Scamming Homeowners

A Houston-based company is being investigated by the attorney general for scamming homeowners across the country. Those homeowners were in the most desperate of circumstances – they were about to lose their homes. The name of the company is Southern Residential Capital, also known as House911.com.

A restraining order has also been filed to stop the company from practicing, and their assets have been frozen.

Electric Companies Pay Off Lobbyists

Have you ever wondered why Texas' residents electricity bill is so how? Well, read the following:

The electricity industry paid for 343 lobbyists -- almost two for every lawmaker.

CenterPoint Energy paid for 16 lobbyists, spending somewhere between $645,000 and $1.3 million.

American Electric Power, which provides electricity to parts of south and west Texas, had seven lobbyists. It paid between $725,000 and $1 million.

The Association of Electric Companies in Texas paid for 21 lobbyists, spending between $460,000 and $975,000.

The total lobbying tab for all of the electricity industry was somewhere between $10 million and $20 million.

Where does that leave you? Critics say it can cut the consumer almost completely out of the legislative process. They say the industry gets much of what it wants, despite complaints by customers.

Todd Hoeffner Claims He Is A Victim of Fraud

Although Todd Hoeffner was indicted in June on charges of bribery and wire fraud, he claims that he was not a perpetrator but a victim. According to yesterday's news story, the government alleges he used kickbacks to persuade two employees of The Hartford insurance company to settle hundreds of his silicosis cases, and indicted all three of them. The 14-count indictment accurately reflected the payments, Hoeffner acknowledges, but not the context in which they were made.

In a 37-page civil court filing known as a "cross-claim," Hoeffner insists that he was the target of an extortion plot in which routine settlements were held hostage by a claims manager and her boyfriend, who were looking for a nest egg to fund a comfortable post-divorce life together.

Adding to the intrigue is the identity of her boyfriend: the head of the company's claims handling division that dealt with silica cases. Hoeffner accuses the two of working together to force him to pay up or risk getting nothing.