I was checking out the blog P2P Filesharing, and I found Marc’s post about ringtones. He makes a good point that the rintones people pay $2 or $3 for a rea a rip-off. He mentions that it’s possible to download a whole song for a fraction of the cost, and then make your own ringtone.
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President Bush visited the Allen-Edmonds shoe factory last week and was presented with a pair of red, white, and blue shoes. They were inscribed in the insole: Made exclusively for President Bush.
The company has received numerous requests for a pair of the shoes, but the company will not make any. Mark Birmingham, COO, says they were made “exclusively” for the President, and that’s how it will stay.
Two pairs of the red, white and blue shoes were made for the President in case one didn’t fit right. About 130 employees participated in making the shoes, which were crafted in one day. The second pair will remain on display at the company.
Photos courtesy of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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“If you’re a lesbian and you marry Osama bin Laden, tomorrow he will qualify for health insurance right away as your partner,” Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager said… This quote was found in the Wisconsin State Journal.
I think it speaks for itself.
Hat tip to Paul Bucher.
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Former Winnebago County District Attorney Joe Paulus, who is already serving a term of almost 5 years in federal prison for accepting bribes in criminal cases, has been charged in state court with one count of misconduct in public office and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice. Reportedly, Paulus has agreed to plead guilty to the charges brought by the Wisconsin Department of Justice, and the prosecutors will recommend two years in state prison to be served after he completes his federal sentence.
Tags: bribes, misconduct, conspiracy
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This isn’t much, but it’s a start. Milwaukee Alderman Michael McGee has had his drivers license revoked now that it has been determined by Wisconsin Department of Transportation that he had driver’s licenses under two names.
DOT merged the records of Michael I. McGee and Michael I. Jackson (the same person) on June 26. Jackson had a revoked license since March of 2000, so the entire record is now under a revoked license. The Jackson license dates back to at least 1994, and was revoked in 1997 and 2000, and these revocations were related to McGee/Jackson’s hitting of a parked car. The McGee license was issued in 2000, and has had 2 citations since then.
The Jackson revocations occurred after Farmers Insurance Group sued him for $2,246 to recoup costs from the 1996 accident. According to Attorney George Schimmel who represents the insurance company, the company sought revocation of his license after missing several payments on a payment plan he agreed to. Farmers Insurance is still owed about $650, and Schimmel says that it appears McGee/Jackson stopped making payments on the judgment after he got a driver’s license under the McGee name.
Further complicating the situation is a bankrupcty petition filed by McGee and approved in 1997. McGee’s lawyer says that the debt from the accident was extinguished in bankruptcy. However, it appears that the bankruptcy petition was in the McGee name (not the Jackson name listed in the judgment), the bankruptcy petition occurred three months prior to the Jackson accident, and the McGee bankruptcy petition did not list the accident damage as an outstanding bill.
Could there be fraud in this bankrupcty filing?
Here’s a related post.
Tags: Milwaukee, revoked license, bankrupcty petition, fraud
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Why? Because they think the cost of making a collect call out of the County Jail is too expensive. The calls cost between 22 cents and 37 cents per minute. They say that it’s unfair, especially since many of the inmates at the jail haven’t yet been convicted of crimes.
The phone company has said that the cost is higher than normal collect calls because so many of the recipients of the collect calls never pay their bills. Is there no other cause that the editorial board could get behind?
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The Wall Street Journal had an interesting article today about moving to Nevada to avoid taxes.
The story mentions David Duffield, an entrepreneur who left California to build a $50 million estate in Nevada. He was hoping to save millions in taxes.
Duffield made it big with PeopleSoft. So big that his share of the company was eventually worth $150 million. He followed his acountants’ advice and set up a Nevada investment company funded with his PeopleSoft stock, although they did warn him that California could come after him for attempting to avoid state taxes.
California followed him! After a series of investment transactions that ultimately ended with Duffield personally purchasing the property he tried unsuccessfully to sell to outside parties, California accused him of attempting to evade taxes and sent him a bill for $7.2 million. He’s been appealing that bill ever since, but it has now grown to $19 million with interest and penalties.
They say that tax disputes with Nevada transplants make up 20% of California’s tax disputes. It seems that they are going after people who claim to live in Nevada, but appear to still have primary residency in California. (Yes, that issue can get complicated.)
Tags: Wall Street Journal, avoid taxes
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Last week I presented at the annual Fraud Conference put on by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE).
I was presenting the topic “Marketing Your Anti-Fraud Practice.” I presented the topic twice, and had great attendance at each. The feedback was wonderful, and I’m glad that people found things they can use right away. Some of the important points I made included:
Tags: Fraud Conference, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, ACFE, Anti-Fraud
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UnitedHealthcare, a unit of UnitedHealth Group Inc., and two affiliates have been fined $600,000 for failing to properly respond to consumer complaints, no paying certain benefits, and violations of other insurance regulations. The settlement was reached between the company and the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance in November, but announced yesterday.
Included in the violations are allegations that:
As part of the settlement, UnitedHealthcare will put $2.5 million into an escrow account. If there are any significant violations of insurance regulations before the end of 2008, the money will be forfeited. The insurance company has submitted a compliance plan and it is expected that there will be no violations.
Tags: UnitedHealthcare, Commissioner of Insurance
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Homeowners hit by Hurricane Katrina are suing Nationwide Insurance to try to force the company to pay out billions of dollars to pay for flood damage that was not covered by their insurance policies.
Richard F. Scruggs, the Pascagoula attorney who is representing Nationwide customers Paul and Julie Leonard, and argues that the policy sold to them (and other homeowners) included references to windstorms and hurricanes. This made homeowners erroneously believe that they’d be covered for hurricane damage, whether from water or wind. Scruggs also says that insurance agents told customers that they didn’t need to seek coverage for flood damage.
Daniel F. Attridge, lawyer for Nationwide, argues that the insurance policy was very clear in its exclusion of flood damage.
Homeowners have been upset that some insurance policies only pay for damage above the highest water stains on their walls. Some homeowners are saying that their homes suffered excessive wind damage long before the flood waters damaged the houses.
Scruggs has filed suit on behalf of approximately 2,000 clients, but opted not to seek class action status for them because that would have delayed the cases too long.
At the heart of many of the cases is the claim that the insurance agent told homeowners they didn’t need flood insurance. Scruggs claims that this expanded the coverage under the policies to include flood insurance. Nationwide counters that the agent was not authorized to expand covereage.
Tags: Hurricane Katrina, Nationwide Insurance, flood damage, windstorms, hurricanes, hurricane damage, exclusion, class action
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