All posts tagged: Securities fraud

U.S. jury finds investor Andrew Left guilty of securities fraud

U.S. jury finds investor Andrew Left guilty of securities fraud

Published by Sam Flores

Andrew Left, founder of Citron Research, arrives at federal court in Los Angeles, California, US, on Monday, July 7, 2025. Activist short seller Andrew Left is set to appear in federal court Monday in a securities fraud case that shook the industry a year ago, setting up a battle over investor tips and free speech. Eric Thayer | Bloomberg | Getty Images A U.S. jury found prominent investor Andrew Left guilty of securities fraud on Monday, the Justice Department said, in a blow to a divisive cohort of short sellers who have for years ‌goaded public companies in the U.S. and overseas with allegations of fraud and mismanagement. U.S. authorities charged Left in July 2024, alleging he had manipulated the stock market and defrauded investors with misleading claims about his positions in multiple companies’ shares, including Nvidia and Tesla, making at least $20 million in the process. Left, who runs Citron Research, denied the allegations and had pleaded not guilty. After two days of deliberations, however, the jury found him guilty of engaging in a …

Trump-IRS case should be reopened so court can probe fraud: Ex-judges

Trump-IRS case should be reopened so court can probe fraud: Ex-judges

Published by Sam Flores

U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters before boarding Air Force One on May 20, 2026 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Trump is traveling to Connecticut to deliver the commencement address at the United States Coast Guard Academy. Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images President Donald Trump’s recently dismissed $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service should be reopened so the judge who oversaw it can investigate “whether a fraud occurred,” 35 former federal judges argued Wednesday. Trump, his two eldest sons and the Trump Organization on May 18 abruptly dropped their case against the IRS and the Treasury Department, which was based on leaks of their tax information by an ex-IRS employee in 2019 and 2020. Federal Judge Kathleen Williams of Miami District Court accordingly ordered the case dismissed with prejudice, while noting that the move cancels an upcoming deadline related to her efforts to scrutinize the matter. She also noted in her ruling that the plaintiffs made no reference to a settlement and that the defendants did not submit any settlement documents. The …

Democratic AGs snub Vance’s White House anti-fraud roundtable

Democratic AGs snub Vance’s White House anti-fraud roundtable

Published by Sam Flores

U.S. Vice President JD Vance holds a press conference to discuss “anti-fraud initiatives” in the Indian Treaty Room at the White House complex in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 13, 2026. Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters Democratic state attorneys general declined an invitation to Vice President JD Vance’s anti-fraud initiatives roundtable at the White House on Tuesday, citing the fact that they were only invited on Friday, days after their Republican counterparts were asked to attend. “While we would appreciate the opportunity to engage in serious discussions, the invitation was provided with less than one business day’s notice with no agenda,” the 24 attorneys general wrote Vance in a letter dated Tuesday, after the Memorial Day holiday. “This short notice does not match the spirit of collaboration that has long defined our joint efforts with federal partners,” the letter said. “Accordingly, we respectfully decline to attend at this time.” Among the attorneys general who declined to attend is Keith Ellison of Minnesota, whose state has been the focus of Trump administration actions targeting alleged Medicaid fraud schemes …

DOJ charges prosecutor with stealing Trump documents case report

DOJ charges prosecutor with stealing Trump documents case report

Published by Sam Flores

This image contained in a court filing by the Department of Justice on Aug. 30, 2022, and partially redacted by the source, shows a photo of documents seized during the Aug. 8, 2022, FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Department of Justice | AP A former federal prosecutor has been charged with stealing the sealed volume of the report prepared by then-special counsel Jack Smith about the defunct criminal case against President Donald Trump over his retention of classified government documents after leaving office in January 2021. Carmen Mercedes Lineberger is accused in a four-count indictment unsealed Wednesday of saving the sealed portion of Smith’s report on her government-issued computer under the file name “Bundt_Cake_Recipe.pdf,” and then emailing the report from her DOJ email account to her personal Gmail account on Dec. 1, 2025. At the time of the alleged conduct, the 62-year-old Lineberger was managing Assistant U.S. Attorney in Fort Pierce, Fla., according to the indictment in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Read more CNBC politics coverage …

U.S. soldier arrested for Polymarket bets on Maduro capture

U.S. soldier arrested for Polymarket bets on Maduro capture

Published by Sam Flores

Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are seen in handcuffs after landing at a Manhattan helipad, escorted by heavily armed Federal agents as they make their way into an armored car en route to a Federal courthouse in Manhattan on Jan. 5, 2026 in New York City. Xny/star Max | Gc Images | Getty Images A U.S. Army Special Forces master sergeant was arrested for allegedly using classified information to make extremely profitable bets on the Polymarket prediction market related to the American military mission that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, the Department of Justice said Thursday. The sergeant, Gannon Ken Van Dyke, “was involved in the planning and execution of Operation Absolute Resolve,” which apprehended Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in early January, the DOJ said. Van Dyke, 38, wagered a total of about $33,000 in 13 or so bets in the week leading up to that operation, with the knowledge that the United States was secretly planning military action against Maduro, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court …

DOJ charges Southern Poverty Law Center with fraud

DOJ charges Southern Poverty Law Center with fraud

Published by Sam Flores

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks during a press conference with FBI Director Kash Patel next to him, at the Department of Justice in Washington, April 21, 2026. Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images The Department of Justice on Tuesday announced a bombshell 11-count fraud indictment accusing the Southern Poverty Law Center of secretly funding leaders and organizers of white supremacist, racist and other hate groups that the civil rights group claimed to be battling. “The SPLC’s paid informants (‘field sources’) engaged in the active promotion of racist groups at the same time time that the SPLC was denouncing the same groups on its website,” alleges the indictment returned by a grand jury in the U.S. District Court in Montgomery, Alabama, on Tuesday. The SPLC, which is a nonprofit civil rights group, is charged with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud and one count of money laundering. Between 2014 and 2023, the SPLC paid at least $3 million to eight individuals, some of whom were associated with the Ku …

SantaCon promoter arrested for charity fraud

SantaCon promoter arrested for charity fraud

Published by Sam Flores

SantaCon founder, Stefan Pildes leaves federal court after being arrested on April 15, 2026 in New York City. Edna Leshowitz | Getty Images The president of SantaCon was arrested on Wednesday on a federal criminal indictment accusing him of using the ticketed Christmas bar-crawl event to divert hundreds of thousands of dollars earmarked for charity to his personal use, New York federal prosecutors said. The defendant, Stefan Pildes, claimed he did not receive any compensation from SantaCon, according to the indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. But the 50-year-old Pildes allegedly diverted funds from the event to a “slush fund” to pay for extensive renovations to a lakefront property in New Jersey, luxury vacations in Hawaii, Las Vegas, and Vail, Colorado, concert tickets, extravagant meals, and a luxury vehicle, prosecutors said. About $124,000 of the SantaCon funds were spent toward leasing a luxury apartment in Manhattan, and another $100,000 was invested in a boutique resort in Costa Rica founded by a friend of Pildes, the indictment said. Pildes …

Federal Reserve says keep Jerome Powell subpoenas quashed

Federal Reserve says keep Jerome Powell subpoenas quashed

Published by Sam Flores

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell participates in a board meeting at the Federal Reserve on March 19, 2026 in Washington, DC. Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images The Federal Reserve Board of Governors urged a judge to reject prosecutors’ request that he reconsider his recent decision to block subpoenas issued in a criminal investigation of Chair Jerome Powell over pricey renovations of the Fed’s headquarters and his congressional testimony about that. The Fed’s lawyers, in a court filing unsealed Thursday, told Judge James Boasberg that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia failed to come even remotely close to meeting the legal threshold for its motion for reconsideration. “The Motion for Reconsideration … does not even mention — let alone meet — the demanding legal standard that applies to the extraordinary relief it seeks,” the Fed’s lawyers wrote in the motion in U.S. District Court in Washington. The attorneys said “reconsideration is warranted only” when there has been a change in the law related to the issues in the case, when there is new …

Reps Ro Khanna and Tim Burchett to push fraud probe across all 50 states

Reps Ro Khanna and Tim Burchett to push fraud probe across all 50 states

Published by Sam Flores

U.S. Representative Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) speaks to members of the media during a break in a closed-door deposition with former US President Bill Clinton, outside the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center in Chappaqua, New York, US, on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. Adam Gray | Bloomberg | Getty Images Reps. Ro Khanna and Tim Burchett will introduce a new bill to commission a nationwide waste, fraud and abuse probe for state-administered programs using federal funds, which was shared exclusively with CNBC. The proposed audit comes after reports of state-level welfare fraud erupted several months ago, drawing harsh condemnations from Republicans and some Democrats. The fraud allegations collided with proposals from Democrats to tax the rich to pay for expanded social services, which could surge trillions of new dollars into federal coffers. Khanna, D-Calif., who is separately leading Democrats on a bill to impose a federal wealth tax, told CNBC in December he would introduce the fraud probe as soon as he found a Republican cosponsor after some of his longtime Silicon Valley supporters threatened to revolt over …

Senate Banking Democrats demand delay on Warsh nomination

Senate Banking Democrats demand delay on Warsh nomination

Published by Sam Flores

Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, during a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. Aaron Schwartz | Bloomberg | Getty Images Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee demanded that Chair Tim Scott delay the nomination of Kevin Warsh to lead the Federal Reserve until a pair of investigations into central bank Chair Jerome Powell and Governor Lisa Cook conclude. The Department of Justice is investigating potential criminal wrongdoing by Powell related to cost overruns on the renovation of the Fed’s headquarters. They are separately probing Cook, whom President Donald Trump has tried to fire, over allegations of mortgage fraud. Trump nominated Warsh last week to succeed Powell at the end of his term in May. The Democratic resistance all but assures that any one Republican senator will be able to hold up Warsh’s confirmation until the probes end. The Banking Committee is comprised of 13 Republicans and 11 Democrats, meaning one Republican defection on a nomination, along with all Democrats, will deadlock the panel and …