fraud
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Source: PATRICK T. FALLON / Getty / Chase Bank
If it sounds too good to be true, chances are very high it is. Opportunists and scammers are finding out the hard way that check fraud isn’t wavy.
People are suffering heavy financial consequences after attempting to take advantage of the Chase Bank glitch, aka commit check fraud.
Per Complex’s reporting, many are now seeing their bank accounts overdrawn by thousands after trying to expose the glitch that went viral on TikTok by depositing fake checks for large sums of money and immediately withdrawing the funds or seeing money immediately reflected in their accounts because Chase is not flagging the deposited check or large loan applications.
The financial institution caught on quickly to the “glitch” and is now leaving the people who thought they got a come up with a large receipt, rendering their bank accounts useless.
If you typed in “Chase Bank glitch” on X, formerly Twitter, you would see actual videos of people running to Chase Bank locations, lined up at ATMs, trying to get their hands on what they thought was “free money.”
You will also see many people sharing screenshots of their accounts and reacting to being financially in the red.
This is not the first time a glitch similar to what Chase experienced over the weekend was exploited, leaving many people jammed up. Cash App users could transfer large sums of money they did not have.
Doordash users could order whatever they wanted without being charged. Both companies caught on to what was happening, and people had to pay their large debts.
Let this be a lesson to those looking for fast money.
The gallery below shows more reactions to the “Chase Bank glitch,” leaving people in financial ruin.
2. Ridiculous
4. Howling
7. It’s too late for a lot of these people
The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) has partnered with Beatdapp, an independent fraud detection company, to prevent streaming fraud. While the MLC already has internal measures in place to fight against this, their collaboration with Beatdapp will provide additional and complementary protections to their database.
Beatdapp has quickly become the music industry’s go-to for independent fraud analysis in the last few years. The company has worked for a number of record labels, collection societies, distributors and streaming services to help them sift through trillions of lines of data and identify and investigate suspicious patterns. At the beginning of this year, Beatdapp announced a strategic partnership with Universal Music Group and a fundraise of $17 million in its latest funding round. Other clients include SoundCloud, Beatport, 7digital and more.
According to a report from Centre National de la Musique (CNM), a government-backed organization that supports France’s music industry, in 2021, over 1 billion music streams — between 1% and 3% of all streams generated in the country that year — were fraudulent. Streaming fraud can take on a number of forms. This can include falsely claiming royalties and ownership of songs made by other artists, or uploading songs and juicing their stream count using various means, like bot farms or account hacking.
Trending on Billboard
Billboard has investigated the rise and persistence of royalties fraud, including one story detailing an outfit out of Arizona, called Mediamuv, which stole $23 million in YouTube royalties over the course of 5 years. “The methods used by fraudsters are constantly evolving and improving,” as the CNM report states.
“The MLC is uniquely positioned within the music industry to contribute significantly to addressing streaming fraud,” says Andrew Mitchell, chief analytics and automation officer at The MLC. “Building on our ongoing efforts, we are proud to be working with Beatdapp to further amplify the many ways The MLC serves its 43,000+ Members.”
“The MLC plays a vital role in the music industry and we’re proud to collaborate with them and enhance their continuous efforts to combat streaming fraud,” says Morgan Hayduk and Andrew Batey, co-CEOs at Beatdapp. “Beatdapp has built its technology by learning from the best trust and safety solutions serving other online verticals and tailoring our technology to the unique attributes of music, to provide an unbiased, independent fraud detection solution capable of grappling with the persistent and ever-changing nature of fraud.”
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Source: Variety / Getty / Carlos Watson
Carlos Watson and his now-defunct startup, Ozy Media, have been found guilty of fraud.
Spotted on The Verge, Carlos Watson and Ozy Media were found guilty of fraud by a federal jury on Tuesday, per the New York Times reporting.
During the trial, the jury heard arguments from the government that Watson and Ozy Media misled investors by falsifying financial records, inflating audience numbers, and even completely making up business deals.
Things started well for Watson and business partner Samir Rao when they founded Ozy Media in 2013. The company launched with a newsletter, magazine, and an annual conference in New York City.
The company also received millions in investments while establishing high-profile partnerships before it all went to sh*t.
Per The Verge:
But things came to a halt when a 2021 article from New York Times media columnist Ben Smith reported that Rao impersonated a YouTube executive during a call with a Goldman Sachs banker about a potential $40 million investment. Rao pleaded guilty to related charges last year and is awaiting sentencing.
Additionally, prosecutors alleged that Watson lied to a prospective investor by saying that Google offered $600 million to take over the media startup. According to testimony from Google CEO Sundar Pichai, the company only considered investing $25 million as part of a potential plan to hire Watson. During the trial, Watson’s lawyers blamed Rao and Ozy Media’s employees for the fraudulent activity, NYT reports.
Speaking on the verdict, Breon Peace, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, broke down the fraud shenanigans Watson was up to.
“The jury found that Watson was a con man who told lie upon lie upon lie to deceive investors into buying stock in his company,” Peace said in a statement. “Watson invented phony financial figures and caused others to forge fake contracts and impersonate a media executive.”
Bruh.
Watson is looking at a lengthy 37 years in prison after being charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft.
Damn.
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Source: BROWARD SHERIFF’S OFFICE / Broward Sheriff’s Office
Sean Kingston will now have to defend his name in a court of law. He has been booked on defrauding over $1 million dollars in goods.
As reported by TMZ, the singer has some serious legal issues to deal with. His South Florida home was raided by police Thursday, May 23, where his mother Janice Turner was arrested. The celebrity gossip website has confirmed Sean Kingston was also arrested in Fort Irwin, California, that same day and made an agreement to be extradited back to Florida. It seems he was a man of his word and was booked at Broward County jail on Sunday, June 2.
According to the Sun Sentinel, his mother and the performer were charged on several charges including four counts of criminal use of personal identification information and three counts of grand theft. For the last couple of years the family name has been tied to multiple allegations of defrauding a jeweler, a car dealership and a luxury television vendor. Additionally, the arrest warrant claims they finessed almost $300,000 dollars from Bank of America and First Republic Bank. His lawyer Bob Rosenblatt tells BBC that both Sean Kingston and his mother plan to plead not guilty.
The man born Kisean Paul Anderson hit it big in 2007 with his single, “Beautiful Girls,” which charted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200.
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Sean Kingston and his mother, Janice Louis, are currently facing charges of committing over $1 million in fraud after the Jamaican-American artist’s home was raided. Sean Kingston has since agreed not to fight extradition to Florida after he was arrested last week at a California Army base.
Authorities in Florida recently raided the rented Fort Lauderdale home of Sean Kingston, 34, and arrested Kingston’s mother, Janice Louis, 61, without incident as reported by outlets TMZ and The Associated Press.
According to the AP, Kingston waived the right to fight extradition on Tuesday (May 28) while in court in California and will subsequently be handed over to Florida law enforcement officials. Both Kingston and Louis were charged in the alleged fraud scheme. The report adds that while Kingston did not appear in a San Bernardino court, he was still jailed as of Tuesday afternoon, and it was confirmed that officials from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office will handle his transfer to Florida to face charges.
Last week, Kingston was performing at Fort Irwin, an Army training base in the Mojave Desert. During his arrest, Louis was taken away in handcuffs in Florida after a SWAT team raided Kingston’s Florida mansion.
The charges faced by Kingston and Louis are conducting an organized scheme to defraud, grand theft, identity theft, and related crimes. Among the items that were said to be stolen included a Cadillac Escalade, furniture, jewelry, and money.
Sean Kingston recently took to Instagram to state that he and his mother are in good spirits and that his attorneys are handling the matter.
It isn’t known when the extradition will occur but we will update this story as it happens.
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Photo: Getty
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Source: Johnny Nunez / Getty / Bishop Lamor Whitehead
They say God don’t like ugly, and it looks like Bishop Lamor Whitehead will have to pay for his sins.
Bishop Lamor Whitehead, aka the “Bling Bishop,” is looking at some serious jail time after he was found guilty of wire fraud, attempted extortion, and lying to the FBI in Manhattan Federal Court.
Per Gothamist:
After just a few hours of deliberation, the jury convicted “Bling Bishop” Lamor Whitehead, 46, of five counts, agreeing that he had used his position of power and influence to swindle hundreds of thousands of dollars from people who trusted him.
Whitehead could face up to 45 years in prison.
A Breakdown of Bishop Lamor Whitehead’s Scammy Ways
Prosecutors convinced a jury that Whitehead deceived one of the members of his flock’s mother to give him $90,000 out of her retirement savings, promising to buy her a house and remodel it so she could move in, the website reports.
According to court documents, the Canal Street shopping pastor never bought the house and used the money to fund his lavish lifestyle.
Prosecutors also made the case that Whitehead swindled a Bronx businessman into giving him $5,000 and then an additional $500,000, claiming he could get him favors from Mayor Mixxy, aka Mayor Eric Adams.
The current New York Mayor does not deny dealing with Whitehead, but there is no proof that he had anything to do with any of the Bling Bishop’s scams.
Besides, Adam has his own issues to worry about, with several of his aides having their homes raided by the Feds.
Court documents also say Whitehead lied to lenders about his net worth to secure a personal loan and lied to the FBI, claiming he had only one phone when, according to prosecutors, he had two.
Following the verdict, Whitehead’s attorney, Dawn Florio, had nothing to say when pressed for comment.
Of course, Whitehead did, taking to Instagram to drop a video from his luxury vehicle, writing in the caption for the post, “This Wasn’t About Me…. I was not going to be an informant for the FBI against NYC Mayor Eric Adams.
We Will Be Appealing This Verdit”
We will continue to monitor this situation.
You can see reactions to the news in the gallery below.
1. Sheesh.
3. Even Ray Charles could see this man’s scamming ways.
5. God is Always on time.
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Source: Johnny Nunez / Getty / Bishop Lamor Whitehead
Canal Street shopper and real-like scamming villain Bishop Lamor Whitehead’s fraud trial has begun, and the allegations coming out are very eyebrow-raising.
The “Bling Bishop,” who became a household name after thieves relieved him of his jewelry during a live stream of his church service, could be in serious trouble if these accusations about him are true.
The New York Daily News reports that Whitehead allegedly abused the trust of members of his flock and lied about getting “the key to the city” from Mayor Mixxy, aka Eric Adams, to make his pockets fatter and fill his closet with more than likely fugazi designer clothing like Loius Vuitton according to federal prosecutors.
A Breakdown of The N*ggler’s Fraudulent Activity Per The New York Daily News:
“During this trial, you’ll learn that the defendant was trusted by many in his community. He was the bishop of a small church in Brooklyn and a self-described businessman. He was a friend to the mayor of New York City,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Greenwood said in Manhattan Federal Court.
“The defendant abused that trust by lying again and again. He lied about how much money he had. He lied about his business plans. And he lied about having influence with powerful people. All with the goal of getting money and property to fund his extravagant lifestyle.”
“The defendant convinced this woman, who had spent her career working as a nurse, to give him $90,000 of her life savings,” Greenwood said. “He promised to use the money to buy a fixer-upper home that he would renovate for her to live in. And she believed the defendant — a man, who by that time, had become a mentor and spiritual adviser to her son.”
Greenwood alleged Whitehead instead spent the cash on himself, including splurging on designer clothing and a BMW payment.
“The victim never got her house, and she never got her money back.”
Other Charges
In other related charges to the December 2022 case, Whitehead allegedly drew up fake bank statements to secure a $250,000 loan, claiming he had millions in a bank account that only had $6.
In another charge, he threatened the owner of a Bronx body shop, Brandon Belmonte, and allegedly tried to extort him for $5,000 following a repair job.
Whitehead also tried to get Belmonte to put his name on a $500,000 real estate deal, claiming he could get favors from Mayor Adams to make them millions.
The 47-year-old “religious figure” is being accused of wire fraud, extortion, and related offenses and is looking at a decades-long prison sentence.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. His attorney, Dawn Florio, asked the jurors to reserve judgment until they saw all the evidence and blamed the parishioner’s misfortunes on her son.
If this is all true, this guy sounds like the ultimate scumbag.
Remember, God doesn’t like ugly.
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Source: The Washington Post / Getty
Former Baltimore County state attorney Marilyn Mosby was found guilty of perjury, leaving her to face a possible ten-year jail sentence.
On Thursday (November 9), a federal jury returned a guilty verdict against Marilyn Mosby on two counts of perjury for falsely claiming to experience hardship to withdraw money from her retirement fund. Each count brings with it a potential sentence of up to five years imprisonment.
The initial indictment brought against Mosby in January of this year detailed that the 43-year-old had claimed that the hardship was due to the COVID-19 pandemic, citing the CARES Act which allowed people to make such a move. But it was later discovered through payroll documents that in her role as state attorney for Baltimore County, Mosby still earned a considerable salary of $250,000 with no reduction in her weekly work hours. Federal prosecutors stated that she used the money on down payments for vacation homes in Florida.
“Telling the truth especially matters when public officials are looking to access funds for their own personal use,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Zelinsky attorney said during the closing statements of the three-day trial. “We should not allow her to lie and commit perjury to purchase Florida vacation homes in the worst pandemic in 100 years.”
The verdict is the latest blow to Marilyn Mosby, who had attained national prominence due to the turmoil surrounding the death of Freddie Gray, a Black man arrested for possession of a pen knife in 2015 who died under suspicious circumstances while under police custody. Mosby stood by the medical examiner’s report stating that Gray’s death was a homicide, calling for the six cops involved to be indicted. Three of the officers were found not guilty leading Mosby to drop charges against the remaining officers.
A separate case where Mosby faces two counts of federal mortgage fraud is on the horizon for the former attorney, whose loss in this case means that she will lose her license to practice law. The belief is that federal attorneys have a stronger case with those charges. “Now what’s interesting is to see if the government decides to prosecute her on the second [charges] or if they work out some kind of plea agreement,” defense attorney Albert I. Alperstein said to The Baltimore Sun.
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Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, was found guilty of the seven charges levied against him in the explosive fraud case. According to reports, Bankman-Fried could face over 100 years in prison if federal sentencing guidelines are followed and there is still another trial to come next year.
For five weeks, Sam Bankman-Fried, 31, stood trial at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse in Manhattan, N.Y. and this past Thursday (November 2), the co-founder of FTX and Alameda Research heard the guilty verdict on fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering charges.
As reported by The Washington Post, Bankman-Fried was found guilty of two counts of wire fraud, four counts of conspiracy to commit fraud, and one count to commit money laundering. If all sentencing guidelines are followed, Bankman-Fried faces several decades in prison. Sentencing will take place on March 28.
“We respect the jury’s decision. But we are very disappointed with the result,” defense attorney Mark Cohen shared in a statement. “Mr. Bankman Fried maintains his innocence and will continue to vigorously fight the charges against him.”
According to prosecutors in the matter, Bankman-Fried allegedly swindled almost $10 billion from the victims of the fraud scheme as FTX was reportedly using customer contributions to fund Bankman-Fried’s lifestyle and purchases.
“The cryptocurrency industry might be new; players like Sam Bankman-Fried might be new. But this kind of fraud, this kind of corruption, is as old as time, and we have no patience for it,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said of the case.
Bankman-Friend is the son of Stanford University professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, both of whom attended the trial. Fried’s mother was said to be wrought with emotion after hearing the verdict against her son.
According to those who closely followed the case, the paper trail and testimony from former romantic partner and the former CEO of hedge fund Alameda Research, Caroline Ellison, along with accounts from former FTX executives, helped sink Bankman-Fried’s defense. But it appears that it was Bankman-Fried himself who didn’t fare well during intense cross-examination sessions.
Sam Bankman-Fried is due in court again on
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Photo: Michael M. Santiago / Getty
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Source: Robin L Marshall / Getty / Brittish Williams
Basketball Wives star Brittish Williams is learning the hard way that if you do the crime, you will have to do time.
Spotted on the Riverfront Times, Williams will have to do time and was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty earlier this year to 15 counts of “various types of fraud.”
According to the RFT, Williams’ crimes she was accused of included not paying taxes and under-reporting the income of her businesses.
Williams also allegedly used other people’s identities to open bank accounts without their knowledge.
Williams, who starred in Basketball Wives and Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars and former co-host of the St. Louis radio station Hot 104.1, asked a judge for leniency during her sentencing, but Judge Henry Autrey was like nah.
Per Riverfront Times:
In court today, Williams and her attorney Beau Brindley asked Judge Henry Autrey for leniency in sentencing.
“I knew better, and I did wrong anyway,” Williams said, adding that the idea of being separated from her daughter was “heartbreaking.”
Judge Autrey seemed largely unswayed, telling Williams that he believed she possessed a “fraudster mentality.” He pointed out that in total, WIlliams’ various frauds led to her taking in $150,000 a year from 2017 to 2020.
“That’s a pretty damn good wage,” he said.
Autrey also suggested that Williams’ fame impacted his sentencing decision, saying, “Not only are you out there for people to watch your entertainment, but also for people to watch you. … That’s a big obligation.”
The website reports Williams dodged a bullet because it was recommended she do 63 years in prison. Still, her punishment was significantly more than the 18 months in jail or probation suggested by her attorney.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane Klocke pointed out that Williams was still committing fraud well after she was indicted and counseling people, telling them they don’t have to pay taxes the first few years of running a business.
After her indictment, she was still collecting pandemic-related rent relief under false pretenses and submitting bogus medical bills to an insurance company.
Williams also traveled without permission while still on pretrial monitoring, according to Klocke, who also notes that her wearing of an ankle monitor was subplot during a season of Basketball Wives.
Following her sentencing, one of her friends lunged at a reporter as they filmed her leaving court.
Welp.
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Photo: Robin L Marshall / Gett