Eideard

A San Fernando Valley doctor and evangelical minister who federal prosecutors said used bogus herbal medications to offer false hope to dozens of people suffering from diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s was found guilty of nearly a dozen federal charges.

Twenty-eight victims or family members of victims who died while taking the products testified against Christine Daniel, 57, who was found guilty Tuesday on four counts of mail and wire fraud, six counts of tax evasion related to income tax filings as well as one count of witness tampering…

Federal prosecutors successfully argued that Daniel leveraged her position of trust among evangelical Christians and through a program on the Trinity Broadcasting Network to push the phony treatments, which were marketed under the names C-Extract, “the natural treatment” and “the herbal treatment.”

Some of the medications, prosecutors said, contained nothing more exotic than sunscreen preservatives and beef extract…

“These are some of the most vulnerable victims in society. Most of these victims were dying, most of them were terminal cancer patients. Most of them only had been given a few months to live. Some had small children,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Joseph Johns said.

Daniel “stepped into the breach and took everything they had, including their time. Instead of spending their final days with their families, they spent it some flea-ridden motel drinking her foul treatment,” Johns said.

Preying upon the terminally-ill, taking every last penny from someone desperate to live, desperate enough to reach out beyond the limits of proven treatment – is about as despicable as a criminal can be.

Throw away the key!

Lifting a page from the hacker’s handbook, the Greater Manchester Police are naming and shaming rioters on their Twitter feed.

“We promised we’d name all those convicted for their roles in the disorder — here we go …” the police announced, as they began listing the names, dates of birth and partial addresses of individuals tried in connection with the disorder, which flared across Britain.

“Eoin Flanagan (born 01/01/1983), of Carson Road, Burnage, jailed for eight months for stealing clothes,” read one post.

“Jason Ullett (born 15/10/72) of Woodward Court, Ancoats, sentenced to 10 weeks in prison for swearing at police officers,” read another.

And another: “Stefan Hoyle (born 27/01/1992) of St. Stephen Street, Salford, jailed for four months for theft after found with a stolen violin…”

The police department’s efforts received both praise and criticism, along with a few questions. The department explained that it released dates of birth so as to avoid confusion with individuals with the same name.

Both the Manchester and London police have also posted photo streams on the photo-sharing site Flickr and asked the public to help identify riot suspects…

The Manchester police seem to be keenly aware that they are treading on new territory. “Lot of debate about publishing details – courts very clear, justice should be done publicly,” read one of its recent posts on Twitter.

The opportunist shits who run their game of rioting and looting behind the excuse of legitimate demonstrations deserve every sanction they receive. The stink of fear of being revealed is just part of the hoodie mentality that requires as much publicity as possible – after being convicted.

A 65-year-old doctor has been convicted of performing unnecessary and dangerous surgeries on more than 160 people in a $154-million medical insurance scam that lured patients by promising them cash or low-cost cosmetic surgeries.

Dr. Michael Chan of Cerritos, one of 19 defendants accused of fraudulently billing medical insurance companies, pleaded guilty in Orange County Superior Court to 40 felony counts, including conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and insurance fraud. He faces up to 28 years in state prison.

Nearly 3,000 people across the U.S. allegedly agreed to undergo unnecessary procedures such as sweaty palm surgeries and colonoscopies at the Unity Outpatient Surgery Center, a Buena Park facility which is now closed.

Recruiters, known as “cappers,” targeted employees from businesses in 39 states who were covered by PPO insurance plans. Prosecutors likened them to “body snatchers.”

Patients, who typically received between $300 and $1,000 per surgery, were allegedly coached on how to describe their symptoms by the cappers who then scheduled their surgeries, assisted them with paperwork and arranged their travel…

Along with Dr. William Hampton Jr. of Seal Beach and Dr. Mario Rosenberg of Beverly Hills, Chan was accused of ignoring basic medical protocol, such as failing to obtain medical information, not meeting with patients beforehand and neglecting to follow up.

The surgeries were mainly performed on weekends. All three doctors were arrested in 2007.

Nine defendants pleaded guilty and have been sentenced, including Hampton, who was sentenced to 16 years in state prison. In addition to doctors and cappers, the defendants include an attorney, an accountant and administrators.

What a delightful crew of all-American crooks. I’m especially outraged because like a number of folks on Medicare, my best option [so far] is a Medicare Advantage PPO – that’s a preferred provider organization. My somewhat mediocre coverage is via Humana – since United Healthcare, yes, that AARP-sponsored wonder, pulled Medicare Advantage coverage from New Mexico last year. Another big-hearted savior.

No surprises here other than the fact that one of these criminal fronts was shut down.

This week, a federal jury in Virginia convicted mortgage executive Lee Farkas on fraud and conspiracy charges that could send him to prison for life.

Authorities say Farkas tried to defraud banks out of almost $3 billion, in one of the biggest cases to come out of the mortgage crisis. And that, critics say, is the problem. Almost three years after the economy nearly collapsed, most top Wall Street banks and their executives have emerged with no criminal trouble. And that’s making people angry.

The argument that prosecutors have gone light on the nation’s largest banks for their role in the financial meltdown has become really popular — even if it’s not true.

Not so for Farkas, 58, who cut a larger-than-life figure in his north Florida community. In his heyday, Farkas collected cars — including a 1963 Rolls Royce and a Ford Model A. He served caviar in the dining room at his mortgage lending company Taylor Bean and Whitaker, or TBW…

“Farkas was really the mastermind of one of the largest bank fraud schemes in history,” says Lanny Breuer, who runs the criminal division at the Justice Department. “What he did led not only to the downfall of TBW, perhaps the second largest mortgage lending company in the United States, but also led to the failure of one of the country’s largest commercial banks, Colonial.”

Late Tuesday, a federal jury in Virginia convicted Farkas of all 14 charges against him. A judge immediately ordered Farkas into custody. He could get life in prison when he’s sentenced July 1…

Breuer of the Justice Department says public opinion doesn’t influence his decisions.

“When we believe we have a criminal case where we can prove each of the elements beyond a reasonable doubt, we’re going to do it,” he says. “When we don’t believe we can prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt, we’re not going to do it, no matter … how popular it would be.”

Two parts of the same problem. The lawyers who seem to set the standards for judges and legal beagles alike have slowed down the system of justice so radically that you could die of old age before you have a chance at justice in America. And the bits and pieces that fade away over time diminish the likelihood of a conviction.

Probably little need to note lobbyists paid by Wall Street who carry the message to an outraged Congress – whose wallets are as open as their mouths. They’re most often a subset of the same group of lawyers chartered and funded by corporations to rebuild that edifice in the image of corruption and shame.

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

Former Israeli president Moshe Katsav has been sentenced to seven years in prison for rape and other sexual offences following a year-long trial which ended with his conviction in December.

Katsav, president from 2000 to 2007, said he was innocent and was being persecuted by the courts and Israeli society at large. He is expected to appeal.

Katsav was convicted of two counts of rape of an employee at the tourism ministry, where he was minister from 1996-1999. He was also convicted of the indecent assault and sexual harassment of two other employees at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem during his presidency.

The president was given the chance of a plea bargain in which he could admit lesser charges but chose to fight all charges in a trial which, although conducted in private, was accompanied by leaks from both sides in the media.

The judges told the court: “The crime of rape damages and destroys a person’s soul … Due to the severity of the crime, the punishment must be clear and precise. The defendant committed the crime and like every other person, he must bear the consequences. No man is above the law…”

The former president was also ordered to pay 100,000 shekels ($28,000) to the rape victim and 25,000 shekels to each of the other victims.

He isn’t the first president – nor will he be the last – to end up in prison. There is an endless supply of politicians seeking the highest office in their land – who think they are above the law.

Demonstrators supporting the women Katsav assaulted
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

Israel’s former president Moshe Katsav has been found guilty of rape and sexual harassment following a year-long trial, largely held behind closed doors to respect the privacy of the three complainants, all former subordinates.

Political leaders and analysts praised the ruling, saying it showed that the law applied to everyone, including the president. But many expressed shame and embarrassment that a former head of state had been found guilty of such serious offences…

The sexual offences took place during Katsav’s terms as president and as minister of tourism. Complainant A accused him of raping her on two occasions, while complainants H and L accused him of sexual harassment. The verdict confirmed all the three accusations. Katsav was acquitted only of charges that he had harassed a witness…

The rightwing former president has portrayed himself as a victim of ethnic discrimination. Israeli political life has long been dominated by Jews of European origin, while Katsav and many of his supporters are of Middle Eastern origin.

Katsav became the eighth president of Israel in 2000 and was forced to resign in disgrace in July 2007, after the accusations emerged in 2006…

Outside court, women’s rights groups cheered…

The White House, Congress and the State Department ignored the event – as they do with anything negative about the government of Israel.

Rebecca Parrett may have seemed like a typical retired expatriate in the small resort town of Ajijic, Jalisco, in central-western Mexico. But, Parrett, a fugitive of two and a half years, was living under a made-up identity, escaping U.S. officials and a 25-year prison sentence.

Parrett fled in March 2008 after a jury in Columbus, Ohio, convicted her of charges including securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy in a $1.9 billion corporate fraud case…

Parrett was the only person to flee her conviction despite being a co-defendant with her former husband, Donald Ayers, and several other executives of a company she co-founded, National Century Financial Enterprises, in Columbus.

National Century was supposed to pay medical companies for future insurance bills and claims to be re-sold as bonds. But the company eventually became a giant Ponzi-like scheme, officials said…

Parrett described herself as an innocent woman from West Virginia without a college degree who worked her way up to become a medical billing executive.

“It’s very sad to be the victim of a political bureaucracy that has abused its power beyond imagination over and over again,” she wrote in the preface. “There were many victims. I am only one small dot on a giant map that the government controls…”

She can start her own Tea Party chapter in the slammer.

Parrett told people she had testified in a fraud case in the United States and was living in Mexico for her safety.

Joseph Scott, a former defense lawyer in Ohio for Parrett and her sister, Linda Case, described Parrett as “definitely successful” at several business endeavors before her career began at National Century.

“She was a very hard-working woman,” Scott said. “She put in a lot of hours and stayed up to date with modern technology. She was not afraid of a challenge.”

Probably will work her way up to supervisor of the prison laundry.

An Arab man convicted in Israel of rape because he pretended he was a Jew when he had consensual sex with a Jewish woman has called the verdict racist. Sabbar Kashur, 30, was found guilty of “rape by deception” by the Israeli court and sentenced to 18 months in jail.

According to the complaint filed by the woman, the two met in a Jerusalem street in 2008 and had sex that day. When she discovered he was not Jewish, but an Arab, she went to the police.

Kashur was arrested and charged with rape and indecent assault, but the charges were later replaced by a different charge of “rape by deception”…

“If I were Jewish, they wouldn’t have even questioned me,” the Haaretz newspaper quoted him as saying.

“That’s not called rape, I didn’t rape her in the forest and and throw her away naked. She agreed to everything that happened…”

“The court is obliged to protect the public interest from sophisticated, smooth-tongued criminals who can deceive innocent victims at an unbearable price – the sanctity of their bodies and souls,” the court judgement was quoted as reading.

Can you imagine what would happen, say, if a German court convicted a Jew of “rape” if he lied when having sex with a German woman.

Oh. That’s right. They did. Under Hitler.

The last 12 months have seen significant success in combating one of the main forms of cybercrime – botnets.

These networks of hijacked home computers have become the basic tool for many cyber thieves. Maintaining them, finding new victims and using them has become a significant part of the net’s criminal economy.

The vast majority of spam is sent out via the computers on botnets; they are used to stage attacks on websites and the machines forming them are harvested for saleable information such as credit card numbers and game logins.

Shutting down the Mariposa, or butterfly, botnet was one of the bigger successes. It got its name because it was built using the butterfly bot kit…

Luis Corrons, a senior researcher at Panda Security, played a big part investigating Mariposa…

Finding out was only possible when one of Mariposa’s controllers accidentally revealed the net address of his home computer.

“In this case we were really lucky,” said Mr Corrons. “When I found the IP address imagine my face when I realised it was in Spain.”

Not only that but one of the men behind the botnet lived a few kilometers from the Bilbao lab where Mr Corrons worked.

He assumed that the arrest and closure of Mariposa would mark the end of his involvement of the investigation.

RTFA and grab a chuckle over the brass balls of the script kiddies who ran this packaged botnet.

How many? Apparently – two or three. Not any brighter than anyone else – absent honesty and ethics.

Am I late?

A Swedish appeals court convicted a man in absentia of assault in April. The man’s absence turned out to be due to his untimely death a month previously and the prosecutor has now called on the court to re-open the case.

The then 26-year-old man was tried on charges assault in Stockholm district court on May 27th 2009. While the court found him not guilty the prosecutor elected to appeal the case.

When the date for the hearing arrived, on April 19th 2010, the court concluded after a delay that the defendant would not be attending, but it was decided that the matter could be dealt with in absentia.

The Svea Court of Appeal overturned the district court ruling and found the man guilty of assault, issuing a fine of $1,886 and setting a deadline date for an appeal of May 24th.

Information submitted to the court after the hearing indicates that an appeal is not to be expected as the convicted man died on March 25th 2010, details which were brought to the attention of the court first on April 26th, court documents show.

“Now the appeals court has in the meantime convicted a deceased person, without any prior convictions, which existing rules do not allow,” Malmö chief prosecutor Jörgen Lindberg writes in a letter appealing the court’s ruling.

There has to be some sort of moral to this tale, right?