Fuel For Fools
Volkswagen can't recover from 'Dieselgate.' FirstBank of Puerto Rico accused of banking Epstein's sex trafficking operation. An embezzling healthcare CEO bets his clinic.
This Week In Blunders – June 21-27
“Corruption, embezzlement, fraud, these are all characteristics which exist everywhere. … What successful economies do is keep it to a minimum.” – Alan Greenspan, (March 6, 1926 – June 22, 2026)
Volkswagen is reportedly preparing to cut 100,000 jobs and end production at four German plants in its most extensive retrenchment in its 89-year history because …
Well, when you get right down to it … the global automaker can’t seem to wash its hands clean of all the diesel soot its cars belched out beginning in the 2000s.
So much for German engineering. These automotive geniuses somehow decided that the planet’s oiliest fuel was a clean-air solution.
In 2009, while companies like Tesla were developing electric cars, VW rolled out the Jetta TDI, promising diesel engines that would satisfy tough U.S. emissions standards while delivering excellent fuel economy.
They sold the whole world on “Clean Diesel,” which now seems about as believable as organic Twinkies.
The trick was software that allowed the vehicles to fake emissions tests, and it sold as well as a finely honed Florida time-share pitch.
In 2009, the Green Car Journal gave the Jetta its “Green Car of the Year” award. Clean diesel engines also went into other models: Jetta SportWagen, Golf, Beetle, Passat, and Touareg SUV, as well as the Audi A3, A6, A7, A8/A8L, and the Q and Q7 SUV.
The automaker put 590,000 of these smog-blowers on U.S. roads. But in 2015, its dubious green success exploded into “Dieselgate.”
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The automaker eventually pleaded guilty to three felonies and paid more than $33 billion in fines and compensation to vehicle owners.
Several engineers and executives went to prison, a handful of cases are still pending, and the CEO who led the charge on this scandal, Martin Winterkorn, remains a fugitive from justice in the U.S. because his native Germany doesn’t extradite its citizens.
Also in Germany, Winterkorn is considered too frail to stand trial at age 79 for the greatest fraud in automotive history.
So here we are. VW has spent the past decade paying for yesterday while trying to build tomorrow.
Its stock remains down more than 70% from its 2014 high. And years of recovery attempts have left it unable to deal with fierce competition from Chinese automakers, rising labor and commodity costs, and a sluggish transition to electric vehicles.
Volkswagen wasted years trying to convince drivers they could save the planet one diesel engine at a time. It fooled emissions tests, regulators and millions of customers, but it couldn’t fool the future.
Insufficient checks
Jeffrey Epstein got his start banking at FirstBank Puerto Rico, which knowingly profited from his sex trafficking operations, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.
According to a 91-page complaint, FirstBank maintained 30 accounts for the world’s most notorious creep from at least 1998 through 2020 after he died. That would mark his longest-running banking relationship uncovered so far.
Banks are supposed to abide by “know your customer” laws, and FirstBank had a duty to know that Epstein had been a registered sex offender since 2008.
Similar cases against some of the world’s largest banks have already resulted in huge settlements:
JPMorgan Chase paid $290 million in 2023 to settle claims by Epstein survivors.
Deutsche Bank paid $75 million in 2023.
Bank of America reached a $72.5 million settlement earlier this year in another survivor class action, while denying wrongdoing.
FirstBank, which has branches in Epstein’s old stalking grounds in South Florida, allowed him to finance the operation and pay recruiters and victims, the lawsuit alleges.
One of FirstBank’s slogans is, “Together Nothing Stops Us.” Apparently, no one did.
Related Reading On Epstein:
Banking On Epstein (Business Blunders)
Sultan Of Sleaze (Business Blunders)
An Epstein Valentine (Business Blunders)
Party With Mr. Dahmer (Business Blunders)
Networking With A Pedophile (Business Blunders)
Meditations With A Sex Offender (Business Blunders)
Winter Is Coming For Summers (Business Blunders)
Was Maxwell Smart? (Business Blunders)
A healthcare CEO who bet the clinic
The former CEO of Community Clinic Network in Wenatchee, Wash., pleaded guilty to a single wire fraud charge on Thursday after prosecutors alleged he ran a $24 million embezzlement scheme to fund his losing stock trades.
Patrick Alan Bucknum, 55, secretly made more than $30 million in transfers from CCN’s accounts into his personal brokerage account, hoping to profit from stock, options and ETF trading, according to a plea agreement.
CCN is not a company that runs casinos. It manages payments for Medicaid-funded health clinics at a time when healthcare is bankrupting the nation and millions of its citzens. But then grifting the sick and dying, as well as the U.S. taxpayer, has become a national pastime.
Bucknum’s spree began in 2017 and ran through 2023. Too bad he learned his aggressive trading strategies from social media.
He quickly fell into the trap of throwing good money after bad – other people’s good money, that is. He repeatedly stole more in desperate attempts to recoup his losses. He ended up losing most of the loot, but did return about $7 million, leaving CCN with a net loss of $24,368,427.37.
At the top of his losing game, Bucknum bought himself a $100,000 truck, a $77,000 Tesla and a $33,000 boat. He also put $1.2 million in gold, silver and platinum coins, none of which could buy him a bag of Cheetos from a prison commissary.
He’s slated to be sentenced on Sept. 23.
His name means ruler in Greek and he spent his shareholders’ money like a king.
Read More: John Rigas – Adelphia Communications (Business Blunders Hall Of Shame.
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