Phone fraud drives rise in identity theft

Identity fraud accounted for 74% of all card fraud in the first six months of this year ( Barclaycard) 

This news is about increasing offenders who pose as other people via phone for data card.

IDENTITY theft has surged to account for nearly three-quarters of all credit card fraud this year, driven by a sharp increase in criminals impersonating others over the phone to obtain their victims’ account details.

The figures, calculated exclusively for The Sunday Times by the fraud prevention service Cifas, show identity fraud accounted for 74% of all card fraud in the first six months of this year, up from 63% in the same period of 2013.

The rise has been driven by “vishing”, where fraudsters phone victims and pretend to be someone else to con them into giving security details.

In the latest scam, criminals trick restaurants into helping them gain access to customers’ bank details. Police say fraudsters have targeted restaurants in London’s West End, as well as Twickenham and Canary Wharf.

 

Woman Gets $18 Million In Divorce Fraud Case

 Of the New York Time

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., June 14— A woman who claimed her ex-husband ruined her relationship with their children and defrauded her during their divorce has won an $18 million judgment against him.

A jury reached the verdict against Raymond Cohea Gracia last week. Joyce Lozoya won $6 million in compensatory damages and $12 million in punitive damages.

Mrs. Lozoya filed for divorce in 1985 and in 1989, Mr. Gracia was granted custody of their four children.

In 1993 a judge ruled in a lawsuit filed by Mrs. Lozoya that Mr. Gracia had intentionally inflicted emotional distress and fraud on his ex-wife and ordered a trial to determine the amount of the damages he should pay.

The children all live in New Mexico. The youngest is 19.

Mr. Gracia is co-owner and manager of Plains Oil Company.

At trial, Mrs. Lozoya testified that Gracia threatened her life if she continued efforts to gain custody and visitation rights. Her lawsuit contended that Mr. Gracia concealed assets during the division of property.

Domestic Abuse Fraud It’s Rarely Suspected and Rarely Detected

Domestic Abuse Fraud: of New York Time

  From New York Times

In the city’s rich history of fraud schemes, the cases described this week by the city’s Department of Investigation would not seem to rank up there with mortgage scams or fake Medicare patients: Six women were accused of posing as victims of domestic violence to gain subsidized housing.  

Such cases are so rare, and the issue so sensitive, that city officials and advocates for domestic violence victims said that they are not usually on the lookout for fraud when people come forward with claims of abuse. 

“The screening process that we have is really designed to understand what situation the person is in and how to best go about developing a safety plan for the individual and their children,” said Yolanda B. Jimenez, the commissioner of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence, which operates two free drop-in centers, one in Brooklyn and one in Queens. “For everybody who calls, everyone who walks through the door, their claims are taken at face value.”

More than 36,000 people have sought help at the centers since 2005 and can receive legal support, counseling and emergency shelter, among other services. Ms. Jimenez said she believed that there was no fraud involved in any of those cases.

There would not seem to be much financial gain to domestic violence fraud. But there are a range of public benefits available to women who have been beaten by their spouses or companions. The women who were arrested forged documents, including police reports, identifying themselves as abuse victims to gain priority for government subsidized housing, officials said this week.

There are long waiting lists for the housing, and only three groups of people are given priority: former foster care youths, intimidated witnesses referred by prosecutors, and victims of domestic violence.

Nonprofit organizations offer services including immigration assistance, financial counseling and free legal advice to domestic violence victims. Victims who are not legal United States residents can gain eligibility for a so-called U visa, which will eventually lead to a green card, said Chris Rhatigan, a spokeswoman for United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. The agency screens applicants through law enforcement agencies, which provide referrals and documentation, Ms. Rhatigan said.

In certain cases, victims of domestic violence who receive welfare are granted a waiver from work requirements. They also can stay in one of 42 emergency shelters for abuse victims, which are often smaller and more nurturing than typical shelters, with a higher staff-to-client ratio.

At the city office in the Bronx where families apply for shelter, people who identify themselves as domestic violence victims are interviewed for up to an hour to determine if they need emergency shelter.

No documentation is required to prove abuse, said Barbara Brancaccio, a spokeswoman for the city’s Human Resources Administration, which operates domestic violence shelters.

At the shelters, employees occasionally discover that women have exaggerated their abuse, but they are not forced to leave the facilities, Ms. Brancaccio said.

Bonnie Genevich, a division director for Good Shepherd Services, which runs a 20-bed shelter in Brooklyn for domestic violence victims, said staff members conduct thorough interviews. “We ask them a lot about the relationship to the abuser, the level of abuse, if there is a criminal record, if there’s been drug abuse, whether they’ve been abused during pregnancy, how often the incidents have occurred, where they occurred,” she said. “As you go on and on, you could tell if the story doesn’t hold together.”

That said, the system is not “set up to catch people,” she said, adding that she has never encountered a case of fraud.

Howard Marder, a spokesman for the New York City Housing Authority, where the suspected housing scheme was uncovered, said the agency reviewed all applications to check for “irregularities or alterations.”

At least two forms of documentation are required to obtain abuse victim status, and they could include a police report, order of protection and family court petition.

But in many cases, agencies will provide help even if victims of abuse have not called the police or sought treatment for injuries.

“Some of them can’t or don’t have the documents they need,” said Maureen Curtis, the associate vice president of Bronx Criminal Justice and Community Programs for Safe Horizon. “Does it mean that the person is not a victim of domestic violence? No.”

Robo-Signing Fraud Case Is Settled

Of New York Time

The mortgage servicing company Lender Processing Services agreed to pay $35 million to resolve a federal criminal investigation into foreclosure fraud, the Justice Department said on Friday.

The settlement resolves allegations over the company’s involvement in what the government called a six-year scheme to prepare and file more than 1 million fraudulently signed and notarized mortgage documents in property recorders’ offices nationwide from 2003 to 2009. The practice became known as robo-signing.

The accord also follows a guilty plea last November by Lorraine Brown, the former chief executive of the company’s now-closed DocX unit, to a felony charge of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud over the scheme.

Prior to DocX’s closure in 2010, Lender Processing Services had handled more than half of the nation’s foreclosures.

The company entered into a two-year non-prosecution agreement that requires it to meet many conditions, including cooperating in federal investigations, and alerting the government to any abuses in mortgage or foreclosure documentation services at the company.

The company said on Friday that it has a $223 million reserve that covers the Justice Department accord and prior settlements.

Foreclosure abuse became notorious in 2010 as borrowers, politicians and regulators accused lenders of pursuing cases that were based on defective or fraudulent documentation.

Many documents were found to have been signed systematically without being read.

Indictments for 28 More in Fraud Case

Of the New York Times 

Twenty-eight more people, including retired police officers and firefighters, have been indicted as part of the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into an extensive scheme to defraud Social Security disability insurance, law enforcement officials said.

The new defendants include the sons of two of the accused organizers of the scheme who were arrested last month along with 104 others, including dozens of former police officers and eight former firefighters, the officials said.  

Prosecutors have accused the defendants of feigning mental illnesses to obtain more than $21.4 million in disability payments from the federal government. Many of the accused falsely claimed to have been unnerved and mentally impaired while working during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, court papers said. 

According to the court papers, the defendants were coached by a retired officer, Joseph Esposito, 64, to pretend to have symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder during exams by psychiatrists from the Social Security Administration.  

Prosecutors say the scheme was orchestrated by a Long Island lawyer, Raymond Lavallee, 83, who specializes in representing people with disability claims, and a consultant, Thomas Hale, 89, who had been convicted of operating a similar fraud involving veterans on Long Island in 1983.

John Minerva, 61, a former disability consultant for the Detectives Endowment Association, was also a major player in the scheme, prosecutors say. He referred retired officers and firefighters sent to him by Mr. Esposito to two psychiatrists who said they had mental illnesses. The doctors have not been charged.

All four men have pleaded not guilty. 

The newly indicted defendants were expected to be arrested Tuesday and taken before Justice Daniel FitzGerald in Supreme Court in Manhattan. They include Sam Esposito, a retired officer and the son of Joseph Esposito, and Douglas Hale, whose father is Thomas Hale, law enforcement officials said. The 28 people are accused of grand larceny and filing fraudulent documents.

Prosecutors have said the scheme stretches to 1988 and may involve as many as 1,000 people, making it the biggest case of its kind in the history of the Social Security Administration. Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, has estimated the total loss to the government at about $400 million.

More than 100 people have been arrested, though only a few have pleaded guilty. Anthony Maher, 44, a retired officer who now lives in Pima, Ariz., pleaded guilty earlier this month to grand larceny and agreed to repay $192,000 in exchange for probation. A similar deal was reached by a retired sanitation worker, Raymond Herlihy, 66, who pleaded guilty to grand larceny and agreed to repay $165,000.

A Hacker Is Indicted In Computer Fraud Case

News about fraud of New York Time.  

 RALEIGH, N.C., March 10— Kevin D. Mitnick, the fugitive computer hacker who was captured by Federal authorities on Feb. 15, was indicted Thursday on 23 counts of fraud involving computer-access devices.

The indictments, filed in Federal District Court in Greenville, N.C., some 85 miles from here, charged Mr. Mitnick with one count of possessing device-making equipment, one count of possessing unauthorized access devices and 21 counts of using a counterfeited access device.

The indictment charges that Mr. Minick, 31, electronically broke into computer systems from Feb. 4, when he leased an apartment in Raleigh, until his arrest. "This just looks at several days before his arrest in Raleigh," John Bowler, an assistant United States attorney, said.

Mr. Bowler declined to discuss whether Mr. Mitnick could face additional charges, but said that an investigation was continuing.

Investigators say Mr. Mitnick possessed and used illegal equipment that allowed him to make a cellular telephone work as someone else's phone. Prosecutors said he commandeered a cellular-compatible modem to gain access to computer systems, where he stole information worth more than $1 million, including some 20,000 credit card numbers, although he apparently did not use the card numbers for financial gain.

Because he may face Federal charges elsewhere in the country, it is uncertain whether Mr. Mitnick will be tried in Raleigh, Mr. Bowler said. Mr. Mitnick is also wanted by state and Federal authorities for a parole violation in California and could face charges in other states.

He is being held in Federal custody in eastern North Carolina. Officials would not give the exact site, saying that disclosing it would jeopardize security.

His court-appointed lawyer, John A. Dusenbury, could not be reached for comment today.

Mr. Mitnick first became known for his computer skills as a teen-ager when he electronically broke into a computer of the North American Air Defense Command.

In 1989, he was convicted in Federal court of stealing software worth $1 million and doing damage estimated at $4 million to the Digital Equipment Corporation. He served one year in prison and was on probation when he disappeared in 1992, remaining on the run from Federal authorities until his arrest about a month ago.

Supreme Court Decides 2 Securities Fraud Cases

The second case Securities Fraud Cases of New York Time 

In the second case decided Wednesday, Gabelli v. Securities and Exchange Commission, No. 11-1274, the court ruled unanimously that the commission must act promptly when it seeks civil penalties.

The case concerned Marc J. Gabelli and Bruce Alpert, who were executives affiliated with a mutual fund company, Gabelli Funds L.L.C. They successfully argued that the S.E.C. had waited too long to sue them for what the agency said were abuses related to rapid trading by a hedge fund.(fondo de cobertura).

The law in question, which applies to many kinds of government requests for civil penalties, says lawsuits “shall not be entertained unless commenced within five years from the date when the claim first accrued.” The agency sued more than five years after the disputed conduct.

“The question,” Chief Justice Roberts wrote for the court, “is whether the five-year clock begins to tick when the fraud is complete or when the fraud is discovered.”

In ordinary civil litigation, it is not unusual for courts to say that the clock starts running in fraud cases only when the plaintiff discovers or should have discovered the wrongdoing. That is because of the nature of fraud, Chief Justice Roberts explained.

“When the injury is self-concealing, private parties may be unaware that they have been harmed,” he wrote. “Most of us do not live in a state of constant investigation; absent any reason to think we have been injured, we do not typically spend our days looking for evidence that we were lied to or defrauded.” 

Supreme Court Decides 2 Securities Fraud Cases.

Other news about fraud publish in the NEW YORK TIME

 WASHINGTON — In a pair of securities fraud decisions issued Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled for investors seeking to band together in a class-action lawsuit and imposed a strict time limit on some suits filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

The class action case, Amgen Inc. v. Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds, No. 11-1085, was a kind of sequel to the court’s 2011 decision in Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes, which threw out an enormous employment discrimination class action on the ground that the plaintiffs did not have enough in common to pursue their claims in a single lawsuit.

The question in the new case was whether plaintiffs in securities fraud cases should be required to prove that the defendant had made a material misstatement before a class action may be certified. Material information, the court has explained, is the sort of thing that reasonable investors would believe significantly alters the total mix of available information.

But the court has also said that materiality may be presumed when a company makes public statements in an efficient securities market, or a market that reflects all publicly available information about a company. That presumption is known as the “fraud on the market” theory.

The case decided Wednesday arose from statements made by Amgen, a drug company, about the safety of two drugs that stimulate red blood cell production, reducing the need for transfusions. The plaintiffs asserted that those statements were materially false and had inflated the company’s stock price.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for the majority in the 6-to-3 decision, said the plaintiffs’ assertion was enough for purposes of class certification because the question at that stage was merely whether, in the words of the relevant rule of civil procedure, “questions of law or fact common to class members predominate over any questions affecting only individual members.”

Justice Ginsburg wrote that the question of materiality, whatever its eventual answer, was a common one.

“The class is entirely cohesive: it will prevail or fail in unison,” she wrote. “In no event will the individual circumstances of particular class members bear on the inquiry.”

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined the majority opinion. In a concurrence, Justice Alito said that it may be time to reconsider the fraud-on-the-market theory in light of research suggesting that it may sometimes rest on a faulty premise.

Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and in part by Justice Antonin Scalia, dissented. Justice Thomas agreed that the theory was questionable and added that materiality must be shown at the certification stage.

Justice Scalia, in a separate dissent, said that “certification of the class is often, if not usually, the prelude to a substantial settlement by the defendant because the costs and risks of litigating further are so high.” Allowing plaintiffs to obtain class certification without showing that the asserted misstatement was material, he said, is “unquestionably disastrous.”

Corporate Fraud Cases Often Spare Individuals

   This news is from New York Times.

WASHINGTON — Pharmaceutical companies, military contractors, banks and other corporations are on track to pay as much as $8 billion this year to resolve charges of defrauding the government, analysts say — a record sum and more than twice the amount assessed last year by the Justice Department. 

The surge in penalties is because of a number of factors, including the resolution of longstanding actions against drug makers and military contractors, as well as lawsuits brought against mortgage lenders after the financial crisis. But it also reflects a renewed emphasis on corporate fraud, as the Justice Department devotes more resources to the issue and demands higher penalties from companies.

“We are putting more resources into these cases and better using the resources we have,” said Tony West, the acting associate attorney general.

The ballooning settlements are for civil charges of fraud against the government, criminal charges often related to the same conduct and, in the case of health care companies, recovery of money for states for Medicaid fraud.

But while the collections are a boon to the government and taxpayers, they are resurrecting questions about the relative lack of charges against executives at the companies that are getting the stiffest penalties.

“A lot of people on the street, they’re wondering how a company can commit serious violations of securities laws and yet no individuals seem to be involved and no individual responsibility was assessed,” Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island and chairman of a subcommittee that oversees securities regulation, said at a recent hearing.

President Obama, lawmakers and government watchdog groups have called for holding more individuals responsible. The Justice Department has collected $8.6 billion over the last three years, more than in any similar period in history, but relatively few prosecutions of individuals have come from the biggest settlements.

The most recent cases involve wrongdoing at some of the largest and most prominent companies. Last month, for example, GlaxoSmithKline said it would pay $3 billion to settle criminal and civil accusations of drug marketing and pricing fraud. In April, the military contractor ATK Launch Systems agreed to a $37 million settlement for selling “dangerous and defective” flares to the military.

In November, Merck settled charges of drug marketing and safety fraud for $950 million. A month earlier, Oracle agreed to pay $199.5 million after being accused of overbilling the government for software.

The difficulties of prosecuting executives were highlighted last week in New York, where a federal jury acquitted a Citigroup manager who had been involved in selling an exotic financial security involving residential mortgages. The manager, Brian H. Stoker, was charged with falsely describing Citigroup’s role in selecting the assets in the portfolio and failing to disclose that Citigroup was betting against the investment.

The jury cleared Mr. Stoker in part because the bank had given investors fine-print materials that apparently warned them of the investment’s risks. In a rare move, though, the jury sent a note to the Securities and Exchange Commission after reaching its decision, urging the agency not to give up. “This verdict should not deter the S.E.C. from investigating the financial industry, to review current regulations and modify existing regulations as necessary,” the jury wrote.

Lawyers say the government is more likely to go after companies because of their deep pockets. Civil cases against businesses can often produce substantial financial awards without the risk inherent in a trial. Civil charges also have a lower burden of proof than criminal charges and can reap triple damages. By one estimate, the government recoups $15 for every $1 spent on a civil case against a company.

But a top government enforcement official gave another reason, saying it was often too difficult and expensive to find evidence that clearly linked individual actions to corporate wrongdoing. Senior executives in particular are often insulated from day-to-day decisions, the official said, and have learned to steer clear of e-mails or other evidence that might prove that they knew the company was breaking the law. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because more companies and executives were expected to be taken to court.

The Justice Department said its prosecutors assessed how strong the evidence was and the likelihood of a successful trial in deciding whether to charge individuals. Even if a company has settled a case, it said, an investigation of individual conduct can continue and might eventually result in charges.

“To the extent you do not see many individuals being held accountable, that’s not because of a lack of will on the part of the Department of Justice,” said Mr. West, the acting associate attorney general. “There is a lot of behavior that makes us angry but which is not necessarily illegal. If the evidence is there, we won’t hesitate to bring those cases.”

Dozens of individuals have been charged in financial cases. The S.E.C. says it has charged 55 chief executives and other senior officers with violating securities law in relation to the financial crisis. The commission has collected $2.2 billion in penalties, disgorgement and other monetary relief from cases related to the crisis.

In particular, cases of fraud against the government, brought under the False Claims Act, have been rising in recent years. The trend began after a realignment of enforcement resources three years ago, Mr. West said, and the increase in settlements has resulted in even more whistle-blower accusations being reported to the department.

Critics remain, however, arguing that the practice of settling fraud cases with companies while not charging any employees might be giving executives an incentive to push the limits of the law. “If you are an executive, you know that the chances of getting caught are infinitely small, and the chances of getting caught and prosecuted are even smaller,” said Dennis M. Kelleher, president of Better Markets, which advocates financial regulatory reform.

It is difficult to determine the exact dollar amount of settlements, in part because measurement methods differ. The Justice Department said that in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2011, it settled $3 billion in civil whistle-blower cases.

The department has already surpassed that number for the current fiscal year, but it said it did not keep running tallies of its penalties. These figures do not include a $25 billion settlement with banks over fraudulent foreclosure practices that was announced in February.

Patrick Burns, a spokesman for Taxpayers Against Fraud, an advocacy group for whistle-blowers, said that civil fraud cases, related criminal settlements and recoveries for states exceeded $4 billion last year, and that he believed the number would more than double this year.

In a recent report to clients, the law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher calculated that civil cases under the False Claims Act alone brought in more than $4.1 billion in the first six months of 2012, with criminal settlements and payments to states adding $2.7 billion.

“The government seems very proud of the amount of money they are bringing in,” said D. Grayson Yeargin, a partner at Nixon Peabody in Washington who often represents companies in False Claims Act cases. “And they may be ramping it up even more.” 

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: August 7, 2012

An earlier version of this article misidentified a federal program for which the Justice Department recovered fraudulent payments to health care companies. It is Medicaid, not Medicare.

The key witness puts a halt inquiries about training Alaya

Other news from the newspaper "the country" fraud

The statement of the principal witness macrocausa the judge Mercedes Alaya opened on the training courses of Andalusia has jeopardized the investigation of Seville judge. The official Andalusian Teodoro Montes said Friday, the fifth day of declaration, which was in the court of Alaya where told to go to the Civil Guard to denounce alleged irregularities knew about the courses. This statement may be capital to decide whether the judge investigating fraud ERE is competent to proceed with this new macrocausa.

The judge argues that research on training courses is a derivative of the case of the ERE, which itself would give jurisdiction to investigate this case. However, the testimony of Montes doubts this version. According to official said Friday, last year, on a date unspecified, she went to court Alaya to complain about irregularities in training after several years no one would listen.

Montes said that in Alaya court said a person who told him to come to the Civil Guard, which is the body that investigates fraud of ERE after the judge displace the police. Typically, after filing a complaint this will cast without initially know which judge will investigate.

After the indication in the court of Alaya, Montes testified before the Civil Guard on August 22, 2013 and there denounced several irregularities known as responsible management department occupational training of the Andalusian. In that statement, the official established a link between the case of the ERE and fraud training courses, which then has recanted his testimony in this week.

Seven months after this statement Montes before the Civil Guard in March 2014, the Seville judge opened the PDQ summary on training courses. The judge stated in the First Folio cause this new research stems from the case of the ERE, but the truth is that the second sheet and the statement is provided Teodoro Montes before the Civil Guard. Moreover, most of the start of the cause information is incorporated by Montes.

This statement occurs when there are still doubts about who the tribunal to investigate fraud training courses in Andalucia. A dozen Andalusian court is investigating irregularities in the courses and it is likely that the Superior Court of Andalusia (TSJA) has finally resolved.

Alaya has demanded investigations of other courts and one of Málaga and has refused to send their inquiries. In addition, the Andalusian exconsejero Angel Ojeda, charged with Alaya, has appealed to the court of Cádiz after a court in this province jurisdiction in favor of Seville judge.

Suggests favorable treatment of a magistrate to the Andalusian

The declaration of Montes is a confession that was in the court where he said Alaya which road to follow to initiate investigations into the training and would call into question the steps that the judge has to try to keep this new research destined to shake the foundations of the Regional Administration. In fact, the judge has calculated that the information has already called on the Andalusian add more than two million pages.

Contrary to the idea of taking Alaya macrocausa are located in Andalusia prosecutors, who last week had a meeting in which they agreed that investigations were preferable in provincial courts to make them operational.

He acknowledged Friday that is charged with an offense of forgery by a court of Coria del Río by irregularities in a training course. This is an investigation that attempts to clarify the involvement of Montes in a course in which student data was falsified and personality of some supplanted. Moreover, Montes suggested treatment for the head of the court of Administrative Disputes 6 Sevilla to the Board to reject the appeal that brought on the grounds that the Administration had not reinstated him in his job after winning a lawsuit.

Claims for training amounted to 19.3 million

Other news about fraud newspaper "El País"
 
The Junta de Andalucía has risen to 19.3 million euros the amount claimed a total of 640 institutions for training without justification, said Thursday in Parliament, at the request of PP and IU, the Minister of Education, Luciano Alonso. This represents nearly two million more than last provided last September, when claims amounted to 17,451,211 euros for 581 grants.

According to the data provided, already used by 60% of files: 5,153 of the 8,505 that between central and provincial delegations. Grants analyzed ranging from 2007-2013, years in which the Andalusian Government budgeted 2.456 million for job training.

In a month, Education has analyzed more than 788 files are in the following situation: 547 are in request for information, study or start phase reinstatement; 59 records have proposed and final resolution of reimbursement, amounting to 1,923,812 euros, which must be returned to the public purse; and 182 have been justified properly and once the administrative process closed, had been forwarded to the Comptroller for audit, settlement and payment.

At this hearing, Alonso backtracked on its commitment to make public the list of names of entities that are claiming the refund. In contrary to what the past 4 and September 10, in parliament, on Thursday held that it will not provide the name of the beneficiaries and the return reason because "it can lead to a breach of the rules of protection data." Alonso brandished a report issued in this regard by the legal office of the Board.

The PP spokesman, Teresa Ruiz Sillero, he harshly criticized this change of position and accused him of "lying" in Parliament. "This is a scam, today desdicen, lies the counselor, lies the president of the Board and all the regional government" coalition reproached.

While in another tone, the spokesman of the United Left, Ignacio García, did not agree with the name of the beneficiaries of aid not justified "when talking nonstop transparency" is muted. Alonso reaffirmed its decision not to publish the names, but was willing to give information to groups if they claim it. Thus, the responsibility would fall on the public make deputies.

Alonso also request Ruiz dribbled Sillero made known to the record of aid received by the Treasury exconsejero Angel Ojeda, charged with receiving 33.3 million in state aid. He said that those records were in the hands of Judge Mercedes Alaya.

Resistances to make this data visible also come from the side of the Confederation of Employers of Andalusia in a letter from its president, Javier González de Lara, expressly asked not to be taken to "prevent further damage" and that final decisions of reinstatement "are subject to third-party resources."

Alonso reported that since Wednesday have joined a "specific" controller and six technicians dedicated exclusively to the oversight of training records, all of which depend on the General Comptroller. The review involved 288 people are assigned to provincial services and 64 others working at headquarters and were hired for this purpose.

Alonso reiterated that so far there are a total of 2,550 public and private entities that have been granted funds without having even justified previously received public money. It is what is called "exceptuación" which does not imply that "exempt from justification," he said. Given the statements of the deputies who have benefited entities PSOE, responsible for Education explained that there are 615 exceptuaciones local entities governed by all parties. Of these, 289 are the PSOE; 176, PP; 39 of the United Left; and 111 other formations.

The Board has five judicial proceedings themselves known more as part affected by the alleged fraud, which has already done in 11 cases.

The UDEF polls today to 3,000 students by fraud training.

 Economic Crime Unit and Tax (UDEF) of the National Police today questioned 3,000 students by the scam training courses in all the Andalusian provinces except in Seville, where "the Attorney Edu hinders operation," according to sources research consulted by the Confidential.

These same police sources stress the importance of having succeeded in eliminating "the fear of denunciation" of students in the courses and the sense of impunity summarized in one sentence: "Nothing ever happens here." "We all know who does what evil is paid.

Police on the trail of inflated bills and how they threw the prices charged teachers, who for fear of losing their jobs received between 15 and 18 euros an hour instead of the 21 that were stipulated. "The owners of the academies broke the market and the way opened for fraud.

Fraud training courses reached the epicenter of the Andalusian

Fraud of the newspaper" the country"

 PROSECUTION OF SEVILLE AND INVESTIGATE THE CASE

This massive scam could rise to more than 2,000 million euros, according calculates the UDEF (Economic Crime Unit and Tax).

In 2007 the entrepreneur Ernesto Lefranc denounced by letters to the then directors of Employment, Antonio Fernández, and of Finance, José Antonio Grin, the existence of an alleged fraud. Lefranc also reported the case to the European Union, without the Brussels authorities answered.

It was the UDEF who sent a report to the Office of Málaga, dated May 6, 2013, in which he was aware of alleged irregularities in obtaining grants by certain individuals and companies in the promotion schemes of people job executed in the Andalusian Employment Service (SAE) of the Junta de Andalucía.

 The application imputation officials awarded these grants also rises.

The facts, as the letter of the Prosecutor who has accessed the confidential, may constitute crimes in the subsidy fraud under Article 308, Article 248 scam, following forgery of Articles 390 and Article 404 trespass or traffic Article 428 of influences, all of the Penal Code.

  There are reports of all kinds, but most are from individuals who did not receive the training they were promised or were forced to resign in writing to a job. This practice was common in subsidies for training for employment with hiring commitment of 60% of the students. The information on the operation Edu have encouraged those affected to report their experience in police station.

  The Edu operation intended to end the chaos and bring together in a single procedure the investigation into the alleged misuse of public funds during the period 2007-2013, the implementation stage of the last program of the European Social Fund for Employment.

The key witness claims that 25 endorsed courses not taught.

CASES OF FRAUD of "El Pais"

 

The official Teodoro Montes, principal witness in the macrocausa on training that instructs the judge Mercedes Alaya, said Thursday it signed the certificates of 25 training courses for the Andalusian Fund Foundation Training and Employment (FAFFE) that probably not were delivered between 2009 and 2010. As detailed above, these courses were not enrolled in computer tool that all training carried Gefoc call was noted. In his fourth day of testimony, Montes pointed to the current Associate Job in Seville, Aurora Cosano, and the provincial secretary of the Andalusian Employment Service (SAE), Mary Help of Nova, to impose, despite the absence of entry in the Gefoc tool to issue diplomas. He agreed to it but said that there was a written record of his refusal, as reported judicial sources.

Regarding irregularities diplomas, sources have detailed that might have more courses in a similar situation as it might be possible that this method be used on other occasions since FAFFE, an entity that, as denounced by the official in 2013 , could have managed up to 450 courses and also accumulates 48.8 million between 2009 and 2010 which "has no justification whatsoever, despite having finished the deadline for that," as reported by the Chamber of Auditors.

Montes has become the focus of the investigation judge, but his testimony Wednesday weakened after contradicting itself in the main charges. The official retracted the request of bites from the Andalusian employers and trade links between the ERE case and training courses, and again, avoided offer evidence on his accusations against the social partners and public foundation FAISEM Board in which charged with having mistreated and anesthetized mentally ill.

On the other hand, Effective Economic Crime Unit and Tax (Udef) have begun to question students and teachers training courses in Almería.

OTRA NOTICIA SOBRE FRAUDE DE "EL PAÍS"

El testigo clave pone en jaque las pesquisas de Alaya sobre la formación

La declaración del principal testigo de la macrocausa que la juez Mercedes Alaya abrió sobre los cursos de formación de Andalucía ha puesto en jaque las pesquisas de la magistrada sevillana. El funcionario de la Junta de Andalucía Teodoro Montes sostuvo este viernes, en el quinto día de declaración, que fue en el juzgado de Alaya donde le dijeron que acudiera a la Guardia Civil a denunciar las supuestas irregularidades que conocía sobre los cursos. Esta declaración puede ser capital para resolver si la juez, instructora del fraude de los ERE, es competente para seguir con esta nueva macrocausa.
La magistrada sostiene que la investigación sobre los cursos de formación es una derivada del caso de los ERE, lo que sí le daría competencia para investigar este caso. Sin embargo, el testimonio de Montes pone en duda esta versión. Según declaró este viernes el funcionario, el año pasado, en una fecha sin precisar, acudió al juzgado de Alaya a presentar una denuncia sobre las irregularidades en los cursos de formación tras varios años sin que nadie le hiciera caso.
Montes relató que en el juzgado de Alaya una persona que no precisó le indicó que acudiera a la Guardia Civil, que es el cuerpo que investiga el fraude de los ERE después de que la magistrada desplazara a la policía. Lo normal es que una vez presentada una denuncia esta vaya a reparto, sin que se sepa inicialmente qué juez la va a investigar.
Tras la indicación en el juzgado de Alaya, Montes prestó declaración ante la Guardia Civil el 22 de agosto de 2013 y allí denunció varias de las irregularidades que conocía como responsable del departamento de gestión de formación profesional ocupacional de la Junta de Andalucía. En esa declaración, el funcionario estableció un nexo entre el caso de los ERE y el fraude de los cursos de formación, del que luego se ha desdicho en su declaración judicial de esta semana.
Siete meses después de esta declaración de Montes ante la Guardia Civil, en marzo de 2014, la magistrada sevillana abrió el sumario sobre los cursos de formación. La magistrada afirma en el primer folio de la causa que esta nueva investigación se deriva de la caso de los ERE, pero lo cierto es que el segundo folio ya es la declaración que prestó Teodoro Montes ante la Guardia Civil. Es más, casi todo el inicio de la causa es información incorporada por Montes.
Esta declaración se produce cuándo aún hay dudas sobre quién es el juez natural para investigar el fraude de los cursos de formación en Andalucía. Una docena de juzgados andaluces está investigando irregularidades en los cursos y es previsible que el Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Andalucía (TSJA) tenga que resolver finalmente.
Alaya ha reclamado las investigaciones de los otros juzgados y uno de Málaga ya se ha negado a enviarle sus pesquisas. Además, el exconsejero andaluz Ángel Ojeda, imputado por Alaya, ha recurrido a la Audiencia de Cádiz después de que un juzgado de esta provincia se inhibiera en favor de la magistrada sevillana.

Sugiere trato de favor de una magistrada a la Junta de Andalucía

La declaración de Montes supone una confesión de que fue en el juzgado de Alaya donde se le señaló qué camino debía seguir para iniciar las pesquisas sobre los cursos de formación y pondría en cuestión los pasos que la juez ha dado para intentar quedarse con esta nueva investigación destinada a remover los cimientos de la Administración autonómica. De hecho, la juez ha calculado que la información que ya ha requerido a la Junta de Andalucía sumará más de dos millones de folios.
En contra de la idea de Alaya de asumir la macrocausa se han situado los fiscales andaluces, que la semana pasada tuvieron una reunión en la que acordaron que eran preferibles investigaciones en los juzgados provinciales para hacerlas más operativas.
El funcionario reconoció este viernes que está imputado por un delito de falsedad por un juzgado de Coria del Río por irregularidades en un curso de formación. Se trata de una investigación en la que se intenta aclarar la implicación de Montes en un curso en el que se falsearon datos de los alumnos y se suplantó la personalidad de algunos. Además, Montes sugirió trato de favor de la titular del juzgado de lo Contencioso-administrativo 6 de Sevilla a la Junta por rechazar el recurso que puso por considerar que la Administración no le había reintegrado en su puesto de trabajo tras una demanda que ganó.

Otra noticia sobre fraude del periodico "El País"

Otra noticia sobre fraude del periodico "El País"

Las reclamaciones por cursos de formación se elevan a 19,3 millones

La Junta de Andalucía ha elevado a 19,3 millones de euros la cantidad que reclama a un total de 640 entidades por cursos de formación sin justificar, según informó este jueves en el Parlamento, a petición de PP e IU, el consejero de Educación, Luciano Alonso. Esta cifra supone casi dos millones más que la última aportada el pasado mes de septiembre, cuando las reclamaciones ascendieron a 17.451.211 euros correspondientes a 581 subvenciones.
Según los datos ofrecidos, ya se ha analizado un 60% de los expedientes: 5.153 de los 8.505 que hay entre servicios centrales y delegaciones provinciales. Las subvenciones analizadas van desde 2007 a 2013, años en los que el Gobierno andaluz presupuestó 2.456 millones para la formación para el empleo.
En un mes, Educación ha analizado 788 expedientes más que se encuentran en la siguiente situación: 547 están en requerimiento de información, estudio o en fase de inicio de reintegro; 59 expedientes ya tienen propuesta de resolución definitiva de reintegro, por un importe de 1.923.812 euros, que tendrán que ser devueltos a las arcas públicas; y 182 se han justificado correctamente y una vez cerrada su tramitación administrativa, se han remitido a la Intervención General para su fiscalización, liquidación y abono.
En esta comparecencia, Alonso dio marcha atrás a su compromiso de hacer público el listado con los nombres de las entidades a las que se les reclama el reintegro. En contra de lo afirmado los pasados días 4 y 10 de septiembre, en sede parlamentaria, este jueves sostuvo que no va a facilitar el nombre de los beneficiarios y el motivo de devolución porque “puede conllevar una vulneración de la normativa de protección datos”. Alonso esgrimió un informe emitido en ese sentido por el gabinete jurídico de la Junta.
La portavoz del PP, Teresa Ruiz Sillero, le reprochó con dureza este cambio de posición y le acusó de “mentir” en el Parlamento. “Esto es una estafa, hoy se desdicen, miente el consejero, miente la presidenta de la Junta y todo el Gobierno andaluz” de coalición, le reprochó.
Aunque en otro tono, el portavoz de Izquierda Unida, Ignacio García, tampoco estuvo de acuerdo con que se silencie el nombre de los beneficiarios de ayudas no justificadas “cuando se habla de transparencia sin parar”. Alonso se reafirmó en su decisión de no publicar los nombres, pero se mostró dispuesto a dar la información a los grupos si estos la reclaman. De este modo, la responsabilidad de hacerla pública recaería en los diputados.
Alonso también dribló la petición de Ruiz Sillero para que diera a conocer el expediente de las ayudas recibidas por el exconsejero de Hacienda Ángel Ojeda, imputado por recibir 33,3 millones de ayudas públicas. Dijo que esos expedientes estaban en manos de la juez Mercedes Alaya.
Las resistencias a hacer visible estos datos vienen también del lado de la Confederación de Empresarios de Andalucía que en una carta de su presidente, Javier González de Lara, pide expresamente que no se den para “evitar un daño mayor” ya que las resoluciones definitivas de reintegro “están sujetas a posibles recursos por parte de terceros”.
Alonso informó de que desde el pasado miércoles se han incorporado un interventor “específico” y seis técnicos dedicados en exclusiva a la fiscalización de los expedientes de formación, todos ellos dependientes de la Intervención General. En la revisión están participando 288 personas adscritas a los servicios provinciales y otras 64 que trabajan en los servicios centrales y que fueron contratadas para este fin.
Alonso reiteró que hasta el momento hay un total de 2.550 entidades públicas y privadas a las que se les ha concedido fondos sin que aún hayan justificado el dinero público recibido anteriormente. Es lo que se llama “exceptuación”, lo que no implica que “estén exentas de justificación”, dijo. Ante las afirmaciones de los diputados de que se han beneficiado a entidades del PSOE, el responsable de Educación detalló que hay 615 exceptuaciones de entidades locales gobernadas por todos los partidos. De ellas, 289 son del PSOE; 176, del PP; 39 de Izquierda Unida; y 111 de otras formaciones.
La Junta se ha personado en cinco procedimientos judiciales más como parte afectada por el presunto fraude, por lo que ya lo ha hecho en 11 casos.

 

La UDEF interroga desde hoy a 3.000 alumnos por el fraude de la formación.

 La Unidad de Delincuencia Económica y Fiscal (UDEF) de la Policía Nacional interroga desde hoy a 3.000 alumnos por la estafa de los cursos de formación en todas las provincias andaluzas, excepto en Sevilla, donde “la Fiscalía obstaculiza la operación Edu”, según fuentes de la investigación consultadas por El Confidencial.

Estas mismas fuentes policiales subrayan la importancia de haber logrado eliminar “el miedo a la denuncia” de los alumnos de los cursos y la sensación de impunidad resumida en una frase: “Aquí nunca pasa nada”. “Ya todos saben que quien lo hace mal lo paga.

La Policía sigue el rastro de facturas infladas y cómo se tiraron los precios que cobraban los profesores, quienes por temor a perder su trabajo percibían entre 15 y 18 euros la hora en vez de los 21 que estaban estipulados. “Los dueños de las academias rompieron el mercado y se abrió el camino para el fraude.

El fraude de los cursos de formación alcanza al epicentro de la Junta de Andalucía

 LA FISCALÍA DE SEVILLA YA INVESTIGA EL CASO

Esta masiva estafa podría elevarse a más de 2.000 millones de euros, según calcula la UDEF (Unidad de Delincuencia Económica y Fiscal).  

En 2007 el empresario Ernesto Lefranc denunció por cartas a los entonces consejeros de Empleo, Antonio Fernández, y de Economía y Hacienda, José Antonio Griñán, la existencia de un presunto fraude. Lefranc también notificó el caso a la Unión Europea, sin que las autoridades de Bruselas contestarán.
Fue la UDEF quien remitió un informe a la Fiscalía de Málaga, con fecha 6 de mayo de 2013, en el que se daba cuenta de presuntas irregularidades detectadas en la obtención de subvenciones por parte de determinadas personas físicas y empresas en los planes de promoción de empleo ejecutados en el Servicio Andaluz de Empleo (SAE) de la Junta de Andalucía.
 
La solicitud de imputación también se eleva los funcionarios que otorgaron estas ayudas.
Los hechos, según el escrito de la Fiscalía al que ha tenido acceso El Confidencial, pueden constituir delitos en el fraude de subvenciones del artículo 308, estafa del artículo 248, falsedad documental de los artículos 390 y siguientes, prevaricación del artículo 404 o de tráfico de influencias del artículo 428, todos ellos del Código Penal.
 Hay denuncias de todo tipo, pero la mayoría son de particulares que no recibieron la formación que se les había prometido o que fueron obligados a renunciar por escrito a un puesto de trabajo. Esta última práctica era habitual en las subvenciones a la formación para el empleo con compromiso de contratación del 60% de los alumnos. Las informaciones sobre la operación Edu han animado a esos perjudicados a denunciar su experiencia en comisaría.
 La operación Edu pretende acabar con ese caos y aglutinar en un solo procedimiento las pesquisas sobre la presunta malversación de fondos públicos durante el periodo 2007-2013, la etapa de aplicación del último programa del Fondo Social Europeo para el Empleo.

CASOS DE FRAUDES de "EL PAÍS"

El testigo clave sostiene que avaló 25 cursos que no se impartieron.

 

 

 

El funcionario Teodoro Montes, principal testigo en la macrocausa sobre los cursos de formación que instruye la juez Mercedes Alaya, ha declarado este jueves que firmó los diplomas de 25 cursos de formación de la Fundación Andaluza Fondo de Formación y Empleo (Faffe) que previsiblemente no se impartieron entre los años 2009 y 2010. Según ha detallado, esos cursos no estaban inscritos en la herramienta informática en la que se anotaba toda la formación ejecutada llamada Gefoc. En su cuarto día de declaración, Montes ha señalado a la actual delegada de empleo de Sevilla, Aurora Cosano, y a la secretaria provincial del Servicio Andaluz de Empleo (SAE), María Auxiliadora de Nova, de imponerle, pese a la ausencia de anotación en la herramienta Gefoc, que expidiera los diplomas. Accedió a ello pero aseguró que existía constancia por escrito de su negativa, según han informado fuentes judiciales.
Con respecto a irregularidades en los diplomas, las fuentes han detallado que podría haber más cursos en similar situación por lo que cabría la posibilidad de que este método se utilizara en otras ocasiones desde la Faffe, una entidad, que, según denunció el funcionario en 2013, podría haber gestionado hasta 450 cursos y que además acumula 48,8 millones entre 2009 y 2010 de los que “no consta justificación alguna, a pesar de haber finalizado el plazo límite para ello”, según informó la Cámara de Cuentas.
Montes se ha convertido en el eje central de la investigación de la juez, pero este miércoles se debilitó su testimonio tras contradecirse en sus principales acusaciones. El funcionario se desdijo de la petición de mordidas desde la patronal andaluza y los vínculos entre el caso ERE y los cursos de formación, y de nuevo, evitó ofrecer pruebas sobre sus acusaciones contra los agentes sociales y la fundación pública de la Junta Faisem, a la que imputó haber maltratado y anestesiado a enfermos mentales.

Por otro lado, los Efectivos de la Unidad de Delincuencia Económica y Fiscal (Udef) han comenzado a interrogar a los alumnos y profesores de cursos de formación en Almería.