The financial news that actually matters
Covers financial scams, fraud cases, regulatory enforcement actions, and government crackdowns on illegal financial activity. It educates readers on financial safety and risk prevention.
Terrence Chalk, a self-described wealth advisor who operated under the alias “Dr. Cash,” was sentenced to three years in federal prison for running a Ponzi scheme that targeted churchgoers and attendees of wealth-building seminars. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York labeled Chalk a “serial fraudster,” a characterization tied to his…
Federal authorities charged 455 defendants across 45 states and territories for allegedly submitting more than $6.5 billion in false health-care claims, seizing over $182 million in cash, luxury vehicles, jewelry, and other assets in the process. The operation, which stretched across 56 federal districts and enlisted 50 state Medicaid Fraud Control Units, represents the largest…
Americans lost more money to fraud in 2025 than in any previous year on record. The Federal Trade Commission reported that consumers filed complaints totaling about $16 billion in losses, a 25 percent increase over the $12.5 billion reported in 2024. Imposter scams, where criminals pose as trusted businesses or government agencies, drove $3.5 billion…
Vincent Camarda, a Long Island investment adviser who ran A.G. Morgan Financial Advisors, LLC, pleaded guilty to securities fraud and investment adviser fraud in federal court in Central Islip. The scheme raised at least $138 million from at least 431 investors, many of them elderly or financially unsophisticated, through promissory notes tied to five private…
Drivers across the United States are receiving text messages that claim they owe a few dollars in unpaid tolls, and federal agencies say the real cost of responding is far higher than the amount demanded. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center has logged over 2,000 complaints about these fraudulent texts since early March 2024, with…
Federal agents arrested Christopher Alexander Delgado, the 34-year-old CEO of Goliath Ventures, on charges of wire fraud and money laundering tied to an alleged cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme that collected at least $328 million from investors. The scheme ran from January 2023 through January 2026 out of Apopka, Florida, according to a criminal complaint filed in…
Americans reported losing more than $7.9 billion to investment scams during calendar year 2025, with the median individual loss topping $10,000. That figure marks a sharp escalation from $5.7 billion in investment-scam losses reported just one year earlier, raising hard questions about why federal enforcement and consumer education have failed to slow the bleeding. The…
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged Ryan Wear and Jordan Chirico with operating a Ponzi scheme built around water-vending machines that, according to the government, took in more than $200 million from investors. The SEC filed parallel civil actions alleging the pair ran two Ponzi-like schemes through Water Station Management LLC and Creative Technologies, Inc., raising…
Federal regulators have charged five unregistered brokers and four companies for raising at least $528 million from more than 4,000 investors worldwide through a pre-IPO fraud scheme that operated between approximately March 2019 and July 2022. A parallel criminal indictment names Raymond John Pirrello Jr., the founder and executive of Prior2IPO, on three counts including…
Roughly 2,700 people, many of them ordinary retail investors, poured more than $770 million into what federal regulators now call a Ponzi scheme run by a Pennsylvania resident and his companies. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice filed parallel enforcement actions alleging the operation fabricated the size and revenue of an…