We have spent the better part of the last decade debating about Trump and his coterie of Grifters that define both his business, Trump Enterprises (whatever those were) that included Real Estate, Casinos, Clothing Lines, Wine, Classes/Seminars, Steak, and other labeled brands that extended to other members of the Family that shared the name of Trump. From the seat in the White House he managed to further extend that brand to the point it drew attention from the State of New York which prosecuted members of his corporation, his personal Attorney and finally Trump himself for acts of duplicity and fraud regarding his real estate “empire.” That led to a massive penalty which he will not or will pay and this will go on perhaps for years more. There are other debts, trials and tribulations that seem to never have an end game in sight and that is what falls into that classification of the “Long Con.” A long con is one that takes place over a much longer time frame, I feel the story on John Oliver’s show regarding Pig Butchering is a great example of one of the current crops of long con. Bitcoin is a fabulous example of how that also plays into this story. A great long con if ever there was one, with the nefarious invisible “Banksy” who created all this but no one really knows who he is, where he is and what is this about? But even Kara Swisher in her new Memoir writes of another in Silicon Valley, Mark Zuckerberg, who may be perhaps the best at this new type of Grift. Social Media is one long con.
This article in the New York Times discusses the growth of the Grift. And where I found this definition which I have paraphrased and added my own comments.
The difference between a Grifter and “Grafter” are often tied together. “Grift” evokes not so much specific criminal acts as a broad, opportunistic racket, executed with a bit of cunning and panache; Grafters are stolid and conventional, lining their pockets and then quietly retreating to one of their several homes. A Grifters has both flair and ambition, who seem to delight in the con itself — the cleverness of the scheme, the smooth ease with which the marks were gulled. So while Trump is a classic grifter take a look at many who attach themselves to his varying schemes and plans. Many worked for him during his Administration quickly extricating themselves post January 6th but would happily Vote and/or work for him again if the opportunity arose. A Grifter loves a Grafter as they give them legitimacy. I prefer the term “Enablers” which is another way of allowing or permitting if not encouraging the behavior, a person usually associated with Addiction and there is no greater addiction than money. All of Venture Capitalists are some type of Enabler. Without them or the banks would Sam Bankerman Fried or Bernie Madoff made as far and in his case as long without them?
Now we are all being grifted or are grafters at some point. We take an opportunity and we work it to our advantage. I like to think of Real Estate Agents as the lowest on the professional totem pole who play the role of Counselor, Financial Advisor and Best Friend as you try to buy or sell a home. They dip their wick in both pots often coming out well ahead of the game when you are working with one and this adds to the price of housing and why many cannot afford to as they work in tangent with another Grafter, the Mortgage Broker/Agent. Banks are not the only one who writes these loans and they too have a massive interest in making money, yours. The process of this led to a massive financial crisis in 2008 and yet not one saw a trial or a penalty in the process for this and many banks were bailed out and rescued from their misdeeds. But without the Agents and these secondary lenders, few would have made it to sign the papers and make the sales of a product they could not afford. Used Car Salesman get a bad rap, add Real Estate Agents to the list. There are many many more stories about Real Estate Agents and their acts of fraud and duplicity, and by far more costly. Just Google “Real Estate Fraud” to see the list of crimes they have committed.
This week a neighbor and her husband moved out of my building. He is a Surgeon and she is a “Model”/ Real Estate Agent. I did not like nor dislike them I simply lived down the hall from them and kept it at that. Upon their final move out our Refuse room was full of their rejects, disgusting broken furniture, filthy smelling couch cushions, and largely junky items that seemed to be from a college dorm than an adult professionals home. Their move out was done in a small order Uhaul truck with two hired hands who packed what they took with them to relocate to Pittsburgh. To say crap in both quality and design is to be polite. I had to remind myself that this Man was a fucking Surgeon and this filthy shit is his? His wife the model did not adorn herself with the quality of designer goods but they did have three vehicles, two Porches and Volvo. Well priorities. And while living in a building that is largely filled with Asian families and Students who live very cheaply I did laugh as it explains why the fascination with my decorated digs is a source of discussion. And for the record many many folks who rent now are taking it upon themselves to decorate and design living spaces that reflect their taste. And yes folks what comes up can come down and if you are responsible you restore, replace all what you did back to the shit the building gave you. Or you can be like the Doctor and his wife, leave it there and pay for that via forfeit of the damage deposit. Clearly he has the cash. But man would I want that Man operating on me? NO! Again, this is a choice and it takes a weekly wander outside any apartment building at end of month to see the treasures and trash left behind.
And that too is another kind of Grift, the tip. There is now an industry tied to the Tipping Economy. The complaints about the added “service fee” and the mandatory tip on screens when at the Bakery or Butcher even have made one wonder what is appropriate and how much also has become an insidious way of doing business. Living in already overpriced multi family housing means Tips at the Holiday time are mandated if not expected. For many the strain of tipping a building with often dozens of staff, many invisible can be an expensive proposition. To give you an idea, we have in our Building we have Six Front Desk Staff, some whom work Graveyard and often have limited Tenant contact but no less an important job in which to provide security and maintain package inventory and distribution for those who do collect them at odd times. The cleaning and maintenance staff are (often at times) 10 in number and do most of the heavy lifting; Add to that the Superintendent who oversees that crew and lastly the Manager and when we have one, an Assistant. (And for the record the Manager has massive problems holding staff so the turnover is high and often overtly dramatic adding to buildings toxic demeanor) So, at one point we have over 18 people we have to pay at some point, and how much and do all of them get it? I mean the fat fuck who is the Gossip troll deserves the most as that way you won’t be gossiped about right? He should get the most too as he is fat, old, barely walks and is a troll right? Over the young girl who works her ass off. But how about the former Lead who used her position as “helping people” by enabling those with Dogs and Kids to be largely ignored when the kids were running wild in the gym unsupervised or the Dogs shit everywhere or the ones that killed a dog and another attacking a woman, but they were “good” Tenants as they tipped more and more often. So that is hierarchy in Apartment living, who tips, how often and how much matters. And there are a lot of holidays and dates of import. Valentines Day, Lunar New Year, Holi, their birthdays, your birthday all are on the calendar and have cards ready in which to shove in that obligatory payment.
We think of Grift as something associated with Politicians and there is no greater profession guilty of it, but it is everywhere. It is the way we assert our control and and influence even in the most benign of situations. And with that we are not exempt from the fraud, the duplicity and the guilt associated with our role as Grifter or Grafter. The recent story about the New York Times Reporter who handed over 50K in cash to a recent scam, but the Bank who willingly handed over 50K in cash is the same banker who is supposed to notify the IRS if you have deposited more than 10K in your account to notify them as earnings. Or the payment apps if you have transfers exceeding 300 dollars. The Police who will take any amount a cash during a traffic stop legally as a it too is suspect under the guise of Civil Forfeiture. So that Estate Sale, Car Sale, or some transaction is all watched or monitored or taken as it is all seen as gotten gains. But taking it out and in cash to pay an extortion not a problem in the least.
Grift or Graft, the Con, the Long Con and we are all players or victims in the game. This article from Psychology Today explain who is more likely to be a victim, but in reality we all are at some point players in this game. It is just how much you lose what matters. We are all pigs waiting to be butchered.
The Art of the Con and Why People Fall for It
How the con is pulled off, why fraudsters are successful, and how to spot them.
Posted September 26, 2019 | Reviewed by Jessica Schrader
By definition, a con artist is a manipulator who cheats, or tricks, others through persuading them to believe something that is not true. Through deception, they fool people into believing they can make easy money when, in fact, it is the con artist who ends up taking the victim’s money. The criminal and legal consequences of such indiscretions can be insignificant or great, depending on the circumstances and the laws of the land. In the course of co-authoring The Crime Book, which covered more than 100 crimes, I researched and wrote a chapter about con artists. Their crimes are varied, as are their behaviors. But the one thing they each have in common is the power of persuasion to take advantage of unsuspecting people.
Name of the Game
The confidence game, as scam artistry is called, is one of the oldest tricks in the trade. It exploits people’s trust. Human nature is on the side of these masters of fraud when it comes to defrauding their marks, or victims, and contributes to the con’s enduring success. Perpetrators have been referred to everything from flimflam operators, hustlers, grifters, and tricksters. The victims have been called marks, suckers, and gulls. And while media publicity has further romanticized cons and put their crimes in the public eye, their actions are anything but glamorous.
Even further, the cost of the capers to victims may run anywhere from a couple hundred to a few million dollars, with some victims learning the hard way, using their own free will, that when an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission reported that people lost $1.48 billion to fraud in 2018, an increase of 38 percent in 2017.
It Can Happen to You
How do unsuspecting people get duped to begin with? After all, even the most rational people have proven susceptible to crimes of trickery. That’s because con artists often prey on people’s trust and their propensity for believing what they wish was true—especially with get-rich-quick schemes and individual’s desire for a quick buck. They let their guard down and buy into what con artists feed them—all in the belief of the scammer and a high rate of return in exchange for a small investment, albeit a shady deal. But the convincing scammer skews the victim into thinking the payoff will come true and the scheme is legitimate.
Some famous con artists were at the top of their game—until they ultimately got caught. With impersonator Frank Abagnale and international career jewel thief Doris Payne, they are the epitome of the swindling game. By their own rights, they became experts at the art of the con and successfully evaded law enforcement for years. Two centuries earlier, Jeanne de la Motte, a cunning Frenchwoman, orchestrated a diamond necklace affair, which was one of several scandals that led to the French Revolution and helped destroy a monarchy.
Other significant confidence criminals, from forged artwork to fake manuscripts—Elmyr de Hory, a Hungarian-born forger of Picassos and Matisses, who sold more than a thousand pieces to art galleries worldwide, and novelist Clifford Irving, who wrote a fabricated autobiography of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes. These stories break down how grifters pass off their own works as those of masters and literary greats—but eventually they too were caught.
A con artist can execute remarkable expertise in their trickery, as with Czechoslovakian Victor Lustig, who in an underhanded plot sold the Eiffel Tower for scrap metal—not once, but twice.
Psychology of the Con
Each of these con artists have one thing in common: the power of persuasion to swindle their victims. The successful ones exhibit three similar characteristics—psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism—which have been referred to by psychologists as “dark” personality traits.
Those characteristics allow con artists to swindle people out of their money without feeling any remorse or guilt. Another thing most chiselers have in common are their egos. These extortion sales people boost the psyche of the perpetrators and make them feel even more confident, thus the description of the con has been termed as a confidence game.
Because cons often change their identities as part of their game, it can be pesky for law enforcement to catch them. Also, police may not even go after them when the crime has to do with bilking property and even money from their marks. That’s because the law can consider the loss a civil issue and not a legal one, unless it’s a corporate white-collar crime, such as those committed by Bernie Madoff, a former stockbroker, financier, and operator of a massive pyramid scheme that perpetrated the largest financial fraud in recent US history. Going after grifters is often of low status, more difficult to prove, and less likely to be prosecuted, with violent crimes and terrorist acts of higher priority.
That happenstance leads to a message for everyday people: Buyer beware.
Well of this year at least and with that the best and worst lists are being compiled and all of them are must watch/listen/read/see things that you all missed. These are of course determined by years of experience in criticism and in turn have no bias or any agenda, personal or professional. Yes and like all things at the end of the year we look back with what is perspective that time gives.
What is Perspective? Well it is an Artists view of the world as they feel they see and in turn present on the canvas. We as viewers see that perspective and in turn apply our own into the meaning or intent. This is from the Cambridge Dictionary.
perspective noun (THOUGHT)
a particular way of considering something:
Her attitude lends a fresh perspective to the subject.
He writes from a Marxist perspective.
Because of its geographical position, Germany’s perspective on the situation in Russia is very different from Washington’s. Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples
With that they define perspective as coming from these places of viewpoint.
a feeling or opinion about something or someone
attitude His attitude toward authority has often got him into trouble.
outlook I wish I could share your positive outlook on life.
frame of mind I need to be in the right frame of mind to talk about this.
approach It’s time to try a different approach to the problem.
viewpoint His viewpoint is his own and does not affect how I think about the issue.
point of view From a strictly financial point of view it looks like a positive change.
And all of that is colored by not paint but by all the extrinsic factors in life, where one lives, one’s education, one’s family history, wealth or poverty, politics, gender, race and religion. Then in turn those intrinsic factors such as sexual and personal identity, are you a Father, Mother, etc. Then we have of course the extrinsic factors that are often internalized but are flexible and with that debate gender and sexual identity come into it for some. Then you have mental health, physical health and those too factor into one’s perspective of life. And those extrinsic factors that often become intrinsic ones based on experiences in life and in turn meld into your conscious reality as how you see yourself in relation to the world and those around you. So basically Perspective is what? Attitude, Outlook, Frame of Mind, ones’ Approach, Viewpoint and Point of View. As they say on Facebook – it’s complicated.
And the rise of Social Media and now its hopeful decline will be a mark on the calendar for many this year. Facebook is junk, TikTok rose and it too will fall. The endless Instagram stories now are hubs for the famous and want to be. And lastly Twitter – the final shithole that is a symbol not of our Democracy but the lack of it. And why I say that is because for a long time our leadership has not be of the people for the people and with that the need to stand on a soapbox and rant has become a necessity if not a requirement to at least attempt the facade of it. Democracy on principal is: Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives. A political or social unit that has such a government. The common people, considered as the primary source of political power.
Money has dramatically influenced if not empowered Government to do the bidding of the rich and influential regardless of party affiliation. The rich have always controlled media folks, owning local newspapers and television stations but done so in a hands off approach and often considered a loss leader in investment. And thanks to technology that changed. We can start with Craigslist that ended the paid personal ads for jobs and homes, etc killed that money maker for them. The irony that Craig Newmark funds a Journalism school. Really dude? Then came the rise of online media and the ads that again were placed there over the local paper that were now cutting sections, staff and coverage. This allowed the VC firms to come in a buy up the papers from families selling off their interests. And in turn the debt laden management philosophy that VC firms use as a form of money maker for their interests led to further decimation of local press. And with that Social Media stepped in to fill that void. And the lack of information, investigative journalism, local coverage on local issues declined. Media is now largely opinion based and has little imperative to change, as outrage sells. Looking at CNN transitioning back into an actual news outlet has had many up in arms over the audacity of such, not realizing that many of these voices are the Liberal versions of the Fox viewer only again with a different what? Perspective or aka “point of view.” And with that Democracy suffers.
What I find fascinating is how those with money behave and believe versus those who don’t. I have long discussed the Aggrieved White Male who crosses all classes, they are the ones that it is never enough, whatever “it” is. When I read this essay in The Washington Post (the now most opinion based newspaper now with the new Editorial direction sans Marty Barron) it was about how current pop culture has now taking a hit at the rich. Not really, ever read a Christmas Carol? This has long been a way to poke fun and in turn provide insight into those whose lives we may never cross but aspire to. We are truly an ASSpirational society fueled by that Meritocracy myth. And it is also why I hear repeatedly how “smart” these individuals, largely white men, are. Well that curtain of Oz of course eventually gets pulled back and this past year we saw three different movies on the rich Technocrat who blew millions and was blown out of their gig. Some going to prison and some just going on to the next. There was the movie about Uber, Theranos and WeWork and only Elizabeth Holmes faces prison. Her former partner in life and business was also just convicted and sentenced. Do they have co-ed prisons?
And with the FTX debacle beginning more curtains of Oz are being pulled back. The level of fraud and duplicity, to win friends and buy influence, are evident but also of sheer arrogance coupled with stupidity. Much is being made of how Investors are being also need to be held accountable for their failure to do due diligence regarding the company’s finances, I point to Theranos and their Board of renown individuals who seemingly were charmed by deep throated black turtlenecked Elizabeth’s promises of saving the world. That is also well documented in the WSJ and the subsequent book, Bad Blood on both the company and Elizabeth. What she meant regarding saving was as in savings accounts and building them even higher. There is little of the espoused Atruistic Philanthropy or whatever other bullshit they peddle to the masses to believe they are “doing good.” What.ever. Again this falls into we believe because of whatever reasons we wish to apply when it comes to someone of wealth, Bill Gates comes to mind and yet few actually look into his tax free endeavor and his Divorce filings demonstrate he was as big a douche as one imagines a wealthy white man to be. His financial advisor equally so, so you are the company you keep. But keep on believing.
And with that the Elon Musk watch that has become a cross between Where’s Waldo and Idiot Watch. He is in the sky, the plane, the World Cup. He is here, there and every where. Is the man that important? No. But again the curtain has been pulled back to reveal his is an idiot. This piece in the Atlantic sums it up quite nicely. But he’s rich so he is the smartest. Yes, and again do some homework on that one on both the rich and the smart part.
Add to the fraudster and phonies, we have Representative Elect George Santos, who is or is not Jewish but in fact like Black-ish, Jew-ish. May or may not be gay or married to well anyone.As for his home address? Well he has many, currently his sister’s. Had the ubiquitous non-profit that may or may not exist. Own properties or rent them but by that means he rents them and then is evicted and has a lot of past due rent. May or may not be employed but has 700K in fund to loan to his campaign. May or may not be named George Santos. May or may not be batshit crazy and yet ran for office twice and got elected. Well that is a very tech kind of philosophy and with that no one questioned any of it until after he was elected. Really heard of opp research? Well the GOP has no interest in that on one of their own but the Democrats had ample time to do so and failed. Move over Marjorie Taylor Greene (think she is no longer married either) as there is a new fucking nutjob coming to town.
We don’t read, we don’t ask questions and we don’t care. I always look to my doorman and the people who work in the building to remind myself of the everyman. I look to the Teachers and Admins in Schools where I sub to remind myself how bad education really is which again explains the everyman. The lack of ability to read, the lack of information that accessible and available is confined to social media, where I have been handed more junk than a fast food restaurant. I quit responding, I simply nod and retreat. I peruse Twitter and Instagram and with that I used to comment on the WAPost pages largely to generate some thought and perhaps find another who shares that but it too has become a cesspool. But again I too need an outlet for my own indignation and outrage, the Blog just is one way. And this is an example of our where we are with the ability to communicate, we fire a shot, we call names and we demand something, usually in the process by denigrating another and we do it from our desk, anonymously. Its not win it is a loss.
And that brings me to last thought of the year on the issue of Democracy, and that is what defines Patriot. We have seen now as the court trials, the documentaries and the Jan 6th Report have released that we also don’t seem to know what that word means either in relation to our Country and our role as Citizens of such. I leave you with this editorial from the LA Times to ponder the meaning of who we are as Voters, Citizens and Patriots.
Column: Scandal, villainy, treachery — the Jan. 6 committee report is replete with juicy bits
LA Times
By Robin Abcarian Columnist Dec. 28, 2022
The final report from the House Jan. 6 committee is a true gift to the American people.
In its 800-plus pages, the members have given us a cogent, chronological account of the incidents leading up to one of the most shameful events in American history: the storming of the Capitol by violent, misguided supporters of President Trump, operating under the fallacy that he’d won the 2020 election.
Here is proof, for those who missed (or wanted to ignore) the committee’s televised hearings, that Trump knew he lost but couldn’t bear the humiliation and set about to ensure himself at least another four years in office. Who knows what other horrors he might have visited on our Constitution had his coup succeeded?
Dark but entertaining tidbits are sprinkled throughout the report, which places ultimate blame for the terrible events at the feet of Trump.
For instance, did you know that dirty political trickster Roger Stone coined the phrase “Stop the Steal”? Not in 2020, mind you, but in 2016, when he pretended that candidate Trump’s Republican rivals were trying to steal the nomination from him. Or that right-wing provocateur Ali Alexander, a frequent collaborator of Stone’s, launched the now-defunct event website wildprotest.com in December 2020, just after Trump tweeted out his invitation to the Jan. 6 rally? Or that Julie Fancelli, the 72-year-old heir to the Publix supermarket fortune, offered to spend $3 million to pay speakers and ferry protesters to Washington on Jan. 6?
Those stories are from Chapter 6, “Be There, Will be Wild!” The chapter examines the fascistic white nationalist groups — the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, the Three Percenters, the Groypers, QAnon adherents — who looked upon Trump’s invitation to Washington as a call to violence and the chance to remake the United States into some demented version of greatness that never was.
They were, of course, completely delusional about many things — that the election was stolen, that Vice President Pence could refuse to certify its results, that Trump could stay in office with their help, that they would escape the wrath of the justice system.
or example, Stewart Rhodes, the convicted seditionist who founded the Oath Keepers, told the committee he believed that Trump could have mobilized “unorganized militia” like the Oath Keepers to suppress an insurrection if he attempted to stay in power after losing the election.
“This fantasy reflected a warped sense of reality,” the committee wrote in its report. “The Oath Keepers themselves were the ones contemplating insurrection.”
Proof: In a message to colleagues, quoted in the report, Rhodes wrote, “Either Trump gets off his ass and uses the Insurrection Act to defeat the Chicom puppet coup or we will have to rise up in insurrection (rebellion) against the Chicom puppet Biden. Take your pick.” (“Chicom” = Chinese Communist.)
As I read Chapter 6, it hit me that the faux patriots like Rhodes, who faces up to 20 years in federal prison, are nothing more than ridiculously over-the-top drama queens. They have persuaded themselves they are saving the Constitution (from democracy, I guess), when they are in fact lining their birdcages with it. They imagine themselves as battling forces of evil to inflate their self-worth. They would be laughable if they were not so dangerous. (And well armed: Rhodes, the report says, “amassed an arsenal of military grade weapons and equipment in the days leading up to Jan. 6” and stashed it in a hotel outside the District of Columbia.)
In another example of destroyers-posing-as-saviors irony, the report notes that the Proud Boys and their leader Enrique Tarrio imagined themselves to be reenacting the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. They took up the battle cry “Storm the Winter Palace,” an allusion to the toppling of Russia’s czarist order. As the Jan. 6 committee points out in its report, that event led to 70-plus years of communist rule.
“No historic event has been less American,” the committee dryly noted. (Jury selection in Tarrio’s trial for seditious conspiracy is underway in Washington.)
Online posts about what would happen on Jan. 6 were rife with predictions of violence.
“You can go to Washington on Jan. 6 and help storm the capitol,” wrote a user on the QAnon website 8kun. “We will storm the government buildings, kill cops, kill security guards, kill federal employees and agents, and demand a recount.”
Reading about the deluded warriors of Jan. 6, I was reminded of one of the great literary characters: Don Quixote, the man from La Mancha.
Four hundred years ago, Miguel de Cervantes invented him, a lowly nobleman whose love for romance and chivalry leads him to fantasize that he is a knight errant, riding across the Spanish countryside on his old nag, which he imagines to be a noble steed, in search of outlandish adventures and glory. Among his many misguided deeds of derring-do, he mistakes windmills for giants who must be slain with his sword.
He is a great character, and he is also a fool — paranoid and unable to distinguish between reality and his fevered imagination.
This brand of paranoia and self-aggrandizement, minus any of Don Quixote’s endearing romanticism, lives on in the Roger Stones, Stewart Rhodeses, Enrique Tarrios and the many, many other foolish people who played roles in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
As for the man from Mar-a-Lago, he’s still tilting at windmills, pretending he won the election, fantasizing about ruling over the land once again. Here’s hoping he can do that from prison.
The endless discussion about vaccines, masks and Trump have finally hit the proverbial wall of STFU for me. No matter the discussion, the endless brutal attacks that veer on stalking and harassment online over trivial issues has become de rigueur for both Liberal and Conservatives. I get it. I really do. We will never agree nor even agree to disagree so let’s move back into our respective corners and shout to the wind. I am, to say it once again, OVER IT.
I love dish, the dirtier the better and these are two stories that share a common ground, the once Ponzi stood upon next to deLeon and Heny Winkler. (Okay he was Fonzi but close enough) And that is shaky ground to say the least as both take place deep in the heart of earthquake country, Hollywood, the land of scandal and more scandal. I loved that show too but that took place in what was second tier scandal-land, DC, but this is way less Trumpier.
The first is grade A for a D list actor. Promise and not deliver I believe is somewhere in the handbook of Acting 101. For those who have not followed another Hollywood-esque scheme, the Ozy Media drama is for those who prefer a more intellectual bend to the idea of getting money for nothing, but the drinks are free. I do love the one founder now claiming mental health issues as he impersonated a YouTube channel executive. That is lesson two in Acting 101. The story about this strange trip we are in (I am going all 60s now as this is like we dosed some bad acid) is here for those curious if this scam, scheme, plan is on or off again. Sort of like that crazy girlfriend who you just can’t shake off. Well now I am onto Taylor Swift so I have definitely moved up a generation or two, but as the songs change the stories behind them don’t.
Below is the story of Zacary Horwitz a good boy who does bad things. The second story is about Erika Jayne, her goodness and badness is the subject of the documentary, The Housewife and the Hustler, now on HULU. ** I hope I get some swag as a promotional gift being the Influencer I am.** Their stories are similar in that while legitimacy was craved and pursued, the lack of talent, remorse and of course demand for cash and fame transcended logic and intelligence. The world is full of corpses like these two and again the aggrieved spouses, creditors, and debtors who are still waiting for the check to clear.
But this is Hollywood a city that has endless tales of the affluent, the influenced, the bad, the evil and the just plain mad. Harvey Weinstein anyone? And the same goes for the Housewives franchise as the article also below discusses the other Fraus who found themselves on the other side of a courtroom, as a Defendant rather than Plaintiff and that too has made the rounds of the girls from the hood, to their husbands, partners and others in their orbit. Google anyone of them and see all the matters of both civil or criminal, these bitches have a Rolodex full of Attorneys on hand and in demand.
If you have not read the lengthy profile and articles on the subject in the LA Times it is worth a small subscription for a read. The Fraus cannot manage to do so but you can. Support real Journalism for a whole $6 bucks! It explains in detail how Tom managed to co-opt others into his arrangements, his finances and his very essential political access that enabled him to skirt the charges and rumors that dogged him for years. He truly was the man who knew how to broker power and do so to in ways that prove once again that this expression is true: It is not what you know but who. And that plays out well on paper but not in the show and Ms. Jayne does elude to Tom’s influence at one point but it does not mean she could not have at any point sought advice from another party about any number of things. Marriages are complicated and Ms. Jayne’s to Tom was no less so and why this woman chose to buy Manolo’s over getting financial, legal information and/or an education is beyond me. These are the tales of her life and I am only a viewer in the drama that plays out every Tuesday at 8 pm on BRAVO. *Holding out for Bravo swag too* My opinion is that a woman married to a high profile man who is rich and has the cash and access to all things fine and beautiful means that like all things in life, women are as well. Steve Jobs really understood planned obsolescence when it came to tech, Hollywood had mastered it decades sooner. This is not about trust it is about growth and security and when your spouse is older, has children from a prior marriage you are not in a place to assume anything about his will, his business or his own ambitions be they professional or personal. Cover your assets girl.
And with that Ms. Jayne picking a singing career at a late bloom in life with its own sell by date is fine but then what? The Glam Squad is fine and all but they are not in it for you, the checks yes, you as long as you are writing them. Girl you may expensive to be you but you sure don’t know how to be smart with your cash. And that seems to be the Housewife mantra: Get it while you’re hot with endless schemes, dreams and aspirations to have diamond water, black water, caftans, retail shops, lipsticks, wines and name a book or a bio that they have not “written” to capitalize on their 15 minutes. To that I can say, good thing Andy Warhol is dead as I would kill him for that curse. To quote another: I pity the fool.
But needless to say guilt or innocence, orphans and widows, they all are backdrop to the Hollywood grifter life. Angelyne has made it work (see Erica you can too) and ran for Governor twice so who knows? California elected the Terminator and gave us the Voodoo President Reagan; for one thing it isn’t – is boring. Ah California, all that glitters is not gold not even the Oscar is actual gold.
Hollywood grifter: the actor who took Tinseltown for a Ponzi scheme ride
Zachary Horwitz ran a five-year scam that defrauded wealthy investors of at least $227m by claiming to be in licensing deals with Netflix and HBO
Edward Helmore The Guardian Sun 10 Oct 2021
It’s a tale about a Hollywood grifter that reads like an outlandish movie script. But this real-life story has left Tinseltown asking how an unknown, peripheral player could have scammed millions from so many out-of-town investors hoping to cash in on the boom of streaming platforms such as Netflix and HBO.
Last week, Zachary Horwitz, a B-movie actor with a taste for the high life, pleaded guilty to a single count of felony securities fraud, carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. But behind the dry legalese of his plea, something more – though not necessarily new – was learned about the hunger for content and profit in the enduring global capital of the movie business.Advertisement
Horwitz – who worked under the stage name Zach Avery – had claimed to be in business finding and licensing Spanish-language movies and TV series to Netflix and HBO. But according to FBI, he had in fact run a five-year, multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that defrauded wealthy private investors of at least $227m.
Like many before him, including notoriously the Wall Street fraudster Bernie Madoff, the scheme relied in part on the perpetrator’s criminality and in part on the greed of his investors. Like Madoff, Horwitz promised improbable returns on investment loans.
But there was something more: the ineffable lure of Hollywood.
It’s an age-old story, of course, with institutions and individuals hoping to cash out from the movie business and finding, as it has always been, that Hollywood is a small-town industry that, even in the age of globalization and multibillion-dollar streaming services, runs on who you know.
Originally from Indiana, Horwitz graduated from Chicago University with a degree in psychology, and came to Los Angeles. In a 2019 cover story for Swagger, the actor said he moved “with nothing more than his dog, a few suitcases, and a big dream” and the support of Mallory Hagedorn, a hair stylist, who he later married.Advertisementhttps://5a06e65e097e674982f2a0147a38a0c5.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html
Horwitz hired an acting coach and went on the audition circuit. Parts were scarce. But he met a would-be producer, Julio Hallivis, and they set up a company, 1inMM Productions (“One in a Million”) that planned to finance low-budget horror and science fiction films with plum roles for “Zach Avery”.
But some jarring aspects of Howitz’s bit-part acting life didn’t add up, including a lavish $6m Westside home with a screening room, gym and a 1,000-bottle wine cellar. He traveled by private jet, enjoyed expensive cars and a luxury watch subscription, high-roller weekends in Vegas. In court papers, former friends said he often bought courtside seats at Lakers games and once tried to tip a waitress $5,000.
“Every Hollywood scammer has a persona,” says Allison Hope Weiner, an LA investigative journalist. “It’s the place you can become what you want to become. Horwitz understood the importance of image. He looked the part, people could seem him flying around, doing well, and that’s how it works.”
The scheme began in October 2014, when investment firms began entering into a series of six- or 12-month promissory notes with 1inMM Capital. Each note was supposed to provide money for 1inMM Capital to acquire the rights to a specific film.
In one case, the Chicago group lent $1.4m to buy the rights to an Italian film, Lucia’s Grace, and resell it to Netflix for distribution in Chile, Argentina, Brazil and a few dozen other countries. The investors were promised a $2m repayment a year later.Advertisement
To keep his investors from suspecting anything amiss, Horwitz provided fake license agreements, as well as fake distribution agreements with Netflix and HBO, all of which contained forged or fictional signatures.
But the scheme began to unravel in 2019 when Horwitz was unable to meet investors’ demands for repayment and it became clear that his claim of “solid relationships” with the streaming platforms was a lie.
“During the lulling period – the period in which payments come to a halt, but the fraudster is able to buy himself time – in this case it was carried out through very sophisticated means,” says Brian Michael, a lawyer with King & Spalding representing three of Horwitz’s Chicago friends, who alerted the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
“Horwitz banked through a well-respected national institution that had a focus on serving clients in the entertainment industry, had a major global law firm representing 1inMM, fabricated a complete suite of seemingly authentic documentation and communications among 1inMM, HBO and Netflix and had previously repaid millions in loans on time,” Michael adds.
A federal grand jury indicted Horwitz in May on five counts of securities fraud, six counts of wire fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft. Under his plea agreement last week, he admitted to defrauding more than 250 investors – the Chicago trio, along with their parents, grandparents, siblings and in-laws.
Horwitz was arrested at dawn on 6 April, when FBI agents raided the house. His wife, Mallory, soon filed for divorce, saying in court that her husband had been “deceiving and manipulating me and everyone around him, and he is not the person that I believed he was”.
According to an SEC complaint, in order to delay paying back investors, principally the Chicago investors of $490m, Avery had “fabricated email communications with representatives of HBO as well as false collections accounts allegedly showing funds available from HBO and Netflix for distribution”.
“There is a lot of money ‘missing’ here,” US magistrate Jean P Rosenbluth said at Howitz’s arraignment. Brian Michael says “his understanding is that the investigation is ongoing.”
The perhaps more interesting question is not how Horwitz pulled off the scam, but the larger circumstances of the movie and TV industry. It might not have worked at all if he had been connected to the business in any coherent way.Advertisement
But the streaming platforms spend billions on content in a battle for subscription growth and for every White Lotus or The Squid Game, there are thousands of shows, in every language and for every audience, that never make it to Netflix or HBO’s algorithm-gamed customer facing page and exist to keep people on the platform.
According to estimates, streamers’ spend on producing and licensing new entertainment content (excluding sports) rose by 16.4% in 2020 to reach $220.2bn. The Walt Disney Company alone spent $28.6bn, and the overall spending on streaming content is expected to exceed a quarter of a trillion this year.
“In deceiving his victims, Horwitz leveraged fictitious documents and communications as well as the fact that these are sophisticated platforms with good reputations and deep pockets that are known in the market to be aggressively acquiring content,” says Michael.
According to Hope Weiner, the scam relied as much on people falling for the allure of Horwitz’s lifestyle trappings as it did on mystique around fast-growing streaming platforms – and how little people understand of how that business works.
“It’s like the dotcom boom. There’s incredible competition between these services, everybody wants to get in, and there’s a lot of a talk about how much money is being made. Maybe the global nature of the business has made it easier for people to lie but people forget this also a small town,” Weiner said.
Several years ago, investor-playboy Jho Low walked into town with millions linked to the massive 1MDB sovereign fund scandal in Malaysia. He financed The Wolf of Wall Street, a three-hour epic of bad behavior, with Leonardo DiCaprio. He flew the actor and friends for a double New Year’s Eve in California and then Australia, purchased art and broadly established himself around town.
But the latest scandal has little of Jho Low’s criminal, red-carpet panache. “Horwitz was dealing with people who were not savvy,” says Hope Weiner. “An LA person would ask, ‘who is this guy, what has he produced, who does he know. OK, so he’s an actor. What else?’”
But – this being Hollywood – there’s always someone looking to capitalize on infamy.
Orson Oblowitz, the director of Trespassers, a 2018 horror flick shot in Malibu, in which the actor writhed on the deck of a swimming pool with a thick dagger plunged into his stomach, told the LA Times that he was unmoved by Horwitz’s acting but hoped the scandal might give his film cult status.
“It’s mind-blowing,” Oblowitz told the paper. “This dude does not strike me as a criminal mastermind. I am amazed.”
The Real Trials of a ‘Real Housewife’Erika Girardi is famous for her lavish lifestyle. Now her husband’s law firm has been accused of misappropriating millions of dollars. It’s all unfolding on TV.The current season of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” is offering a glimpse into the real-world legal drama surrounding Erika Girardi
By Matthew Goldstein and Katherine Rosman The New York Times
Oct. 9, 2021
From a bit part as a dead body on “Law & Order” to six seasons on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” television has been a crucial part of Erika Girardi’s careful cultivation of her branded glamorous life.
But now the reality show is offering a glimpse into the real-world legal drama surrounding Ms. Girardi, her renowned lawyer husband, and millions of dollars he’s accused of misappropriating from vulnerable clients — including burn victims and relatives of those killed in the 2018 Lion Air jet crash — to support the couple’s lavish lifestyle.
Ms. Girardi’s husband, Tom Girardi, helped win the trial that made Erin Brockovich famous. But he has swiftly fallen from grace.
Mr. Girardi, 82, has been suspended from practicing law in California. He and his firm are bankrupt; he’s been moved into a nursing home; and a judge ruled him incompetent to handle his financial affairs. And last November, after 20 years of marriage, Ms. Girardi filed for divorce.
Filming for the current season of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” had begun just weeks before. Over the next several months, as Bravo cameras continued to roll, details about Mr. Girardi’s financial and legal troubles were reported in the news.
What has transpired since is made-for-TV drama: accusations of stolen money, Twitter feuds and televised backbiting from Ms. Girardi’s reality co-stars. So it’s no wonder that the couple’s rapidly unfolding drama quickly became the central plotline of the 11th season of the show.
A few weeks after Bravo broadcast the first episode on May 19, lawyers disclosed that Mr. Girardi’s law firm may have paid up to $25 million of his wife’s personal and professional expenses. In July, Ms. Girardi, 50, was named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by a bankruptcy trustee seeking to recoup some of those dollars.
In a subsequent court filing, the expenses were enumerated in a six-page exhibit and included at least $850,000 on hair, makeup and nail stylists; at least $1.3 million on promotion and marketing; and $14 million in American Express charges.
The dollar amounts, on their own, may not have surprised “Beverly Hills” viewers. Ms. Girardi has bragged on the show about her expensive tastes and the way she has spent the couple’s money.
In her 2018 memoir, “Pretty Mess,” she wrote that several years into her marriage she decided to develop a career in music (she performs under the stage name Erika Jayne) because “there was nothing more I could buy.” (Her best-known song, “XXpen$ive,” includes the lyrics “Bentleys and Benzes/Through cash-colored lenses/Them dollars and cents/Cha-ching!”)
But her lavish spending is now associated with the alleged misappropriation by her husband of money owed to victims of horrible tragedies.
To date, she has been named in a half-dozen civil lawsuits. Just this week, lawyers for one of those lawsuits sent a subpoena to the show’s producers seeking outtakes that involve her. Additionally, Ms. Girardi may owe millions in unpaid taxes, court filings show.
Ms. Girardi declined to comment for this article. Her lawyer Evan Borges said Ms. Girardi did not have any knowledge of the wrongdoing that her husband is accused of, nor did she know how he managed his law firm’s finances. “Erika doesn’t have personal liability for any of those transactions,” Mr. Borges said.
Most people in Ms. Girardi’s situation would be trying to maintain the lowest possible profile. But she is a Housewife, and discretion doesn’t make for good TV.
Relishing the Attention
Ms. Girardi’s legal and marital turmoil has drawn rabid interest among newcomers and veteran viewers of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” who are glued to a spectacle that is unusual even by the standards of the Bravo network, which is basking in the glow of reality TV narrative gold.
The series is currently drawing the highest ratings in the “Real Housewives” franchise.
“The show is an authentic reflection of what occurred in real time,” said Alex Baskin, the president of Evolution Media, which produces the “Beverly Hills” show for Bravo. “No accommodation was made for Erika while shooting.” (What about in editing? “No,” Mr. Baskin said.)
Ms. Girardi appears to be relishing the attention, even as much of it — especially on social media — focuses on her perceived lack of sympathy for the people her estranged husband has been accused of fleecing. This week, she reposted a fan’s Instagram post that compared her suffering to that of Jesus Christ.
When Bravo announced that it would broadcast a four-part reunion show for this season of “Beverly Hills” (only the second time Bravo has broadcast that many episodes for an end-of-season reunion), Ms. Girardi tweeted, “Now what would make it 4 parts?? Me.”
But she also sat down for sessions with her lawyers to prepare for the reunion special, the first episode of which will be broadcast on Oct. 13.
“There is a certain kind of toughness that she presents,” said Mr. Borges. In prepping her for the reunion show, he said, “The first comment to her was: You don’t have to be the tough one. Also, it is OK to be humble.”
Ms. Girardi was raised in Atlanta and moved to New York after high school with dreams of becoming an actress. Her most stable income in those days came from her work as a dancer at go-go clubs in New Jersey.
In 1996, she left for Los Angeles. She met Mr. Girardi at Chasen’s, a restaurant where he was a customer and investor and she was an employee, according to her memoir, which was written with Brian Moylan. The Girardis married in 2000.
In the marriage’s early years, Ms. Girardi devoted herself to her husband, traveling to legal events and awards dinners with him. When they flew to New York on their Gulfstream, she wrote, they could see a club called Shakers where she had once danced, close to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. “It only took you 10 years to get across the street,” her husband once told her.
Eventually, with Mr. Girardi’s support (financial and otherwise), she hired image consultants, choreographers and music producers to help start her career as a recording artist. Mr. Girardi drew up incorporation papers for his wife’s company, EJ Global.
No expense was spared. Mr. Girardi’s firm began picking up the tab for EJ Global’s mounting bills, including payments of $1.5 million to McDonald Selznick, a talent agency; $260,000 to the law firm Greenberg Traurig; and $252,000 to Troy Jensen, a celebrity makeup artist and image consultant, court filings show.
Ms. Girardi joined “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” in 2015. Despite the name of the series, Ms. Girardi’s scenes were occasionally shot in her and Mr. Girardi’s Pasadena mansion, which is currently listed for sale at $8.9 million. Sometimes her husband would make a cameo.
Maintaining a Lavish Lifestyle
Mr. Girardi used to be a towering presence in the legal community in Los Angeles. A pioneer in so-called toxic tort cases, he had been respected for his advocacy on behalf of vulnerable clients. His firm, Girardi Keese, represented tens of thousands of clients, often teaming up with other lawyers in big-dollar personal injury lawsuits, including ones filed against pharmaceutical giants and the manufacturers of pelvic mesh products, which have led some women to experience intense pain and bleeding.
His courtroom contributions to the groundwater pollution case made famous in the film “Erin Brockovich” helped secure a $333 million judgment for victims.
Then, last December, Jay Edelson, a lawyer who had worked closely with Mr. Girardi in successfully suing Boeing on behalf of the relatives of victims of the Lion Air plane crash that killed 189 people in 2018, filed papers in federal court in Chicago, claiming that Mr. Girardi had embezzled at least $2 million in settlement money owed to these families. Mr. Girardi’s brother, Robert, who is serving as his conservator, did not return requests for comment.
Other claims soon arose. The biggest so far alleges that Mr. Girardi never turned over the proceeds from an $11 million settlement he had secured eight years ago for a California man named Joseph Ruigomez who suffered burns on over 90 percent of his body.
The bankruptcy trustee has said that at least $24 million for clients may have been misappropriated. Mr. Girardi is facing lawyer disciplinary charges in California, and the state bar said in June that an audit found mishandled complaints about Mr. Girardi going back 40 years.
Mr. Edelson has said, in court proceedings, that Mr. Girardi was running a “Ponzi scheme,” using client money to keep his firm running and to pay for the extravagant lifestyle he and his wife shared. Mr. Edelson’s law firm on Monday filed a motion in the bankruptcy proceeding to go after Ms. Girardi for any “traceable assets that were embezzled by Tom and potentially given to Erika.”
Mr. Edelson’s law firm also sent a civil subpoena this week to Evolution Media, the show’s production company, for any unaired recordings in which Ms. Girardi may have said anything relevant to that asset hunt.
The debts owed by Mr. Girardi’s defunct law firm continue to mount. The firm owes more than $101 million to clients, a half-dozen legal lenders and other lawyers, according to an August filing by the bankruptcy trustee in the case. To raise cash, an auction of most everything in the law firm’s office was held in August. Among the items was an “Erin Brockovich” poster, signed by the actress Julia Roberts, which sold for $1,550.
Ms. Brockovich, who still works as an environmental activist and legal advocate, has worked with Mr. Girardi on several other cases. In an interview, she said that until allegations became public, she had been unaware that clients were not receiving their money. She expressed disgust and exasperation at the disparity between the attention paid to the reality show and that given to Mr. Girardi’s clients who are still owed their money.
“It sickens me, it frustrates me, it saddens me,” Ms. Brockovich said. “I cannot fathom how they feel. And yet we keep sensationalizing Tom and Erika.”
Unfolding Dramas, Onscreen
The Beverly Hills show is not the first “Housewives” series to milk narrative value from a legal drama that has affected vulnerable targets. In 2015, one of the cast members from “The Real Housewives of New Jersey,” Teresa Giudice, spent 11 months in federal prison after she pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and bankruptcy fraud.
This year, a “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” cast member, Jen Shah, and an assistant were arrested on federal charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering through a telemarketing business that promised tax-preparation and web services to working-class, often aging customers. (They denied the allegations.)
Legal drama on the series “keeps people so intrigued,” said Heather McDonald, who analyzes the show’s episodes and the legal case on her podcast “Juicy Scoop With Heather McDonald.” “It makes you wonder if the only way the show is going to survive is if at all times one or two of these housewives is facing indictment.”
This time, part of the draw for viewers is in dissecting Ms. Girardi’s shifting narrative as it has evolved with news reports of her estranged husband’s legal and health troubles.
In the first episode, during footage filmed before she filed for divorce in November, Ms. Girardi is seen going through her enormous wardrobe and fretting about when she may wear certain items again because of the coronavirus pandemic. She says that one bright spot of the pandemic was that it allowed her and her husband to reconnect.
“Tom and I had dinner at the kitchen table every night,” she says in the episode.
From the time Ms. Girardi files for divorce, however — an action that appears to genuinely surprise her cast mates — she recasts her long-cultivated air of marital bliss in a harsher light. The separation was, she says, a long time coming.
As the season progresses, and more detailed accusations of Mr. Girardi’s misdeeds appear in The Los Angeles Times and other news outlets, the conversations among the Housewives revolve with greater frequency around the gravity of the claims, and how much Ms. Girardi knew.
Ms. Girardi, in turn, grows increasingly defensive.
Over rack-of-lamb and caviar pie at a dinner party at Kathy Hilton’s Bel Air estate in one episode, one “Beverly Hills” Housewife, Dorit Kemsley, says to Ms. Girardi: “I am going to support you to the bitter end.”
But “when you’re reading about the victims and the orphans and the widows,” she adds, “that’s very hard to digest.”
“How do you think I feel?” Ms. Girardi responds.
Sutton Stracke, a newer cast member, expresses little sympathy.
“I don’t trust that what you’ve told us is the truth,” Ms. Stracke says to Ms. Girardi.
“I’ll go head-on with you all day,” Ms. Girardi fires back, adding an expletive that she also uses when telling Ms. Stracke to “shut up.”
As men in uniforms, white gloves and masks serve food and drinks at the event, Ms. Girardi laments: “Look at my life,” she says, adding the same expletive.
Ms. Girardi is likely earning more than $600,000 from her turn this year on the show, which is still pennies compared to the amount of money she is used to having at her disposal.
But she will end this season banking a valuable reality TV commodity: notoriety. “She is going to be more famous than ever,” Ms. McDonald said.
Looking for Hidden Treasure
Ronald Richards, a Beverly Hills lawyer hired by the bankruptcy trustee to help recoup the $25 million from Ms. Girardi, has sought to cast himself as the best hope for clients and creditors of Mr. Girardi’s law firm. “She got $25 million of firm revenue diverted to her, and she and her lawyer are pretending she is clueless,” Mr. Richards said.
Ms. Girardi and Mr. Richards (who was once married to Louise Linton, the actress and current wife of Steven Mnuchin, the former Treasury secretary) have taken their legal battle to social media. In one instance Ms. Girardi accused Mr. Richards on Twitter of “extortion” after he offered to waive some of his legal fees if she started returning some of the money. Mr. Richards responded by posting the legal definition of extortion. “Not even close,” he tweeted.
Filing a lawsuit is one thing. Collecting on it is an entirely different matter. Mr. Richards, in an interview, acknowledged it’s unlikely that Ms. Girardi’s assets — clothes, jewelry and other items — are worth anything close to $25 million. Mr. Richards said he does not want to hurt Ms. Girardi and is open to a settlement.
But her lawyer said it’s premature to discuss a deal. “Everyone keeps piling on and trashing Erika for things she didn’t do,” Mr. Borges said, adding, “there is no hidden treasure.”
Meanwhile, the legal spectacle has left some victims exasperated.
Mr. Ruigomez was 19 when, in 2010, a gas explosion destroyed his family’s home in San Bruno, Calif., killing his girlfriend, burning him and severely damaging his lungs. He has since had nearly three dozen surgeries.
In 2013, Mr. Girardi secured an $11 million settlement on behalf of Mr. Ruigomez. Pacific Gas & Electric, the giant power company, paid the money to Mr. Girardi’s firm years ago. According to court documents, he and his family are still waiting for most of their money.
Kathleen Ruigomez, Mr. Ruigomez’s mother, needs the settlement money for her son’s continuing medical care, she said. “I do worry about getting paid.”
Ms. Ruigomez used to watch and enjoy “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.” But as time passed and Mr. Girardi kept giving her excuses for why they hadn’t been paid the full settlement, she began to regard Ms. Girardi with skepticism.
“The first few seasons we kind of liked her, but then we began becoming more and more concerned about our money. Is she spending our money? Now she is very unlikable on the show,” Ms. Ruigomez said. “She seems like she almost has an attitude that we victims ruined her gig.”
By Matthew Goldstein and Katherine RosmanOct. 9, 2021From a bit part as a dead body on “Law & Order” to six seasons on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” television has been a crucial part of Erika Girardi’s careful cultivation of her branded glamorous life.But now the reality show is offering a glimpse into the real-world legal drama surrounding Ms. Girardi, her renowned lawyer husband, and millions of dollars he’s accused of misappropriating from vulnerable clients — including burn victims and relatives of those killed in the 2018 Lion Air jet crash — to support the couple’s lavish lifestyle.Ms. Girardi’s husband, Tom Girardi, helped win the trial that made Erin Brockovich famous. But he has swiftly fallen from grace.Mr. Girardi, 82, has been suspended from practicing law in California. He and his firm are bankrupt; he’s been moved into a nursing home; and a judge ruled him incompetent to handle his financial affairs. And last November, after 20 years of marriage, Ms. Girardi filed for divorce.
I have written quite a bit about the medical profession and its failure to provide care, before the pandemic, during and of course post pandemic (whenever that is) as they are in the business of profit which is in direct contradiction to care. The endless consolidations of hospitals, closing of under performing facilities, and purchasing Physicians business models to limit their access to varying hospitals in the area, which enables billing to flag “out of service provider” to jack up the prices. These are all a part of the business model in the medical industrial complex. Need drugs? Well find the most expensive and in turn charge them. Generics? Sure, just don’t ask about how they were made, where they were made and if they are safe. Need a treatment that you don’t need or want, not a problem. Short staff, sure. Turn away Medicaid and Medicare? We got this. Insurance and billing fraud? Yeah, we know. And comes this story out of Bayonne, down to the fraud, the salaries and of course the closing and consolidations. Yep, the more things change the more they stay the same.
CarePoint Health transitioning to nonprofit Is this the end of the battle over the operations of Bayonne Medical Center?
“The formation of a new nonprofit will allow the three-hospital system to continue its trajectory of bringing in multiple tertiary level clinical services with nationally known clinical organizations while giving these precious assets back to the community,” Moulick said. “The pandemic has shown community hospitals to be the cornerstones of healthcare delivery in Northern New Jersey, and the transition to a nonprofit is the best way to ensure we remain so for future generations.”
Moulick is overseeing the formation of the new nonprofit. He is currently engaging in discussions with key Hudson County community members. An official announcement of the new board formation and nonprofit mission statement will follow.
The nonprofit was conceived in collaboration with the founders, Vivek Garipalli and James Lawler. Garipalli, who is also CEO of Clover Health, and Lawler will step down from their roles of oversight following the formation of the new nonprofit board. They, along with their affiliates, will pledge their majority interest in CarePoint Health hospitals and Christ Hospital land.
A new chapter?
“After working closely with Dr. Moulick, we decided together that CarePoint is ready to begin its next chapter under the guidance of a new nonprofit board,” said Garipalli. “Following 13 years of hard work transforming the hospitals, our biggest priority is preserving CarePoint’s future so that the hospitals remain a vital resource for families in Hudson County for many years to come.”
The facilities in the system are considered safety net hospitals, or hospitals with the highest number of inpatient stays that were paid by Medicaid or were uninsured. At Christ Hospital and Hoboken University Medical Center, these patients make up approximately 60 percent of the current patient mix, according to CarePoint.
“Safety net hospitals have a precarious existence, placing incredible stress on organizations that are dedicated to serving our most vulnerable citizens,” said Lawler. “Having spent well over 40 years working to sustain safety net hospitals in New York and New Jersey, I’ve seen firsthand how critical this care is for our underserved populations and how challenging it is for colleagues to maintain, often against all odds. It has always been our intention to move from stabilizing the hospitals, to securing their future, and today is the culmination of that work.”
CarePoint’s three hospitals will continue to operate in their current form and will be controlled by the new nonprofit organization, a spokesperson told the Bayonne Community News when asked if the hospitals were still up for sale.
“The nonprofit’s top priority is to work collaboratively with the Hudson County community to maintain critical health care for those who need it most,” according to the spokesperson. “Any decision made by the nonprofit board will be to sustain these three hospitals moving forward.”
Tumultuous history
The CarePoint Health system, which now employs over 3,000, began in 2013. Garipalli had purchased the hospitals out of bankruptcy or near-bankruptcy in the preceding years, starting with Bayonne Medical Center in 2008. CarePoint turned the hospitals around and ran them successfully for a number of years.
In March of 2019, a state investigation uncovered that Garipalli, Lawler and another cofounder were paid over $157 million by the hospitals through shell management companies. The report did not allege that anything illegal or improper had occurred, but the hundreds of millions in consulting payouts “raised questions about the nature of their operations,” and the NJ State Commission on Investigation (SCI) urged legislators to expand systems that monitor financial decisions made by the owners of hospitals.
In October of that year, it was announced that CarePoint had signed a letter of intent to sell the hospitals to RWJBarnabas Health, with the exception of Bayonne Medical Center. As Bayonne Medical Center’s fate remained unknown, and rumors swirled about the hospital shutting down, city and state officials established a hospital authority and introduced hospital oversight legislation.
In November of 2019, Avery Eisenreich, owner of nursing home chain Alaris Health, purchased the property of Bayonne Medical Center. However, he did not intend to operate the facility, prompting CarePoint to search for a replacement.
CarePoint signed an agreement in March of 2020 with BMC Hospital LLC to operate Bayonne Medical Center. At the same time, the Hudson County Board of Commissioners, then Freeholders, voted to begin eminent domain proceedings for the Bayonne Medical Center property.
Following the initiation of eminent domain proceedings, Hudson Regional Hospital in Secaucus purchased the property of Bayonne Medical Center from Eisenreich for $76 million. Since the sale has closed, Hudson Regional has made clear its intention to operate the hospital, not BMC Hospital LLC.
This sparked a war between the two entities over who will operate Bayonne Medical Center. Meanwhile, the agreement between CarePoint and RWJBarnabas fell through, and CarePoint inked a new deal with KPC Global Management LLC to operate Christ Hospital and Hoboken University Medical Center.
It seems that none of those entities will operate any of the hospitals for now, barring a decision from the new nonprofit’s board.
End of eminent domain?
This may temporarily end the war over the operations of Bayonne Medical Center, which had recently been brought before the Bayonne City Council in the form of two ordinances which would condemn the hospital through eminent domain. A vote on the ordinances, which are doomed to fail, has been postponed by the council since a public hearing was held in May, pending approval from the New Jersey Local Finance Board.
The Local Finance Board was set to hear the matter in May. However, due to new information submitted by both Hudson Regional Hospital and BMC Hospital LLC before the meeting, the board opted to postpone the matter a month. While it was on the agenda at the June and July meetings, the board did not act, and the application did not appear on the Local Finance Board’s August or September meeting agendas.
However, CarePoint’s new announcement may spell the end for the eminent domain process.
Bayonne Mayor James Davis praised the announcement, without mentioning eminent domain: “From day one, I have remained steadfast in my belief that the City of Bayonne must always have a hospital that is responsive to the needs of our residents. CarePoint’s conversion into a nonprofit will allow the residents of Bayonne to continue having the broadest range of quality healthcare services made available to them. I look forward to working with CarePoint to ensure that the needs of our community continue to be met.”
City Council President Sharon Ashe-Nadrowski, who opposes eminent domain against the Bayonne Medical Center property, will likely try to hold a vote on the ordinances at the next council meeting: “I only ever had two goals: To ensure quality healthcare for the residents of Bayonne; For the City not to incur any debit for a private enterprise. It has always been my position that the City should have never been involved as it was a dispute between two private corporations. With this announcement I would hope the Mayor and the rest of the council will support me next time I call to vote down the hospital bond ordinance. In my position as Council President, I will continue to watch to make sure that CarePoint delivers on their promises to the Bayonne residents.”
Other reactions
Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione, a spokeswoman for Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, said in a statement: “Christ Hospital and CarePoint have been critical partners with the city and the community before and during the pandemic, ensuring residents throughout the area have access to the top-quality healthcare they deserve, and so if transitioning to a nonprofit organization is the best way to further the life-saving services they offer, then we will, of course, support that. This only strengthens the importance of Christ Hospital for the entire community.”
Hudson Regional Hospital was not convinced.
“We are relieved that CarePoint has acknowledged that there is no longer any point to continuing the charade that eminent domain can be used to condemn our property at Bayonne Medical Center so it can be turned over to an inexperienced operator and CarePoint can walk out with tens of millions,” said spokesman Ron Simoncini. “However, we are appalled that it has drawn up a new chapter in which it poses as rescuing its acute care facilities by converting to not-for-profit status. If they need rescuing, it is from CarePoint, not by CarePoint. This announcement follows the form of previous CarePoint proclamations, none of which came to pass.”
Hudson Regional Hospital asserted CarePoint does not have the right to continue to operate the hospitals after it converts to a nonprofit.
“Given the history of CarePoint, it is impossible to believe that this is a selfless act conceived to benefit healthcare in Hudson County,” Simoncini continued. “Each of CarePoint’s recent steps has led to the deterioration of its healthcare facilities, exorbitant out of network costs for services, reduction in its practice areas and deferral of critical services to consultants and third parties. Our prediction is that CarePoint’s plan is again to burden the County with the costs and uncertainties of a healthcare market it is ill-prepared to enter, just so CarePoint can pilfer as much cash as possible.”
I wrote yesterday about how particularly White Feminism is in fact as judgmental, racist and discriminatory as any white supremacist group as they use their moral superiority to patronize and demoralize anyone who refuses to subscribe and follow the script. The lack of diverse voices ( a wide swath largely of class and color) and of course voices that offer disagreement (see the current issues about Times Up) often enable, if not further, the belief that the sole course of action is right. And largely is that it is all about gender and in turn believing that one gender is morally superior over another. See the White Supremacist similarity? And with that women of color, women who are not American born are often equally subjugated and dismissed with regards to their complaints, blaming said failures on again intrinsic behaviors and not extrinsic factors that block access. What is the untold secret is that many of these women who have attained a place or position of authority that they did not bypass traditional pathways, networks, or accomplish said success without (usually) a white male mentor who either fucked them, or had some type of father dynamic in place in which to foster and develop the relationship that enabled the same women to have both access and availability to powerful people and positions. There are some women who have made success without male influence but they also had a large cohort of other women who embraced and encouraged them, as one can look to the early days of Feminism that arose in the 60s, much like Civil Rights it is a movement over a cause that enables if not encourages it, but today there are few if any women who have not found their place in society secured by either marriage or from birth.
And this brings me to the story of Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos fame and infamy. The story of her fraud and duplicity in rising the company to amazing heights gives illustration to the ability to con. This woman conned many successful and well known men and Betsey DeVos (not a challenge there intellectually as we have come to know) into investing into her company based on an idea. This is the foundation of the Valley, the BIG IDEA, which in many cases are often just BIG LIES passed off as ideas and plans, see Adam Neumann of We Work as another example of this kind of P.T. Barnum bullshit in the land of cash and gravy. But the road to riches is paved with lies and exaggerations, and of course, men chest thumping and dick swinging. And then came Elizabeth with her contrived deep voice, blonde hair and black turtlenecks it was still easy being a child who extrinsically demonstrated the idea of white privilege and still now breaking the glass ceiling that someone less glamorous like say, Hillary Clinton, failed to do. But she managed to do it and for awhile rode that ride like a child at a carnival. And then it was a man, a man from the Wall Street Journal who began to ask questions thanks to another young man and a young woman who too had questions and they began to blow some whistles. But this kind of shit can only be covered up so long before the stink rises and we have seen this with many men of late, Scott Rudin, Andrew Cuomo come to mind, but this is still toxic regardless of who shat it. But what is fascinating is how they never admitted guilt or truly apologized they just retreated and we await to see their inevitable return or not, hey whatever.
But, today as she is prepping for her trial, Elizabeth’s success ladder has collapsed and now in an attempt at redemption is doing what anyone does best in these times, BLAME SOMEONE ELSE. Ah yes that is always a good idea and saying one is a victim of domestic violence is a good defense when any other possible one has been exhausted. Not only is it tragic, this is a horrific notion that further pushes women back into the professional closet. We are either fucking our way to the top or being raped while at the bottom, it is an either/or neither/nor choice that only once again seems to validate the idea that women are stupid manipulative bitches. One of these days Alice!
Elizabeth Holmes expected to argue she suffered abuse from ex-boyfriend during Theranos trial
Unsealed documents in the high-profile case that begins with jury selection Aug. 31 include accusations against Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani of “essentially dominating her and erasing her capacity to make decisions.”
By Jay Greene and Rachel Lerman The Washington Post August 29, 2021
Former Theranos chief executive Elizabeth Holmes is likely to argue in her criminal trial that abuse by her ex-boyfriend, who was the company’s president, rendered her incapable of making her own decisions, according to documents unsealed in the case early Saturday morning.
Holmes, who started Theranos when she was a 19-year-old student at Stanford University, is charged with 10 counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for allegedly defrauding investors and patients in connection to her failed blood-testing firm. Jury selection is scheduled to begin on Aug. 31, with the trial starting Sept. 8.
The unusual defense strategy in one the highest-profile corporate trials in years offers clearer details on how Holmes plans to frame the implosion of a company that was once one of the industry’s start-up darlings. Holmes graced magazine covers and regularly appeared on business television programs while Theranos took in hundreds of millions of dollars from household-name investors such as Rupert Murdoch and Betsy DeVos. But her fall, after a 2015 Wall Street Journal investigation showed the company’s technology was unreliable, led to the many claims of fraud.
Several of the newly unsealed documents relate to the successful efforts by Holmes’s ex-boyfriend, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, to separate his trial from hers. Holmes’s plans to argue intimate partner violence as a defense would prevent him from receiving a fair trial if the cases were joined, Balwani’s lawyers argued in the documents.
One unsealed Balwani filing from February notes the strategy: “Ms. Holmes plans to introduce evidence that Mr. Balwani verbally disparaged her and withdrew ‘affection if she displeased him’; controlled what she ate, how she dressed, how much money she could spend, who she could interact with — essentially dominating her and erasing her capacity to make decisions.”
Holmes’s lawyers introduced the possible defense in December, noting that it might call an expert witness to testify about “whether and how Ms. Holmes’ relationship with Mr. Balwani was consistent with intimate partner abuse,” and also attest to “Ms. Holmes’ particular vulnerability to an abusive relationship.” In a separate filing, Holmes’s lawyers note that it is “highly likely” Holmes will introduce evidence of “intimate partner abuse.”
Holmes’s filings provide some detail into her allegations of abuse. She alleges that Balwani monitored her calls, texts and email messages, that he threw “hard, sharp objects” at her, and that he restricted her sleep and monitored her movements, among other charges.ADVERTISING
In his legal response, Balwani’s lawyers disputed Holmes’s abuse claims, arguing they are “deeply offensive to Mr. Balwani, devastating personally to him, and highly and unfairly prejudicial to his defense of this case.”
The filings also answer a question about which has been widely speculated, whether Holmes will testify in her own defense, something that often is a perilous legal strategy because it opens a defendant up to cross-examination by prosecutors. The apparent answer is yes.
“Ms. Holmes is likely to testify herself to the reasons why she believed, relied on, and deferred to Mr. Balwani,” according to one of her legal filings in February.
Court documents had previously indicated that Holmes was evaluated by a psychologist who specializes in violence against women and interpersonal violence, leading to speculation that her attorneys could mount a so-called “mental defect” defense. The government also asked, and was granted, the chance to have Holmes evaluated by medical professionals they appointed.https://85c90c650def3b002604d56bc0e8515c.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html
The documents were unsealed after a lawyer for Dow Jones, the parent company of the Wall Street Journal, asked the court to make them public. Balwani’s lawyers opposed the unsealing, and Holmes’s lawyers asked the judge to wait longer before making them public.
Balwani was initially charged with Holmes, but the two later had their cases separated. His trial is scheduled to begin in January. The unsealed documents also show that Balwani requested to be tried first. And they show that the government opposed severing the trial.
Theranos attempted to develop miniature lab technology, which sometimes was called the “Edison,” that could quickly and inexpensively run hundreds of tests from just a couple of drops of blood collected after pricking a finger. But investigations led by reporting from the Journal revealed severe dysfunction within the young company and technology that was erratic and unreliable.
Theranos was actually using traditional lab equipment, made by outside companies, to run most tests, the Journal’s reporting showed. And scientists within the company were uneasy about how often the company’s machine seemed to give unreliable results.
Holmes launched Theranos in 2003 and grew it to about 800 employees and a valuation of $9 billion before it ultimately collapsed in 2018. In a chaotic period after the Journal’s bombshell reports were published, partners including Safeway and Walgreens dissolved deals with the company.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees clinical labs, found deficiencies at the company’s lab. Theranos eventually settled with the agency and agreed not to operate any clinical labs for two years. Holmes also settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission over fraud allegations, and was barred from serving as a director or officer of a public company for a decade.
Judge Edward J. Davila, of the federal court in the Northern District of California, said during a hearing Thursday that he thought it wise to unseal the documents before potential jurors are brought in to be questioned next week. That way, lawyers could ask them if they had seen any recent media coverage of the case, he said.
Holmes’s lawyers had asked that the unsealing be delayed until after jurors had been chosen and directed not to read media items.
After reading this my head imploded. I found this buried at Pro Publica and this is one of the many reasons why it is expensive to live in New Jersey and why the schools are highly rated given that if I was a Teacher full time here, why quit?
Again during this time of deep seated universal health care that includes everything from mental health to alternative options, such as Acupuncture and the like, I am not sure what to make of this and why no one gives a shit as we have shut down schools and in the middle of a pandemic.
What Happens When a Health Plan Has No Limits? An Acupuncturist Earns $677 a Session.
New Jersey’s health plan for school employees pays out-of-network providers virtually whatever they want. Dozens of acupuncturists and physical therapists earned more than $200,000 in 2018 from school staff alone. One brought in $1 million.
by Marshall Allen Dec. 19, 2019, 5 a.m. EST
Series: Health Insurance Hustle The Confounding Way We Pay for Care
Judging by the marketing, it would seem that the teachers of New Jersey have collectively thrown out their backs, pulled a muscle or pinched a nerve while engaged in rigorous educating.
Last fall, when teachers at about a dozen New Jersey schools returned from break, employees from Thompson Healthcare & Sports Medicine welcomed them with bagels and orange juice. The clinic’s owner also created an empathetic YouTube video titled “We Understand Painful Conditions Suffered By Teachers.”
NJ Spine and Wellness offered catered lunches, chairside massages and prizes at “Teacher Wellness Days.” “Want us to come to your school?” the chiropractic business asks educators in an online ad.
Other acupuncturists, chiropractors and physical therapists have donated cash, supplies and even wheelchairs to local schools and districts. On social media, some dangle the promise of a stress-relieving rubdown. “Contact our office about medical massage included as part of our chiropractic services,” says one post.
But this competitive wooing is not fueled by a dawning recognition of the back pain associated with teaching algebra. Unbeknownst to most of the 158,000 active and retired New Jersey school employees covered by the state’s School Employees’ Health Benefits Program — about a third of the state’s districts — their benefit plan has a lucrative carveout for out-of-network providers.
And it’s a big one: The teachers’ plan will cover virtually anything they charge.
This bonanza has not gone unnoticed by the providers of services like physical therapy that generally require repeat visits. Last year, the teachers’ plan paid some acupuncturists and physical therapists an average of more than $600 per visit, according to payment data obtained by ProPublica — dwarfing the out-of-network fees of even psychiatrists and gynecologists. More than 70 acupuncturists and physical therapists earned more than $200,000 in 2018 from their teacher clients alone, the data shows. The services of one acupuncturist brought in more than $1 million.
The state paid Thompson Healthcare & Sports Medicine, with 10 clinics along the Jersey Shore, about $11.2 million in 2018 for providing chiropractic services, acupuncture and physical therapy to teachers.
In interviews, the owners of several of these businesses acknowledged pursuing teachers because they know their plan will pay their fees. And some conceded that they receive significantly less reimbursement when providing the same services to other public employees. But, they said, that’s just smart business.
“We strategically target schools and municipalities where there are self-funded plans, where we as a company can continue to grow,” said Harris Hafeez, a co-owner of Advanced Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, which is based in Red Bank and has seven offices in central New Jersey.
At Advanced, each acupuncture patient enjoys an hourlong, one-on-one session in a “state of the art” soundproof treatment room with a high-end sound system, said co-owner Daniel Reizis, who is a physical therapist. The practice even had an acupuncturist flown in from Japan, he said. “That’s why we have five stars across the board.”
But even Reizis hesitated when questioned about the fees for one of his acupuncturists, whose single sessions in 2018 averaged almost $700. Those fees, he agreed, could be considered “excessive.” But, he said, “at the same time, there’s nothing I do that’s wrong.”
Over the past two years, ProPublica has been detailing the hidden forces — side deals, unchecked fraud, lazy regulators and greedy providers and insurers — that make Americans’ health benefits so expensive. One constant has almost always proven true: Just because a health plan covers something doesn’t mean that the employees in the plan won’t eventually pay the cost.
In recent months, teachers across New Jersey have been protesting, even striking, for higher wages and more affordable benefits. Meanwhile, a state analysis shows, the glut of out-of-network payments has consumed hundreds of millions of dollars in the past four years. That’s money that experts say could have helped fund the teachers’ demands. And New Jersey residents are also pitching in to pay the bills: Homeowners in the towns where the schools are located are chipping in through higher property taxes.
The state panel overseeing the benefit plan, made up of six people, half of whom are union members, has done nothing to stop the runaway costs, although meeting transcripts show they’ve been discussed since at least 2014. The panel members declined to comment on their oversight of the plan.
State treasury officials, who have watched the money pouring out to practices like Advanced, said in interviews that they’ve repeatedly pushed the panel to cap the out-of-network fees.
The payments made by benefits plans typically remain private. But ProPublica filed public records requests with the New Jersey Department of the Treasury for the amount paid to the highest earning out-of-network providers, as well as the internal memos and meeting transcripts describing the problem. The data and documents, along with interviews with state officials, reveal what happens when savvy practitioners discover the lucrative loopholes in a loosely designed employee health plan.
Across the country, health care providers are targeting similar plans with what insiders call “rich benefits,” said Dr. Eric Bricker, a general internist who founded a company to aid people in navigating their health benefits.
“Sharks are gonna eat, that’s just what they do,” Bricker said. The ongoing over-the-top payments in New Jersey, he said, “point to poor management or negligence on the part of the people administering the plan.”
The New Jersey school employees covered by the plan, and their districts, have been paying the price. Their premiums have spiked by 8% and 13% in recent years, in part due to the out-of-network spending, according to data from the state. They now cost more than $36,000 a year for the most popular family plan, nearly twice the typical cost in other parts of the country.
Health insurance reformers said if the teachers fully understood the exploitation of their benefit plan, they’d demand change.
In New Jersey, such a change happened in 2015 with separate state-funded benefits for firefighters, police officers and local and state government workers, called the State Health Benefits Program.
At the time, that program also had no caps on billing for out-of-network practitioners. But that year its plan design committee, alarmed by runaway costs, capped the payments to bring them in line with what in-network providers make for the same services.
Today, according to state data, the differences between that plan and the teacher’s plan are stark.
An out-of-network physical therapist treating a teacher would have been paid an average of $351 per visit by the state in 2018. The state would have paid the same therapist treating a police officer an average of $119, nearly a third as much, according to state data.
Out-of-network acupuncturists were paid an average of $377 per visit from the teachers’ plan while the state workers’ plan paid $144. For chiropractor visits, it was $121 compared with $25.
The state data does not include the 20% to 30% coinsurance amount that the patients are supposed to pay for each out-of-network visit. State officials suspect some providers are waiving this coinsurance to draw in patients and said they are investigating.
Read More In Montana, a Tough Negotiator Proved Employers Don’t Have to Pay So Much for Health Care
With its employee health plan in financial crisis, Montana hired a former insurance insider who pushed back against industry players with vested interests in keeping costs high.
The teachers’ plan pays out-of-network practitioners at the 90th percentile of what other clinicians in their area bill for the same services — so if everyone is charging a lot, everyone gets paid more. The program also allows clinicians to unbundle services, allowing providers to bill for many treatments per visit.
The generous out-of-network benefits apply to all medical providers. But state officials, internal memos and meeting transcripts show that the teachers are being targeted primarily by acupuncturists, chiropractors and physical therapists, who can draw them in for multiple appointments.
ProPublica contacted scores of New Jersey teachers and school employees to find out if they’d seen such providers, and if so, if they understood the costs. Few responded, and those who did, declined to speak on the record.
State officials say capping the payments to such providers on the state workers’ plan has drastically reduced the costs. And they say they haven’t received any complaints from employees about not getting the care they need.
In August, consultants for the state estimated that if the teachers’ plan similarly capped payments to out-of-network providers of chiropractic services, acupuncture and physical therapy, the plan could save about $130 million a year. That could reduce medical premiums by about 8%, according to other estimates. The consultants have been making similar reports for years. Officials in the state’s division of pension and benefits say that they are frustrated by the overspending in the teachers’ plan, but that they don’t have the authority to make the changes to the plan themselves.
But tightening up the state workers’ plan has had a perhaps predictable effect: It focused the marketing of some New Jersey practitioners on the remaining lucrative customers: teachers.
The Thompson Healthcare & Sports Medicine clinic in Forked River looks like an upscale spa, with flat-screen televisions, wide-plank wood floors, soft lighting and exposed brick and ductwork. The site serves as the headquarters for chiropractor Robert Thompson’s chain of clinics.
Thompson said he wants to achieve the “wow” factor with his patients, so they keep coming back and refer others. The facility’s acupuncture suites are tranquil and scented with essential oils. And it’s loaded with devices: compression sleeves that slide over the limbs, machines for shock wave therapy and spinal decompression, a handheld device that vibrates to break up adhesions in joint capsules and more. Thompson called some of the tools his “secret weapons.”
Thompson said teachers are some of his best patients and make up about a third of his practice. His wife is a former teacher, and he readily concedes that his clinic markets to them. But he doesn’t consider the fees he charges excessive. The wow factor and the cutting-edge devices cost money, he said, driving up the per-visit fee. But patients heal faster and don’t have to come in as often, he said. And while the $11.2 million the teachers’ plan paid to Thompson Healthcare & Sports Medicine in 2018 makes it the plan’s biggest earner, Thompson said his business collected less because checks for out-of-network treatment often go to patients, who may keep the fees. In addition, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, which administers the plan, sometimes reverses payments, he said, because of billing disputes or other issues.
A Clinic Woos Teachers
An April 2017 Instagram post shows a provider from Thompson Healthcare & Sports Medicine giving chair massages during a visit to an elementary school. Via Instagram
The state’s data shows marked differences between what Thompson’s clinics made from the teachers’ plan in 2018 and from the state workers’ plan. Thompson was reimbursed an average of $465 per acupuncture appointment from the teachers’ plan compared with $44 from the state workers’. For physical therapy, it was about $321 versus $33; for chiropractic, an average of $161 and $25.
Thompson said he doesn’t market to other state employees because their reimbursement is too low. He treats those who come in, but he said he suffers a loss when he does.
A more equitable solution for all state employees, including teachers, he said, would be for the state and clinicians to agree on a flat fee per service that would reduce the administrative hassle and be fair to everyone.
Some providers contacted by ProPublica, including NJ Spine and Wellness, declined to answer questions about their practices or their payments from the state.
Acupuncturist Jason Sargis, president of the New Jersey Association of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine, said he knows some providers “take advantage of the system.” He said his out-of-network price is the same as his cash price, which remains $125 per 15 minutes of acupuncture, with a maximum of $250 per visit.
According to the state data, almost 50 acupuncturists were paid at least $400 on average per session from the teachers’ plan in 2018. To put such fees in context, many medical doctors in New Jersey charge much less, according to Fair Health, the nonprofit the state uses to set its out-of-network payments. A psychiatrist performing a diagnostic evaluation typically charges about $250 out-of-network. A gynecologist charges about $285 out-of-network for an annual exam.
The payments attributed to one acupuncturist at Advanced Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation averaged $677 per visit in 2018, the state data shows. In response to questions about those fees, co-owner Reizis said, “We are all familiar that out-of-network pays very well.” Hafeez, his partner, said that the provider’s patients suffered from complex medical conditions.
Advanced is getting paid top dollar from both the teachers’ plan and the one for state workers — despite that plan’s reforms. For acupuncture, for instance, the teachers’ plan paid an average of $609 per visit in 2018, the data shows, while the state workers’ plan paid an average of $569 per visit — far more than should be allowed under the limits that went into effect in 2016.
Hafeez and Reizis said the limits may not apply to them because the treatments may also have involved medical doctors. But after questions from ProPublica, Christin Deacon, who leads the health benefits operation for the state, said the caps should apply and that she sent their claims to Horizon’s fraud unit to investigate.
Some of the payments ProPublica found in the state data were so extreme they raised bigger questions about oversight by the state and Horizon. Horizon declined to answer questions for this story.
In 2018, the teachers’ plan paid more than $1 million for 3,308 patient visits to a single acupuncturist at Palluzzi Health Center in Old Bridge, the data shows. That would require the acupuncturist to have treated about 13 school employees every day for the entire year, given a five-day workweek. Through his attorney, Dr. Edward Palluzzi, the chiropractor who founded the clinic, declined to be interviewed. His attorney said the practice is high volume and stands behind the care it provides and how it interacts with payers, including the teachers’ plan.
Some providers had been disciplined in the past for insurance fraud.
Read More What Can Be Done Right Now to Stop a Basic Source of Health Care Fraud
Fraud is one reason we all pay so much for health care. But there are simple fixes that would make it more difficult for scammers to operate.
In 2017, the teachers’ plan paid Dr. Charles Boas, a chiropractor in Bayonne, $311,633 for 7,288 patient visits, according to the data. Boas would have had to treat an average of 29 school employees a day for the entire year, assuming a five-day workweek. The next year he was paid $141,881 for 3,446 visits. Boas did not respond to ProPublica’s requests for comment. In 2014, he pleaded guilty to insurance fraud and had his license suspended for a year, according to an order by the New Jersey State Board of Chiropractic Examiners.
ProPublica asked state officials about the implausible number of visits that led to the Boas payments. They said Horizon, the plan administrator, stopped payments to the chiropractor in June 2018. The case is still being investigated by the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, and so far, there’s been no public findings or recovery of funds, officials said.
Another chiropractor, Dr. Frank Bello of North Bergen, was paid $208,265 for 2,042 chiropractic patient visits in 2018 under the teachers’ plan. That same year, the data shows he was also paid $266,071 for the same number of physical therapy visits. State officials declined to discuss his case but said chiropractors may bill for both chiropractic and physical therapy treatment during the same visit.
Bello pleaded guilty to insurance fraud in 2006 and had his license suspended for six months by the New Jersey chiropractic board. He did not respond to requests for comment.
State officials said they had forwarded the names of several practitioners flagged by ProPublica to Horizon for further scrutiny. The officials said that Horizon actively monitors out-of-network payments and that the state is in the process of hiring an additional vendor to screen claims for accuracy, appropriateness and potential fraud. ProPublica has previously reported about the lax fraud oversight by the big insurance carriers who administer self-funded plans.
Deacon, the state official, said it wouldn’t be hard to stop to over-the-top payments. With the state workers’ plan, “they changed the payment structure so that we couldn’t be exploited in this way,” Deacon said. “The solution is at our fingertips.”
Since at least 2014, the six-member committee charged with overseeing the teachers’ plan has publicly lamented the millions rolling out the door — and has done nothing to stop it.
During a meeting in August 2018, committee members wondered if acupuncturists and physical therapists were raising rates on teachers to make up for the lower payments from the state workers’ plan.
“I think the teachers become the prey, because these guys aren’t going to make less money,” said member David Ridolfino, director of the state’s office of management and budget, according to a meeting transcript.
“Right,” said a consultant who had been hired to study the issue, “and I like your term. They are becoming the prey.”
“Until we make changes here, this is just going to keep getting worse and worse,” Ridolfino said.
At a meeting in April, Kevin Kelleher, the committee chairman, noted the cost of the out-of-network visits had increased by 20% to 30%. Kelleher is the director of the research and economic services division of the New Jersey Education Association, a teachers union.
“Right now, we are paying somewhere between 10 and 12 times what an out of network provider is paid” in the state workers’ plan, he said, according to a meeting transcript. “Clearly, we see there is a problem, and we need to do something about it.”
Yet to date, no action has been taken because the committee requires a majority vote to make changes. Three members represent teachers unions. And three work for the Treasury Department, which runs the health plan. Two of those members also serve on the plan design committee for the state workers’ plan, which voted unanimously to cap the out-of-network payments.
Kelleher refused to discuss the committee’s lack of action with ProPublica.
But Dini Ajmani, New Jersey’s assistant treasurer, said if only one of the union members on the panel agrees to vote for caps, the huge payments could be stopped. ProPublica asked state officials how much the teacher’s plan could have saved — just on out-of-network payouts to chiropractors, physical therapists and acupuncturists — if it had followed the state workers’ plan’s changes in 2016.
“You’re looking at half a billion dollars,” Deacon said.
We have an image of the bad Guy wearing a black hat with a menacing mien. Well that is for story telling of fantasy but in reality we all know that most highway robbers wear Bespoke Suits and smile while cashing the check; However, we neglect the biggest thieves wear white coats.
I have zero respect for the Medical Industrial Complex as my current go around with Vanderbilt confirms that its bad regardless and you have to work around it, be aggressive and demanding and in turn be hated for it. I am good with that.
When I was nearly killed by my date in 2012 and left for dead I was taken to the public trauma facility, Harborview Medical Hospital in Seattle where they attempted to finish off what my date had not. Clearly there was a reason I stayed alive and I will never forget nor discontinue telling the story as a word of warning to those who need to know that it is all not wine and roses when you enter a system as shattered as our medical one.
We live in myopia in this world. We seem to think if we came out unscathed, unharmed and nothing happened to anyone we love or know anything to the contrary is of course wrong, a lie or somehow the fault of that individual who is relaying the story. We see this of course in the other end of the spectrum with victim mentality that once harmed that individual, that corporation, that situation must be punished and in turn not forgotten. As Confucius said: To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it. And we never stop remembering. And at times there is nothing wrong with it as we can use this as a teaching tool, to correct it for the common good and in turn change how we see ourselves or others with the idea of resolution and growth. We should never be defined by our worst – that which we have done or have had done.
But the medical industrial complex thrives on negativity as does its brethren in arms – the legal complex. They are complexes for a reason as they prefer to keep the operational aspect a secret, even from themselves as a way to maintain control, assert expertise and insure their place in society. White men are good with that. From the Bible to the law books to the medical books they do a great job of suppressing truths and oppressing others.
After I realized what happened to me at the hands of Harborview the night of February 12th they became the target of my ire as they prevented me from ever finding truth or seeking resolution for what happened to me that night in the hands of my date. So I picked the bigger of two evils to target and while I may have “failed” in my attempt to sue them I won as I did not pay one single dollar in medical debt despite their efforts to turn me over to collections and I walked out and on with life as now seven years of passed and they can no longer track me like an animal in which to pay it. I was very keen on that and I kept moving on to ensure that my trail was a complicated one in which to try to do so. Not everyone has that skill set nor ability so in turn you are their victim again as more and more medical hospitals are doing the reverse and suing their patients for unpaid debt. Ah the legal system still wins regardless. Its why I had zero problem doing it per se and again had the skills set, willingness and ability to do so. It was worth it all. And yes I continue to remember it; Every.waking.day.
So this weekend I read this editorial about legal fraud by the medical industrial complex. Again nothing shocked me and to those who have had similar experiences this is not new but to those unwilling, unable or simply in denial about how bad it is and refuse to hear the truth I have four words: GROW THE FUCK UP. I should not have to wish that evil on you or yours to realize how serious it is. But as the saying goes: Until it happens to you… there by the Grace of God. Well guess what God is not real so get real.
Where the Frauds Are All Legal
Welcome to the weird world of medical billing.
By Elisabeth Rosenthal The New York Times Dec. 7, 2019
Much of what we accept as legal in medical billing would be regarded as fraud in any other sector.
I have been circling around this conclusion for this past five years, as I’ve listened to patients’ stories while covering health care as a journalist and author. Now, after a summer of firsthand experience — my husband was in a bike crash in July — it’s time to call out this fact head-on. Many of the Democratic candidates are talking about practical fixes for our high-priced health care system, and some legislated or regulated solutions to the maddening world of medical billing would be welcome.
My husband, Andrej, flew over his bicycle’s handlebars when he hit a pothole at high speed on a Sunday ride in Washington. He was unconscious and lying on the pavement when I caught up with him minutes later. The result: six broken ribs, a collapsed lung, a broken finger, a broken collarbone and a broken shoulder blade.
The treatment he got via paramedics and in the emergency room and intensive care unit were great. The troubles began, as I knew they would, when the bills started arriving.
I will not even complain here about some of the crazy high charges: $182 for a basic blood test, $9,289 for two days in a room in intensive care, $20 for a pill that costs pennies at a pharmacy. We have great insurance, which negotiates these rates down. And at least Andrej got and benefited from those services.
What I’m talking about here were the bills for things that simply didn’t happen, or only kind-of, sort-of happened, or were mislabeled as things they were not, or were so nebulously defined that I couldn’t figure out what we might be paying for.
To be clear, many of the charges that I would call fraudulent — maybe all of them — are technically legal (thanks sometimes to lobbying by providers), but that doesn’t make them right. And no one would accept them if they appeared on bills delivered by a contractor, or a lawyer or an auto mechanic. There were so many of these charges that I came up with categories to keep track of them:
1. Medical Swag
In the trauma bay, someone slapped a hard brace around Andrej’s neck until scans confirmed that he had not suffered a grievous spinal injury. It was removed within an hour.
The medical equipment company that provided that piece of plastic billed $319. Our insurer paid $215 (90 percent of its discounted rate of $239). We were billed $24, our “patient responsibility.”
Companies are permitted by insurers to bill for “durable medical equipment,” stuff you receive for home use when you’re in the hospital or doctors’ office. That yields some familiar marked-up charges, like the sling you can buy at Walgreens for $15 but for which you or your insurer get a bill for $120 after it is given to you at urgent care. The policy has also led to widespread abuse, with patients sent home with equipment they don’t need: My mom’s apartment, for example, holds an unused wheelchair, a walker and a commode paid for by Medicare, by which I mean our tax dollars. It’s as if you were given a swag bag at a conference and then sent a bill for hundreds or thousands of dollars.
At least with swag, you get to keep it. My husband’s hardly worn neck brace didn’t even come home with us as a souvenir.
2. The Cover Charge
The biggest single item on Andrej’s E.R. bill was a $7,143.99 trauma activation fee. What was that for, since every component of his care had been billed and billed handsomely?
Among the line items: $3,400 for a high-level E.R. visit. $1,030 for the trauma surgeon. Between $1,400 and $3,300 for five purported CT scans. And I say “purported” because one trip into a scanner examined the head, upper spine and maxillofacial bones, but was billed as three separate things. There was also an administration fee of more than $350 each for four injections.
Trauma activation fees have been allowed since 2002, after 9/11, when the Trauma Center Association of America, an industry group, convinced regulators that they needed to be compensated for maintaining a state of “readiness.”
Wait. Isn’t the purpose of an E.R. to be “ready”? Isn’t that why the doctors’ services and scans are billed at higher rates when they are performed in an emergency department?
Despite scrutiny from researchers about whether trauma fees are deserved, trauma activation fees have only grown in size, 15 percent annually in recent years, and can reach into the tens of thousands of dollars. (On average, Medicare pays a fee of about $1,000.) Some have likened trauma activation fees to a cover charge for being wheeled into an E.R. with major trauma. But does a cover charge typically cost more than the meal?
3. Impostor Billing
We received bills from doctors my husband never met. Some of these bills were understandable, like for the radiologist who read the scans. But others were for bedside treatment from people who never came anywhere near the bed to deliver the care.
Andrej had a small finger fracture with a cut that needed some stitches, which a resident, a surgeon-in-training, sutured. But the $1,512 billed came in the name of a senior surgeon, as if he had done the work.
Physicians and many other health professionals are allowed to bill for the work of “extenders” — stand-ins with less training who see patients and work under the supervising doctor. These might be residents, physician assistants or nurse anesthetists, for example. For billing purposes, this allows the senior providers to be in two, three, sometimes more than half a dozen places at once, often even when they are physically miles away.
The resident did a fine job on my husband. But if an assistant did the work, shouldn’t it be billed for less? At law firms, the hourly rates for paralegals and junior attorneys are lower than those for partners.
On a website called Clinical Advisor, a reimbursement expert himself seemed to wonder at the profession’s luck that such billing is tolerated: “I hear people ask, ‘How can I do that? The doctor never saw the patient, never had any interaction with the patient and yet I can still bill this service under the physician?’”
4. The Drive-By
The day before Andrej left the hospital, a physical therapist visited and asked a few questions. From that brief encounter, the therapist noted “ambulation deficits, balance deficits, endurance deficits, pain-limiting function, transfer deficits.” That translated into a bill of $646.15 for what was recorded as a P.T. evaluation “1st session only (billable).” He said he was there for 30 minutes, but he was not. He said he walked Andrej up 10 steps with a stabilizing belt for assistance. He did not. There was no significant health service given. Just an appearance and some boxes checked on a form. It’s a phenomenon called drive-by doctoring.
More shockingly, the drive-bys continued at our home, presaged by a call on Andrej’s cellphone a day after he was discharged. A physical therapist from a private company wanted to visit him for at-home therapy. In his discharge instructions, no one had mentioned this service, and his injury was clearly too fresh to benefit. She came. She didn’t know which body part had been injured and concluded he was in too much pain to participate.
The same company called twice more the following week to schedule visits. By the third time, I told Andrej not to open the front door. Nonetheless, our insurer was billed — and paid — for three visits.
It’s as if Alexa noticed that my dishwasher makes too much noise (it does) and took it upon herself to send over a repair guy. But if I turned him away at the front door, saying I’m O.K. with the racket (I am), would I still be billed for the visit?
5. The Enforced Upgrade
One Monday when Andrej was in pain and out of pills, the trauma doctor suggested we meet in the emergency room, because the trauma clinic was open only from 8 to 10:45 a.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
So we met the trauma doctors in the E.R., and they talked to Andrej, who remained in his street clothes. They gave him a prescription. Because the interaction — which could have happened in the lobby — happened in the E.R., it resulted in an E.R. visit charge of $1,330. But when the trauma clinic is open less than six hours a week, billing for an E.R. visit that doesn’t tap into any of the emergency room resources feels like a scam. Is an E.R. visit determined by the content of the services rendered, or merely by the location?
Andrej had a similar experience when his broken finger was treated with a plastic splint that folded over his fingertip. He complained because the upper layer pressed on the fracture. At a follow-up visit, someone took a pair of scissors and cut off the upper half of the splint and taped the lower half back in place. That translated into a $481 charge for “surgery,” in addition to the $375 charge for the office visit and a $103 facility fee. Doesn’t surgery, by definition, involve cutting into flesh or an animate object — not a piece of plastic?
Sure, it sounds fancy to upgrade a meeting to an E.R. visit, or to call the tweaking of a splint “surgery,” but if an airline overbooks my flight and puts me on another flight where the only seat available is in first class, it does not charge me for the more expensive ticket.
My insurer paid for most of these questionable charges, though at discounted rates. But even a discounted payment for something that never really happened or didn’t need to happen or that we didn’t agree to have happen is still, according to common sense, a fraud.
Why do insurers pay? Partly because insurers have no way to know whether you got a particular item or service. But also because it’s not worth their time to investigate the millions of medical interactions they write checks for each day. Despite the advertised concern about your well-being, as one benefits manager enlightened me: They’re “too big to care about you.” Electronic records, which auto-fill billing boxes, have probably made things worse. For example, the birth of a baby boy may automatically prompt a bill for a circumcision; having day surgery may prompt a check for sedation.
So what is the appropriate payment for swag I didn’t ask for, outrageous cover charges, stand-in doctors, drive-by visits and faux surgery? In some cases, zero; in others, far less than was paid. And yet, these are all everyday, normal experiences in today’s health care system, and they may be perfectly legal. If we want to tame the costs in our $3 trillion health system, we’ve got to rein in this behavior, which is fraud by any other name.
A phrase used as a way to advise someone not to waste anything, because they might need it in the future and that applies in the case of medical care. The exploitation and opportunity wasted regarding how deeply flawed our medical system is not wasted. Over the last few days CBS investigated a group buying up failing rural hospitals and in turn billing tests to outside labs which they also owned or had investment interest in and were receiving reimbursements at over 100% payback on claims. Gosh think you get refused or have a significant deductible before you can get covered, these guys had it down.
Then we have the Surgeons and others pushing on patients unnecessary tests and treatments under the idea that it was to prevent them from malpractice litigation. Meanwhile filing and actually doing a medical malpractice suit across the country has become literally impossible so that is another one we can call BS on. The reality is that in the pay for play deals that are often established and in turn hospital for profit management demands this as a means to generate funds. As who wants to be a failing hospital?
This comes from ProPublica one of the few sites of investigative journalism left in the U.S. and they dedicate a reporter to the medical industrial complex to cover how we are paying more for medical care and getting less results than any other industrialized nation.
This study comes from my former home state and I sued a Hospital and their Physicians on my own with regards to neglect of care and abuse. The University of Washington and their role at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle is a dump, largely funded by being the number one Trauma Center for several states and in turn the city requiring everyone to go to one place in which to be exploited and dumped if poor. They are a shithole with a history of shit.
It is also the home of Swedish Medical Centers that had a neurosurgeon that was so dangerous the staff demanded action and asked the largely ineffectual Medical Board of the State to rescind his license to practice. Seattle is great if you don’t get sick.
Unnecessary Medical Care Is More Common Than You Think
A study in Washington state found that in a single year more than 600,000 patients underwent treatment they didn’t need, at an estimated cost of $282 million. “Do no harm” should include the cost of care, too, the report author says.
by Marshall Allen Feb. 1,2018 ProPublica Wasted Medicine Squandered Health Care Dollars
This story was co-published with NPR’s Shots blog.
It’s one of the intractable financial boondoggles of the U.S. health care system: Lots and lots of patients get lots and lots of tests and procedures that they don’t need.
Women still get annual cervical cancer testing even when it’s recommended every three to five years for most women. Healthy patients are subjected to slates of unnecessary lab work before elective procedures. Doctors routinely order annual electrocardiograms and other heart tests for people who don’t need them.
That all adds up to a substantial expense that helps drive up the cost of care for all of us. Just how much, though, is seldom tallied. So, the Washington Health Alliance, a nonprofit dedicated to making care safer and more affordable, decided to find out.
The group scoured the insurance claims from 1.3 million patients in Washington state who received one of 47 tests or services that medical experts have flagged as overused or unnecessary. What they found should cause both doctors and their patients to rethink that next referral. In a single year:
More than 600,000 patients underwent a treatment they didn’t need, treatments that collectively cost an estimated $282 million.
More than a third of the money spent on the 47 tests or services went to unnecessary care.
Three of four annual cervical cancer screenings were performed on women who had adequate prior screenings — at a cost of $19 million.
About 85 percent of the lab tests to prep healthy patients for low-risk surgery were unnecessary — squandering about $86 million.
Needless annual heart tests on low-risk patients consumed $40 million.
Susie Dade, deputy director of the alliance and primary author of the report released Thursday, said almost half the care examined was wasteful. Much of it comprised the sort of low-cost, ubiquitous tests and treatments that don’t garner a second look. But “little things add up,” she said. “It’s easy for a single doctor and patient to say, ‘Why not do this test? What difference does it make?’”
An epidemic of unnecessary treatment is wasting billions of health care dollars a year. Patients and taxpayers are paying for it.
ProPublica has spent the past year examining how the American health care system squanders money — often in ways that are overlooked by providers and patients alike. The waste is widespread — estimated at $765 billion a year by the National Academy of Medicine, about a fourth of all the money spent each year on health care.
The waste contributes to health care costs that have outpaced inflation for decades, making patients and employers desperate for relief. This week Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan rattled the industry by pledging to create their own venture to lower their health care costs.
Wasted spending isn’t hard to find once researchers — and reporters — look for it. An analysis in Virginia identified $586 million in wasted spending in a single year. Minnesota looked at fewer treatments and found about $55 million in unnecessary spending.
Dr. H. Gilbert Welch, a professor at The Dartmouth Institute who writes books about overuse, said the findings come back to “Economics 101.” The medical system is still dominated by a payment system that pays providers for doing tests and procedures. “Incentives matter,” Welch said. “As long as people are paid more to do more they will tend to do too much.”
Dade said the medical community’s pledge to “Do no harm” should also cover saddling patients with medical bills they can’t pay. “Doing things that are unnecessary and then sending patients big bills is financial harm,” she said.
Officials from Washington’s hospital and medical associations didn’t quibble with the alliance’s findings, calling them an important step in reducing the money wasted by the medical system. But they said patients bear some responsibility for wasteful treatment. Patients often insist that a medical provider “do something,” like write a prescription or perform a test. That mindset has contributed to problems like the overuse of antibiotics — one of the items examined in the study.
And, the report may help change assumptions made by providers and patients that lead to unnecessary care, said Jennifer Graves, vice president for patient safety at the Washington State Hospital Association. Often a prescription or technology isn’t going to provide a simple cure, Graves said. “Watching and waiting” might be a better approach, she said.
To identify waste, the alliance study ran commercial insurance claims through a software tool called the Milliman MedInsight Health Waste Calculator. The services were provided during a one-year period starting in mid-2015. The claims were for tests and treatments identified as frequently overused by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation’s Choosing Wisely campaign. The tool categorized the services one of three ways: necessary, likely wasteful or wasteful.
The report’s “call to action” said overuse must become a focus of “honest discussions” about the value of health care. It also said the system needs to transition from paying for the volume of services to paying for the value of what’s provided.
My favorite gym show is The Property Brothers. If you have not seen said show then you are one of the few. I of course loathe the Real Estate twin as he is like many in his field with $$ versus stars in his eyes. It is why when I watch Million Dollar Listing I pretend to be Elvis and shoot the TV. However, the contractor twin is either the gayest man on the planet as he is both a designer, architect and builder rolled into one or they neglect to mention that somewhere there are those with said skill sets hiding off camera to design and renovate properties in under a month and look amazing. And all without any type of property inspection, the first rule of property buying is know your property and find any all things wrong with it as that can affect the deal, the outcome and the cost. But hey this is reality tv and who wants reality with their tv.
Property Brothers sort of remind me of a less angry but no less attractive version of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares or the many other shows that enter a business or home to fix, flip or save. Of course it rarely lasts in the real world as when you hand the keys over it is back to business as usual.
Last week I saw the return of the con “Rich Dad Poor Dad” and his wealth generating business holding fake seminars about house flipping. And as one car wreck happens on HGTV with regards to some house flipping couple another are in the wings waiting to demonstrate their amazing skill set to design, renovate, improve, build all in weeks for immense profit and pleasure.
And of course we have elected the premiere con in chief of said industry to the highest office in the land. Talk about art of the deal.
In Nashville I am seeing a horrific trend only in this case commercial real estate. A different animal but with the same concepts, the same inflated sales and turn arounds with largely out of state investors, likely some REIT’s with possible foreign investors and funded by mostly banks from out of state. The current largest is Bank of the Ozarks which is reminiscent of Golden West Financial that was largely responsible for many fraudulent mortgages. And in turn sold itself off to later Wells Fargo. No wonder they went into pushing fake accounts on customers as that was one expensive deal.
A once small lending institution with a taste for grander things was also behind the collapse of Washington Mutual, a staid stable regional bank that too took a walk on the wild side. And for the record WaMu collapsed but Bank of the West still rages on and it like Ozarks were bailed out during the ’08 crisis. Here is a list of all the players who received federal bailouts, there are your welfare queens.
I live in Nashville where on a daily basis we are told 100 people a day move here. It was 85 when I moved here a year ago but hey I am always at the cusp of a trend. Really they do? I drive by apartment building after apartment building with free rent and other “deals” to get you in the door. In my building we are turning over units at a high clip. I am staying only because the costs to move for the time I am planning to stay will not pay for itself as I actually know how to do math. That may be one problem that many have when it comes to figuring out the bottom line.
The difference here is the commercial properties are hitting the bubble. I feel it as along with the fake stats our ledger of record, the Tennessean, has a story every day on another property being sold or flipped for millions of dollars. The buyers are from out of state and many talk big with big plans that are bigly huge. I assume they graduated from Trump University.
My favorite is the old industrial plant, with a water tower no less, just up the street from my apartment that sold for millions and a year ago had plans to build a multi unit dwelling with up to 300 units for rent, all while keeping the historic feel. The same for the property adjacent that was once the ballpark for the baseball team here. For the record there is one way in and one way out here and it crosses a train track that runs trains 24/7 that blast horns and block access for hours at a time. Good luck with that.
The dump apartment just under the track which held Section 8 housing was sold and in turn going to be demolished is now being renovated and that work has mysteriously stopped. Who or why anyone would rent those units are beyond me. And I have spoken to numerous people who were living in rentals that were not great but worked as they were cheap and then suddenly the house/building flipped and in turn rent went up not 10% but 50%. Did their income as well go up? But they are told that is what the costs are to improve and maintain the property. And in turn are the new tenants earning wages to support said rent? Funny while rents have risen wages are stagnant. But in the bubble you have no idea what is outside of it.
But this is part of what complicates commercial lending for multi housing and development. You have to “guarantee” a certain rent per square foot and occupancy rates that ensure the lender that you are going to maintain the property and earnings will exceed costs that include payments and taxes. And well taxes are being raised across the area as this is the only way to generate revenue, so the equation that was used to generate the loan will have to be adjusted. You know like adjusted rate mortgages that destroyed families when they had inflated balloons attached to their payments that when they lost their jobs could no longer meet.
And this complicates the commercial market as they have to find new investors or tap into the existing ones for more revenue. I watched the Wizard of Lies on HBO this weekend about Bernie Madoff and his pyramid scheme and thought perfect timing (although ABC also did one a couple of years ago it was just less star studded and comprehensive). Madoff ran his family firm as an autocratic dynasty for decades, had been investigated once before and in turn a whistle blower informed the SEC that his numbers were clearly frauds. But, it was only when finally the bubble burst outside of this rarefied world above the 17th floor (the floor that housed the criminals that aided Madoff) did he finally confess to his family his fraud. It was his sons, both now dead, who turned him in. They too remind me of two other sons in similar situation today. I will let you do that math, it’s simple.
Timing, history and reality are in perfect flux right now. The rolling back of regulations and consumer protections, the hyper speak of jobs and of course the reality that debt is back in a big way all lead to a potential collapse. If health care is fully repealed this too will affect the job market in many ways, the ones related to health care (for one Physician there are 18 positions connected to that function in patient care) and those who are receiving it, both personally and professionally. As well as those considering retiring which opens up jobs and opportunities for others to move up or at least into another position that can enable growth. And again what that fuels is housing and cars all things that too are a large part of our GDP.
Right now the equation is off and I feel it here in Nashville in a way that I think the rest of the country feels other than those who are in insulated bubbles. They too will pop.
How Tales of ‘Flippers’ Led to a Housing Bubble
Economic View
By ROBERT J. SHILLER THE NEW YORK TIMES MAY 18, 2017
There is still no consensus on why the last housing boom and bust happened. That is troubling, because that violent housing cycle helped to produce the Great Recession and financial crisis of 2007 to 2009. We need to understand it all if we are going to be able to avoid ordeals like that in the future.
But the explanations for what happened in housing are not, I think, to be found in the conventional data favored by economists but rather in sociologically important narratives — like tales of getting rich through “flipping” houses and shares of initial public offerings — that constitute the shifting mentality of the era.
Consider the data for a moment. It shows us that extreme changes took place but doesn’t tell us why.
Real home prices rose 75 percent from February 1997 to December 2005, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, corrected for inflation by the Consumer Price Index. And then, from 2005 to 2012, real prices reversed course, falling to just 12 percent above their 1997 level. In the years since 2012, they have climbed 29 percent, about halfway back to their 2005 peak. This is a roller coaster in national home prices — it has been even scarier in some more volatile cities — yet we have no clarity on why it happened.
The problem for economists is that these changes don’t correspond to movements in the usual suspects: interest rates, building costs, population or rents. The Consumer Price Index for Rent of Primary Residence, compiled by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics and corrected for inflation, went up only 8 percent in 1997 to 2005, so unmet demand for housing services can’t explain the huge increase in real home prices. It doesn’t explain the 29 percent rise in real home prices since 2012 either, because inflation-adjusted rents increased only 10 percent in that period. So what has been driving the wild ride in home prices?
I believe the price swings have something to do with the changing mentality of the times, changes caused by narratives that have gone viral and swept across the population. Looking for answers in such popular stories contrasts starkly with the prominent approach of modeling people as though they react logically to economic forces. But a less orthodox approach can be quite useful.
One thing is clear: The prevalent narratives of 1997 to 2005 did not include the concept of a housing bubble, not at first. A computer search using ProQuest or Google Ngrams shows that the phrase “housing bubble” was hardly used until 2005, the end of the boom. What is a bubble? It typically includes the notion that, spurred by the public’s expectation of ever further price increases, demand eventually reaches levels that cannot be sustained, and so the enthusiasm wanes and the bubble collapses. But that thought was just not on many people’s minds then, the evidence suggests.
Instead, during the 1997 to 2005 boom there were multitudes of narratives about smart investors who were bold enough to take a position in the market. To single out one strand, recall the stories of flippers who would buy a house, fix it up, and resell it within months at a huge profit. These stories appear to have been broadly exciting to people who didn’t flip houses themselves but who appear to have begun to think that stretching a little and buying a house with a large mortgage would make them wise investors.
In his book “The Complete Guide to Flipping Properties,” published in 2004, Steve Berges extolled what he called “the O.P.M. principle,” meaning “other people’s money.” He wrote, “Your objective is to control as much real estate as possible while using as little of your own capital as possible.” In other words, borrow as much as you can. He wrote about the upside of leverage but not about the perils of leverage during the kind of big price drops that were just around the corner.
It can take a long time for narratives like this to grip the popular imagination. Flipping was “a thing” in the condominium conversion boom of the 1970s and ’80s. The idea then was this: Big-time converters with deep pockets would buy apartment buildings and convert the rental apartments to owner-occupied condos, selling units to diverse individuals, some of them flippers. For public relations purposes, converters would offer to sell at reduced prices to renters already living in a building, and typically to some outsiders, too.
This generated buzz. When renters and speculators flipped their purchase contracts at a big profit, sometimes using borrowed money for down payments to flip multiple units without actually even closing on the condos, it was thrilling. It seemed that anyone with energy and initiative could get rich doing this.
Some people eager to make quick profits bought Donald J. Trump’s well-timed 2004 book, “Trump: Think Like a Billionaire: Everything You Need to Know About Success, Real Estate, and Life,” written with Meredith McIver. Some enrolled in the less well-timed Trump University, which emphasized real estate investment in 2005, at the very end of the housing boom; it shut down, amid lawsuits and recrimination, in 2010.
Narratives about flipping weren’t restricted to real estate. Just after the time of the condo boom, stories of rapid buying and selling of initial public offerings took off as well. As with the condo promoters, I.P.O. underwriters would sell some shares below market prices to customers, who might then flip the I.P.O. for a quick profit.
The promoters of condo conversions and I.P.O.s were onto something. By giving discounts to buyers who would make a high return, they captivated the nation with tales of people who had no advanced degrees or hefty résumés but made fortunes anyway.
By now, the notion of getting rich by flipping houses is entrenched. I searched Amazon for books on “flipping houses” and came up with 328 hits, most written in the past few years. Buying and rehabbing existing houses for resale is a legitimate business. But many of these books make extravagant pitches and seem aimed at inspiring amateurs to plunge into risky ventures.
The public fascination with speculating in housing has been held in check by regulators empowered by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, but that restraint is tenuous with the election as president of a real estate promoter intent on reducing regulators’ power. These narratives are still potent and could easily spur further spirals in the housing market.
The election of Donald Trump or who I refer to as Il Douchebag is something that I have yet to fully comprehend. I believe that the voiceless of America voted for Trump, I also believe that many did as a type of retaliation or fuck you to a system that at its best is dysfunctional at its worst, shattered.
I have long said that Government that was funded properly, hired and operated as a well oiled machine could achieve milestones and at one point it did and then it didn’t. Wars, cultural change, fear and anger led to an election of a President who had no clear idea how to fix what was broken and that was Jimmy Carter, a man who is now perhaps one of our most admired and respected ex Presidents. And his failures led to the Voodoo President Reagan whose brain function I question to this day and anyone familiar with Alzheimer’s has to realize that it did not happen the day after he left office, and that this disease starts early and by the time Reagan was elected it was highly unlikely he was not in the very early stages of this debilitating disease. As a result his decision and policy making was handed off to those whose interests were in theirs and theirs alone. And much of that is what led to what is finally being realized here, the immense income inequity, the lack of education and rising costs which has emerged in student loans to high drop out rates, the decline of the middle class, the rise of the Oligarchy and the emergence of an Evangelical right has finally led to this – Donald Trump. He is Nixon and Reagan’s revenge, desperate, needy, arrogant, oddly forgetful and seemingly duplicitous but utterly co-dependent on others while providing the illusion of being totally in charge. It is as if he found all the most horrid traits of both men and mashed them to become Il Douchebag. And yes I am afraid.
We have a family dynasty so interwoven and complex that to believe that Il Douchebag can extricate himself from this to run the country without conflict of interest and potential for corruption is absurd. Even his children and their business interests are fraught with issues from lawsuits to partners and associates with their own issues that they are frequently bailed out by their daddy as daddy was by his, truly bringing new meaning to keeping it in the family, as like the Godfather meets the Sopranos type family. The New York Times did an amazing piece today on the Trump children and their own problems when it comes to running the empire.
Then we have the lack of tax returns never to be seen, the endless lawsuits and other legal issues that plague Trump industry that are still ongoing as well as the allegations of sexual abuse that has also been ignored. You can discount all the arguments that are those from the left but they are not all as such but the truth is the truth and Trump is a scam artist. This in all honesty is truly something we read about happening in a third world country or as we say in my house – Latin America. The parallels cannot be ignored when it comes to this current Presidency and the sheer level of utter bullshit that seems to accompany the Trump’s wherever they go.
If you genuinely believe that this man will save America then I have a fake college degree, a golf course membership or some bad jewelry to sell you. Next up Trump time shares where we can buy nights in the White House and to think people laughed with the Clinton’s and their ham fisted fund raising that led to many guests in the Lincoln Bedroom and coffees in the Rose Garden. They were classless but they certainly are nowhere near this level of desperation and greed that the Trump family demonstrate.
This editorial today shook me to the core and this is from a conservative. I think this is spot on and again be afraid, I am.
Trump’s Threat to the Constitution
By EVAN McMULLIN THE NEW YORK TIMES DEC. 5, 2016
WASHINGTON — On July 7, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump, met privately with House Republicans near the Capitol. I was present as chief policy director of the House Republican Conference. Mr. Trump’s purpose was to persuade the representatives to unite around him, a pitch he delivered in a subdued version of his stream-of-consciousness style. A congresswoman asked him about his plans to protect Article I of the Constitution, which assigns all federal lawmaking power to Congress.
Mr. Trump interrupted her to declare his commitment to the Constitution — even to parts of it that do not exist, such as “Article XII.” Shock swept through the room as Mr. Trump confirmed one of our chief concerns about him: He lacked a basic knowledge of the Constitution.
There is still deeper cause for concern. Mr. Trump’s erroneous proclamation also suggested that he lacked even an interest in the Constitution. Worse, his campaign rhetoric had demonstrated authoritarian tendencies.
He had questioned judicial independence, threatened the freedom of the press, called for violating Muslims’ equal protection under the law, promised the use of torture and attacked Americans based on their gender, race and religion. He had also undermined critical democratic norms including peaceful debate and transitions of power, commitment to truth, freedom from foreign interference and abstention from the use of executive power for political retribution.
There is little indication that anything has changed since Election Day. Last week, Mr. Trump commented on Twitter that flag-burning should be punished by jailing and revocation of citizenship. As someone who has served this country, I carry no brief for flag-burners, but I defend their free-speech right to protest — a right guaranteed under the First Amendment. Although I suspect that Mr. Trump’s chief purpose was to provoke his opponents, his action was consistent with the authoritarian playbook he uses.
Mr. Trump also recently inflated his election performance, claiming — without evidence — that he “won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” This, too, is nothing new. Authoritarians often exaggerate their popular support to increase the perception of their legitimacy. But the deeper objective is to weaken the democratic institutions that limit their power. Eroding confidence in voting, elections and representative bodies gives them a freer hand to wield more power.
As a C.I.A. officer, I saw firsthand authoritarians’ use of these tactics around the world. Their profound appetite for absolute power drives their intolerance for any restraint — whether by people, organizations, the law, cultural norms, principles or even the expectation of consistency. For a despot, all of these checks on power must be ignored, undermined or destroyed so that he is all that matters.
Mr. Trump has said that he prefers to be unpredictable because it maximizes his power. During his recent interview with The New York Times, he casually abandoned his fiery calls during the campaign for torture, prosecuting Hillary Clinton and changing libel laws. Mr. Trump’s inconsistencies and provocative proposals are a strategy; they are intended to elevate his importance above all else — and to place him beyond democratic norms, beyond even the Constitution.
In our nation, power is shared, checked and balanced precisely to thwart would-be autocrats. But as we become desensitized to the notion that Mr. Trump is the ultimate authority, we may attribute less importance to the laws, norms and principles that uphold our system of government, which protects our rights. Most dangerously, we devalue our own worth and that of our fellow Americans.
We must never forget that we are born equal, with basic, natural rights, including those of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Those rights are inherent in us because we are humans, not because they are granted by government. Government, indeed, exists primarily to protect those natural rights; the only legitimate power it has is that which we grant to it.
We can no longer assume that all Americans understand the origins of their rights and the importance of liberal democracy. We need a new era of civic engagement that will reawaken us to the cause of liberty and equality. That engagement must extend to ensuring that our elected representatives uphold the Constitution, in deed and discourse — even if doing so puts them at odds with their party.
We cannot allow Mr. Trump to normalize the idea that he is the ultimate arbiter of our rights. Those who can will need to speak out boldly and suffer possible retaliation. Others will need to offer hands of kindness and friendship across the traditional political divide, as well as to those who may become targets because of who they are or what they believe. Those who understand the cause are called to the work, which I hope will unify and bless our nation in time.
Off the Rack Publishing 