OAKLAND — A former African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church bishop pleaded guilty Tuesday to wire fraud, mail fraud and conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud for transferring church property deeds to an entity he created then using them to obtain loans, prosecutors said. Staccato Powell, a 65-year-old resident of Wake Forest, North Carolina, agreed
Two people who allegedly took around $1 million from investors who believed they were buying stock options or franchises of a pizza restaurant chain have been charged in San Diego Superior Court with more than two dozen counts related to fraud or theft. The victims, which included senior citizens and military veterans, paid between $5,000
A Morrison man was sentenced to nearly four years in prison after he illegally obtained two Paycheck Protection Program loans during the COVID-19 pandemic, federal officials announced Tuesday. Richard Nieto, 39, took a deal and pleaded guilty last month to wire fraud and money laundering in federal court, according to court records. The plea deal
A former employee of a Merrillville-based not-for-profit service agency was sentenced to two years in prison Tuesday morning after pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud in February. United States District Court Judge Philip P. Simon sentenced Valencia Franklin of Lynwood, Illinois, to 24 months in prison followed by a year of supervised release
Fourteen people, including several Southern California residents, were arrested Wednesday, May 28, and accused of scamming the government out of more than $25 million in COVID-19 relief funds and federal small business loans, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Two federal criminal complaints named 18 defendants, four of whom are believed to be in
A Redondo Beach man was charged last week in North Carolina after he allegedly posed as an investment adviser and defrauded victims of more than $4 million over the course of several years. Jon Patrick Kubler, 52, was indicted on charges of securities fraud and transactional money laundering after he allegedly provided investment planning and
A second suspect in the kidnapping and torture of an Italian man inside a luxurious SoHo apartment in a failed bid to get him to give up his cryptocurrency password was criminally charged Tuesday after turning himself in to authorities, police said. William Duplessie, 33, surrendered at 7:45 a.m. to cops at the 13th Precinct
The former owner of a trio of San Diego businesses that provided surrogacy consulting services to prospective parents was sentenced Friday to two years in prison for stealing money from her clients. Lillian Arielle Markowitz, 40, who owned My Donor Cycle, Surrogacy Beyond Borders and Expecting Surrogacy, pleaded guilty to taking hundreds of thousands of
A Newport Beach attorney who admitted that she swindled investors out of $8.7 million in order to bankroll her lavish lifestyle and high-rolling gambling habit was sentenced Monday, May 5 to one year and nine months in federal prison. A luxuriant lifestyle of high-end jewelry, luxury cars, a six-month stay at a opulent Las Vegas
Some banking scams to watch out for
CHICO — I want to start by saying that I appreciate a lot of the money apps we have now. I ended up going to a Pride event on Saturday and was able to easily buy things and split payments with friends for lunch with Venmo and it just made life way easier. What I