Two Amazon marketplace sellers and four of their companies have pleaded guilty to price fixing DVDs and Blu Ray Discs.

On Feb. 10 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, Bruce Fish of Hayfield, Minnesota, along with BDF Enterprises, Inc., a corporate entity owned by Fish, admitted to participating in a conspiracy to fix the prices of DVDs and Blu-Ray discs sold on the Amazon marketplace. Victor Btesh of Brooklyn, New York, and three New York corporate entities of which Btesh is the sole or majority owner, pleaded guilty to the same conspiracy on Feb. 9.

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A federal district court yesterday entered an order approving the last in a series of four settlements that collectively recovered nearly $5 million stolen from consumers by a transnational network of fraudsters.

The settlement represents the culmination of a civil action pursued by the United States to disrupt a bank fraud scheme and recover stolen victim funds. In a civil complaint filed on Aug. 13, 2021, the United States alleged that Guy Benoit, Edward Courdy, Harold Sobel, and more than 25 other individuals and corporations defrauded American consumers out of millions of dollars by charging unauthorized debits against their bank accounts.   more...
Case against company marks first civil penalties for violations of FTC’s Notice of Penalty Offenses on money-making opportunities, ROSCA

As a result of a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit, investment advice company WealthPress has agreed to a proposed court order that would require it to refund more than $1.2 million to consumers and pay a $500,000 civil penalty for deceiving consumers with outlandish and false claims about their services.

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Largest Bank in Denmark Agrees to Forfeit $2 Billion

Danske Bank A/S (“Danske Bank”), a global financial institution headquartered in Denmark, pled guilty today and agreed to forfeit $2 billion to resolve the United States’ investigation into Danske Bank’s fraud on U.S. banks.

According to court documents, Danske Bank defrauded U.S. banks regarding Danske Bank Estonia’s customers and anti-money laundering controls to facilitate access to the U.S. financial system for Danske Bank Estonia’s high-risk customers, who resided outside of Estonia – including in Russia. The Justice Department will credit nearly $850 million in payments that Danske Bank makes to resolve related parallel investigations by other domestic and foreign authorities.

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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a technical amendment to the HMDA Rule. This technical amendment updates Regulation C to reflect the closed-end mortgage loan threshold pursuant to a recent court decision.

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RIKESH THAPA has been charged with operating a scheme to defraud a start-up technology company (the “Victim Company”) of over $1 million worth of United States currency, cryptocurrency, and utility tokens. THAPA used proceeds of his crime on personal expenses, including nightclubs, travel, and clothing, and falsified records and deleted evidence to conceal his theft. RIKESH THAPA was arrested in the Southern District of California.

As alleged in the Indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court:[1]

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