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Pilot Flying J's $85M Fuel Rebate Fraud Trial Comes to a Close
3 Former Execs - Including Company President - Found Guilty; 1 Acquitted
A federal jury on Thursday convicted the former president of the nation's
largest diesel fuel retailer of a plot to rip off truckers to boost both his own
bottom line and that of his employer - Pilot Flying J.
 A
five-woman, seven-man jury in U.S. District Court in Chattanooga deemed
former Pilot Flying J President Mark Hazelwood guilty of conspiracy to commit
wire and mail fraud, one count of wire fraud and witness tampering.
The same jury acquitted former Vice President Scott "Scooter" Wombold of
the conspiracy charge, of lying to the FBI and two counts of fraud. The jury
instead convicted Wombold of a single count of wire fraud.
Former Pilot Flying J account representative Heather Jones was
convicted on the conspiracy charge but acquitted of four individual acts of
fraud.
The jury set former Pilot Flying J account representative Karen Mann free
entirely, acquitting her of the sole conspiracy charge she faced.
 The quartet had been standing trial since November on charges they - along with
at least 16 other former Pilot Flying J sales executives and staffers -
conspired to boost Pilot Flying J's market share and profits, as well as their
own cut of those profits, by luring trucking companies to do business with the
truck stop giant with discounts on diesel fuel they never intended to fully pay.
FBI agent Duke Speed and IRS Criminal Investigation Division agent Kevin McCord
spearheaded the probe, which began in 2011 and culminated with a bold daytime
raid of Pilot Flying J's Knoxville headquarters on Tax Day 2013.
knoxnews.com
America's Biggest Retail Sales Team Fraud in
History
Read our full timeline of events in the
Pilot Flying J fraud case, which we've been following since 2013,
here.
Meridian, ID: Police Chief Says Walmart's 'Proactive' LP/AP
Part of Reason Behind High
Number of Calls to Local Police
Meridian, the core of Treasure Valley, Idaho, has three Walmart stores. Their
police chief says the repeated visits to Walmart do add up, considering their
relatively small police force of fewer than 100 officers and "thin resources".
When asked if that was frustrating as a department, Chief Lavey said he doesn't
want to blame Walmart.
 "Because if it's not Walmart, it's somebody else. And we have to go where the
calls are, we have to service those," Lavey told 7 Investigates. "Sometimes,
yeah, we might get caught up and be frustrated but if it's not that box store
it's someone else that is going to be taking up our time."
Some crimes are store-related, some reports just use Walmart as a point of
reference and some are happening in the parking lot, a Walmart corporate
spokesman points out.
"And those are just the cases where we become the back-drop and the victim, so
to speak, of an incident in the parking lot," Walmart Corporate Communications
National Media Relations Director Ragan Dickens told 7 Investigates.
WHY WALMART?
Compared to other stores in Meridian, there's a lot more calls to Walmarts and
it's demanding on law enforcement resources. The two Fred Meyers in Meridian
each had about half as many calls as the Walmart on Fairview, 24-hour WinCo
Foods had about one-third the amount and the Target in Boise bordering Meridian
had nearly one-fifth the amount.
Meridian city leaders say the corporation's late hours and positions on busy
streets are what are generating the calls, along with its theft protection.
"The nature of bringing lots of people together to a confined space, it's
inevitable that crime is going to follow," Meridian City Councilman Luke Cavener
told KTVB.
Dickens tells KTVB the high volume of calls shows their asset protection
teams and in-store and parking lot cameras are doing what they're supposed to.
"We are working to harden the target to make Walmart a more difficult place to
shoplift and commit a crime," Dickens said. "Yeah there are some police calls
because our people and our technology are doing their jobs, which is to get
these people who are committing these crimes out of the store to give our
customers and associates a better experience."
Meridian's police chief agrees.
"The one thing Walmart has going for them is they have proactive loss
prevention people and so really it equates to if you're going to do a crime
don't do it in Walmart because the chances are you're going to get caught. But
it does generate a lot of business for us," Lavey said.
ktvb.com
Omaha, NE: Coalition of Retailers and Law Enforcement Using Real-Time
Information Sharing in Fight Against ORC
Organized retail crime costs metro-area retailers $10 million in losses every
year. Law enforcement, retailers and loss prevention specialists are working
together on a coalition to stop shoplifters. There are 200 members.
"We all share information, pictures of suspects, crime trends we're seeing,"
Omaha Police Detective Jerrod Galloway said. "It's that cooperation that is
helping us identify people."
Detective Galloway handles all retail investigations for OPD. He also leads the
coalition which meets regularly to find ways to fight organized retail crime.
"We're trying to move into a real time crime fighting environment where a
retailer can share a picture with me and within 10 minutes it's shared with 200
people now and getting suspects identified," Galloway said.
Police are also sharing suspect information on social media, particularly the
Omaha Crime Stoppers Twitter account.
Nebraska Furniture Mart is also involved, along with other major retailers,
like Walmart, Target, Best Buy and Von Maur.
"By combining resources we are more powerful, we have more tools and we're
solving and closing cases to everybody's mutual benefit," said Jim Cahill,
Security Manager for Nebraska Furniture Mart.
ketv.com
Pennsylvania: State Reps Suggest Eliminating 3rd Strike Felonies
for Low-Level Retail Thefts
Reps. Dan L. Miller, D-Allegheny, and Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Montgomery,
released a joint memo stating they will introduce legislation that would
eliminate the three-strike felony provision for retail theft for items worth
less than $1,000. The two representatives said their legislation would leave
intact the third-degree grading of retail theft of items over $1,000, firearms
and cars. According to Miller and Dean's memo, a third-degree felony could lead
up to a seven-year prison sentence and $15,000 in fines for even the theft of a
tube of toothpaste. "It is our belief that the goals of public safety,
accountability and restitution can be served under existing retail theft
misdemeanor grading," the state representatives said in their memo.
law.com
Contact (D) Rep.
Dan Miller
Contact (D)
Rep. Madeleine Dean
Newest IAI Board Member, IAI Promotion,
and CONTROLTEK Sponsorship Renewal
 The
International
Association of Interviewers (IAI) announces several notable news items,
including CONTROLTEK renewing its sponsorship for the third year, the
appointment of a new board member, and the recent promotion of Dana Sadowsky.
"First, we are extremely proud to announce the promotion of Dana Sadowsky to
Association Manager," said Wayne Hoover, CFI, Executive Director of IAI.
"She has been an invaluable asset to IAI, and we're excited to promote her into
a more strategic role, allowing her expand her skill set while supporting and
growing IAI's membership base." Sadowsky's new role will include supporting and
building more IAI Association Chapters, representing IAI by attending more
conferences and meetings, exploring new IAI sponsors, and discovering new ways
for the association and CFI designation to grow.
IAI is also proud to announce their newest advisory board member, Eric Chase,
CFI. Chase will be replacing former advisory board member, Craig Cronheim,
CFI. Chase is the Assistant VP of Asset Protection for CarMax, and is
responsible for overseeing CarMax's Loss Prevention function. He has always been
a strong advocate for IAI and will be a valuable contributor to the team.
Additionally, IAI is excited to announce CONTROLTEK has elected to renew
their IAI sponsorship. "We're grateful for CONTROLTEK's continued
sponsorship and trust for the third consecutive year," said Hoover.
"If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em"
To Knock Out Knockoffs, Knock Off Knockoffs
At a pop-up market stall just off Canal Street, the Madison Avenue of the
unauthenticated, shoppers have spent the last week snapping up off-price, jeans,
hoodies, T-shirts and boxer briefs with a familiar, almost-right logo: Deisel.
Sure, the "i" and "e" are on the wrong side of their usual do-si-do. But you get
what you pay for. They're $69.99; Diesel jeans generally start well over $200.
Forget it, Jake - it's Chinatown.
Companies like Diesel spend significant resources chasing down counterfeiters
and stamping them out. According to Renzo Rosso, the founder of Diesel and
president of its parent company, the Only the Brave Group, the label shut down
86 websites hawking fake products last year. But Mr. Rosso was crammed into the
small, wood-paneled shop on Friday with no intention of dampening Deisel. He'd
created it.
"This is a magical moment for logos," he said, and a brand can embrace its own
and its own imitation. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, the logic runs: Make
the fakes, pocket the cash.
Diesel is far from the only brand to come to this idea. Gucci has riffed on its
own bootlegs (and styled its own "Guccy" logo) and set up shop with Daniel Day,
better known as Dapper Dan, the counterfeit couturier it had once threatened out
of business.
nytimes.com
Walmart Hires More Than 194,000 U.S. Military Veterans
Since the Launch of the Veterans Welcome Home Commitment
Walmart announced today it has hired more than 194,000 veterans and promoted
more than 28,000 to roles of greater responsibility since launching its Veterans
Welcome Home Commitment in May 2013. The commitment guarantees a job offer to
any eligible, honorably discharged U.S. veteran who has separated from active
duty since Memorial Day 2013. Walmart is now more than three-quarters of the way
to reaching its goal to hire 250,000 veterans by 2020.
Approximately 1,300 new veterans and their families return to civilian life
every day, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. Veterans possess
important skills and leadership abilities that make them highly sought after job
candidates. The Veterans Welcome Home Commitment helps veterans find career
opportunities at Walmart and aims to ease the sometimes difficult transition
from active duty to civilian life.
businesswire.com
Why Amazon cut hundreds of jobs - Merging its Fresh and Prime Now operations
Amazon is working on the consolidation of Amazon Prime Now and AmazonFresh,
which has caused layoffs in the company headquarters, Yahoo Finance has learned.
The merger of these two consumer retail business units could eventually
streamline a delivery experience for Whole Foods Market, which the company
acquired last year.
The layoffs, first reported by
the Seattle Times on Monday, affected "several hundred" employees. They were
given 60 days to find another internal position before leaving the company, a
source told Yahoo Finance. Though the e-commerce giant, which has more than
560,000 employees, very much remains in expansion mode.
The ongoing effort to combine Amazon Prime Now and Amazon Fresh is expected to
be completed by the end of this year.
yahoo.com
Amazon's "Offer": Why the Company Pays Workers to Quit
On Monday, Amazon reportedly began a series of rare layoffs at its headquarters
in Seattle, cutting several hundred corporate employees. But this week,
something quite different is happening at the company's warehouses and
customer-service centers across the country: Amazon will politely ask its "associates" - full-time and part-time hourly employees - if they'd prefer to
quit. And if they do, Amazon will pay them as much as $5,000 for walking out
the door.
Officially called "The Offer," this proposition is, according to Amazon, a way
to encourage unhappy employees to move on. "We believe staying somewhere you
don't want to be isn't healthy for our employees or for the company," Ashley
Robinson, an Amazon spokesperson said. The amount full-time employees get
offered ranges from $2,000 to $5,000, and depends on how long they have been at
the company; if they take the money, they agree to never work for Amazon again.
(The idea for all this
originated at Zappos, the online shoe retailer that Amazon bought in 2009.)
With The Offer, Amazon seems to be making the calculation that weeding out a
single unengaged worker is worth as much as multiple thousands of dollars. But
there might be other, less obvious effects of providing The Offer that serve to
benefit Amazon, according to some behavioral economists. The Offer might in
fact be a way to make employees stay longer than they otherwise might.
The reasoning goes like this: Employees resist an initial temptation - to quit
Amazon and walk out with cash - and by resisting it, they may actually feel more
committed to their jobs.
theatlantic.com
Apple's New Headquarters Is Surprisingly Dangerous to Work In
The centerpiece of Apple's new headquarters is a massive, ring-shaped office
overflowing with panes of glass, a testament to the company's famed
design-obsessed aesthetic. There's been one hiccup since it opened last year:
Apple employees keep smacking into the glass.
Surrounding the Cupertino, Calif.-based building are 45-foot tall curved panels
of safety glass. Inside are work spaces, dubbed "pods," also made with a lot of
glass. Apple staff are often glued to the iPhones they helped popularize. That's
resulted in repeated cases of distracted employees walking into the panes,
according to people familiar with the incidents.
Some staff started to stick Post-It notes on the glass doors to mark their
presence. However, the notes were removed because they detracted from the
building's design, the people said.
fortune.com
Shanghai, China: Burglar
Knocks Out His Mate
with a Brick While Trying to Break Into a Store
Video going viral on Chinese social media captured the premature end to a
robbery when one of the burglars ended up injuring his own partner.
ladbible.com
Lowe's, Home Depot will hire 133,000 seasonal employees
Warby Parker aims to run nearly 100 stores this year, as other Web shops follow
FAO Schwarz to return with new stores and a New York flagship
Top 500 chains seeing slowing sales growth for the 2nd consecutive year
Severity of flu 9.5 on scale of 10, DoctorsReport.com notes
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Announcing
the launch of the
North American Fraud Awards 2018
Entries for
Nominations Close February 19th
 Do
you, your Asset Protection team, a colleague or vendor partner
deserve special recognition for their work?
Is there a particular strategy, product or local initiative worthy
of celebrating on a national stage?
Whether you can think of just one or many deserving examples, Retail
Knowledge is delighted to announce the launch of the North
American Fraud Awards; an industry event created specifically to
celebrate the best of the Asset Protection industry...
Free to enter
Entry is truly free and you can make as many entries in as many
categories as you like. You do not have to be a member of any
organisation. You can nominate yourself or anyone else you choose
(with their permission, of course), and entering the Fraud Awards
could not be simpler...
Entries for nominations open December 1, 2017 and close February
19, 2018. Judging takes place on February 21 and the shortlist
of finalists will be published on March 5.
On May 17 in Dallas the winners will be revealed at the Fraud
Awards Gala Dinner Evening. There guests enjoy a champagne
reception followed by an outstanding three course meal with
champagne and fine wines before the Awards themselves get underway.
For
further details about the Awards and how to enter
check out this page.
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Two Billion Files Leaked in US Data Breaches in 2017
Nearly 2 billion files containing the personal data of US citizens were leaked
last year - and that number could be significantly underreported. In 2017, a
total of 551 breaches affected organizations, with over 1.9 billion files
leaked, according to research from Citrix ShareFile.
Using data collected from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and the 2017 Cost of
Data Breach Study by the Ponemon Institute, in partnership with IBM Security,
the analysis found that malicious hacking was the most common type of breach
in 2017, 819 million files exposed. Unintended disclosure (such as cloud
storage misconfigurations) and physical loss were found to be the second and
third most common data leakage causes.
infosecurity-magazine.com
Thousands of FedEx customer records exposed by unsecured server
Global package delivery company FedEx Corp (FDX.N) said on Thursday it has
secured some of the customer identification records that were visible earlier
this month on an unsecured server, and so far has found no evidence that private
data was "misappropriated."
The server stored more than 119,000 scanned documents from U.S. and
international citizens, such as passports, driving licenses, and security
identification, according to a report from security research firm Kromtech.
reuters.com
Cybercrime Gang Ramps up Ransomware Attacks Against Business Networks
A cybercrime gang known as Gold Lowell has been using scan-and-exploit
tactics to opportunistically infect business networks with ransomware and extort
money from the victim organizations.
 The group - which has been around since at least 2015 - appears to have ramped
up activity in the last few weeks in keeping with its previous pattern of
escalating attacks during the end part through the beginning of the calendar
year, Secureworks said in a report this week.
Between late December and mid-January alone, Gold Lowell managed to collect at
least $350,000 in extortion money after infecting victims with a custom version
of SamSam, a previously known ransomware tool. The group's victims include
healthcare organizations, IT software providers, transportation companies, waste
management firms, and business services organizations. Many of them have been
small- to midsized organizations.
darkreading.com
Cyber Risk Management Not Keeping up with Rising Cybersecurity Concerns
Few organizations are highly confident in their ability to manage the risk of a
cyber-attack, despite viewing cybersecurity as a top risk management priority,
according to a new global survey conducted by Marsh, a global leader in
insurance broking and innovative risk management solutions, and Microsoft Corp.,
the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first
world.
In the global survey of more than 1,300 senior executives, two-thirds ranked
cybersecurity among their organizations' top five risk management priorities -
approximately double the response to a similar question Marsh asked in 2016. The
survey also found that a vast majority - 75% - identified business interruption
as the cyber loss scenario with the greatest potential to impact their
organization. This compares to 55% who cited breach of customer information,
which has historically been the focus for organizations.
Despite this growing awareness and rising concern, only 19% of respondents said
they are highly confident in their organization's ability to mitigate and
respond to a cyber event. Moreover, only 30% said they have developed a plan to
respond to cyber-attacks.
businesswire.com
IRS Reports Steep Decline in Tax-Related ID Theft
Research group Javelin confirms that the numbers are trending in the right
direction, with total fraud losses dropping more than 14% to $783 million.
The Internal Revenue Service has reported a significant decrease in tax-related
identity theft for the second year in a row, pointing to its Security Summit
program with state tax agencies and the tax industry as the reason for the
improved numbers.
The Security Summit program, which was formed in 2015 to combat tax-related
identity theft, provides multiple behind-the-scenes safeguards to protect
taxpayers such as providing security best practices tips and enhancing taxpayer
authentication procedures, for example.
According to the IRS, the agency in 2017 received 242,000 reports from
taxpayers that they were victims of tax-related identity theft, compared to
401,000 in 2016 - a drop of nearly 40%.
darkreading.com
White House Blames Russia for NotPetya, the 'Most Costly Cyberattack In History'
Former Amazon chief scientist to lead eBay's AI team
Rule #1 of location analytics in retail - don't be creepy
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Save the Date: 1st Annual METRORCA Information
Sharing & Training Conference - April 17
The METRORCA will host the
1st annual Information Sharing and Training Conference at the New York City
Police Department Academy, 130-30 28th Avenue, Flushing, New York, on April
17th, 2018. Parking is free for all attendees.
The agenda for this information sharing conference will include new and varied
material from federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies as well as
private sector loss prevention professionals focusing on a wide range of topics
that may include; Ethical Decision Making, Interviewing Techniques, Evidence
Collection, Prosecuting Organized Retail Crime, Private-Public Collaboration,
Terrorism Techniques and the Opioid Epidemic and its Impact on the Retail
Sector.
This one day conference will commence with an open registration and networking.
A full lineup of excellent instructors will follow. There is a $50 registration
fee, which includes lunch and conference related materials. Parking is free for
all attendees.
Click here
to register |
Dearborn, MI: Couple steals 126 hats from Lids at
Fairlane Town Center;
valued at over $3,500
A manager at the hat store came back from vacation Feb. 12 and noticed a large
amount of anti-theft sensors hidden on shelves, prompting her to check
surveillance footage. The footage revealed a man and woman, both in their
mid-20s, entered the store together while a cashier was working at a embroidery
machine. The man took the hats off the shelves and then handed them to the
woman, who removed the sensors and placed the hats in a large bag. Once the bag
was full, footage showed the man hiding multiple hats down his pants. The man
then hugged the woman from behind in an attempt to hide the thefts while both
walked out of the store with the stolen merchandise. The manager notified
corporate offices, who told her that several other stores in the area were
targeted in the same fashion.
pressandguide.com
Mebane, NC: Mebane Police charged 4 in $1,500 ORC
ring theft
The 4 conspired over 90 days to steal from Tommy Hilfiger, Polo Ralph Lauren and
Nike in Tanger Outlets, taking more than $1,500 in merchandise altogether and
admitting to receiving drugs and money for those goods. The suspects, Pamela Sue
Moorefield, 50, Richard Brandon Hyde, 38, Kelley Ann Bare-Peele, 18, and Leeann
Beck, 39, are currently held on bond.
thetimesnews.com
Pittsburgh, PA: Update: Man sentenced to 11 years
for theft of a Sears van with $15,000 of merchandise; Co-Conspirator in
unsuccessful Armed Robbery of a Giant Eagle pharmacy delivery van
A Penn Hills man who stole a Sears truck filled with appliances and tried
unsuccessfully to rob a pharmaceutical drug delivery van was sentenced to 11
years in prison, U.S. Attorney Scott W. Brady announced Thursday.
On April 13, 2016, Bailey stole a Sears delivery truck parked outside a
convenience store in Pittsburgh's Lawrenceville neighborhood, prosecutors said.
He then sold its contents - $15,030 worth of washers, dryers, refrigerators and
other appliances - to buyers in Homewood. Two weeks later, Bailey and two
Homewood men - Raymond Denson and David Lipinski - followed a pharmaceutical
delivery van from a warehouse in New Castle to its first stop, a Giant Eagle
store at the Northtowne Square in Richland. They tried to force the driver into
the truck at gunpoint but fled when he resisted, prosecutors said. Hampton
police stopped the Lexus they were in a short time later for traveling 70 mph in
a 40-mph zone. In addition to the 11-year prison sentence, Judge Mark Hornak of
the U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh imposed on Bailey five years of supervised
release and restitution of $15,030.
akvnews.com
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