Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
A Missouri businessman who tried to walk away from millions in obligations instead walked straight into a financial dead end. By hiding assets while seeking bankruptcy protection, he lost the very shield that was supposed to give him a fresh start, leaving roughly $8.4 million in debt still hanging over him. His case shows how…
Amazon and Meta are quietly rewriting the rules of how people and products are judged on their platforms. Inside their offices, performance reviews are getting sharper edges, with bigger payouts for a small slice of stars and tougher scrutiny for everyone else. On their marketplaces, review systems are being recalibrated in ways that could strip…
A Massachusetts tax preparation business that once marketed itself as a lifeline for working families is now at the center of a sweeping federal fraud case, accused of siphoning off millions of dollars meant to keep small businesses afloat during the COVID-19 crisis. Prosecutors say the company and its associates treated emergency relief programs as…
The House’s top investigative panel is zeroing in on a financial mystery at the center of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s family: how her husband, Timothy Mynett, reportedly went from $51,000 in assets to as much as $30 million in a single year. At stake is more than one couple’s balance sheet, it is a test of…
Silver’s spectacular boom and bust has taken another dark turn, with a China-linked trading scandal rattling already fragile confidence and dragging prices lower again. After a record run that pushed the metal into a classic blow‑off top, the market is now confronting allegations of outsized short bets and distorted pricing just as speculative froth is…
The Trump administration has put a staggering price tag on suspected pandemic-era fraud in California’s small business relief programs, freezing access to aid for more than one hundred thousand borrowers and igniting a fierce political fight. Federal officials say the scheme drained $8.6 billion from programs that were supposed to keep mom-and-pop shops alive during…
By the time Irving Rosenberg realized his life savings were gone, the money had already been siphoned away through forged paperwork and suspicious withdrawals that no one at his bank stopped. The 90-year-old Southern California resident, who moves slowly and struggles with hearing loss, suddenly found more than $800,000 missing from the account he had…
Federal officials say a vast web of pandemic aid abuse has erupted into one of the largest fraud scandals in California’s history, with suspicious loans now pegged at $8.6 billion. The scale of the alleged scheme, centered on emergency programs created during COVID, is forcing a reckoning over how the state handled crisis-era money and…
American households are being squeezed by a rapid run-up in electricity costs at the same time the federal government is pulling support from hundreds of energy projects. Since January 2025, typical power bills have climbed sharply even as officials cancel or pause investments that were meant to expand supply and modernize the grid. The result…
Homeowners are being warned that a forged signature and a fraudulent filing at the courthouse can be enough to strip them of their most valuable asset. Deed and title fraud, once a niche concern, has become a favored tactic for scammers who can quietly transfer ownership on paper, then sell or mortgage the property before…