Ruben Garcia: The Downfall

“Not long after Trutanich’s loss, Advanced Cleanup sued BP America, alleging that it had only paid a small fraction of the $4 million it said it was owed, according to court documents filed in 2014. Both companies eventually settled two years later. This was the high point for Garcia. After considerable testing and evaluation, the […]

Who is Ruben Garcia? A Case Study in Progress

A prominent man based in Southern California, there isn’t much information pertaining to him since 2016. However, digging much deeper, there has been a cached page provided by Google which startling facts and images from a now defunct and non-operational website by the name of crookandliar.com. With a plethora of lawsuits attached to his name, […]

PG&E Cleared of Major Indictment

“Three days after Gov. Gavin Newsom celebrated his 2018 election victory, one of his major corporate campaign donors caused a mass killing. The Pacific Gas and Electric Company pleaded guilty in June 2020 to felony involuntary manslaughter for killing 84 Californians in the 2018 Camp Fire. PG&E’s officials walked out of court to go back to work on […]

Promises That Ultimately Fell Too Short

“Clinical laboratory leaders have watched with keen interest the federal criminal proceedings against disgraced Theranos founder and former CEO Elizabeth Holmes, whose blood-testing company lost nearly $1 billion of investors’ money before dissolving in 2018. In a recent CNBC interview, John Carreyrou, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) investigative journalist who first broke the Theranos story in 2015, contended that the once-high-flying Silicon Valley startup could […]

Embezzlement: Understanding it’s differences

By Definition Fraudulent taking of personal property by someone to whom it was entrusted. Most often associated with the misappropriation of money. Embezzlement can occur regardless of whether the defendant keeps the personal property or transfers it to a third party. Overview “Historically, embezzlement became a crime because thefts were occurring in which the elements of larceny could not […]

Wells Fargo: When inflating sales fall flat

“Wait—Wells Fargo is a top business scandal of 2020? Didn’t that mess happen in 2016? Turns out it’s more accurate to say the scandal started in 2016. Four years later it’s still going strong, meriting a Special Achievement Award among business scandals and thus a place on our list. D-Day was Sept. 8, 2016, when news broke that […]

ZZZZ Best, Is Actually Not Ze Best

“What Happened? On this day in 1987, the assets of infamous corporate fraud ZZZZ Best were liquidated at a bankruptcy auction for just $64,000. Where The Market Was: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the day at 2,485.33 and the S&P 500 traded at 309.27. What Else Was Going On In The World? In 1987, President Ronald Reagan […]

ZZZZ Best, Carpets and Cleaning Out Pockets

“In 1986, shortly after graduating from high school, Minkow took ZZZZ Best public. This raised over $11 million for ZZZZ Best after fees and costs, but even this wasn’t enough to pay off all the debts Minkow had accumulated while building his business. One problem going public created was that Minkow had to provide audited […]

Fraud, as defined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation

Business Fraud Business fraud consists of dishonest and illegal activities perpetrated by individuals or companies in order to provide an advantageous financial outcome to those persons or establishments. Also known as corporate fraud, these schemes often appear under the guise of legitimate business practices. An array of crimes fall under business fraud, including the following: […]