Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
Vice President JD Vance sat down with roughly two dozen lawmakers in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Wednesday and told them the federal government has found about $230 billion in suspected fraud in less than five months. Then he told them the number is conservative, that his authority to do anything about it runs…
The Federal Trade Commission says 9,419 checks totaling more than $672,000 are now going to people who bought facemasks and other protective equipment from Trend Deploy. This is a real payment run, not a new application program and not a broad COVID-era benefit. The money is for identified consumers in a specific FTC case, and…
Federal prosecutors have charged 11 defendants in what the Department of Justice calls the largest health care fraud case by loss amount in its history, alleging a Russia-based criminal network used Texas-based durable medical equipment suppliers to submit $10.6 billion in fraudulent Medicare claims. The scheme, dubbed Operation Gold Rush, relied on stolen identities from…
IDFC First Bank disclosed over the weekend that it is investigating a suspected $65 million fraud tied to accounts held by government entities, a revelation that triggered a sharp selloff in the lender’s shares and raised pointed questions about how private banks safeguard public funds in India. The bank confirmed it had filed a police…
The U.S. Department of Labor announced on February 18, 2026, that it is sending a specialized “strike team” to examine California’s unemployment insurance program, targeting roughly $21 billion in outstanding federal loan debt and persistent fraud concerns. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer framed the intervention as a direct response to years of insolvency in the state’s…
A federal lawsuit targets Stellantis with allegations that the automaker concealed a safety defect in the front seats of more than two million Dodge and Chrysler vehicles, potentially leaving drivers exposed to collapsing seats during crashes. The complaint, filed in Michigan, claims Stellantis had internal knowledge of the problem for years but chose not to…
Federal prosecutors have charged three former top executives of Tricolor Holdings, a now-bankrupt subprime auto lender, with orchestrating an alleged bank fraud scheme that prosecutors say deceived multiple financial institutions and led to hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. The case, unsealed in Manhattan federal court, centers on accusations that the company’s leadership systematically…
A New Jersey luxury car dealership racked up 511 separate violations and now faces an $843,000 fine, with regulators citing problems as specific as font sizes in advertisements that rendered required disclosures nearly invisible to consumers. The case reflects a long pattern of enforcement by New Jersey consumer protection authorities against dealers who bury mandatory…
Retailers are closing stores and locking up merchandise as shoplifting and organized retail crime eat into profits. Costco is moving in a different direction, quietly tightening its membership checks and entry rules while keeping its warehouses busy and its aisles open. The result is a low-key anti-theft system that is thriving even as rivals like…
The Seattle City Council declared a public health emergency on October 28, 2025, responding to a wave of grocery store closures that threaten to cut off food access for entire neighborhoods. The move, which includes emergency legislation banning restrictive covenants that prevent new grocery stores from opening, represents one of the most aggressive local government…