Latest news with #Schuman
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Yahoo
Calif. Police Officer Allegedly Caught Partying at Stagecoach and at Disneyland While Collecting $600k in Workers' Compensation
Former Westminster Police Department officer Nicole Brown is facing 15 felony charges for alleged workers' compensation insurance fraud Brown was injured while on the job in 2022 and took disability amounting to $600,000, according to the Office of the District Attorney of Orange County While on disability, Brown allegedly attended the Stagecoach Music Festival in addition to other activities like visiting Disneyland, skiing, running 5Ks and moreA California police officer is facing 15 felony charges and up to 22 years in prison after being accused of alleged workers' compensation insurance fraud and stealing more than $600k from taxpayers. Nicole Brown, formerly of the Westminster Police Department, suffered a head injury in 2022 while attempting to handcuff a suspect and was later placed on disability. According to a May 20 press release from the Office of the District Attorney of Orange County, Brown, 39, 'complained to her watch commander that she had a headache and was feeling dizzy, but an emergency room doctor who examined her that same day released her back to work without restrictions.' Several days after the incident, Brown called in sick to work multiple days in a row and was later diagnosed with severe concussion syndrome and was placed on Total Temporary Disability, according to the release. Officers who receive a job-related injury are entitled to their full salary for up to a year in addition to any medical fees. The district attorney's office claims that Brown cost Westminster more than $600,000 in tax payer money during her time on disability. While on her disability, Brown complained of 'headaches, dizziness, sensitivity to light and noise, problems processing thoughts and words and an inability to work on the computer or do any screentime,' the release claims. However, an investigation alleged that while on disability, Brown was witnessed drinking and partying at the Stagecoach Music Festival in April 2023, despite the loud, crowded environment with temperatures over 100 degrees. She was also alleged to have gone to Disneyland, attended three AYSO soccer conferences, went snowboarding or skiing in Big Bear and Mammoth, ran two 5k races, played golf, took online courses with a university and attended baseball games. Brown's stepfather Peter Schuman, who is a licensed attorney in California, has also been charged after being accused of aiding her in committing fraud by advocating on her behalf during a meeting to discuss what police duties she could perform. The meeting took place three days after the Stagecoach Music Festival. During the meeting, Brown allegedly 'claimed she was unable to look at the screen' and was 'sitting in a dark room' with Schuman speaking on her behalf, the release adds. Schuman, 57, has been charged with one felony count of making a fraudulent insurance benefit claim and one felony count of assisting, abetting, conspiring with and soliciting a person in unlawful act. Schuman is facing a maximum sentence of eight years in prison and could 'suffer discipline by the State Bar of California,' according to the district attorney. Brown has been charged with nine felony counts of making a fraudulent statement to obtain compensation, six felony counts of making a fraudulent insurance benefit claim and one felony enhancement of committing an aggravated white collar crime over $100,000. If convicted on all counts, Brown could face up to 22 years in prison. PEOPLE has reached out to the Office of the District Attorney for updates on the case. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. Prior to her leave, Brown served as a Homeless Liaison Officer in Westminster. 'I just don't think that anyone is hopeless,' Brown told the site Behind the Badge in 2020. 'This is not the prettiest job, dealing with the homeless. You might get someone off the streets and they might go back to the streets and it's that cycle. But to actually be able to make an impact on someone's life for the better is why I wanted this position.' At the time, Brown's partner Roland Perez said of her, 'She has compassion. She is all about notes. Everything is organized. She keeps me focused.' Read the original article on People
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Yahoo
Cop busted partying at Stagecoach while claiming $600,000 for fake injury, officials allege
A former Westminster police officer claimed over $600,000 in workers' compensation for a head injury that allegedly prevented her from working, but meanwhile was hitting the slopes at Mammoth Mountain, visiting Disneyland and dancing at Stagecoach, prosecutors allege. Nicole Brown, 39, of Riverside was charged with 15 felonies related to workers' compensation insurance fraud, according to the Orange County district attorney's office. If convicted of all charges, she faces up to 22 years in prison. She could also lose pension credits she accrued after the date the felony was committed if she's convicted. Prosecutors said Brown suffered a minor cut to her forehead while attempting to handcuff an uncooperative suspect in March 2022. An emergency room doctor released her to work without any restrictions the same day. But Brown did not return to work for more than a year. Several days after the injury, she was was diagnosed with severe concussion syndrome and placed on total temporary disability leave, prosecutors said. "Ms. Brown is not guilty of this what the prosecution has alleged," her attorney, Brian Gurwitz, told The Times. "She was seriously injured on duty and intends to fight these allegations." Read more: O.C. man charged with workers' comp fraud involving $100 million of billings Brown is accused of fraudulently collecting more than $600,000 from the city while out on leave, which included her full salary — tax-free — and medical expenses. Prosecutors allege her stepfather, 57-year-old Peter Gregory Schuman, worked with Brown to orchestrate the fraudulent workers' compensation scheme. Schuman is a Buena Park-based attorney who practices workers' compensation defense on behalf of insurance companies, prosecutors said. He is in the process of obtaining legal representation, Gurwitz said. Schuman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. During her time on disability, Brown said she was unable to work due to headaches, dizziness, sensitivity to light and noise, problems processing thoughts and words and an inability to work on a screen, prosecutors said. However, authorities allege that in April 2023, she was seen dancing and drinking at the Stagecoach Music Festival — alongside more than 75,000 festival attendees, with loud music and bright lights and temperatures in excess of 100 degrees. Her presence at the festival was reported to the Westminster Police Department, which referred the case to the district attorney's office for investigation. Read more: 'Temporary totally disabled' LAPD officer was doing workouts. Now he pleads no contest to workers' comp fraud The D.A.'s office says it then discovered that, while on leave, Brown allegedly went snowboarding or skiing at Mammoth Mountain and Big Bear, ran two 5K races, went to three soccer conferences, visited Disneyland, played golf and took online courses with a local university. Three days after prosecutors say she was at Stagecoach, Brown had a Zoom meeting to discuss what duties she could perform as a police officer. During the meeting, Brown was sitting in a dark room and claimed she could not look at the screen, prosecutors said. Schuman did all of the talking and stated she was unable to do paperwork and may not be able to do phone calls. After the meeting, Brown was admitted to an in-patient center for traumatic brain injuries, prosecutors said. She has been charged with nine counts of making a fraudulent statement to obtain compensation, six counts of making a fraudulent insurance benefit claim and one enhancement of committing an aggravated white collar crime over $100,000, all felonies. Her stepfather has been charged with one felony count of making a fraudulent insurance benefit claim and one felony count of assisting, abetting, conspiring with and soliciting a person in unlawful act, according to court records. Brown attended the police academy at Rio Hondo College and was sworn in as a Westminster Police Officer in February 2019, according to reporting by Behind the Badge. During her time at the department, she worked as a homeless liaison officer helping connect people experiencing homelessness to resources, the outlet reported. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
21-05-2025
- Los Angeles Times
Cop busted partying at Stagecoach while claiming $600,000 for fake injury, officials allege
A former Westminster police officer claimed over $600,000 in workers' compensation for a head injury that allegedly prevented her from working, but meanwhile was hitting the slopes at Mammoth Mountain, visiting Disneyland and dancing at Stagecoach, prosecutors allege. Nicole Brown, 39, of Riverside was charged with 15 felonies related to workers' compensation insurance fraud, according to the Orange County district attorney's office. If convicted of all charges, she faces up to 22 years in prison. She could also lose pension credits she accrued after the date the felony was committed if she's convicted. Prosecutors said Brown suffered a minor cut to her forehead while attempting to handcuff an uncooperative suspect in March 2022. An emergency room doctor released her to work without any restrictions the same day. But Brown did not return to work for more than a year. Several days after the injury, she was was diagnosed with severe concussion syndrome and placed on total temporary disability leave, prosecutors said. 'Ms. Brown is not guilty of this what the prosecution has alleged,' her attorney, Brian Gurwitz, told The Times. 'She was seriously injured on duty and intends to fight these allegations.' Brown is accused of fraudulently collecting more than $600,000 from the city while out on leave, which included her full salary — tax-free — and medical expenses. Prosecutors allege her stepfather, 57-year-old Peter Gregory Schuman, worked with Brown to orchestrate the fraudulent workers' compensation scheme. Schuman is a Buena Park-based attorney who practices workers' compensation defense on behalf of insurance companies, prosecutors said. He is in the process of obtaining legal representation, Gurwitz said. Schuman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. During her time on disability, Brown said she was unable to work due to headaches, dizziness, sensitivity to light and noise, problems processing thoughts and words and an inability to work on a screen, prosecutors said. However, authorities allege that in April 2023, she was seen dancing and drinking at the Stagecoach Music Festival — alongside more than 75,000 festival attendees, with loud music and bright lights and temperatures in excess of 100 degrees. Her presence at the festival was reported to the Westminster Police Department, which referred the case to the district attorney's office for investigation. The D.A.'s office says it then discovered that, while on leave, Brown allegedly went snowboarding or skiing at Mammoth Mountain and Big Bear, ran two 5K races, went to three soccer conferences, visited Disneyland, played golf and took online courses with a local university. Three days after prosecutors say she was at Stagecoach, Brown had a Zoom meeting to discuss what duties she could perform as a police officer. During the meeting, Brown was sitting in a dark room and claimed she could not look at the screen, prosecutors said. Schuman did all of the talking and stated she was unable to do paperwork and may not be able to do phone calls. After the meeting, Brown was admitted to an in-patient center for traumatic brain injuries, prosecutors said. She has been charged with nine counts of making a fraudulent statement to obtain compensation, six counts of making a fraudulent insurance benefit claim and one enhancement of committing an aggravated white collar crime over $100,000, all felonies. Her stepfather has been charged with one felony count of making a fraudulent insurance benefit claim and one felony count of assisting, abetting, conspiring with and soliciting a person in unlawful act, according to court records. Brown attended the police academy at Rio Hondo College and was sworn in as a Westminster Police Officer in February 2019, according to reporting by Behind the Badge. During her time at the department, she worked as a homeless liaison officer helping connect people experiencing homelessness to resources, the outlet reported.
Associated Press
17-03-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Universal Technical Institute, Inc. Announces Bruce Schuman as Chief Financial Officer
Schuman has decades of senior financial leadership experience at publicly-traded and privately-held companies PHOENIX, March 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Universal Technical Institute, Inc. (NYSE: UTI), a leading workforce education provider for transportation, skilled technicians, energy and healthcare, today announced Bruce Schuman as Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately. 'Bruce Schuman's experience leading the financial operations of large organizations undergoing transformative change will be invaluable as we execute against the second phase of our North Star strategy,' said Jerome Grant, CEO, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. 'The next four years hold significant opportunities for our company's growth and profitability as we meet the demand for skilled collar and health workers in the U.S., and I look forward to working closely with Bruce as we achieve our goals. 'In addition, I want to thank Christine Kline for her outstanding service as interim CFO since October,' Mr. Grant continued. 'Christine's leadership ensured our Finance organization maintained their momentum during a busy time for the company, and she will now return full-time to the position of Chief Accounting Officer.' Most recently, Schuman served as CFO for Vacasa (NASDAQ: VCSA), North America's largest short-term rental property management and hospitality company, which serves more than three million guests and over 35,000 property owners annually. At Vacasa, he was instrumental in driving the financial strategy and operational excellence that enabled the company to achieve its first year of profitability in 2023. Prior to this, he was CFO of Kiavi (formerly LendingHome), one of the largest lenders to real estate investors in the U.S., where he led the company through a period of rapid, profitable growth and drove the company's IPO readiness initiatives. Earlier in his career, Schuman held various senior finance leadership roles at Intel Corporation, including CFO of the company's Enterprise Data Center business and Intel Capital. He currently serves on the boards of Cirrus Secure and Urban Light. 'Universal Technical Institute, Inc., plays an increasingly critical role in supplying the skilled workforce solutions that power the U.S. economy,' said Bruce Schuman, Chief Financial Officer, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. 'I am excited to join the company at this important moment in its growth trajectory, and I look forward to partnering with the executive team and the strong talent across the organization to help drive the company's continued success.' As the company executes the second phase of its North Star strategy, it is expected to deliver approximately 10% revenue CAGR and expand its Adjusted EBITDA margin to nearly 20 percent through fiscal 2029. The core tenets of the strategy—growth, diversification and optimization—are the foundation for initiatives in both of the company's operating segments: UTI, which offers transportation, skilled trades and energy education; and Concorde Career Colleges, which specializes in the dental, nursing and allied health professions. Universal Technical Institute, Inc. recently reported its financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2025. The company continued to deliver strong outcomes, with key metrics of revenue, Adjusted EBITDA and new student starts having improved year-over-year. The company also increased its guidance ranges for the fiscal year. More information about Universal Technical Institute, Inc., including the company's most recent investor presentation, can be found here. About Universal Technical Institute, Inc. Universal Technical Institute, Inc. (NYSE: UTI) was founded in 1965 and is a leading workforce solutions provider of transportation, skilled trades, and healthcare education programs whose mission is to serve students, partners, and communities by providing quality education and support services for in-demand careers across a number of highly skilled fields. Universal Technical Institute, Inc. is comprised of two divisions: the UTI division and Concorde Career Colleges. The UTI division operates 15 campuses located in nine states and offers a wide range of transportation and skilled trades technical training programs under brands such as UTI, MIAT College of Technology, Motorcycle Mechanics Institute, Marine Mechanics Institute and NASCAR Technical Institute. Concorde operates across 17 campuses in eight states and online, offering programs in the allied health, dental, nursing, patient care and diagnostic fields. For more information, visit or or visit us on LinkedIn at @UniversalTechnicalInstitute and @Concorde Career Colleges or on X (formerly Twitter) @news_UTI or @ConcordeCareer.
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
What Is AI Distillation?
This is Atlantic Intelligence, a newsletter in which our writers help you wrap your mind around artificial intelligence and a new machine age. Sign up here. OpenAI has said that it believes that DeepSeek, the Chinese start-up behind the shockingly powerful AI model that launched last month, may have ripped off its technology. The irony is rich: We've known for some time that generative AI tends to be built on stolen media—books, movie subtitles, visual art. The companies behind the technology don't seem to care much about the creatives who produced that training data in the first place; Sam Altman said early last year that it would be 'impossible' to make powerful AI tools without copyrighted material, and that he feels the law is on his side. If DeepSeek did indeed rip off OpenAI, it would have done so through a process called 'distillation.' As Michael Schuman explained in an article for The Atlantic this week, 'In essence, the firm allegedly bombarded ChatGPT with questions, tracked the answers, and used those results to train its own models. When asked 'What model are you?' DeepSeek's recently released chatbot at first answered 'ChatGPT' (but it no longer seems to share that highly suspicious response).' In other words, DeepSeek is impressive—about as capable as other cutting-edge models, and developed at a much lower cost—but it may be so only because it was effectively built on top of existing work. (DeepSeek did not respond to Schuman's request for comment.) 'What DeepSeek is accused of doing is nothing like hacking, but it's still a violation of OpenAI's terms of service,' Schuman writes. 'And if DeepSeek did indeed do this, it helped the firm to create a competitive AI model at a much lower cost than OpenAI.' (The Atlantic recently entered into a corporate partnership with OpenAI.) Whether or not DeepSeek distilled OpenAI's technology, others will likely find a way to do the same thing. We may be approaching the era of the AI copycat. For a time, it took immense wealth—not to mention energy—to train powerful new AI models. That may no longer be the case. DeepSeek and the Truth About Chinese Tech By Michael Schuman When the upstart Chinese firm DeepSeek revealed its latest AI model in January, Silicon Valley was impressed. The engineers had used fewer chips, and less money, than most in the industry thought possible. Wall Street panicked and tech stocks dropped. Washington worried that it was losing ground in a vital strategic sector. Beijing and its supporters concurred: 'DeepSeek has shaken the myth of the invincibility of U.S. high technology,' one nationalist commentator, Hu Xijin, crowed on Chinese social media. Then, however, OpenAI, which operates ChatGPT, revealed that it was investigating DeepSeek for having allegedly trained its chatbot using ChatGPT. China's Silicon Valley–slayer may have mooched off Silicon Valley after all. Read the full article. What to Read Next Americans are trapped in an algorithmic cage: 'The private companies in control of social-media networks possess an unprecedented ability to manipulate and control the populace,' Adam Serwer writes. The government's computing experts say they are terrified: 'Four IT professionals lay out just how destructive Elon Musk's incursion into the U.S. government could be,' Charlie Warzel and Ian Bogost report. Article originally published at The Atlantic
