Business
Litigation finance companies skirt usury laws for great profit
Billy Shields of the Daily Business Review exposed the growing business of litigation finance. These companies offer plaintiffs an advance on pending legal settlements, but at great cost. “The debate over litigation finance company begins over whether they are making a loan or investing in cases. Because courts have ruled their advances are not loans,…
Read MoreBig retailer profited from state office supply contract
California’s state office supply contract was meant to benefit the small businesses while saving the state money, but an investigation by Kimberly Kindy of The San Jose Mercury News shows that the contract actually lined the pockets the big box retailer Office Depot. In 2007, the state’s bill for office supplies ran over $32 million.…
Read MoreProfits balloon for business improperly certified as disadvantaged
Elizabeth Newell and Robert Brodsky of Govermnent Executive report that a Miami-based defense contractor saw a significant increase in his business after being improperly labeled as a small disadvantaged business. AEY, Inc. is currently under investigation for providing faulty munitions as part of a $289 million contract to provide the Afgahanistan Army and police force…
Read MoreInsiders profit from FDA’s Fast Track
A seven-month investigation by The Plain Dealer‘s Joel Rutchick and Brie Zeltner into the FDA’s Fast Track drug review program has proven benefits to investors while doing little or nothing to speed up the availability of new medical treatments, compared to expedited review options that already existed before the drug industry lobbied to create Fast…
Read MoreInside the Seminoles’ ascension from poverty to profit
The last three decades have seen the Seminole Tribe of Florida ascend from extreme poverty to substantial wealth thanks to their lucrative Indian gaming endeavors. A South Florida Sun-Sentinel investigation found that, while this wealth is shared throughout the tribe, a “a handful of tribal leaders have especially benefited, steering millions of the tribe’s money…
Read MoreHaven Healthcare riddled with problems
Lisa Chedekel and Lynne Touhy of the Hartford Courant exposed the patient care issues and financial troubles at Haven Healthcare, one of Connecticut’s largest nursing home chains. The reporters utilized Medicare data and Connecticut Department of Public Health data to uncover patient care problems. The investigation also revealed that the chain’s CEO funneled corporate resources…
Read MoreYoung hunters twice as likely to cause accidents in Wisconsin
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Ben Poston analyzed hunting accident records kept by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and found that in the past five years, hunters 21 and younger were more than twice as likely to cause accidents than all other hunters. The analysis also found that deer drives — “a method in which…
Read MoreMore mayhem in the Meadowlands
In an ongoing investigation, Jeff Pillets of The Record in Bergen County, N.J., uncovered how a taxpayer-supported plan to reclaim the North Jersey Meadowlands instead reopened the infamous garbage dumps to millions of cubic yards of contaminated waste. A review of some 10,000 pages of state documents revealed that the site’s developers won a string…
Read MoreNeglect plagues property holdings of ex-NBA star
An investigation by The Sacramento Bee’s Terri Handy and Phillip Reese shows that former NBA star Kevin Johnson is responsible for a slew of neglected properties in the downtrodden area of Oak Park where his investments have been widely publicized and praised. “Within a two-mile radius, a Bee investigation found, half of the 37 parcels…
Read MoreOne-third of S. Florida gas pumps inaccurate
A report by Mc Nelly Torres of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel shows that 34 percent of gas pumps in South Florida failed accuracy tests over the past three years. “The analysis found 580 of more than 2,500 stations in South Florida had at least one pump dispensing more gas than customers paid to purchase, while…
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