Free Republic

The CEO of a company that benefited immensely from the Lifeline program, commonly referred to as ‘Obama phones’ during the Obama administration, has been sentenced to five years in prison and, along with his company, ordered to pay $128 million in fines. Issa Asad, 51, of Southwest Ranches, FL, and his company, Q Link Wireless, were sentenced for a years-long scheme to steal over $100 million from the ‘Obama phone’ program dating back to 2012. Asad was also sentenced over charges of money laundering. Between 2013 and 2019, Q Link Wireless made $618,736,494 from the Lifeline program. According to the...

Officials said Steve Bannon was the “architect” of a scheme to defraud donors who gave money to build a wall on the United States-Mexico border. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said at a press conference on Thursday that Bannon and the organization We Build the Wall, Inc., were indicted for a yearlong fundraising scheme that took in more than $15 million from thousands of people across the country based on false pretenses.

The SEC charged Jessica Richman and Zachary Apte, the co-founders of the poop-testing startup uBiome, with defrauding investors out of $60 million through misleading statements and false representations of the company’s prospects. [T]he charges stem from a 2018 Series C round valuing the company that once appointed ex-Novartis CEO Joe Jimenez to its board at nearly $600 million. Regulators submitted their filing in federal court in San Francisco, and are seeking to bar Richman and Apte from serving in future officer and director positions. Thursday’s indictment describes Richman and Apte as fugitives... Founded way back in 2012, uBiome burst onto...