Tag: financial crimes
Miami Grifter Gets Probation for Perjury
⏱ 3 min read Michael Luehrsen, 41, of Miami walked out of federal court in Buffalo yesterday with a sweetheart deal: three years probation. But that’s just the latest twist for a guy already facing serious fraud charges. Luehrsen wasn’t just accused of ripping off the healthcare system, he then doubled down by lying about…
Hamburg Mail Grab: $370K Stolen
⏱ 3 min read Alexandria Duncan, 23, of Buffalo, and her partner drained over $369,000 from Hamburg, New York residents and businesses last October. The pair systematically looted mailboxes using a stolen postal service arrow key between October 9th and 14th, cashing checks from the stolen haul. It wasn’t random; it was a deliberate scheme…
Benefit & Tax Cheat Gets 37 Months
⏱ 3 min read James Pavlounis, 53, is trading his New Rochelle address for a federal prison cell after admitting to a decade-plus con. For 12 years, starting January 2013, Pavlounis pocketed $646,370 in bogus Social Security disability payments while secretly raking in cash from his valet parking business, Select Parking Systems Inc. – and…
K$ Grift: Online Guru Cops a Plea
⏱ 3 min read Kenneth Thom, a 40-ish ex-broker known online as “K$” and “K Money,” confessed in Manhattan Federal Court today to fleecing investors with a classic pump-and-dump scheme. Thom, already radioactive in the financial world, built a slick online persona to lure victims after being barred from trading in 2011. He’s facing sentencing…
Albany Firm Coughs Up $1.9M in PPP Scam
⏱ 3 min read Albany manufacturer Sark Wire Corporation is on the hook for $1.9 million after admitting they cooked the books to grab COVID-19 relief money. Back in 2020, when the CARES Act was supposed to be a lifeline for struggling businesses, Sark Wire allegedly lied about its size to qualify for Paycheck Protection…
Gift Card Scam Bleeds Millions
⏱ 3 min read A shadowy network of overseas criminals drained millions from Americans over two years, using stolen funds to buy high-end electronics shipped out of the country. The scam, active from October 1, 2023, to September 1, 2025, preyed on vulnerable people through classic cons – elder fraud, romance scams, and outright hacking…
Vet Swindles Military for $1M+
⏱ 2 min read Donald Smith, a 75-year-old Pittsburgh vet-turned-contractor, is facing a long stretch behind bars after a federal jury slapped him with guilty verdicts on thirteen counts today. Smith’s company systematically ripped off the Defense Logistics Agency, the military’s supply chain, to the tune of over a million dollars between 2019 and 2023.…
Incline Lawyer Bleeds Landmark Dry
⏱ 2 min read Pittsburgh lost a piece of its history – and over $1.3 million – to a lawyer allegedly more interested in crypto gains than preservation. Christopher Furman, 53, once the president of the Society for the Preservation of the Duquesne Heights Incline, is facing federal charges after authorities say he systematically pilfered…
Fake Robbery, Real Theft: 8 Months in Fed Lockup
⏱ 2 min read Nicole Hilstolsky, 48, of Swoyersville, Pennsylvania, is heading to federal prison for eight months. She didn’t pull off a daring heist—she faked one. On October 15, 2018, Hilstolsky, then an employee of the now-defunct WOD Federal Credit Union, grabbed $16,247 from the teller and safe, then called 911 reporting an armed…
Credit Union Lie Lands Woman in Federal Lockup
⏱ 2 min read Nicole Hilstolsky, 48, of Swoyersville, Pennsylvania, is trading her freedom for a federal cell after a brazen scheme to cover up a theft at the now-defunct WOD Federal Credit Union. On October 15, 2018, Hilstolsky pocketed $16,247, then spun a tale of two armed robbers to cops, dialing 911 and fabricating…
