Business

Some say New York is all about the money, Los Angeles is all about the fame and Washington is all about the power. What, then, is Baltimore about? “Lots of things,” says Chris Wilson, one of the speakers at this year’s Baltimore Homecoming. In a “fireside chat” Thursday morning, the artist, author and social justice advocate reeled off a list of the city’s assets, including its tech sector, higher education institutions and hospitals.

A Baltimore man faces embezzlement and theft charges stemming from more than $11,000 in club funds that went missing when he served as a president and treasurer of the Annapolis-area branch of the Sons of the American Revolution, according to recently unsealed court filings. An official from the society’s John Paul Jones branch, which meets in Edgewater, told police that Michael James Kelley Jr., 41, admitted to stealing funds when he was confronted, according to charging papers, which say the branch kept receipts from a three-month period where Kelley withdrew $11,085.

Eugene Andrew DiNoto, of Bel Air, pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, engaging in an illegal monetary transaction and filing a false tax return, in connection with a kickback scheme that defrauded his employer of more than $29 million, according to the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office. According to the plea, DiNoto, 51, was a longtime employee of a family-owned global business headquartered in New York, but with manufacturing facilities in Belcamp and Abingdon.

Miranda Mossburg has designed clothes, jewelry and accessories for her business Sweet As Sugarcane, since 2018, but during the pandemic, she partnered with her mother, Christy Mossburg, to launch Frederick Makers, a local online shopping platform. By October 2021, the mother-daughter duo was ready to open the offshoot of that website, a brick and mortar shop called Frederick MADE on West Third Street in downtown Frederick. The shop features work — mostly functional art and crafts — by artists in the DMV region and is open by appointment and for special events and workshops. Sweet As Sugarcane items are now housed among work by dozens of other artists in the shop.

Urban Atlantic has secured $54.25 million from EagleBank to construct The Margaux, a 291-unit workforce housing project near the New Carrollton Metro station. This brings the project’s total financing to $80 million after the developer received $25.4 million in low-rate loans from the Amazon Housing Equity fund. Urban Atlantic is constructing The Margaux as part of a 2.3 million-square-foot mixed-use development, to include a new Metro office building, on property owned by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

The company behind the TurboTax tax-filing program will pay $141 million to customers across the United States who were deceived by misleading promises of free tax-filing services. In Maryland, more than 66,000 consumers are eligible for part of the $2 million in restitution the state will receive, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh said.

A union representing more than 150 workers at Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Courses said Tuesday that it members voted “overwhelmingly” to ratify a 3-year contract with Maryland Jockey Club. “We are all proud of what we’ve accomplished in this new contract,” UFCW Local 27 President Jason Chorpenning said in a statement. The deal provides wage increases and improved health benefits for betting window tellers, parking lot attendants, security officers and more, according to a press release from the Stronach Group, which owns the Maryland Jockey Club. The company said it is continuing to negotiate with unionized food and beverage employees.