million euros ($5.6 million) on Tuesday, a day after he turned himself in to German prosecutors who accused him of falsifying income to make …

German authorities arrested former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun days after he left the payments company amid a $2.1 billion accounting scandal. Munich prosecutors accused Braun of using bogus income from transactions with “third-party acquirers” to inflate Wirecard’s assets and sales volume and make it more attractive to investors. Braun turned himself in Monday evening and …

The Supreme Court on Monday placed limits on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s practice of forcing defendants to surrender profits obtained through fraud as part of its enforcement of investor-protection laws in federal courts. The court reaffirmed the agency’s authority to seek disgorgement, a part of its civil enforcement arsenal aimed at passing on funds …

Scammers posing as out-of-work residents have bilked Washington State out of “hundreds of millions of dollars” in unemployment benefits, a top official said. The fraudsters submitted bogus unemployment claims under the names of tens of thousands of people whose personal information had been stolen, said Suzi LeVine, commissioner of the state’s Employment Security Department. “I …