Declarations

Anthem Data Breach

“The personally identifiable information apparently hacked at Anthem is exactly what tax fraud thieves use to make false refund claims that appear to be legitimate.”

—Kevin Sullivan, commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Revenue Services, on dangers of tax fraud following the recent Anthem data breach that exposed millions of health insurance records. Sullivan urged taxpayers expecting income tax refunds who may be affected by the Anthem data breach to file their taxes quickly.

40 Percent Fraud?TEXT

“Our examination of workers’ compensation estimates that 40 percent of workers costs are related to abuse or outright fraud.”

—Gov. Pat McCrory says workers’ comp fraud has cost North Carolina taxpayers $896 million during the past six years, but the veracity of the 40 percent claim has been questioned by workers’ comp experts and an organization that represents state employees. Ardis Watkins, State Employees Association of North Carolina, says it can’t find a credible source to confirm the fraud percentage claim.

Uber More

“The idea that Uber is simply a software platform, a service provider and nothing else, I don’t find that a very persuasive argument.”

—U.S. District Judge Edward Chen was skeptical of Uber’s bid for a pretrial ruling its drivers are contractors. Uber and Lyft face lawsuits in San Francisco federal court from drivers who contend they are employees and entitled to reimbursement for expenses.

Quakes and Wells

“What’s very difficult is to point to a specific earthquake and say a specific disposal well caused that. … So, how to mitigate the earthquakes is what we’re struggling to resolve.”

—Kansas geologist Rex Buchanan estimates that for the past 15 months he’s spent 90 percent of his time studying something once relatively rare in the state — earthquakes. He says while much is still unknown, he has found there is a correlation between the majority of the 120-plus earthquakes recorded in Kansas last year and the injection of wastewater from fracking into deep disposal wells.

Topics Cyber Fraud Workers' Compensation