New legal action could put an end to the practice of spreading toxic sewage sludge on US cropland as a cheap alternative to fertilizer, and force America to rethink how it disposes of its industrial and human waste.
Read more at The Guardian
Michigan consumers are getting hit hard by fraud: Michigan consumers reported losing $151.7 million in 2023 to all types of fraud and scams, according to the Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book. The median fraud loss was $410.
Read more at Detroit Free Press
Companies could find themselves in federal enforcement crosshairs if bad actors use their AI or payment tools, among other “means and instrumentalities,” to conduct impersonation scams. The Federal Trade Commission last week finalized a rule giving the agency authority to go after entities that impersonate a government body or a business to commit fraud. A second rule, still in a preliminary stage, would extend the authority to fraudsters who impersonate an individual.
Read more at Legal Dive
Major junior hockey players, aged 16 to 20, claim the independent leagues colluded to limit competition among themselves for player recruitment, in violation of U.S. antitrust law. According to the players, the anticompetitive agreements span across six hockey leagues and more than 146 clubs, nearly the entire North American ice hockey industry.
Read more at Courthouse News Service
If you work overseas for a U.S. company, you might want to think twice before you step forward to report corporate wrongdoing. It’s a different story when employees are based overseas and work for a foreign subsidiary of a U.S. company, as the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals explained, in a Canadian man’s case against software company Oracle.
Read more at Reuters
Enticed by the prospect of romance and riches, coaxed over LinkedIn and WhatsApp, thousands of people have sent their hard-earned money overseas, never to be seen again. The con is called pig butchering — so named because victims are likened to hogs, fattened up for slaughter.
Read more at NBC News
The Federal Trade Commission cracked down on TurboTax, issuing a final order that prohibits the company from calling its services “free” when most customers end up having to upgrade to paid services.
Read more at The Verge
Year-End Update On The Corporate Transparency Act: The Access Rule, The Criticisms And The Costs Of Implementation
The implementation of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) as of January 1, 2024, is expected to bring about several challenges and areas of confusion for accounting and law firms that serve reporting companies.
Read more at Forbes