https www rich9 site egames locale en As open enrollment for Affordable Care Act plans continues through Jan. 15, you’re likely seeing fewer social media ads promising monthly cash cards worth hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars that you can use for groceries, medical bills, rent and other expenses. But don’t worry. You haven’t missed out on any windfalls. Clicking on one of those ads would not have provided you with a cash card — at least not worth hundreds or thousands. But you might have found yourself switched to a health insurance plan you did not authorize, unable to afford treatment for an unforeseen medical emergency, and owing thousands of dollars to the IRS, according to an ongoing lawsuit against companies and individuals who plaintiffs say masterminded the ads and alleged scams committed against millions of people who responded to them. The absence of those once-ubiquitous ads are likely a result of the federal government suspending access to the ACA marketplace for two companies that market health insurance out of South Florida offices, amid accusations they used “fraudulent” ads to lure customers and then switched their insurance plans and agents without their knowledge. In its suspension letter, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) cited “credible allegations of misconduct” in the agency’s decision to suspend the abilities of two companies — TrueCoverage (doing business as Inshura) and BenefitAlign — to transact information with the marketplace. CMS licenses and monitors agencies that use their own websites and information technology platforms to enroll health insurance customers in ACA plans offered in the federal marketplace. The alleged scheme affected millions of consumers, according to a lawsuit winding its way through U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale that seeks class-action status. An amended version of the suit, filed in August, increased the number of defendants from six to 12: — TrueCoverage LLC, an Albuquerque, New Mexico-based health insurance agency with large offices in Miami, Miramar and Deerfield Beach. TrueCoverage is a sub-tenant of the South Florida Sun Sentinel in a building leased by the newspaper in Deerfield Beach. — Enhance Health LLC, a Sunrise-based health insurance agency that the lawsuit says was founded by Matthew Herman, also named as a defendant, with a $150 million investment from hedge fund Bain Capital’s insurance division. Bain Capital Insurance Fund LP is also a defendant. — Speridian Technologies LLC, accused in the lawsuit of establishing two direct enrollment platforms that provided TrueCoverage and other agencies access to the ACA marketplace. — Benefitalign LLC, identified in the suit as one of the direct enrollment platforms created by Speridian. Like Speridian and TrueCoverage, the company is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. — Number One Prospecting LLC, doing business as Minerva Marketing, based in Fort Lauderdale, and its founder, Brandon Bowsky, accused of developing the social media ads that drove customers — or “leads” — to the health insurance agencies. — Digital Media Solutions LLC, doing business as Protect Health, a Miami-based agency that the suit says bought Minerva’s “fraudulent” ads. In September, the company filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors in United States Bankruptcy Court in Texas, which automatically suspended claims filed against the company. — Net Health Affiliates Inc., an Aventura-based agency the lawsuit says was associated with Enhance Health and like it, bought leads from Minerva. — Garish Panicker, identified in the lawsuit as half-owner of Speridian Global Holdings and day-to-day controller of companies under its umbrella, including TrueCoverage, Benefitalign and Speridian Technologies. — Matthew Goldfuss, accused by the suit of overseeing and directing TrueCoverage’s ACA enrollment efforts. All of the defendants have filed motions to dismiss the lawsuit. The motions deny the allegations and argue that the plaintiffs failed to properly state their claims and lack the standing to file the complaints. The Sun Sentinel sent requests for comment and lists of questions about the cases to four separate law firms representing separate groups of defendants. Three of the law firms — one representing Brandon Bowsky and Number One Prospecting LLC d/b/a Minerva Marketing, and two others representing Net Health Affiliates Inc. and Bain Capital Insurance Fund — did not respond to the requests. A representative of Enhance Health LLC and Matthew Herman, Olga M. Vieira of the Miami-based firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, responded with a short message saying she was glad the newspaper knew a motion to dismiss the charges had been filed by the defendants. She also said that, “Enhance has denied all the allegations as reported previously in the media.” Catherine Riedel, a communications specialist representing TrueCoverage LLC, Benefitalign LLC, Speridian Technologies LLC, Girish Panicker and Matthew Goldfuss, issued the following statement: “TrueCoverage takes these allegations very seriously and is responding appropriately. While we cannot comment on ongoing litigation, we strongly believe that the allegations are baseless and without merit. “Compliance is our business. The TrueCoverage team records and reviews every call with a customer, including during Open Enrollment when roughly 500 agents handle nearly 30,000 calls a day. No customer is enrolled into any policy without a formal verbal consent given by the customer. If any customer calls in as a result of misleading content presented by third-party marketing vendors, agents are trained to correct such misinformation and action is taken against such third-party vendors.” Through Riedel, the defendants declined to answer follow-up questions, including whether the company remains in business, whether it continues to enroll Affordable Care Act clients, and whether it is still operating its New Mexico call center using another affiliated technology platform. The suspension notification from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services letter cites several factors, including the histories of noncompliance and previous suspensions. The letter noted suspicion that TrueCoverage and Benefitalign were storing consumers’ personally identifiable information in databases located in India and possibly other overseas locations in violation of the centers’ rules. The letter also notes allegations against the companies in the pending lawsuit that “they engaged in a variety of illegal practices, including violations of the (Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations, or RICO Act), misuse of consumer (personal identifiable information) and insurance fraud.” The amended lawsuit filed in August names as plaintiffs five individuals who say their insurance plans were changed and two agencies who say they lost money when they were replaced as agents. The lawsuit accuses the defendants of 55 counts of wrongdoing, ranging from running ads offering thousands of dollars in cash that they knew would never be provided directly to consumers, switching millions of consumers into different insurance policies without their authorization, misstating their household incomes to make them eligible for $0 premium coverage, and “stealing” commissions by switching the agents listed in their accounts. TrueCoverage, Enhance Health, Protect Health, and some of their associates “engaged in hundreds of thousands of agent-of-record swaps to steal other agents’ commissions,” the suit states. “Using the Benefitalign and Inshura platforms, they created large spreadsheet lists of consumer names, dates of birth and zip codes.” They provided those spreadsheets to agents, it says, and instructed them to access platforms linked to the ACA marketplace and change the customers’ agents of record “without telling the client or providing informed consent.” “In doing so, they immediately captured the monthly commissions of agents ... who had originally worked with the consumers directly to sign them up,” the lawsuit asserts. TrueCoverage employees who complained about dealing with prospects who called looking for cash cards were routinely chided by supervisors who told them to be vague and keep making money, the suit says. When the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began contacting the company in January about customer complaints, the suit says TrueCoverage enrollment supervisor Matthew Goldfuss sent an email instructing agents “do not respond.” The lawsuit states the “scheme” was made possible in 2021 when Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act in the wake of the COVID pandemic. The act made it possible for Americans with household incomes between 100% and 150% of the federal poverty level to pay zero in premiums and it enabled those consumers to enroll in ACA plans all year round, instead of during the three-month open enrollment period from November to January. Experienced health insurance brokers recognized the opportunity presented by the changes, the lawsuit says. More than 40 million Americans live within 100% and 150% of the federal poverty level, while only 15 million had ACA insurance at the time. The defendants developed or benefited from online ads, the lawsuit says, which falsely promised “hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars per month in cash benefits such as subsidy cards to pay for common expenses like rent, groceries, and gas.” Consumers who clicked on the ads were brought to a landing page that asked a few qualifying questions, and if their answers suggested that they might qualify for a low-cost or no-cost plan, they were provided a phone number to a health insurance agency. There was a major problem with the plan, according to the lawsuit. “Customers believe they are being routed to someone who will send them a free cash card, not enroll them in health insurance.” By law, the federal government sends subsidies for ACA plans to insurance companies, and not to individual consumers. Scripts were developed requiring agents not to mention a cash card, and if a customer mentions a cash card, “be vague” and tell the caller that only the insurance carrier can provide that information, the lawsuit alleges. In September, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss the claims. In addition to denying the charges, they argued that the class plaintiffs lacked the standing to make the accusations and failed to demonstrate that they suffered harm. The motion also argued that the lawsuit’s accusations failed to meet requirements necessary to claim civil violations of the RICO Act. Miami-based attorney Jason Kellogg, representing the plaintiffs, said he doesn’t expect a ruling on the motion to dismiss the case for several months. The complaint also lists nearly 50 companies, not named as defendants, that it says fed business to TrueCoverage and Enhance Health. Known in the industry as “downlines,” most operate in office parks throughout South Florida, the lawsuit says. The lawsuit quotes former TrueCoverage employees complaining about having to work with customers lured by false cash promises in the online ads. A former employee who worked in the company’s Deerfield Beach office was quoted in the lawsuit as saying that senior TrueCoverage and Speridian executives “knew that consumers were calling in response to the false advertisements promising cash cards and they pressured agents to use them to enroll consumers into ACA plans.” A former human resources manager for TrueCoverage said sales agents frequently complained “that they did not feel comfortable having to mislead consumers,” the lawsuit said. Over two dozen agents “came to me with these complaints and showed me the false advertisements that consumers who called in were showing them,” the lawsuit quoted the former manager as saying. For much of the time the companies operated, the ACA marketplace enabled agents to easily access customer accounts using their names and Social Security numbers, change their insurance plans and switch their agents of record without their knowledge or authorization, the lawsuit says. This resulted in customers’ original agents losing their commissions and many of the policyholders finding out they suddenly owed far more for health care services than their original plans had required, the suit states. It says that one of the co-plaintiffs’ health plans was changed at least 22 times without her consent. She first discovered that she had lost her original plan when she sought to renew a prescription for her heart condition and her doctor told her she did not have health insurance, the suit states. Another co-plaintiff’s policy was switched after her husband responded to one of the cash card advertisements, the lawsuit says. That couple’s insurance plan was switched multiple times after a TrueCoverage agent excluded the wife’s income from an application so the couple would qualify. Later, they received bills from the IRS for $4,300 to cover tax credits issued to pay for the plans. CMS barred TrueCoverage and BenefitAlign from accessing the ACA marketplace. It said it received more than 90,000 complaints about unauthorized plan switches and more than 183,500 complaints about unauthorized enrollments, but the agency did not attribute all of the complaints to activities by the two companies. In addition, CMS restricted all agents’ abilities to alter policyholders’ enrollment information, the lawsuit says. Now access is allowed only for agents that already represent policyholders or if the policyholder participates in a three-way call with an agent and a marketplace employee. Between June and October, the agency barred 850 agents and brokers from accessing the marketplace “for reasonable suspicion of fraudulent or abusive conduct related to unauthorized enrollments or unauthorized plan switches,” according to an October CMS news release . The changes resulted in a “dramatic and sustained drop” in unauthorized activity, including a nearly 70% decrease in plan changes associated with an agent or broker and a nearly 90% decrease in changes to agent or broker commission information, the release said. It added that while consumers were often unaware of such changes, the opportunity to make them provided “significant financial incentive for non-compliant agents and brokers.” But CMS’ restrictions might be having unintended consequences for law-abiding agents and brokers. A story published by Insurance News Net on Nov. 11 quoted the president of the Health Agents for America (HAFA) trade group as saying agents are being suspended by CMS after being flagged by a mysterious algorithm that no one can figure out. The story quotes HAFA president Ronnell Nolan as surmising, “maybe they wrote too many policies on the same day for people who have the same income or they’re writing too many policies on people of a certain occupation.” Nolan continued, “We have members who have thousands of ACA clients. They can’t update or renew their clients. So those consumers have lost access to their professional agent, which is simply unfair.” Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.( MENAFN - IANS) Jerusalem, Dec 16 (IANS) Israel has inaugurated its first power plant that generates electricity from sea waves, Israel's Ministry of energy and Infrastructure said in a statement. Located at Jaffa port in the Mediterranean city of Tel Aviv-Yafo, the power plant has an installed capacity of 100 kilowatts. It was developed by the Israeli energy company Eco Wave Power and built in collaboration with the French state-owned electricity utility EDF and the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, with funding from the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, Xinhua news agency reported. The facility consists of 10 buoys installed along the breakwater at Jaffa Port, each connected to a patented energy conversion unit that allows for easy operation and maintenance. The buoys rise and fall with wave movements, driving a hydraulic motor and generator onshore. The system is capable of generating electricity from waves as low as 60 cm in height. Equipped with a smart control system, the technology raises the buoys above the sea surface during storms to prevent damage. All electricity generated by the project is supplied to Israel's national grid, with the state-owned Israel Electric Corporation purchasing all the energy produced by the facility. The ministry noted that the project is a step toward increasing energy production from renewable sources, reducing air pollution, and enhancing Israel's energy security. MENAFN15122024000231011071ID1108995881 Legal Disclaimer: MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.

Princess Andre, 17, stuns in a dazzling bejewelled gown at the star-studded 2024 Beauty Awards - after teasing surprise career move

MOREHEAD, Ky. (AP) — Steven Clay scored 16 points as Morehead State beat Kentucky Christian 86-63 on Sunday. Clay shot 5 of 8 from the field, including 3 for 5 from 3-point range, and went 3 for 5 from the line for the Eagles (4-6). Jalen Breazeale scored 10 points, shooting 4 of 5 from the field and 1 for 3 from the line. Jerone Morton had nine points and went 3 of 6 from the field. Jayden Loydd finished with 15 points for the Knights. Kaleb Ramer added 12 points and four assists for Kentucky Christian. Josh Stacy also had 10 points. Up next for Morehead State is a Thursday matchup with UT Martin at home, and Kentucky Christian visits Wofford on Saturday. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .

Vladimir Putin has been subjected to further embarrassment as his troops were ridiculed during their hurried evacuation from Syria . Local residents jeered at Russian forces as they accelerated their withdrawal from the Middle Eastern nation following the collapse of the Assad regime in Damascus. In a video clip, a Syrian man was seen waving a shoe in the air towards a Russian convoy, followed by an obscene hand gesture. The real winner after the Syrian rebellion as country could 'exploit new era' Syrian rebels 'may threaten Israel' as Iran to 'double down' on nuclear weapons The act of brandishing a removed shoe is considered a mark of disrespect. This tense interaction occured as Moscow strives to maintain its military and naval bases in Syria, despite forces being retracted towards Putin's Khmeimim Airbase in Latakia Province. Satellite imagery seemed to reveal a large number of soldiers being flown back to Russia , accompanied by a significant amount of equipment. However, it remains uncertain whether Putin will manage to sustain a military presence in Syria . One photo displayed two massive An-124 cargo planes - the world's largest - stationed at the Russian airbase. Three Il-76 transport planes, along with smaller cargo aircraft - three An-32s and one An-72 - were also visible. Russian soldiers were spotted disassembling a Ka-52 attack helicopter. Analysts from Maxar Technologies deduced it was being prepared for transportation. Components of an S-400 anti-aircraft missile system were also being readied for return to Russia . DON'T MISS: Russian military 'stuck and blocked' in Syria after Assad collapse American missing for several months found in Assad prison in Syria Iran's Supreme Leader issues chilling WW3 threat to US over 'Syria plot' Russia has initiated a military evacuation involving a second airfieldKamyshlywhere an Il-76MD transport plane was spotted organizing various military hardware, from T-90 tanks to KAMAZ trucks for extraction. On a Syrian highway, a Russian soldier driving a pickup in a lengthy convoy of military vehicles was questioned about his destination, to which he simply said: "To Russia ." Specifically, Russian forces based in southern Syria are now mobilizing.AI agents are supposed to be the next big thing in AI, but there isn’t an exact definition of what they are. To this point, people can’t agree on what exactly constitutes an AI agent. At its simplest, an AI agent is best described as AI-fueled software that does a series of jobs for you that a human customer service agent, HR person or IT help desk employee might have done in the past, although it could ultimately involve any task. You ask it to do things, and it does them for you, sometimes crossing multiple systems and going well beyond simply answering questions. For example, Perplexity last month released an AI agent that helps people do their holiday shopping (and it’s not the only one ). And Google last week announced its first AI agent, called Project Mariner , which can be used to find flights and hotels, shop for household items, find recipes, and other tasks. Seems simple enough, right? Yet it is complicated by a lack of clarity. Even among the tech giants, there isn’t a consensus. Google sees them as task-based assistants depending on the job: coding help for developers; helping marketers create a color scheme; assisting an IT pro in tracking down an issue by querying log data. For Asana, an agent may act like an extra employee , taking care of assigned tasks like any good co-worker. Sierra, a startup founded by former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor and Google vet Clay Bavor, sees agents as customer experience tools, helping people achieve actions that go well beyond the chatbots of yesteryear to help solve more complex sets of problems. This lack of a cohesive definition does leave room for confusion over exactly what these things are going to do, but regardless of how they’re defined, the agents are for helping complete tasks in an automated way with as little human interaction as possible. Rudina Seseri, founder and managing partner at Glasswing Ventures, says it’s early days and that could account for the lack of agreement. “There is no single definition of what an ‘AI agent’ is. However, the most frequent view is that an agent is an intelligent software system designed to perceive its environment, reason about it, make decisions, and take actions to achieve specific objectives autonomously,” Seseri told TechCrunch. She says they use a number of AI technologies to make that happen. “These systems incorporate various AI/ML techniques such as natural language processing, machine learning, and computer vision to operate in dynamic domains, autonomously or alongside other agents and human users.” Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO at Box, says that over time, as AI becomes more capable, AI agents will be able to do much more on behalf of humans, and there are already dynamics at play that will drive that evolution. “With AI agents, there are multiple components to a self-reinforcing flywheel that will serve to dramatically improve what AI Agents can accomplish in the near and long-term: GPU price/performance, model efficiency, model quality and intelligence, AI frameworks and infrastructure improvements,” Levie wrote on LinkedIn recently. That’s an optimistic take on the technology that assumes growth will happen in all these areas, when that’s not necessarily a given. MIT robotics pioneer Rodney Brooks pointed out in a recent TechCrunch interview that AI has to deal with much tougher problems than most technology, and it won’t necessarily grow in the same rapid way as, say, chips under Moore’s law have. “When a human sees an AI system perform a task, they immediately generalize it to things that are similar and make an estimate of the competence of the AI system; not just the performance on that, but the competence around that,” Brooks said during that interview. “And they’re usually very over-optimistic, and that’s because they use a model of a person’s performance on a task.” The problem is that crossing systems is hard, and this is complicated by the fact that some legacy systems lack basic API access. While we are seeing steady improvements that Levie alluded to, getting software to access multiple systems while solving problems it may encounter along the way could prove more challenging than many think. If that’s the case, everyone could be overestimating what AI agents should be able to do. David Cushman, a research leader at HFS Research, sees the current crop of bots more like Asana does: assistants that help humans complete certain tasks in the interest of achieving some sort of user-defined strategic goal. The challenge is helping a machine handle contingencies in a truly automated way, and we are clearly not anywhere close to that yet. “I think it’s the next step,” he said. “It’s where AI is operating independently and effectively at scale. So this is where humans set the guidelines, the guardrails, and apply multiple technologies to take the human out of the loop — when everything has been about keeping the human in the loop with GenAI,” he said. So the key here, he said, is to let the AI agent take over and apply true automation. Jon Turow, a partner at Madrona Ventures, says this is going to require the creation of an AI agent infrastructure, a tech stack designed specifically for creating the agents (however you define them). In a recent blog post, Turow outlined examples of AI agents currently working in the wild and how they are being built today. In Turow’s view, the growing proliferation of AI agents — and he admits, too, that the definition is still a bit elusive — requires a tech stack like any other technology. “All of this means that our industry has work to do to build infrastructure that supports AI agents and the applications that rely upon them,” he wrote in the piece. “Over time, reasoning will gradually improve, frontier models will come to steer more of the workflows, and developers will want to focus on product and data — the things that differentiate them. They want the underlying platform to ‘just work’ with scale, performance, and reliability.” One other thing to keep in mind here is that it’s probably going to take multiple models, rather than a single LLM, to make agents work, and this makes sense if you think about these agents as a collection of different tasks. “I don’t think right now any single large language model, at least publicly available, monolithic large language model, is able to handle agentic tasks. I don’t think that they can yet do the multi-step reasoning that would really make me excited about an agentic future. I think we’re getting closer, but it’s just not there yet,” said Fred Havemeyer, head of U.S. AI and software research at Macquarie US Equity Research. “I do think the most effective agents will likely be multiple collections of multiple different models with a routing layer that sends requests or prompts to the most effective agent and model. And I think it would be kind of like an interesting [automated] supervisor, delegating kind of role.” Ultimately for Havemeyer, the industry is working toward this goal of agents operating independently. “As I’m thinking about the future of agents, I want to see and I’m hoping to see agents that are truly autonomous and able to take abstract goals and then reason out all the individual steps in between completely independently,” he told TechCrunch. But the fact is that we are still in a period of transition where these agents are concerned, and we don’t know when we’ll get to this end state that Havemeyer described. While what we’ve seen so far is clearly a promising step in the right direction, we still need some advances and breakthroughs for AI agents to operate as they are being envisioned today. And it’s important to understand that we aren’t there yet. This story was originally published July 13, 2024, and was updated to include new agents from Perplexity and Google.

Vanguard S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value ETF (NYSEARCA:IVOV) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume – Here’s WhyAfter weeks of fear and bewilderment about the drones buzzing over parts of New York and New Jersey, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer is urging the federal government to deploy better drone-tracking technology to identify and ultimately stop the airborne pests. The New York Democrat is calling on the Department of Homeland Security to immediately deploy special technology that identifies and tracks drones back to their landing spots, according to briefings from his office. Schumer’s calls come amid growing public concern that the federal government hasn’t offered clear explanations as to who is operating the drones, and has not stopped them. National security officials have said the drones don’t appear to be a sign of foreign interference. “There’s a lot of us who are pretty frustrated right now,” said Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, on Fox News Sunday. “The answer ‘We don’t know’ is not a good enough answer.” President-elect Donald Trump posted on social media last week: “Can this really be happening without our government’s knowledge? I don’t think so. Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down.” Certain agencies within the Department of Homeland Security have the power to “incapacitate” drones, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Sunday. “But we need those authorities expanded,” he said, without saying exactly how. The drones don’t appear to be linked to foreign governments, Mayorkas said. “We know of no foreign involvement with respect to the sightings in the Northeast. And we are vigilant in investigating this matter,” Mayorkas said. Last year, federal aviation rules began requiring certain drones to broadcast their identities. It’s not clear whether that information has been used to determine who is operating the drones swarming locations in New York and New Jersey. Mayorkas’ office didn’t immediately respond to questions about whether they’ve been able to identify drones using this capability. Schumer is calling for recently declassified radar technology to be used to help determine whether an object is a drone or a bird, identify its electronic registration, and follow it back to its landing place. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Sunday said federal officials were sending a drone detection system to the state. “This system will support state and federal law enforcement in their investigations,” Hochul said in a statement. The governor did not immediately provide additional details including where they system will be deployed. Dozens of mysterious nighttime flights started last month over New Jersey, raising concerns among residents and officials. Part of the worry stems from the flying objects initially being spotted near the Picatinny Arsenal, a U.S. military research and manufacturing facility and over Trump’s golf course in Bedminster. Drones are legal in New Jersey for recreational and commercial use, but they are subject to local and Federal Aviation Administration regulations and flight restrictions. Operators must be FAA certified. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .

Evolus, Inc. ( NASDAQ:EOLS – Get Free Report ) CFO Sandra Beaver sold 1,586 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.85, for a total transaction of $17,208.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 146,916 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,594,038.60. This represents a 1.07 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website . Evolus Stock Performance NASDAQ:EOLS opened at $11.09 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $13.46 and a two-hundred day moving average of $13.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 20.58, a current ratio of 2.47 and a quick ratio of 2.23. The stock has a market cap of $702.23 million, a P/E ratio of -12.19 and a beta of 1.27. Evolus, Inc. has a 1-year low of $9.80 and a 1-year high of $17.82. Institutional Inflows and Outflows Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of EOLS. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in Evolus by 24.6% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 181,093 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,965,000 after purchasing an additional 35,760 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers grew its position in shares of Evolus by 27.3% during the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 81,439 shares of the company’s stock worth $884,000 after buying an additional 17,442 shares in the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System grew its position in shares of Evolus by 9.4% during the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 14,603 shares of the company’s stock worth $158,000 after buying an additional 1,253 shares in the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Evolus in the second quarter worth $43,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. raised its holdings in Evolus by 9.8% in the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 33,802 shares of the company’s stock valued at $367,000 after acquiring an additional 3,020 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.69% of the company’s stock. Wall Street Analyst Weigh In Check Out Our Latest Report on Evolus Evolus Company Profile ( Get Free Report ) Evolus, Inc, a performance beauty company, focuses on delivering products in the cash-pay aesthetic market in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The company offers Jeuveau, a proprietary 900 kilodalton purified botulinum toxin type A formulation for the temporary improvement in the appearance of moderate to severe glabellar lines in adults. Further Reading Receive News & Ratings for Evolus Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Evolus and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .

NEW YORK — Stoli Group USA, the owner of the namesake vodka , has filed for bankruptcy as it struggled to contend with slowing demand for spirits, a major cyberattack that has snarled its operations and several years of fighting Russia in court. The company in its bankruptcy filing said it is “experiencing financial difficulties” and lists between $50 million and $100 million in liabilities. Stoli vodka and Kentucky Owl bourbon will continue to be available on store shelves while the company navigates the Chapter 11 process, which only pertains to its U.S. business. Until 2022, Stoli was sold as Stolichnaya in the United States, which loosely translates to “capital city” in Russian. The company shortened its title following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and boycotts against Russian-branded vodkas . Stoli Group’s founder, Russian-born billionaire Yuri Shefler, was exiled from that nation in 2000 because of his opposition to President Vladimir Putin. Intel announced on December 2 that CEO Pat Gelsinger has resigned after a difficult stint at the company. The once-dominant chipmaker’s stock cratered as it missed the AI boom and was surpassed by most of its rivals. The liquor has long been marketed as a Russian vodka, but its production facilities have been in Latvia for several decades. Stoli Group is a unit of Luxembourg-based SPI Group, which owns other spirit and wine brands. “The Stoli Group has been targeted by the Russian Federation since it was formed nearly 25 years ago,” said Stoli Group CEO Chris Caldwell in a statement. “Earlier this year the company and our owner were both named by the Russian state as ‘extremist groups working against Russia’s interests.’” Its ongoing legal battle with the Russia government has forced Stoli to “spend dozens of millions of dollars on this long-term court battle across the globe with the Russian authorities,” according to its court filing. Caldwell also said that Stoli’s global operations has been a “victim of a malicious cyber attack” that has forced the company to operate “entirely manually while the systems are rebuilt.” A slowdown in demand for alcohol has crushed several company’s bottom lines following the pandemic when people were stuck at home and stocked up. Stoli’s filings said that it has seen a “decline and softening of demand for alcohol and spirits products post-Covid and especially beginning in 2023 and continuing into 2024.” Stoli Group USA, maker of Stoli vodka, has filed for bankruptcy due to slowing demand for spirits, a major cyberattack, and ongoing legal battles with Russia. The-CNN-WireTM & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly.Pepsi's New Holiday Flavor Leaves Fans Scrambling to Snag the Extremely Limited Offering

Here are the scores from the 16 games involving teams from Broward and Palm Beach counties in the second round of the high school football playoffs.Stoli vodka files for bankruptcy in the United StatesU.S. Agencies Should Use Advanced Technology to Identify Mysterious Drones, Schumer Says