LOS ANGELES CRIMINAL DEFENSE BLOG

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged husband-and-wife executives at a China-based company with engaging in a scheme to overstate the company’s revenues and divert proceeds from a securities offering for their personal use.

The SEC alleges that RINO International Corporation’s chief executive officer Dejun “David” Zou and chairman of the board Jianping “Amy” Qiu diverted $3.5 million in company money to purchase a luxury home in Orange County, Calif., without disclosing it to investors.

A half-dozen current and former San Francisco Unified School District employees are facing felony charges in an alleged scheme in which prosecutors claim more than $15 million in public money was illegally diverted over a 10-year period.

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon held a news conference this morning to announce the charges against the six employees, who had warrants issued for their arrests on Monday and are expected to turn themselves in on Wednesday.

A New York woman was sentenced to 19 months in prison today for her role in a scheme to defraud consumer product manufacturers, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana.

Dina Wein Reis, 49, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jane E. Magnus-Stinson in the Southern District of Indiana and ordered to pay restitution of $5,678,190 and a fine of $1 million.

A former physics professor of the University of California, Los Angeles has agreed to plead guilty to federal fraud charges and pay nearly $1.7 million in penalties for submitting fraudulent invoices related to nanotechnology research he was performing for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and other federal government entities.

Dr. Alfred Wong, 75, who resides in the Westwood district of Los Angeles, was charged this morning with making a false claim to the United States. Wong was charged in a criminal information filed in United States District Court in Los Angeles.

A federal grand jury in San Francisco has indicted Blessed Marvelous Herve, a/k/a Rodrigue Herve Ngandou, a/k/a Herve Rodrigue Ngandou, a/k/a Blessed Roll Herve, for wire fraud after the 41 year allegedly old devised and executed a scheme to defraud victims of approximately $1.6 million.

Herve claimed that his father was the president of the Congo and a multi-billionaire, but that the United States government had seized Herve’s assets, in excess of $43,000,000.

Franklin County Sheriff Jeffrey Richards said during an afternoon news conference that the prosecutor has 48 hours from the time the suspect is arrested to file formal charges. He was arrested early Thursday and is being held at the Franklin County jail on a first-degree murder charge.

Franklin County Attorney Stephen Hunting said earlier Thursday that the suspect does not have an attorney.

A Tuscaloosa man avoided a jury trial and possible death sentence by pleading guilty to murder Monday morning.

Eric Harton, 40, will serve life in prison for killing Stephanie Collins in 1999. He had been charged with capital murder, but pleaded to a reduced charge of felony murder.

A Diamond Bar woman who, along with her husband, owns a Los Angeles-area toy wholesaler, was ordered today to serve a total of 14 months in custody for participating in an elaborate scheme known as a Black Market Peso Exchange, which is an underground money-transfer system that enables international drug trafficking organizations to launder narcotics proceeds.

Dan “Daisy” Xin Li, 44, co-owner of the Industry-based Woody Toys, Inc., was sentenced today to eight months in prison, to be followed by six months of home detention. At the conclusion of today’s hearing, Li was remanded into custody.

The mastermind of a $29.1 million Medicare fraud scheme involving approximately 30 purported medical clinics has pleaded guilty in Detroit for his role in the scheme.

Sachin Sharma, 37, of Detroit, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Denise P. Hood in the Eastern District of Michigan to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of tax evasion.