Category Archives: White Collar Crimes
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 »
Beaver County Tax Collector Sentenced To Prison For Embezzling Tax Payments
Almost everyone grumbles about paying taxes. Childfree people complain about parents getting all the tax credits, and almost everyone would like to see public funds spent differently from how they are being spent, although no two people’s visions of what they would do if they were in control of the public treasury are exactly… Read More »
Allegheny County Woman Sentenced To One Year In Prison For Conspiracy To Commit Money Laundering
The term “money laundering” means something different in the popular imagination, as does “conspiracy.” You can get convicted of money laundering even if the amount of money involved was relatively small. Likewise, you do not have to be a criminal mastermind to commit conspiracy. Depending on the circumstances, it is possible for people charged… Read More »
Allegheny County Doctor Sentenced To 78 Months In Prison For Health Care Fraud
In these tough economic times, almost everyone in western Pennsylvania knows someone who has tried to recruit them to distribute nutritional supplements through a multilevel marketing (MLM) business model. The products are ordinary vitamin supplements like the ones you can buy much cheaper at Walmart or Costco, but the former classmate who messages you… Read More »
Federal Prison Sentence For Participant In Money-Laundering Conspiracy Involving Former Pennsylvania Narcotics Agent
Stories about family members working together in an “us against the world” scenario certainly make for interesting movies, especially when their quest is illegal. When it happens in real life, though, it means being separated from your (proverbial and literal) partner in crime in different correctional institutions. In fact, you and your family member… Read More »
Administrator of Contraband Marketplace Website Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering
Laws about drugs are changing, especially at the state level. For example, Pennsylvania, like many other states, is inching closer to completely decriminalizing cannabis possession. Meanwhile, it has enacted Good Samaritan laws to protect bystanders who call for assistance for drug overdose victims from criminal prosecution, even if the bystander is under the influence… Read More »
