Free Republic

A San Francisco venture capitalist who was once dubbed 'Silicon Valley's Party Animal' has been convicted of fraud totalling $19 million - and now faces up to 60 years in prison. Michael Brent Rothenberg, who was raised in a Jehovah's Witness family in Georgetown, Texas, used his dense network of successful Ivy League friends to set up his own VC fund in 2012 based on the strategy of throwing opulent parties. He rubbed shoulders with Mark Zuckerberg, rented out baseball stadiums for networking events, and threw all-day-and-night parties in a bid to attract investors and companies to invest in. This...

Federal prosecutors probing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol have in recent weeks sought a wide range of documents related to fundraising after the 2020 election, looking to determine if former president Donald Trump or his advisers scammed donors by using false claims about voter fraud to raise money, eight people familiar with the new inquiries said. Special counsel Jack Smith’s office has sent subpoenas in recent weeks to Trump advisers and former campaign aides, Republican operatives and other consultants involved in the 2020 presidential campaign, the people said. They have also heard testimony from some of...

Another day, another leak. Special Counsel Jack Smith is now investigating Trump’s effort to raise money off of ‘false claims of election fraud,’ according to a leak to the Washington Post. Federal prosecutors are investigating money raised between November 3, 2020 and January 20, 2021. The Washington Post reported: Federal prosecutors probing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol have in recent weeks sought a wide range of documents related to fundraising after the 2020 election, looking to determine if Trump or his advisers scammed donors by using false claims about voter fraud to raise money, eight people...

VIDEOAs you can see in this video, YouTube is officially claiming that all revenue earned by creators up to the moment of demonetization of their channels will be REFUNDED to the advertisers if the demonetization period lasts for more than 50 days. Since the vast majority of channels that are demonetized remain so for more than 50 days, this affects quite a bit of creators and revenue. The strange thing is that demonetized channels at least up to September 2020 were paid their earnings up to the point of demonetization as happened to my DUmmie FUnnies channel. However, starting at...

MIAMI — Daniela Rendon, 31, of Miami made her appearance in federal magistrate court today and was charged with fraudulently obtaining COVID-19 relief loans and grants under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Relief Program. According to the indictment, Rendon submitted fraudulent applications seeking COVID-19 relief funds from the Small Business Administration and PPP. She is alleged to have falsified her revenue and payroll and submitted fraudulent IRS tax forms. According to the charges, Rendon received approximately $381,000 in fraudulent funds. To disburse the funds, she is alleged to have enrolled with a payroll processor to...

ORLANDO, Fla. – An Orlando woman was arrested Wednesday, accused of a romance scam that drained an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor of his life savings, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Prosecutors and the FBI say Peaches Stergo, 36, of Championsgate met the victim on a dating website six or seven years ago, and in 2017 asked to borrow money to pay a lawyer who was refusing to release funds from an injury settlement. According to the federal indictment, over the next few years, Stergo repeatedly demanded the victim deposit money into her bank accounts, saying if he didn’t they would...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday questioned whether an ex-aide to former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was lawfully convicted on a bribery charge as it considered two cases that could place new limits on federal prosecutors in public corruption cases. The first case centered on whether Joseph Percoco’s conduct in taking a $35,000 payment from a real estate developer when managing Cuomo’s re-election campaign in 2014 is covered by a federal law that requires that “honest services” be provided to the public. Percoco says that because he was not working for the government at the time, he had...

Gillum claimed in a statement that he was innocent and that the charges were political, even though he is being charged by the Department of Justice, which is overseen by the Biden administration. “The Indictment alleges that between 2016 and 2019, defendants Gillum and Lettman-Hicks conspired to commit wire fraud, by unlawfully soliciting and obtaining funds from various entities and individuals through false and fraudulent promises and representations that the funds would be used for a legitimate purpose,” the statement says. “The Indictment further alleges the defendants used third parties to divert a portion of those funds to a company...

MIAMI - Former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum has been indicted on multiple charges connected to campaign contribution fraud during his 2018 run for governor of Florida. A federal grand jury has returned a twenty-one count indictment against Gillum, 42. The indictment alleges that between 2016 and 2019, Gillum and co-defendant Sharon Janet Lettman-Hicks conspired to commit wire fraud, by unlawfully soliciting and obtaining funds from various entities and individuals through false and fraudulent promises and representations that the funds would be used for a legitimate purpose. The indictment also alleges Gillum and Lettman-Hicks used third parties to divert a...

Community “charity” fundraising company GoFundMe demonstrated they’re woke and fascist at the same time by canceling the Freedom Convoy campaign and promising to send the $9+ million raised to “approved charities.” Now, they’re scrambling to fix the PR nightmare that ensued by moving to refund all donations. The company had hoped that by dropping the news late on a Friday that they’d avoid some of the backlash. But it was quickly seized by conservatives across social media as an example of the totalitarian nature of the left. We didn’t let them oppose freedom without voicing our opinions and pushing to...

Michael Avenatti Stormy Daniels Kate Briquelet Fri, February 4, 2022, 2:04 PM·6 min read In this article: Michael Avenatti American attorney and entrepreneur Stormy Daniels American pornographic actress and director Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images California litigator Michael Avenatti, who in 2018 earned stardom as President Donald Trump’s legal foil, was convicted on Friday of stealing funds from adult film actress Stormy Daniels, the client who made him famous. A Manhattan federal jury found Avenatti guilty of single counts of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft related to his pocketing nearly $300,000 of Daniels’ advance for her memoir, Full...

A former White House adviser to former President Obama pled guilty to wire fraud on Friday in connection to an alleged scheme to steal $218,000 from a school network that he helped create. “Seth Andrew, a former White House advisor, admitted today to devising a scheme to steal from the very same schools he helped create," Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. "Andrew now faces time in federal prison for abusing his position and robbing those he promised to help.”

Michael Kail, former veep of IT Operations at Netflix, was convicted on Friday on 28 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering after a federal jury found that he took advantage of his position to demand bribes from vendors. "As Netflix’s Vice President of IT Operations, Michael Kail wielded immense power to approve valuable Netflix contracts with small tech vendors, and he rigged that process to unlock a stream of cash and stock kickbacks to himself," said Acting United States Attorney Stephanie Hinds in a statement. "Netflix and other companies expect and deserve honest services from its employees."...

A federal grand jury in Cleveland, Ohio, charged Maejor Page, whose real name is Tyree Conyers-Page, with three counts of money laundering and one count of wire fraud, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release. The indictment set forth by the government alleged that Page created a 501(c)(3) Facebook account titled “Black Lives Matter of Greater Atlanta.” He allegedly used the account to defraud individuals of over more than $450,000 after the tax-exempt status was revoked by the IRS, according to a press release. “Page is accused of using unprecedented tensions and uncertainty due to widespread civil unrest...

Allegedly Used Secret Swiss and Bermudian Bank Accounts in Scheme to Conceal Approximately Two Billion Dollars of Capital Gains Income A federal grand jury in San Francisco, California, returned a 39 count indictment charging Robert T. Brockman, the Chief Executive Officer of an Ohio-based software company, with tax evasion, wire fraud, money laundering, and other offenses, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Tax Division, U.S. Attorney David L. Anderson for the Northern District of California, and Chief of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigation Jim Lee. The charges stem from an alleged decades-long scheme...

The Department of Justice announced today that the Western Union Remission Fund began its second distribution of approximately $148 million in funds forfeited to the U.S. government from the Western Union Company (Western Union) to approximately 33,000 victims located in the United States and abroad. These victims, many of whom were elderly victims of consumer fraud and abuse, will be recovering the full amount of their losses.This is the second in a series of payment distributions to occur in the Western Union remission.  The first distribution paid approximately $153 million to over 109,000 victims in March of this year. ...

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney Justin E. Herdman of the Northern District of Ohio, and FBI Cleveland Special Agent in Charge Eric B. Smith announced a former Cleveland Clinic employee was arrested yesterday without incident by law enforcement and had his initial court appearance today.Dr. Qing Wang, a former Cleveland Clinic Foundation (CCF) employee, is charged with false claims and wire fraud related to more than $3.6 million in grant funding that Dr. Wang and his research group received from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). According to the criminal complaint, Dr. Wang knowingly...

A federal jury in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, found Nvahbulai Quisiah guilty today of conspiracy to defraud the United States, preparing false client tax returns, wire fraud, and identity theft, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.According to the evidence presented at trial, Quisiah owned and operated First Premier Tax Service, a tax return preparation business in Philadelphia.  From 2010 through 2017, Quisiah falsified clients tax returns by claiming false dependents, itemized deductions, and business losses to fraudulently increase the refunds...

Some members of the mainstream media have issued mea culpas for building up now-disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti, while others have shirked responsibility and some have even blamed President Trump – but it all falls flat for critics who watched his rise from lawyer for a porn star to potential Democratic presidential candidate. Avenatti, who represented adult film actress Stormy Daniels in a lawsuit against President Trump, appeared on CNN and MSNBC a combined 229 times over two years, according to the Media Research Center. CNN’s Brian Stelter was Avenatti’s biggest cheerleader, once declaring that he was a “serious” contender to...

This is absolutely STUNNING!Even for Democrats! These people are attempting a communist takeover of America!!The House Judiciary Committee released a 169-page report in the dead of the night Monday alleging President Trump committed criminal acts including bribery and wire fraud.  As Cristina Laila reported — The report will accompany the two very broad articles of impeachment that will be voted on this week, likely on Wednesday.Of course, they made the criminal charges up this past weekend after voting in committee on two bogus charges:1.) Abuse of power – a very broad charge that means nothing2.) Obstruction of Congress – a made up crime. It...