It Figures

10

The number of states now reporting an international mail fraud scheme involving a bogus letter said to be from Nationwide Insurance. Residents in 10 states have received counterfeit checks bearing the Nationwide name. Each check has been issued in the amount of $4,500 and has been accompanied by a letter that informs the recipient that they are the winner of a $150,000 “Consumer Promotion Draw” organized for consumers who shop in major stores in the U.S., Canada and United Kingdom. The letter maintains that the $4,500 check has been issued to cover the “Non-Resident Government Tax” the consumer will have to pay to a British Tax Officer, according to the department warning. The individuals generating the correspondence and counterfeit checks have no affiliation with Nationwide Insurance and are fraudulently using the Nationwide name.

$1.9 Billion

The amount raised in an IPO by Verisk Analytics Inc., an insurance services firm that owns ISO and partly owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. It was the largest IPO by a U.S. company in 18 months. The successful launch stirred hopes that the appetite for such offerings is warming.

$10,000

Family members of the 10 people who were killed when a tractor-trailer slammed into a line of stopped cars on an Oklahoma turnpike have sued the truck’s driver and his employer, the Associated Press reported. A 10-page lawsuit filed in Cleveland County District Court names Donald L. Creed, of Willard, Mo.; Kansas City, Kan.-based Associated Wholesale Grocers; two insurance companies, a California company and two individuals as defendants. The plaintiffs are seeking compensatory and punitive damages in excess of $10,000. Creed, 76, has pleaded not guilty to 10 misdemeanor counts of negligent homicide in connection with the June 26 accident on the Will Rogers Turnpike (Interstate 44) in Ottawa County.

30

A Texas woman was sentenced to 30 days in jail and 10 years’ probation, and fined $10,000 for criminally negligent homicide in a “distracted driving” case. Jeri Montgomery, 24, was sentenced for a March 2008 three-car crash that killed Chance Wilcox, 25. He was thrown from a car that crashed after Montgomery illegally changed lanes trying to get on a freeway. Montgomery wasn’t on her cell phone, but had been talking on it just before the wreck. AP