FBI NEWS QUIZ
Snapshot of Recent Investigations
05/30/06
On any given day FBI works cases from across its spectrum of investigative priorities. How much have you heard about our recent successes—including some of our more unusual investigations? Take the quiz below and find out!
1. What did a Massachusetts husband and wife claim to unwittingly eat in a scheme targeting restaurants and grocery stores in three states and the District of Columbia?
A: A finger
B: Glass
C: Dirt
D: Rotten food
ANSWER
2. How did a Texas hotel manager defraud the Red Cross during evacuee relocation efforts following Hurricane Katrina?
A: Booked multiple families to a single room
B: Charged a “usage fee” for cable TV
C: Billed Red Cross for unoccupied rooms
D. Overcharged for condiments in the mini-bar
ANSWER
3. A federal grand jury in Denver recently indicted four people for their roles in setting fires at which location(s) at the Vail ski resort?
A: The Two Elks Lodge
B: Buffalo’s restaurant
C: Several ski lift buildings
D: All of the above.
ANSWER
4. How did a Florida man sour a relationship with a matchmaking website?
A: Submitted a picture of someone else
B: Started his own matchmaking website and deleted info from the rival site
C: Robbed his “match” on the first date
D: All of the above
ANSWER
5. Offered the opportunity to make 16% interest annually on a “no risk” investment in a commercial leasing venture, you should:
A: Whip out your checkbook
B: Be skeptical
C: Know that “no risk” and “investment” is an oxymoron.
D. Both B and C
ANSWER
6. Three defendants were sentenced recently for their unique Internet piracy scheme in an ongoing federal crackdown called operation FastLink. What were they doing?
A: Packaging and reselling stolen home-movies
B: Uploading bootleg movies to the Internet
C: Uploading pirated music before its commercial release in the U.S.
D: Trading proprietary source code
ANSWER
7. A 53-year-old physician was sentenced May 22 in Houston to 10 years in prison without possibility of parole. What did she do?
A: Wrote prescriptions without a license
B: Prescribed motorized wheelchairs for people she didn’t examine
C: Signed pre-printed prescriptions for $250 apiece
D: All of the above
ANSWER
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Question 1: B, glass. The couple was charged with intentionally ingesting glass. Why’d they do it? So they could submit false insurance claims saying the glass was in food they had been served between 1997 and 2005. It almost worked. Their scheme netted more than $200,000—and over $100,000 in unpaid medical bills—before they got caught. Read more about the case.
Question 2: C, billed Red Cross for unoccupied rooms. The hotelier was charged in early May with wire fraud in connection with her job as the general manager of the Ramada Inn in Texarkana. According to the indictment, she instructed hotel employees to keep evacuee names in the hotel’s system even after they checked out. In September and October 2005, the scheme netted nearly $20,000 in reimbursements for unoccupied hotel rooms. Read more.
Question 3: C, all of the above. The four individuals were indicted for their roles in a series of malicious fires on October 19, 1998, at the Vail ski resort. Two remain at large. The May 18 indictment followed more than seven years of investigative work. Read more.
Question 4: B, started his own matchmaking website and deleted info from the rival site. Terry Nolan of Palm Harbor, Florida, launched MyLatinRose.com soon after a Washington state couple he knew started a similar matchmaking site. Nolan then went a step further—he hacked into his rival’s site, deleted and changed its information, and knocked it offline soon after that site was featured on Peruvian TV. Ay, caramba! Nolan was sentenced in early May to one year of probation and ordered to pay $7,427 in restitution. Read more.
Question 5: D, be skeptical and know that “no risk” and “investment” is an oxymoron. Some 1,600 investors learned the hard way that their “investment” in an elaborate Ponzi scheme was indeed a risk. Charles and Susan Browne of San Diego hatched the plan that ultimately spread from California to Florida and built up a pyramid of $46 million before it collapsed. They were each sentenced in early May to more than four years in custody. Read more.
Question 6: C, uploading pirated music before its commercial release in the U.S. The defendants, members of a group calling itself the “Apocalypse Crew,” sought to acquire digital copies of songs and albums before their release and to distribute them to computer servers throughout the world. Read more.
Question 7: D, all of the above. Dr. Linda Kaye Morgan, a licensed osteopath in Oklahoma, was convicted of healthcare fraud and conspiracy last February. Her scheme: she signed hundreds of fake prescriptions and certificates of medical necessity for motorized wheelchairs for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries she didn’t examine. Her fraudulent prescriptions have been linked to nearly $8 million in fraudulent Medicare and Medicaid payments. Read more.
