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Electronic Arts (“EA”) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District court for the Northern District of California alleging that Zynga’s “The Ville” infringes on EA’s “The Sims Social”. EA’s position is that the two Facebook based social games are “largely indistinguishable to an uninitiated observer.” The stakes in this intellectual property battle are high, as …
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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/08/virtual-worlds-subject-of-copyright-infringement-allegations/
Strauss Auto, an auto parts retailer, appears to have set a new record. It is not likely one they were pursuing. The company is believed to be the only one in the history of the Bankruptcy Code to have entered into Chapter 11 bankruptcy five times (a move some are jokingly calling a Chapter 55 …
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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/07/fifth-times-a-charm-not-likely-when-it-comes-to-bankruptcy/
Recent allegations that funds intended for veterans and mistreated animals is actually mainly dedicated to further marketing efforts (and lining the pockets of one marketing company in particular) are causing anger among many donors. SPCA International raised $27 million dollars, but CNN.com reports that it spent nearly the same amount on direct mail services purchased …
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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/06/funds-donated-to-well-known-charities-are-mostly-going-towards-further-marketing/
Six men in Britain have been convicted of not only selling fraudulent documents, but effectively operating a “school” to teach customers how to perpetuate frauds with the documents they purchased. Confidential Access, the website at the center of the multi-level fraud, sold (mostly stolen) full credit profiles to its 11,000 customers for approximately $8,500 a …
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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/06/fraud-school/
Allen Stanford was facing up to 230 years for bilking investors out of $7 billion in one of the largest frauds in US history. As a reminder, Bernie Madoff, the most famous name in Ponzi schemes aside from Charles Ponzi himself, received a sentence of 150 years for his $20 billion fraud. So in the interest of …
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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/06/another-100-years-for-a-ponzi-schemer/
The US has charged over 100 individuals in the largest Medicare fraud crackdown to date. The falsely submitted billings total over $450 million, approximately $60 million of which had been paid out. The number of doctors, nurses, social workers and various other support personnel involved in this sweep demonstrates the pervasive nature of the fraud …
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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/05/recent-crackdown-demonstrates-the-magnitude-of-medicare-fraud/
There has been a great deal of discussion regarding the approximately $800,000 spent on a lavish 2010 Las Vegas conference hosted by the General Services Administration (GSA). The GSA handles government real estate and other non-military procurement. Susan Brita, a GSA deputy administrator, was the whistleblower who first raised the issue, which has since …
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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/04/gsa-whistleblower-testifies-regarding-government-waste/
Reebok and Nike have reached a settlement in their dispute over sales of Tim Tebow merchandise. Nike had filed suit in March, alleging that Reebok was improperly selling sporting apparel referencing the football superstar’s new team affiliation (Tebow was traded from the Denver Broncos to the New York Jets in March). Nike asserted that it …
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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/04/reebok-agrees-to-pull-tebow-apparel-from-shelves-in-licensing-dispute/
The IRS has registered over 840,000 tax return preparers and has begun the process of administering competency tests for those who are not a CPA, attorney or enrolled agent. Paid preparers who fall outside of these three groups will also be required to take 15 hours of continuing professional education annually from IRS-approved vendors. IRS …
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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/04/irs-to-use-tax-preparer-data-to-identify-patterns-of-fraud/
Once a Ponzi scheme is uncovered, most investors find that they have lost their money. However, there are also usually some “winners”, ie those that benefited from the scheme by removing both their initial investment and (usually high) returns prior to the scheme’s collapse. The Court in the Madoff case previously confirmed that the determination …
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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/03/mets-owners-insist-on-being-treated-like-losers-as-part-of-their-madoff-settlement/
