Sports Park Promoters Plead Guilty to $280 Million Bond Fraud
Randy Miller, 70, and his son Chad, 40, entered their pleas Wednesday to securities fraud and aggravated identity theft in Manhattan federal court. Victims of the scheme included Vanguard Group Inc., AllianceBernstein Holding LP, Macquarie Group 's Delaware Funds and others firms that invested in bonds linked to their Legacy Park development in Mesa.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Gizmodo
a minute ago
- Gizmodo
What's Going On at Tesla? A Wave of Executives Is Heading for the Exits
What's going on at Tesla? The electric vehicle manufacturer, navigating a challenging business landscape marked by increased competition and evolving consumer sentiment, also appears to be facing a significant internal crisis: a rapid exodus of top talent. Elon Musk's group has now lost its 10th executive this year. The latest departure is Piero Landolfi, who announced his exit on LinkedIn after nearly nine years with the company. 'After 8 3/4 years I have made the difficult decision to leave Tesla,' Landolfi posted. 'It was hard because of the incredibly talented and passionate people that I had the privilege to work, sweat and laugh with as we were accelerating the world to sustainable energy, against all odds and in spite of what used to be the general beliefs about electric cars.' He continued: 'It was hard because of the amazing products we build, the first principle thinking and the getting stuff done mentality that makes Tesla such an exciting place to work at. The post has garnered significant attention, with over 834 likes and nearly 250 comments, largely from individuals who collaborated with him during his tenure at Tesla or in his leadership role. Landolfi cited the familiar desire for a 'new and different adventure' as his reason for leaving. 'However, it is now time for my next adventure. This is the way,' he concluded, echoing a popular phrase from the Star Wars franchise. His next move is to Nimble, an AI robotics and autonomous e-commerce fulfillment technology company, where he has taken on the role of Senior VP of Operations. Notably, Nimble already counts former Tesla veterans among its ranks, suggesting a potential trend of talent migrating from the EV maker to the burgeoning AI and robotics sectors. Landolfi's journey at Tesla began in October 2016 when he joined as Director of Services, Technical Operations. His contributions led to a promotion nearly four years later to Director of Services, North America, a position he held until his departure this month. His exit marks the tenth executive departure from Tesla this year, a cascade of departures that has hit nearly every critical division of the company. The exodus began in February with the exit of David Imai. April saw the departures of David Lau and Mark Westfall. The pace accelerated in May with the loss of Prashant Menon and Vineet Mehta. June witnessed the exits of Omead Afshar, Milan Kovac (Head of Optimus Humanoid Robot Team), and Jenna Ferrua (Director of HR). Last month, Troy Jones, the VP of Sales, Service, and Delivery in North America, left. This month, in addition to Landolfi, Pete Bannon, the VP of Hardware Engineering (Chip Tech and Dojo Supercomputer), also announced his departure. These latest two departures coincide with a period of significant upheaval within Tesla's ambitious AI initiatives, particularly the winding down of Dojo, Tesla's custom-built supercomputer designed to train the neural networks for Full Self-Driving (FSD) and Tesla's humanoid robot, Optimus. The Dojo project, an expensive and technically risky strategy aimed at reducing reliance on Nvidia's GPUs, had already faced internal turbulence and questions about its long-term viability in a market dominated by established chip giants. 'Once it became clear that all paths converged to AI6, I had to shut down Dojo and make some tough personnel choices, as Dojo 2 was now an evolutionary dead end,' Musk explained in an August 10 post on X (formerly Twitter). Once it became clear that all paths converged to AI6, I had to shut down Dojo and make some tough personnel choices, as Dojo 2 was now an evolutionary dead end. Dojo 3 arguably lives on in the form of a large number of AI6 SoCs on a single board. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 10, 2025For any company, losing this many senior leaders in such a short time is a major red flag. It signals potential internal turmoil, a loss of crucial institutional knowledge, and raises serious questions about the company's future direction and the stability of its leadership culture under Musk. Not long ago, Tesla, having successfully scaled mass production of electric vehicles with the Model 3 and Model Y, was considered a magnet for top talent. This year's brain drain suggests the company may have lost some of its allure, potentially exacerbated by its CEO's increasingly vocal and often polarizing political stances, which have alienated some segments of the market and workforce. It's clear now that, in addition to challenges in sustaining its once-unstoppable sales growth in an increasingly competitive EV market, Tesla is facing another significant hurdle: retaining its top leadership. The short-term sales boost anticipated from consumers seeking to take advantage of the $7,500 federal tax credit on new EV purchases before it expires on September 30 may offer a temporary reprieve, but it can't mask the deeper issue. Tesla's biggest challenge is no longer just selling cars; it's convincing its own top talent to stay for the ride.
Bloomberg
2 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Trump Abusing Authority With DC Takeover: UNC's Gerhardt
Michael Gerhardt, Distinguished Professor of Jurisprudence at UNC School of Law, talks about President Trump abusing his authority with his takeover of the Washington, DC police and that the President's claim of high crime in DC is contrary to other DC officials in the area. Michael speaks with Joe Mathieu on the late edition of Bloomberg's "Balance of Power." (Source: Bloomberg)
Associated Press
2 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Trial begins for US fugitive accused of faking his death to avoid rape charges
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A man accused of faking his death and fleeing the country to avoid rape charges faced an alleged victim in court Monday as a jury trial in Utah began. The man known in the U.S. as Nicholas Rossi, whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian, is accused of sexually assaulting two women in Utah in 2008. Prosecutors are trying the cases separately, with the first set in Salt Lake County. Rossi, 38, was arrested in Scotland in 2021 — a year after he was reported dead — when he was recognized at a Glasgow hospital while receiving treatment for COVID-19. He lost an extradition appeal after claiming he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight who had never set foot on American soil and was being framed. Prosecutors say they have identified at least a dozen aliases Rossi used over the years to evade capture. Rossi appeared in court in a wheelchair, wearing a suit and tie and using an oxygen tank. The woman identified him from the witness stand, saying he's 'a little bit heavier, a little bit older' but mostly looks the same. District Judge Barry Lawrence helped clarify for the jury some of the twists and turns of the case, explaining that different people may refer to Rossi by different names. The defense and prosecution agreed it's factual that Rossi was in Utah in 2008 and had a relationship with the alleged victim that year. Prosecutors painted a picture of an intelligent man who used his charm to take advantage of a vulnerable young woman. He raped her when she pushed back against his attempts to control her, said Deputy Salt Lake County District Attorney Brandon Simmons. The woman, who the judge asked not be identified publicly, described a whirlwind relationship with Rossi that began in November 2008 while she was recovering from a traumatic brain injury. The two began dating after she responded to a personal ad Rossi posted on Craigslist and were engaged within about two weeks. The woman described being asked to pay for their dates, cover Rossi's rent so he wouldn't be evicted from his apartment and take on debt to buy their engagement rings. Then, the relationship spiraled quickly, with Rossi 'becoming controlling and saying mean things to me,' she testified. The couple got into a fight in which Rossi pounded on her car and used his body to block her from pulling out of the parking garage. She finally let him inside and drove him home but said she had no plans of continuing a relationship. She agreed to go into his house to talk, but he instead pushed her onto his bed, held her down and 'forced me to have sex with him,' she testified. The woman described lying still, paralyzed with fear. 'I was a little bit more of a timid person back then, and so it was harder for me to stand up for myself,' she said. Dismissive comments from her parents convinced her not to go to the police at the time, she said. She did, however, try to bring Rossi to small claims court over the engagement rings but dropped the case. Rossi's lawyers sought to convince the jury that the alleged victim built up years of resentment after Rossi made her foot the bill for everything in their monthlong relationship, and accused him of rape to get back at him a decade later when she saw him in the news. Rossi will also stand trial in September over another rape charge in Utah County. Rossi grew up in foster homes in Rhode Island and had returned to the state before allegedly faking his death. An obituary published online claimed he died on Feb. 29, 2020, of late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma. State police, along with Rossi's former lawyer and a former foster family, cast doubt on whether he was dead. A year later, hospital staff in Scotland recognized his tattoos from an Interpol notice and alerted authorities. He was extradited to Utah in January 2024. 'This case is like an old puzzle from the thrift store,' said MacKenzie Potter, one of Rossi's attorneys. 'It's 13 years old, not all the pieces are there, some pieces are from a different puzzle. And when you start going through everything, you're not going to get a complete picture.' Prosecutors pushed back, saying that if any 'puzzle pieces' are missing, it's because Rossi's attorneys fought to have some evidence dismissed.
