Category: Fraud

Ten men were arrested yesterday after what police describe as a movie-like robbery in the Korea Town area of Los Angeles. The men stormed into a jewelry store armed with guns and sledge hammers. They men quickly and methodically shattered the glass display cases and stole what was described as hundreds of expensive watches. Unfortunately for the robbers, at least one of the watches was equipped with a GPS tracking device. I’m not sure if the GPS tracking is to prevent theft or catch cheating spouses, but it worked out for the store owner in this case. Police followed the tracking device …

Just so that we are all on the same page here, this is not something that someone could hide under a big jacket or in a purse. These “bins” are four feet by four feet square and hold one thousand pounds of grapes each. And, with an estimated value of $50,000, or over $12,000 per ton, these were some very high end grapes which would make some very expensive wine. I’m afraid that Proposition 47 won’t help Jeffry Hill. I’m sure his lawyer already told him that Prop 47 only applies to thefts with the total loss value under $950. Please remember …

A 39 year old Glendale, California man was arrested yesterday for residential burglary after police found Joshua Corbett on the Bel Air estate of Sandra Bullock. Maybe he just got lost hiking the Santa Monica Mountains. Bullock was said to have an extensive security system on the property but that did not keep out Corbett who was arrested shortly before 7:00 a.m. Bullock’s neighbors said that their dogs would not stop parking which prompted them to make an early morning call to 911. LAPD officers responded and took Corbett into custody. Bullock was said to have been out receiving an award the …

Operation High End Busts Auto Theft Ring In Los Angeles I hate to sound negative, but shouldn’t a 4 year, hundred officer, multiple agency car theft investigation yield more than 12 arrests over 21 stolen cars? Apparently, agents from the California Highway Patrol, Department of Insurance, Los Angeles Police Department and the Franchise Tax Board investigated a ring of people who falsified financial information to steal new cars from cars 18 different car dealers. The suspects then (allegedly) sold the cars or staged auto accidents with the stolen vehicles. The accident claims were then submitted to various insurance carriers in the hopes …

Two Mexican nationals were arrested yesterday at the United States/Mexico border in Texas after they were found carrying 90 fraudulent credit or debit cards which are suspected to be part of the huge theft of information from United States Target stores. Police officers conducted a search of the two individuals and later found 22 more cards. I am not a math major, but that seems to leave about 109 million or so cards still out there. Federal authorities including the United States Secret Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and banking investigators indicated to the press that “it is too early to …

A two year undercover investigation by the California Highway Patrol led to the arrest of 51 people allegedly involved in a ring of motorcycles thefts, trafficking in stolen parts and other crimes. Operation Wheel Spin began as a social media project where it is common for motorcycle parts to be offered for sale. CHP officers on the case say that the plastic parts of motorcycles do not carry serial numbers as other metal parts do. These plastic parts can be sold without being traced back to their original owners. The recent bust by the California State police agency recovered 110 …

Manuel Morales was arrested yesterday by Ventura County detectives after a string of residential burglaries took officers to his home. Morales is accused of victimizing elderly residents of Leisure Village in Ventura County. Morales was said to be breaking into the homes of old people and stealing their jewelry. Officers said when they arrested Moreno he was under the influence of narcotics, was in possession of narcotics as well as stolen property. Moreno is also a convicted felon. Officers found prohibited ammunition at his home. Moreno was said to be a house cleaner who worked with his mother. The victims were all clients of …

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a man in Studio City foridentity theft after allegedly took a new Porsche from a local auto leasing company and apparently used the Underhill’s credit card to pay for it. Andrew Foley Parker III was found at his home along with some 6,000 blank credit cards, fake driver’s licenses and I.D. cards. The Sheriff’s department says the “potential” losses could be huge, but gives no facts to support that statement. Identity theft is a very popular crime these days. Identity theft occurs in a variety of ways from the simply theft of identifying information of …

One of Medicare’s most wanted fugitives was arrested today after he voluntarily flew back to Los Angeles from South Korea. Won Suk Lee, a Huntington Park acupuncturist, was said to have fraudulently billed Medicare over 2 million dollars for services which they do not cover. Lee is reported to have actually been paid over one million dollars for the services he billed. My question is why did the government pay the bills for services which they are not supposed to cover? My hope is that the bills were in fact fraudulent bills which described services which should be covered by …

A former Compton Deputy fire chief was arrested Wednesday for arson and grand theft. Marcel Melanson, 37, of Torrance, California was arrested for allegedly steeling thousands of dollars worth of radios for the purpose of selling them for personal gain and then starting a fire to try and destroy the evidence of the crime. Melanson allegedly started a fire back in December of 2011 at the headquarters of the Compton Fire Department. Yes, you guessed my next question: Why did it take this long to figure out what was going on? Answer: Not sure. The Compton Fire Department asked for …

The Los Angeles County Tax Assessor who was arrested months ago on charges of corruption and fraud was finally able to post bail with the help of friends, a competent bail bondsman and a a great deal of patience. John Noguez was in custody after a judge set bail at over 1million dollars. This means that Noguez would need to put up one million dollars to secure his release or he could pay a bail bondsman a fee of ten percent and the bondsman would post the million dollar bond to secure Noguez’ release. Not so fast said a Los Angeles …

Keri Atwood and her husband were both arrested for worker’s compensation fraud in Ventura County. Both husband and wife were arrested and released on bond earlier this week. Keri is said to be a civilian employee of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department. The Ventura County Star reported that Atwood had allegedly suffered a leg injury at work and had received disability payments of about $30,000 as a result of her being off work from the injury. Atwood was said to be getting medical treatment for her injuries and was using crutches or a wheelchair to get around to see her doctors. Investigators …

120,000 pounds of walnuts have disappeared in two separate thefts. Tehama County Sheriff’s deputies are investigating two separate heists by possible “imposter” truck drivers. The first theft involved 40,000 pounds of walnuts and the second was double that amount. In total this is $450,000 worth of nuts. The sheriffs do have a suspect who is described as a tall white mail with a strong Russian accent driving a white tractor trailer. The thief was described as having the correct purchase order numbers for the shipments of nuts when he picked up the product. This sounds like an inside job to …

Los Angeles County Assessor John Noguez was arrested about 6 days ago after authorities suspected he was taking bribes in exchange for lowering peoples property taxes. In total he was alleged to have cost the County of Los Angeles $1.16 million in lost property taxes based upon his actions. Superior Court Judge Shelly Torrealba would not reduce Noquez’ bail when requested by his attorney. Typically base is set by “schedule” here in California. For every crime there is a corresponding bail amount. In certain cases like theft or fraud the bail schedule provides for setting bail at the same amount …

A six year probation officer was arrested Tuesday on allegations of filing nine fraudulent workers’ compensation claims over the last three years. Rochelle Williams, 35 is accused in 27 felony counts of forging medical records and other documents. She works as a Los Angeles probation officer and is responsible for placing minors in foster homes and other facilities. Williams is being accused of filing workers comp claims while she continued working so she could be paid both her regular salary and money from the state insurance program. The county has placed her on unpaid administrative leave. If you have questions …

Matthew Taylor, 33 was found guilty Tuesday of selling and possessing stolen art as well as income tax evasion, and wire fraud. Two paintings went missing from an East LA gallery. One impressionist landscape painting by Granville Redmond and another by Lucien Frank. Taylor tried to sell the Frank painting to a customer after painting over the original artist’s signature and trying to pass it off for another artist’s work. Charges that Taylor had sold more than $2 million in art he falsely represented by artists including Claude Money and Jackson Pollock, were dropped prior to the trial. Taylor was …

As the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office continues to investigate the allegations that City Councilman John Duran falsified expenses, the City of West Hollywood voted to defend the Councilman if charges are filed. Many of us in Los Angeles know John Duran, in my case from working in the County as a criminal defense attorney, and others know him through his hard work for the City of West Hollywood. The Los Angeles Times reports that Duran had more than $7,000 in meal expenses on city credit cards over a three year period. John, I’m not sure where you have been …

A Riverside County man was tragically sentenced to 29 to life in prison for shoplifting less than $21 worth of merchandise from a Home Depot Store in the Lake Elsinore area. Yes, he had an extensive criminal history. Yes, he was on parole for at least one prior felony conviction. Yes, he has had strikes “stricken” before. And yes, it should have happened again. According to the local media, Scott Hove, 45, of Riverside County, was previously charged with a third strike offense in Riverside County. In that case, he was charged with drug possession. The District Attorney argued to …

A staff member at a West Hollywood plastic surgery clinic was caught in the act of practicing medicine without a license. After getting complaints from the State Medical Board, investigators fromthe agency starting watching a clinic at Sunset medical Tower on Sunset Boulevard very closely. When the Board inspectors went to the facility what they found was scary. As staff member at the doctor’s office was not only diagnosing patients’ medical conditions but was administering laser treatment to patients. According the the local media, the owners of the clinic are manny and Pie Calayan, neither of whom are medical doctors …

Two Los Angeles area car wash owners were just sentenced to a year in the Los Angeles County Jail and will have to pay hundreds of thousands in fines after they were convicted of multiple criminal counts of theft, conspiracy, and labor code violations.  Additionally, brothers Benny and Nissan Pirian must keep their books up to date and open for inspection by local, state and federal agencies. The Pirian brothers were charged with over 170 criminal charges stemming from their treatment of car wash employees.  Evidence indicates that employees were ordered to come in early, stay late, denied breaks and rest …

Prosecutors in New York just sent a Chinese born American citizen to federal prison for 37 months for importing and selling millions of dollars worth of counterfeit Trojan brand condoms. 4.3 million counterfeit condoms were recovered in the 6 year investigation which lead to the conviction. Prosecutors indicated that condoms were tested and found to be defective and leak, burst or otherwise not be spermicidally lubricated as the authentic version should be. Court documents indicate that condoms were imported from China and packaged under several different names in the Trojan line. The products were then sold as authentic to both wholesale and …

94 people were charged Friday with defrauding the Medicare System of over $250 million. Arrests went down in Miami, New York, Detroit, Houston and Baton Rouge in what is being described as the largest Medicare scam in history. Suspects in several different states were alleged to have billed Medicare for supplies that were never received and treatment that never happened. Allegations include paying patients to visit doctors or otherwise allow the use of patients’ Medicare numbers for billing purposes. In one case nearly 4,000 claims to Medicare were allegedly submitted over a six year period on behalf of one woman in Brooklyn, …

The Los Angeles City Attorney charged Ralphs grocery stores with multiple counts of overcharging their customers.  The Los Angeles County Department of Weights and Measures recently conducted an undercover investigation of Ralphs Grocery Stores and Ralphs failed miserably.  As a result, Los Angeles City Attorney Don Cocek filed multiple charges against Ralphs for overcharging their customers. By the way, this is not the first time this has happened. Here is how it works:  The store gets caught overcharging and criminal charges get filed.  Nobody goes to jail, but the store agrees to plead guilty and pay a fine for the violations.  In the last …

Another “Bling Ring” defendant plead no contest to the residential burglary of actor Orlando Bloom’s home.  Alexis Neiers, who the media describe as a reality star, had previously denied knowledge of the burglary indicating she was present but too intoxicated to know what was going on.  I’m glad her defense attorney didn’t try to sell that to a jury. She appears to have pled no contest to residential burglary, which is a strike under California’s Three Strikes Law.  Her sentence appears to be as follows:  Two years state prison, imposed and suspended,  three years of formal probation, 180 days in county jail, …

Four men were arrested yesterday after they broke into a marijuana dispensary located in Laguna Hills. I suppose the high costs of medication caused them to become desperate. In their desperation they broke into a neighboring business and tunneled under ground and into the dispensary. They were said to have been in the process of burglarizing the business when they accidentally set off a recently added alarm system. Sheriff’s officials arrested the four men shortly after the alarm was set off. The business was burglarized a couple weeks ago and suffered a significant financial loss. This prompted the recent installation …

In an uneventful sentencing hearing, so-called Bling-Ring defendant Jonathon Ajar was sentenced yesterday to a prison term of three years.  Ajar was alleged to be a fence for the thieves who burglarized the homes of various local celebrities.  Ajar was caught with a lot of stolen merchandise as well as drugs and some firearms in his home. The prosecution and the defense attorney, Michael A. Goldstein of Sherman Oaks, agreed to a term of three years in exchange for Ajar’s plea.  Ajar was ordered transported forthwith to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to begin serving his time.  Under the law …

IC just got probation after being charged with insurance fraud stemming from four years of taking premiums and not paying for workers compensation coverage for his client. The prosecutor alleged losses to the victim totally about $200,000.00. The California Department of Insurance found IC’s acts sufficiently offenses to take away his insurance license. I was able to get IC probation and work release and, of course, we are contesting the alleged loss amount. Just another day at the office.