Posted by Vitaly Sigal | May 30, 2023 |
Alex Scott Roberts, a 27-year-old man from the San Fernando Valley, was sentenced to 85 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to two counts of stalking. Evidently, in the summer of 2020, Roberts had stalked two California sisters, using text messages and internet communications to threat...
Posted by Vitaly Sigal | May 25, 2023 |
Namir Malik Ali Green, a 23-year-old man from Los Angeles, was arrested in April 2023 for allegedly committing armed robberies at convenience stores and gas stations around Southern California. He's been charged with interference with commerce by robbery under the Hobbs Act.
Green faces a maximu...
Posted by Vitaly Sigal | May 23, 2023 |
Babak Broumand, a 56-year-old man from Lafayette, California, and former FBI special agent was sentenced to six years in federal prison and fined $30,000 after being found guilty of one count of conspiracy, two counts of bribery of a public official, and one count of monetary transactions in prop...
Posted by Vitaly Sigal | May 16, 2023 |
Andrew Zepeda Hansack, a 39-year-old man from Riverside, pleaded guilty to two counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false tax return. Hansack is facing a statutory maximum sentence of three years in federal prison for each count. He also agreed to pay a criminal fine of $50,000 ...
Posted by Vitaly Sigal | May 09, 2023 |
Ze'Shawn Stanley Cambell, a 35-year-old man from San Bernadino County, was convicted after pleading guilty in October 2022 to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. The judge, in this case, reported that Campbell showed a high level of disrespect for the law and inflicted not ...
Posted by Vitaly Sigal | May 02, 2023 |
A 54-year-old man named Robinson Rin Yang recently plead guilty to one count of failure to pay employment taxes for his employment staffing firm in San Gabriel Valley. The court sentenced him to 24 months in federal prison and ordered him to pay $2,791,783 in restitution after determining that un...
Posted by Vitaly Sigal | Apr 26, 2023 |
A 41-year-old former United States military member and resident of Corona, Igor Panchernikov, recently pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act after being extradited from Israel to the United States. He is facing a statutory maximum sentence of 20 year...
Posted by Vitaly Sigal | Apr 22, 2023 |
Daekun Cho, a 38-year-old resident of Woodland Hills, was arrested by Homeland Security Investigation agents and Los Angeles Police Department officers after a federal criminal complaint was filed against him a week prior. The complaint alleges that Cho interfered with commerce by threats or vi...
Posted by Vitaly Sigal | Mar 16, 2023 |
Cynthia Ann Hernandez, a 33-year-old woman from San Bernadino County, plead guilty to one count of mail fraud and one count of access device fraud in excess of $1,000. She is facing a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for mail fraud and up to 15 years in federal prison fo...
Posted by Vitaly Sigal | Mar 09, 2023 |
In 2022, Kristopher Brent Cobb, a now 41-year-old man living in Marina del Ray, plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced to 45 months in federal prison for the crimes and must pay $137,573 in restitution.
Stolen I...
Posted by Vitaly Sigal | Mar 02, 2023 |
Isaac Aaron Morgan Loftus, a 26-year-old man from Pasadena, California, has been charged by federal prosecutors for allegedly possessing unregistered firearms and explosives, most notably, a machine gun, a felony that carries a statutory maximum of 10 years in federal prison. According to the i...
Posted by Vitaly Sigal | Mar 01, 2023 |
A Boyle Heights resident, and Former Los Angeles City Councilmember, José Huizar, 54, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and one count of tax evasion.
RICO Act Violation
Huizar admitted to using his position to be...
Posted by Vitaly Sigal | Feb 16, 2023 |
In July 2022, Homeland Security Investigations and the Los Angeles County Sherriff's Department began investigating Mark David Wallin, a 42-year-old resident of Del Rey in Los Angeles. He was arrested under suspicion of using websites and social media apps like Snapchat to persuade children to ...
Posted by Vitaly Sigal | Feb 09, 2023 |
Lana Pothos, a 59-year-old, former Orange County-based bank manager, pleaded guilty to federal charges for stealing $1.2 million in savings from elderly customers by using one of their identities to fraudulently open bank accounts and have the stolen money transferred to other banks. This federal...
Posted by Vitaly Sigal | Jan 27, 2023 |
Carl Bradley Johansson, the owner of numerous Inland Empire-based trucking companies, was convicted in November 2022 for conspiracy to make illegal repairs on an oil tanker's cargo tanks and defraud the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT), tax evasion, and bank fraud.
The Charge...
Posted by Vitaly Sigal | Jan 20, 2023 |
Leprinceton Dewon Burks, a thirty-eight-year-old resident of Carson, was recently sentenced to lifetime supervised release following 220 months in federal prison. Burks is the final defendant to be sentenced in a case that involved three other men and a fifteen-year-old female victim.
Child ...
Posted by Vitaly Sigal | Jan 13, 2023 |
Matthew Skinner, a 45-year-old Santa Clarita resident, was sentenced to 77 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $1.7 million in restitution after pleading guilty to securities fraud.
Social Media Helps Scams Flourish
Skinner founded Empire West Equity Inc. in 2014. Later, when Empire W...
Posted by Vitaly Sigal | Jan 07, 2023 |
Derrick Patterson, a 23-year-old resident of Compton, was sentenced to 111 months in federal prison for targeting and robbing five victims from June 2021 to March 2022 using the app Grindr.
Targeting and Robbing Members of the LGBTQIA+ Community
Patterson used the popular social networking ap...
Posted by Vitaly Sigal | Dec 26, 2022 |
Puleaga Pele was arrested at his home on November 4, 2022, after being federally accused of illegally selling firearms without serial numbers – usually referred to as “ghost guns.” Earlier in the year, law enforcement investigated a separate complaint and discovered communications where Pele offe...
Posted by Vitaly Sigal | Dec 19, 2022 |
William D. Opp, a former construction contractor, was the second person to plead guilty to a bid-rigging and bribery scheme involving improvement and repair contracts with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans).
The arrest and subsequent guilty pleas result from a joint law enfor...
Posted by Vitaly Sigal | Dec 12, 2022 |
Quin Ngoc Rudin, a 55-year-old convicted felon, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy with the intent to defraud the IRS and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) of over $60 million. Both fraud schemes were committed while Rudin was on supervised release for another...
Posted by Vitaly Sigal | Dec 05, 2022 |
A 42-year-old man named David Wayne DePape was charged with assault of an immediate family member of a United States official with the intent to retaliate against the official for the performance of official duties and attempted kidnapping of a United States official for the performance of offici...
Posted by Vitaly Sigal | Nov 28, 2022 |
In a classic case of recidivism, Rickey Lewis, 53, of Willowbrook in Los Angeles County, pleaded guilty to a bank robbery spree while he was out on parole for a previous conviction for bank robbery.
On Sept.19, Lewis pleaded guilty to three counts of bank robbery and one count of attempted robbe...
Posted by Vitaly Sigal | Nov 21, 2022 |
An 83-year-old former dean of the University of Southern California's School of Social Work has agreed to plead guilty to the federal charge that she bribed politician Mark Ridley-Thomas, the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Central District of California announced Sept. 15. She had previously plead...
Posted by Vitaly Sigal | Nov 14, 2022 |
The owner of three supposed “wellness” centers in the Long Beach area has agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care insurance fraud and one count of aggravated identify theft, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California reported Sept. 14.
Sara ...