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Guilty Plea for Man Behind Creative E-Trade Scam
Court Watch News |
2009/05/22 09:08
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pA California man has pleaded guilty to opening tens of thousands of bogus online brokerage accounts and then pocketing tiny test deposits made by companies like E-Trade Financial and Charles Schwab.
/ppMichael Largent, 23, of Plumas Lake, Calif. pleaded guilty Thursday to computer fraud charges in connection with the scam, which ran between November 2007 and May 2008. /ppLargent's arrest was widely covered on the Internet last May, where it was likened to so-called Salami Slicing scams depicted in movies such as Superman III and Office Spaces. /ppAccording to prosecutors, Largent wrote a script that opened more than 58,000 online accounts at instructions such as E-trade and Schwab. He used fake names, including cartoon monikers such as Hank Hill and Rusty Shackelford to open these accounts and then profited when the brokerage firms would make tiny test deposits to make sure they were linked to his account. /ppTypically these deposits were between $0.01 and $2 but they added up. In total he made or tried to make more than $50,000 in the scam, the Department of Justice said./ppLargent is also alleged to have received more than $8,000 in micro-deposits from Google, although he was not charged with this in his May 22 indictment./ppHe is set to be sentenced on Aug. 13 and faces up to five years in federal prison on two computer fraud charges, a U.S. department of Justice spokeswoman said Thursday./p |
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Music executive who faked his death pleads guilty
Court Watch News |
2009/05/06 10:28
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A music executive has pleaded guilty to faking his own death and pretending to be his killer.
WSMV-TV reports 62-year-old William Grothe pleaded guilty Wednesday to attempting to defraud his life insurance company and creating the false impression of his own death.
Grothe disappeared Nov. 19. His car was found in Nashville near the Cumberland River boat ramp, and his wallet and cap were nearby.
Assistant District Attorney Rob McGuire says Grothe took out $1 million in life insurance policies.
His attorney, Richard Tennent, says Grothe, an attorney who worked for a Music Row company that collects royalties for songwriters, was living as a homeless man in Arizona.
Tennent said Grothe has been diagnosed with bipolar disease and depression. |
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U.S. top court upholds TV profanity crackdown
Court Watch News |
2009/04/28 08:45
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| The Supreme Court upheld on Tuesday a U.S. government crackdown on profanity on television, a policy that subjects broadcasters to fines for airing a single expletive blurted out on a live show.span id=midArticle_byline/spanspan id=midArticle_0/spanpIn its first ruling on broadcast indecency standards in more than 30 years, the high court handed a victory to the Federal Communications Commission, which adopted the crackdown against the one-time use of profanity on live television when children are likely to be watching. /p |
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Civil beating case against Snoop Dogg begins
Court Watch News |
2009/04/25 08:47
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| A man suing Snoop Dogg for millions told a jury Friday that the euphoria of being near one of his idols quickly turned to terror during a 2005 concert when he was savagely beaten.pRichard Monroe Jr. claims the rapper, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, hit him with a brass-knuckle microphone after he jumped onstage and put his hand on the performer's shoulder./ppBroadus sat a few feet away as Monroe described waking up naked, robbed, and in a pool of blood after the beatdown by other performers and the rapper's security detail. A videotape of the incident that occurred at the White River Amphitheater near Seattle was also shown to jurors Friday./ppBroadus' attorneys said the video doesn't show the blow to the back of the head that Monroe claims the rapper delivered, nor evidence that the rapper should be forced to pay any damages./ppThey told jurors during the trial's opening moments Friday that Broadus' security guards had mere seconds to react when Monroe — who stands 6-feet-3 inches tall and weighs nearly 300 pounds — came on stage unexpectedly./p |
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