The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "misrepresentation" ...
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Our Money, Their Failures
A six-week investigation by The Virgin Islands Daily News into the people and the money connected to the U.S. Virgin Islands governor's proposal for a $55 million sports complex. The investigative report was published on one day across 11 pages and achieved the result of stopping the project and forcing the governor to pledge no further contracts without vetting the principals. In the case of the sports complex that the governor and some V.I. senators were trying to push through, the investigation uncovered misrepresentations and a string of financial failures by a number of the private parties in the deal with the governor.
Tags: Government; governor; Virgin Islands
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Missing Oversight
These six stories cover financial problems surrounding one of of Glendale's most notable nonprofit organizations, New Horizons. The series started as an article on the long-delayed construction of a planned $4-million childcare center, but quickly grew into a much larger investigation of financial misrepresentations made by the nonprofit's founder and lax city oversight of federal funding. In addition to finding significant budget problems at the nonprofit, the stories revealed that city officials had repeatedly doled out limited federal funds at a time the nonprofit's own records showed they had little funding for the project.
Tags: nonprofit; NGO; federal funding; budget; New Horizons; Glendale; corruption; misrepresentation; finance; construction; childcare center
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Web of Deceit
Through the experiences of a couple which arranged an adoption with a pregnant woman they met online, Dateline NBC examines how such an arrangement can easily be a scam. These situations are "unevenly regulated and potentially risky for all involved." In this case, the couple was "given false promises of a baby to adopt in exchange for hundreds of dollars that they believed were paying for the pregnant woman's rent and food." But through public records, it was found that the woman was using a false name, "and careful surveillance showed she was lying about many other critical aspects of her life." Also, "Dateline was able to determine that the same woman had also duped at least five other families." The woman was eventually charged with a felony.
Tags: adoption; Internet scams; misrepresentation; false pregnancy
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Wize Guys
"An investigation of a company selling get-rish-quick stock market software. Findings included a gross misrepresentation of the 'experts' licensing and qualifications; depositions where at least one principal said he lost money using the product; and principals' ties to financial companies cited for fraud."
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Private Security in a Post-9/11 World
As the focal point of a study of the private guard industry in New York state, WNYC looks at Tristar Patrol Services, "which had seen a dramatic expansion after the September 11 attack in NYC, getting more than $80 million in contract work with the City of New York." The company had more than a thousand employees, mostly young minority males, and they had the task of protecting all of the city's office space, infrastructure and Fire Department facilities. The investigation found that Tristar's owner, Gary Zimmer, had been convicted of assault and had to resign as a police officer for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, yet attained the right to hold a security guard company license when a judge, believing the owner's misrepresentation of his criminal case, granted him an exemption from state law. In addition, there were other issues as Tristar "had been disqualified from doing state work for misrepresenting it had properly credentialed guards, but went on to win a multi-million dollar, multi-year City contract." The company failed to properly compensate guards, including not paying for vacation or advanced state security credentials, and Tristar also did not pay "hundreds of thousands of dollars it was required to pay the union representing the guards to cover union dues and health and welfare benefits required by the contract." But because of the New York Secretary of State's lack of investigators, regulations were not enforced. Also, there is no uniform requirement across the country for the training and qualifications for security guards and companies.
Tags: Private security; Sept. 11, 2001; Tristar Patrol Services; Gary Zimmer; New York City security
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MRDD Boss Profits from his Nonprofit
This series of articles investigates how a nonprofit CEO routed money from the organization into his own private business. Findings included misrepresentation, diversion of cash and possible tax evasion.
Tags: nonprofit; Leadership First; Mental Retardation and Development Disabilities; MRDD; Ohio State University; charity; money
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Model Behavior
Transcontinental Talent (TCT), a website with claims of scouting for future models is in the scanner's eye in this investigation carried out by Dateline-NBC. Having secured entry into the company as a scout and a model, NBC reporters unravel a story of fraud, misrepresentation, false promises and deceptive practices. The investigation finds that TCT scouts are hired "with little or no industry experience". Furthermore, would-be models are pressured into spending around $2,000 to be featured on the TCT website.
Tags: casting directors; modeling agencies; Florida Attorney General; Backstreet Boys; Britney Spears
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Prosecuting Poverty
Brice, a student reporter at Leviathan student magazine, reveals that officials of Butte County, California, tend to investigate thousands of low-income women for welfare fraud every year. Though many of them make a misrepresentation out of desperation or make a mistake, they end up arrested, with felony charges on their records, This only limits their chances to get a job and get off of welfare, the reporter finds.
Tags: fraud; perjury; crime; low income; lawyers; felony; misdemeanor
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Luxury by Design, Quality by Chance
Some of the big builders of luxury homes have cut corners in their rush to earn profits during the construction boom of the 1990s. New owners and building inspectors note walls that are unsecured to foundations, fake stucco, water-soaked wood that warped upon drying, sloping floors, uncompacted ground, and other kinds of building mistakes. Homeowners also charge Toll Brothers, one of the nation's most successful building corporations, with misrepresentation, sloppy siting, and building floor models that were far better built than the homes they later purchased. Further, the "major builders will not sell homes to buyers unless they sign away in advance their right to bring lawsuits."
Tags: home building; construction; developments; real estate; Toll Brothers; Pulte Corp.; semi-custom homes; architect; safety; energy efficiency; building plans; Anderson windows; water heaters; building codes; oversight; baby boomers
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Back to Reform School
A routine inquiry into the progress of welfare reform in the city of Baltimore revealed that promising statistics masked a questionable system-wide practice that favored the most competent cases, leaving the neediest far behind and gouging out a deep disparity gap.
Tags: benefits; welfare rolls; Department of Social Services; caseworker; demographics; bureaucracy DSS unemployment misrepresentation discrimination welfare to work