Insurance & Financial Fraud

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Brooklyn resident Olabanji Otufale, 41, abused his position by accessing names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and photos of more than 10 city homeless people, according to an indictment unsealed on Wednesday. He then peddled that info to New Jersey resident Mark Lazarre, who in turn stole the victims "identities so he could file COVID unemployment…

May 1— A Beavercreek insurance agent is facing dozens of charges after she reportedly convinced clients to invest at least $235,000 and then took the money for her personal use. A Greene County grand jury indicted 65- year-old Beverly Ann Kirk on 36 counts of securities fraud, unlicensed securities activity, theft, theft from a person in a protected class and…

The Utah Investigative Journalism Project. "I guess you could call me a tree hugger," said Washington state resident Tammy Crough on why she decided to install home solar power in 2023.. In June of 2023, Crough was living in Washington state when she signed up for solar through a company called Lumio.

A San Gabriel Valley woman has admitted to defrauding the U.S. Postal Service of more than $150 million. From November 2019 to May 2023, Chen and her accomplice, Chuanhua "Hugh" Hu, 51, owned and operated a package shipping business in the City of Industry. In November 2019, authorities became aware of the counterfeit operation and Hu fled the country and moved to…

Apr. 23— ALBUQUERQUE— An unregistered Santa Fe investment adviser dubbed a "mini-Madoff" by his victims was sentenced Tuesday to four years in federal prison for securities and wire fraud tied to a Ponzi scheme that played out over two decades. Douglas Lien, 82, also will have to pay nearly $5 million to 23 living victims who requested restitution and serve three…

–Charles "Todd" Hill, who starred on the HGTV show "Flip It to Win It," was sentenced to jail in California for committing real estate and financial fraud against 11 victims, prosecutors said. Instead, Hill spent millions on overbudget remodels, laundered profits, and pocketed millions in fraudulently obtained money, "the Santa Clara County District Attorney's…
Image shows a gavel and the words, "Plea Deal."
Caz Craffy pleaded guilty to defrauding Gold Star families a week before his trial was set to begin.

Caz Craffy, former financial adviser in the Army, pleaded guilty last week to scamming grieving Gold Star families out of millions through a series of insurance fraud schemes.

Fabian Espinosa, owner of Richfield- based Fabian Espinosa Construction LLC, was originally charged in Hennepin County District Court with a third crime: sexually assaulting a female construction worker on his crew in December 2017. Given Espinosa's track record, advocates with the community and worker rights group Centro de Trabajadores Unidos En La Lucha…

A man who claimed to be a concert promoter for music artists such as Beyonce and Nicki Minaj has been charged with fraud, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton said Thursday. Carlos Desean Goodspeed, 43, who operated under the assumed business name " Straight Like That Entertainment," was indicted Tuesday on three counts of wire fraud.

A Monroeville insurance agent is accused of taking $60,000 from customers by offering services that didn't exist, according to Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry. Henry announced felony and misdemeanor theft and fraud charges April 12 against Chad G. Skena, 47, of Monroeville. His attorney, Patrick Thomassey of Monroeville, said his client is…

MOBILE COUNTY, Ala.— A Prichard City Councilman has been indicted on four insurance fraud charges, according to the Mobile County District Attorney's Office. Derrick Nathaniel Griffin, 43, has now been indicted on a total of six insurance fraud charges by the DA's office since December. His charges stem from misrepresentations on insurance policies for four…

A newly filed lawsuit accuses Roanoke technology company Luna Innovations and top executives of defrauding shareholders, who now seek compensation for paying what they describe as inflated prices for its stock. Luna joined the Roanoke business community in support of two major economic development initiatives, the Carilion Biomedical Institute, funded…

—Real estate tycoon Truong My Lan was sentenced Thursday to death by a court in Ho Chi Minh city in southern Vietnam in the country's largest financial fraud case ever, state media Thanh Nien said. The 67- year-old chair of the real estate company Van Thinh Phat was accused of fraud amounting to $12.5 billion— nearly 3% of the country’ s 2022 GDP.

Investigators with the Iowa Insurance Division's Fraud Bureau said Khalil Justin Crawley allegedly told his mother's insurance carrier that the vehicle was going 65 mph when it slid on ice and veered into a ditch near Jewell. Liberty Mutual Insurance paid Crawley's mother $9,895 in benefits and the city of Jewell $1,000 for medical costs.

Three new lawsuits have been filed in the ongoing fallout of what is said to be one of the largest bank frauds in Nebraska's history, discovered after the death of a Lincoln real estate investor in 2022.. Two of the cases were filed by Aaron Marshbanks' estate, and a third by the court-appointed receiver in a case where the Nebraska Department of Banking has alleged…

—Allen Weisselberg, a former longtime executive in Donald Trump’ s real estate empire, is set to be sentenced Wednesday for lying under oath in the ex-president’ s New York civil fraud case. Weisselberg admitted lying when he testified he had little knowledge of how Trump’ s Manhattan penthouse came to be valued on his financial statements at nearly three times its…