• Business

by Stacy Jackson

January 4, 2023

Florida Man Trying to Buy Property Schemed Out of $15,000 Over Business Email Compromise

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Cyber scams have become a widespread issue worldwide with the convenience of smartphones, emails, and text messaging.

John Gable, a man from Central Florida, lost over $15,000 in a business email compromise (BEC) after an attempt to purchase land in Port Charlotte.

According to News 6, Gable wanted to acquire the land to build a small home and was instructed to wire the down payment to the title company via email. Reportedly, the funds never reached the title company.

“I don’t know where to put the blame,” Gable said. “I got confirmation that evening that they received the funds.”

“I’m sick all the time,” he added. “I can’t believe something like this can happen.”

The outlet reported that Gable did not pay close attention to the email address that provided the wiring instructions, causing him to overlook the subtle dissimilarity.

The wiring instructions were reportedly sent from a hotmail.com email account, which is not the title company’s email provider. The fraudulent recipient attached the convincing emails between Gable, the title company, and the real estate agent in the message strand.

Caroline O’Brien-Buster, a special agent in charge of the Orlando Secret Service office, has witnessed consumers and title company staff get trapped in these cyber schemes, which have reportedly expanded to industrial levels across Florida.

“You’re the only one who can ensure that the money is going where it is supposed to be going,” O’Brien-Buster said. “(The imposters) sit and wait. Their only job is to sit and wait for these transactions.”

The agent said her department tracks business email compromises daily.

“A lot of times it happens, and they don’t even know that it happens,” O’Brien-Buster said. “I’d be going down there to make sure the (financial) wires got to where it needed to go.”

To avoid becoming a victim of such schemes, O’Brien-Buster shared that anyone attempting real estate transactions needs to ensure they are conversing and exchanging with legitimate professionals.

• News

by Atiya Jordan

January 4, 2023

Anthony Brown Becomes Maryland’s First Black Attorney General

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The New Year brings a historic first for the Maryland’s attorney general office.

On Tuesday, Anthony Brown was sworn in as Maryland’s first Black attorney general, CBS News reported.

Brown secured the post by making commitments to justice and equity, decriminalizing marijuana, abortion rights, mass incarceration of Black and brown men, and more.

Brown, a 61-year-old Democrat, former congressman, lieutenant governor and state legislator, acknowledges he is taking on his role at “such a critical moment in our nation’s history” but accepts the challenge.

“It is not lost on me that I am the first African American to hold this office and to assume this awesome responsibility,” Brown said at his swearing-in ceremony Tuesday.

“And I do so at such a critical moment in our nation’s history—a moment when extremist views are challenging our democracy and curtailing fundamental rights, and our economy is failing some while rewarding others.”

As he steps into his new responsibility, Brown wants to push for background checks for gun purchases, voting access, and legislation that would allow him to sue companies and individuals who break civil rights laws, according to DCist. During his speech, he asked the governor and general assembly to grant higher salaries for law enforcement employees, and more funding for investigations and training.

Brown’s historic election is one of several momentous changes in Maryland state’s leadership, including the state’s first Black governor, Wes Moore, whose inauguration is scheduled for January 18. The Office of Attorney General is welcoming an all-women senior leadership team: Candace McLaren Lanham, Carolyn Quattrocki, and Zenita Wickham Hurley.

“The pursuit of equity and justice is where we in the Office of the Attorney General stand every day, and it’s where I’ll stand until my last day as your attorney general,” Brown said, per DCist.

Before assuming his current role, Brown brings with him a political history that has helped him transition into a leading voice on equity and justice matters both in Maryland and on Capitol Hill. From record expungement and fairness in sentencing to domestic violence and neglected children, Brown aims to protect every individual and empower every community.

He most recently served as the representative for Maryland’s 4th Congressional District, a position he held for five years. He was a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from 1999 to 2007 before serving two terms as the state’s lieutenant governor.

The Huntington, NY, native, father, and husband received his law degree from Harvard before serving as an Army aviator.

• Business

by Diamond Jeune

January 4, 2023

Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey CEO Fawn Weaver and Husband Buys a Bank in Tennessee

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Fawn Weaver and her husband, Keith Weaver, appear to have started their New Year’s resolution of building generational wealth a bit early after the Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey CEO shared that they purchased a bank in Tennessee.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Fawn Weaver (@fawn.weaver)

This announcement comes after Fawn revealed that her whisky company had surpassed $100 million in sales in October 2022 and is expected to double that in 2023. Fawn founded Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey in 2017. Since the company’s launch, it has become a best-selling brand and received numerous awards.

In the Instagram reel shared on December 23, Fawn disclosed why this purchase was monumental while revealing that she and Keith brought the building that his parents owned.

Fawn said, “So…we bought a bank. Actually, even better, we bought the building and became the landlord of Keith’s parent’s bank. You want to know how women and people of color decrease the wealth gap? Real estate.”

Further in the caption, Fawn reflected on when she was living in a homeless shelter at 19 years old and how she read biographies of numerous business professionals. Each story, she added, had an underlying theme: “significant investments in real estate.”

Fawn added, “Somewhere between living in my third homeless shelter, before the age of 19 (shout out to @covenant_house) and coming into my own, I spent a lot of time reading biographies on America’s early titans like Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Charles Schwab, Andrew Mellon, J.D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan. You want to know what they all had in common? Significant investments in real estate.”

Also, in the post, Fawn claimed that her interest in owning real estate was further fueled by Keith, because of his previous success in the three properties he owns. Because of Keith’s guidance throughout this journey, she said, they have been able to buy and sell real estate as their “main form of net worth for nearly 20 years.”

Fawn closed the caption by encouraging others to build their generational wealth: “We are the generation that knows better. So, we can do better. The Weavers are committed to doing better so the next generation isn’t starting from scratch. Want to join us.”

Since that announcement, no additional details have been released.

Cameron Batson, who was part of the Atlanta Falcons‘ practice squad, has been released by the team after being arrested for an altercation with an Atlanta police officer over the weekend.

“The Atlanta Falcons have released wide receiver Cameron Batson from the practice squad. With the release of Batson, the Falcons currently have 15 players on the practice squad,” the team wrote in a statement to the media outlet.

During a court hearing on Monday morning, a Fulton County judge granted Batson a $95,000 bond. With the bond amount, the judge stated that he would be permitted to travel with the Falcons so he can continue to work with the team. Shortly after that, however, the Falcons announced his release.

The Atlanta Police Department stated that Batson has been charged with Aggravated Assault Against Law Enforcement Officer When Engaged on Official Duty, Aggravated Assault, Battery, Removal of Weapon from a Public Official, and Driving-Fleeing to Elude Police Officer.

According to reports, police authorities stated that at around 2 a.m. on December 31, an officer saw a pickup truck speeding and not staying in its lane. The officer stopped the vehicle on I-75 North at the Northside Drive exit. After determining that Batson was drunk, he reportedly attempted to take him into custody. While trying to do so, Batson started to fight with the officer.

While fighting with the football player, the officer’s weapon went off, but no one was hit. Batson was able to elude the police officer and get back into his car and leave the scene. He crashed a short distance away near Northside Drive and Echota Drive, got out of his car, and attempted to escape on foot.

Several police officers set out to find him and located him hiding in the area. He was then taken into custody. Batson and the police officer were both taken to the hospital for injuries sustained during the altercation.

• News

by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

January 4, 2023

Florida Man ‘Dr. Love’ Going Back to Prison After Another Scam

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A man who was previously imprisoned for impersonating a doctor has been sentenced again for a new scam.

According to The Associated Press, last week, 25-year-old Malachi Love-Robinson was sentenced to over two years and four months after pleading guilty to grand theft and organized scheme to defraud in Palm Beach County, FL.

The repeat offender pleaded guilty to stealing more than $10,000 from the company he was working for. Court documents reveal that in 2020, Robinson was working as a salesperson for a company that connects shippers with trucking companies. However, instead of having customers send payments to the company, Love-Robinson directed payments to accounts that he controlled.

Love-Robinson became infamous in 2016 when he used the moniker “Dr. Love” and opened a facility, The New Birth New Life Medical Center, at the age of 18. He was somehow able to swindle several people under this guise.

He was accused of stealing $30,000 from a woman in her 80s who he treated and made house calls to. He was also able to steal an additional $20,000 from a doctor. A sting operation was set up and he was caught and arrested after Love-Robnson examined an undercover police officer posing as a patient. The fake doctor also prescribed treatment to the police officer.

According to NBC News, at a press conference that took place in 2016, Love-Robinson stated that he had been interested in naturopathic treatment and never implied that he was a doctor of medicine.

“This was not about me trying to hurt people, this was not about me trying to say I’m a medical doctor,” Love-Robinson said. “Because, honestly, people have misconstrued my name, they misconstrued my age, they’ve misconstrued where I’m from, they’ve misconstrued everything about me.”

Prison did not deter him from committing more crimes.

While he was out on bail later that year, Love-Robinson was arrested in Virginia after he tried to purchase a Jaguar with a stolen credit card.

He entered a plea of guilty in both cases and was in prison until his release in 2019.

This wouldn’t be the first time Oprah Winfrey gave Barbara Walters her flowers for being a pioneer in television, opening doors for all the women hosts to follow.

Talk show host and television producer Oprah Winfrey shared a warm tribute to the late broadcast journalist Barbara Walters, following the television personality’s passing last week.

According to People, shortly after Walters passed on December 30, Winfrey posted a photo to her Instagram, where the two media moguls appeared sitting next each other, full of smiles.

“Without Barbara Walters there wouldn’t have been me — nor any other woman you see on evening, morning, and daily news,” Winfrey wrote in the caption. “She was indeed a Trailblazer. I did my very first television audition with her in mind the whole time.”

• News

by Atiya Jordan

January 4, 2023

Rebuilding: Bruce Family to Sell Black-Owned Seaside Property Back to L.A. County for $20M

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There has been a new development in the historic transaction between Los Angeles County and the Black heirs of Charles and Willa Bruce.

On Tuesday, it was announced that the Bruce family will be selling two parcels of their Manhattan Beach property back to the county for nearly $20 million, Daily Breeze reported. An act of property-based reparations, this move comes fewer than six months after the county acknowledged that the land had been stolen from the family’s ancestors.

As BLACK ENTERPRISE previously reported, Bruce’s Beach, a successful resort for Blacks, was purchased in 1912 by Black husband-and-wife duo Charles and Willa Bruce. While facing racial discrimination and harassment, the couple had their property seized by city officials through eminent domain in 1924.

After nearly 100 years, L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn launched the process of returning the property to the descendants of the Bruces in April 2021. In July 2022, the family officially secured ownership of the seaside property, with an agreement that the county would lease a lifeguard station on the property for about $400,000 a year.

In a KBLA radio interview, George Fatheree III, the Bruce family’s attorney, confirmed that the sale was possible thanks to an additional compromise that allowed the option to sell the property back to the county, according to The LA Times.

“What was stolen from the family was the property, but what the property represented was the ability to create and preserve and group and pass down generational wealth,” Fatheree said in the interview. “And by allowing the family now to have certainty in selling this property to the county, taking the proceeds of that sale, and investing it in their own futures — that’s restoring some of what the family lost. I think we all need to respect the family’s decision to know what’s in its best interest.”

In a statement, Hahn echoed Fatheree, describing the sale as an opportunity for the Bruce family to get a glimpse of what generational wealth looks like, as well as an example of reparations in progress.

“This fight has always been about what is best for the Bruce family,” Hahn said, “and they feel what is best for them is selling this property back to the County for nearly $20 million and finally rebuilding the generational wealth they were denied for nearly a century.”

“This is what reparations look like,” she added, “and it is a model that I hope governments across the country will follow.”

• COVID-19

by Derek Major

January 4, 2023

Dr. Dwight Reynolds Urges the Cruise Industry and Black Americans to Get Updated COVID Vaccinations

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The 2022 holiday season saw families gather in a way they haven’t since before the pandemic. But now, as the new year begins, Dr. Dwight Reynolds, the CEO and president of the Centers for Health Promotion (CHP), wants to remind Black people and the cruise industry that the COVID-19 pandemic is not over.

“I look at the cruise industry as being the tip of the spear when it comes down to people traveling and getting around because they’re on a vessel that’s like an Army barracks, where a virus goes throughout the entire barracks initially,” Reynolds told BLACK ENTERPRISE.

“So what I’ve been telling people is, don’t be disillusioned by disinformation, some people think we’re done with COVID, but COVID is not done with us. There’s been a rise in covid deaths and hospitalizations over the last month and no one seems to be willing to track that or talk about it.”

Dr. Reynolds and his medical team administered COVID-19 vaccinations to more than 68,000 cruise industry employees during the height of the pandemic, working with Carnival Cruise Lines, Royal Caribbean Group, and Azamara. CHP also provided vaccinations to underserved African Americans, Hispanics, and communities with healthcare disparities.

Reynolds believes the cruise industry should be the leader of the pack when it comes to getting updated COVID-19 vaccinations, and cruise passengers should do the same to avoid the issues that halted cruises in 2020 and in Australia recently.

“In other words, get your crew vaccinated first with those updated bivalent vaccines and then you can begin to press the issue on your guests,” said Reynolds. “My point is, if the crew members can protect themselves the best they can, the lines can require travelers to have their vaccinations updated, so the biggest thing we need to do now is let the cruise industry know we still have a problem and that problem will only be magnified over the next two or three months if we don’t act on it and act on it now.”

Reynolds, a Michigan State University College of Human Medicine alum who trained at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, said getting updated booster vaccinations will not only prevent death but also decrease the number of serious diseases and hospitalizations that are likely to occur in the coming weeks and months.

According to Reynolds, the new bivalent booster was created to combat multiple strains of COVID-19 including the alpha, delta, and omicron strains and protect against severe illness and death. A new subvariant of omicron, named XBB.1.5, has raised concerns about another wave of COVID-19 cases following the busy holiday season.

“If you’re in an enclosed space like a cruise ship you want to make sure that you cover yourself first, but you also want to make sure the cruise ship has done its job too,” Reynolds said, adding that the only treatment for COVID-19 is the antiviral Paxlovid.

“I would make sure that ship has an adequate amount of Paxlovid, which kills the virus in a couple of days, minimizing the symptoms of the virus,” Reynolds added. “So if I’m on a five- or ten-day cruise ship and I test negative before I get on the cruise but I come down with something and I test positive, I don’t want to be locked in my cabin for the next six or seven days, I want to be treated so I can move around.”

The doctor is also urging Black Americans to stay updated on their vaccinations. The number of COVID-19 infections has decreased slightly among Black people, but the mortality rate is still significantly higher than their White counterparts.

“We’re not getting it in bigger numbers, but we’re more apt to die from COVID-19 and the country still has about 2,5000 COVID-19 deaths per week, so we still have a real pandemic going on and Black people better wake up.”

Reynolds also added that pharmaceutical companies will begin charging as much as $187 per dose for the updated bivalent vaccinations once the federal government subsidies expire later this year.

As the world prays for the well-being of Buffalo Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin, it was revealed that he had to be resuscitated twice after suffering cardiac arrest while on the football field Monday night.

According to CNN, Hamlin’s uncle, Dorrian Glenn, stated that the athlete is still sedated after he had to be resuscitated twice, initially on the field and then again at the hospital. He is currently in critical condition at the University of Cincinnati Hospital.

“His heart had went out, so they had to resuscitate him twice. They resuscitated him on the field before they brought him to the hospital, and then they resuscitated him a second time when they got him to the hospital,” Glenn told the media outlet outside the hospital.

During the first quarter of Monday night’s football game between the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals, after tackling an opposing player, Hamlin fell to the ground after seemingly looking OK after the play. It was later determined that he suffered a cardiac arrest after he collapsed.

“They sedated him just to give a better chance for him to just continue to heal better. We are just taking it day by day. It seems like he’s trending upwards in a positive way,” Glenn said.

Glenn also stated that his nephew is “flipped over on his stomach” at the hospital to help with the blood on his lungs. The doctors told him Hamlin was in that position to help take the pressure off the lungs so they didn’t have to work as hard. Hamlin is on a ventilator, and the goal is to get him to breathe on his own.

The Buffalo Bills released a statement on Tuesday via their Twitter account informing fans of Hamlin’s current state.

“Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest following a hit in our game versus the Bengals. His heartbeat was restored on the field and he was transferred to the UC Medical Center for further testing and treatment. He is currently sedated and listed in critical condition.”

Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest following a hit in our game versus the Bengals. His heartbeat was restored on the field and he was transferred to the UC Medical Center for further testing and treatment. He is currently sedated and listed in critical condition.

— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) January 3, 2023

• Technology

by BLACK ENTERPRISE Editors

January 4, 2023

Melanated AI: A New Marketplace Celebrating AI Artists and Creators of Color

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A new online marketplace, Melanated AI (www.melanated.ai), is dedicated to celebrating and supporting the work of AI artists and creators of color. This unique platform allows these artists to sell their art as digital downloads, prints, canvas, or non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are a digital asset that represents ownership of a unique item, such as digital artwork. They have become an increasingly popular medium for artists and collectors in the digital art world, allowing for the creation and trade of unique, verifiable digital items.

NFTs offer a new avenue for artists to monetize their work and reach new audiences. By selling their artwork as NFTs, artists can potentially earn a higher price for their work, as collectors are willing to pay a premium for the uniqueness and authenticity of the piece.

This can be particularly valuable for emerging AI artists who may not have a large following or established reputation.

Currently there is a debate on the ownership of AI artwork since its generated by crafting text prompts and feeding them into software.

The question of ownership in the context of AI artwork is a complex and often debated topic. On one hand, AI artwork is created using algorithms and software, which raises questions about the extent to which the artist can claim ownership of the final product.

On the other hand, many AI artists argue that they play a significant role in the creative process and should be recognized as the creators of the work. Overall, the debate over ownership in the context of AI artwork is ongoing, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. However, by taking an active role in the creative process and using their own original content as input, AI artists can assert their ownership of the work and claim a significant part of the creation.

Melanated AI was founded with the goal of increasing representation and visibility for AI artists and creators of color within the art world. It is a place where these artists can showcase their talent and reach new audiences, while also monetizing their work.

The platform features a diverse range of art styles and mediums, including digital illustrations, graphic design, and 3D modeling. Customers can browse and purchase artwork by theme, style, or artist, making it easy to discover new talent.

Melanated AI is also committed to educating the public about the role of AI in art and creativity. The platform will also host regular events and workshops featuring AI artists and experts.

“We are thrilled to launch Melanated AI, a platform that celebrates and supports the work of AI artists and creators of color,” said Aquarius Maximus (aka Technologist Tavonia Evans), Founder of Melanated AI. “We believe that representation and diversity in the art world is crucial, and we are excited to offer a space for these talented artists to share their work and connect with new audiences.”