The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "con man" ...
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The Unexpected Guest; Friends with Benefits
First and only full account of the crimes of violent River Oaks con-man Dinesh Shaw a.k.a Dinny Shaw.
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Financial Fraud
Wall Street Journal reporter, Mark Maremont exposes a California investment banker turned con man who was charged with money laundering. A deeper look into the life of Danny Pang reveals questions about the validity of his credentials and of the mysterious death of his first wife. Mr. Pang denied any wrongdoings until his death was found dead in September 2009.
Tags: Danny Pang; Private Equity Management Group Inc.; Ponzi scheme; Janie Louise Pang;
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The Man Who Conned The Pentagon
Dennis Montgomery, a self-proclaimed scientist, believed he could decrypt secret communication between Al Qaeda. He had been doing this for years and convincing the US national security establishments of this information. His bizarre intelligence caused plane cancellations, orange alerts, and chaos throughout America. Further, this story reveals specific contracts and a number of events caused by certain people.
Tags: War on Terror; Dennis Montgomery; Al Qaeda; Terrorists attacks; US Intelligence agencies; US Government; Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
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Flip This House
This story details the con man behind the reality show "Flip This House," who swindled thousands of dollars from dozens of victims. Also, the reporters discovered that behind the scenes, "the home renovations were shoddy, open house events were staged and so-called profitable home sales were actually faked."
Tags: reality TV; con man; swindle; fake scenes; staged events;
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Curve Ball
"This is the story of how an Iraqi con man fooled the world's top intelligence agencies. He was code named "Curve Ball" and his testimony - that Saddam Hussein had mobile biological weapons - provided the backbone of the administration's case for going to war."
Tags: con job; Curve Ball; war on terror; Iraq war; Iraqi; biological weapons; Rafid Ahmed Alwan; bioterrorism;
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To Catch a Con Man
Examining Internet crimes, NBC found that "advance-fee" scams "were actually pulling in more American victims than ever." However, local and foreign law enforcement was doing little to successfully "find and prosecute the perpetrators."
Tags: Internet; crime rings; advance-fee; scams; Nigeria; Africa; Europe; Internet crimes
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A 9/11 phony
This series examined the claims of a man who said he suffered a raft of illnesses resulting from his 9/11 rescue efforts at Ground Zero. He was awarded nearly $650,000 from the victims compensation fund, but the newspaper found evidence that his tales of heroism and life-threatening injuries were not true. The newspaper revealed that the man has a 20-year history of "exaggeration, self-promotion, freeloading and very little evidence of real rescue work."
Tags: 9/11; September 11; September 11th Victims Compensation Fund; con; fraud; Ground Zero
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Bad Sourcing; Chalabi: A Questionable Use of U.S. Funding; A Double Game; Our Con Man in Iraq; Chalabi: and the Questions Keep Coming...; The Hunt for the Iranians' Informer; Forget the 'Poisons and Deadly Gases'; Rewriting History
This series about prewar intelligence in Iraq was the first to uncover doubts that the Bush administration and the CIA may have had about all of the Iraqi defectors, as mentioned in Secretary of State Colin Powell's Feb. 2003 speech. The series questions a number of different intelligence sources, including Ahmad Chalabi, and investigates their credibility and unauthorized use of U.S. funding.
Tags: Iraqi National Congress. Defense Department; Iraq; Ahmad Chalabi; prewar intelligence
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Fake Law Firm
A lawyer leaves his house in his newly purchased Mercedes and heads to his law firm, where he helps families of federal prisoners, desperate for downward departures and resentencings. What's different? The "lawyer" is a federal prisoner, his "house" is a halfway house and his new Mercedes was purchased by the bogus law firm he created with his mother to take hundreds of thousands of dollars from people, including an NBA basketball player who thought he was investing through the "attorney".
Tags: TAPE; lawyer; firm; fraud; fake; federal prisoner; law firm; fake law firm; convict drug dealer; con artist; con-man; Department of Justice; drug dealer; halfway house; methamphetamine; federal bureau of prisons
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When Crime Pays
This story provides a look at the career of an embezzler and the difficulty experienced by one victim, Ron Bargman, who spent nearly four years in an attempt to have this conman imprisoned, often doing work that should have been done by the authorities. Even after Bargman filed charges, people were defrauded. An important aspect of this story was how difficult it is to prosecute embezzlement charges.
Tags: embezzlement; con man