The financial news that actually matters
Verizon retirees have taken the company to court over a $5.9 billion transfer of their pension obligations to private insurance companies, arguing the deal strips them of the federal safety net that once guaranteed their monthly checks. The lawsuit centers on whether Verizon’s fiduciaries met their legal duty under ERISA when they selected insurers to…
A Connecticut court froze annuity payments for policyholders of PHL Variable Insurance Company in May 2024 after regulators determined the insurer was in hazardous financial condition. The collapse left one retiree unable to access a $99,000 annuity contract and exposed roughly 100,000 policyholders to a reported $2.2 billion shortfall. With liquidation now expected by mid-2027,…
Nearly half a million people who lost money to a credit-repair pyramid scheme are now receiving refund checks from the Federal Trade Commission. The agency has begun mailing more than $10.9 million to 443,048 consumers who paid Financial Education Services between May 2019 and May 2022. The checks represent a fraction of the more than…
Retirees who placed six-figure savings into annuities expecting ironclad protection face a sharp dividing line based on where they live. When an insurance company becomes insolvent, each state operates a guaranty fund that steps in to cover policyholders, but the standard ceiling sits at $250,000 per individual annuity contract. That cap leaves anyone with a…
Federal prosecutors and international police agencies arrested at least 276 people and restrained more than $700 million in cryptocurrency tied to Southeast Asian scam compounds that targeted American victims through fake investment and romance schemes. The sweep dismantled at least nine scam centers, most linked to operations in Burma, and produced wire-fraud and money-laundering charges…
Thousands of people who lost money in the BitClub Network crypto fraud may never see a dollar returned. The Justice Department is moving to dismiss its criminal case against a remaining defendant in United States v. Goettsche et al., docket 19-CR-877-CCC in the District of New Jersey, after prosecutors alleged that at least $722 million…
A San Diego nurse practitioner kept billing Medicare for millions of dollars in mobile wound-care services even after she was locked up in federal prison on an unrelated sentence, according to federal prosecutors. Blanca Estela Cardenas and her daughter, Raquel Pasillas, were charged in a $9.5 million Medicare fraud scheme as part of the 2026…
Retirees drawing taxable income from Social Security, pensions, or individual retirement accounts face a September 15 deadline for their third-quarter estimated tax payment. Missing that installment triggers an addition to tax under federal statute, calculated using the IRS-set quarterly interest rate applied to the shortfall for each payment period. For households on fixed incomes, the…
Federal prosecutors have charged three people with billing Medicare more than $118 million for wound-graft procedures that were medically unnecessary or, in some cases, never performed at all. Leigh Tesar, Walter Presha Jr., and Koby Evans face health care fraud and conspiracy counts in an indictment filed in the Middle District of Florida, Case No….
Depositors with balances above $250,000 at a tiny Indiana thrift are now waiting to learn how much of their money they will recover after federal regulators shut down the institution on July 10, 2026, marking the third U.S. bank failure this year. Kentland Federal Savings and Loan Association, with roughly $3.7 million in total assets,…