Scheme

washington -- Mitt Romney twice emphasized his unique business background when he and eight other Republican presidential candidates faced off in a debate last week in Iowa. "I've spent the last, as I've told you, 25 years in the private sector," former Massachusetts Gov. Romney declared at one point. "I understand why jobs come and why jobs go. I've done business in 20 countries."

LISBON - For Francisco Reposo, the 30% pay cut he was forced to take this year amid government austerity measures is the least of his worries. The high school science teacher is also on dialysis, awaiting a kidney operation, and Portugal's financial bailout means he's saddled with hundreds of dollars in monthly medical bills. The cost of seeing a doctor in Portugal has more than doubled, from about $12 to $26 a visit. Reposo used to pay nothing for dialysis because he's a blood donor, but that exemption was lifted, and he now pays about $53 for each session.

"Contraband," starring the rock-steady Mark Wahlberg, is about a high-risk, high-seas heist involving a supertanker that is so super complicated (implausible?) that in the wrong hands it would be laughable. Instead, this very gritty bit of greased action does a decent job of shaking the sluggish out of January. Based on the 2008 Icelandic thriller, "Reykjavik-Rotterdam," the filmmakers have turned up the heat — both literally and figuratively — shifting it from icy Nordic seas and alcohol trafficking, to set things in New Orleans with a Panama port of call and a few million counterfeit dollars on the horizon.

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. Memorial Day - Memorial Day has become an opportunity for criminals to target veterans as well as active duty military and their families, the Better Business Bureau said in a recent bulletin. Older veterans are often targeted by scammers this time of year, the BBB said. "The unique lifestyle of our service members makes them prime targets for scammers," noted Brenda Linnington, director of the BBB's military division.  "It's imperative that we educate our service members and ensure that the support we give to them equals the effort they make every day on behalf of us. " Some scams target service personnel and their families directly, while others go after people attempting to contribute to military charities.

Lenny Dykstra does not believe he's a criminal. But an L.A. County Superior Court judge decided otherwise Monday, sentencing the former New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies center fielder to three years in state prison for his role in a grand theft auto case. According to prosecutors, Dykstra and two others tried to lease and then sell cars from several dealerships by claiming credit through a nonexistent business. After Judge Cynthia Ulfig rejected a last-ditch effort by Dykstra's lawyer to withdraw his no-contest plea, Dykstra addressed the court in a manner described by The Times' Andrew Blankstein as "rambling and repetitive.

Federal prosecutors have drafted a new chapter in the life story of Barry Minkow, making it a tale of a teenage con man who straightened out, only to go bad again. Sent to prison more than two decades ago after the carpet-cleaning firm he started in his parents' garage in Reseda was exposed as a $100-million scam, Minkow in recent years had pursued twin careers as a Christian minister and a for-profit fraud investigator. He issued reports alleging wrongdoing at a number of companies and was credited by the FBI with helping bring several Ponzi schemes to light.

Two Detroit-area businessmen were charged with paying and giving gifts to basketball and football players at the University of Toledo to take part in a point-shaving scheme, according to a federal indictment filed Wednesday. Six former Toledo players also were accused of taking part in the alleged scheme by affecting the outcome of games or giving Ghazi Manni, 52, and Mitchell Karam, 76, information so that they could place wagers on the games.

Three Orange County residents are among six people charged with wire fraud related to an alleged real estate flipping scheme that bilked at least $4.2 million from more than three dozen victims, prosecutors said. Six people in all are accused of promising investors title to bank-owned homes that they claimed could be easily resold for a profit, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles. The scheme lasted from mid-2009 through mid-2010 and targeted victims through seminars held online and in Irvine, Costa Mesa, Florida and Texas, according to the indictment.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has obtained a court order freezing the assets of Anaheim Hills-based companies it alleged were operating a $53-million Ponzi scheme, the commission disclosed Thursday. The SEC alleged that Matthew Jennings, 39, of Yorba Linda, offered investors short-term returns of more than 100% and had used new investor deposits to pay returns to earlier investors. He operated several companies with the Westmoore brand name, including Westmoore Management LLC and Westmoore Investment LP, the SEC said.

More than 50 people have been indicted in Southern California, Las Vegas and Charlotte, N.C., in connection with a "phishing" scheme to steal bank account information from thousands of victims in the United States, authorities said Tuesday. The federal grand jury indictment, which was unsealed Wednesday, names 53 suspects -- 33 of whom have already been arrested -- as well as 47 unindicted co-conspirators from Egypt, said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller. All of those who were indicted face charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud.

Former Upland Mayor John Pomierski faces up to 10 years in federal prison after pleading guilty Thursday to bribery and admitting to accepting $5,000 to help a business obtain a permit. Pomierski, 58, became the third person to be convicted in the bribery scheme, in which he allegedly demanded about $70,000 in payments from the separate owners of a sports bar and a medical marijuana cooperative to help them obtain permits and eliminate other requirements beginning in 2007, according to federal prosecutors.

Three Orange County residents are among six people charged with fraud related to an alleged real estate flipping scheme that bilked at least $4.2 million from more than three dozen victims, prosecutors said. All six were accused of promising investors title to bank-owned homes that they said could be easily resold for a profit, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles. The scheme lasted from mid-2009 through mid-2010 and targeted victims through seminars held online and in Irvine, Costa Mesa, Florida and Texas, according to the indictment.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- A former aide to John Edwards testified Tuesday about the lengths the former presidential candidate went to to hide his affair with a campaign videographer, including raising money from wealthy benefactors to help support the woman, developing code words to conceal his communication with her and crafting an elaborate payment scheme to route money to her. In his second day of testimony, Andrew Young said he felt uneasy about...

Three Orange County residents are among six people charged with wire fraud related to an alleged real estate flipping scheme that bilked at least $4.2 million from more than three dozen victims, prosecutors said. Six people in all are accused of promising investors title to bank-owned homes that they claimed could be easily resold for a profit, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles. The scheme lasted from mid-2009 through mid-2010 and targeted victims through seminars held online and in Irvine, Costa Mesa, Florida and Texas, according to the indictment.

It sounded far-fetched — a "stock-picking robot" that could identify penny stocks poised to double in price. Turns out, it was. Federal regulators filed a civil complaint Friday against 20-year-old twin brothers in Britain, claiming that they duped 75,000 people — mostly Americans — into paying $47 each to get stock tips from a robot dubbed Marl. They told investors that Marl ran on a computer code written partly by a onetime Goldman Sachs programmer who didn't exist, the Securities and Exchange Commission said.

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. Online shopping discounts - Two men have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms after they were convicted of several crimes related to an online shopping club. James A. Sweeney II and Patrick M. Ryan were convicted of numerous charges of grand theft and securities fraud involving a Riverside company called Big Co-Op Inc., which claimed to offer rebates and discounts to online shoppers. Prosecutors had accused the pair of selling worthless private stock in the company, which they claimed was turning huge profits and about to make an initial public offering.

Eight people, including a Santa Ana resident, face federal charges in a scheme that promised investors a $73.3-million return on a $40,000 investment. A 14-count indictment unsealed Wednesday in Huntington, W.Va., accuses members of wire fraud, money laundering and selling securities without a proper license. Those indicted were Stephen Oles, a San Diego businessman; Ramona Holcombe of Santa Ana; Stanie E. Benz of Ojai; James Gormley, an attorney from Atlanta; David and Jennifer Raimer of the Orlando, Fla. area; Gary D. Bolin of Flat Rock, Ill.; and Ernst N. Tietjen of Salt Lake City.

Regarding "Seeing Ghosts on the Nez Perce Trail" (May 11): The point lost among all the hand-wringing over the plight of the Indian is that no other scenario was possible. American Indians weren't keen on integration and sharing. Their land was their land, God-given, and that's that. And the settlers did what settlers do: settle what hasn't been settled yet. There was no grand scheme to make or break treaties. They were made by necessity and broken by necessity. When the Nez Perce warriors started killing settlers, the Army had to react; the settlers had to have protection.

An Indiana computer company owner is being held on two federal counts of sexually exploiting a child in what authorities on Monday said could become the nation's biggest case of “sextortion” - blackmailing minors into becoming the objects of sexually explicit photographs or videos. Richard Leon Finkbiner, 39, was arrested Friday at his home in Brazil , Ind., and charged with forcing at least two minors to engage in sexually explicit activity that Finkbiner allegedly captured with a webcam, said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana Joseph H. Hogsett at a news conference Monday.