Crack Down on Medicare Fraud in Florida

Medicare fraud prosecutions are on the rise in South Florida after federal law enforcement intensified efforts to uproot Medicare fraud, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida announced Sept. 30.

During fiscal 2008, the South Florida Health Care Fraud Strike Force charged 245 defendants for registering fake claims worth a total of $793.5 million. Those numbers were up from 2007, when prosecutors charged 197 suspects for Medicare fraud amounting to $638 million. In 2006, 111 defendants were targeted for $138 million in fraudulent medical billing.

Most of the 2008 cases involved claims for long-lasting medical equipment either never prescribed by physicians or never delivered to Medicare donees.

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Obama’s Lawyer Asks for Inquiry into Voter Fraud Claims

Barack Obama's campaign called for the U.S. Justice Department to expand a special prosecutor's probe to include possible improprieties surrounding reports the FBI is looking into voter fraud in the presidential race.

Obama's campaign attorney said the probe should look into a leakage to the news media that the FBI is probing allegations of voter enrollment fraud by a grassroots organization called ACORN. The group's activities were criticized by Republican nominee John McCain in the Oct. 15 presidential debate.

Robert Bauer, general counsel to the Obama campaign, wrote to Attorney General Michael Mukasey a day after the Associated Press, mentioning unidentified law enforcement officials, reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was investigating ACORN. The name is short for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

A special prosecutor appointed by Mukasey already is checking whether improper political considerations influenced the firings of nine U.S. attorneys. At least one prosecutor was fired following Republican charges that he didn't aggressively pursue allegations of voter fraud against ACORN.

Bauer said the news leaks are part of a organized effort by McCain's presidential campaign and Republicans. They are ``fomenting specious vote-fraud allegations and there are disturbing indications of official participation or collusion,'' Bauer said.

``It is apparent,'' he wrote, that enforcement officials are serving ``improper political objectives'' that could inhibit voter involvement in the Nov. 4 election. The aim is to ``suppress the vote and to unduly influence investigations and prosecutions,'' Bauer wrote.

Mukasey nominated special prosecutor Nora Dannehy to look into the U.S. attorney firings in 2006.

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Massive Hi-tech Credit Card Fraud in UK Supermarkets

Detectives are investigating a sophisticated credit card fraud against customers of some of the leading supermarkets including Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury. Evidence point to Pakistan as the origin of the credit card fraud.

Fraudsters have targeted more than 40 stores in an elaborate credit card fraud scam. Police say tiny devices were inserted into the stores' 'chip and pin' credit card readers.

Specialists say the technology is the most advanced they have seen and is being used in supermarket chains across Europe. The devices, which are made in China, are reading and storing selected customers’ Mastercard and personal identification numbers as the cards are inserted into readers at supermarket checkout tills.

It is believed the bugs transmit the information via wireless technology to Lahore in Pakistan. Customers’ cards are then cloned and used to steal money from their credit card and current accounts and to pay for items such as airline tickets on the internet.

The scam was first discovered in the US and while there is no direct evidence to link it with terrorist activities in Pakistan, MPs here in the UK are calling for a full investigation amid growing evidence that terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda are resorting to sophisticated technology to raise funds.

Source: Customer Strategy, London, UK

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Astonishing Level of Fraud in H-1B Petitions

USCIS investigators investigated a a random sample from 97,000 H-1B petitions filed in 2005 and 2006. They reported fake signatures, fake degrees and the use of shell companies used in applications.

They also found out that 21% contained fraudulent information and technical violations of federal laws.

They reported that the violations and forgeries were higher among the computer professionals. 27% of the random sample they investigated had violations or forgeries of some sort.

Source: Computerworld, Framingham, MA, USA

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Former 100-Meter World Record Holder Sentenced to 5 Years

Tim Montgomery, the former 100-meter world record holder was sentenced to five years in prison after he admitted to distributing heroin.

The 33-year-old American was earlier sentenced to a three-and-a-half-years in New York for his role in a check fraud conspiracy. He will now serve the mandatory five-year term on top of the old one.

US Drug Enforcement Administration agents said Montgomery sold 111 grams of heroin to an undercover informant for about 8,500 dollars, with four meetings between Montgomery and the informant videotaped by the federal authorities.

Montgomery set a world 100m record of 9.78 seconds in Paris in 2002. It was stricken down from the books in 2005 after he was found guilty in a doping scandal.

Source: AFP

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Israeli Hacker in Multimillion-dollar Online Fraud

The United States is seeking the extradition of an Israeli hacker known as "The Analyzer" from Canada. He is believed to be the mastermind of a multimillion-dollar worldwide online fraud.

Ehud Tenenbaum is aged 29.He was arrested in late August over charges relating to a $1.8-million theft from a Calgary financial institution. While he was granted bail last week, he was arrested again on a provisional warrant under the Extradition Act before he could post the required $30,000 bail.

Canwest News Service reported on Friday that Court of Queen's Bench Justice Bryan Mahoney denied Tenenbaum bail on the U.S. charges. The court heard on Friday that the allegations against Tenenbaum involved potentially hundreds of financial institutions in Russia, Turkey, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Germany and other countries.

"Mr. Tenenbaum is alleged by the government of the U.S. to be one of the principal hackers, if not the mastermind, of their entire global operation," Canwest quoted federal Crown prosecutor David Gates as arguing.

"Mr. Tenenbaum and others did the actual hacking into financial institutions to obtain [debit and credit] card PIN numbers, and then sold them to others in their operation."

The U.S. government now has 60 days to submit an extradition order to have him taken back to face the charges, according to Canwest. Canada's justice minister then has 30 days to decide whether or not an extradition hearing can take place.

Mr.Tenenbaum is quite a renowned man and not any 'roadside-chap' as you would think. He was earlier sentenced to 15 months in jail in Israel in 1998 for hacking into the Pentagon computer system in the U.S.

Source: Ha'aretz, Tel Aviv, Israel

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The Digg Fraud

Digg is a social bookmarking service where you submit links. If the links are popular (voted by friends, fans and others) they are listed on the Digg frontpage.
Apparently, only a miniscule portion of the submissions appear on the frontpage and that are also submitted by a very small majority of an alleged ‘Elite Digger Ring’.

There are a million visitors on Digg daily. That pops up a very interesting scenario. A scenario where money ‘the Great God’ is involved. A single frontpage article can send in visitors to a site by the thousands per minute. In addition, as with every ‘big money thing’ there is always a black game where without the help of the institution that is concerned you can’t make money, as is the matter with the fraudulent Establishment.

It is alleged that Kevin Rose is allied with a select few Diggers and that constitute the ‘Elite Digger Ring’. As you can understand it is a matter of ‘big money’, nothing can be impossible.

It is apparent that Diggers like MrBabymen, Msaleem and a few others have Dugged a gigantic amount and sometimes they Digg so quickly that you will be baffled. But their accounts are not banned instead you find the newbie Digger, that unsuspecting and unknowing fool’s account being banned with a one or two sprinkles from the top to bring in a show of reality to the show.

Here’s what one banned newbie Digger by the username of xDigger has to say:

“I was only a few days baby on Digg. On my third day of my Digg Life I had Dugg about 320. It was a holiday and I decided to spend the day Digging articles I like. I was banned the following day, but that is a small matter. They also had banned Zaibastu. He was the only guy who noticed me in the sea of Diggs, made me a friend and Dugg my first article. This is indeed very bad.

What’s bad in using scripts, if it can save your time? For is not the computer an invention that helped humankind save time. Now will you ban the computer from being used in offices and specially in Digg’s offices for it is saving time?”

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24 Cracking Tips to Save Yourself from Identity Theft and Credit Card Fraud

Don't just rely on insurance to protect you from identity theft and card fraud. It's much better to take these precautions to prevent it from happening in the first place!

These tips can save you from financial loss and the pain and effort needed to make it right again:

Identity-theft insurance:

A typical identity-theft insurance policy will pay for such things as rejected loan application fees and lost wages if you have to take time off work to reclaim your identity. The biggest benefit, in my opinion, is that many providers will be able to tell you what to do, who to report to, which companies to call and so on. This might be useful if you think you wouldn't keep a cool head in that situation.

Credit-card protection insurance:

A typical credit-card protection policy will cover you for loss due to fraud up to a specified limit, perhaps £5,000. Once you have reported the loss to the insurer, the limit for any additional losses that occur after the report could rise to £50,000 or £100,000. In addition, these insurances will often cover cash that has been stolen with your cards (up to a few hundred pounds).

Other benefits can include a service that will contact all your card providers to notify them of theft and to get replacement cards re-issued. Furthermore, if, because of the theft, you have no money to get home, the policy will probably pay for your transport costs too. The cost of replacing documents such as your driver's license and passport may also be covered if they go missing at the same time as your cards.

Are these insurances worth it?

Identity-theft and card protection insurances may particularly benefit people who are victims of fraud that is committed outside Europe, as it can sometimes be harder then to recover your money. However, I believe that identity-theft and card protection insurances are of negligible value to most people. This is because of these basic rights:

1. Credit-, debit- and charge-card issuers must bear the cost of fraudulent use. In some cases, you have to pay for part of the loss, but this is limited to £50. The exception is if you're grossly negligent, e.g. if you write your PIN on your card.
2. If you make a purchase worth £100 to £30,000 with a credit card and you have a problem with your purchase, your credit-card issuer is equally liable to refund you. This means you can ask your credit-card company to refund your account in addition to the vendor.

This leads us to the third way to protect yourself and your money:

Be careful!

If you're careful, the chances of suffering from fraud are very low. If you have a loss, it can take a while to fix it and get your money back, and this can be stressful. That's why it's best to be alert. We've not shared any tips on this for a while, so here are the better ones:

Documents:

1) Keep your cheque books separate from your credit cards.
2) Keep your driver’s license separate from your keys (as your license has your address on it).
3) Keep your passport safely hidden away when traveling.
4) Shred all documents with your personal or financial details, rather than bin them.
5) Check bank and card statements for unfamiliar transactions
6) Re-direct your post when you move and notify all companies that send you post of your new address.
7) Check your credit report occasionally.
8) Ignore letters that seem too good to be true; the ones that offer you money for nothing or ask for personal details.

Cards:

1. Report missing cards immediately.
2. Don't let restaurant and shop staff take your card out of your sight, because they might clone it.
3. Inform your bank if you're planning a trip abroad, so they don't get suspicious of your overseas transactions and bar your cards.
4. Be paranoid about people finding out your PIN number. Try to memorize it, not write it down, and cover it up when you enter it into readers or cash machines.
5. Put all your cards on a photocopier and copy both sides. Write the emergency contact numbers for each provider on the paper. Then store it somewhere secret and safe.

Computer and telephone:

1. As with letters, ignore dodgy calls or emails that ask for money or personal details from you.
2. Don't click through links sent to you by email from your bank or any other financial organization. Often these are cleverly disguised 'phishing' attacks to lead you to fake websites, where you enter, and therefore reveal, your personal details and passwords.
3. Be careful with your passwords, and don't choose anything obvious.
4. Don't give passwords to anyone who calls you, regardless of who they say they are. Find the correct number online and call them back, so you know it's not a fraud.
5. Make sure you see the padlock sign before you type personal details into forms on the Internet.
6. Get some anti-spyware and anti-virus software. Don't be conned into buying a fake product though! Get tips from your IT friend, or pick software you know has a good reputation. I've used Ad-Aware and Spyware Doctor for anti-spyware, but other well-known packages are Norton and McAfee. I've used McAfee's anti-virus software too.
7. Scan all attachments you receive by email for viruses.
8. If you download (i.e. open or save) any files from the Internet, save them to your computer first and then scan them. Don't just open them.
9. To be extra safe, don't download files from sources you don't know and trust.
10. Try to resist putting your personal details on networking sites such as Facebook for all to see.

Source: Motley Fool UK, UK

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Mississippi Student Arrested for theft of $100K

Jake Marshall is a 23-year-old doing his communications major from Biloxi. He was arrested on Tuesday by the Mississippi attorney general's office.

Why was he arrested? No, not because he stole boiled eggs or toasted bread, but on two counts of wire-fraud.

According to investigators, Marshall used the checking account and routing numbers off his paycheck from Tampa, Fla.,-based Barbizon modeling school to allegedly funnel up to $100,000 into an account with Tuition Management Systems, a private vendor used by Mississippi College.

They say that he spent his summer handing out fliers at Northpark mall for Barbizon and entered the numbers on the bottom of his paycheck into Tuition Management Systems' online form, apparently with the plan of paying his tuition and pocketing the rest.

Jan Schaefer, spokesperson for Attorney General Jim Hood, said investigators arrested Marshall on campus after he picked up a check for $19,000 cut from the tuition service.

Mississippi College will hold a disciplinary hearing next week to determine Marshall's future as a student.

He is being held at the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond until his court appearance, which has not been scheduled.

Quite an ingenious method for paying tuition fees!

Source: Jackson Clarion Ledger, Jackson, MS, USA

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$33 Million SoCal Fraud - 18 Arrested from LA

Federal authorities arrested eighteen people from Los Angeles area accused of filing more than $33 million worth of phony Medicare bills.

The authorities say they arrested the suspects Thursday after the FBI searched six locations, including a clinic in South Los Angeles. Those arrested include clinic owners, medical professionals and owners of medical equipment companies.

Eight federal indictments allege they submitted bills to Medicare for unnecessary medical equipment, including motorized wheelchairs and hospital beds.

The charges include submitting false claims and conspiracy to commit health care fraud. Some of those charged with multiple crimes could face dozens and even hundreds of years in prison if convicted.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle, CA, USA

Related Links:
AP State News - 18 arrested for alleged $33-million SoCal fraud
18 arrested for alleged $33-million SoCal fraud - MontereyHerald.com

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100 Arrested in Passport Scam Using Dead Americans' Birth Certificates

Federal authorities on Tuesday announced the arrests of more than 100 people including 30 from the Bay Area. These people are suspects in a US Passport Scam using birth certificates of dead Americans.

Between July 2005 and August 2008, 112 individuals across the country were charged with federal passport fraud and related offenses, according to the U.S. State Department. The individuals charged include fugitives, military deserters, delinquent taxpayers, parolees, convicted felons, habitual drunken drivers and undocumented workers from more than 20 countries, all of whom wanted passports to hide from law enforcement, according to authorities.

Dubbed "Operation Deathmatch," the investigation was a joint effort by the U.S. Department of Diplomatic Security's San Francisco and Los Angeles field offices and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Sacramento field office.

Senior security service officials from both agencies, who did not want to reveal their names, said investigators merged California's death record database, going back to 1940, with passport requests. Though this type of investigation is ongoing, the officials said, this operation was the largest and most successful because computer technology is so much more advanced than it used to be.

The Deathmatch defendants include Chih-Fong Chen of Atherton, an undocumented Chinese immigrant. She stole the birth certificate of a deceased woman, Lorena Lew, while she was working for the Jocelyne J. K. Lew Immigration Law Firm.

And while it's possible for terrorists to steal and use other people's identities, senior diplomatic security officials with the U.S. State Department said there were no defendants charged with terrorism as part of this investigation.

Officials also said that there was no particular reason for announcing the results of Deathmatch Tuesday, especially since the work is ongoing and began in 2005.

Most of the people charged were arrested or surrendered in federal courts, according to the U.S. State Department. Some remain fugitives. Federal passport offenses carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.

Law enforcement officials also seized three firearms, $650,000 in cash, a Mercedes and more than 80 of the fraudulently obtained U.S. passports.

Related Links:
Some here snagged in fake ID-passport sting
Two Santa Cruz County men busted in passport fraud sting
Nationwide Passport Scam Investigation Nets Bay Area

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King to be Sentenced for $109 Million Fraud

Former Port Macquarie bus tycoons Tony and Peter King will face separate sentencing hearings for defrauding the National Australia Bank of money amounting to $109 millions.

The court had already convicted Tony King for defrauding the bank of $44 million.

He claimed the King Brothers bus company owned 144 used Mercedes Benz buses. However, the buses did not exist.

He is already serving time and will be sentenced on Thursday on a new charge of defrauding the bank of a further $65 million.

His twin, Peter King, is out on bail.

He will be sentenced in early November on the combined charges of defrauding NAB of $109 million.

Both have pleaded guilty to the most recent charges. They will be sentenced in the Downing Centre District Court in Sydney.

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100's of Workers Fall Prey to 2012 Olympics Job Scam

2012 Olympics – get a job now! Thousands have fallen to this trap, mainly eastern European workers on a fake website claiming to have non-existent jobs for the 2012 London Olympics.

BBC London alleges that more than 500 Slovakians paid £600 deposits to a convicted fraudster who then disappeared.

Olympics minister Tessa Jowell is working with the police to investigate the scam.

It is claimed that Nigel Lewis had advertised for some staff to work in the Olympics Village in a programme.

For a deposit transferred into Mr Lewis's firm UK CruiseLine Ltd, the would-be employees would be given accommodation on a cruise ship in London Docklands and a job on the site of the Games.

However, after 550 Slovakians had handed over their money, Mr Lewis disappeared, it is alleged. Some took out loans to raise the capital needed for the deposit.

Any Slovaks who did come to London found that the UK CruiseLine offices were deserted and the three cruise ships that were supposed to be moored at the King George V dock near Stratford had also gone, the BBC programme states.

The BBC tracked down Mr Lewis working in a Dartford hotel. He told them that no profit had been made from his UK CruiseLine venture.

"I've worked on this project almost 12 months solid and I've got nothing for it, just heartache," he said. He also insisted that he had intended to buy three cruise ships and secure jobs on the Olympic site but that "it just went out of control".
Programme-makers have now handed over their evidence to the police.

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10 Tips to Save Yourself from Credit Card Fraud

Follow these 10 steps to save yourself from credit card fraud:

1. Never provide your credit card information on a website that is not
a secure site.

2. Sign your credit cards as soon as you receive them.

3. Shred all credit card applications you receive.

4. Don't write your PIN number on your credit card - or have it anywhere near your credit card.

5. Never leave your credit cards or receipts lying around.

6. Open credit card bills promptly and make sure there are no bogus charges. Treat your credit card bill like your checking account - reconcile it monthly. Save your receipts so you can compare them with your monthly bills.

7. If you find any charges that you don't have a receipt for - or that you don't recognize - report these charges promptly (and in writing) to the credit card issuer.

8. Shred anything with your credit card number written on it.

9. Never sign a blank credit card receipt. Carefully draw a line through blank portions of the receipt where additional charges could be fraudulently added.

10. Ideally, it's a good idea to carry your credit cards separately from your wallet - perhaps in a zippered compartment or a small pouch.

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Fake E-mails Purports to be from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

An email arrives from the foundation asking people to go to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation International Training Workshop. The invitations sent by the email looks very inviting and real but alas! there is no such summit or workshop.

People who got the e-mail were told to send a registration fee to Dr. Norman Trevor of Togo in West Africa. The money but would never reach the foundation. The people, those who sent their money, were made a hypnotist’s cock and the scammer’s, now, probably are lavishing under the African sky.

So, be on the lookout for such e-mail and just delete them and warn your friends.

Source – David Colker

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Washington DC Primary Election - Thousands of Fake Write-In Votes

It is very easy to hack an election using Sequoia’s e-voting machine.

There has been numerous problems regarding these machines:
a) Vote totals in New Jersey which did not add up properly
b) And that with a little effort you can vote multiple times with this machines.

And Sequoia’s response is always the same – ‘it is all untrue’ – ‘we will sue you’.

But now they have a very grave problem to deal with. The Washington DC primary election. In that election officials are puzzled about the thousand of votes that the machines added for non-existent write-in candidates.

The election board says the root of the problem is due to a faulty cartdrige.

However the interesting thing to note is that Sequoia denies a ‘faulty cartdrige’ or a ‘faulty database’.

"There's absolutely nothing wrong with the database," said Michelle Shafer, spokeswoman for California-based Sequoia Voting Systems. "There's absolutely no problem with the machines in the polling places. No. No."

Now, how would these machines conduct the most important election that the whole world is waiting for?

Related Links:
Voting machine co. says equipment not at fault

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Colossal ATM Fraud Shooks Gulf

The whole of the gulf is shaken after hackers withdraw massive amount of money with counterfeit cards.

The total number of customer accounts that had been hit by the peril is still unclear. Local banks including Citibank, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, National Bank of Abu Dhabi and Emirates NBD have all issue statements separately about the disaster.

Banks urged their customers to change their PINs as a safety step. They are also issuing text messages that the situation is under control. They assured customers that they would pay their losses.

Some banks froze customer accounts who failed to change their PINs causing a serious chaos. The environment is gloomy and customers fear that they would lose their money.

Preliminary investigations suggest that hackers may have got their hands on card details and PINs after rigging cash machines with card skimmers. Other reports raise the dark spectre that bank's internal systems have been compromised.

Related Links:
‘Hacker network’ targets UAE banks in ATM cash fraud
UAE banks step up security after card fraud spree
UAE banking on chip and pin
Banks step up anti-fraud vigil
Readers express shock over bank card fraud
UAE Banks Confirm ATM Fraud, Call for Vigilance

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How to Prevent Odometer Fraud

Odometer fraud is a common problem worldwide. This is done to mask the mileage on used cars. This is a serious problem for used-cars buyers who are unaware of the problem. This can lead to frustrating breakdowns and repairs. Odometer fraud causes a lot of money to be lost by an unsuspecting buyer.

Each year approximately 3 million used cars have their odometers rolled back an average of 30,000 miles. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, odometer fraud throughout the country results in consumer losses of approximately four billion dollars annually.

According to AAA the difference in the value of a vehicle with 30,000 miles and 70,000 miles is approximately $3,600. When increased finance, insurance and repair costs are added, the loss to a consumer who purchases a vehicle with an altered odometer can be more than $4,000.

Millions of vehicles receive new titles each year as they are sold at auction to wholesalers and dealers. Unscrupulous operators often commit fraud by recording lower mileage on the new title application, changing the odometer reading and cleaning the vehicle so its appearance matches the lower mileage reading. In many cases, the dealer selling the vehicle to the consumer may not be aware the odometer was altered by a wholesaler or at the auction.

To spot possible fraud, AAA urges motorists to have a thorough vehicle inspection performed by a qualified technician. An inspection can spot telltale signs of excessive mileage such as engine wear, emissions problems and suspension and steering component wear. Also, since original tires usually last up to 60,000 miles, new tires on a vehicle with an odometer showing 30,000 miles are a good reason to be wary.

Tips to Safeguard Yourself from Odometer Fraud:
• Visually inspect the car to see if its condition matches the miles shown on the odometer. Check to see which parts have been replaced. Unscrupulous individuals sometimes use paint to make old parts look newer.
• Check the inspection certificate. It will have the date of inspection, mileage at the time of inspection, place of inspection and the inspector's name recorded on it.
• Look for lube or maintenance stickers on the left doorframe, in the glove compartment, under the hood, in the trunk, etc. These often contain mileage information.
• Check with the manufacturer to see what work was done under the warranty and what the mileage was at the time the work was done.
• Check to see if the numbers on the odometer gauge are aligned straight across. If they are crooked, the odometer may have been tampered with.
o If the car has a General Motors mechanical odometer, the spaces between the numbers should be black. If they are silver or white, the odometer has been tampered with.
o If the car has an electronic odometer, it has been designed to show an asterisk or some other sign if it has been tampered with. Information regarding this will be contained in the owner's manual.
• Research the vehicle's title history through a commercial title checking company.
• Be suspicious if the vehicle was sold several times in a few months.
• Be skeptical of former fleet vehicles with low mileage. These vehicles are driven an average of 32,000 miles per year and are almost never taken out of service early.

Related Links:
Odometer fraud - Wikipedia
How to Avoid Odometer Fraud

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How Real Estate Agents Cheat Property Buyers and Sellers

This world is a magical cave. The inside is quite different from the outside. What you see or hear is quite different in reality. You and I only see the surface.

Consider now, the case of real estate agents.

A interesting set of data published in the book ’Freakonomics’ states that real estate agents keep their own houses on the market far longer than they would keep yours.

Now, the question is why they do like this?

You have a $300,000 house to sell. You call and agent and put it up in the market. The agents finds a buyer who is willing to pay the sum.

Now what shall she do? Sell the house for $300,000 or wait for a more lucrative offer - $10,000 more.

This whole world is about incentives. Work done - profit earned. This is the simple formula by which we all live by. And so with the real estate agents - it’s also the same.

A rate of 1.5% commission on $300,000 will give the agent $4500. And, if she sells it for $10,000 more after some hectic negotiations or with a little more effort and dedication what shall she earn? A mere $150.

Now, it is unto you to judge what shall she do? Sell it for $300,000 or $310,000.
Obviously, she will try to close the deal as soon as possible? She will sell it for $300,000 and take away her share of $4500.

But if it was her own house, what shall she do? She will wait for a few days. She will bargain a little. She will try to raise the price a few more thousand dollars. She will sell it for $310,000 and pocket it all.

*Freakonomics is a NYTimes bestseller.

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Palin will be a Miser Vice-President for USA

Ms. Palin received a “per diem” expense allowance for 312 nights she spent at her home in Wasilla, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

The $60-a-day allowance is available for state employees when traveling on official state business to cover meals and other sundry expenses. Ms. Palin’s per diems, which included some charges for partial days, totaled $17,059, from Dec. 4, 2006, when she took office, through June 30, 2008, the most recent data available, according to Sharon Leighow, a spokeswoman for the governor’s office. Ms. Palin’s salary is $125,000 a year.

The whole notion of a perdiem is to reimburse you for hotel expenses when on the road. If she was working for a corporation, she would have been fired for fraudulent expense billing or at the minimum, asked to repay the money.

Related Links:

Palin aides defend billing

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