Steven Charles Laubly, 62, Clovis, California, was convicted of three counts of failing to file a tax return and one count of tax evasion. The defendant evaded payment of those taxes by, among other things, purchasing property in Hawaii under another person’s name. The guilty verdict was returned by a federal court jury in Fresno, California, after a five-day trial before United States District Judge Lawrence
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After a two-year investigation, four indictments charging 17 people with more than 108 crimes were handed down for their roles in mortgage fraud and identity theft schemes that stole more than $20 million from homeowners, banks, and the County government. Among those arrested are lawyers, mortgage brokers, real estate brokers, bank employees, an appraiser, a financial consultant and one United States Postal worker. The investigation was dubbed “Operation Sweet Deal.”
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Rito Miguel Diaz, Jr, has been sentenced by Judge Philip S. Gutierrez to the custody of the Bureau of Prisons for 24 months as charged in Count One of the Four-Count sealed Indictment. Diaz, Jr was also sentenced to supervised release for three years, a special assessment of $100, and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $1,254,667. Continue Reading...
Latoya Travis, 38, Hammond, Indiana, pled guilty before Senior Judge Rudy Lozano to counts one and two of an indictment charging her with making false statements in a loan application, and aggravated identity theft.
These charges were filed as the result of an investigation by United States Postal Inspection Service. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Gary Bell.
The United States Attorney’s
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Kathy Chen, 49, Westminster, California, a real estate broker, was convicted of conspiring with her boyfriend and his brother to commit $17.5 million in real estate fraud by purchasing 35 properties using stolen identities and intentionally defaulting on loans in order to steal the loan money. Chen was found guilty by a jury of 136 felony counts including one count of
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Shih Siang Shawn Liao, 35, Manhattan, New York, an international businessman has been sentenced to three to nine years in state prison for having used a forged power of attorney to unlawfully obtain a mortgage on his mother-in-law’s condominium in the Little Neck section of Queens, New York and steal more than $300,000. The
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John Melchionna, 42, a former Linden, New Jersey, resident was arrested and charged with 13 separate counts after an investigation revealed that he used another man’s identity to secure $270,000 in loans. Melchionna a faces charges of theft by deception, identity theft and forgery.
According to the complaints, Melchionna
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Wayne Puff, 61, Old Bridge, New Jersey, the ringleader of a massive Ponzi scheme which defrauded hundreds of investors and mortgage lenders of more than $100 million through a purported real estate investment business, was sentenced to 216 months in federal prison and ordered to pay approximately $101.1 million in restitution and to serve 3 years of supervised
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Janet Salazar, a.k.a. Yanet Salazar, 37, Queens Village, New York, a loan officer, has been convicted of stealing the personal identity of a former client to help another client purchase a house in Brooklyn. Salazar was convicted of first-degree identity theft, third-degree unlawful possession of personal identification information and third degree criminal possession of
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Felix Pichardo, 27, Lancaster, California was sentenced to eight years in federal prison and ordered to pay restitution of $777,000 in relation to a mortgage fraud scheme in which he “purchased” homes in Altadena and Riverside, California. Pichardo pleaded
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