A resident of Lima, Peru, was indicted by a Miami grand jury on fraud and attempted extortion charges for allegedly operating call centers that lied to and threatened Spanish-speaking victims in the United States, convincing them to pay fraudulent settlements. Cesar Luis Kou Reyna, 40, was charged in a 33-count indictment with conspiracy, mail fraud, …
Scheme Defrauded More than 330 Victims Across the Country A federal judge in the Eastern District of New York sentenced two sales representatives to prison today for their roles in a vending machine business opportunity fraud scheme, the Department of Justice announced today. Howard S. Strauss, 66, of Jericho, New York, was sentenced to serve …
Hummingbird Credit Counseling and Education has filed suit against Attorney General Eric Holder, Department of Justice, and Executive Office of United States Trustee. This suit asks for a declaratory judgment and injunctive relief. This case caught my attention because it’s not often you see a credit counseling company suing the USA and it appears this …
The United States filed a civil complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California today against Plaza Bank of Irvine, California, for knowingly facilitating consumer fraud by permitting a third-party payment processor to make millions of dollars of unauthorized withdrawals from consumer bank accounts on behalf of fraudulent merchants. To resolve …
Scheme Victimized More Than 1,000 Individuals throughout the United States The Justice Department announced today the unsealing of an indictment charging seven individuals in connection with a vending machine “business opportunity” that defrauded thousands of victims across the country. The indictment was returned by a federal grand jury in New York City. The following individuals …
The Justice Department announced today the enhanced collaborations its law enforcement and community partners are taking to stem the tide of fraud schemes directed at certain groups of Americans. On Wednesday, high ranking officials of the department, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) and non-profit community groups met to discuss …
A former senior vice president of Bank of America (BOA) in Las Vegas pleaded guilty today to misapplication of bank funds in a scheme that led to over $6.4 million in losses to BOA on two business-related loans. Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Daniel G. Bogden …
A U.S. citizen charged in connection with the operation of a series of fraudulent business opportunities was extradited from Costa Rica to the United States, the Justice Department announced today. John White was charged in a Nov. 29, 2011, indictment in the Southern District of Florida with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, five …
A 28-year-old man was extradited from Jamaica based on charges that he committed fraud as part of an international lottery scheme against elderly victims in the United States, the Justice Department announced today. Damion Bryan Barrett is charged in a 38-count indictment in the Southern District of Florida with conspiracy and 37 counts of wire …
On August 16th I wrote about a Department of Justice blog post about debt settlement that was, let’s politically say, perplexing. Ah what the hell, it was just plain old fucked up. The Department of Justice made some very uninformed statements about debt settlement, like “Fraudulent debt relief companies will often make claims of being …