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American Greed
''American Greed'' (also known as ''American Greed: Scams, Scoundrels and Scandals'' and as ''American Greed: Scams, Schemes and Broken Dreams'') is an American documentary television series on CNBC. The series focuses on cases of Ponzi schemes, embezzlement and other white collar crimes and features interviews with police investigators, fraud victims and sometimes fraudsters. It was initially created by Mark Hoffman, the President, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Directors of CNBC, and it is produced by Bill Kurtis' Kurtis Productions. The program is narrated by Stacy Keach Jr., who was recruited because Kurtis himself was unavailable for that purpose. It premiered on June 21, 2007. the series is currently on a hiatus, but has not been cancelled. Subjects The business-reality program focuses on the stories behind high-profile corporate and white-collar crimes, betrayals, and scams in American history, including the financial scandals involving WorldCom, Healt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Documentary
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and Media studies, media analyst Bill Nichols (film critic), Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in terms of "a filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception [that remains] a practice without clear boundaries". Research into information gathering, as a behavior, and the sharing of knowledge, as a concept, has noted how documentary movies were preceded by the notable practice of documentary photography. This has involved the use of singular Photograph, photographs to detail the complex attributes of History, historical events and continues to a certain degree to this day, with an example being the War photography, conflict-related photography achieved by popular figures such as Mathew Brady during the Am ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ponzi Schemes
A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. Named after Italian confidence artist Charles Ponzi, this type of scheme misleads investors by either falsely suggesting that profits are derived from legitimate business activities (whereas the business activities are non-existent), or by exaggerating the extent and profitability of the legitimate business activities, leveraging new investments to fabricate or supplement these profits. A Ponzi scheme can maintain the illusion of a sustainable business as long as investors continue to contribute new funds, and as long as most of the investors do not demand full repayment or lose faith in the non-existent assets they are purported to own. Some of the first recorded incidents to meet the modern definition of the Ponzi scheme were carried out from 1869 to 1872 by Adele Spitzeder in Germany and by Sarah Howe in the United States in the 1880s th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Better Call Saul
''Better Call Saul'' is an American legal crime drama television series created by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould for AMC. Part of the ''Breaking Bad'' franchise, it is a spin-off of Gilligan's previous series, ''Breaking Bad'' (2008–2013), to which it serves primarily as a prequel, with some scenes taking place during and after the events of ''Breaking Bad''. ''Better Call Saul'' premiered on AMC on February 8, 2015, and ended on August 15, 2022, after six seasons consisting of 63 episodes. Set primarily in the early to mid-2000s in Albuquerque, New Mexico, several years before ''Breaking Bad'', ''Better Call Saul'' examines the ethical decline of Jimmy McGill ( Bob Odenkirk), an aspiring lawyer and former con artist who becomes the egocentric criminal-defense attorney Saul Goodman alongside his romantic interest and colleague Kim Wexler ( Rhea Seehorn), while dealing with conflicts with his brother Chuck McGill ( Michael McKean) and his law partner Howard Hamlin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Better Call Saul Season 6
The sixth and final season of the AMC television series ''Better Call Saul'' premiered on April 18, 2022, in the United States, and concluded on August 15, 2022. The thirteen-episode season was broadcast on Mondays at 9:00pm ( Eastern) in the United States on AMC and its streaming service AMC+. Each episode was released on Netflix the day after in certain international markets. The season was split into two parts; the first consisting of the first seven episodes concluded on May 23, before resuming with the second half consisting of the final six episodes on July 11. Bob Odenkirk, Jonathan Banks, Rhea Seehorn, Patrick Fabian, Michael Mando, Tony Dalton, and Giancarlo Esposito reprise their roles from previous seasons. ''Better Call Saul'' is a spinoff, prequel and sequel of ''Breaking Bad'' created by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould. The first nine episodes mainly take place in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2004, four years before Jimmy McGill (Odenkirk) begins his association w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jimmy McGill
James Morgan Jimmy McGill, better known by his business name Saul Goodman, is a fictional character created by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould and portrayed by Bob Odenkirk in the television franchise ''Breaking Bad''. He appears as a major character in ''Breaking Bad'' (2009–2013) and as the titular protagonist of its spin-off ''Better Call Saul'' (2015–2022). Saul is an unscrupulous Albuquerque-based lawyer and con artist who becomes involved in the city's criminal underworld. In ''Breaking Bad'', he acts as the ''consigliere'' for the methamphetamine cooks Walter White and Jesse Pinkman and plays a crucial role in the development of their drug empire. ''Better Call Saul'' main storyline depicts Saul's origins as the aspiring lawyer Jimmy McGill and his moral deterioration in the six years before the events of ''Breaking Bad''; it also features a post-''Breaking Bad'' storyline, where Saul is living under the assumed name Gene Takavic (), that explores the consequences o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AMC (TV Channel)
AMC (an abbreviation of the channel's original name, American Movie Classics) is an American basic cable television channel that is the flagship property of AMC Networks. Launched in late 1984, the channel aired classic films prior to the 1970s, similar to Turner Classic Movies, the channel's former rival, until 2002, when AMC retired the American Movie Classics name as a result of a Channel drift, major shift in List of programs broadcast by AMC, its programming, and today airs original shows that are mainly dramas and documentaries, while airing theatrically released films, and acquired television programming. As of December 2024, AMC was available in approximately 60 million U.S. pay-TV households. This marks a decline from 65.1 million households in December 2023 and 94.8 million in July 2015, reflecting the broader trend of cord-cutting and the shift toward streaming platforms. History 1984–2002: Focus on classic films American Movie Classics, as AMC was originally kn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Political Corruption
Political corruption is the use of powers by government officials or their network contacts for illegitimate private gain. Forms of corruption vary but can include bribery, lobbying, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, influence peddling, Graft (politics), graft, and embezzlement. Corruption may facilitate criminal enterprise, such as drug trafficking, money laundering, and human trafficking, although it is not restricted to these activities. Over time, corruption has been defined differently. For example, while performing work for a government or as a representative, it is unethical to accept a gift. Any free gift could be construed as a scheme to lure the recipient towards some biases. In most cases, the gift is seen as an intention to seek certain favors, such as work promotion, tipping in order to win a contract, job, or exemption from certain tasks in the case of junior worker handing in the gift to a senior employee who can be key in winning the favor. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Money Laundering
Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds into a seemingly legitimate source, usually through a front organization. Money laundering is illegal; the acts generating the money almost always are themselves criminal in some way (for if not, the money would not need to be laundered). As financial crime has become more complex and financial intelligence is more important in combating international crime and terrorism, money laundering has become a prominent political, economic, and legal debate. Most countries implement some anti-money-laundering measures. In the past, the term "money laundering" was applied only to financial transactions related to organized crime. Today its definition is often expanded by government and international regulators such as the US Office of the Comp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Credit Card Fraud
Credit card fraud is an inclusive term for fraud committed using a payment card, such as a credit card or debit card. The purpose may be to obtain goods or services or to make payment to another account, which is controlled by a criminal. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is the data security standard created to help financial institutions process card payments securely and reduce card fraud. Credit card fraud can be authorised, where the genuine customer themselves processes payment to another account which is controlled by a criminal, or unauthorised, where the account holder does not provide authorisation for the payment to proceed and the transaction is carried out by a third party. In 2018, unauthorised financial fraud losses across payment cards and remote banking totalled £844.8 million in the United Kingdom. Whereas banks and card companies prevented £1.66 billion in unauthorised fraud in 2018. That is the equivalent to £2 in every £3 of atte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Art Theft
Art theft, sometimes called art napping, is the stealing of paintings, sculptures, or other forms of visual art from galleries, museums or other public and private locations. Stolen art is often resold or used by criminals as collateral to secure loans. Only a small percentage of stolen art is recovered—an estimated 10%. Many nations operate police squads to investigate art theft and illegal trade in stolen art and antiquities. Some famous art theft cases include the robbery of the ''Mona Lisa'' from the Louvre in 1911 by employee Vincenzo Peruggia. Another was theft of ''The Scream'', stolen from the Munch Museum in 2004, but recovered in 2006. The largest-value art theft occurred at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, when 13 works, worth a combined $500 million were stolen in 1990. The case remains unsolved. Large-scale art thefts include the Nazi looting of Europe during World War II and the Russian looting of Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Murder-for-hire
Contract killing (also known as murder-for-hire) is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or people. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of compensation, monetary or otherwise. Either party may be a person, group, or organization. Contract killing has been associated with organized crime, government conspiracies, dictatorships and vendettas. Contract killing provides the hiring party with the advantage of not having to carry out the actual killing, making it more difficult for law enforcement to connect the client with the murder. The likelihood that authorities will establish that party's guilt for the committed crime, especially due to lack of forensic evidence linked to the contracting party, makes the case more difficult to attribute to the hiring party. Contract killers may exhibit serial killer traits, but are generally not classified as such because of third-party killing objectives and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Insurance Fraud
Insurance fraud is any intentional act committed to deceive or mislead an insurance company during the application or claims process, or the wrongful denial of a legitimate claim by an insurance company. It occurs when a claimant knowingly attempts to obtain a benefit or advantage they are not entitled to receive, or when an insurer knowingly denies a benefit or advantage that is due to the insured. According to the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, the most common schemes include premium diversion, fee churning, asset diversion, and workers compensation fraud. False insurance claims are insurance claims filed with the fraudulent intention towards an insurance provider. Fraudulent claims account for a significant portion of all claims received by insurers, and cost billions of dollars annually. Insurance fraud poses a significant problem, and governments and other organizations try to deter such activity. Studies suggest that the greatest total dollar amount of frau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
