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Insurance Scammers Featured on ABC News MMA Fighter, Prison Guard Cases Emphasize Billion-Dollar Problem By Christina Bramlet, PropertyCasualty360.com April 25, 2012 An ever-evolving multitude of insurance scams continue to plague the industry, ultimately costing both insurers, policyholders and taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. P&C insurers especially face a host of challenges in combating fraud, such as poor conviction rates and inadequate resources. Even so, through decisive action and collaboration between claims investigators and law enforcement, noteworthy gains have been realized, made evident recently by some high-profile PIP fraud stings in New York and Florida. Further mitigating fraud and, by...

April 1, 2012 Board of Directors Berkshire Hathaway Inc. 3555 Farnam Street, Suite 1440 Omaha, NE 68131 Dear Members of the Board... ..."Compensation: "We believe that the board has conveniently chosen to maintain the status quo and ignore these critical issues in order to preserve the directors’ generous board fees, .... As a result, the board has stood by idly as the stock price has lagged the general market during the past three months... Given the directors’ excessive board fees and lack of economic ownershipin the business, it is not surprising that the Berkshire board has fought for years to...

Troops get paid in lots of different ways. There’s basic pay, allowances, bonuses, incentives and assorted housing, health and retirement bennies. Is this the best way to compensate U.S. military personnel? In other words, are we getting the biggest bang for the taxpayer’s buck with this rucksack of options? Defense budget pro Todd Harrison of the independent Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments is trying to figure this out. He’s launching an on-line survey to see what the troops think.

State officials sterilized more than 7,600 people in North Carolina from 1929 to 1974 under eugenics programs, which at the time were aimed at creating a better society by weeding out people such as criminals and mentally disabled people considered undesirable.

Power consortium to demand $1.89 bln from N. Korea over failed energy project SEOUL, Nov. 14 (Yonhap) -- An international consortium once tasked with building two power-generating nuclear reactors in North Korea will soon demand that the communist country provide US$1.89 billion in compensation for the project's failure, a Seoul official said Monday. The demand comes after North Korea filed its own compensation claim worth some $5.8 billion in September, saying it suffered heavy financial losses and other troubles from the failed project. In a 1994 deal linked to North Korea's promise to denuclearize, the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization...

Residents furious over 60-page application, 160-page manual for TEPCO compensation Residents affected by the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant are furious after learning they will have to wade through a 60-page application form -- accompanied by a 160-page manual -- to seek compensation from the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO). The company, which on Sept. 12 started sending out documents for individual compensation claims for the period between March and August, says its careful explanation of the process resulted in a large amount of documentation. However, this hasn't appeased residents. "One can only assume...

Bereaved families criticize Beijing's 'incentive money' BY ATSUSHI OKUDERA CORRESPONDENT WENZHOU, China--Attempts by the Chinese government to quickly settle compensation matters with victims of the July 23 train collision on its high-speed railway have triggered another round of criticism from the bereaved families. An official with the Railways Ministry said July 26 that some bereaved families had agreed to compensation totaling 500,000 yuan (6.25 million yen, or $78,800). However, because the offer included what was described as "incentive money" to encourage families to reach an early agreement, some families complained that the government was placing too low a priority on...

To help American carmakers stay in business, autoworkers grudgingly gave up pay raises and some benefits four years ago. Now that General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are making money again, workers want compensation for their sacrifice. Just how much they get is the central question hanging over contract talks that start this week between Detroit and one of the nation's largest and most powerful unions. The negotiations, the first since Chrysler and GM took government aid and emerged from bankruptcy, will set wages and benefits for 111,000 members of the United Auto Workers, including those at Ford, which avoided bankruptcy...

EU offers farmers 210 mil. euros over food scare The European Union has offered to pay 210 million euros or about 300 million dollars in financial aid to farmers affected by the E. coli outbreak in Europe. EU farm commissioner Dacian Ciolos said in Brussels on Wednesday that the EU's compensation scheme will cover cucumbers, tomatoes and 3 other vegetables. He added that the proposed amount is equal to half the value of losses incurred by the farmers. The E. coli outbreak has claimed the lives of more than 20 people, mostly in Germany, leading to a sharp drop in...

MADRID, Spain (AP) -- Spain's prime minister has hit out at the European Commission and Germany on Thursday for singling out the country's produce as a possible source of a deadly bacterial outbreak in Europe, and said the government would demand explanations and reparations. Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said the EU commission "was slow because from the moment the minister in Hamburg had ruled it (E. coli outbreak) was not caused by Spanish cucumbers it should have reacted more decisively and faster." The bacteria outbreak has killed 17 people, most in Germany, over the past week. The crisis paralyzed Spanish...

The Wall Street Journal CEO Compensation Study was conducted by Hay Group, a management-consulting firm. The study analyzes CEO pay from the biggest 350 U.S. public companies by revenue that filed their definitive proxy statements between May 1, 2010, and April 30, 2011. Survey Methodology & Terms Definitions Footnotes How to Use This Chart: Click on a column heading to sort by that category. For an individual executive's full compensation details, as well as a link to the proxy statement, click the relevant row. All figures in thousands

ANALYSIS: Defensive TEPCO fears ballooning compensation to evacuees 2011/04/15 Masataka Shimizu, the embattled president of Tokyo Electric Power Co., promised compensation to evacuees who fled the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, but he stopped short of providing specific amounts or a timetable. "We will respond in a sincere manner based on the compensation system for damage from nuclear power plants after consulting with the central government," Shimizu said at a news conference Wednesday. "Because the evacuation has become a prolonged one, we want to make provisional payments as soon as possible. We still have to decide on a specific...

Thursday, March 31, 2011 Tepco Claims May Reach Y10-11tln If Nuclear Problems Drag On TOKYO (Dow Jones)--Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) could face compensation claims of up to Y10-Y11 trillion if problems at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant cannot be resolved in the next two years, according to estimates released Tuesday by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. "Shareholders are very likely to be held liable, through capital reductions of a certain amount," research analyst Yusuke Ueda wrote in the report. "But given the principle of maintaining stable supplies of electric power, a scheme involving a default on the company's...

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel confirms that's how much the average Milwaukee teacher will be paid in salary and benefits in 2011: the average MPS teacher would receive total compensation of $101,091 -- $59,500 in salary and $41,591 in benefits. We double-checked with MPS spokeswoman Roseann St. Aubin and she confirmed the figures. We wanted to compare the $101,091 for MPS teachers to other teachers, but the latest figurescompiled by the state Department of Public Instruction are for 2009-2010, two years earlier. Those figures show for 2009-2010, MPS teachers earned, on average

[Milwaukee, Wisconsin] MacIver News Service – For the first time in history, the average annual compensation for a teacher in the Milwaukee Public School system will exceed $100,000. That staggering figure was revealed last night at a meeting of the MPS School Board. The average salary for an MPS teacher is $56,500. When fringe benefits are factored in, the annual compensation will be $100,005 in 2011. MacIver’s Bill Osmulski has more in this video report.

When it comes to paychecks, Wall Street's law of gravity is back in full force: What goes down must come back up. In 2010, total compensation and benefits at publicly traded Wall Street banks and securities firms hit a record of $135 billion, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal. The total is up 5.7% from $128 billion in combined compensation and benefits by the same companies in 2009. The increase was fueled by a revenue rebound as the financial crisis recedes in the rearview mirror. At 25 large financial firms that have reported full-year results, revenue rose...

Lockdown, pay up January 17, 2011 Here's something to digest with your big new Illinois income tax increase: You would assume that the Menard Correctional Center is a dangerous place to work. It does, after all, hold violent prisoners. You probably wouldn't assume that the biggest injury risk for the guards is locking and unlocking the doors. Or that this is costing you a lot of money. Illinois has paid out at least $10 million over the last three years in workers' compensation claims to employees at the southern Illinois prison. Much of the money has gone to corrections officers...

Official numbers released by the government late last week show salaries of federal workers falling slightly farther behind their private-sector counterparts in the last year, by an average of 2.1 percent across the country. The disparity shows wide variations among the 31 regions where the government compares federal pay with salaries for private-sector jobs in order to determine pay raises. The Washington-Baltimore area, for example, showed among the largest gaps, with federal workers 38 percent behind the private sector.

Steven Greenhut may be the most annoying man in America. No, it’s not because he’s a mean guy or that he has created some silly reality show like Jersey Shores. It’s because Steve, a former Orange County Register columnist, writes books that you need to read, but are totally infuriating and raise your blood pressure a good fifty points. Even though I met Steve while he was covering a variety of political events in his pure journalism days, he didn’t inform me when his first book, Abuse of Power, was published in 2004. I actually learned about it when it...

BP's incoming chief executive, Bob Dudley, has reassured the City that the company will probably end up paying out less than the committed $20bn in compensation for those affected by the Gulf oil spill. The White House ordered the company to pay $20bn into a compensation fund over three and a half years, making it clear that further payments may be required. Although BP still does not know how much it will have to contribute, Dudley's comments that the $20bn already pledged should cover these claims reflect BP's growing confidence that it can emerge from April's Deepwater Horizon disaster in...

Within a week or so, if not sooner, we can expect the Dodd-Frank Act to become law....there remain hidden provisions that will have more impact than has been generally recognized. This column will focus on three: (1) the whistleblower bounty provisions of the act, which create unprecedented incentives; (2) the act's "clawback" provisions, which potentially affect all current and former "executive officers" of a listed company but that are expressed in vague language of uncertain scope; and (3) its approach to the extraterritorial application of the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws, where the act expressly reverses some aspects...

n Channel 1 interview PM says can't pay any price to free Schalit if it leads to the deaths of Israeli civilians. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu commented on recent diplomatic developments between Turkey and Israel in an interview with Channel 1 that aired Friday evening. Netanyahu rejected the notion that Israel would be pay any form of compensation or damages to Turkey for the nine Turkish citizens who were killed in the boarding of the Mavi Marmara as it sought to break the IDF blockade on Gaza.

Once all promised benefits are included, government employees at all levels—local, state, and federal—receive significantly greater total compensation than private-sector workers. A recent research paper released by the Center for State and Local Government Excellence argues that employees of state and local governments earn salaries and benefits significantly less than similar private-sector workers. But this study omits unfunded pension and retiree health benefits for public-sector workers. Once unfunded promises are included, state and local employees may receive significantly greater total compensation than private-sector workers. Study authors Keith Bender and John Heywood of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee analyzed differences in salaries...

JUNEAU, Alaska - Bristol Palin is hitting the speakers' circuit and will command between $15,000 and $30,000 for each appearance, Palin family attorney Thomas Van Flein said Monday.

Yesterday, the Senate passed an amendment offered by Senators Merkley (D-OR) and Klobuchar (D-MN) to S. 3217, the "Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010," that would prohibit the total amount of direct and indirect compensation paid to mortgage originators from varying based on the terms of a loan, and place a cap on income. The amendment, SA 3962, was issued after business hours on Tuesday night, fully knowing that NAMB would call on grassroots support to contact their Senators to oppose the amendment. Despite the NAMB "Call to Action" issued, the amendment was voted on and passed early Wednesday...

Every witness before a Senate subcommittee hearing last week on military compensation — all experts on service pay and benefits — called directly or indirectly for Congress to end its 12-year run of voting for annual military pay raises that exceed wage growth in the private sector. No witness suggested that future raises each January shouldn’t match annual wage gains for private sector workers as measured by the government Employment Cost Index. But with personnel costs soaring to sustain a quality all-volunteer force in its ninth year of war, lawmakers like Sen. James Webb (D-Va.), chairman of the Senate armed...

The Obama administration's personnel chief has assigned a task force to come up with "ironclad" data showing that feds do not earn far more than their private-sector counterparts. The move comes after organizations such as the libertarian Cato Institute and conservative lawmakers have criticized federal employees' pay, which they say is more than 50 percent higher on average than private-sector salaries. Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry told Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, at a Senate Appropriations Committee that such statements are "misinformation" and are not based on like comparisons.

Academic Supply & Demand Malcolm A. Kline, February 23, 2010 In the real world, businesses expand when profits do. In academia, colleges and universities, such as George Washington University, just expand. “In an effort to improve its widely criticized academic advising system, the University announced plans Friday to double the number of undergraduate advising staff in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences; create an advising committee with representation from all undergraduate schools; and speed up the implementation of a degree auditing system,” Matt Rist reported in The GW Hatchet Online. “The changes will cost a total of $700,000, Executive...

FDIC Mulls Linking Fees To Bank Pay 01-07-2010 | Source: emii.com People & Companies in the News The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is considering linking fees paid by lenders to the agency for deposit insurance to the risk profile of compensation packages for executives, The Wall Street Journal reports. Banks with compensation structures viewed as less risky by the FDIC may be given a break on the fees they pay on deposit insurance. Banks that the FDIC considers to have pay structures that gives officials an incentive to put the company at more risk might be forced to pay...

The debate about reforms to the Colorado Public Employees' Retirement Association (PERA) has reached a new level after the PERA board’s recommendations known as the 2/2/2 plus plan. The plan is another temporary solution to potential long-term problems. Because of PERA’s inherent conflict of interest, it cannot provide recommendations based on new principles. Rather than focusing on the details of PERA’s plan, broad principles must be articulated by the Legislature as guidance for long-term changes. These principles are vital to maintain a competent state work force providing a desired set of services at reasonable cost to the taxpayer.

Barack Obama’s steady decline in the polls this week may mean the American people are tired of the president’s divisive campaign rhetoric after nearly a year into his administration. The Rasmussen Report’s daily tracking poll shows 53 percent of Americans disapprove of his performance in office. With an economy shaking, unemployment rising, and two wars draining our nation’s human and financial resources, Mr. Obama prefers to use the divisive language of the campaign trail in hopes of gaining public and political support for economic policies rather than to provide the leadership his supporters sorely hoped he possessed. He demonstrated this...

In public, President Obama is on a tear against Wall Street. In private, not so much Over the weekend, Obama attacked fat-cat investment bankers, telling "60 Minutes" he didn't become president to aid and abet Wall Street -- which, only a year after the financial meltdown and taxpayer bailout, is now scheduled to hand out tens of billions of dollars in bonuses to its bankers and traders. But the president's meeting yesterday with the CEOs of the largest banks was nearly a lovefest, I'm told by attendees. Yes, White House spinmeisters advertised the gathering as a chance for Obama to...

Even as CNBC, which seems to be unaware it is now under new ownership and can stop selling GE stock all day, every day (will Cramer be allowed to pump the worthless equities of competitor cable and satellite companies going forward? Inquiring minds want to know), could not stop praising the fabulous improvement in continuing claims which plummeted by a whopping 5,000 from 462k to 457k, one number that everyone ignored, is the explosion in Emergency Unemployment Compensation - yes, the same name for insurance benefits as they roll beyond their standard expiration horizon, and which the Administration is set...

Like many other doctors, I've been looking at my panel of patients and trying to decide whether a "public option" in health reforms will help them. Unfortunately, I can't think of a single patient where it will. As an internist, I have a varied practice, with patients ranging from rich to poor, from chronically ill to "worried well." On any given day, I see at least one quarter of cases (including Medicaid patients) without charge; one or two come in without insurance and pay me cash. Most of the time, I accept the patient's HMO or Medicare without looking closely...

This just looks bad. Really bad. The New York Times Company has been required to reveal startling management incompetence, an inability to correctly apply its own executive compensation scheme to the top two figures in the company, overpaying the bosses. Publicly-traded corporations like the Times must file a Form 8K within four days of various events, so the details of the screw-up are now on the record. The company filed the 8K following the end of trading yesterday. A summary of the substance is here.

CINCINNATI (AP) - The Cincinnati Bengals are suing 31 former players who filed workers compensation claims against the team in California. Unlike most other states, California allows for insurance payments to workers who can show they suffered trauma that compounded over a period of time.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24, 2009 – The Veterans Affairs Department is taking steps to help veterans seeking compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder, VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki announced today. “The hidden wounds of war are being addressed vigorously and comprehensively by this administration as we move VA forward in its transformation to the 21st century,” Shinseki said. VA is publishing a proposed regulation today in the Federal Register to make it easier for a veteran to claim service connection for PTSD by reducing the evidence needed if the stressor claimed is related to fear of hostile military or terrorist activity. Comments...

'PAY Czar' Kenneth Feinberg's official government title is "special master for compensation." You'll be happy to know that he's really getting into the confiscatory spirit of his role. Asked by Reuters if his powers include reaching back and revoking bonuses awarded to financial-industry executives before his office was created this year, Feinberg asserted broad and binding authorities -- including the ability to "claw back" money already paid out. Regulations governing his office explicitly limit his jurisdiction over contracts signed before Feb. 11, 2009. But the fine print is no obstacle to President Obama's czars. "The statute provides these guideposts, but...

The NHS spent more than £800m settling legal claims last year as complaints of medical negligence against the service rose sharply. The surge in payouts is revealed in the NHS Litigation Authority's annual accounts which show that maternity services attract the highest legal costs. Clinical errors in delivering babies can result in lifelong damage and payments accordingly reflect the intensive medical care often needed for decades to come.

PARIS (AP) — Air France will give about euro17,500 ($24,000) as an advance to the families of the victims of the crash of Air France Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, the company's chief executive said Friday.Air France lawyers are contacting the families of the 228 victims from 32 countries to make sure the money gets to them, Phillipe Gourgeon said in an interview broadcast Friday on RTL radio. Air France also is looking into holding a memorial for all the victims of the May 31 crash, Gourgeon said.Some families of French victims have accused Air France of...

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration plans to appoint a "Special Master for Compensation" to ensure that companies receiving federal bailout funds are abiding by executive-pay guidelines, according to people familiar with the matter. The administration is expected to name Kenneth Feinberg, who oversaw the federal government's compensation fund for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, to act as a pay czar for the Treasury Department, these people said. Mr. Feinberg's appointment could be announced as early as next week, when the administration is expected to release executive-compensation guidelines for firms receiving aid from the $700 billion Troubled Asset...

The family of a man who was stabbed to death by teenage thugs after he asked them to keep the noise down have been denied compensation - because he tried to fight off his killers. Kevin Johnson, 22, was brutally murdered by the gang who invited him to 'meet Mr Stanley' during a confrontation outside his home moments before plunging a blade into his chest, arm and back. The young father collapsed a few feet from his front door whilst the trio - aged 19, 16 and 17 - ran off in 'triumphant mood' before stabbing their second victim a...

your brains or your signature will be on this resignation letter. That's what Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner might as well be saying to the next corporate CEOs he intends to muscle out of their posts. Bloomberg reports Treasury's highest-ranking tax evader said he is gearing up to turn senior management and boards of directors at banks that require "exceptional" assistance from the U.S. government into roadkill. "If in the future, banks need exceptional assistance in order to get through this, then we will make sure that assistance comes," while ensuring taxpayers are protected, Geithner said today in an interview on...

A report urging reform of the public-pension benefits given to Colorado educators was skewered Wednesday by the chairman of the House Education Committee, himself a retired teacher. Rep. Michael Merrifield, D-Manitou Springs, drew applause from a standing-room only crowd when he closely questioned Michael Mannino, a University of Colorado professor who helped write the report. ...

What is the difference between Sadam Hussein, Saudi Arabia, and Iran providing financial compensation to the families of those who perpetrated terror against Israel, and International diplomats who pledge $3 billion in financial aid to Islamists in Gaza, to help them recover and rebuild from a counter-terror operation? The clear message from a counter-terror operation: terrorism will "cost you", big time. The clear message to Islamic terrorists from Inrernational diplomats: terrorism "pays", big time, to the tune $3 billion in aid. te

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Ping An seeks China govt help over Fortis losses BEIJING/BRUSSELS: Chinese insurer Ping An is asking the Chinese government to help seek compensation from Belgium over its losses following the state-led carve-up of financial group Fortis, a government source said yesterday. Ping An Insurance (Group) Co booked a loss of about 15.7 billion yuan (US$2.3 billion) on its investment in Fortis NV after marking down the market value of its 5 per cent stake in the Dutch-Belgian group. Shares in Fortis have fallen to less than 1 euro from almost 30 euros in April 2007, when it launched its ill-fated...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3, 2008 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said  a new handbook is another step in improving the care and support wouynded, ill or injured troops and their families deserve.  The handbook compiles the myriad information they need in one succinct, easy-to-read publication. In his foreword to the Compensation and Benefits Handbook, Gates said its biggest benefit is that it “compiles into one source the relevant information that you and your family previously had to search through numerous sources to find.” The handbook was created to help servicemembers and the family members helping to care for them...

Six asylum seekers are claiming up to £300,000 in compensation after they were held in detention following their entry into the UK, it was confirmed today. Lawyers for the six said the claim had been lodged for up to £50,000 each on grounds of false imprisonment. The asylum seekers arrived in the UK unaccompanied, saying they were under 18, but did not have documents to prove it, according to reports. At least three were detained with adults for up to two weeks at an immigration centre while their ages were checked. Mark Scott, of solicitors Bhatt Murphy, said the claimants...

Non-compete clauses for tollways would be a non-starter under a policy the Texas Transportation Commission will consider Thursday. Such language in toll road contracts, which generally prohibit a toll road owner (such as the Texas Department of Transportation) from building or expanding a nearby free road, or require compensation for doing so, have been controversial in Texas and elsewhere. TxDOT’s contract with Cintra-Zachry, a Spanish and American consortium that will build and operate a southern section of Texas 130, requires TxDOT to pay up if it makes certain highway improvements within 10 miles of the road. The commission Thursday will...