A California appeals court on Tuesday upheld the denial of a psychologist’s request to end her licensing probation early, finding she had not demonstrated rehabilitation after a workers compensation fraud conviction.
Morella Bombardini pleaded no contest in 2018 to misdemeanor workers comp fraud involving a claim connected to her work as a psychologist. She was ordered to perform community service and pay more than $11,000 in restitution to her employer, according to Morella Bombardini v. Board of Psychology, filed in California’s 3rd District Court of Appeal.
Although the conviction was dismissed in 2019, it remained a basis for licensing discipline. The Board of Psychology revoked her license in 2021, stayed the revocation and imposed five years of probation. Conditions included practice and billing monitoring, an ethics examination, coursework and quarterly reports.
Ms. Bombardini…
THE HASHFLARE “CLOUD MINING” PONZI SCHEME (GLOBAL/ESTONIA)
Date: February 13, 2025 (Guilty Pleas) Perpetrators: Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turogin
Case Description: This $577 million cryptocurrency fraud remains one of the largest digital asset scams in history, with major legal developments concluding in 2025. Potapenko and Turogin operated “Hashflare,” which they marketed as a massive cryptocurrency mining operation. Hundreds of thousands of victims worldwide purchased “mining contracts,” believing they were renting hash power to mine Bitcoin. In reality, the duo was running a sophisticated Ponzi scheme.
They created fake customer dashboards that showed “real-time” mining profits, but the money being paid out was simply the capital of newer investors. They laundered the proceeds through shell companies to purchase luxury real estate and a fleet of high-end vehicles. After a massive international investigation involving the FBI and Estonian authorities, the pair agreed to forfeit over $400 million in assets. This case underscores the “Cyber-enabled Fraud” warning issued by the FATF in early 2026: as technology evolves, the scale of fraud moves from local millions to global billions in the blink of an eye.
Link to Original: ACFE – High Profile Fraud of 2025