One of the so-called fixers in a sprawling betting scheme to cash in on big bets on rigged NCAA basketball games has pleaded guilty. The federal prosecutors' office in Philadelphia says Jalen Smith appeared Monday in federal court and pleaded guilty to wire fraud and bribery charges. Prosecutors say the Charlotte, North Carolina, man trained local basketball players and used those connections to recruit players in the scheme. Charges against Smith were unsealed in January along with 25 others. Prosecutors say Smith helped fix games in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons. They say he placed bets and recruited players with the promise of a big payment in exchange for purposefully underperforming during a game.

A man who helped recruit players into a sprawling NCAA basketball point-shaving scheme has pleaded guilty.

Gov. Tim Walz has denounced the Trump administration’s latest threat to withhold federal funds from Minnesota as another step in a “retribution” campaign. He also unveiled a package of legislation Thursday intended to fight fraud in public programs, a problem that provided an impetus for the federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota. The governor made the announcement a day after Vice President JD Vance said the administration would “temporarily halt” some Medicaid funding to Minnesota over fraud concerns. But Walz’s proposals were in the works well beforehand. And they followed other initiatives Walz launched earlier to try to come to grips with the problem.

A Hong Kong appellate court on Thursday quashed onetime media magnate Jimmy Lai’s fraud convictions linked to lease violations, in a rare victory in the prominent activist’s legal battles. On Thursday, the judges approved the founder of Apple Daily newspaper's challenge over a case tied to lease violations at his media business. Lai was convicted and sentenced to five years and nine months in prison in 2022 for two fraud charges. Earlier this month, Lai also was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his conviction under a China-imposed national security law. His plight has evoked grief over the city’s loss of press freedom.

Vice President JD Vance has announced that the Trump administration would “temporarily halt” some Medicaid funding to the state of Minnesota over fraud concerns, as part of what he described as an aggressive crackdown on misuse of public funds. Vance, who made the announcement Wednesday with Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the administration was taking the action “in order to ensure that the state of Minnesota takes its obligations seriously to be good stewards of the American people’s tax money.” Wednesday’s move is part of a larger Trump administration effort to spotlight fraud around the country.

Prosecutors portrayed  a Utah mother and children’s book author as a money-hungry killer Monday on the first day of a murder trial in her husband’s death. Her defense team urged jurors not to make judgments before hearing her side of the story. Kouri Richins faces a slew of felony charges for allegedly killing her husband with fentanyl in March 2022 at their home just outside the ski town of Park City. Prosecutors say she slipped five times the lethal dose of the synthetic opioid into a cocktail that he drank. Richins denies the allegations.

A court in Thailand has issued an arrest warrant for Jakkaphong “Anne” Jakrajutatip, a co-owner of the Miss Universe Organization, in connection with a fraud case. The court in Bangkok issued the warrant after she failed to appear in court on Tuesday to answer allegations that she and her company, JKN Global Group, defrauded an investor in the company's corporate bonds. Financially troubled JKN Global began debt rehabilitation in 2024. JKN has denied rumors that Jakkaphong had liquidated the company’s assets and fled the country. It gave no immediate reaction regarding the arrest warrant. Jakkaphong's whereabouts are unclear. She did not appear at the 74th Miss Universe competition, which was held last week in Bangkok.