Tag: fraud

An MIT Student Awed Top Economists With His AI Study—Then It All Fell Apart

Aidan Toner-Rodgers, 27, sprung to the upper tiers of economics as a graduate student late last year from virtually out of nowhere.

While still taking core classes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he wrote a paper on artificial intelligence’s workplace impact so rapidly influential it was cited in Congress. He appeared in the pages of The Wall Street Journal in December as the very picture of a wunderkind, in faded jeans with tousled hair, in between two of his mentors, including Nobel laureate Daron Acemoglu. Toner-Rodgers’s work offered a surprising and even hopeful revelation about our high-tech future. He concluded that AI increased worker productivity and spurred innovation. Also, people didn’t like using it very much.

Within weeks, those mentors were asking an unthinkable question: Had Toner-Rodgers made it all up?

By the spring, Toner-Rodgers was no longer enrolled at MIT. The university disavowed his paper. Questions multiplied, but one seemed more elusive than the rest: How did a baby-faced novice from small-town California dupe some of academia’s brightest minds?

“There is no world where this makes any sense,” said David Autor, one of the MIT professors who had previously championed his student’s research. MIT, Autor and Acemoglu declined to comment on​ the specifics of the investigation into the research, citing privacy constraints.

Toner-Rodgers’s illusory success seems in part thanks to the dynamics he has now upset: an academic culture at MIT where high levels of trust, integrity and rigor are all—for better or worse—assumed. He focused on AI, a field where peer-reviewed research is still in its infancy and the hunger for data is insatiable.Expand article logo  Continue reading

What has stunned his former colleagues and mentors is the sheer breadth of his apparent deception. He didn’t just tweak a few variables. It appears he invented the entire study.

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Democrat Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick Surrenders to Authorities After Allegedly Laundering $5 Million in FEMA Funds — Allegedly Bought 3.14-Carat Yellow Diamond Ring

A sitting Democratic member of Congress from Broward County, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, surrendered to federal authorities Tuesday in Miami amid explosive allegations that she orchestrated a scheme to steal and launder $5 million in FEMA COVID-19 disaster relief funds, and used a portion to bankroll her 2021 congressional campaign and purchase a luxury yellow diamond ring.

The 46-year-old Congresswoman appeared in Miami federal court in handcuffs following a 15-count federal indictment issued last week. She now faces charges including conspiracy, theft of government funds, money laundering, making and receiving straw-donor contributions, and filing false statements on her federal tax return.

According to the Department of Justice, prosecutors allege that Cherfilus-McCormick and her 51-year-old brother, Edwin Cherfilus, siphoned off $5,057,850 FEMA funds.

“The indictment alleges that the defendants conspired to steal that $5 million and routed it through multiple accounts to disguise its source. Prosecutors allege that a substantial portion of the misappropriated funds was used as candidate contributions to Cherfilus-McCormick’s 2021 congressional campaign and for the personal benefit of the defendants.

The indictment further alleges that Cherfilus-McCormick and Nadege Leblanc, 46, of Miramar, arranged additional contributions using straw donors, funneling other monies from the FEMA-funded Covid-19 contract to friends and relatives who then donated to the campaign as if using their own money.

The indictment also charges Cherfilus-McCormick and her 2021 tax preparer David K. Spencer, 41, of Davie, with conspiring to file a false federal tax return. According to the indictment, they falsely claimed political spending and other personal expenses as business deductions and inflated charitable contributions in order to reduce her tax obligations.”

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MINNESOTA MADNESS: Radical Democrat Judge Sarah West OVERTURNS Jury’s Guilty Verdict — Frees Somali Immigrant Who Stole $7.2 MILLION in Medicaid Fraud Scheme

Radical Democrat judge Sarah West, appointed by former Democrat Governor Mark Dayton, has tossed out a jury’s unanimous guilty verdict, setting free Abdifatah Yusuf, a Somali immigrant convicted of masterminding a massive Medicaid fraud ring that siphoned off $7.2 million from taxpayers.

A jury had found Yusuf guilty in August on six counts of aiding and abetting theft by swindle, following evidence that his home-healthcare company billed Medicaid for hundreds of thousands dollars in “phantom” care, padding bills for services never delivered.

Prosecutors documented that many of those funds were funneled into luxury cars, high-end clothing, and other extravagant personal purchases.

But Judge West, rather than upholding the jury’s verdict, claimed the case hinged on circumstantial evidence and offered “other reasonable inferences” for the billing irregularities, arguing prosecutors failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Yusuf was personally responsible for the fraud. She issued a judgment of acquittal.

Jurors, prosecutors, and state lawmakers were stunned. One juror told reporters he believed the evidence demonstrated “obvious guilt.” The state’s Attorney General has already filed an appeal, warning the decision undermines public trust.

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Louisiana Woman Gets Over 4 Years in Federal Prison for $267K Pandemic Fraud

Reha Janee Arvie, age 35, of Westwego, LA, was sentenced for Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud,  Acting United States Attorney Michael M. Simpson announced. 

Court documents say that around July 2020, Arvie defrauded, and attempted to defraud various state offices of Unemployment Insurance through the submission of about 100 fraudulent UI applications. Arvie recruited friends and family, via Facebook, to file these fraudulent UI applications. 

Additionally, Arvie filed fraudulent UI applications for herself and others, in various states including Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Indiana, Missouri, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Utah, Texas, and the territory of Guam. Arvie charged those for whom she filed fraudulent UI claims fees, ranging from $1,200.00 to $1,500.00. For example, Arvie obtained $267,612.00 in UI benefits from California’s Employment Development Department. Moreover, during the investigation, Arvie lied to federal agents during an interview.

United States District Judge Sarah S. Vance sentenced Arvie to 52 months imprisonment, followed by 3 years of supervised release and payment of a $100 mandatory special assessment fee.   

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. 

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Co-Founder of Paycheck Protection Program Service Sentenced for $63M COVID-19 Relief Fraud Scheme

A co-founder of a lender service provider was sentenced to 10 years in prison for defrauding the Paycheck Protection Program by $63 million.

Court documents say that Stephanie Hockridge, also known as Stephanie Reis, 42, of Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, and previously of Arizona, co-founded Blueacorn in April 2020, purportedly to assist small businesses and individuals in obtaining PPP loans.

The U.S. Small Business Administration guaranteed the loans under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. The defendant was also ordered to pay over $63 million in restitution.

Hockridge and her co-conspirators fabricated documents, including payroll records, tax documentation and bank statements. Hockridge and her co-conspirators charged borrowers kickbacks based on a percentage of the funds received.

Hockridge and others offered a personalized service to their clients called “VIPPP” to help potential borrowers complete PPP loan applications. Hockridge recruited co-conspirators to work as VIPPP referral agents and coach borrowers on how to submit false PPP loan applications. To get more kickbacks from borrowers and a higher percentage of lender fees from the SBA, Hockridge and her co-conspirators submitted PPP loan applications that they knew contained materially false information. In total, Hockridge and her coconspirators processed over $63 million in fraudulent PPP loans.

On June 20, a jury found Hockridge guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould for the Northern District of Texas; Acting Assistant Special Agent in Charge Don Daley of the Office of Inspector General for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Western Region; and Special Agent in Charge Christopher J. Altemus Jr. of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Dallas Field Office made the announcement.

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The Problem Of Fake Science

Don’t eat those waffles; your hair will fall out. Science says so!

Think of this. We’ve never before been in the position to generate such seemingly scientific content on any subject under the sun within a matter of seconds. This power has only existed for two years. Many people do not even know it exists, much less how easy it is. Bad actors are in a position to use this power anytime they want. They can count on legacy levels of trust in “science” to pass off such fakery as real.

This past week, we saw yet another piece of fake science retracted from publication. This one is a big deal. The publication is The Lancet, one of the most prestigious venues in the world. It had published the study, which was thoroughly peer-reviewed. But it turns out that the authors had pulled the wool over the eyes of the experts.

The retracted paper is one of many generated from a huge and well-funded trial of therapeutic drugs used to treat COVID-19. The trial in question was called TOGETHER. It was funded with grants from FTX, the crypto company later shut down for fraud, alongside financial companies holding large pharmaceutical stocks and think tanks funded by the industry that hoped to sell vaccines. If the study was correct, getting the shot would seem like the only option.

The authors peppered all the journals with papers on the results.

Only one has been pulled so far, but the others will likely do the same in time. This includes the New England Journal of Medicine, a venue that prides itself on its low retraction rate.

The TOGETHER trial was conducted then released fully four years ago. Questions and criticisms have been roiling and boiling all this time.

When the study came out in 2021, it was invoked as one of the major reasons to pull hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin from the shelves. Even if your own doctor wrote a prescription, the answer was no.

I will never forget that day when I walked into my neighborhood pharmacy and showed them my prescription. The girl behind the counter excused herself to talk to her manager, who shook his head no without saying a word. That sent me on a scramble to get some sent by overnight mail from New York City, from a person who had ordered some from India. I felt better in three hours.

I later learned that although millions of people did something similar, because it was the only way to get effective meds, the practice is, shall we say, frowned upon.

Why had all the pharmacies in my local neighborhood denied me proven treatments that my own doctor had prescribed me? Because they believed the science.

This is the problem of fake science. It has real-world consequences. We supposedly live in the age of science, but the credibility of all the institutions is now in free fall. The slogan “science” was deployed to justify a level of attack on freedom that we had never before seen. As a result, the reputation of science in general has taken a huge hit.

The TOGETHER trial at least had the appearance of plausibility. After all, they had actually done a real trial. The SURGISPHERE trial, in contrast, released early on in the summer of 2020, was discovered to have entirely made up all its data. Its conclusions were thereby invalid. And to be fair, the fake science was not entirely one-sided. Some studies indicating the reverse results have also been shown to have faked data.

In the end, hundreds of thousands of papers during this period were published, and these days, the retractions are happening as quickly as the acceptances in the old days. My friends, this is not just a PR problem. This is a genuine crisis for the credibility of science itself.

When the science tells you that you cannot safely have a Thanksgiving dinner in your home or sing praises to God without killing grandma, it is risking the very foundations of the scientific revolution.

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Disgraced ex-news anchor Stephanie Hockridge sentenced in massive COVID fraud scheme — will be jailed with Ghislaine Maxwell

Disgraced ex-TV anchor Stephanie Hockridge will spend the next ten years behind bars for her role in a multi-million-dollar COVID fraud scheme – serving her time in the same cushy lockup as notorious sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.

The 42-year-old, a former Phoenix TV anchor turned entrepreneur, was sentenced in Texas federal court Friday and ordered to cough up nearly $64 million in restitution for the bogus Paycheck Protection Program loans she helped secure during the height of the pandemic, the Justice Department announced.

Hockridge, found guilty in June of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, will report to prison on Dec. 30.

She will be locked up at Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas — the same minimum-security facility that houses Jeffrey Epstein’s madam, disgraced Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes, and “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” scammer Jen Shah, AZ Family reported.

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What Are the Burma Scam Centers, How Much Have They Stolen from Americans, How Do They Affect the Revolution, and What Is the US Doing About It?

The Myanmar military junta continues to run extensive criminal enterprises that finance its war and atrocities, with cyber scam compounds at the center of its revenue stream. These scam centers are massive penal-colony-style compounds where trafficked workers conduct global cyber fraud operations, primarily “pig butchering” schemes that build trust with victims before stealing their life savings.

Between 2020 and 2024, victims worldwide lost roughly $75 billion to Southeast Asian cyber scams, with hundreds of thousands of trafficked individuals from multiple nationalities forced to work in compounds across Cambodia, Burma (Myanmar), and Laos.

These networks rely on U.S.-based social media, websites, and hosting services to lure Americans into cryptocurrency schemes before redirecting the funds into fake platforms and laundering the money overseas. Authorities noted that in some countries the scam industry is so large it accounts for nearly half of the national GDP, with Americans losing an estimated ten billion dollars per year.

Since the coup in 2021, Burma has become the regional epicenter of cyber scams, with more than thirty scam enclaves along the Thai border and nearly one hundred along the Chinese border. These operations are driven largely by Chinese transnational criminal networks that use front companies such as Trans Asia and Troth Star to finance, expand, and manage the compounds. Some of these same companies partnered with junta-aligned Border Guard Forces on major scam hubs such as Huanya and KK Park, both of which have repeatedly targeted American victims.

Scam centers operate openly because the Myanmar military and its Border Guard Forces protect and profit from them, allowing the compounds to avoid the airstrikes routinely inflicted on civilian and resistance areas. Multiple investigations confirm the junta’s central role in this transnational criminal ecosystem.

Phone geolocation data from 2024 shows frequent movement between Myawaddy scam compounds and government buildings in Naypyidaw, indicating a direct operational relationship between organized crime and the military regime. Junta-aligned armed groups are permitted to impose informal taxation on the scam industry in exchange for land, security, transportation, and logistical support.

Several of the most active scam sites are in Karen State, including the Tai Chang compound near Myawaddy, which sits on territory controlled by the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army. Another powerful Karen militia, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, plays a central role in sustaining the criminal economy. The DKBA provides security for multiple compounds and has been directly involved in abusing trafficked workers forced to run the scams.

Victims report beatings, electric shocks, being hung by their arms, and other violent treatment. Scam revenue funds DKBA activities, and the group collaborates with Chinese organized crime in drug trafficking, human trafficking, arms trafficking, wildlife trafficking, and money laundering.

The flow of scam revenue strengthens the junta’s allies and prolongs the war in Burma. The United Nations estimates that at least 120,000 people are trapped inside these compounds, facing forced labor, torture, and killings for failing to meet scamming quotas. Even as resistance organizations unite against the regime, the scam industry continues to thrive because it remains one of the junta’s most lucrative and protected sources of income.

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SNAP Fraud: A $50,000 EBT Card, One Person Getting Benefits from 6 Different States – This Is What Taxpayers Are Funding

If there’s any good that’s come from the government shutdown, it’s exposing all the fraud being committed to exploit the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

To be sure, there are millions of needy Americans who were hurting from being deprived of SNAP as they tried to support children and keep their families from going hungry. This is not about them. This is about the other people — the individuals who dip into this program unjustly at the expense of the taxpayer.

Just the News reported that Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Steven Vaden has indicated his agency is engaging in data collection relating to SNAP across several states to see where funds for the program are going.

So far, what he’s uncovered is not promising.

Vaden cited an instance of one individual getting SNAP in six separate states.

Another person had over $50,000 loaded onto their electronic benefits card.

EBT cards work like credit cards for anyone getting government assistance, with funds rolling over to the following month.

Clearly something is amiss.

As Vaden put it, “The taxpayers have a right to know what is being done with their money and that, when we have appropriations, we are spending more than nine billion a month.”

On the case of a $50,000 card, Vaden clarified, “[Taxpayers] especially have a right to rest assured that only those who truly need are benefitting from the program, because every dollar you give to someone who has a balance of more than $15,000 on their EBT card cannot go to someone who is truly in need.”

SNAP fraud gets worse when considering recent comments by Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins on “The Ingraham Angle.”

Over 500,000 people were found to have been taking SNAP benefits twice, with 5,000 dead people receiving it.

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The Primary-Residence Scam: Here’s Why James, Schiff, Cook, and Swalwell’s Mortgage Fraud Cannot Be Tolerated

The American mortgage system is one of the largest and most intricate financial infrastructures in the world.

It relies on a vast network of borrowers, lenders, underwriters, title companies, insurers, appraisers, and global investors who buy mortgage-backed securities. Every link in this chain depends on one thing: accurate, truthful information.

When borrowers falsify occupancy status, particularly by pretending a property is their primary residence, they distort risk, manipulate pricing, and inflict real financial harm on both lenders and honest borrowers.

This is why prosecutors have long treated primary-residence fraud as a serious federal offense, and I believe it’s why Director Bill Pulte and Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) regulators are referring violators to the Department of Justice.

A Straightforward Example: Maxine Waters Told the Truth

California Election Code §349 requires its elected officials to maintain a “domicile” and “fixed habitation” in California, and the U.S. Constitution requires they be an “inhabitant” of their home state.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters complies. While she owns a home in Los Angeles, her mortgage documents for her Washington D.C. residence correctly identify 2105 1/2 S Street NW as a second home, both in her 1991 purchase and in her 2007 refinance.

As an honest public official, Waters accepted slightly higher interest rates than if she had lied and claimed her Washington D.C. home was her “principal residence” (or primary home), a designation which receives the lowest rates available because they are considered lowest risk by lenders.

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