Accounting & Investing Info for San Antonio A & M
tuesday Jan 10 2023
Here is another example of a company which lost its way.
the end came as a real estate lawyer was named CEO
the founders stayed on the board, resistant to online chopping
weak board otherwise
Covid and then a switch from major barnds finally did BBBY in
Weekend January 7 2023
/former senior associate athletic director pleaded guilty to wire fraud as part of plea agreement. 
A former athletics official at the University of Southern California was sentenced Friday to six months in prison after pleading guilty in an admissions scandal for allegedly helping students cheat their way into acceptances at the prestigious college.
Donna Heinel, who was USC’s senior associate athletic director, had pleaded guilty in November of 2021 to one count of honest services wire fraud as part of a plea agreement, prosecutors said in a news release Friday.
Heinel was also sentenced to two years of supervised release and will forfeit $160,000, Caroline Ferguson, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts, said. Prosecutors had previously recommended a sentence of two years in prison.
weekend Jan 7 2023
The contest for dumb___ of the year is already underway Beard was lured away from Texas Tech and given a five year $35 M contract, and that is for coaching basketball not for curing cancer. One would think he would mind those Ps and Qs but … yes the contract has the standard morals clause that if ye engages in unbecoming behavior he can be fired and UT does not have to pay the rest of the contract. Wow I mean if you are making $7 M a year why are you fighting with your girl friend,or anyone else on the planet?
Here is his record, now with this against him, will another school be desperate enough to hire him?
The University of Texas at Austin has fired Texas basketball coach Chris Beard weeks after he was charged with a third-degree felony for family violence, university officials said Thursday.
“The University of Texas has parted ways with Chris Beard,” Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte said in a statement. “This has been a difficult situation that we’ve been diligently working through.”
Beard was arrested on Dec. 12 for allegedly strangling his fiancee, Randi Trew, after Austin police responded to a 911 call at a Tarrytown home early that morning. He was released that afternoon from Travis County Jail after paying a $10,000 bond. He has a hearing in Travis County District Court on Jan. 18. Prosecutors in the Travis County District Attorney’s office said Thursday they are reviewing the case to see if it will go forward.
Perry Minton, Beard's lawyer, said in a statement published by KXAN that Beard was "crushed" at the news and said the university had "violated their agreement with the coach."
"At the outset of Coach Beard’s suspension, The University promised they would conduct an independent investigation surrounding the allegations and make a decision regarding his employment only after they had done so," Minton said. "They proceeded to terminate Coach Beard without asking a single question of him or his fiancé."
In a letter that UT-Austin's legal team sent to Minton and provided to KXAN, UT-Austin Vice President for Legal Affairs Jim Davis said the university "exercised thoughtful restraint to allow time for additional material facts to emerge," before acting.
Mr. Del Conte supported Mr. Beard and the program by supporting this pause before action and by presuming his innocence while the facts unfolded. But that support was not a determination regarding Mr. Beard's conduct — such a decision would have been premature," Davis wrote. "It is a mistake to view a manager's support for an employee as a statement of belief in criminal guilt or innocence. It is his actual behavior that we consider, not whether some acts also constitute a crime. Whether or not the District Attorney ultimately charges Mr. Beard is not determinative of whether he engaged in conduct unbecoming a head coach at our university."
Beard’s contract contained a standard clause among agreements with UT-Austin that allows the university to suspend or fire him with cause for any behavior that is “unbecoming” or leads to a criminal charge “involving a felony, or any crime involving theft, dishonesty, or moral turpitude,” according to the Austin American-Statesman.
Thursday Jan 5 2023
the CEO who decided to go with private brand products ruined the company in two short years.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bed-bath-beyond-warns-out-of-business-bankruptcy-stock-150232072.html
Read the CEOs then confident announcement to take on Target with private labels.
Nice going Mark Tritton, you bankrupted the company.
If it ain't broker don't fix it.
Thursday Jan 5 2023
for a former basketball coach, Rick Springer was pretty clever. How to funnel the money to himelf.
and get this nugget.
"Not unlike many parents, Mr. Singer made several contributions to DePaul," Carol Hughes, a spokesperson for DePaul, told BuzzFeed News in a statement.
"These gifts were made by the Key Worldwide Foundation in 2014, 2015 and 2016 while his son was a student. All were in support of helping students study abroad," the statement said.
In 2016, Key Worldwide Foundation donated $50,000 in cash grants to DePaul, according to tax forms filed by the foundation. In 2015 and 2014, the university's Religious Studies Department received a total of $100,000 from the foundation, according to the tax forms.
A 100 Grand gift to the Religious Studies Dept, you gotta love it!
"To date, our review has not revealed any reason to believe these donations are connected to recent indictments," Hughes said in the statement.
The indictment did not name any DePaul University officials.
DePaul's website for scholarship opportunities lists the "Singer Research Fund 2017: “Reforming Religions: Jews, Christians and Evolving Modernity."
According to the website, the Singer Research Fund was open to undergraduate religious studies majors who did not graduate in 2017. The fund was used to sponsor a 2017 excursion to Germany to study religious reform in Judaism and Christianity.
"DePaul, through the generosity of the Singer Research Fund, will pay for round-trip airfare and ground transportation in Europe, housing, most meals, entrance fees, theater tickets and guide/speaker’s honoraria," the website said.
Hughes did not confirm if Singer or his charity were the donors for the Singer Research Fund.
Singer's charity also made several donations to other colleges and schools that were not implicated in the scam, including New York University Athletics, University of Miami, Baruch College at the City University of New York, Chapman University, and Loyola High School, according to tax forms.
Chapman University, which received a total of $325,000 cash grants from Key Worldwide Foundation, told BuzzFeed News in a statement that "irregularities in the gifts from the Key Worldwide Foundation should they exist, were and are totally unknown to us."
The university said it is cooperating with the Department of Justice in its investigation.
NYU's athletics department received donations totaling $338,379 in 2016, 2015, and 2014, according to the tax forms.
In a statement to BuzzFeed News, NYU spokesperson John Beckman said that the university is aware of the donations to the athletics department listed on Key Foundation's tax forms.
"We have only just begun to review the origins and purposes of these donations," Beckman said.
"The unscrupulous behavior in college admissions revealed by the US Attorney in Boston is clearly deeply troubling," the statement said.
"NYU Athletics is not empowered to prescribe that certain students be admitted, nor do coaches have direct contact with admissions officers about particular candidates whom they may be interested in having for their teams," Beckman said in the statement.
The University of Miami also received donations totaling $100,000 in 2016 and 2015, according to Key Worldwide Foundation's tax forms. A spokesperson for the university was unable to provide a comment at the time of publishing.
Loyola High School, a Jesuit preparatory school for young men in Los Angeles, also received donations from Singer's foundation worth $77,870 in 2016 and 2015. A spokesperson for the school said their records were in storage and would respond once she got them.
Baruch College at CUNY — which received a $50,000 cash grant in 2015 — did not respond to a request for comment.
Singer's charity also made donations worth a total of $33,329 over three years to a Sacramento address listed as "Community Donations" on the tax forms. The address for "Community Donations" belongs to Singer's own life coaching and college counseling company called the Key.
Thursday Jan 5 2023
Keith Seguin pleads guilty to receiving millions in bribes via a govt contract fraud sscheme.
SAN ANTONIO – Keith Alan Seguin, a 55-year-old former civilian employee at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, admitted this morning to receiving millions of dollars in bribes in connection with a government contract fraud scheme that spanned more than a decade and impacted hundreds of millions of dollars in contract awards.
Appearing before U.S. District Judge Fred Biery, Seguin pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of tax fraud and false statements.
According to formal charges, the QuantaDyn Corporation, a software engineering company based in Ashburn, Virginia; its owner, David Joseph Bolduc, Jr, age 60 of Herndon, Virginia; Rubens Wilson Fiuza Lima, age 72 of Atlanta, Georgia; and Seguin all conspired to secure government contracts. Seguin used his position to steer lucrative contracts and sub-contracts to QuantaDyn for aircraft and close-air-support training simulators. Seguin, who was intimately involved in the government contracting process, leaked confidential competitor proposals to a prime contractor who would then subcontract the work to QuantaDyn. He also leaked confidential government budget information to prime contractors and to QuantaDyn, enabling them to maximize profits at government expense. Seguin admitted to accepting more than $2.3 million in bribes from Bolduc and QuantaDyn from 2007 to 2018.
Seguin faces up to 20 years in federal prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and up to three years in federal prison for tax fraud and false statements. He remains on bond pending sentencing scheduled for December 7, 2021.
On September 15, 2020, Judge Biery placed QuantaDyn on probation for five years and ordered the corporation to pay a $6.3 million fine and more than $37 million in restitution for conspiracy to commit wire fraud. In addition to the fines and restitution, Judge Biery ordered QuantaDyn to pay a forfeiture money judgment in the amount of $22,834,526.31 as well as the forfeiture of seized funds in corporate accounts totaling over $7 million.
Thursday Jan 5 2023
hMeta fined for directing specific ads to subscribers
LONDON — European Union regulators on Wednesday hit Facebook parent Meta with hundreds of millions in fines for privacy violations and banned the company from forcing users in the 27-nation bloc to agree to personalized ads based on their online activity.
Ireland's Data Protection Commission imposed two fines totaling 390 million euros ($414 million) in its decision in two cases that could shake up Meta's business model of targeting users with ads based on what they do online. The company says it will appeal.
A decision in a third case involving Meta's WhatsApp messaging service is expected later this month.
Meta and other Big Tech companies have come under pressure from the European Union's privacy rules, which are some of the world's strictest. Irish regulators have already slapped Meta with four other fines for data privacy infringements since 2021 that total more than 900 million euros and have a slew of other open cases against a number of Silicon Valley companies.
Meta also faces regulatory headaches from EU antitrust officials in Brussels flexing their muscles against tech giants: They accused the company last month of distorting competition in classified ads.
Former heroes of bull markets lose their luster as bear markets develop. Here is a classic example, the former whiz kid is being fined and scolded all over the world.
Thursday Jan 5 2023
Thursday Jan 5 2022
You have to gve Rick Spring some credit for crafting a scheme which would ensnare so many well to do people.
And what is the point of being bribed by not so well to do people?
the A list of athletics are 'top schools, but Springer was clever to focus on the less well paid coaches like rowing.
What is amazing is just how many were easily drawn into the fraud.
Gordon Ernst – Georgetown Universiyt tennis coach
Lori Loughlin – tv personality
Felicity Huffman – ironically starring in Desperate Housewives and wife of Bill Macy
and no less than Doupgllas Hodge -former CEO of PIMCO
surely these parent are posters for lack of faith in their own offspring not to mention an admission of failure to raise them to higher esxpectations
thursday Jan 5 2023
BOSTON—William “Rick” Singer, the mastermind behind a nationwide college-admissions cheating scheme that ensnared top universities, business executives and Hollywood celebrities, was sentenced Wednesday to 42 months in prison.
He will also have to pay nearly $20 million in restitution and forfeitures of ill-gotten gains.
The hearing in U.S. District Court here marked the end to a lengthy drama for Mr. Singer that exposed the ease with which the high-stakes college-admissions process could be corrupted. The scandal, made public in March 2019 after a year-long investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service and federal prosecutors, captivated the country and inspired books and a Netflix documentary. It also raised fundamental questions about who deserves to get into the nation’s most exclusive institutions of higher education.
Mr. Singer, 62 years old, pleaded guilty in 2019 to four felonies, admitting to running a complex operation that arranged for parents to fraudulently boost their teens’ ACT and SAT scores and to bribe college coaches to flag the clients as recruited athletes, all but guaranteeing their admission to schools including Georgetown University and the University of Southern California. Payments were often funneled through Mr. Singer’s sham charity, allowing parents to take tax write-offs for the bribes.
Though he was at the head of a conspiracy that prosecutors say brought in $25 million and tainted an admissions process that was intended to be based on merit, Mr. Singer also served as a key cooperator in the federal case. The probe, dubbed Operation Varsity Blues by investigators, started with a tip from an investor involved in a stock-fraud scheme and ultimately led to criminal charges against 57 individuals.
Most of those charged pleaded guilty, with sentences ranging from probation to 2½ years in prison. All but one person who took their cases to trial were found guilty; one parent also was pardoned by former President Donald Trump and one coach entered a deferred prosecution agreement.
Mr. Singer sat in the courtroom Wednesday afternoon, flanked by his two lawyers and staring straight ahead with his shoulders hunched, as Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Frank summarized the scheme.
Mr. Frank said that while there were dozens of conspirators, “Without Rick Singer coming up with the scheme, masterminding the scheme, orchestrating the scheme, it would never have happened.”
“I am responsible for my actions and my crimes,” Mr. Singer told U.S. District Judge Rya W. Zobel. “The fraudulent testing scheme, bribing of university officials, lying on students’ applications and profiles, I did all of it.”
Mr. Singer apologized to the students he worked with, saying they were “deserving of more integrity than I showed them,” and expressed regret for tarnishing the reputations of universities, tainting the experiences of families who worked with him legitimately and embarrassing his family and friends.
Despite my passion to help others, I lost my ethical values and have so much regret. To be frank, I’m ashamed of myself,” Mr. Singer said.
Prosecutors called Mr. Singer’s scheme “staggering in scope” and “breathtaking in its audacity.” They said his cooperation with the investigation was valuable, while also beset with missteps.
In addition to the prison term, Mr. Singer was sentenced to three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $10.7 million in restitution to the IRS, forfeit more than $5.3 million in assets and pay a $3.4 million forfeiture money judgment.
The delay in sentencing Mr. Singer is partly due to his agreement with the government; cooperators typically aren’t sentenced until after their work with authorities is complete. Mr. Singer’s lawyer also died last year, leading to an additional delay.
Judge Zobel said Wednesday that Mr. Singer needed to face prison time, given how complex and lucrative the scheme was, and how long it went on. Still, she awarded him significant credit for his cooperation.
Prosecutors had asked the judge to sentence Mr. Singer to six years in prison and three years of supervised release. The U.S. Probation Office recommended that Mr. Singer receive a prison sentence of between 6½ years and eight years, one month. Mr. Singer’s legal team had asked that he face punishment of no more than six months in prison.
William ‘Rick’ Singer departs after being sentenced at the federal courthouse in Boston.Photo: BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS
BOSTON—William “Rick” Singer, the mastermind behind a nationwide college-admissions cheating scheme that ensnared top universities, business executives and Hollywood celebrities, was sentenced Wednesday to 42 months in prison.
He will also have to pay nearly $20 million in restitution and forfeitures of ill-gotten gains.
The hearing in U.S. District Court here marked the end to a lengthy drama for Mr. Singer that exposed the ease with which the high-stakes college-admissions process could be corrupted. The scandal, made public in March 2019 after a year-long investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service and federal prosecutors, captivated the country and inspired books and a Netflix documentary. It also raised fundamental questions about who deserves to get into the nation’s most exclusive institutions of higher education.
Mr. Singer, 62 years old, pleaded guilty in 2019 to four felonies, admitting to running a complex operation that arranged for parents to fraudulently boost their teens’ ACT and SAT scores and to bribe college coaches to flag the clients as recruited athletes, all but guaranteeing their admission to schools including Georgetown University and the University of Southern California. Payments were often funneled through Mr. Singer’s sham charity, allowing parents to take tax write-offs for the bribes.
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Though he was at the head of a conspiracy that prosecutors say brought in $25 million and tainted an admissions process that was intended to be based on merit, Mr. Singer also served as a key cooperator in the federal case. The probe, dubbed Operation Varsity Blues by investigators, started with a tip from an investor involved in a stock-fraud scheme and ultimately led to criminal charges against 57 individuals.
Most of those charged pleaded guilty, with sentences ranging from probation to 2½ years in prison. All but one person who took their cases to trial were found guilty; one parent also was pardoned by former President Donald Trump and one coach entered a deferred prosecution agreement.
What do you think is a fair punishment for Rick Singer given his role in the college-admissions scandal? Join the conversation below.
Mr. Singer sat in the courtroom Wednesday afternoon, flanked by his two lawyers and staring straight ahead with his shoulders hunched, as Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Frank summarized the scheme.
Mr. Frank said that while there were dozens of conspirators, “Without Rick Singer coming up with the scheme, masterminding the scheme, orchestrating the scheme, it would never have happened.”
“I am responsible for my actions and my crimes,” Mr. Singer told U.S. District Judge Rya W. Zobel. “The fraudulent testing scheme, bribing of university officials, lying on students’ applications and profiles, I did all of it.”
Mr. Singer apologized to the students he worked with, saying they were “deserving of more integrity than I showed them,” and expressed regret for tarnishing the reputations of universities, tainting the experiences of families who worked with him legitimately and embarrassing his family and friends.
“Despite my passion to help others, I lost my ethical values and have so much regret. To be frank, I’m ashamed of myself,” Mr. Singer said.
Prosecutors called Mr. Singer’s scheme “staggering in scope” and “breathtaking in its audacity.” They said his cooperation with the investigation was valuable, while also beset with missteps.
In addition to the prison term, Mr. Singer was sentenced to three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $10.7 million in restitution to the IRS, forfeit more than $5.3 million in assets and pay a $3.4 million forfeiture money judgment.
The delay in sentencing Mr. Singer is partly due to his agreement with the government; cooperators typically aren’t sentenced until after their work with authorities is complete. Mr. Singer’s lawyer also died last year, leading to an additional delay.
Judge Zobel said Wednesday that Mr. Singer needed to face prison time, given how complex and lucrative the scheme was, and how long it went on. Still, she awarded him significant credit for his cooperation.
Prosecutors had asked the judge to sentence Mr. Singer to six years in prison and three years of supervised release. The U.S. Probation Office recommended that Mr. Singer receive a prison sentence of between 6½ years and eight years, one month. Mr. Singer’s legal team had asked that he face punishment of no more than six months in prison.
Prosecutors say Mr. Singer ran the test-cheating scheme on about 30 separate occasions. He encouraged families to have their children tested for learning differences, securing extra time to take college-entrance exams. Enough extra time and they could sit for the tests at locations where Mr. Singer had a proctor either feed answers to the teens or correct their test responses afterward.
For his scheme related to athletics, Mr. Singer exploited the fact that coaches of low-profile sports like sailing and women’s soccer were often poorly paid and under pressure to raise money for their programs.
In addition to Georgetown and USC, he colluded with coaches at Yale University, Stanford University, the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Texas at Austin and Wake Forest University. He also made inroads with a top athletics administrator at USC, who helped usher applicants down the special admission pathway for athletes, often with doctored photos highlighting their faked athletic prowess.
Mr. Singer began cooperating with federal authorities in September 2018, after he was snagged by the government with help from former Yale soccer coach Rudy Meredith, who admitted to taking bribes directly from a parent and to working with Mr. Singer.
Initially, Mr. Singer tipped off several clients about the investigation, a move that earned him an obstruction of justice charge. Mr. Frank said Wednesday that because of Mr. Singer’s actions, prosecutors couldn’t bring charges against some individuals.
“It was a sobering day in court,” said Candice Fields, a lawyer for Mr. Singer. “He hopes to continue making amends for mistakes of the past.”
Mr. Singer, known for his frenetic energy, fierce competitive streak and tracksuit wardrobe, got his start coaching college basketball, then shifted to college counseling in Sacramento, Calif. By the late 1990s he encouraged some teens to fudge details like their race or extracurricular activities on college applications, and by 2007, he was offering a full menu of unscrupulous services alongside his traditional counseling. He met clients through financial-services firms and word-of-mouth and worked with well-heeled families around the world.
Professor Elam 