
Crypto Trading Volume Dropped in Second Quarter to Lowest Since 2019
Trading volume on cryptocurrency exchanges in the three months ended in June was the lowest since the final
2023-07-07 03:45

Roivant Attracts Interest for $7 Billion-Plus Bowel Drug
Roivant Sciences Ltd. is attracting interest from large pharmaceutical companies for its treatment for inflammatory bowel disease, which
2023-07-07 03:30

California man admits to hiding mother’s death and collecting $830k in benefits
A California man pleaded guilty last week to hiding his mother’s death from the federal authorities for over 30 years, collecting more than $800,000 in benefits under her name. Donald Felix Zampach, 65, pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering and one count of Social Security fraud, according to the Justice Department. “This crime is believed to be the longest-running and largest fraud of its kind in this district,” US Attorney Randy Grossman said in a statement. “This defendant didn’t just passively collect checks mailed to his deceased mother. This was an elaborate fraud spanning more than three decades that required aggressive action and deceit to maintain the ruse.” All told, beginning in 1990, the Poway man collected $830,238. He could face up to 25 years in prison, though US sentencing guidelines suggest it will more likely be a sentence of 30 to 37 months. “He is overwhelmed with regret,” Knut Johnson, Zampach’s lawyer, told The New York Times. As part of his plea deal, Zampach will forfeit the benefit, pay restitution to various lenders, and turn over the home he took possession of in his mother’s name. The benefits scheme was an elaborate one, according to the DoJ. When Zampach’s mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, she left the US and returned to her native Japan, where she died in 1990 at age 61. Her son notified the US embassy in Tokyo of the death, but admitted to leaving blank a box for her Social Security number to avoid the government being aware of her passing, and he repeated this omission on forms for burial permits. Zampach kept up this ruse until September 2022, collecting his mother’s Social Security checks and payments from the Defense Finance Accounting Service, which pays survivors of military veterans. An audit of those over age 90 who hadn’t used their Medicare benefits helped reveal the California man’s scheme. This sort of fraud has happened in the past. In 2018, a Mexican man pleaded guilty to defrauding the government for even longer, spending 37 years collecting nearly $361,000 in government benefits after assuming the identity of a US citizen, according to The San Diego Union Tribune. In 2015, Dutch police learned that a man kept his dead mother’s body hidden for over two years and continued collecting her pension and social assistance payments. He was later caught and forced to repay 40,000 euros, according to 1 Limburg. Read More Real Housewives star Phaedra Parks reveals why she gave her son $150,000 for his 13th birthday Mastercard helping banks predict scams before money leaves customers’ accounts Vermont will pay $16.5M to settle lawsuits by foreign investors in fraudulent ski developments
2023-07-07 03:27

Toyota Taps US ESG Bond Market to Fund Electric-Car Push
Toyota Motor Corp. is selling socially conscious debt denominated in dollars for the first time in two years
2023-07-07 03:18

Canada’s Record Wildfire Season Set to Worsen as Heat Builds
Canada is bracing for higher-than-normal wildfire activity to continue into August, as soaring temperatures and drought turn much
2023-07-07 03:15

Massa’s Argentina Election Bid Puts IMF Staff in a Bind
Argentine Economy Minister Sergio Massa is both running for president and renegotiating a $44 billion deal with the
2023-07-07 01:56

Fewer Small Businesses in US Are Raising Employee Pay
Just over a third of US small-business owners said they raised worker compensation in June on net, the
2023-07-07 01:51

Amazon’s $1.65 Billion Bid to Buy iRobot Gets In-Depth EU Probe
Amazon.com Inc.’s $1.65 billion bid to buy vacuum cleaner maker iRobot Corp. faces an in-depth European Union investigation
2023-07-07 01:48

OceanGate Suspends Operations After Loss of Titan Submersible
OceanGate said it has halted all exploration and business operations, just a few weeks after five people were
2023-07-07 01:19

How Threads Features Differ From Instagram and Twitter
Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk’s promised cage match may never happen, but the battle between the social media
2023-07-07 00:59

Cautious Banxico Members Say It’s Too Early to Talk Interest Rate Cuts
Mexico’s central bankers remained cautious and avoided discussing a timeline for interest rate cuts at their last meeting,
2023-07-07 00:59

Train traffic snarled between NY and Philadelphia restored but with residual delays
Overhead power issues have caused Amtrak to suspend rail service from Philadelphia to New York, the company said in a statement. Rail service is operating on a limited basis from NY to Philadelphia "with no substitute transportation available," Amtrak said.
2023-07-06 23:53