Bernard Madoff

William Ruehle, Ex-Broadcom CFO, Shares His Amazing Government Persecution Story at UCI

"Something happened," William J. Ruehle matter-of-factly tells UC Irvine law students, who spent Wednesday's lunch hour being mesmerized by the former Broadcom chief financial officer's dissection of his virtual lynching by overzealous federal prosecutors. That something was a 2006 report by a Unive ... More >>

Dana Rohrabacher Was A No Show at Laguna Beach Election Forum

Last night the League of Women Voters Orange Coast hosted a candidates' forum for Congressman Dana Rohrabacher and his Democratic Party challenger Ron Varasteh. But instead of partisan fireworks and lively debate, political junkies were instead met with a dud. Was Rohrabacher, wh ... More >>

No Felony Charges In 2009 Orange County Ponzi Scheme That Bilked $800 Million From Investors

​It's been more than two years since the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Medical Capital Holdings (MCH), the Tustin lender that was embroiled in a bizarre hospital-related Ponzi scheme that was extensively probed by the Weekly in 2009. MCH was created to purchase unpaid medical ... More >>

Pyramid Scheme

Men boasting CIA and FBI ties met in Newport Beach to convince a mysterious billionaire to buy into a secret economy, and nothing was what it seemed

Bill Gross Reportedly Buys Jennifer Aniston's House for $37 Mil; Chris Cox Settles Down in Laguna Niguel

​Bill Gross, the Newport Beach financial manager who co-founded Pacific Investment Management Co. (PIMCO) and is worth a billion and change, has reportedly bought a Beverly Hills estate Jennifer Aniston bought in 2006 for $13.5 million, gutted and rebuilt to the fawns of Architectural Digest and p ... More >>

Looking Back: 2009 Orange County Deaths

​Turn on the weepy, string ensemble music: It's time for us to look back on the year that (almost) was and remember some of the figures from Orange County who have left us. There was unexpected tragedy, there were some suspicious circumstances, there were rich legacies... there's even the possibil ... More >>

Robert Zemeckis' Very CGI 'A Christmas Carol' Can't Be What Charles Dickens Had In Mind

Forecast Scares Up Record-Breaking Halloween Sales

​Shitty economy? Schmitty schmeconomy. Halloween sales are forecast to reach a record-breaking $6 billion in 2009, up 4.2 percent from the $5.77 billion retailers generated last year.

Shamed ex-SEC Chairman Chris Cox to Float Not on Ice Floe But Orange County Republican Party Boat

John McCain wanted Christopher Cox fired as the George W. Bush-appointed chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Los Angeles Times opined that Cox's chairmanship will be characterized by missing the signs that Wall Street was poised for a meltdown, noting the critics who said Cox's l ... More >>

[Summer Guide] Proposed Theme Park Celebrates OC's Part in Bringing the Global Economy to Its Knees

The OC Connection to KPFK's Anti-Semitic Show

Type "Augustin Cebada" on YouTube to hear his take on plain ol' white folk!The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles has a fascinating article in tomorrow's edition about "La Causa," a show that airs Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. on KPFK-FM 90.7 and is hosted by a 1960s refugee who calls himself Augustin ... More >>

Welcome to the Poorhouse: Rich Beotch Edition

Crunching numbers from the latest Forbes list of the wealthiest Americans, Orange County Business Journal concluded that local billionaires lost a combined $5.8 billion of wealth since September. That's not all that has shrunk: there are 793 billionaires on the latest Forbes list, compared with 1,12 ... More >>

This Week in Reasons To Be Embarrassed About Dana Point

Diane HarkeyNow, I love Dana Point, my sleepy, crusty, adorable harbor-village-that's-trying-to-dress-up-as-Newport hometown. But its legal cityhood is only a little bit younger than I am, and so I can relate to the public embarrassments it has had in the last week or so. You turn 20, you're told th ... More >>

Alleged Fraud Within Irvine City Limits Keeps SEC, Whistleblower Busy

Two corporations doing business in Irvine that are the subjects of a noteworthy/notorious whistleblower's fraud investigations have now apparently drawn the attention of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.The SEC is reviewing whether James Peterson, CEO of Irvine-based defense industry comp ... More >>

[¡Ask a Mexican!] Meat, Mujeres and Mourning Edition

Our Ex-Rep.-Turned-SEC Chief Chris Cox Comes Out Swinging

The Washington Post reports today that embattled Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox is defending his restrained response to the country's financial crisis, arguing he has guided his agency with a steady hand while other federal regulators have not.Our former Republican congr ... More >>

L.A. Times: La Brea Bakery's Nancy Silverton's Savings Wiped Out by Madoff

The L.A. Times reports that Nancy Silverton, famed founder of L.A.'s Mozza and La Brea Bakery (now also at Macy's Signature Kitchen at South Coast Plaza, along with Downtown Disney) had her savings wiped out in the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme.Read it HERE.

As Cox Takes More Heat, a Bizarro World Blast From the Past

The hits keep coming for embattled Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox, the former local congressman (R-Newport Beach). Amid the Bernard L. Madoff scandal, Cox last week publicly blamed his staff for not vigorously investigating complaints against the fraudster. Today, we hea ... More >>

Well That's the Cox Calling the Kettle Black

While former longtime Newport Beach Republican congressman-turned-Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox lashes out at his own staff for ignoring complaints that could have exposed Bernard Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme many years earlier, others wonder if Cox is not simply dive ... More >>