Word: conning
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...factories have stirred a heated controversy in the U.S. over the number of American jobs that may be going to Mexican workers. The maquiladoras, thunders Victor Munoz, president of the AFL-CIO's 12,000-member Central Labor Union in El Paso, are "a scam, a con game. All they're creating is more profits." In February union workers surrounded a maquiladora trade show in El Paso with a caravan of trucks. Last week a team of U.S. analysts began a study of the border region for a House subcommittee that is examining the impact of the factories...
...half a century, Julian Altman played his violin at society functions in New York City and Washington. A consummate con man, Altman treated his violin the way he treated people: with little respect. Difficult as he was in life, however, Altman did not want to die without sharing his greatest secret. Before succumbing to cancer in 1985, Altman, 69, told his wife, "Look between the violin case and the cover, and you'll find some interesting papers," she recalls. There she found newspaper clippings reporting the theft of a Stradivarius violin made in 1713 from a Polish virtuoso...
...centerpiece of the volume is Fuku, an 87-page autobiographical odyssey that combines verse and narrative. The title is attributed to an African word used by Latin-American peasants to describe con men and exploiters. Yevtushenko has a little list, starting with Christopher Columbus, whom he evokes as a gold-hungry conquistador and an impatient actor on the set of a television mini-series (" 'When will this all end?!' grumbled Columbus, feeling his face to see if his gray beard had come unglued. 'Somebody, bring me a gin and tonic...
...ethical transgressions go far beyond any gray area. Last week federal and New York City authorities cracked a phony tax- shelter scheme that allegedly bilked more than $115 million from at least 2,500 investors, including Comedian Eddie Murphy. The accused ringleader was John Galanis, 44, a hefty ex-con who managed to build a reputation as a financial wizard by spending lavishly on parties, automobiles and homes...
Before that setback, however, Zadeh was quite a convincing con man: he stung one of North's associates for $250,000, and the colonel himself interceded with the FBI on his behalf in July 1985. The bizarre incident, which outgoing FBI Director William Webster disclosed to the Senate Intelligence Committee last week, offers yet another example of North's overreaching, amateurish operations. More significantly, it indicates that North told Reagan at least once of his efforts to raise money for the contras, despite the official ban on U.S. Government aid to the Nicaraguan rebels...