Former Employee Pleads Guilty To Stealing More Than $750,000 From Her Employer – June 12, 2020
Karen Owens was employed by Finger Lakes Conveyors, Inc. (FLC) as its Director of Finance from 2003 to 2017.
Between 2011, and 2017 Owens wrote and issued approximately 394 checks payable to herself. Owens deposited the checks into an account which she owned. Between 2010, and 2017, Owens wrote and issued approximately 162 checks payable to J.P. Morgan Chase Bank from FLC’s bank account, as payments on Chase Bank credit card accounts belonging to Owens. In order to conceal some of the fraudulent and unauthorized checks, Owens failed to accurately to record the checks in FLC’s QuickBooks accounting record; instead, she falsely recorded the checks as payment for legitimate business expenses.
Embezzlement Charges Filed Against Former University Band Director – June 12, 2020
Nathan Haymer served as Director of Bands at Southern University A&M College. Haymer’s duties included making purchases and paying expenses during the band’s trips.
From November 2016 through March of 2018, Haymer intentionally misapplied more than $30,000 from the university they had provided to him to be used for official band expenses. On more than a dozen occasions, Haymer submitted false documents, such as fictitious and forged invoices from purported vendors, knowing that he had not incurred the expenses reflected on the documents.
Former Veteran’s Administration Employee Sentenced For $19 Million Health Care Fraud Scheme – June 11, 2020
Joseph Prince was one of two Case Management Liaisons for the VA’s Spina Bifida (SB) Health Care Benefits Program. The program covers the medial needs of children of certain veterans of the Korea and Vietnam wars with SB.
Prince recruited friends and family members to open “home health agencies” knowing they lacked the necessary medical licenses or credentials to bill the VA for SB beneficiaries’ home health services. The defendant directed every aspect of the home health agencies; no changes were made to business operations without his knowledge, review, and approval.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-co/pr/va-employee-sentenced-orchestrating-19-million-corruption-scheme
Former Office Manager Of Dental Practice Pleads Guilty To Embezzling $348,000+, Identity Theft – June 11, 2020
From 2009 until she was terminated in February 2015, Yuliya Vaysglus was the office manager of a Boston-area dental practice where her duties included tracking client invoices, depositing insurance payments into the practice’s bank account, and recording those deposits for accounting purposes. Between 2009 and December 2014, Vaysglus embezzled more than $348,000 from the dental practice by diverting to herself at least 276 checks from various insurance companies for services rendered to patients. As part of the scheme, Vaysglus made the checks payable to herself, forged the signature of the dental firm’s owner on the checks, and deposited them into her bank account. Vaysglus failed to report the embezzled funds on her federal tax returns.
Former San Diego City Officials Plead Guilty To Accepting Bribes – June 11, 2020
Former Calexico City Councilman David Romero and Bruno Suarez-Soto, a former commissioner on the city’s Economic Development and Financial Advisory Commission, pleaded guilty y to corruption charges, admitting that they accepted cash bribes in exchange for promises of official action by the city.
Romero and Soto accepted $35,000 in cash bribes from an undercover FBI agent who they believed represented investors seeking to open a cannabis dispensary in Calexico. In return, Romero and Soto guaranteed the rapid issuance of a city permit for the dispensary, and to revoke or hinder other applicants if necessary to ensure that the bribe payer’s application was successful. Both men admitted they had taken bribes from others in the past. Referring to this $35,000 payment, they told the undercover agent, “This isn’t our first rodeo.”
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/former-calexico-city-officials-admit-accepting-bribes
Former State Employee Sentenced To Prison For Mail Fraud, Identity Theft And Theft of Funds – June 11, 2020
Diana Baker was a 28-year employee of the Kentucky Commission, which is an agency within the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services that assists families with children with special health care needs in obtaining funding and care. Between 2007 and 2018, Baker, who was an Administrative Branch Manager in the Louisville office, manipulated software programs, to generate fraudulent payment vouchers, which purported to reimburse the families of special needs children for out of pocket expenses or pay third party vendors for services to children. These vouchers were sent in the regular course of business to the Kentucky State Treasurer’s Office, which issued checks that were actually used to make payments on Baker’s credit card accounts, to pay doctors and dentists for services to Baker’s family, and, in one instance, to pay a carpenter for work on a dock for lakefront property owned by Baker. The amount of the alleged theft is approximately $45,000.
Former Owner Of Construction Company Pleads Guilty To Embezzlement Of Funds From Employee Pension Plan – June 11, 2020
Joshua Ferrell is the former owner of Indian Mills Contracting Services Inc. (2011-2017)
In 2015, Ferrell established the Indian Mills Contracting Inc. 401K Plan. Ferrell was the plan administrator.
Ferrell admitted that between Jan. 1, 2015, and February 2017, money which was deducted bi-weekly from Indian Mills employees’ paychecks and which was supposed to be contributed to the plan was instead kept by Ferrell and spent by him.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/former-owner-construction-company-admits-embezzlement
Former DEA Official Pleads Guilty To Elaborate $4 Million Fraud Scheme – June 11, 2020
Garrison Courtney falsely claimed to be a covert officer of the CIA involved in a highly-classified program or “task force” involving various components of the U.S. Intelligence Community and the DoD. Courtney had never been employed by the CIA, and the task force that he described did not exist.
Courtney approached numerous private companies with some variation of this false story, and claimed that the companies needed to hire and pay him to create what Courtney described as “commercial cover,” i.e., to mask his supposed affiliation with the CIA. Courtney also fraudulently claimed that the companies would be reimbursed in the future for these salary payments, sometimes by the award of lucrative contracts from the United States government in connection with the supposedly classified program.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/former-dea-official-pleads-guilty-elaborate-4m-fraud-scheme
Former Bookkeeper Sentenced To Prison For Stealing Approximately $250,000 From Retired Educators Association – June 11, 2020
Over a 7 year period Vicki Rohan embezzled approximately $250,000.00 from her former employer, the Alabama Education Retirees Association (AERA).
In her position Rohan had access to the AERA credit card and the ability to write checks in the name of the association’s director. Rohan used the AERA credit card and checkbook to spend money on personal expenses until the AERA uncovered the activity in 2018. The investigation that followed revealed that Rohan had illegally spent roughly $250,000.00 of the AERA’s money on herself.
Financial Controller Pleads Guilty To Embezzling $823,000+ From Her Employer- June 10, 2020
Leslie Clark was hired as a financial controller at a Tulsa company in 2014. As controller, she supervised all financial matters for the company. In July 2018, Clark created a fictitious consulting company called “Alliance Consulting.
She also opened an account at Arvest Bank for the fictitious company and caused checks to be paid from her employers customer account at Wells Fargo to Alliance Consulting for fabricated services never rendered. Clark falsely and fraudulently told colleagues at the company that the payments were for consulting services and presented false and fraudulent invoices from Alliance Consulting in support of her scheme.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndok/pr/woman-who-embezzled-more-800000-her-employer-pleads-guilty
Union Leader Pleads Guilty To Embezzling $33,000+ In Union Funds – June 9, 2020
Brian Arnold served as Financial Secretary with Steelworkers Local Union 104M, which represents approximately 75 workers at Anchor Glass Container Corporation, from September 2015 to August 2018. As financial secretary, Arnold was responsible for collecting dues checks, recording all receipts, maintaining receipts and disbursement records, writing and signing checks, and preparing an accurate account of all money received and paid out to report monthly to the union membership.
Between April 2016 and August 2018, Arnold embezzled $33,224.15 in union funds. He made unauthorized purchases with the union’s debit card; made unauthorized ATM withdrawals from the union’s checking account; and wrote unauthorized checks to himself from the union’s checking account.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdny/pr/union-leader-pleads-guilty-embezzling-union-funds
Israeli Flight Attendant Sold Access To Private Passenger Information And Airline Systems – June 7, 2020
The personal information of numerous passengers on an Israeli airline was leaked by a senior flight attendant on flights abroad.
The flight attendant would pass the personal details of passengers to a businessman in the aviation field, allowing the businessman to enter the company’s internal database to gain such information by giving him the flight attendant’s sign-in details. When security was tightened, the flight attendant would simply update the businessman.
The database included key personal details, such as medical history, VIP customer information and frequent flyer information which the businessman was given access to for years.
The airline first reported the incident to the Privacy Protection Authority, which in turn reported that the investigation was passed onto the Cyber Department of the State Attorney’s Office, according to N12.
Manager At Hotel Charged With Fraud And Embezzlement – June 5, 2020
Geoffrey Palermo is alleged to have orchestrated multiple schemes to defraud his victims. While working as the manager of the San Francisco Hilton hotel between 2013 and 2016, Palermo allegedly embezzled large sums of money, including through capital improvement kickback schemes. One contractor frequently hired by Palermo for projects at the hotel is suspected of paying Palermo approximately $1.5 Million in kickbacks between March 2013 and June 2016. Palermo allegedly ensured that the contractor’s inflated or fraudulent invoices were paid by Justice Investors, LP, the owner of the hotel. After depositing Justice Investor checks to his business banking account, the contractor transferred funds into an illegitimate living trust bank account and then wrote checks back to Palermo or entities associated with Palermo.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/bay-area-hospitality-and-automotive-executive-charged-fraud
Former Bookkeeper Admits Embezzling $433,000 + From Several Businesses – June 5, 2020
From 2009 until 2018, Anna Niles embezzled from the following companies; Cresent Cross, Clair W. Daines, Genesis Partners, Bitterroot Turf Farm, and other related business entities while performing bookkeeping and accounting services. Niles defrauded the firms by diverting funds through checks, stealing cash, claiming leave she was not entitled to obtain, receiving unauthorized 401(k) loan payments and using business credit cards on personal expenses, none of which was authorized. The investigation found that Niles embezzled about $433,018 from the businesses. When interviewed by the FBI, Niles admitted to stealing from Cresent Cross, LLP, and writing checks from other businesses to cover up the fraud.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-mt/pr/bozeman-bookkeeper-admits-embezzling-more-400000-businesses
Former Bank President Guilty To $11 Million Bank Fraud And Arson – June 5, 2020
Anita Moody was President of Enloe State Bank in Cooper, Texas. On May 11, 2019, the bank had a fire that was determined to be arson. The fire was contained to the bank’s boardroom, but the entire bank suffered smoke damage. Several files had been stacked on the boardroom table, all of which were burned in the fire. Coincidentally, the bank was scheduled for a review by the Texas Department of Banking the next day. Further investigation into the fire and the bank revealed that Moody had been creating false nominee loans in the names of several people, including some actual bank customers. Moody eventually admitted to setting the fire in the boardroom to cover up the criminal activity concerning the false loans. She also admitted to using the fraudulently obtained money to fund her boyfriend’s business, other businesses of friends, and her own lifestyle. The fraudulent activity, which began in 2012, resulted in a loss to the bank of approximately $11 million.
Former Contractor For Florida Prepaid College Program Indicted On Fraud, Identify Theft Charges – June 5, 2020
The Florida Prepaid College Board, which administers the Florida Prepaid College Program, contracted with Intuition College Savings Solutions to provide customer service and records administration services for Florida Prepaid College Program.
Jamilla Hall accessed and viewed the personal identification information of Florida Prepaid account owners and beneficiaries, and then fraudulently changed mailing addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses associated with existing Florida Prepaid plans.
Hall caused the Florida Prepaid refund checks to be mailed to her, which she personally cashed or which she gave to others to fraudulently cash. She fraudulently obtained and attempted to obtain approximately $42,000 in funds to which she was not entitled.