Cezary Podkul

Asian crime syndicates’ online scams have reached industrial proportions, cheating victims around the world out of more than $44 billion a year. U.S. banks have been unable to stop them.

Reporting Highlights Struggling Gatekeepers: In the face of some $44 billion a year in pig-butchering scams conducted by Asian crime syndicates, U.S. banks have failed to prevent mass scale money laundering.

This article was originally published by ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Brian Maloney Jr was flummoxed when he was served

This article was originally published in ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom.

After a ProPublica investigation examined how giant insurers and their intermediaries are imposing fees on doctors and hospitals for electronic payment, a bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced a bill to end the practice.

A growing number of casinos in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar are engaging in large-scale money laundering, facilitating cyberfraud that is costing victims in America and abroad billions of dollars, according to new research by the United Nations.

The shift to electronic medical reimbursements gave rise to payment processing companies demanding a 1.5% to 5% fee every time a doctor gets paid by insurers. The government banned such fees — until a company lobbyist got involved.

A powerful lobbyist convinced a federal agency that doctors can be forced to pay fees on money that health insurers owe them. Big companies rake in profits while doctors are saddled with yet another cost in a burdensome health care system.

A federal judge allowed the company to acquire a clearinghouse of health insurance claims. UnitedHealth says it won’t use the data to give itself an edge, even as some company documents suggest otherwise.