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In its training manuals and at its annual conferences, HomeVestors teaches the Sandler system, and central to this sales strategy is building rapport with homeowners in order to 'find the pain.'

HomeVestors of America has developed a system for snapping up problem properties, but while part of the company mission is a promise not to take advantage of anyone who doesn’t understand the true value of their home, franchisees use deception to pursue rock-bottom prices. Read more»

The border wall at Sunland Park, N.M.

A federal judge handed down a 51-month prison sentence to Brian Kolfage, co-founder of a fraud called We Build the Wall, which he billed as a grassroots fundraiser to fulfill the campaign promise of former President Donald Trump for "big, beautiful" wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Read more»

El FBI está investigando estafas en las que falsos grupos de rehabilitación se enfocan en la comunidad indígena, ofreciendo servicios falsos de recuperación de abuso de sustancias o de salud mental en instalaciones improvisadas para obtener dinero del gobierno, según funcionarios del FBI.

El FBI está investigando estafas de grupos de rehabilitación falsos que se dirigen a la comunidad indígena, ofreciendo servicios de recuperación por abuso de sustancias o de salud mental en instalaciones emergentes para recaudar dinero del gobierno. Read more»

The FBI is investigating scams where fake rehab groups target the Indigenous community, offering bogus substance-abuse recovery or mental-health services at pop-up facilities to rake in government money, FBI officials say.

The FBI is investigating scams by fake rehab groups that target the Indigenous community, offering substance-abuse recovery or mental-health services at pop-up facilities to rake in government money. Read more»

TMX Finance and its biggest brand, TitleMax, operate in 16 states, including Arizona. TMX Finance reported revenue topping $712 million in 2021.

A federal consumer watchdog group has fined TitleMax $15 million for predatory lending practices and intentionally evading laws meant to protect military families from predatory lenders and, separately, charged illegal insurance fees to more than 17,000 customers. Read more»

Witnesses who were known to be subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury include several of Trump's former attorneys and top advisers, state Republican officials as well as Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Republican Governor Brian Kemp.

A Georgia judge on Thursday released parts of the final report produced by a special purpose grand jury seated last year as part of an investigation into potential criminal interference with the state's 2020 elections by former President Donald Trump and several of his allies. Read more»

The fraud problem with food benefit cards skyrocketed in the spring and summer last year. The benefits most likely were stolen with 'skimming' devices attached by crooked employees or thieves posing as customers.

Agencies and people who receive aid through SNAP are reporting the theft of millions of dollars in benefits - but help may be coming, thanks to a new federal mandate that allows states to use federal money to reimburse SNAP recipients whose benefits were stolen. Read more»

True the Vote leaders Gregg Phillips and Catherine Engelbrecht testify at a May 31, 2022, informal hearing in the Arizona Senate discussing alleged evidence of election fraud in Arizona.

True the Vote, a group that spread discredited election conspiracy theories, “abandoned” The Freedom Hospital in April 2022, according to its lawyers - yet board member Gregg Phillips continued to seek donations for the project for months afterward. Read more»

Donald Trump and the Trump Organization separately face a looming $250 million civil suit, stemming from allegations the company routinely manipulated asset valuations and inflated Trump’s net worth by billions of dollars. 

Found criminally liable for a tax evasion scheme at trial, former President Donald Trump’s real estate companies were ordered to split a $1.6 million fine, the maximum possible penalty for a corporate entity. Read more»

A protester demonstrating as part of the 'Exxon knew' movement in Washington, D.C. in 2015.

ExxonMobil's climate projections, made by in-house scientists between 1977 and 2003, were startlingly accurate and correctly predicted that fossil fuel burning would lead to global warming - while funding research and advertising to sow doubt about climate science. Read more»

Hamadeh, the Republican nominee for attorney general, sought last month to nullify the race he lost by 280 votes with a lawsuit that was thrown out for failing to support any of its claims or present any proof of issues that could put the election’s outcome in doubt. 

Everyone involved in Abraham Hamadeh’s lawsuit seeking to overturn the results of a race he lost should face sanctions and more than $10,000 in fines, the lawyer for Attorney General Kris Mayes told a judge - as Hamadeh announced in a tweet that he was filing a new lawsuit. Read more»

Medicare wasn’t the only government program targeted for laboratory fraud - health care providers found quick access to money in the federal fund for testing people without insurance.

Medicare’s COVID-19 testing costs reached over $2 billion in 2022 - and the growing costs concern some experts, who say financial incentives and a lack of regulation early in the pandemic led to fraud and overspending. Read more»

Earlier this month, a New York state jury found Trump’s real estate company from which he accumulated much of his business growth guilty on 17 counts of tax fraud after six weeks of trial. 

After an hours-long, closed-door meeting, the House Ways and Means Committee voted to release to the public former President Donald Trump’s tax returns, which he has fought to shield for more than three years. Read more»

In Arizona, Nevada and Texas, the rise in new Medicare-approved hospices since 2018 now accounts for around half of all hospices in each state - but these states don’t have 'certificate of need' requirements for hospices, which means there’s no strict limit to the number of providers that can open in a given area.

Bipartisan leaders of the Comprehensive Care Caucus called on the Department of Health and Human Services to “immediately investigate this situation" after an exposé of hospice fraud described how many profit-seeking hospices cut corners and target patients who are not dying. Read more»

Medicare reimburses Medicare Advantage plans using a complex formula called a risk score that computes higher rates for sicker patients and lower ones for healthier people - but federal officials rarely demand documentation to verify that patients have these conditions.

A review of 90 government audits reveals that health insurers that issue Medicare Advantage plans have repeatedly tried to sidestep regulations requiring them to document medical conditions the government paid them to treat. Read more»

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