Category Archives: White Collar Crimes
At What Point Does Research Misconduct Become A Crime?
Time-consuming assignments present all kinds of temptations to cheat, especially when grades or money are at stake. It’s easy to feel superior to the rich kids in college and in private high schools that pay other people to do their assignments for them, but how sure are you that you would not do the… Read More »
Three Men Face Charges For Broward County Real Estate Theft Conspiracy
Some things are harder to steal than others. Many items are easy enough to transfer from the rightful owner’s house or from a retail store and into your pocket or backpack. Vehicle theft requires you to do some fancy wiring and then put your foot on the gas before anyone else figures out what… Read More »
Car Dealership Employee Faces Theft Charges For Paying Herself Unauthorized Bonuses
Until recently, Ariel Rutenbeck worked at a Chevrolet dealership in Clearwater. News sources do not indicate her position title, but they did say that she was one of only two employees who had access to the dealership’s payroll system. The company’s Chief Financial Officer conducted an audit of the payroll system when reports showed… Read More »
Delray Beach Doctor Who Supervised Drug Testing For Dozens Of Addiction Treatment Practices Gets Prison Sentence For Healthcare Fraud
Plenty of newsworthy stories about COVID relief fraud have come out of Florida, but it doesn’t take a pandemic to make Floridians look at widespread ill health and see dollar signs. Healthcare is big business everywhere in the United States, but this is especially the case in Florida, where you can hardly take ten… Read More »
Palm Beach Gardens Lawyer Gets Prison Sentence After Pleading Guilty To COVID Relief Fraud
Once again, a new COVID variant threatens to wreak havoc on Americans’ health and finances, but this probably will not mean another round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) chaos, like what happened in the spring of 2020. Small business owners have grown wiser and found ways to cope with the uncertainty that COVID and… Read More »
Entrepreneurs Plead Guilty To Wire Fraud And Mail Fraud After Persuading Investors To Invest In Phony App
Business naturally involves a certain amount of risk and uncertainty. When investors invest money in a business that is about to launch a product, they can never be completely sure whether it will be commercially successful. It is not fraud if the people who invested money in your company lose money because customers are… Read More »
Florida Men Face Charges For Fraudulent COVID Relief Funds Application
Now that winter travel is in full swing and Florida’s beaches are packed with locals and tourists, it is hard to believe that it was only two-and-a-half years ago that COVID restrictions were forcing businesses to close and the owners of businesses of all sizes were panicking about how they could afford to pay… Read More »
Extortion Laws In Florida
Many laws state or imply that the wrong way to do something is by fraud or duress. Fraud means lying or misleading someone so that they do not understand the consequences of what you are trying to get them to do, and duress means intimidating them through threats. For example, the courts will not… Read More »
Medical Billing Clerk Convicted Of Stealing Patients’ Information
Identity theft does not require enormous financial resources or highly specialized computer skills. Many defendants in identity theft cases had access to their victims’ identifying information or financial data in the context of their job duties. Whether you hacked into a computer network or simply jotted down customers’ credit card numbers from your office… Read More »
How Could Someone Be Charged With Healthcare Fraud In South Florida?
Several weeks ago, two South Florida brothers were convicted of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, eight counts of healthcare fraud, and wire fraud, in addition to two counts of paying and receiving kickbacks. The brothers orchestrated an elaborate scheme where they would submit false bills to Medicare and private insurers for patients who were… Read More »