Consumer Fraud: Because those lazy f*ckers aren't happy making $18,000 year at the factory. So ungrateful.

I didn't take Spanish in highschool, but I know enough to know that this headline, "Chili-finger scam duo sentenced to prison", must be some kind of bad attempt at racial humor. I can only imagine how the headline would have read had the *duo* not had Spanish surnames. The AP reports, [1]

A California court sentenced a couple to nine years in prison for planting a fingertip in a bowl of chili to swindle a Wendy's fast-food restaurant. Anna Ayala and her husband, Jaime Plascencia, were sentenced today in San Jose, California, for their role in a plot to extort money from the fast-food chain. Both received near the maximum possible punishment in their cases. The couple must pay about $170,000 in restitution for workers' lost wages. A judge also ordered them to pay nearly $21.8 million to Wendy's International and JEM Management, which owns the restaurant. Both corporations agreed not to collect from the couple, provided they never benefit from the ruse. Denny Lynch, Wendy's senior vice president, asked the judge to send a message that "consumer fraud is a serious crime that demands a severe penalty."

Totally! Get those bastards. While we common folk toil away at our high paying jobs for benevolent American business making upwards of $28,000, a few bad apples refuse to keep their greed in check. In addition to the above *duo*, there are Welfare Queens driving Cadillacs, and Katrina victims were unaware of their good luck landing their new residences in the gleaming Superdome. No wonder the rich wealthy poor in this country have caught the eye of the IRS. It seems these people are constantly on the look-out for ways to improve their lot. So ungrateful.

As Denny Lynch, Wendy's senior vice president, so perceptively pointed out, "consumer fraud is a serious crime that demands a severe penalty."

Thanks Denny, we need more watch dogs like you making sure this issue gets the attention it deserves. Send them all to jail! For eva.

For journalistic balance, I would like to quote a lefty here. You know, like they do on Crossfire. Kevin Danaher of Global Exchange says, [2]

"the FBI reports that in 1995 all burglary and robbery cost the United States about $4 billion. Professor W. Steve Albrecht of Brigham Young University estimates that white-collar fraud (usually committed by lawyers, doctors, accountants and businessmen) costs 50 times as much - about $200 billion per year. And this is just dollar cost; it says nothing about consumers hurt by faulty products, cancer caused by illegal environmental pollution, and the corrupting influence on our society when members of the professional elite make cheating a way of life.

If the three-strikes principle is good for street criminals, shouldn't it also apply to a form of crime that is far more damaging to our society?"

Whatever Kevin, you pinko-commie.

[1]The Bismark Tribune
[2]Corporate Crime: Three Strikes, You're Out

Gameplan

It's almost a year ago since 16 year old Mary-Ann Leneghan was murdered, but details are finally being made public of the horrific way in which she was killed.

She and an 18 year old friend were suspected of stealing drugs by a gang of men who came up with a gameplan of revenge that included abduction, torture and rape before killing the two girls.

Most of this was carried out in a hotel room that the six men had booked for that purpose:

Richard Latham QC told the jury that on the night of 6 May last year Mary-Ann and her 18-year-old friend were sitting in a car in the car park of the Wallingford Arms pub in Reading when they were abducted.

He said the two girls were bundled into the boot of a red Nissan Almera and driven to the Abbey guesthouse in Reading where the men booked into a room.

He said: "For the next few hours they were seriously assaulted, they were raped, they were made to smoke heroin and crack cocaine and most seriously of all they were told throughout that they were going to die that night when the men had finished with them."

He told the court the girls were then taken to Prospect Park where a pillow was placed over Mary-Ann's head before she was repeatedly stabbed to death.

He said a pillow was also placed over her friend's head.

The 18 year old was then shot in the head and left for dead. She survived hence the subsequent investigation arrest and trial...

All six are pleading not guilty. The only footage of the trial the BBC showed this evening was of Mary-Ann's father taking a breath of fresh air outside the court after sitting only a few feet away from the men charged with his daughter's murder.

Mary-Ann 'was killed in revenge' - BBC

George Clooney, The FBI, The Mob, Vegas, Horses and Tits, Oh My...

The allure of a big breasted woman proves too much for Mr. Clooney, as The Globe's Paul Bannister reports on January 9th.

"Federal agents looking into Mob racketeering and extortion in Las Vegas made George Clooney an offer he couldn't refuse.

They called in the Ocean's 11 star to ask him about his friendship with a strip club owner they're investigating for links to organized crime.

Also swept up in the Fed's investigation were Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, who were also questioned".

Wow. This is great. The circle is complete.

The club in question is the infamous Crazy Horse Too, purportedly owned by Rick Rizzolo.

A club that Mayor Goodman of Vegas in 2002 sponsored a custom ordinance for, allowing an expansion, and the employ of teenage dancers. God bless his heart. Mayor Goodman is the former Mob Lawyer, who represented many luminaries of this business, most notably slain mobster Tony (The Ant) Spilotro.

Coincidentally, Spilotro was the character Pesci portrayed in Casino pretty accurately, right down to the beating death in the cornfield via a baseball bat. Remember that scene? That was mad fucked up. Makes me cringe now just thinking about it.

If these names and places sound familiar, you might have seen the Dateline segment on the Crazy Horse Too a few years ago. The one detailing Robert D'Apiece's assault on Henry Kirk, which left him paralyzed. Or more recently, this piece in the Daily News.

This place, and the people who work there, do NOT fuck around.
You walk in to have some beers and capture some good material for your sock, and you walk out, leave in a stretcher because you argued with the bouncer about a phony, trumped up credit card bill.

"In 1985 [Robert D'Apiece] pleaded guilty to battering a Crazy Horse client with a baseball bat. The man suffered brain damage and died several years later."

When we go to the Mardi Gras here in my neck of the woods, they treat us a bit nicer, simply asking us to leave as opposed to breaking our necks, when the dancer told on us for leaving her quarters instead of dollars. Whatever, she's lucky she got those. She had no business being on stage.

Former Las Vegas city councilman Steve Miller says the police in Vegas had responded to the Crazy Horse 737 times in one three year period, often having to do with beatings of clients and charges of false credit card bills. There have yet to be any criminal prosecutions of any involved.
That's funny, they say the Mob left Vegas years ago...

Well no matter. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
Party on.

George Clonney Grilled in Vegas. (The Globe)

Ain't sayin we got comp but...

The Anger Management blog is pretty damn good. The last five fucking posts have been about Drew Planten, the guy who [allegedly --lawyer] killed a stripper and after his arrest refused to move, eat, or open his eyes. No word on his involvement with Crystal Meth, though that is big in that part of the country (the Midwest, Southwest, and South).