Category: Fraud and Crackdowns

HexClad, the cookware brand backed by celebrity endorsements and aggressive online marketing, agreed to pay $2.5 million to resolve allegations that its products labeled “toxic-free” actually contained PFAS, the synthetic compounds widely known as forever chemicals. The settlement centers on California’s restrictions against misleading chemical-safety claims on cookware, and it raises a pointed question: did…

Canteen, one of the largest vending machine operators in the United States, has agreed to pay $6.94 million to resolve a class action lawsuit alleging it charged card-paying customers more than the price displayed on its machines. The settlement covers purchases made with credit, debit, or prepaid cards, and individual payouts range from $30 to…

Six Jamaican nationals face federal charges for allegedly running a sweepstakes fraud operation that impersonated Publishers Clearing House, targeted elderly Americans across the country, and siphoned their savings and Social Security payments. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut announced the charges, describing a scheme in which the defendants purchased lead lists of…

A Chicago-area investment adviser allegedly funneled his own father-in-law’s retirement accounts into a pooled fund, used the inflated asset base to attract outside investors, and then lost more than $3.6 million through trading failures and personal spending, according to parallel federal enforcement actions filed this month. John Myers, who operated through Sterling Capital, LLC, and…

Thousands of car owners who paid for extended warranties that never delivered real coverage are getting a second chance at partial recovery. The Federal Trade Commission is mailing 9,074 refund checks totaling more than $186,000 to consumers deceived by American Vehicle Protection Corporation, a Florida-based operation that sold sham auto warranties through aggressive telemarketing. Combined…

Robert D. Christensen and Anthony M. Matic, co-owners of a local real estate investment company in Oregon, have been sentenced to federal prison for running a fraud scheme that stretched from January 2019 to June 2023. Christensen received 63 months behind bars, while Matic was sentenced to 33 months. The scheme promised investors returns of…

Four people tied to a decade-long, $72 million Ponzi scheme run through a Toledo-based investment firm called Northwest Capital were sentenced this week in Lucas County Court of Common Pleas. Richard Scheich, James Delverene, Doug Miller, and Nancy Rathbun each pleaded guilty after a joint investigation by the Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Securities…

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have charged two members of a money-laundering network with funneling at least $43 million stolen from victims of so-called pig-butchering investment scams through roughly 45 shell companies and 140 company bank accounts. Zhuoying Chen, known as “Jolene,” and Haojie Zhang, known as “Kevin,” allegedly ran the operation from Brooklyn and Queens…

Benjamin Paul Wiener, a Sioux Falls, South Dakota, resident, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on 29 counts tied to an alleged cryptocurrency fraud scheme that caused approximately $20 million in investor losses across three states. The charges span wire fraud, money laundering, bank fraud, and aggravated identity theft, a combination that signals…

A federal grand jury in the Northern District of Texas indicted Damien Moran, 36, of Dallas on 10 counts of wire fraud for allegedly running a precious-metals scheme that drained retirement savings from more than 100 victims, most of them elderly or near retirement age. The indictment, dated May 20, 2026, follows a civil enforcement…