With the FBI’s help last week, New Zealand authorities arrested Kim Schmitz, who legally changed his name to Kim Dotcom, for masterminding a scheme that made more than $175 million by copying and distributing music, movies and other copyrighted content without permission.

When police arrived at Dotcom’s $24 million rented home last Friday, the overweight 38-year-old German computer programmer locked himself in a “safe room” refusing to surrender.

Authorities were forced to cut their way through the room and eventually arrested Dotcom, who reportedly had several guns next to him.

Police seized several weapons, computers and about twenty luxury vehicles with personalized license plates “GUILTY”, “MAFIA,” “GOD,” “POLICE,” and “STONED.”

In additions to copyright infringement charges, Dotcom, who was convicted in 2002 for the largest insider trading case in Germany’s history at the time, was also charged with money laundering and conspiracy to commit racketeering.

Megaupload Ltd., which is solely owned by Dotcom, was registered in Hong Kong.

Three days after the FBI shut down Megaupload, Page Six claimed that music producer Swizz Beatz was the company’s CEO.

According to Page Six, after they posted Beatz’s involvement with Megaupload in Thursday newspaper, Megaupload’s lawyer, Ira Rothken, “didn’t dispute Beatz’s position in the organization and acknowledged that Beatz persuaded Kenya West, Will.i.am and Sean “Diddy” Combs to participate in a promotion video for the site; however, after Friday’s incident Rothken told a blogger that “Beatz WAS negotiating to become the CEO, but it was never official.”

The Post quoted a source as saying Beatz “expects to be questioned by the FBI”.

Whether he was or wasn’t the CEO of Megaupload, why would any musician be a part of a company that steals music from artists?

A 31-year-old Major League Baseball player, who has been playing professional ball since 2006, was arrested this week in Dominican Republic for falsifying his identity.

Fausto Carmona, whose real name is Roberto Hernandez Heredia, was busted after the mother of the real Carmona ratted him out on a popular radio show in Santo Domingo last month.

After an investigation, police arrested Carmona yesterday.

Apparently Carmona had been paying the real Carmona’s family hush money to use his identity.  Recently, the family went to Carmona and asked him for more money after the Cleveland Indians picked up his $7 million club option for 2012 in October, and he refused.  The real Carmona’s mother then called the radio station and outed him.

Carmona, who made $6.1 million with the Indians last season, made his major league debut with the Indians on April 15, 2006 as a starting pitcher.  He was quickly turned into a reliever, but today he is a starting pitcher.

Reports say Carmona’s real age is 31, and not 28 as previously believed.

Wow…lots of questions here….Will the Indians void the new contract?  Where is the real Fausto Carmona?  Will the real Carmona’s mother be arrested on extortion charges?  How was he able to get away with this for over five years?

Uthayakanthan Thirunavukkarasu, also known as Max or Mano, pleaded guilty on Friday to participating in a criminal organization, proceeds of crime, criminal negligence causing bodily harm and fraud.

He is scheduled to be sentenced in March.

Authorities say in 2007, Thirunavukkaras, of Scarborough, purchased wrecked vehicles from salvage yards that had been written off and gave them to cohorts who crashed them into each other on city streets.

Insurance companies paid $1.5 million to replaced the cars and provide medical benefits to 46 people, who received medical reports from health professionals that Thirunavukkarasu worked with, claiming they were injured.

Canada has a $1.3 billion a year Insurance fraud problem.

Teresa Giudice’s husband, Joe, is accused of fraudulently obtaining a driver’s license.  He was charged with one count of impersonation and one count of wrongfully using identifying information of another.  If convicted, he faces up to ten years in prison.

It is alleged that 40-year-old Giudice used his brother’s marriage and birth certificates to obtain his new driver’s license with his picture. 

Giudice is not allowed to have a driver’s license because of a DUI conviction.

The scam was discovered earlier this year when Giudice’s brother, Pietro, was pulled over during a routine traffic stop.

When police checked Pietro’s driver’s license in their system Joe Giudice’s picture came up.

When is this family going to learn their lesson?

After a 2 year investigation, former Owen Public School principal Stephan Howard and school administrator Androniki Labiris were charged with fraud over $5,000, theft over $5,000 and misappropriation of fund held under direction.

Authorities said sixty-two year old Howard and fifty-one year old Lambiris used school budgeted funds to purchased items that were supposed to be bought with money raised by the parent council.  Howard and Lambiris, who had sole care and responsibility for the accounts, then used the parent council funds to buy non-approved items and to pay for expenses for the North York school and themselves.

The total value of monies involved in the misappropriation is believed to be over $64,000.

Reports say that a total of $21,000 has been paid back to the parent council by the Toronto District School Board.

Authorities said that since 2003, David Silverstein and Lyudmila Shimonova defrauded the government of hundreds of thousands of dollars by collecting public housing vouchers, disability checks and food stamps.  Shimonova also collected $2,000 a month from a federal program for destitute disabled Americans and state programs meant to feed families, all while living in a 2,300 square-foot home on Lake Washington and driving luxury vehicles.

Authorities said that Shimonova claimed she was single, which helped her to qualify for some of the programs.

It is believed that Silverstein claimed his office as his main residence

Authorities said the couple spent the checks they received from the government on vacations to Moscow, Paris, Israel, Turkey, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

The couple has not charged with crimes, however, they are being sued in federal court for $11,000 for each false claim.

Silverstein is the owner of Seward Park Chiropractic Center.

Former Quebec’s family minister, Tony Tomassi, was arrested on Monday and charged with fraud and breach of breach.

Tomassi, who was first elected to represent LaFontaine for the Liberal Party in 2003, is accused of paying gas bills with a credit card belonging to the BCIA, a company that had received millions of dollars in government contracts, including a $1.6 million prison security contract and a provincial loan before the company filed for bankruptcy.

If convicted, Tomassi faces up to five years in prison.

He is scheduled to appear in court on January 10.

Five out of the six Great Neck North High School students are said to have paid Sam Eshaghoff up to $2,500 to take the exams that colleges based students’ acceptance on.

Eshaghoff, who is a student at Emory University, promised the teenagers almost perfect scores and out of a possible 2,400 they received, 2,220, 2,210, 2,140, 2,180, 2,180 and 2,170.

Buzz of the fraud around school led officials to check into the incident.  School officials then identified students who were not expected to score high on the exams with the almost perfect scores.

Authorities say Eshaghoff, who charged the students between $1,500 and $2,500 used phony driver’s licenses that had his picture but the students’ names.

Eshaghoff, who graduated from Great Neck North in 2010, is charged with scheming to defraud, falsifying business records and criminal impersonation.  He faces up to four years in jail if he is convicted.

Reports say there was a female student who had not paid Eshaghoff with cash, but they did not say how he was compensated.

The identities of the students were not released.

Ward, whose trial lasted two weeks, looked stoic when the verdict was being read.

He faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced in November.

Prosecutors say Ward shot and killed his wife in September 2009, days before she was due to give a deposition in a lawsuit alleging he used money meant to maintain subdivisions in Tennessee to purchase expensive homes and cars for himself.

The jury heard a 911 call that Ward made immediately after his wife was shot where he confessed five times to killing his wife.  After hiring an attorney, Ward said his wife committed suicide.

Reports say at the time of the murder the Wards were under stress from the bankruptcy of their real estate company, Land Resource.

An insurance company that issued bonds for subdivisions the Wards were building in Tennessee in 2007 had filed a $20 million lawsuit against the builder and his wife claiming they used the money that was meant to improve the subdivisions to buy their 8,800 square foot home in Isleworth, Florida, and to pay off mortgages totaling $2.5 million on two homes they owned in Georgia.

They were also accused of purchasing a $140,000 Mercedes Benz with the money.

The Wards two children, who were in the courtroom today, have supported their father since his arrest.

Prosecutors say from 2005 until this year, Tate George, a former guard for the New Jersey Nets and Milwaukee Bucks, raised money from investors, mostly professional athletes, to finance real estate projects he claimed were being built by his company The George Group.

Investigations say George, who was owner and CEO of the company, gave his investors promissory notes guaranteeing their principal and pre-determined interest.

Reports say George, who said his company managed a $500 million portfolio in Connecticut, New Jersey, Florida and Illinois, took money from the most recent investors to pay those who had invested earlier.

It is believed he used the money for his personal expenses, meals, gasoline, clothing and home improvement projects for himself.

George, who is being charged with fraud, surrendered to New Jersey police Friday.

After a brief appearance in U.S. District Court, the forty-three year old Newark resident was released on a bond secured by his mother’s house.

Before he was drafted in the NBA, George played on the UConn men’s basketball team from 1986-1990.