Value Melt

November 29, 2019

In today’s newsletter, we’re digging into one scam, split up into a few parts. The Hook Quartz journalists Jeremy B. Merrill and Hanna Kozlowska dropped a...

Expert Advice

November 22, 2019

If I Was Gonna Do It For many years, University of Miami professor Bruce Bagley was one of the top experts on money laundering in Latin America. He wrote a...

Hard Cash, Soft Bank

November 15, 2019

Oyo Vey Softbank, fresh off an investor meeting with some truly hilarious charts, is back in the news. The New York Times has a feature on how start-ups...

Yes, Vacancy

November 8, 2019

Airbnb Sort of Cares Boy, it’s been an interesting couple of weeks for Airbnb. I have long been critical of the company, which is an illegal hotel-and-sublet...

Don't Steal From Drug Lords

November 1, 2019

The Dude Indicts A jury found Texas attorney James Balagia aka “The DWI Dude” guilty this week, in what I can only call an insane fraud scheme. He and his...

Credibility is Key

October 25, 2019

Sunday, Fun day? Skincare brand Sunday Riley has settled with the FTC over allegations they faked Sephora reviews for years to boost sales. Even the CEO -...

Ads Gone Wild

October 18, 2019

Ads, Inc. Craig Silverman at Buzzfeed News dropped an absolute scorcher of an exposé this week on a San Diego advertising firm unironically named Ads Inc....

Running Out on the Bill

October 11, 2019

Sacklers of Cash The Sackler crime family, creators of the drug Oxycontin, and currently under investigation for illegally marketing their product and...

WeWork

October 4, 2019

Neumann’s Owned New York Magazine interviewed a NYU professor named Scott Galloway recently, and he had some thoughts on WeWork and it’s founder, Adam...

Pivoting to Fraud

September 28, 2019

Comscore Fraud The web analytics company and its CEO were charged with fraud by the SEC. From AdWeek: From February 2014 through February 2016, Comscore and...

Payrolled

September 20, 2019

No Payroll HR A payroll company in upstate New York absconded with millions worth of employee and company funds. About $30 million destined for paychecks and...

A Falwell From Grace

September 13, 2019

Tito’s Great Heist(s) In last week’s newsletter I began with what I assumed would be a throwaway introduction about the Yugoslavian space program in the...

Welcome to A Scammer Darkly

September 6, 2019

You Go, Broz Hello friends! Welcome to the first edition of A Scammer Darkly. I am recently returned from vacation in Croatia and Serbia, formerly run by one...