Category Archives: White Collar Crimes
Pittsburgh Woman Faces Criminal Charges For COVID Relief Fraud
Convincing banks that they can trust you enough to repay the money that you are asking them to lend you is not easy. After all, if you had that much money lying around, you would not need to borrow. There is an entire industry dedicated to lending people money now and asking questions later. … Read More »
Westmoreland County Home Contractor Faces Prison Sentence For Defrauding Customers
Now that the fall is ending and the children are back to school, we can all breathe a sigh of relief that we don’t have to sit through any more barbecues on people’s backyard decks until next summer. If the party hosts have an in-ground pool, the situation is both better and worse; it… Read More »
Bucks County Woman Convicted Of Financial Crimes For Financial Abuse Of Elderly Father
Elderly people are among the most vulnerable when it comes to fraud and financial scams. The stereotype of financial abuse of the elderly is a lonely senior who has no family members living in town and who responds to a friendly email from a stranger. The new friend sends frequent correspondence, complaining of financial… Read More »
Columbia County Home Builder Faces Criminal Charges After Abruptly Closing Business Amidst Unfinished Work
If building or remodeling a house were as simple as it looks on HGTV, then the aisles of Home Depot would be packed with shoppers buying materials for DIY projects. Except in the case of the simplest repairs, most people do not have the skills to modify their houses, so they rely on home… Read More »
Greene County Landlords Accused Of Presenting Tenants With Forged Eviction Notice
When you buy a new house without selling the old one, it is easy to imagine how rich you can get by renting out the real estate property that you used to occupy. Once the tenants move in though, you realize that being a landlord is a lot of work. It is not passive… Read More »
Collegeville Electrician Faces Criminal Charges After 64 Homeowners Accuse Him Of Home Contractor Fraud
Consumers’ spending habits changed in 2020 and 2021 in ways economists never could have predicted. Journalists have been saying for years that millennials killed the dinner napkin and the table service chain restaurant, but those avocado toast-loving trendsetters who exist only in the imaginations of the authors of clickbait news articles have nothing on… Read More »
Home Contractor Gets Prison Time For Defrauding Clients In Southwestern Pennsylvania
Home remodeling can be a lucrative business, and using your problem-solving abilities to build structures within a house, or even entire houses, is as emotionally rewarding as it is financially rewarding, but to succeed in the home contracting business, you need to have a thick skin about complaints from customers. Even when you are… Read More »
Pennsylvania Car Dealership Employees Face Criminal Charges For Title Washing
Title washing is not the only way, or even the most common way, that used car dealerships can defraud customers. Consumers can file used car fraud claims if, for example, the dealer misled them about the car’s history of collisions or repairs, or if they advertised one car to them online or by phone… Read More »
The Western Pennsylvania Accountant Who Served Prison Sentences For Two Embezzlement Schemes
You might think that there are two kinds of people in the world, the ones whose business operations are small enough that they can manage them with an inexpensive subscription to Intuit QuickBooks, on the one hand, and on the other, the ones who have access to enough money that they can embezzle it… Read More »
Mother And Daughter Plead Guilty To Defrauding Pennsylvania Department Of Education Out Of More Than $2 Million
Fraud can take many forms, from the email scams where the defendant plays on the victim’s sympathies and convinces them to send the defendant money for a purported emergency to deceptive business practices where the false advertising is so egregious that it crosses over into illegal territory. In a substantial portion of fraud cases,… Read More »
