Bank Accounts

Earlier this week I saw in the newspaper the list of abandoned savings and checking accounts that is published annually. It's the last-ditch effort by the banks and the state of Maryland to trace the owners of the funds.I'm not sure what happens to the money if it remains unclaimed.In some states the bank gets to keep it; in others, the state takes the loot.Well, because one year my mother-in-law found some money owned by my husband in his hometown account that he'd just forgotten about, I went browsing through the lists.

A 25-year-old Baltimore man who pleaded guilty to murder-for-hire and witness-murder conspiracy charges this year in the 2011 killing of a 19-year-old associate was sentenced Monday to 35 years behind bars, plus five years of supervised release, according to the Maryland U.S. attorney's office. Tavon Dameon Davis ordered the hit on 19-year-old Isiah Callaway after Callaway was arrested trying to open fraudulent bank accounts in Baltimore County in December 2010, prosecutors said.

THE NAMES of 1,872 foreign holders of bank accounts opened before 1945 and dormant for at least 10 years, published by the Swiss Bankers Association, shed some light on Swiss banks' role during and after World War II.There are German Jews who perished in the Holocaust, others who survived or whose heirs did, Nazi war criminals, Spain's foreign minister, a Japanese diplomat. That the list is not purged of torturers and looters strengthens its credibility.This is a first pay-off from the seemingly honest efforts to get history right that have belatedly been made by Swiss bank and government authorities, and particularly from the international panel they established, chaired by former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul A. Volcker, to supervise research.

A Maryland woman pleaded guilty Tuesday to embezzling more than $143,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, where she worked as a human resources analyst, according to the Maryland U.S. attorney's office. Sheila Ann Howard, 56, of Capitol Heights in Prince George's County, began working for FEMA — which responds to disasters across the country such as the recent devastation from superstorm Sandy — as a disaster assistant in 1986, and later served as a staffing clerk and personal assistant, among other positions, prosecutors said.

It will be three years before ballots are cast in Maryland's next election for governor, but half a dozen potential candidates for the office are already asking donors for cash. At one of the latest fundraising events, Democratic Howard County Executive Ken Ulman was the main attraction and guests paid up to $1,000 each to attend the party in Columbia last week. The invitation, sent by a supporter, stated that Ulman would need the money for "the upcoming gubernatorial election. " Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler, all Democrats, have held events in recent months.

From the start, NationsBank account No. 2362283 looked like trouble.Investigators spotted suspicious deposits to the Maryland account. They saw a stream of checks coming in from around the country. They traced wire transfers to banks in England, Nigeria, and the Czech Republic.But when they discovered the battered body of the woman who opened the account dumped in a field in Southern Maryland, the investigators knew they had real trouble on their hands."A brutal murder," U.S. postal investigator Robert F. Jones Jr. called it.What began as a modest bank probe nearly three years ago turned into a large international fraud case, leading to the indictments of nearly a dozen Nigerian nationals, many of them operating out of homes and storefronts in Maryland and Washington.

The fraud scheme — hiring homeless people to steal rent checks and deposit them in fake bank accounts — made a million dollars for Tavon Davis before one of his associates was caught on the job. Panicked at the notion that his man might flip, he ordered Isiah Callaway killed. Davis thought he might go to jail for decades for fraud, according to court records, and Callaway, 19, was dead before Davis realized the penalty for operating the scheme would have been much less. Davis, who now faces a likely 35 years in prison after pleading guilty to murder-conspiracy charges, told a friend that his decision to order the killing made him the "schmuck of the year," according to court filings.

Maryland has a new child support enforcement director, a hire that comes about three months after the office was skewered in a legislative audit that said it failed to collect more than $1.7 billion in support over three years. Taking over the Child Support Enforcement Administration is Joseph J. DiPrimio, who ran Philadelphia's Family Court operations, including its child support enforcement programs, and is a retired court administrator of that city's courts. Secretary of Human Resources Ted Dallas said he brought in a new executive director in a push to take the state's child support enforcement from its middling position nationwide into the top 10 states within 18 months.

Laws are like fine nets, catching the common fish even as the biggest push their way through. Or so you might think on learning of how federal prosecutors keep nabbing small and medium-size businesspeople who violate an obscure law relating to bank paperwork, even as the best-known violator of the law so far (a certain well-connected politico named Eliot Spitzer) walks free. Last month, the feds swooped down on a successful Maryland dairy business, South Mountain Creamery, seizing $70,000 in its bank accounts and formally charging its owners, Randy and Karen Sowers, with the offense of bank "structuring.

The owner-operator of a cosmetics company in Beltsville pleaded guilty Thursday to income tax evasion, prosecutors said. Bae Soo "Chris" Chon, 49, funneled revenue from Mirage Cosmetics Inc. into foreign bank accounts in Hong Kong and Seoul and understated his income on his personal income tax returns in 2008 and 2009, the U.S. Attorney's Office for Maryland said in a statement. Mirage manufactured cosmetics at a facility on Tucker Street in Beltsville and then sold the products in the United States at chain stores, including Walgreens, Target and Costco, the statement said.

A Baltimore man was sentenced Friday for his role in the death of a witness in a bank fraud investigation. Frank Marfo, 28, received life in prison after being convicted of murder, gun, and fraud conspiracy charges. The victim, 19-year-old Isaiah Callaway, had been accused of working for Marfo and his partner, Tavon Davis, 25, who had concocted a scheme to hire homeless men to steal rent checks and deposit them in fake bank accounts, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Callaway was arrested by Baltimore County Police opening one of the bank accounts and was later killed on Davis' orders, fearing Callaway would cooperate with the police, officials said.

I will be voting in favor of gay marriage come Election Day. Here are my sentiments on the subject in poetry form. Ah, this too shall pass - all the fuss about marriage. Cast to the dogs everyday - that institution - by married men and women - fighting over children like dogs barking over bones - fighting over house keys, car keys, bank accounts - airing tons of grievances for onlookers and lawyers as spectator sport before laying to rest in divorce caskets their vows - "In sickness and in health, for better or worse, for richer or poorer," a bunch of lies rolled out for the ceremonies in church.

The fraud scheme — hiring homeless people to steal rent checks and deposit them in fake bank accounts — made a million dollars for Tavon Davis before one of his associates was caught on the job. Panicked at the notion that his man might flip, he ordered Isiah Callaway killed. Davis thought he might go to jail for decades for fraud, according to court records, and Callaway, 19, was dead before Davis realized the penalty for operating the scheme would have been much less. Davis, who now faces a likely 35 years in prison after pleading guilty to murder-conspiracy charges, told a friend that his decision to order the killing made him the "schmuck of the year," according to court filings.

Lois W. Uram, a retired Mercantile-Safe Deposit & Trust Co. accountant, died Oct. 9 of complications from dementia at Gilchrist Hospice in Towson. She was 82. The daughter of a certified public accountant and a homemaker, Lois A. Weidemuller was born and raised in Bellevue, Pa., where she graduated in 1949 from Bellevue High School. She studied bookkeeping at night in Pittsburgh while working for the Federal Reserve Bank there. In 1955, she married John Uram, who taught in Baltimore County public schools, and the couple moved to Arbutus.

The owner-operator of a cosmetics company in Beltsville pleaded guilty Thursday to income tax evasion, prosecutors said. Bae Soo "Chris" Chon, 49, funneled revenue from Mirage Cosmetics Inc. into foreign bank accounts in Hong Kong and Seoul and understated his income on his personal income tax returns in 2008 and 2009, the U.S. Attorney's Office for Maryland said in a statement. Mirage manufactured cosmetics at a facility on Tucker Street in Beltsville and then sold the products in the United States at chain stores, including Walgreens, Target and Costco, the statement said.

Gov. Martin O'Malley did his job Tuesday night in Charlotte. He fired up the party faithful with a call and response: "Forward, Not Back. " He hit the Republican nominee hard on his Swiss bank accounts - reinforcing a campaign message that Mitt Romney isn't like the rest of middle class America. And he gave an enthusiastic, high-volume endorsement of President Barack Obama - along with a little Maryland history thrown in for good measure. Governor O'Malley got the crowd revved up to reach even greater heights during the speeches by San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro and First Lady Michelle Obama.

A 25-year-old Baltimore man who pleaded guilty to murder-for-hire and witness-murder conspiracy charges this year in the 2011 killing of a 19-year-old associate was sentenced Monday to 35 years behind bars, plus five years of supervised release, according to the Maryland U.S. attorney's office. Tavon Dameon Davis ordered the hit on 19-year-old Isiah Callaway after Callaway was arrested trying to open fraudulent bank accounts in Baltimore County in December 2010, prosecutors said.

The former CEO of Severna Park-based Wings to Go pleaded guilty Monday to wire fraud for embezzling more than $885,000 from the franchise company to pay for prostitutes and phone sex, the U.S. attorney's office in Baltimore announced. Mark Chandler Goodnow, 55, of Pasadena, former president and CEO of the Buffalo wings franchise company, spent about $885,071 of the company's money to hire prostitutes in Maryland and to pay three women in Texas for phone sex and personal expenses, according to his plea agreement.

The former CEO of Severna Park-based Wings to Go pleaded guilty Monday to wire fraud for embezzling more than $885,000 from the franchise company to pay for prostitutes and phone sex, the U.S. attorney's office in Baltimore announced. Mark Chandler Goodnow, 55, of Pasadena, former president and CEO of the Buffalo wings franchise company, spent about $885,071 of the company's money to hire prostitutes in Maryland and to pay three women in Texas for phone sex and personal expenses, according to his plea agreement.

Laws are like fine nets, catching the common fish even as the biggest push their way through. Or so you might think on learning of how federal prosecutors keep nabbing small and medium-size businesspeople who violate an obscure law relating to bank paperwork, even as the best-known violator of the law so far (a certain well-connected politico named Eliot Spitzer) walks free. Last month, the feds swooped down on a successful Maryland dairy business, South Mountain Creamery, seizing $70,000 in its bank accounts and formally charging its owners, Randy and Karen Sowers, with the offense of bank "structuring.