Nice work if you can get it...

[samhexum]

A Spanish public servant who skipped work for a decade without anyone noticing spent his free time running a male brothel and drawing erotic comics.

 

Carles Recio, who was paid a €50,000 ($58,000) salary as an archives director in Valencia’s provincial government, would show up to the office every morning at 7:30 a.m. to clock in using the fingerprint scanner before heading home, only returning to the office at 3:30 p.m. to clock out.

 

He kept up the routine for 10 years before colleagues began to raise suspicions. After Spanish newspaper El Mundo broke the story 18 months ago, Recio was finally fired, despite his insistence that he had done nothing wrong.

 

“I have only done what they have asked me to do,” he told the paper in January.

 

Recio maintained that he worked from home. “No one can show me a photograph in which I’m in a cafeteria, I’m a man of action,” he told the Spanish TV channel La Sexta.

 

“I do documentation work out of the office, the work of a slave. Working like a slave means that I work so that others get the fruit of my labor.”

 

State authorities abandoned an attempt to prosecute him after deciding his actions did not constitute a crime, but an administrative tribunal in Valencia this week banned Recio from holding public posts for nine years for his “flagrant neglect of the essential duties inherent to the work post.”

 

The tribunal found there was no evidence Recio had performed any of the jobs he claimed, and that he had not even logged in to the corporate network since 2012 despite having his own computer.

 

It also found no evidence for his claims that he had told superiors he didn’t have a desk following an office relocation, or that he had been assigned an external project to create an “inclusive art center.”

 

“There is not the slightest evidence that he was entrusted with the project of creating an inclusive artwork center or similar and the activities carried out by him are more like private dedications than authentic ones,” the tribunal said.

 

The tribunal strongly criticized the local government for failing to properly supervise its employees, saying Recio “became comfortable in the situation that benefited him” and his actions would not have been possible “without the acquiescence or the disinterest of the administration for which he worked.”

 

He had been busy in other ways, however. In his free time, Recio was making a name for himself as an erotic comic book artist and creator of the popular character Fallarela, a busty superhero who hurls flaming Valencia oranges at her enemies.

 

It also emerged Recio had been running a male brothel out of his home since 2005. At one point he threatened to reveal the identities of his clients, warning there may have been cameras inside and the “graphic information” could compromise many politicians.

 

As part of his high-profile campaign to clear his name, Recio even attempted to use acouncil venue for an art exhibition entitled, “Love for Valencia: the works of a man who never worked,” with four floors of works including paintings, sculptures and even a bronze bust of himself.

 

The City of Valencia canceled the show, which described Recio as “the most slandered writer in modern-day Valencia,” just before it was due to open after the council discovered he had booked the venue using a fake name.

 

The twists and turns of the bizarre case have dominated headlines in Spain. Following the tribunal’s verdict, many were critical that Recio was only suspended, avoiding the most serious sanction of permanent loss of his status as a public official.

 

In its editorial, El Mundo said it had received many tip-offs that Recio’s case was “not, by far, the only scandal of blatant absenteeism in public administrations.”

[samhexum]

Mogul was plied with alcohol, drugs by cheating husband in last days: suit

 

 

The final days of the Manhattan mogul who made a fortune selling idyllic Snow Babies and Dickens Villages were a hazy, alcohol-soaked nightmare because of his grifter husband, the late millionaire’s family charges.

 

Edward Bazinet, 73, who made as much as $100 million selling holiday figurines, was plied nightly with booze and drugs by Brett Jordan, who was 43 years younger and cheated on him regularly during their mere months as a wedded couple, according to the Manhattan Surrogate’s Court filing.

 

Jordan “used Bazinet and he abused Bazinet, all while indulging himself in luxuries and wealth unimaginable to the boy from Tennessee who had often told stories . . . of a childhood steeped in abject poverty and abuse,” Bazinet’s family charges.

 

Bazinet’s relatives have been battling Jordan over the businessman’s $54 million estate, most of which was set to go to a Minnesota trust before Jordan entered Bazinet’s life.

 

Now Jordan, a real estate broker who also netted hefty commissions by buying apartments with his spouse, stands to inherit $32 million.

 

The secret November 2017 nuptials were a “premeditated . . . scheme to defraud Bazinet,” the family alleges.

 

Relatives charge Jordan made his true feelings clear in texts to friends, writing, “I HATE HIM,” while complaining about the older man’s incontinence and declining mobility.

 

A lawyer for Jordan called the “spurious” allegations “a malicious smear campaign.”

[samhexum]

Town clerk accused of stealing $300,000 from a town of only 250 people

A municipal clerk is accused of embezzling more than $300,000 from her small town of only 250 residents.

 

Former Fayette, Utah, clerk Tracy Kay Mellor pleaded guilty to misuse of $153,391 in public funds over a nine-year period in November, according to the Salt Lake City Tribune. She was sentenced to 45 days in jail and ordered to pay restitution. Now, a new state audit claims Mellor may have been responsible for double that amount.

 

“We knew all along that it was more,” according to Mayor Brenda Leifson. The mayor said she first noticed some accounting irregularities after taking office in January 2018. The town’s annual budget is just $100,000, according to Leifson.

 

When Leifson confronted Mellor, the former clerk “got upset and quit” in March 2018. That’s when the investigation moved forward, leading to Mellor’s November plea.

 

According to Leifson, state prosecutors said there is a statute of limitations that will make further criminal prosecution unlikely. Leifson said she’s also spoken to attorneys about a civil suit to recovery misappropriated funds, though she isn’t optimistic that will happen.

 

Leifson said she harbors no ill will toward the former clerk and expects the two of them will meet again in the small town.

 

“I haven’t seen her much this winter,” Leifson said. “I have no hard will toward her.I just want to move the town forward.”

 

Leifson herself has had to deal with a few mini scandals of her own. Her husband Lee had to step down from his dog catcher job in 2017 as town laws prohibit more than one family member from being on the payroll. Leifson said she’d previously been told that wouldn’t be an issue, but was later pressured to adhere to the rule.

 

She was also accused of using $400 in city money for a hotel stay three hours outside of Fayette, where Leifson said she was tending to government business.

 

“I haven’t heard anything about that since October,” Leifson said. She assumed the expenditure would be approved, but said she will do what’s necessary to resolve the issue.

[samhexum]

When this enterprising teen got a job at a Georgia Kroger, he got right to work – scamming nearly $1 million from the store during the two weeks he worked there, according to police.

 

Police in Gwinnett County said 19-year-old Tre Brown scammed more than $980,000 from the Duluth, Georgia, grocery store where he worked in December and January.

 

Brown created more than 40 returns for non-existent items and put them on credit cards, police said. The returns ranged in price from $75 to more than $87,000. Do they sell solid-gold produce?!?!?

 

He used the money to buy two vehicles, clothes, shoes and guns, according to police.

 

The scam was so brazen that it caught the attention of corporate Kroger employees. They contacted the police department after noticing the fraudulent transactions.

 

Brown is facing a charge of theft by taking.

 

Police said Brown totaled one of the vehicles he bought with the money before he was arrested, but “a large sum of the money” was returned after his arrest.

[BSR]

"Two Catholic school nuns accused of embezzling about a half-million dollars in tuition, fees and donations from a school allegedly used some of the money to gamble in Las Vegas, according to officials cited in a news report.

 

On Monday night, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles told parents and alumni at a meeting that Sisters Mary Margaret Kreuper and Lana Chang, described as best friends, took around $500,000 from St. James Catholic School in Torrance, according to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by the Press-Telegram."

 

Apparently St. James Catholic School is not pressing charges. Hey, to forgive is divine.

[+ sync]

"Two Catholic school nuns accused of embezzling about a half-million dollars in tuition, fees and donations from a school allegedly used some of the money to gamble in Las Vegas, according to officials cited in a news report.

 

On Monday night, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles told parents and alumni at a meeting that Sisters Mary Margaret Kreuper and Lana Chang, described as best friends, took around $500,000 from St. James Catholic School in Torrance, according to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by the Press-Telegram."

 

Apparently St. James Catholic School is not pressing charges. Hey, to forgive is divine.

Their professing to make restitution suggests they had a pretty good run at the tables.

[+ FrankR]

When this enterprising teen got a job at a Georgia Kroger, he got right to work – scamming nearly $1 million from the store during the two weeks he worked there, according to police.

 

Police in Gwinnett County said 19-year-old Tre Brown scammed more than $980,000 from the Duluth, Georgia, grocery store where he worked in December and January.

 

Brown created more than 40 returns for non-existent items and put them on credit cards, police said. The returns ranged in price from $75 to more than $87,000. Do they sell solid-gold produce?!?!?

 

He used the money to buy two vehicles, clothes, shoes and guns, according to police.

 

The scam was so brazen that it caught the attention of corporate Kroger employees. They contacted the police department after noticing the fraudulent transactions.

 

Brown is facing a charge of theft by taking.

 

Police said Brown totaled one of the vehicles he bought with the money before he was arrested, but “a large sum of the money” was returned after his arrest.

Serious lack of internal controls - their internal auditors must be going ape shit!! ?

[samhexum]

Kevin Hart's personal shopper has been arrested for embezzling over $1,000,000.00 from him.

[samhexum]

A Far Rockaway social worker was charged Thursday with grand larceny and identity theft after she allegedly stole nearly $150,000 from an elderly patient at a rehab center where she worked in 2019.

 

Olivia Gordon, 28, was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on March 11 on a host of charges, following allegations that she robbed a 90-year-old patient in her facility after getting access to her bank account, according to Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz.

 

Gordon, who’s from Hempstead, Long Island, was serving as the director of social services at a Far Rockaway rehabilitation and health care center in March 2019. That month, a 90-year-old woman was transferred to the facility after falling over and injuring herself inside her Brooklyn home.

 

Upon her admittance to the facility, Gordon gained access to the woman’s bank account statements and other financial documents.

 

Shortly after the woman was admitted, Gordon allegedly began taking money out of the woman’s account and transferring it into her own.

 

In May 2019, Gordon made multiple withdraw’s from the patient’s account, including one of $106,148, according to the criminal complaint. Each withdraw from the elderly woman’s account corresponded with a payment made by Gordon a short time later, according to the DA.

 

Late in June 2019, Gordon paid off a federal student loan with a single payment of $106,148, the charges state.

 

Gordon also allegedly used the stolen cash to pay off several credit cards.

 

But Gordon went further, attempting to make her self the legal heir to the woman’s nearly $1 million fortune upon her death, Katz said.

 

On May 7, 2019, the company holding an annuity for the 90-year-old received a fax from Gordon claiming that she was the “caretaker/pseudo grandchild” of the woman, according to the authorities. Several days later, she allegedly sent a second fax requesting the company send her cash.

 

The company denied the request after being unable to verify the claims with the 90-year-old.

 

Gordon, who will return to court on May 4, faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.