Ponzi Scheme Ends in Prison Time for Former Pro Football Player and Bank Executive

The financial pitch was compelling—help fund short-term loans to professional athletes and get a high interest rate return on your investment, perhaps as high as 18 percent. Equally as compelling were the pitchmen: businessman Will Allen was a former pro football standout who played for the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins; his business partner, Susan Daub, was a former bank executive.

Allen and Daub’s Massachusetts company, Capital Financial Partners (CFP), operated out of Florida and took in more than $35 million in approximately three years. But in return for their money, many investors got back headaches, because Allen and Daub were running a Ponzi scheme. read more »

UK prosecutors to decide on charges over Barclays Qatar case

Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is to announce on Tuesday whether it will bring criminal charges against Barclays and some of its former senior executives over a 2008 emergency fundraising from Qatar, according to a person familiar with the plans.

The SFO has been investigating for nearly five years whether commercial agreements between banking group Barclays Plc and Qatari investors as part of a total 12 billion pound ($15 billion) fundraising at the height of the credit crisis breached UK law.

Bloomberg reported on Friday that Barclays plans to plead guilty to charges that it failed to make proper disclosures about the fundraising and is braced for a fine, which would likely range from 100 million to 200 million pounds. read more »

Bernie Madoff Victims Could Start Receiving Compensation Payments This Year

It has been almost four years since a $4 billion government fund was created to compensate the victims of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, and those hurt by the former Wall Street mogul's deception may be receiving compensation this year, Reuters reports.

The fund has faced some criticism for the delays in payouts. Money will go to 35,508 victims from 123 countries, whose total loses surpass $6.5 billion. Over 26,000 of the eligible 35,508 victims haven't received any compensation since Madoff's scheme was discovered in December 2008.

In 2009 Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in federal prison. read more 

Egyptian construction company resolves USAID false claims charge with $1.1M settlement

A construction company based in Cairo, Egypt, has agreed to a $1.1 million settlement following allegations it violated the False Claims Act and the Foreign Assistance Act.

In the 1990s Misr Sons Development S.A.E. (also referred to as Hassan Allam Sons, or HAS) was part of a joint venture partnership with Washington Group International Inc. and Contrack International Inc. that was awarded U.S. Agency for International Development-funded contracts for the construction of water and wastewater infrastructure projects in the Arab Republic of Egypt. The United States filed suit alleging that HAS was ineligible to participate in the joint venture but its participation was concealed, allowing the partnership to receive contracts to which they were not entitled. read more »