Tag: Scams

Investigation Into The 8 Babies Doctor

The spotlight on the mother of octuplets is turning to the fertility doctor who helped her give birth not once but 14 times by implanting Nadya Suleman with fertilized embryos.

The Medical Board of California investigating the doctor — whom it did not name — to see if there was a “violation of the standard of care,” board spokeswoman Candis Cohen said Friday.

Suleman, 33, of Whittier, already had six children when she gave birth Jan. 26 to octuplets. The births to an unemployed, divorced single mother prompted angry questions about how she plans to provide for her children.

But the backlash seems to have extended as well to Suleman’s doctor.

In the United States, there is no law dictating the number of embryos that can be placed in a mother’s womb. Multiple embroys can be implanted to improve the odds that one will take.

However, there are national guidelines which put the norm at two to three embryos for a woman of Suleman’s age, in order to lessen the health risks to the mother and the chances of multiple births.

When asked why so many embryos were implanted, Suleman told NBC: “Those are my children, and that’s what was available and I used them. So, I took a risk. It’s a gamble. It always is.”

According to state documents, Suleman told a doctor she had three miscarriages. Another doctor disputed that number, saying she had two ectopic pregnancies, a dangerous condition in which a fertilized egg implants somewhere other than in the uterus.

This all sounds like a plan for books and made for tv movies…..from the doctor and the baby factory….why else would she need a publicist?  This is gonna be a big story when all is learned about players in this drama.

Time for someone to step up and draw a line about this procedure and limit the number of fertilized eggs to 2 or 3….8 is too damn many and needs to be investigated from all angles.

The Grinch Who Stole The Show

A French investment manager who put $1.4bn (£1bn) into Bernard Madoff’s fraud-hit scheme has killed himself in his New York office, police said.

Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, 65, was found sitting at his desk with both wrists slashed, New York police spokesman Paul Browne said.

A bottle of pills was found near him, but there was no suicide note.

Mr Villehuchet, who was married without children, was co-founder of money manager Access International.

Continuing Saga Of Madoff

U.S. regulators, trying to unravel the breadth of Bernard Madoff’s alleged $50 billion fraud, have found evidence of misconduct stretching back to at least the 1970s, two people familiar with the inquiry said.

Madoff’s investment advisory business, where he allegedly operated the biggest Ponzi scheme in history, is now estimated to have had more than 4,000 customers, the people said, declining to be identified because the inquiry isn’t public. An advisory unit Madoff registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission claimed in a January filing to have no more than 25 clients. People familiar with the probe said Dec. 14 he also ran a secret unregistered business.

The Madoff case is fueling efforts by President-elect Barack Obama and Congress to overhaul oversight of brokerages and investment advisers. The SEC will likely also examine whether hedge funds investing with Madoff performed the due diligence promised to clients, two people familiar with the agency’s concerns said.

SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said Dec. 16 the agency failed to act on “credible, specific” allegations about Madoff dating back at least to 1999. Madoff had kept several sets of books, and provided misinformation about his advisory business to investors and regulators, Cox noted.

In its 1992 lawsuit, the SEC claimed accountants Frank Avellino and Michael Bienes began raising money in 1962 and placing it with Madoff while promising investors returns of 13.5 percent to 20 percent, according to court documents obtained by Bloomberg. As of October 1992, their firm, Avellino & Bienes, had issued $441 million in unregistered notes to 3,200 people and entities, court papers say. They invested solely with Madoff, who opened his business in 1960.

Interesting how this scheme went undetected, but yet they can spot a crook a mile off when he is in the middle class.  Funny how that works, huh?

To Build A Better Scheme

I was not going to post on the Ponzi scheme of Madoff, but as time goes on it gets better and better.

Bernard Madoff’s contention that he pulled off one of the biggest financial frauds in history without any help is being met with disbelief by his investors and experts in the securities industry. It normally takes a team of accountants, stock brokers, lawyers and more to operate the kind of multibillion-dollar investment fund that Madoff ran from the 17th floor of his Manhattan headquarters.

Financial wizard Bernie Madoff didn’t just fool investors. He also conned the nation’s top securities regulators, who investigated his business last year and apparently missed the fact he was running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

Madoff may have avoided scrutiny, regulatory experts said, in part because he simultaneously operated a legitimate, regulated and high-profile business as one of the largest middlemen between the buyers and sellers of stock. In that role, he helped to create Nasdaq, the first electronic stock exchange, and advised the SEC on electronic trading issues.

Many people keep asking, how could this happen?  Really?  You have NO idea how this type of thing can happen?

Do any of you remember the scams in the junk bond market in the early 90’s?  How about the S&L scandals of the 80’s?  All that was about onbe thing–GREED!  It is little different with the Madoff hustle.  Once investors see dollar signs they become stupid with greed and when that happens they are easy pickings.

It is as easy as that.  If we could eliminate greed then we could eliminate such scandals.  But unfortunately, greed is here to stay and so are the schemes to steal more money.

Scammed as Guilty As Scammers

How many emails do you get from Nigeria telling you about the fantastic opportunity for you to make millions?  If you bite on the hook, check on this.

People who fall for so-called “Nigerian scams” aren’t victims at all—in fact, they’re greedy and should be jailed, according to Nigerian high commissioner Sunday Olu Agbi. He said today that Nigeria has gained a bad reputation because of the scams perpetrated by a minuscule number of people, and that those who find themselves involved with the scams are equally as guilty as those running them.

“The Nigerian Government frowns very seriously on these scams… and every day tries to track down those who are involved,” Olu Agbi told the Sydney Morning Herald in response to a previous article on Australians falling for Nigerian scams. “People who send their money are as guilty as those who are asking them to send the money.”

Out of the 140 million people in Nigeria, Olu Agbi said that fewer than 0.1 percent were involved in Nigerian scams. The scams, also referred to as 419 scams or advance-fee fraud, predate the Internet, but have exploded in recent years thanks to the proliferation of e-mail and instant money transfers. Although the scams can take on many forms—from payments for products sold on eBay or Craigslist, to deposits on houses and purchases of plane tickets for “true love” on the other side of the ocean—they all follow the same general theme.

Scammers send huge checks to unsuspecting victims with some story attached to explain the overpayment, and the victim is expected to wire back the difference immediately. Eventually when the checks are deposited, they bounce and the victim is out a lot of money. Sometimes, victims are tricked into thinking they’ll eventually be paid back and continue to participate in this endless cycle of sending money, especially if the scammer is wooing them romantically (which happens more commonly than one might think, to both men and women).

Although this kind of fraud originates from all over the world, it seems to have an unusually high concentration in Africa and, specifically, Nigeria. This has, unsurprisingly, cast Nigeria in a negative light. Olu Agbi said that Nigeria’s reputation for being involved with the scams has even hurt the country’s ability to land business deals. “[T]hose who want to transact business with us are always very suspicious,” he told the newspaper.

Still, Olu Agbi’s “blame the victim” mentality won’t help Nigeria win any friends, but education on how to spot 419 scams and avoid falling for them can certainly go a long way in curbing their growth. After all, once victims stop blindly forking over cash, scammers will have to figure out some other way to make money.

Greed is a powerful motivator.