Natural Born Killers

This Week In Blunders – Feb. 16-22

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” - Bill Gates

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Fans lined up as early as 1:45 a.m. for what the New York Post called, “the hottest ticket in town.”

Professional line sitters charged $25 an hour to hold places for coveted seating in a lower Manhattan courtroom. Luigi Mangione, who has pleaded not guilty to gunning down UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson on Dec. 4, was about to make an appearance.

There was no such enthusiasm for UnitedHealth Group, parent company of UnitedHealthCare. On the same morning, The Wall Street Journal published an exclusive, page-one story reporting that the Justice Department is investigating UnitedHealth Group’s Medicare billing practices.

The article heralded results of the newspaper’s previous reporting:

“A series of articles in The Wall Street Journal last year showed that Medicare paid UnitedHealth billions of dollars for questionable diagnoses. Attorneys with the Justice Department as recently as Jan. 31 interviewed medical providers named in the articles.”

So the health care giant that uses artificial intelligence to deny claims, and has the highest claims denial rate in the industry, 32%, is also suspected of over-billing the federal government to the tune of billions.

Leave it to the New York Post to chronicle the circus: “Free Luigi” T-shirts for $40; a digital sign on a truck portraying Mangione as a saint; starry-eyed girls waving banners in the freezing cold.

It was like a scene ripped from the 1994 romantic crime-action film, “Natural Born Killers.” (Sorry, ladies, but aren’t there other good-looking guys who aren’t currently incarcerated?)

“Yes, I know, but he’s so dreamy!” (Illustration credit: AI Generated.)

“It’s never good for someone to die,” a woman selling T-shirts told the New York Post. “At the same time, it’s not good for millions of people to die because they’re denied crucial medical procedures.”

But Mangione is an unlikely folk hero for the average American buckling under their oppressive weight of outlandish health insurance premiums and denied claims. He may be relatable because he reportedly suffers from chronic back pain, but he’s also an Ivy League graduate from a wealthy Maryland real-estate family that can afford to pay his bills.

He branded his bullets with the words, “Delay Deny Defend,” like the title of this 2010 book on health care insurance industry abuses, but he reportedly wasn’t a UnitedHealthCare customer.

He’s been held at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, which is also holding Sean “Diddy” Combs on sex trafficking charges. Earlier in the week, Mangione thanked his fans on a website raising funds for his legal defense:

“I am overwhelmed by – and grateful for – everyone who has written me to share their stories and express their support. Powerfully, this support has transcended political, racial, and even class divisions, as mail has flooded MDC from across the country, and around the globe.”

Do I really need to say this? Nobody should be cheering a suspected murderer, particularly following a cowardly attack on someone shot in the back.

Tragically, though, UnitedHealth Group hasn’t exactly spent the last several years building a fan base of its own. And with federal investigations mounting, the wrong-headed Mangione fan club will keep on raging.

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DangerousLunacy

Here’s how the business plan went: Create a new digital token called Safemoon (SFM). Watch unwary crypto enthusiasts run up its market capitalization to as high as $8 billion. Tell them they can’t cash out because the liquidity pool is locked. Divert hundreds of millions of dollars in purportedly locked funds to pursue selfish desires, including luxury automobiles, real estate and other investments.

SafeMoon’s Chief Technology Chief Thomas Smith, who was charged in 2023, finally pleaded guilty to his part in this scheme last week and faces up to 20 years in prison.

SafeMoon filed bankruptcy in December 2023. It was more like a HarvestMoon for the perpetrators.

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A losing lottery

Some investors buy cryptic coins with no idea why they have any value. Others buy SPACs, or Special Purpose Acquisition Companies.

SPACs are essentially black boxes. You never really know what’s going to be inside them. You buy them on hope, kind of like buying an auctioned storage locker.

Vadim Komissarov, 53, of New York, raised $600,000 with a SPAC called Trident Acquisitions Corp. The tiny size of this deal reveals how almost anything could be a SPAC, just as almost anything could be a crypto currency.

On Thursday, Komissarov was indicted for loading up his SPAC with sham transactions and fake revenue numbers. The SPAC was purportedly aiming to acquire AutoLotto, Inc., which was doing business as Lottery.com.

“Vadim Komissarov allegedly tried to secure a winning ticket by developing an elaborate scheme comprised of inflated profits, falsified transactions, and perjurious statements to sell company shares,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Dennehy.

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Now Ozy really needs a wizard

Here’s little update on Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for lying to investors.

Watson, you may recall, was involved in a scheme that involved impersonating a top YouTube executive on a phone call with Goldman Sachs in a desperate bid to attract a $45 million investment. He was also a former TV personality with a show on CNBC.

On Monday, a judge ordered Watson and his defunct company to pay over $36 million in restitution and nearly $60 million in forfeiture.

That could sure mean a lot of scrubbing in the prison cafeteria.

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Buffetting against a downturn

I am a poor predictor of stock market crashes. I always think there’s one just around the corner, so sometimes I am right.

The market looked a bit uneasy on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 748 points with traders worried about tariffs and consumers worried about resurging inflation.

Walmart is concerned about inflation too, and it’s warning of slower sales.

A an even bigger cause for worry may be Warren Buffet. The Oracle of Omaha has amassed a huge cash position – we’re talking $344 billion – and he won’t say why.

Does Buffett know something everyone else doesn’t know? Usually.

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