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Results for " fraud " 940 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle

Vice President Vance says migrant communities show 'clear pattern' in federal fraud as investigations widen

JD Vance reveals $230 billion in fraud uncovered since Trump took office and explains why recouping stolen federal funds remains a major challenge.

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Aug 9 • 12:57 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
How AI-Powered Business Email Compromise Scams Are Stealing Billions

Business Email Compromise scams cost companies billions. Criminals are use AI, deepfakes and voice cloning to commit fraud. Learn how businesses can protect themselves.

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Aug 8 • 1:12 PM EDT • Business • forbes.com
Decatur County woman hosts health expo to teach community about scam prevention, wellness

Nancy Screen Jeffery organizes free event covering health, finances, and fraud awareness

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Aug 8 • 11:06 AM EDT • Health • walb.com
A Caller Posed as Webster Bank’s Fraud Manager. One Business Lost $50,000

A West Hartford business received a phone call from someone claiming to be a fraud manager at Webster Bank. The caller was not working for ... Read More

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Aug 7 • 4:40 PM EDT • Business • yahoo.com
Trump administration proceeds with efforts to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook

The Trump administration is moving ahead with its efforts to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, two months after the Supreme Court allowed her to retain her job while she fights the president’s effort to terminate her over mortgage fraud allegations that she has denied.

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Aug 7 • 3:45 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
Trump considering renewing push to fire Lisa Cook from Federal Reserve Board

President Donald Trump is signaling that he may move forward with his attempt to fire Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook over mortgage fraud allegations.

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Aug 7 • 1:48 PM EDT • Business • foxbusiness.com
In ancient Rome, tax fraud was punishable by death

Stone tablets recount a corruption case so widespread that it became a capital offense in 480 CE.

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Aug 7 • 12:15 PM EDT • Science • popsci.com
Outcome Health founders’ fraud convictions upheld

Rishi Shah and Shradha Agarwal, whose company once was a darling of the Chicago tech scene, were convicted of fraud in 2023.

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Aug 7 • 11:51 AM EDT • Health • chicagobusiness.com
Types of Business Fraud to Look Out For

Discover five common types of business fraud in 2026—BEC, check fraud, account takeover, ACH fraud and ransomware—and how to prevent each.

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Aug 7 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • jpmorgan.com
Republican senators file amendment to stop college sports bill from overriding state women's sports laws

Republican senators filed an amendment to ensure the Protect College Sports Act cannot preempt state laws banning biological males from women's sports.

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Aug 6 • 1:31 PM EDT • Sports • foxnews.com
Man who ran Oregon health care facilities admits to fraudulent sleep study, over $2 million in fake billing

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A Coos Bay man pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit health care fraud on Wednesday, officials from the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced. Mehrdad Gerami, 67, fa…

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Aug 5 • 11:07 PM EDT • Health • koin.com
Complete Health to pay $14M to settle Medicare Advantage fraud allegations

The value-based primary care provider submitted false diagnosis codes to the CMS for three years, inflating its reimbursement by millions of dollars, according to the DOJ.

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Aug 5 • 6:34 AM EDT • Health • healthcaredive.com
19 charged in $4M Pennsylvania home health care fraud schemes

Nineteen people were charged in Medicaid fraud cases involving more than $4 million in alleged false home care billings, authorities said.

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Aug 4 • 10:59 PM EDT • Health • usatoday.com
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‘Your days are numbered’: DOJ, federal agencies target health care fraud, Medicaid schemers in Pennsylvania

Federal agencies and state partners announced criminal charges against 19 people who allegedly defrauded Medicaid with home health schemes.

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Aug 4 • 7:13 PM EDT • Health • whyy.org
Federal appeals court says Trump admin was wrong to terminate climate funds

The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund was designed to finance small energy projects. The Trump administration accused the nonprofits of mismanagement and fraud

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Aug 4 • 2:30 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
Federal appeals court says Trump admin was wrong to terminate climate funds

The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund was designed to finance small energy projects. The Trump administration accused the nonprofits of mismanagement and fraud

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Aug 4 • 2:30 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
Federal appeals court says Trump admin was wrong to terminate climate funds

The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund was designed to finance small energy projects. The Trump administration accused the nonprofits of mismanagement and fraud

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Aug 4 • 2:30 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
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19 defendants charged in Pennsylvania home healthcare fraud schemes

Nineteen defendants are facing criminal charges following an investigation into healthcare fraud in Pennsylvania, officials said.

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Aug 4 • 12:01 PM EDT • Health • nbcphiladelphia.com
MrBeast Sales Slow, Angel Stock Falls, MUBI and Neon Look for Hits, and Will an NBA Franchise Set a Sales Record?

(Welcome to the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a newsletter on the entertainment industry and business strategy. I write a weekly Streaming Ratings Report and a bi-weekly strategy column, along with occasional deep dives into other topics, like today’s article. Please subscribe.) You probably remember egg prices spiking a few years ago. This led to a lot of debate between the pro-market/pro-competition/antitrust/Neo-Brandesian crowd and the center/center-right/center-left/abundance/libertarian crowd over the cause, whether it was the avian flu outbreak or whether industry consolidation led to price fixing, using avian flu as a convenient cover. Basel Musharbash wrote a whole investigation at BIG looking at it. Well, two years later, we have our answer: it was price fixing. The Justice Department found proof, via emails, of price fixing. Indeed, just the threat of an investigation brought prices down two years ago: I bring this up because at least half a dozen of my favorite political writers and pundits, who were skeptical about price fixing at the time, haven’t written any mea culpas on this issue. It’s really dispiriting and makes it much, much harder to trust their work on other issues. If you take a hard stand on an issue, then you get it wrong, you need to explain how and why you got it wrong. Or update your priors. This is how epistemological bubbles are formed! All of which is to say, it’s time for another installment of “What I Got Right, What I Got Wrong”. Last issue, I mostly focused on the “wrong” side of the equation, so today’s is a bit more balanced, but with one big mea culpa (though I still stand by my original concerns). Let’s dive right in! Subscribe CORRECTION: UFC Didn’t Release Subscriber Data (But Seems to Have Bragged About It Internally) In my analysis of the viewership of UFC Freedom 250, I wrote... “Paramount has also released datecdotes bragging about their subscriber numbers. Earlier this year, they claimed that the first UFC fight on Paramount+ brought in 1 million subscribers.” Well, that datecdote did not come from a PR rep, but from great reporting from James Faris at Business Insider. The actual quote was this: “Paramount’s flagship streaming service generated about a million new subscribers on the day of its first-ever UFC event, Paramount product chief Dane Glasgow told employees in a town hall on Tuesday morning, three staffers who attended the meeting told Business Insider.“ This wasn’t the biggest goof in the world; even Faris emphasized to me that this is more a “clarification” than a correction. Still, it sounds like, internally, the folks at Paramount were very happy about this result—and I’m guessing they were happy with this news getting out—even though the gains didn’t last through the quarter, dropping to 700K adds. RIGHT: MrBeast’s Struggles Continue... I’m very skeptical about MrBeast’s burgeoning media “empire” and, in particular, its $5 billion valuation, as I wrote earlier this year and last year. Sure enough, according to Business Insider, regarding its “booming” consumer products division_:_ “US sales volume grew 13% year-over-year in 2025, following a 33% leap the previous year, according to a presentation deck dated May 2026....A February 2025 investor deck viewed by Business Insider showed Feastables’ net revenue more than doubled in 2024 from 2023, to $215 million, and was forecast to grow 74% in 2025, to $375 million.” [Emphasis mine.] If you told investors that you projected 74% growth but delivered 13%,1 that’s not ideal. But it’s not just MrBeast. Logan Paul and KSI’s Prime had sales drop in half for their energy drinks. It’s one thing to build a successful entertainment company and an entirely different thing to succeed in the heavily-consolidated-but-also-very-competitive consumer packaged goods space! CPGs are dominated by a few firms with very wide moats compared to YouTube, which has few barriers to entry. These businesses require different skill sets and have completely different business environments. WRONG: Does the NBA Have an $8 Billion Bidder? Almost as soon as I published my article about the NBA’s finances, casting skepticism on NBA expansion, I saw this Front Office Sports headline: One group “claims to have already raised $8 billion” for the Vegas expansion team. I mean, wow. That’s just $2 billion less than what the Los Angeles Lakers were valued at when they were sold just last year. And they’re arguably the most popular team in the NBA. (Side note: the new owner is now under an investigation for fraud in how he went about financing the Lakers and the Dodgers purchases.) So much for the “dried up” language I used in that article. (This is why I usually stick to my “Entertainment Nuance Guy” tone in articles...) I went off old information—from April, when I read/heard about the NBA downplaying expansion efforts—instead of doing a quick double-check for new news. That said...if you read the article, the market for Seattle is “slow”, with just one reported bidder. So I wasn’t entirely off. This goof has annoyed me since I first published it, mainly because it undercut that article’s real point, which I stand by: NBA franchises are really overvalued right now. Now, I get why NBA teams are overvalued. When it comes to owning sports teams, it’s basically never wrong to assume that some rich person somewhere will care more about owning a team (or just being part of a group since they’re so expensive) than the actual financials. There are only so many teams to own, and opportunities to buy in preferred markets don’t come along very often. This explains why the teams sell for such high multiples (usually above a 10 to 12.5 revenue multiple, which is very high). You only need one person to overpay! Beyond the ultra-wealthy luxury good explanation, I worry NBA teams are becoming speculative assets. More and more private equity investors are buying into NBA teams. But the value, in owning a team, comes from selling it later, not any meaningful relationship to revenue or profit growth. In other words, the newer NBA owners are increasingly expecting someone later to buy their inflated asset. That’s not sound economics; that’s the “greater fool” theory at work.2 At some point, actually making money has to matter. Especially since revenue growth is now below the growth of the stock market. (And this matters because the NBA doesn’t have easy levers to pull to drastically lower their costs—half of their revenue has to go to players and then you actually have to run a team, including coaching, training, travel, media expenses, and more—or raise revenues aside from one-off expansions in America and overseas.) I just don’t see how investors make their money back buying NBA teams, except for selling at a higher price later on down the line. But if revenue/profit growth continues to slow, at some point, someone will be left holding the bag. RIGHT: Baseball and Basketball are about equally popular. Related to the above, I wanted to cite two quick pieces of evidence for one of my other theories: that the NBA and MLB are about as popular as each other, but the NBA gets much, much better media coverage. One YouGov survey has that fans prefer basketball to baseball by 52% to 48%, which I’m guessing is within the margin of error for that poll. That’s virtually even, meaning they’re about the same popularity. Over on NBC, a recent Red Sox-Yankees game averaged 4 million viewers, higher than Sunday Night Basketball’s average of 3.4 million on the same network. A Yankees-Dodgers game averaged 3.9 million two weeks ago. Not every game averages this much, but it shows you that baseball isn’t far off from basketball, depending on the matchup. Altogether, the NBA is just slightly more popular than baseball, but NBC is paying MLB a fraction of what they pay the NBA, a point I’ve made before. RIGHT: Angel, MUBI and Neon Updates... I’ve long been skeptical about many of Hollywood’s buzziest startups/smaller indie studios. It’s not that they don’t make great movies—films like Anora and Everything Everywhere All at Once are amazing—or that they’re not (rightfully) pushing the majors to make better films, but...they get a ton of hype, and that hype often doesn’t live up to the reality or difficulty in scaling up. Starting with MUBI, well, The Wall Street Journal wrote a feature on MUBI’s struggles last April, best summarized by the subheader “After Sequoia valued Mubi at $1 billion, a left-wing revolt sent the indie film company into a tailspin”. MUBI lost $7.3 million on $200 million in revenue in Q4 2025, but reportedly hit a record 1.7 million subscribers at the end of Q1. As for Neon, Department M purchased a “significant stake” in the company earlier this year. How much is that “stake” worth? According to Deadline, “No financial figures for the Neon-Department M deal were disclosed.” So...that’s not great! If it was a big valuation, we’d hear about. Also, I found this curious: “Both Neon and Department M already have separate partnerships with Qatar. The Qatar Film Committee has a slate deal in place with the former, and a biopic production pact with the latter.” Color me skeptical about much Middle Eastern investment dollars. See: LIV Golf. Finally, as for Angel (formerly Angel Studios), their stock very, very slightly popped last month after Young Washington ($20 million budget) which made $45 million in the US, but their stock is still way down from its opening. Smaller Updates RIGHT: The WGA should focus on antitrust concerns! I’ve been on this for years. Post-WGA/AMTPT deal in 2023, I wrote an article for the Ankler calling on the WGA to focus and organize against industry consolidation. Sure enough, the WGA filed a lawsuit against the Paramount-WBD merger, and people are organizing around this issue now. I wish this energy had coalesced earlier (specifically to lobby Washington much earlier), but better late than never! WRONG: Actually, the chip shortage might be due to market manipulation. In my last “Long Reads for the Long Summer” article, I shared an article about how LLMs are causing memory chip prices to spike, which will make all electronics more expensive. Well, turns out, three RAM manufacturers control 90% of the market, and now a private lawsuit accuses them of price-fixing. So yeah. WRONG/UPDATE: The Odyssey will hold! Two weeks ago, I wrote, “As of this moment, we haven’t had a super-blockbuster, though The Odyssey, Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday could all cross the $500 million mark. (At this point, The Odyssey would need a very strong hold to get there.)” Well, it’s safe to say it’s going to have that hold! It only dropped 30% in weekend two and IMAX screenings are sold out all month. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is also off to a great start. RIGHT: People are rushing to get shows out yearly. I’ve long been bullish on yearly, weekly-released shows, and Leslie Goldberg at The Ankler wrote about how many people in town are now listening. WRONG: Mark Carney reverses Canada’s stance on homegrown production. After writing about Canada installing domestic production quotas, Canada has backed off. WRONG: I don’t trust Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s online “views”. When I originally wrote about the latest Spider-Man film’s record-breaking trailer, I thought this was just YouTube views, but after watching this Corridor Crew video and doing more research, well, it’s all social views of the trailer globally. Really? That stat includes TikTok, Reels and YouTube Shorts views. Basically, I don’t trust it anymore. (This film will probably set record, but I trust the pre-sales data more.) RIGHT: Celebrity Production companies are still struggling. I’ve written about this for years, but the company that I didn’t track was Kevin Hart’s HartBeat, which was valued at $650 million but is struggling now and might just end soon, especially after Kevin Hart pulled his endorsement deals. And Bad Robot is moving to NYC. CORRECTION: SpongeBob is a “second run” title. In my 2025 recap article, I had _SpongeBob SquarePants_labelled as a “library” title, when it is still a “second run” show, with new episodes still coming out on Nickelodeon. CORRECTION: In my last “What I Got Right, What I Got Wrong” update, I offered a correction from Doug Creutz and misspelled TD Cowen. Thanks, Grammarly! 1 Though he could have increased prices to make up for the gap, he couldn’t have increased them that much. 2 There’s a theory, which I think that Daryl Morey created and Bill Simmons popularized, that, to be successful building your team, you only need a handful of bad GMs in the league to take advantage of. To be clear, Daryl Morey’s theory was also for signing bad contracts, that you could always get out of bad contracts. Basically, there’s always someone who will make a bad trade. It’s not the same exact thing, but similar enough to the Greater Fool Theory that I really like it.

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Aug 4 • 11:55 AM EDT • Entertainment • entertainment.substack.com
WATCH LIVE: Justice Department unveils major health care fraud crackdown

Trump administration officials announce new charges and an anti-fraud initiative designed to strengthen investigations and protect taxpayer-funded health care programs.

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Aug 4 • 10:33 AM EDT • Health • foxnews.com
My Strange Amex Credit Card Fraud: What Really Happened In Malaysia?!

I just had fraudulent transactions on an Amex card, and I find them to be particularly strange, given some recent Citi card fraud. Here's why.

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Aug 4 • 10:07 AM EDT • Technology • onemileatatime.com
Colombia’s Petro repeats vote fraud claims days before handing over power
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Aug 3 • 11:58 PM EDT • Politics • aljazeera.com
AG candidate's new challenge: overcoming 'political no one' status

After surviving a ballot access challenge, Republican candidate for attorney general Michael Walsh is ready to move past allegations that he submitted fraudulent nomination signatures, and realistic about the uphill

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Aug 3 • 3:50 PM EDT • Politics • statehousenews.com
Getting weird mail? In Colorado, it could be business fraud

Have you ever gotten mail addressed to a strange business, instead of to you? Thousands of Colorado residents have reported their addresses are being used to register fake companies.

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Aug 3 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • kunc.org
Kennedy, Oz Contend Fraud Crackdown, Not Skyrocketing Prices, Led Millions To Leave Obamacare

Rising premiums forced many people in Affordable Care Act plans to give up their coverage. But the Trump administration claims a huge drop in enrollment is almost entirely due to its fraud crackdown.

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Aug 3 • 5:00 AM EDT • Health • kffhealthnews.org
Are disability services in Minnesota backsliding? Advocates fear being ‘pawns in political games.’

It’s a precarious moment for people with disabilities. Some fear funding cuts, fraud fallout and other federal and state actions put their services and rights at risk.

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Aug 2 • 6:00 AM EDT • Politics • startribune.com
Southlake man gets 9 years in prison for $8M business loan scheme

A former Southlake attorney was sentenced to nine years in federal prison for defrauding small-business owners seeking multimillion-dollar loans.

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Jul 31 • 9:29 PM EDT • Business • dallasnews.com
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DOJ issues declination of charges against eye care group, opting to indict CEO for role in $3.4M fraud scheme

The shift in prosecutorial focus is part of a new enforcement policy to address healthcare fraud. The U.S. Department of Justice alleges the CEO of CampusEye paid kickbacks to doctors for referrals, going on to bill Medicare for unnecessary tests.

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Jul 31 • 4:16 PM EDT • Health • healthexec.com
IRS Summer Series Designed To Protect Small Businesses From Fraud

The IRS and Security Summit partners are conducting a 5-week series on steps tax professionals can take to protect clients from tax-related identity theft threats.

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Jul 31 • 11:49 AM EDT • Business • forbes.com
SLED: Horry County business owner charged with insurance fraud

State agents have announced the arrest of a business owner in Horry County.

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Jul 31 • 10:47 AM EDT • Business • wmbfnews.com
VA Employee, CEO Plead Guilty to $14 Million Health Care Kickback Scheme

The Florida-based individuals worked together to fraud patients of the VA Community Care Program (VACCP), per the Justice Department.

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Jul 30 • 4:16 PM EDT • Health • military.com
How Medicaid fraud could affect your tax dollars and health care

Local 12 WKRC-TV is the local station for breaking news, weather forecasts, traffic alerts, community news, Cincinnati Bengals, Reds and FC Cincinnati sports updates, and CBS programming for the Cincinnati , Ohio area, including Avondale, Blue Ash, Bond Hill, Camp Washington, Cheviot, Cleves, Colerain Township, Columbia-Tusculum, Corryville, Norwood, Delhi, East Price Hill, Golf Manor, Hyde Park, Lebanon, Loveland, Lower Price Hill, Madeira, Mariemont, Mount Adams, Mount Airy, Mount Healthy, Mount Lookout, Mount Washington, Oakley, Over-The-Rhine, Reading, Sedamsville, Sharonville, Springdale, St. Bernard, South Cumminsville, Symmes Township, Mason, Hamilton, Union Township, Walnut Hills, West Chester, Wyoming, West Price Hill, Westwood, Winton Hills, Alexandria, Bellevue, Covington, Crescent Springs, Erlanger, Fort Mitchell, Fort Thomas, Fort Wright, Florence, Hebron, Highland Heights, Newport, Southgate, Villa Hills, Walton, Aurora, Greendale, and Lawrenceburg.

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Jul 30 • 1:20 PM EDT • Health • local12.com
Senate committee looks to stop AI-enabled fraud against older adults

AI-enabled fraud is projected to reach $40 billion in the United States next year

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Jul 30 • 1:15 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
This Week in Jacksonville - Business Edition: Experts urge tighter HOA oversight after $11 million fraud

Kent Justice tackles a question a lot of HOA homeowners are asking after the “Hammocks” case in South Florida: could HOA fraud happen here — and would anyone catch it in time? Kent’s guest is Marc Rodriguez, EVP of Market Operations at RealManage, who breaks down how financial oversight can fail inside volunteer-run boards, what practical controls can stop fraud before it starts, and how technology can add real transparency for both board members and homeowners.

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Jul 30 • 9:36 AM EDT • Business • news4jax.com
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The Science Behind the AI Panic Is Shakier Than You Think

A column by Sascha Lobo Is AI making us dumb? So asked DER SPIEGEL on its cover a while ago. After a few weeks of recovery and a therapeutic intervention with the help of my AI, I feel able to respond. That’s a bit unfair, of course; the article itself is more nuanced than the loud cover, the image of a schoolkid with dull prompt questions, or the subtitle: “AI is conquering the schools, and educators fear a disaster.” The short answer to “Is AI making us dumb?” is: no. The long answer is more interesting, and even carries a preliminary glimmer of the spectacular. Unfortunately, it requires a detour into the sphere of artificial intelligence, into the mogul-field terrain of technology assessment, the attention economy, and the destructive virus of cultural pessimism. Along with narrowing the scope to AI’s effects on education and work rather than on intelligence. Because the honest version of the question would be: Does AI help us learn and work, or not? Generative AI, which set off the still-ongoing hype with ChatGPT, has only existed in relevant distribution since late 2022, early 2023. For a technology-driven transformation of people and society, that is extremely short. For that reason alone, research is still in its infancy. And technology assessment is not a fast discipline anyway. Prominent voices from Elizabeth Eisenstein to RAND to Tom Wheeler say we still cannot conclusively judge the consequences of the printing press. Its invention is a mere 580 years back, and some scholars would rather not circulate assessments that might have to be retracted in two or three hundred years. We’re Going Through Growing Pains A phenomenon that already caused upheaval in social media research makes serious assessment of AI’s consequences even harder: the “moving target” problem of LLM-ology, as the linguist Sean Trott called it in 2025. AI develops so quickly and so unpredictably that researchers often end up studying snapshots of the past. There are concepts, from morphological analysis to anticipatory governance, for keeping research, planning, and regulation halfway meaningful anyway. But even with those, universally valid statements are rare. DER SPIEGEL - The German View is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe We should therefore treat findings about the interplay between humans and AI as far more procedural and situational. Unfortunately, this challenge comes at the worst possible time. We are going through growing pains: AI’s everyday impact has grown very large very fast, and with it the longing for guidance. Annoyingly, the body of solid knowledge has not exploded along with it. Experts cannot be moved to broad consensus on even banal statements about AI. Sascha Lobo, born in 1975, is an author and strategy consultant focusing on the internet and digital technologies. Together with Jule Lobo, he explores the debates of the day in the podcast “Feel the News – Was Deutschland bewegt” (”What Moves Germany”). Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says software developers are dying out. Bill Gates considers coders one of only three professions that will survive the AI tsunami. Top tech economists find virtually irrefutable arguments both for and against an AI bubble. The same naturally applies to the structurally youth-hostile debate over whether AI is good or bad for young people. The gap between the demand for insight and the supply of solid knowledge creates an orientation vacuum. This vacuum of AI cluelessness is filled, as the attention economy described by Georg Franck in 1998 would have it, with half-knowledge (funnily enough, often AI-generated), marketing, and self-marketing. After all, infinite money is at stake, along with academia’s best current shot at global fame. But this iridescent froth of interpretation operates more by the algorithmic principles of the digital public sphere than by seriously earned insight. That is why dramatized, fear-feeding claims about AI are so promising. It tempts parts of academia into distorted drivel, and parts of the media then sensationalize the published drivel once more. Was the Research Aimed at a Desired Result? How badly this can influence academia and public perception is demonstrated by one of the most-discussed studies on AI’s effects: “Your Brain on ChatGPT.” The MIT study by Nataliya Kosmyna also gets plenty of space in the SPIEGEL cover story. What was measured and interpreted: lower brain activity in people who write with AI assistance, compared to people who only google or write without any tools. As is common with preprints, the study has not yet been peer-reviewed, and it contains substantial weaknesses that experts have sharply criticized. The first round had 54 participants in three groups, the second only 18, who reportedly also came from MIT’s own orbit. There was no preregistration (committing in advance to what you want to find out with which data). In their analysis, Stanković et al. even discovered an opposite effect that the study does not further explain. Some measurement data has not (yet) been published. And the EEG analysis method used is considered too imprecise to support such far-reaching conclusions. The biggest criticism, though, is the suspicion of an activism-driven study. In an interview with Time, lead author Kosmyna said she published the study immediately, rather than after full peer review, because she feared politicians might otherwise decide to put ChatGPT in kindergartens. She considers that absolutely harmful. It is legitimate to hold such a view. It just seems unscientific to approach a study with it, and then to design the setup so that the chance of a fitting desired result remains as high as possible. Ideologies Collide It is not easy to separate genuine AI insights from studies that trivialize and weaken well-founded AI criticism. The same goes for the opposing, AI-enthusiastic narratives, because the pro-AI side works against it with billions in resources. Ideologies collide, fed by egos, PR strategies, moral posturing, and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Doomsday marketing makes the search even harder: AI companies can profit from warnings about the dangers of AI, whether through the notoriety of apocalypse narratives or because, in some target groups, danger translates into power. Some seemingly negative findings are therefore quite welcome in the AI industry. If you try to get at the findings presumably less influenced by interest groups, the picture in education seems relatively clear: AI can improve educational outcomes when the right AI is used the right way, namely pedagogically. Simply dumping an AI chatbot into a classroom, by contrast, accomplishes little. Huge surprise. But something else is also obvious: whether they are allowed to or not, kids use AI for school, which is why the controlled integration of AI tools into education is, in the medium term, entirely without alternative. In the world of work, the landscape of findings is more complex and requires more differentiation. A series of serious studies points to an AI effect that suits neither the alarmists, regulation fetishists, and AI opponents, nor the trillion-dollar corporations with their armada of paid scientists, PR professionals, and ecosystems: working with AI helps the inexperienced (at least for now) considerably more than it helps the pros, in certain fields of work, and provided they know how to use it correctly. Missing Domain Knowledge Among the experienced, the professionals, and the high flyers, by contrast, despite frequent time savings, partially negative effects and new problems are emerging. Take the jagged frontier problem: AI solves task A brilliantly and fails completely at task B, even though both look similar even to professionals. Or the verification-cost problem, in which AI’s greater productivity gets eaten up by the enormous effort of checking its output. Or the illusion of competence, because AI makes new domains seem easily penetrable, until you painfully discover that deep domain knowledge is missing. Taken as a whole, the effects of working with AI do lean positive. But the promise that AI works as a turbocharger for everyone and boosts practically everything simply refuses to materialize. The AI magic the world has been feeling since ChatGPT arrived in late 2022 has so far barely shown up in most companies’ numbers. The consulting firm McKinsey has coined a term for this, the “gen AI paradox,” and believes that work processes and corporate structures would have to be rebuilt quite fundamentally to realize AI’s benefits at scale. Reuters just reported that only 3.3 percent of Microsoft’s customers have subscribed to the AI package Copilot. That may be down to the product; in other areas we continue to see soaring successes and new AI triumphs. But after the first quarter of 2026, disillusionment is the word for all too many AI projects at traditional companies: because the promised revolution of AI agents has so far failed to arrive or been postponed, and because of the leveling effect that many of the studies cited here suggest. Against Inequality The societal effects, on the other hand, appear rather encouraging. Many previous technologies operated on the Matthew principle, named for the Gospel verse about giving to those who already have: they tended to reward the more competent and more privileged. AI, however, seems more often to have an equalizing effect once a threshold of access and education is crossed. Some anecdotal insights point in this direction, for example, how an unemployed man in Leipzig successfully defended himself in court in 2025 against fraud accusations from Germany’s federal employment agency — without a lawyer, armed only with ChatGPT. The AI made mistakes and cited invented court rulings, but in the end the man walked away unpunished. And a key capability of artificial intelligence is its capacity to learn: set up correctly and fed with data, it can keep getting better. It is a question of time, or more precisely of AI innovations and training data, until even free AI chatbots write better legal briefs than law graduates with perfect exam scores. Whether that will make anyone dumb is something the world’s press will surely inform us of in due time. Subscribe Leave a comment

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Jul 29 • 4:23 AM EDT • Science • derspiegel.substack.com
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Former Golden Globes owners sue Penske Media alleging fraud

The lawsuit seeks at least $150 million in damages

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Jul 28 • 7:50 PM EDT • Entertainment • spectrumlocalnews.com
His employees called him the ‘World’s Greatest’ chairman. Then he was charged with fraud.

Crain's has received dozens of internal investor emails over the last year-plus that shed light on communications between the now-charged Kenneth Bardwell and his investors.

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Jul 28 • 2:13 PM EDT • Sports • crainsdetroit.com
Can we stop AI from flooding scientific journals?

AI detectors may never beat fraud. Changing how science rewards its researchers might be the only fix that does

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Jul 27 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • cen.acs.org
Don't create political theater — fund the Medicaid fraud fighters

The governor's and attorney general's Medicaid fraud task force seems to be ignoring the real solutions for strengthening Iowa's enforcement.

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Jul 27 • 2:52 PM EDT • Politics • iowacapitaldispatch.com
Ex-Fallbrook Porsche resale business owner sentenced for wire fraud

A woman who defrauded customers of her Fallbrook-based Porsche restoration and resale business was sentenced Friday to one year and nine months in prison.

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Jul 27 • 9:35 AM EDT • Business • 10news.com
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Hospices worry patients will be unfairly punished amid fraud crisis

Health policy researchers and providers say negative attention and the potential for overly punitive regulations could put patients at risk.

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Jul 26 • 5:00 AM EDT • Health • washingtonpost.com
Shreveport business hit by chargeback fraud

Chargeback fraud hits a local Shreveport business.

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Jul 24 • 10:21 AM EDT • Business • fox8live.com
Shreveport business hit by chargeback fraud

Chargeback fraud hits a local Shreveport business.

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Jul 24 • 10:21 AM EDT • Business • wowt.com
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Shreveport business hit by chargeback fraud

Chargeback fraud hits a local Shreveport business.

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Jul 24 • 10:21 AM EDT • Business • azfamily.com
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Shreveport business hit by chargeback fraud

Chargeback fraud hits a local Shreveport business.

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Jul 24 • 10:21 AM EDT • Business • wbay.com
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Shreveport business hit by chargeback fraud

Chargeback fraud hits a local Shreveport business.

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Jul 24 • 10:21 AM EDT • Business • ksla.com
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Shreveport business hit by chargeback fraud

Chargeback fraud hits a local Shreveport business.

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Jul 24 • 10:21 AM EDT • Business • live5news.com
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Nevada business owner accused of robbing his own store to defraud insurance company

A Las Vegas business owner is accused of faking the armed robbery of his own cell phone repair shop to defraud his insurance company.

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Jul 23 • 12:06 PM EDT • Business • fox5vegas.com
The Other Cardenas In Politics

Two years ago, a powerful Democratic political consultant named Jesus Cardenas abruptly vanished from public life. He pleaded guilty to two felony fraud counts, shuttered his political consulting business and […]

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Jul 23 • 5:15 AM EDT • Politics • voiceofsandiego.org
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Arrington, eager to appease fiscal hawks, proposes $28 billion boost to health fraud busting - Live Updates

The bill's introduction comes as fiscal hawks are livid over a lack of payfors in a major new spending bill.

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Jul 22 • 10:58 AM EDT • Health • politico.com
US Health Secretary Kennedy says CMS is pausing Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota

The Trump administration is ​pausing over $1 ‌billion in Medicaid payments to ​California and ​Minnesota "because of suspected ⁠fraud and ​noncompliance," U.S. Health ​Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said ​on Tuesday.

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Jul 21 • 10:53 AM EDT • Health • reuters.com
US Health Secretary Kennedy Says CMS Is Pausing Medicaid Payments to California and Minnesota

July 21 (Reuters) - ⁠The ⁠Trump ⁠administration is pausing over $1 billion ‌in Medicaid ‌payments ⁠to California ⁠and Minnesota "because of suspected fraud and noncompliance," U.S. Health Secretary ⁠Robert F. ⁠Kennedy, ⁠Jr. said on Tuesday. "If those states ⁠want that money they ⁠need to ...

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Jul 21 • 10:53 AM EDT • Health • usnews.com
Treasury intercepts nearly $99M in federal payments to deceased individuals under Trump fraud order

A new Treasury fraud verification system screened 885 million transactions worth $2.77 trillion, catching over 4,900 improper payments to deceased recipients.

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Jul 21 • 8:20 AM EDT • Business • foxbusiness.com
CBO investigating feasibility of using healthcare fraud savings to fund Trump’s war

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is looking into the effectiveness of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ crackdown on waste and abuse in safety net healthcare programs, and whether the efforts could effectively generate tax revenue the government could then spend elsewhere.

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Jul 21 • 7:57 AM EDT • Health • healthexec.com
Trump threatens National Academies with debarment. Here's what it is.

The president invoked an obscure process to review the institution's federal grants over what he says is "climate fraud."

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Jul 21 • 6:14 AM EDT • Science • eenews.net
Defense lawyers in demand amidst health care fraud crackdown

The U.S. Department of Justice is expanding AI-powered health care fraud enforcement as prosecutors target Medicare and Medicaid fraud with advanced analytics nationwide.

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Jul 21 • 5:00 AM EDT • Health • masslawyersweekly.com
Trump Lashes Out at National Academies of Sciences Over Climate Guide For Judges

Trump claimed without evidence that the manual was “fraudulent, biased, and misleading.”

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Jul 20 • 7:10 PM EDT • Science • insideclimatenews.org
Netflix actress, model plead guilty to $3.4M Medicaid fraud scheme

The unusual defendants were swept up as part of a larger investigation into healthcare fraud in the Minnesota housing services program. An alleged third co-conspirator has pleaded not guilty and will take her chances at a jury trial.

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Jul 20 • 8:03 AM EDT • Health • healthexec.com
Republicans don’t want to go there again on Trump’s 2020 election fraud claims

The president pressed the GOP to embrace his latest allegations, but many candidates kept their focus on issues they see as more salient to voters.

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Jul 20 • 5:00 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Pols & Politics: Brensley launches write-in bid for Sec. of State following failed Lt. Gov. campaign

Former GOP Lt. Gov. candidate Anne Brensley is launching a write-in campaign for Sec. of State after failing to qualify for the ballot due to falling victim to a signature collection fraud scheme.

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Jul 19 • 4:16 AM EDT • Politics • bostonherald.com
4 Georgians named in record $6.5B health care fraud takedown

Four Georgians were named in a nationwide health care fraud crackdown involving alleged schemes totaling $6.5 billion.

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Jul 18 • 5:04 AM EDT • Health • savannahnow.com
Trump says these documents prove his false claims of election fraud. Here's what they really say

“The White House promised a bombshell, and they delivered a dud," said David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research.

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Jul 17 • 7:08 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
🙂 Positive (35%)
Local sports facility developer’s home, business raided by FBI

Federal prosecutors allege Andy Card engaged in a wire-fraud scheme involving the development of the Mishawaka Fieldhouse and used proceeds from it to help purchase a home in Florida.

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Jul 17 • 4:27 PM EDT • Business • ibj.com
8 Chicago officers face firing over federal small business loan fraud

The officers are among 28 cops accused of lying on government documents in order to receive funding meant to assist small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic

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Jul 17 • 12:07 PM EDT • Business • police1.com
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Trump Revives China Election Claims, Contradicting US Intelligence Assessment

Trump's claims about election fraud in the U.S. elections appeared to conflict with findings by the U.S. intelligence community.

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Jul 17 • 3:46 AM EDT • Politics • politicstoday.org
FBI: Motown Sports Village promoter charged in alleged multi-million dollar wire fraud scheme in Romulus

A West Bloomfield man has been federally charged with wire fraud in connection with a heavily marketed proposal to develop a sprawling youth sports and entertainment complex in Romulus.

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Jul 16 • 10:08 PM EDT • Entertainment • clickondetroit.com
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FBI: Motown Sports Village promoter charged in alleged multi-million dollar wire fraud scheme in Romulus

A West Bloomfield man has been federally charged with wire fraud in connection with a heavily marketed proposal to develop a sprawling youth sports and entertainment complex in Romulus.

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Jul 16 • 10:08 PM EDT • Sports • clickondetroit.com
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Developer of proposed $3B Romulus sports complex charged with fraud

The man behind a proposed multi-billion-dollar development in Romulus has been charged with fraud after allegedly scamming investors out of millions of dollars.

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Jul 16 • 2:58 PM EDT • Sports • crainsdetroit.com
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Waste, fraud, abuse… and the politics of power

One of the oldest tricks in politics is knowing when to use a number and when to use a percentage. If you want something to sound enormous, you use the raw number. If you want it to sound insignificant, you use the percentage. Politicians, statisticians and public relations strategists know this. Every citizen should understand […]

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Jul 16 • 5:59 AM EDT • Politics • tennesseelookout.com
KFF Health Tracking Poll: Public Views on Fraud in Government Health Programs

As the 2026 midterms approach, health care costs remain voters' top health priority, but fraud in government health programs, including Medicaid and Medicare, is resonating with Republican voters, 55% of whom say it's extremely important for candidates to address. Most voters say there is at least “some” fraud in government health programs, but larger shares say there is fraud in the tax system, defense, and foreign aid, while the smallest share sees fraud in the ACA Marketplaces.

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Jul 16 • 5:00 AM EDT • Health • kff.org
Poll: Costs Are the Top Health Care Issue for Voters in the Midterms, But Fraud Tops Republicans' List As Trump Administration Pushes Crackdown

Health care costs top the list of voters’ health care priorities for the midterm elections, though more than half of Republican voters say it is extremely important for candidates to discuss the issue of fraud in government health programs, according to a new KFF Health Tracking Poll. Most voters say there is at least “some” fraud in government health programs, but larger shares of voters see fraud in the tax system, defense, and foreign aid than in federal health programs. The smallest share of voters sees fraud in the ACA marketplaces.

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Jul 16 • 5:00 AM EDT • Health • kff.org
Dems unite to boycott hearing on emerging threat facing America: 'don’t want to know the truth'

Every Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee skipped the main questioning portion of a full panel hearing on exposing fraud in America.

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Jul 15 • 4:51 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
Scammers Use FaceTime to See You Type Bank Passwords

Fraudsters pose as bank staff, record victims' login details

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Jul 15 • 3:15 PM EDT • Technology • newser.com
Account Takeover Fraud: How to Protect Your Business

Protect your business from account takeover fraud with tested prevention strategies. Learn to spot red flags and respond effectively.

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Jul 15 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • jpmorgan.com
Georgia political leaders push back on upcoming Trump address

Speculation is rampant that the president will use the speech to air allegations of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, reportedly taking direct aim at the legitimacy of sitting Democratic Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.

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Jul 14 • 5:52 PM EDT • Politics • fox5atlanta.com
Mobile council weighs business license revocation amid $910,000 fraud investigation: ‘Community crisis’

Mobile police are investigating 108 incidences of potential fraud totaling over $910,000 related to unfulfilled window and roofing projects.

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Jul 14 • 4:45 PM EDT • Business • al.com
Fort Pierre couple’s love of math, science, engineering still inspiring South Dakota youth

For Gary and Connie Grittner, investing in young people has always been about creating opportunities that can change the course of a life. Gary knows this firsthand. As a young teen, he attended a summer science camp that sparked his own interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). That experience led him to pursue his doctorate in chemistry and reinforced his belief that exposing students to STEM at an early age can shape their futures. [ ](https://www.thedakotascout.com/p/alleged-cryptocurrency-conman-released) [ Alleged cryptocurrency conman released pending fraud trial ](https://www.thedakotascout.com/p/alleged-cryptocurrency-conman-released) Jonathan Ellis · 11:03 AM [ Read full story ](https://www.thedakotascout.com/p/alleged-cryptocurrency-conman-released)

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Jul 14 • 4:13 PM EDT • Science • thedakotascout.com
Former nonprofit business manager pleads guilty to bank fraud

The former business manager of a local nonprofit pleaded guilty to bank fraud in federal court on Tuesday.

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Jul 14 • 3:55 PM EDT • Business • yahoo.com
The new trust crisis: What fraud means for media and entertainment

To fight media and entertainment fraud, CTAM's Vicki Lins and AARP's Kathy Stokes recommend making proactive consumer education, empathetic customer support, clear communication and industry collaboration a priority.

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Jul 14 • 10:38 AM EDT • Entertainment • smartbrief.com
Trump administration claims healthcare fraud crackdown has saved taxpayers $5.56B in six months

A new report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General shows most of the money comes from a small number of huge cases, where the federal government was able to reclaim hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicare and Medicaid funds being abused by criminal defendants.

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Jul 14 • 8:08 AM EDT • Health • healthexec.com
GOP health fraud fight escalates

Republicans are hoping GOP-led efforts to combat health care fraud could help pay for a new spending package.

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Jul 14 • 6:00 AM EDT • Health • politico.com
CBO is looking at how fighting health care fraud could help GOP boost defense spending - Live Updates

House GOP lawmakers are searching for savings to help fund their latest spending package, and want CBO to examine the Trump administration's fraud crackdown.

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Jul 13 • 5:13 PM EDT • Health • politico.com
The Quintessential Trump-era Politician

In 2020, I wrote an article about collaboration and collaborators. The title was History Will Judge the Complicit, and it started with the story of two famous East Germans, Markus Wolf and Wolfgang Leonhard, who both landed in East Berlin just after the end of the war. Although they came from very similar backgrounds, the former stuck with the regime, eventually becoming its spy boss; the latter, horrified by the brutal reality of Soviet-style communism, escaped. By way of juxtaposition, I also wrote about Lyndsey Graham and Mitt Romney. These two men also made very different decisions when confronted by Donald Trump’s assault on the ideals that they had both grown up believing: A glance at their biographies would not have led many to predict what happened next. On paper, Graham would have seemed, in 2016, like the man with deeper ties to the military, to the rule of law, and to an old-fashioned idea of American patriotism and American responsibility in the world. Romney, by contrast, with his shifts between the center and the right, with his multiple careers in business and politics, would have seemed less deeply attached to those same old-fashioned patriotic ideals. Most of us register soldiers as loyal patriots, and management consultants as self-interested. We assume people from small towns in South Carolina are more likely to resist political pressure than people who have lived in many places. Intuitively, we think that loyalty to a particular place implies loyalty to a set of values. But in this case the clichés were wrong. It was Graham who made excuses for Trump’s abuse of power. It was Graham—a JAG Corps lawyer—who downplayed the evidence that the president had attempted to manipulate foreign courts and blackmail a foreign leader into launching a phony investigation into a political rival. It was Graham who abandoned his own stated support for bipartisanship and instead pushed for a hyperpartisan Senate Judiciary Committee investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden’s son. It was Graham who played golf with Trump, who made excuses for him on television, who supported the president even as he slowly destroyed the American alliances—with Europeans, with the Kurds—that Graham had defended all his life. By contrast, it was Romney who, in February, became the only Republican senator to break ranks with his colleagues, voting to impeach the president. “Corrupting an election to keep oneself in office,” he said, is “perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one’s oath of office that I can imagine.” In the wake of Graham’s unexpected death on Saturday, I wrote about him again. He was, in many ways, the quintessential politician of Trump’s Washington, a man who shifted 180 degrees. Graham had been a fervent American patriot, proud reserve officer and military lawyer; he became one of the most important defenders of a president who believes soldiers are “suckers and losers” and shows no respect for law of any kind. As his politics changed, his language grew coarser and his behavior grew worse: He urged Israel to “level the place” in Gaza, and insulted the Danish prime minister in Munich, prompting a colleague, Senator Elissa Slotkin, to issue an apology. Here’s an excerpt from the article, which you can read in The Atlantic (gift link here) Like his close friend John McCain, Graham believed that America should stand at the center of a broad democratic alliance. The few times I met him were in that context, at the Munich Security Conference or at other European-American gatherings, which he once attended with great regularity. He also took seriously the practice of American democracy at home. In a 2014 conversation with The Atlantic, he described himself as a pragmatic politician who eschewed populist slogans. “I know Washington is broken, but what’s broken about it is everybody yelling and nobody trying to fix it,” he said. “I’m trying.” When Donald Trump first appeared in U.S. politics, Graham recognized him immediately for what he was: the spokesman for an alien ideology, one radically different from the idealistic patriotism that Graham had practiced and preached since childhood. Trump privately mocked the military that Graham loved as nothing but “suckers and losers.” He put falsehoods, cynicism, and personal greed at the center of his politics, while expressing disdain for transparency, accountability, and democracy itself. In 2015, Graham described Trump as a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” who should “go to hell.” Also as a “nutjob.” When Trump won, Graham understood, as did so many others, that he would have to make some important choices. For a while, he went silent. In the spring of 2016, I saw him at one of those conferences in Europe. He seemed too depressed to speak. But then, like many other Republicans—and, more important, like many other people who have lived under political occupation or experienced radical regime change—he made the decision to abandon his previous ideals, to bury the patriotism that was once so important to him, and to become, instead, a loud, opportunistic collaborator. As I wrote in 2020, it’s very hard to look in to anyone’s heart and to understand their motivations from the outside. But it does seem that Graham had a deep need to be relevant, to be in the game, to be a player, at any cost. And that, rather than any particular achievement, is what he will be remembered for. Continuing to monitor conflicts of interest, ostentatious emoluments, outright corruption and policy changes that will facilitate outright corruption. (Read my original article, Kleptocracy Inc and check out the SNF Agora Institute chart) June 27 Trump diverted funds from more than 900 projects nationwide—including safety upgrades at national parks—to finance beautification projects around Washington, including $700,000 used to fix a White House walkway. June 28 After a years-long Department of Justice investigation into Abbott Laboratories over its management of a baby formula facility where potentially deadly bacteria turned up enough evidence to criminally charge the firm, top department officials instead opted for a financial penalty—illustrating the department’s move away from strict corporate enforcement under the Trump administration. June 29 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stacked the Defense Policy Board—which is charged with providing independent national security recommendations to the Office of the Secretary of Defense—with Trump allies, including tech billionaire Marc Andreessen, who has invested in defense contractors like OpenAI and SpaceX, after purging the panel last year. Trump purchased between $1 million and $5 million worth of stock in Axon—which makes about 90% of US tasers—two weeks before ICE solicited bids for a $220 million taser contract. The White House unveiled limited-edition US passports for America’s 250th birthday, featuring a portrait of Trump overlaid on the Declaration of Independence. June 30 Trump made around $1.2 billion from his various crypto companies last year, including more than $500 million from World Liberty Financial and $600 million from sales of his meme coin. Trump is considering issuing 250 pardons to commemorate America’s 250th birthday. These are expected to be largely doled out through the Office of the Pardon Attorney’s informal network of intermediaries. White-collar defense attorneys say they can typically win pardons for clients for $2 million. Last year, Trump administration officials awarded a no-bid contract worth up to $500 million to Clark Construction for the White House ballroom—negotiations in which the president was directly involved. July 1 The Amazon MGM Studios documentary about Melania Trump earned the First Lady more than $10 million. Trump made hundreds of individual stock purchases worth as much as $12.8 million the day before his announcement pausing “Liberation Day” tariffs for 90 days sent the S&P 500 soaring nearly 10%—one of the largest single-day gains ever. Mar-a-Lago and Trump National Doral saw record surges in revenue during Trump’s first year in office, earning $77.5 million and $121.9 million respectively, compared to average annual revenues of $25 million and $75 million during Trump’s first term. Entities across the Persian Gulf paid more than $300 million to Trump’s businesses last year, including $263 million from the sale of half his stake in World Liberty Financial to a firm backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a top UAE royal and brother of the country’s president. Kash Patel failed to properly disclose his stock purchase of a Department of Justice contractor, MicroStrategy, worth up to $250,000 last year, despite laws requiring disclosure within 45 days of the trade. July 2 Trump has been directing administration officials to steer more government contracts—so far worth more than $2.4 billion—to Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin aerospace firm, after Amazon gave $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, donated to the White House ballroom project, and reached a $40 million deal to license a Melania Trump documentary. Alongside the billions he made from cryptocurrency last year, Trump earned millions of dollars from real estate licensing fees, including $21 million from organizations in the UAE and $9.2 million in Saudi Arabia, along with smaller sums from merchandise sales, including $4.7 million from Trump Watches and $35,920 from 45 Guitar, a guitar brand endorsed by the president. House Democrats accused consultants tied to the Trump administration of financial fraud, alleging they gave prospective donors to America250—the bipartisan committee created by Congress to celebrate the nation’s semiquincentennial—the banking and routing numbers for Freedom 250, the White House’s fund for events like the UFC cage fight. Democrats also allege that Freedom 250’s CEO traveled to the World Economic Forum in Davos to solicit donations from foreign government officials and business leaders. The Trump administration’s proposed rollback of gun regulations would lift the prohibition on mailing handguns to individuals, a significant win for GrabAGun—the direct-to-consumer firearm retailer on whose board Donald Trump Jr. sits and in which he holds a 1.1% ownership stake. GrabAGun currently must rely on a middleman to transfer firearms to customers. Trump’s financial disclosure revealed that he made more than 21,000 securities trades during his first year back in office, growing his investment account to at least $858 million across stakes in around 1,600 companies, compared to the 13 total trades Joe Biden made during his entire presidency. July 4 Nearly 1 million people who bought the president’s meme coin—Trump Coin—collectively lost $3.8 billion on the token, while he walked away with $636 million. July 6 Shares of Dell closed up 4.4% after Trump recommended people buy the firm’s computers during a speech announcing the launch of Trump investment accounts for children, boosting the more than $1 million worth of shares the president owns in the company. July 9 Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh named crypto investor and Trump ally Marc Andreessen to a task force aimed at modernizing the Federal Reserve, including rethinking its approach to inflation—a key factor keeping interest rates elevated. Palm Beach International Airport has officially changed its name to Trump International Airport—a move that will require Florida to pay royalties to the president’s family for licensing his name. I was there a few months ago, during a trip to Barcelona. The sculptures were a revelation, I’d never seen so many together before. Each one has its own personality. Enjoy the good weather, if you are lucky enough to have it. History Will Judge the Complicit The Quintessential Politician Autocracy Inc Open Letters, from Anne Applebaum is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe

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Jul 13 • 4:19 PM EDT • Politics • anneapplebaum.substack.com
Federal health watchdog reports $5.56 billion in expected recoveries, cost savings

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General said its investigations into alleged fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement in federal healthcare programs stem from tips submitted through its hotline. During the…

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Jul 13 • 10:23 AM EDT • Health • baltimoresun.com
Handover of Health Commodities

Joint Handover of Health Commodities Speech of Chargé d’Affaires Steve Bremner (…) Thank you for joining us. I am here today to demonstrate how U.S. foreign assistance under President Trump’s America First Global Health Strategy and our bilateral health MOU makes America safer and stronger while helping Madagascar build a more self-reliant health system. Through our bilateral Global Health Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in December 2025 with the Ministry of Public Health, our two governments outlined shared priorities and responsibilities, including a strong focus on infectious disease threats and Madagascar’s increasing ownership and co-investment in its own health system. The MOU outlines the structure and terms of U.S. support to Madagascar’s health sector from 2026 through 2030, with a total commitment of $134,305,000 from the U.S. government and $41,216,252 from the Government of Madagascar to work jointly to address malaria, maternal and child health, polio and global health security issues. Stronger health systems help prevent instability and reduce the risk that infectious diseases reach the United States, making both our countries safer. America First foreign assistance is clear and disciplined: It is a tool of strategic engagement, not global charity. Every U.S. taxpayer dollar must show measurable results, reduce long-term dependence on U.S. taxpayer resources, and support greater self-reliance in recipient countries. Support must be efficient and targeted, with zero tolerance for fraud, waste, or abuse. This year, through the U.S.-funded Global Health Supply Chain Program – Procurement and Supply Management project, we are distributing: 989,250 long-lasting insecticide-treated nets, worth $2,000,000 to 63 districts and 1,661 Community Health Centers across Madagascar, with the third and final delivery of these nets having arrived in late June. Through the U.S.-funded Momentum Country and Global Leadership (MCGL) project, we are funding: The full cost of Starlink internet connectivity equipment procurement, installation, and one-year subscription for 31 priority District and Regional Health Offices. Through the U.S.-funded Strengthening Infectious Disease Detection Systems project, we are supplying: 908,523 pieces of critical medical equipment and a modernized digital surveillance system to the Ministry of Public Health. These materials will strengthen health systems, improve response capabilities, and help those most in need of protection from mosquito-borne diseases — particularly malaria, which continues to claim the lives of children and women at an unacceptable rate. Deployed effectively, they will contribute to reducing maternal and newborn mortality in rural and hard-to-reach communities where the need is greatest. In these same underserved areas, Starlink connectivity will play a critical role in enabling the rapid transmission of health data and information to central levels, ensuring that decision-makers receive timely, actionable intelligence and can mount swift, coordinated responses to protect populations. For Americans, this support delivers concrete benefits. Stronger health systems in Madagascar help detect and contain infectious diseases before they spread across borders, protecting American and Malagasy families. More stable, healthier countries can expand trade and economic cooperation with the United States. Our goal is not permanent support; it is temporary, targeted assistance that helps Madagascar save lives while achieving greater self-reliance and independence from foreign assistance. To the health workers and community health agents here that will use the products we’re delivering today: your dedication and skills save lives. Your work exemplifies the kind of local ownership that will enable Madagascar to reduce dependence on foreign assistance and manage the country’s health challenges. This targeted support delivers results today while helping Madagascar build toward a future where it can sustain and expand those health gains independently, ensuring that today’s U.S. support leads to Madagascar’s self-sufficiency. Thank you, Misaotra.

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Jul 13 • 4:49 AM EDT • Health • mg.usembassy.gov
TN Politics: Final MSCS forensic audit raises political concerns

The complete report points to more than $100 million in "waste, fraud and abuse." Who fixes the problem is still being debated.

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Jul 10 • 7:30 AM EDT • Politics • wknofm.org
Vice President JD Vance speaks on efforts to root out fraud in Wisconsin

The vice president highlighted the work being done as the leader of the anti-fraud task force.

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Jul 8 • 5:40 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumnews1.com
Meriden Business Owner Arrested After Worksite Visit, Officials Say

The business owner was arrested following an investigation by the CT Department of Labor and the Workers' Compensation Fraud Control Unit.

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Jul 7 • 5:57 PM EDT • Business • patch.com
George Cottrell: the crypto criminal behind Farage controversy

Reform UK leader did not declare security, staff and accommodation support from convicted fraudster

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Jul 7 • 9:48 AM EDT • Politics • theweek.com
‘Serious consequences’: Farage attacks Sky News after question about George Cottrell

Reform UK leader confronts journalist after question about gifts from friend and convicted fraudster

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Jul 7 • 5:50 AM EDT • Politics • theguardian.com
New Iowa Medicaid fraud task force draws questions from retired health administrator

A retired health care administrator is questioning Gov. Kim Reynolds’ decision to form a new task force aimed at fighting Medicaid fraud, saying the state’s focus overlooks what she sees as a larger problem: health care becoming less affordable.

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Jul 6 • 7:36 PM EDT • Health • kcrg.com
Trump Pardons Violators of the Clean Air Act and a Major Donor

The president used his clemency power to further undermine environmental laws and to help a political supporter who pleaded guilty in a fraud involving Jack Abramoff.

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Jul 3 • 9:32 PM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
FSU Health nurse practitioner arrested on drug fraud, falsifying medical records charges

A Tallahassee-based nurse practitioner is accused of obtaining prescription medications by prescribing them to her receptionists for her to pick up.

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Jul 3 • 4:01 PM EDT • Health • wctv.tv
One year after passage, Trump health care law remains politically divisive

After the Big Beautiful Bill Act passed, Dr. Mehmet Oz says the law reduced fraud and stabilized Medicaid programs.

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Jul 3 • 1:37 PM EDT • Health • scrippsnews.com
As ACA enrollment falls by millions, Trump administration and policy gurus disagree on why

Affordable Care Act marketplace enrollment has declined by 3 million people. The Trump administration points to fraud controls. Policy experts point to cost.

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Jul 3 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • cnbc.com
How does Maryland stack up in preventing and prosecuting Medicaid fraud?

High-profile federal Medicaid fraud prosecutions, including the indictment of a Dundalk pharmacist, raised questions about how Maryland works to prevent and prosecute fraud.

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Jul 3 • 5:30 AM EDT • Health • baltimoresun.com
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Democrats accuse Freedom 250 fundraisers of fraud over diverted donations

A Democratic report says donors intending to contribute funds to the bipartisan America250 committee were instead given banking info for Freedom 250

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Jul 2 • 2:52 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
Democrats accuse Freedom 250 fundraisers of fraud over diverted donations

A Democratic report says donors intending to contribute funds to the bipartisan America250 committee were instead given banking info for Freedom 250

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Jul 2 • 2:52 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
Democrats accuse Freedom 250 fundraisers of fraud over diverted donations

A Democratic report says donors intending to contribute funds to the bipartisan America250 committee were instead given banking info for Freedom 250

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Jul 2 • 2:52 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
UN panel warns AI is outpacing scientific understanding, government policy

AI is already being used to generate misinformation and other harmful content and could be exploited for fraud, cyberattacks and biological threats.

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Jul 1 • 3:23 PM EDT • Science • jpost.com
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