Tag: fraud

Embattled Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook Breaks Her Silence, PUBLICLY Speaks About Her Mortgage Fraud

Embattled Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook on Monday publicly discussed her alleged mortgage fraud during remarks at the Brookings Institution.

This is the first time Lisa Cook has publicly spoken since President Trump fired her in August over allegations of mortgage fraud.

“I would like to briefly address an issue that may be on some of your minds,” Lisa Cook said during her remarks.

“As many of you know, I am involved in an ongoing legal case. There are a number of people in this room and in this building who have reached out and been supportive in many ways. I am beyond grateful for that support,” Cook said.

“Because the case is ongoing, it would be inappropriate for me to comment further today,” Cook added.

“I will continue to carry out my sworn duties on behalf of the American people,” Cook said.

Lisa Cook apparently owns three properties, and she allegedly committed mortgage fraud on all three properties.

According to housing regulator Bill Pulte’s first criminal referral, Lisa Cook committed mortgage fraud by lying on her mortgage application and falsifying bank statements when she designated her out-of-state Atlanta condo as her “primary residence”—just two weeks after taking a loan on her Michigan home, which she also claimed as her “primary residence.”

In August, Pulte sent a second criminal referral on Lisa Cook after she was allegedly caught lying about a third property.

Lisa Cook’s attorneys laughably claimed there would be an inflation crisis if Trump were allowed to fire Cook.

The US Supreme Court last month allowed embattled Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook to remain in her chair for now.

The high court will hear the case in January 2026 and allow Lisa Cook to keep her job in the meantime.

This also means Lisa Cook will be able to participate in December’s interest rate meeting.

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Oregon Dem Melissa Fireside declared international fugitive after fleeing US with young son, could be headed to Austria: authorities

An Oregon Democratic politician is now an international fugitive from justice after fleeing the country with her young son when she was charged with bilking an elderly man out of $30,000, authorities said.

Democrat Melissa Fireside, an ex-Clackamas County commissioner, crossed the border into Mexico on a fake passport and booked a ticket for Austria after going on the run with her 9-year-old son, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said Friday.

“Our top concern right now is the safety and well-being of this child,” Rayfield said.

“We are working closely with law enforcement partners here and at the federal level to locate Ms. Fireside and ensure she is held accountable under Oregon law.”

Fireside was free on conditional release while facing charges that she stole from her mom’s 83-year-old boyfriend when she disappeared, The Oregonian reported.

“No one should be able to evade justice by crossing a border,” he added.

Fireside was charged in March with aggravated theft, forgery and other crimes for allegedly ripping off retired Safeway employee Arthur Petrone, her mom’s beau, by applying for a loan using his name.

Petrone, who died in August, lived on his pension and Social Security payments.

Fireside pleaded not guilty at her arraignment and was allowed to remain free on the condition that she not leave the state and show up for court hearings.

However, the state justice department on Friday filed a motion to revoke Fireside’s bail after investigators determined that she wasn’t living at her Lexington, Oregon, home — a violation of the terms of her release, the attorney general said.

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‘New Sheriff in Town’: USDA Secretary Rollins To Reform SNAP Program

U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said that her agency has found massive fraud in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It must be reformed, she added. 

When President Donald Trump’s administration asked states for food stamp data to eradicate fraud, waste, and abuse, many states sued, Townhall reported. 

Trump’s Executive Order 14243, “Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos,” aims to eradicate fraud, waste, and abuse in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which feeds about 41 million people. 

A May 6 USDA directive requires states to provide the names and Social Security Numbers of food stamp beneficiaries. 

Also in May, the federal government shuttered a $66 million SNAP scheme in New York, in which a federal employee helped loot public benefits meant for hungry, vulnerable people. 

Rollins said that the program gives food benefits to illegal aliens, and others abuse the system meant to feed hungry, low-income families. 

“The Democrat Party has turned its back on working Americans and built its entire strategy around protecting illegal aliens. They know if the handouts stop, those illegals will go back home, and Democrats will lose 20+ seats after the next census,” Rollins said. “There’s a new sheriff in town. @POTUS will not tolerate waste, fraud, or abuse while hardworking Americans go hungry.”

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‘Massive Fraud’ Uncovered in Food Stamp Program, Says Agriculture Secretary as Benefits Lapse

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins on Sunday said that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, is “a broken and corrupt program,” after benefits lapsed over the weekend due to the government shutdown.

In an interview with Fox News, Rollins said that while the Trump administration is moving to get the program restarted, 21 states refused to hand over data to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on whether illegal immigrants were receiving these benefits. Thousands of cases of illegal benefit use were also found, dozens were arrested for SNAP fraud, and thousands of dead people were still receiving benefits, she said.

“And guess what? In just the states that cooperated, we’ve already uncovered massive fraud,” she wrote in a post on X on Sunday.

After the second Trump administration took over, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) launched an investigation into SNAP fraud and abuse, said Rollins. She said her department asked all 50 states to send in data to the government for a review but 21 states did not.

Rollins suggested that if certain SNAP benefits are cut off, illegal immigrants will self-deport and added that it would change the outcome of the Census, causing House districts to be redrawn.

The Department of Agriculture planned to withhold payments to the food program starting Saturday until two federal judges ordered the administration to make the payments. It was unclear when the debit cards that beneficiaries use would be reloaded after the ruling.

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Judge Delivers Blow to Letitia James in Mortgage Fraud Case

A federal judge on Friday denied Letitia James’ request to force federal prosecutors to turn over all of their communications with the media after it was reported that Lindsey Halligan was exchanging text messages with a Lawfare reporter.

A couple of weeks ago, US Attorney Lindsey Halligan exchanged Signal messages with Lawfare reporter Anna Bower.

It is not unusual for a prosecutor to communicate with the press.

Lindsey Halligan pushed back on Anna Bower’s reporting in her exchange.

“Anna, Lindsey Halligan here,” the first message to Anna Bower read. “You are reporting things that are simply not true. Thought you should have a heads up.”

Click here to see the screenshots of Halligan’s Signal exchange with Anna Bower.

Letitia James asked Judge Walker to force the DOJ to keep a log of all communications with the press.

The judge delivered a blow to Letitia James.

Judge Jamar Walker, a Biden appointee, said Letitia James did not demonstrate that it is necessary for the court to force the DOJ to track communications with the media.

The New York Post reported:

The judge overseeing Letitia James’ mortgage fraud case on Friday denied a motion from the New York attorney general attempting to force federal prosecutors to keep a log of all their communications with the media.

Defense attorney Abbe Lowell filed the motion last week, when James was arraigned on bank fraud and false statements charges, in response to a report that US Attorney Lindsey Halligan sent a flurry of encrypted Signal messages about the case to a reporter.

“[T]he defendant does not demonstrate that it is necessary for the Court to order the government to track communications with the media in any particular form,” US District Judge Jamar Walker wrote in his six-page order.

“The defendant’s request that the government be required to keep a communication log is DENIED,” the Biden-appointed judge ruled.

Walker noted that Halligan’s Signal chat with Lawfare senior editor Anna Bower earlier this month was “unusual” but he declined to offer an opinion “on whether they were improper in any sense, either legal or ethical.”

James was indicted by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia last month.

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Lawsuit Targeting Decades-Old Journal Article Triggers Renewed Scrutiny of Fraudulent Scientific Studies

A lawsuit demanding the retraction of a decades-old peer-reviewed article that claimed the antidepressant paroxetine, sold as Paxil, is safe and effective has put the issue of fraud in scientific and medical journals back in the spotlight, Paul D. Thacker wrote today in The Disinformation Chronicle.

The lawsuit, filed last month against the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and its publisher, Elsevier, demands the retraction of a 2001 article in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP).

The article was based on Study 329, which the suit claims distorted data to claim Paxil was effective.

The complaint alleges that JAACAP editors and Elsevier refused to retract the article “in an apparent attempt to shield at least five of the … authors who are prominent members of the AACAP from possible ramifications of retraction.”

Study 329 was ghostwritten by Paxil manufacturer GSK — which Thacker discussed in a 2011 report he republished today.

Several of the journal article’s co-authors worked for GSK or went on to hold key positions within the AACAP.

According to Thacker, one of the co-authors, Stan Kutcher, is now a member of the Canadian Senate and co-founded “Science Up First,” an initiative that purportedly targets scientific “misinformation.”

During a roundtable discussion on the weaponization of science that the MAHA Institute organized last week, Thacker cited Study 329 as an example of fraud in scientific and medical publishing.

Brian Hooker, Ph.D., chief scientific officer for Children’s Health Defense, spoke at the roundtable. He said the discussion, in which “panelists described horror stories of their own scientific research under attack through targeted retractions of papers, denial of research funding, and disciplinary actions,” was “stunning.” He added:

“There is a huge cost in falling out of line with established institutions in science and medicine, whether corporate, university or private organizations. And these highly credentialed panelists paid a huge cost for ‘doing the right thing’ in exposing malfeasance and bad science.”

Research scientist and author James Lyons-Weiler, Ph.D., also participated in the roundtable. He said it “explored how science-like activities have been systematically re-engineered to serve political and corporate interests rather than truth.” He said:

“Study 329 exemplifies the collapse of accountability that follows when industry, regulators and journals form a closed feedback loop of self-validation. What’s marketed as ‘misinformation control’ today is often a continuation of that same pattern — protecting narratives, not people.”

‘One of the best documented case studies of corruption in modern biomedicine’

Study 329, completed in 1998 and funded by GSK, revealed serious safety risks — including suicidal behavior — associated with Paxil. Later studies confirmed those risks.

However, the study showed a few minor positive results that suggested possible efficacy, as it met 15% of the outcomes the researchers had initially said would prove Paxil’s effectiveness.

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U.S. Secret Service Seized 17 Skimmers, Stopped $17M of EBT Fraud in Texas

The U.S. Secret Service and local law enforcement seized 17 illegal electronic benefit transfer skimmers that stopped nearly $18 million of fraud in San Antonio, Oct. 28-29.

Law enforcement from the San Antonio Police Department and the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office conducted EBT fraud and payment card skimming outreach. 

Law enforcement visited 712 businesses and removed 17 illegal skimming devices, preventing an estimated potential loss of more than $17.7 million. More than 4,300 point-of-sale terminals, gas pumps and ATMs were inspected. 

Teams also distributed educational materials about Electronic Benefit Transfer fraud and skimming to help businesses identify illegal skimming devices in their point-of-sale terminals, gas pumps and ATMs.

“The U.S. Secret Service greatly appreciates our law enforcement partners as, together, we aim to proactively identify and remove illegal skimming devices in San Antonio,” said Brian Gibson, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s San Antonio Field Office. “Removing these devices before card numbers can fall into the hands of criminals underscores our commitment to preventing EBT fraud which impacts our most vulnerable community members.”

This effort follows a series of more than 20 similar operations conducted by the U.S. Secret Service and law enforcement partners nationwide.

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Justice Department Launches Investigation Into Whether Black Lives Matter Leaders Defrauded Donors

The Justice Department has launched an investigation into whether Black Lives Matter leaders defrauded donors of tens of millions of dollars.

The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) raised over $90 million in 2020 during and after the George Floyd riots. They also raised more than $75 million in 2021.

The donations to BLMGNF have significantly dwindled in recent years because the majority of the public no longer supports Black Lives Matter.

The Associated Press reported that DOJ prosecutors have already issued subpoenas and “at least one search warrant.”

No other details about the investigation were released.

Fox News also reported that prosecutors are investigating BLM leaders.

AP reported:

The Justice Department is investigating whether leaders in the Black Lives Matter movement defrauded donors who contributed tens of millions of dollars during racial justice protests in 2020, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

In recent weeks, federal law enforcement officials have issued subpoenas and at least one search warrant as part of an investigation into the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Inc. and other Black-led organizations that helped spark a national reckoning on systemic racism, said the people, who were not authorized to discuss an ongoing criminal probe by name and spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press.

It was not clear if the investigation would result in criminal charges, but its mere existence invites fresh scrutiny to a movement that in recent years has faced criticism about its public accounting of donations they have received. The recent burst of investigative activity is also unfolding at a time when civil rights groups have raised concerns about the potential for the Trump administration to target a broad variety of progressive and left-leaning groups that have been critical of him, including those affiliated with BLM, the transgender rights movement and anti-ICE protesters.

Last year the former head of Black Lives Matter Atlanta was sentenced to prison for stealing donations to fund his lavish lifestyle.

Tyree Conyers-Page was sentenced to 42 months in prison after he was found guilty on one count of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering

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‘Ghost students’ continue to steal millions in financial aid from California community colleges, report says

“Ghost students” continue to steal millions in financial aid from the California Community College System despite efforts to stop them, a new report finds.

While Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said there is $1 billion in fraudulent financial aid paid out to the scammers, who might use bots to enroll and participate in class, the number is likely much larger according to a professor interviewed by Open the Books and The College Fix.

Kim Rich, a criminal justice professor at Pierce College, said she determined half of the students in her classes are fake.

Rich told The Fix that she has tried “to stop this fraud in its tracks for the past four years,” but she doesn’t “feel like [she’s] anywhere closer.” She previously spoke to The Fix in 2022 after determining about 36 percent of the students of newly-issued student ids were fake just from one week period at her college. She regularly comments on the problem of fake students.

In the spring 2025 semester, according to the Open the Books report, 24 students in Rich’s 40-student class were fake. Rich estimated that if just one ‘ghost student’ were enrolled in each of the 4,000 online classes offered in Los Angeles community colleges per semester, the nine schools in the county would lose a combined $20 million per semester.

Referencing the expected ID verification mandate the chancellor’s office planned to implement on Oct. 30 Rich told The Fix that she is “not very confident it will solve the problem or even reduce the instances of financial aid fraud, mainly because none of the other efforts or millions of dollars they have spent to remedy this issue have.”

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6 Reasons Congress Should Let The Enhanced Obamacare Subsidies Expire

After a series of scary headlines, prompted in no small part by fearmongering on the left, Obamacare’s open enrollment period is finally upon us. For those individuals about to explore their options on the Exchange, or those who just want to learn more about the issues behind the government shutdown, here are some fast facts about open enrollment and the enhanced Exchange subsidies currently scheduled to expire on Dec. 31.

1. Nearly half of all Exchange enrollees currently qualify for “free” premiums.

Under the original, circa 2010 version of Obamacare, all households had to pay at least 2 percent of their income toward a “benchmark” silver-level insurance plan. In theory, some households could qualify for a “skinnier” bronze-level insurance plan with no out-of-pocket premium (and a higher deductible as a result), but most households paid something for their coverage.

However, the Covid-era enhanced subsidies passed by the Biden administration allowed households with incomes below 150 percent of poverty to qualify for zero-dollar (i.e., “free”) premiums. Perhaps unsurprisingly, households reporting income below this threshold have risen to nearly half (45 percent) of all Exchange enrollees. While the left views this policy outcome as a feature, most taxpayers would likely consider it a bug, for the obvious reason below.

2. CBO and others have found millions of fraudulent enrollees, costing tens of billions of dollars annually.

The Congressional Budget Office found 2.3 million enrollees “improperly claimed [subsidies] via intentional overstatement of income” in 2025, falsely claiming income just above the poverty level to qualify for subsidies. Applying the average Exchange subsidy to this population results in estimated fraudulent spending of $13.9 billion per year.

A separate study from the Paragon Health Institute took a broader look at fraud, examining areas where enrollees have incentives to understate and overstate their income to qualify for the richest subsidies. (Disclosure: While I have done work for Paragon, I had no involvement with this particular report and am writing this article on my own behalf.) This broader examination of Exchange program integrity found 6.4 million potentially fraudulent enrollees in 2025, for which the federal government is paying $27.1 billion this year alone.

3. If the enhanced subsidies expire, the federal government will still pay 75-80 percent of enrollees’ premiums on average. 

No, that’s not a typo. A graphic from the leftist think tank KFF (formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation) admits as much. 

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