Every Republican candidate’s campaign highlights how each of them is going to cut waste and fraud from our existing government assistance programs.
Let’s look at the facts: Maine is a poor state with a low per-capita income. Our citizens work very hard to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads, and current data shows nearly 13% of Maine households were food insecure from 2022-2024, with nearly 40% of those households having little or no resources to cover expensive healthcare services.
The affluent candidates are just beating the Republican drum chant of fraud and they have no real connection to the men and women on the street who pay the taxes.
Bruce Samuels
Pittston
THE TD BANK INSIDER “BRIBE-FOR-DATA” SCHEME (USA)
Date: February 17, 2026 Perpetrator: Edward Low (Former Bank Employee)
Case Description: In a high-profile case of “Insider Threat,” Edward Low, a former employee of TD Bank in New York, pleaded guilty in a New Jersey federal court to accepting bribes in exchange for confidential customer data. Between 2021 and 2022, Low leveraged his internal access to harvest the personal details of high-balance account holders. He then sold this “hot data” to external fraud syndicates for as little as $26,700 in personal kickbacks.
The external fraudsters used the information Low provided to conduct “Account Takeovers” (ATO), creating fraudulent checks and falsifying bank records to drain over $500,000 from unsuspecting customers. Low even went as far as helping co-conspirators open shell company accounts at a second financial institution where he was later employed. He now faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison. This case has sent shockwaves through the global banking sector, highlighting that even the most robust external firewalls cannot protect against a “rogue insider” with administrative credentials.
Link to Original: US Dept of Justice – TD Bank Insider Plea