Ripping Off Dead War Vets' Beneficiaries

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FOCUS: Apocalypse Fairly Soon

FOCUS: Five Facts That Put America to Shame

The NDAA's Coup d'Etat Foiled

FOCUS: The Commencement Address That Won't Be Given

Lendman's report begins: "Three firms, including Prudential and Metropolitan Life, handle retained-asset [fake] accounts for about 130 life insurers. No public records show how much, but at least $28 billion is involved."

US Army Lt. Gen. David Huntoon presents a folded flag to Cindy Lohman, mother of US Army Sgt. Ryan Patrick Baumann, 07/11/08. (photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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+14 # Guest 2010-09-05 21:10

I'll bet that $28 billion is just the tip of the iceberg of fraud as well!!

Just think of how many civilian concerns, not just the VA, have survivor insurance of some sort for their employees, not to mention all the state, local & other Federal agencies...

Billions for Wall Street & not even pennies for Main Street!!!

+13 # Texas Aggie 2010-09-05 21:21

I've dealt with Prudential in the past. This behavior is standard operating procedure for them and it doesn't surprise me a bit. And this isn't the first time they've faced legal action for dishonest practices.

+15 # Guest 2010-09-05 21:35

It should go without saying that predatory practices such as this should NEVER occur, but then why should we be surprised if they do? These insurance companies are merely as predatory and ruthless as the corporate market in general happens to be. They would screw their own grandmothers if that were profitable. Nothing is sacred to them and this is the face of corporate ethics in general. Any profit in human misery is justified in a market that looks at human beings as a resource to exploit to the nth degree instead of being the reason they exist in the first place. This, like so much of corporate practice, begs for regulation. Left to their own devices there is no one they wont rape everyone if given the chance.

+12 # Guest 2010-09-06 05:39

...and these are the same companies we have chosen to maintain the integrity of our health-care!

+11 # Guest 2010-09-06 07:08

When did 'we' chose these companies to maintain the integrity of our health care. What I remember is that 'we' meaning most everyone I know were advocating to get the private insurers out of the health care business except possible to process claims under a single payer system as they do with Medicare contracts. We knew that profit in health care is inherently unhealthy.

+16 # Guest 2010-09-06 07:17

Why isn't this on the front page of every newspaper and the lead for every news program. No, it's all about what Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin have to say and which lunatic church leader is speading anti-Islamic propaganda and hatefulness, which celebrity is behaving badly, and how the Democrats are going to lose big in he next election trying to making it come true.

The masses are not being told what they need to know to make good decisions or how to protect themselves from Big Greed, Inc. That such be number one priority of the press and the government. Not doing this causes more damage than any terrorist outfit could ever dream of.

+7 # Gurka 2010-09-06 09:26

bjw, sadly your description of what occupies people's minds in contrast to what ought to occupy them and be on the front pages everywhere, seems to be correct.
What is America's contribution to the world today? It seems that the US innovative brainpower we used to admire, be it in technology, science etc., today can be summed up in one word: Fraudulence. Greed-driven fraudulence is the driving force in your innovations and inventions. Your society seems to have been totally taken over by the Mafia - from the dignified top to the illiterate bottom, like a social cancer eating its way to the core.

+3 # Guest 2010-09-06 18:40

Dear Gurka, Are you from the Northwest frontier? are you a Gurka soldier? Your thoughts are sad, and as an old old American, I am sad to see/hear of so much fraud. Exposure is the only cure! So speak up! Good luck! Ed & Susan, garrulous octogenarians. Quoting

bjw, sadly your description of what occupies people's minds in contrast to what ought to occupy them and be on the front pages everywhere, seems to be correct.

What is America's contribution to the world today? It seems that the US innovative brainpower we used to admire, be it in technology, science etc., today can be summed up in one word: Fraudulence. Greed-driven fraudulence is the driving force in your innovations and inventions. Your society seems to have been totally taken over by the Mafia - from the dignified top to the illiterate bottom, like a social cancer eating its way to the core.

+1 # Gurka 2010-09-07 00:27

Hi, Ed & Susan, I am young, only 70, and a Northern European. I remember the inspiration we got from the US after WW II. And it is sad to say that we haven't had much to admire in US politics during the last 30 years. Let's hope that exposure of greed and cheat and fraud will be a cure, we certainly need that hope!

+9 # Guest 2010-09-06 08:51

it's time to jail some bankster and insurance execs!!!

+10 # Guest 2010-09-06 09:32

But this is the Republican way of life -- no surprise. And they expect to have their bought-and-paid-for stooges returned to the Congressional majority for renewed mayhem against the public interest. Formula: (1) concoct a phony war, (2) crank up the national debt to hide its true costs, (3) drop taxes on their co-conspirators, (4) pay themselves big bonuses while the economy goes bust for everyone else. Then define patriotism as agreeing with them. Their creed: BILK everyone else. And what's left of journalism in this country is also bought and paid for.

+10 # angelfish 2010-09-06 12:20

Talk about Cojones! These are the people who've been raising our premiums as we sink deeper into the morass left us by Bush & Co. Go ahead people, vote them in come November. Bend over and split your cheeks grinning 'cause they'll "service" you one way or the other, like it or not. If they can do it to our Military dead, imagine what they can and will do to the poor survivors. Don't say you weren't warned. Le deluge de Bush continues unabated!

+6 # Guest 2010-09-06 14:25

Its now a fact that while the elected members in congress have "loyalty" to the electors, they have obligations to the insurance companies and others who now constitute the Military-Industrial complex that Gen Dwight D Eisenhower warned, fruitlessly, about. It has come to pass that the "working-class" is being plucked like chickens on a regular basis. God have mercy!!!

+4 # Guest 2010-09-06 18:16

Aside from a recent NPR story, this is the only other mention of this ghastly fraud I'm aware of in any of the media. Find me a Prosecutor with some integrity and I could suggest how he might write up indictments under existing laws for this swindle. Class Action be damned, let's jail these thieves and toss in a few complicit bureaucrats for good measure. Lawyers are routinely jailed for profiteering on monies held in trust. Their companies are clearly violating their limited fiduciary responsibilitie s by exercising discretion that they do not have. To heck with costly lawsuits, these families should just call a cop.

+2 # tuandon 2010-09-07 05:01

No surprise here...Typical Big-Business practice in the de-regulated wonderful world of US Big Business. They are accountable to nobody, thanks to Reagan, Bush I, and his son Chimpi...

+2 # Guest 2010-09-07 06:13

Not to worry. Any fraud, corruption, lying, stealing, robbing the public is sure to be defended by none other the GOP, republicans, Christian Conservatives and most of all, the judicial system in the USA.

Perhaps that is why insurances companies, like banks, are no longer trusted by the American people.

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