An Orange County man was sentenced to 188 months in federal prison for selling nearly four pounds of methamphetamine while he was on supervised release following a 2009 terrorism conviction. Ahmed Binyamin Alasiri, 45, a.k.a. Kevin Lamar James, of Garden Grove, was sentenced by United States District Judge Cormac J. …continue reading
A third-party seller on Amazon.com Inc. has admitted gaming the online retailer’s payment system in a scheme that defrauded the company out of more than $1.3 million, the Justice Department announced. Ting Hong Yeung, 41, of Hacienda Heights, was charged with wire fraud in an information filed today in United …continue reading
Two downtown Los Angeles residents were arrested on a federal criminal complaint alleging they fraudulently obtained more than $300,000 – and attempted to obtain an additional $1 million – in COVID-relief loans for several companies they claimed to own and operate. Sean Schoepflin, 42, a.k.a. “Sean Fitzgerald,” and Erika Leon, …continue reading
Two defendants charged in a nationwide “grandparent scam” have pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. Jack Owuor, 25, of Paramount, California pleaded guilty in federal court today. Timothy Ingram, 29, of North Hollywood, California, pleaded guilty on March 2, 2022. According to …continue reading
Schenelle M. Flores, 46, of Sacramento, was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison and ordered to pay over $2 million in restitution for organizing a scheme to divert funds from the California Department of Public Health, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced. She was ordered to begin …continue reading
An Orange County man who fled after authorities searched his residence on Wednesday is in federal custody after he was arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border and charged with fraudulently obtaining more than $5 million in COVID-relief loans for three sham companies. Reddy Raghav Budamala, 35, of Irvine, was arrested at …continue reading
A federal grand jury indictment returned this week charges two Chinese nationals with operating an illegal money transfer business that moved funds from the China to the United States, in some cases using proceeds of romance scams to provide money to their U.S.-based customers. A four-count superseding indictment filed Wednesday …continue reading
Over the past 10 months, the Department of Justice has filed criminal charges against 10 defendants – four of whom were taken into custody December 16 – for kickback schemes at substance abuse treatment facilities in Orange County. The defendants in these cases charged as a result of The Sober …continue reading
A train engineer at the Port of Los Angeles pleaded guilty to a federal criminal charge for running a locomotive at full speed off the end of railroad tracks near a United States Navy hospital ship that was deployed to provide medical relief during the early months of the COVID-19 …continue reading
A former Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) executive has agreed to plead guilty to a federal criminal charge for lying to the FBI about a lucrative job offer he secretly solicited and agreed to accept in exchange for providing “guarantees” of additional LADWP contract money to a …continue reading
The former general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) has agreed to plead guilty to a federal criminal charge for accepting bribes from a lawyer in exchange for his official action to secure a three-year, $30 million no-bid LADWP contract for the lawyer’s company, the …continue reading
A federal grand jury returned a 15-count indictment that accuses the former controller for two Anaheim-based companies of embezzling more than $3 million by directing the transfer of company funds to bank accounts that she controlled. Rosalba Meza, also known as “Rosalba Sceville,” 47, of Coto de Caza, who was …continue reading
Three Inland Empire women have pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges accusing them of using information belonging to other people – including California state prison inmates – to file for pandemic-related unemployment benefits, with each defendant causing at least $350,000 in losses. Paris Denise Thomas, 33, of San Bernardino, pleaded …continue reading