The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/white-collar-crime/)
Federal authorities unsealed an indictment charging two former top officials in Puerto Rico with directing $15.5 million in contracts to favored businesses, allegedly edging out other firms for lucrative government work despite allegations of being unqualified.
Jenna Garland, press secretary to former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, is accused of violating the state open records law. When a reporter sought billing documents from the city water department, she told a subordinate to “drag this out as long as possible.”
Six years after the local lanes to New York City’s George Washington Bridge were mysteriously shut down, the Supreme Court will consider whether the closure really was a federal crime. One former official was serving a prison term in the case but now will be released on bail.
Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman who is serving a federal prison sentence, is expected to be transferred to the Rikers Island jail complex in New York City, where he would be held in solitary confinement while facing state fraud charges.
Federal prosecutors in New York City say Michael Avenatti used a doctored document to divert $300,000 that porn star Stormy Daniels was supposed to get from a book deal, then used the money for personal and business expenses. Avenatti denied the allegations.
“Desperate Housewives” actress Felicity Huffman became the highest-profile defendant to admit to crimes in the college admissions scandal. A water systems executive may get more prison time.
Some plea deals will include time behind bars ranging from 12 to 18 months. More than half of the 33 parents charged so far may not admit guilt and fight to clear their names.
Two clinics were operated by individuals who had been convicted of Medicare fraud. One clinic operator maintained that his 25-year-old conviction should not “affect anybody’s feeling of my integrity today.”
Fifty people already have been charged in the scheme to help parents buy their way into prestigious colleges. Consultant Rick Singer, who has pleaded guilty, said he did 761 “side deals.”
Children of some parents charged in the national college-admissions scam case have received letters telling them they could be targets of the probe. Actress Lori Loughlin and her husband pleaded not guilty.