The Centre for Public Integrity has published analysis of political donations and government contract work for Big 4 firms EY, KPMG, Deloitte and PwC. What’s the scam?
Source: Government gutted as PwC, Big 4 pick up $1.4b a year for giving advice – Michael West
Wow $12 and everybody is happy while we the people get screwed and pay
Be suspicious, be very suspicious! Albo is capping off Labor’s first year in office triumphant, his deal to cap gas and coal prices even lauded by the pro-gas corporate media. What’s the scam?
Source: Be suspicious: behind Albo’s masterstroke to cap fossil prices, ease power bills – Michael West
What’s the scam? It’s the fossil fuel corporations again, the usual suspects, paying no income tax despite billions in income. For yet another year: Exxon nought, Shell nought, Ampol, BP and APLNG nought, and Chevron putting them all to shame with the $30 in income tax paid on its $9bn in revenues.
Source: The Usual Suspects: tax office dump lays bare Australia’s biggest tax dodgers – Michael West
Last week, the White House released a proposed framework for the regulation of cryptocurrency. The document gives the green light to regulators to continue crafting rules around the industry, and even explores the creation of a “CBDC”: a central bank digital currency. Actor, writer, and crypto skeptic Ben McKenzie joins Ryan Grim to discuss the framework and the future (or lack thereof) of the crypto industry.
Transcript coming soon.
Offenders can intercept payment invoices, or create their own, and funnel victims’ funds into their own accounts. Businesses and individuals make their payments as usual, but unknowingly pay the offender.
via $2.5 billion lost over a decade: Nigerian princes lose their sheen, but scams are on the rise
Investors in embattled Tasmanian whisky distillery Nant are told more than 700 barrels sold to them have never been filled with whisky.
Best mates Oliver Curtis and John Hartman figured out how to make it rain cash. Until the law caught up with them.
Source: The rise and fall of financial traders Oliver Curtis and John Hartman
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has described them as “expensive” and “poor value”.
Source: Add-on insurance products sold by car dealers are failing consumers: ASIC
According to a recent report by RT, Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology have launched their own 24-hour news network and movie studio. Yeah. So that happened. According to RT’s report: “Trying to capture the success of Rupert Murdoch, Vladimir Putin (redacted) …
Source: Tom Cruise Wants To Reach ‘Every Person On Earth’ With New Scientology TV AnonHQ
Welcome to the lucrative, predatory world of subprime car loans.
Major defense contractors celebrate mass murder and terrorism, boasting that it is good for their bottom lines.
Source: Weapons Makers Caught on Tape Celebrating the Financial Benefits of ISIS and Syrian War AnonHQ
Up to a third of Aboriginal people in remote towns are being ripped off by financial scams involving funeral pre-payments, pay-day lending or excessive interest rates on loans for household essentials such as a fridge.
Legal Aid NSW has called for the federal government to act on the Financial System Inquiry’s proposal to allow targeted bans of unfair practices.
Legal Aid senior solicitor Jemima McCaughan said salesmen are preying on high infant mortality and youth suicide rates among Aboriginal communities to sell high-cost funeral insurance plans to families to cover their children from a very young age.
“The younger you sign up, the more you will pay,” she said.
“Aboriginal people tend to attend and contribute to more funerals due to social and cultural obligations, and a larger kinship network, so having a way to pay for funerals is important to a lot of Aboriginal people.”
But the contracts can end up costing tens of thousands of dollars.
A Legal Aid program sending solicitors into four communities, Dareton, Lake Cargelligo, Condoblin and Murrin Bridge, to assist 350 Aboriginal families, will be expanded across the state in 2015.
“These issues are so prevalent that in some communities as many as 30 per cent of the population have sought – and received – legal help with these money worries,” said NSW Attorney-General Brad Hazzard.
One Aboriginal elder, John, who lived on the aged pension in a remote town, used a payday lender to pay for his car registration and living expenses after he took temporary care of his grandchildren.
When Legal Aid intervened, John had paid $6500 for $3500 in credit over 18 months, continued to pay $130 a fortnight from his pension and still owed $2500 on the contract.
Legal Aid found the contract breached consumer protection laws, and was able to get $1500 refunded.
Ms McCaughan said Aboriginal people on low incomes are paying a quarter of their wage on consumer leases for a fridge or other essential items because they are excluded from mainstream financial products, and aren’t told the full cost of the contract.
The inquiry has recommended that the financial regulator be able to target bans to conduct relating to certain classes of people. Banning consumer leases from being marketed in Aboriginal communities would prevent families getting into financial difficulty, she said.
“We think a prohibition on unfair trading will fill the gap. What we see is a lot of business models dependent on taking advantage of the vulnerable,” said Ms McCaughan.
Legal Aid has encouraged Aboriginal communities to put up “do not knock” stickers on letter boxes, which is helping, she said.
“There is a real capacity to improve the information people have and share information to strengthen the community. The Koori grapevine works very well.”
The solicitors are raising awareness of No Interest Loan providers.
Superannuation products are also a problem, because the preservation age is often higher than the life expectancy of Aboriginal people.
Aboriginal people have been unable to locate the superannuation of deceased family members, and have difficulty accessing death benefit funds, because of proof of identity requirements.
Low birth registrations, multiple names, and the difficulty of accessing documents from remote communities are hurdles, Legal Aid found.
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