"Alden Shoe Co. lawsuits allege former CFO funneled millions in embezzled money to Bianca de la Garza" by Janelle Nanos Globe Staff, June 15, 2020
The local television star and fashion influencer Bianca de la Garza’s Lucky Gal Productions may have seen its luck run out.
Alden Shoe Co., a family-owned footwear maker in Middleborough, has filed a civil lawsuit in Suffolk Superior Court alleging that its former vice president and chief financial officer, Richard Hajjar, embezzled $27 million from the company and funneled $15 million of it into the TV and fashion businesses of de la Garza, a former news anchor who runs a beauty business under the name BDG Enterprises.
Bianca de la Garza at her home in Boston. She was a WCVB staffer before starting her own media company in 2014 (John Blanding/Globe Staff/file 2015)
$KANK!
According to the court filings, Hajjar bought a $1.1 million New York City co-op apartment for de la Garza using money stolen from the company and purchased other extravagant gifts, including a Mercedes-Benz, diamond jewelry, and designer handbags and clothing. De la Garza, a Milton native and Emerson College graduate, was a longtime host and news anchor at WCVB-TV (Channel 5) before starting her own media company in 2014.
The court documents indicate that Alden, a New England footwear stalwart founded in 1884, hired Hajjar in 1987. According to the filings, Hajjar’s father had been the CPA for the father of the company’s current president, Arthur S. Tarlow Jr., and Hajjar’s two brothers worked for the company. Trust ran deep between the two families.
Hajjar, a “trusted advisor” to the Tarlow family, eventually rose to vice president and corporate secretary, a member of the board of directors, and chief financial officer. Until he was dismissed in 2019, Hajjar was handling “most day-to-day financial matters at Alden," a filing states.
According to the documents, Hajjar’s relationship with de la Garza began around 2012, while she was an anchor at WCVB. The two became friends and vacationed together, and Hajjar lavished gifts on her worth “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” according to the documents.
Only in October 2019 did the company learn that Hajjar’s opulent offerings had been paid for with money embezzled from the company’s bank accounts, a filing states. After a forensic accounting investigation, the company concluded that Hajjar had stolen $27 million since 2011.
The alleged theft came to light after Tarlow, the company’s president, approached Hajjar about moving funds from a company bank account into family trusts. At the time, the company account should have had more than $10 million in it, the filings state, but Hajjar dodged the request and “after repeated delays and follow-up requests” assured Tarlow the funds would be wired between the accounts.
Then Hajjar stopped showing up for work. He told Tarlow, by text message, that he wasn’t feeling well.
When the wire transfer didn’t go through, Hajjar allegedly stopped responding to Tarlow’s texts.
Tarlow immediately went to his Santander bank branch, where he learned $10 million in retained earnings was missing from the account, the filing alleges.
Soon after, Tarlow realized that Hajjar had, without his knowledge or authorization, “opened and completely drawn down a line of credit” worth $8 million at Bank of America, the documents say.
In all, the forensic review found that Hajjar took $27 million from Alden’s bank accounts, including $3.7 million that he took by writing out checks to himself, the filings allege.
In several instances, Hajjar allegedly transferred tens of millions of dollars from the company’s active bank accounts into another trust account that the company owned, but which was dormant. Hajjar had himself named a trustee of that account, then used it to transfer at least $24 million, using those funds to secretly “write more checks to himself and pay exorbitant personal credit card bills,” according to the court documents.
The filing also alleges that $15 million was funneled through that dormant account to de la Garza and her company Lucky Gal Productions, including over $1.6 million transferred directly to de la Garza’s personal bank accounts from 2015 to 2019. And in 2016, Hajjar used stolen funds to pay for both the deposit and closing costs on de la Garza’s New York City co-op, court documents allege.
Hajjar’s company-funded gifts to de la Garza, the filings state, included “a Mercedes-Benz, a $60,000 diamond bracelet, a $158,000 diamond ring, diamond earrings, designer handbags, designer clothing, and other luxury goods.”
He also gave his personal American Express card to a personal shopper at Neiman Marcus, where de la Garza “freely purchased” hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise each month, the filing alleges, and Hajjar paid off those credit card bills using money from Alden, but Hajjar didn’t stop at lavishing gifts on de la Garza; he also allegedly transferred at least $11.5 million directly into the bank accounts for Lucky Gal Productions.
In a 2018 interview in Forbes, de la Garza discussed her decision to leave the anchor desk and start Lucky Gal Productions. “So, I went ahead, and I started my company . . . and I launched a show," she said. "I raised all the money, got all the distribution.”
De la Garza’s late-night show, “Bianca Unanchored,” launched in January 2015, eventually got national distribution, airing on seven CBS-owned stations in major markets such as Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Baltimore. The show went off the air in January of the following year.
The filing alleges that Lucky Gal had “few or no assets” at the time the production agreement was signed and “did not generate a profit" during the airing of de la Garza’s series.
“Mr. Hajjar has never recouped or recovered any of the money that he transferred to Lucky Gal,” the court documents state, and alleges that “[s]ince its foundation, Lucky Gal has never been profitable,” but Hajjar committed additional millions of dollars to help keep Lucky Gal productions afloat and, in all, transferred at least $12.3 million to Lucky Gal and its beneficiaries from 2015 to 2019, the documents state.
Attorneys for the footwear company filed a letter in November demanding that de la Garza immediately return all of the allegedly misappropriated funds. They estimated she had received more than $2.7 million in 2019 alone, including a $230,000 wire transfer in October, the month Hajjar stopped responding to Tarlow’s texts.
According to the court filings, de la Garza’s attorney responded to the letter, saying that she would place all remaining funds from Hajjar into a client trust account. But she has yet to return any funds.
In the suit against Hajjar, Alden’s attorneys said he had expressed a willingness to cooperate and had “never denied” that he had stolen millions, but Hajjar has returned less than $3 million in assets to the company, transferring back $214,000 in cash, approximately $20,000 in jewelry, $195,000 through the sale of gold coins, and $175,000 from the sale of vehicles, according to the filings. And Hajjar is willing to pay back an additional “$100,000 from the further sale of gold coins."
--more--"
That one didn't fit so I will try this pair:
"‘We are going to crush this lady’: Six former eBay employees charged in federal cyberstalking case targeting Natick couple" by Travis Andersen Globe Staff, June 15, 2020
It was a modest newsletter published by a suburban couple, hardly something that seemed likely to draw the ire of a Fortune 500 company, but eBay executives were growing weary of the bloggers’ pointed criticism, federal prosecutors said Monday, and they vowed reprisal.
I think I found a shoe that fits!
When do they shut us all down, 'eh?
“We’re going to crush this lady,” one eBay executive texted another in April 2019, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Boston that alleged a bizarre intimidation campaign against a Natick couple by the online juggernaut.
Six former eBay employees are accused of harassing and cyberstalking the husband-and-wife team, sending a host of disturbing items that included fly larvae, live spiders, and a bloody pig mask to their home and traveling to Massachusetts to surveil the couple to make them stop publishing a newsletter critical of the online retailer, federal prosecutors said.
It was a “systematic campaign fueled by the resources of a Fortune 500 company to emotionally and psychologically terrorize this middle-aged couple in Natick,” US Attorney Andrew E. Lelling said at a news conference.
That campaign included “anonymous and disturbing deliveries to the victims’ home, including . . . a bloody pig Halloween mask, a funeral wreath, a book on surviving the loss of a spouse," and pornography sent to neighbors but addressed to the husband.
Some executives allegedly “sent private Twitter messages and public tweets criticizing the newsletter’s content and threatening to visit the victims in Natick," prosecutors said. Some defendants also tried to install a GPS tracker in the couple’s vehicle.
In a statement, eBay said it launched a “comprehensive investigation" of the matter with outside legal counsel once law enforcement informed them of the alleged harassment in August 2019.
An independent committee formed by eBay’s board of directors found that the company “took these allegations very seriously from the outset. Upon learning of them, eBay moved quickly to investigate thoroughly and take appropriate action,” the company said.
"eBay apologizes to the affected individuals and is sorry that they were subjected to this. eBay holds its employees to high standards of conduct and ethics and will continue to take appropriate action to ensure these standards are followed,” the company said in the statement.
The employees were terminated. Lelling said Monday that eBay has cooperated with federal investigators.
Scapegoating?
Prosecutors identified the defendants as James Baugh, 45, of San Jose, Calif., eBay’s former senior director of safety and security; David Harville,48, of New York City, eBay’s former director of global resiliency; Stephanie Popp, 32, of San Jose, eBay’s former senior manager of global intelligence; Stephanie Stockwell, 26, of Redwood City, Calif., former manager of eBay’s Global Intelligence Center; Veronica Zea, 26, of San Jose, a former eBay contractor who worked in the center; and Brian Gilbert, 51, of San Jose, a former senior manager of special operations for eBay’s global security team who served previously as a Santa Clara police captain.
eBay has a global intelligence wing and global security team?
WTF?
Zea’s attorney, Frank Ubhas, said his client “went along" with the plan and that more culpable people have not been charged.
“She was a young analyst at eBay, and the government’s view" is that she could have walked away, Ubhas said. “Our view is that she couldn’t have, but here we are. It’s just a very, very unfortunate, very tragic set of circumstances.”
The other defendants’ lawyers either declined to comment or couldn’t be reached. They will make initial appearances in federal court in Boston at a later date.....
--more--"
I'll take those and start doing some shopping:
"It took just a few hours for fear to turn back into greed on Wall Street Monday, and stocks erased a sharp, early slump to notch healthy gains after the Federal Reserve unveiled its latest push to prop up the economy following the latest day of big swings in global markets, as a remarkable, weekslong rally shows some cracks. Worries are rising that additional waves of coronavirus infections could derail the swift economic recovery that Wall Street had seemed so sure was on the way just a week ago. The the biggest worry for markets: If infections swamp the world, governments could bring back the orders for people to stay at home and for businesses to shut down that sent the economy into its worst recession in decades. Even if that doesn’t happen, rolling waves of outbreaks could frighten businesses and consumers enough to keep them from spending and investing, which would itself hinder the economy. It was just a week ago that investors seemed ebullient about expectations for a coming economic recovery. The hopes got a shot of adrenaline earlier this month when a report showed that US employers added jobs to their payrolls in May, a big surprise when economists were expecting to see millions more jobs lost. That raised expectations that the economy could climb out of its hole nearly as quickly as it plunged into it.
Basically where my print ended.
That optimism sent the stock market on a second leg of its rally, which began in March after the Federal Reserve and Congress promised unprecedented amounts of aid to support the economy. Besides its corporate bond buying program, the Fed has also cut interest rates back to nearly zero and expects to keep them there through 2022. Its chair, Jerome Powell, may offer more details about the Fed’s outlook in scheduled testimony before Congress this week. All through its torrid rally, though, many professional investors were warning that the market’s gains may have been overdone considering how long and uncertain the economic recovery looked to be. Some of the rally was likely driven by a big influx of individual investors into the market, and stocks popular with individual investors have returned 61 percent since the market hit a bottom on March 23, according to Goldman Sachs. That’s much more than the 45 percent rise for stocks popular with hedge funds and traditional mutual funds. Stocks and Treasury yields began to trim their losses as the day progressed. They popped decisively higher after the Fed said in the afternoon that it will buy individual corporate bonds. The purchases will be part of its previously announced program to keep lending markets running smoothly, which allows big employers to get access to cash. They’re also the latest reminder that the Fed is doing everything it can to help support markets, analysts said. Central banks have repeatedly come to the economy’s rescue over the years, and it was huge, unprecedented moves by the Fed earlier this year that helped put a halt to the S&P 500’s nearly 34 percent sell-off on worries about the recession coming out of the coronavirus pandemic. Case numbers are still growing in states across the country and nations around the world. Governments are relaxing lockdowns in hopes of nursing their devastated economies back to life, but without a vaccine, the reopenings could bring on further waves of COVID-19 deaths. In New York, the governor is upset that big groups of people are packing together outside bars and restaurants without face masks, and he threatened to reinstate closings in areas where local governments fail to enforce the rules....."
The individual investors are taking a huge gamble without a f**king vaccine, and the SECOND SHUTDOWN is COMING SOON!
Related:
"Walmart has partnered with e-commerce giant Shopify to expand its third-party marketplace site and grab more of the pandemic-fueled surge in online shopping. Shares of the Canadian technology company rose on Monday. The collaboration is Walmart’s latest attempt to expand the scale and profitability of its $21.5 billion US e-commerce business, which is gaining ground on market leader Amazon.com but continues to lose money....."
Yeah, Walmart was allowed to stay open while Mom-and-Pop and individual businesses were shut down -- but it is okay to riot if it's supporting the agenda-pushing narrative and calls for globalist change (if not, then they are bad protests).
Cuts you to the bone:
"US Meat Giants Face Biggest Attack in Century From Probe" by David McLaughlin, Lydia Mulvany and Michael Hirtzer Bloomberg, June 15, 2020
The Trump administration is launching what could turn out to be the biggest attack in a century against the giants of America’s meat industry, which already faced uproar over employee treatment during the pandemic.
The Justice Department is bringing criminal charges in the poultry industry just as it opens a formal probe of beef companies. Regulators are also scrutinizing potential price manipulation, and on Capitol Hill, lawmakers are clamoring for a crackdown.
The threat from Washington is casting further spotlight on the industry after coronavirus outbreaks saw thousands of workers get sick, forcing plants to shutter.
I've already covered that earlier, and now I am looking for some choice cuts.
The timing of the moves is interesting given that farmers have long complained about the dominance of just a handful of companies in beef and poultry markets, but antitrust enforcers haven’t before taken significant action against the companies. The heightened scrutiny comes less than five months ahead of November’s presidential election. Action by either the Justice Department or the Department of Agriculture could shore up US farmers, a key Trump constituency that’s been battered by his trade war with China.
They want to break up a corporate monopoly, but it may be too late.
“The market’s been broken for a long time, and the pandemic has just made it worse. Meatpackers are making record profits, and the ranchers are going out of business,” said Ben Gotschall, the interim executive director for the Organization for Competitive Markets, an advocacy group that opposes consolidation in agriculture. “Whatever Trump’s motivation might be, if he does the right thing you have to take it. I hope it’s more than just lip service.”
At issue is whether meat behemoths are thwarting competition in violation of antitrust laws. Prosecutors at the Justice Department this month said executives at two chicken producers, including the second biggest in the United States — Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. — illegally conspired to fix prices, and they hinted at additional charges in the industry.
That will be for the Supreme Court to decide.
The department is also setting its sights on beef companies in a separate antitrust investigation, issuing subpoenas to the four biggest producers — Tyson Foods Inc., JBS SA, Cargill Inc,. and National Beef Inc. They control more than two-thirds of all US beef processing.
Cargill and Tyson declined to comment on the probes and livestock pricing. National Beef didn’t respond to e-mails seeking comment. JBS, which also owns Pilgrim’s Pride, didn’t respond.
The power of the meatpackers today echoes the early 20th century when the industry was dominated by a handful of companies known as the “beef trust.” A report by the Federal Trade Commission in 1919 found the five biggest companies, controlling about 82 percent of cattle slaughter, monopolized the market, and crushed competition. The findings helped lead to an antitrust settlement against the industry in 1920 aimed at protecting competition.
There has been another, more recent slaughter of animals and I'm waiting for any word of those in this article.
If the Justice Department finds evidence in its current investigation that meatpackers are violating the antitrust laws, it can sue the companies to stop the conduct or negotiate a settlement like it did in its probe a century ago, when the companies agreed to restrictions such as not owning stockyards or retail meat businesses. The investigation could also be closed without action, which the department did earlier this year when it abandoned a probe into automakers over an emissions agreement with California.
Tyson, America’s top meat producer, said it’s cooperating in the chicken price-fixing probe with the Justice Department’s antitrust division through its leniency program, which allows companies that report misconduct to avoid charges in exchange for cooperation. The company has declined to comment on how long it has been working with the Justice Department and whether it’s also cooperating in the beef probe.
Okay, so the print copy omitted the slaughter of millions of chickens, pigs, and cows that were not processed into the food chain (as well as plowed under crops and floods in the Midwest that cancelled planting), and notice how the washing of chicken in chlorine is no longer a concern?
Jayson Penn, the now-CEO of chicken giant Pilgrim’s Pride who faces as many as 10 years in prison in the chicken probe, entered a not-guilty plea June 4 in Colorado federal court. Penn went on a paid leave of absence and Fabio Sandri, the chief financial officer, took over as interim CEO, the company said in a statement Sunday.
It’s not just the Justice Department taking action.
Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill are also raising alarm bells. Last month, 19 senators, many from agriculture states, asked the Justice Department to look into whether the companies are suppressing prices paid for cattle. They warned that market conditions could lead to “widespread collapse” of the ranching industry and open the door to meatpackers acquiring cattle operations.
That is the point of the COVID chaos then!
Lawmakers also are pushing federal officials to ease regulations on meat processing, which could help reduce costs and lower the bar for new smaller entrants into the industry. Legislation has been proposed that would allow, for example, meat plants that are inspected by state officials to sell products across state lines.
“We’ve not seen this kind of attention since the early 1900s,” said Bill Bullard, the chief executive officer of R-CALF USA, a trade association for ranchers that says the big packing companies are hurting cattle producers. “We’re in a precarious position now that necessitates congressional intervention.”
The food supply in a "precarious position?
--more--"
Of course, eating meat leads to flatulence:
"BP warns of a future that needs less oil" by Stanley Reed New York Times, June 15, 2020
NEW YORK — BP sent a signal to investors on Monday that the economic shock of the pandemic would reverberate for years, and less gas and oil would probably be needed in the future.
Better get a war going.
The write-downs are an acknowledgment that the oil and gas fields on BP’s books are not worth as much as they used to be, and will likely stay that way for the foreseeable future. It reflects broad changes in the energy industry as companies are forced to adjust to a new environment.
That is bad for the stock market because oil is one of the pillars of the global economy, and it means we will need a Great Global Re$et.
The coronavirus pandemic has caused steep falls in demand and prices for oil and gas that could linger for a number of years. In addition, pressures from governments, consumers and investors are continuing to increase on oil companies, especially in Europe, to curb the greenhouse gas emissions produced by their fossil fuels.
Did you guys in the industry just go along with the COVID fraud, knowing it would destroy your industry, or were you duped by Gates, et al?
With the write-down, which could amount to as much as 12 percent of the previous book value of the oil and gas assets, Bernard Looney, 49, the chief executive, is preparing the company for a future when it will produce less fossil fuel than previously expected. It is likely to be the largest write-down since 2010, when the company recorded a $32 billion hit related to the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
He just answered by question, and maybe supplies were running out (of course, they never run out because the earth is cooking that stuff up all the time. Why do you think they are constantly discovering the shit, or were, and it's not even fossil fuels! That's another media lie to support the narrative).
In past years, companies rushed to acquire oil and gas fields and bring the crude or natural gas to market. Now, analysts say, investors are skeptical of all but the most profitable fossil-fuel investments because it is not clear that there will be demand for them — especially as many governments strive to meet the requirements of the 2015 Paris Agreement on global warming.
“It is very clear that most energy companies are going to look very different in quite short order,” said Stuart Joyner, an analyst at Redburn, a market research firm.
Like us and our entire society and way of life!
Looney, an Irish citizen who was head of BP’s oil and gas exploration and production unit before moving into the top role, has been focusing on these issues. Promptly after becoming chief executive in February, he pledged to bring the London giant’s carbon emissions to net zero by 2050 or sooner and embarked on a sweeping reorganization to aid this quest.
I wonder if he keeps track of events in his home country:
"Ireland’s long-dominant rival political parties said Monday they have agreed on terms for a coalition government, four months after an election that shook the country’s political landscape. The deal will see Fine Gael, the party of incumbent Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, and Fianna Fail, led by Micheal Martin, govern alongside the smaller Green Party. The left-wing nationalist party Sinn Fein looks set to be shut out of the Irish government despite an electoral breakthrough that saw it win the largest share of the votes in February’s election. The election result was a blow for Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, the centrist parties that have dominated Irish politics since the country won independence from Britain....."
Sinn Fein wins an election and is shut out of power?
That's sick!
The darker economic environment caused by the coronavirus pandemic, he said in an e-mail to employees on June 8, “is driving us to move faster — and perhaps go deeper at this stage than we originally intended.” The makeover is now expected to lead to the loss of 10,000 jobs, or nearly 15 percent of the workforce.
Once again, the COVID-19 $CAMDEMIC leads to a SHOVE for what was ALREADY BEING PLANNED!
HMMMMMMMMM!
The write-downs are being taken for two reasons. BP has cut its long-term expectations of oil and gas prices by about 30 percent, to $55 a barrel for oil, a move that lessens the value of its assets. The company is also writing off resources in places like the Gulf of Mexico and Canada that it has on its books but may decide not to develop over the coming decades.
“BP is already getting to grips with the idea that” its oil and gas fields are worth less than it recently believed, said Luke Parker, an analyst at Wood Mackenzie, a market research firm. “Indeed, some of them are worth nothing.”
Oh, that Hertz!
Related: "Hertz Global Holdings Inc. warned prospective new stock investors they’re all but certain to be wiped out as the car renter proceeds with an improbable share sale in the midst of its bankruptcy. Equity holders will not see a recovery from any bankruptcy plan unless those with more senior claims, including bondholders, are paid in full, Hertz said as it offered as much as $500 million of common stock. That would require “a significant and rapid and currently unanticipated improvement in business conditions,” the company said....."
Looks like they have done stalled and died.
Oil companies periodically review their businesses, leading to write-downs. In December, before the pandemic hit, Chevron took a $10.4 billion write-down, mostly for natural gas properties amid a glut of natural gas. Analysts at Bernstein, a market research firm, said in a note on Monday that BP’s charges were the largest among major European oil companies in a decade.
Analysts said that the $70-a-barrel price that BP was using looked increasingly unrealistic and analysts at Barclays wrote in a note to clients on Monday that BP’s new pricing assumption is now the lowest among a group of European oil giants including Royal Dutch Shell and France’s Total. BP’s move could put pressure on rivals to take similar steps.
Still, on Monday, analysts at Morgan Stanley said that BP’s $55-a-barrel price assumption may turn out to be “optimistic” because prices at that level would encourage an increase in output from shale drilling in the United States — which could further depress prices.
One wonders why gas prices are rising across the U.S.A.
Did printing the trillions in corporate bailouts make your money worthless, Americans?
Looney said in a statement that he was “confident that these difficult decisions” would better enable the company to compete as the energy industry changes. Several analysts, however, speculated that BP was likely to cut its dividend, a key consideration for investors, in the future.....
That will CREATE an UPROAR!
--more--"
Also see:
"24 Hour Fitness Worldwide Inc. sought court protection from its creditors, unable to keep up with debt payments after the Covid-19 pandemic shut down gyms nationwide....."
Try Gold's Gym:
"The ownership of nearly $200,000 worth of gold bars left on a Swiss commuter train last year remains a mystery, leaving an even bigger question: who commutes with a bag of gold in the first place?"
Maybe this guy?
"The head of the United Auto Workers will meet this month with the U.S. attorney in Detroit to discuss potential changes for the union following a wide-ranging corruption probe. Matthew Schneider, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, has floated the idea of the government taking control of the union and has pushed for letting each member vote on its leadership. The government’s corruption probe has been embarrassing for the UAW. Ten union officials and a late official’s spouse have pleaded guilty since 2017, including former President Gary Jones. Some officials used union dues for golf, lodging and fancy meals, while others tapped cash from a Fiat Chrysler-UAW training center with approval from an FCA executive. Others took kickbacks from union contractors. Dennis Williams, another former president, has not been charged but his California home was searched last summer....."
HOFFA LIVES!
See if you can find him:
"Pokémon Go developer Niantic Inc. plans to release two titles over the next six months and sustain that pace annually, accelerating its pipeline in hopes of scoring its next augmented-reality hit. Niantic defined the AR genre by developing the 2016 release of a game based on Nintendo Co.’s endearing Pokémon franchise and it now has 10 more titles in development, according to its top executive. Adapting to the Covid-19 outbreak, the company is hosting its annual festival online this year and also altering its gameplay design so people can keep playing at home....."
Time to clean up:
"The work-from-home trend, it turns out, is putting more home-cleaning robots to work. Bedford-based iRobot Corp. said it is seeing much stronger than expected sales this spring, prompting investors to vacuum up the stock on Monday...."
You will need to speak louder because I can't hear you over the roar of my vacuum cleaner.
