Tag: California

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — The state Department of Insurance says a second dental assistant from the same office has been charged with insurance fraud, identity theft and grand theft after allegedly falsifying insurance claims.

Alma Almendariz, 35, was booked Wednesday into Kern County Jail and is scheduled to be arraigned Friday on 67 felonies, according to the department and court website. She’s held on $690,000 bail.

Almendariz used insider knowledge to submit fraudulent insurance claims to AFLAC for procedures that were not performed, according to a Department of Insurance release. She is accused of submitting 23 fraudulent claims for her and her son and receiving $10,165 from AFLAC.

Maria Uranday, who worked at the same dental office as Almendariz, pleaded not guilty in June to similar charges and is next due in court in August. The dental office was not named in the news release.

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Content retrieved from: https://www.kget.com/news/local-news/second-dental-assistant-from-the-same-office-charged-with-insurance-fraud/

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Three Northern California residents were sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. for crimes relating to their involvement in a mortgage fraud scheme, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced.

Surjit Singh, 72, of Dublin, was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison, his son, Rajeshwar Singh, 44, of Pleasanton, was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison on four counts of mail fraud, four counts of bank fraud, and four counts of false statements on loan and credit applications. Anita Sharma, 56, of Gilroy, was sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison on two counts of mail fraud, two counts of bank fraud, and two counts of false statements on loan and credit applications. Surjit Singh was ordered to pay a $2 million fine, $698,787 in restitution, and $847,000 in forfeiture. Raj Singh was ordered to pay a $1 million fine, $928,287 in restitution, and $838,399 in forfeiture. Anita Sharma was ordered to pay $603,180 in restitution and $30,000 in forfeiture.

According to court documents, in 2006 and 2007, Surjit Singh recruited individuals with good credit to act as straw buyers for residential properties owned by his family members and associates. Rajeshwar Singh, a licensed real estate agent, assisted in the scheme by submitting loan applications for the straw buyers. Anita Sharma, a dental assistant at the time, was one of the straw buyers. Because Sharma and the other straw buyers could not afford the homes based on their true incomes, the Singhs submitted fraudulent loan applications and supporting material to lending institutions that included false statements about the straw buyers’ income, employment, liabilities, and intent to occupy the homes as their primary residences.

At least 14 properties were involved in the scheme. Anita Sharma alone purchased five homes in San Jose, San Ramon, Elk Grove, Sacramento, and Modesto. Other straw buyers purchased or refinanced properties in Stockton, Modesto, Patterson, Lathrop and Tracy. All of these homes were ultimately either foreclosed upon or sold in a short sale where the bank lets homeowners sell their homes for less than is owed on the mortgage.

Sharma was paid for her involvement in the scheme. Rajeshwar Singh received financial benefits through broker commissions for the transactions and as the seller of seven of the properties. He also continued to occupy the San Ramon property at a time when Anita Sharma should have been living there. Surjit Singh benefitted through payments out of escrow directed to shell companies, such as SJR Investments and BK Investments, which were associated with his daughter and significant other, whose initials are SJR and BK respectively. These payments were purportedly for contracting services, which did not occur. He also benefitted through rental payments made to him and his significant other by the renters of the homes, as the straw buyers were not living in the homes. In addition, many of his family members received money by selling properties and had money directed to them out of escrow. According to court documents and evidence produced at trial, the defendants were responsible for the origination of more than $9.3 million in fraudulently procured residential mortgage loans.

Surjit Singh is in custody.  Rajeshwar Singh and Anita Sharma are scheduled to self‑surrender on January 9, 2019.

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Content retrieved from https://www.justice.gov/usao-edca/pr/three-sentenced-mortgage-fraud-scheme-involving-14-properties-elk-grove-sacramento

Update September 20, 2020:

Apparently Ms. Morales’ various legal troubles have not stopped her from looking for employment in the dental field. Our friend, consultant and dental image expert Janice Hurley, recently caught Karla applying for a job with a practice in Bakersfield CA.

Janice kindly supplied this recent picture of Karla.

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Original Story:

A Bakersfield dental office employee has been arrested after failing to pay back monies stolen during a fraud scheme.

In June 2018, 42-year-old Karla Morales was charged with 45 felonies, including insurance fraud, identity theft, forgery, and grand theft after Department of Insurance detectives discovered she had submitted 78 fraudulent dental insurance claim forms for services she or her family never received. The fraud amounted to over $46,000.

Her husband, 47-year-old Raymundo Morales Jr. was also charged in connection to the fraud.

In November 2018 Morales was sentenced to one year in jail, five years probation, and ordered to pay restitution.

On Wednesday, Morales was arrested for failing to pay the restitution and is being held without bail in the Kern County Jail.

Content retrieved from https://www.turnto23.com/news/crime/bakersfield-dental-office-employee-arrested-for-failing-to-pay-restitution-in-fraud-scheme

Prosperident note — there is a Raymond Morales, formerly of Delano, CA, with date of birth June 25, 1956, who is a registered sex offender. We wonder if this is the same Raymondo Morales named in the article.

When you go to the dentist, you might have a number of things extracted … molars, wisdom teeth, and, of course, your dignity, when the novocaine shot makes its first appearance.  However, there’s probably one thing you wouldn’t expect to see yanked out at a dental office … the lawn.

That’s right, I said the lawn. As in the thing children play on, dogs lie on and trashy people park on.

The lawn.

But that’s exactly what happened to one Southern California mom and pop dental office — because, you see, in Crime-afornia, not even our government-subsided plastic grass is safe from the barbarians at the gate.

Kara Sweeney, the office director and wife of the dentist, James A. Sweeney, DDS, told me that the timing of the theft came as a particular punch to the gut, because it happened at the same time that the couple were pouring their savings into renovations to improve their family business.

“Our office manager saw it and assumed that I asked him to come out [and measure the grass] as part of the renovations we were doing. Then that weekend a neighbor across the street saw three men pulling the grass up. Apparently a police officer stopped them with a pedestrian check and one of them took off into the desert. The police officer shooed them away, I guess, but they returned that evening to finish stealing the grass! I guess they already had their measurements and knew it would be the piece for their project.  We reported it to the police and I am hoping the pedestrian check helps them find who did it,” Sweeney explained.

Apparently, “taking off into the desert” after being confronted by the cops didn’t raise enough red flags to prompt further questioning. But with Propositions 47, 57 and AB 109 essentially giving criminals a free pass for crimes exactly like this, I guess you can’t really blame the police. They have bigger fish to fry than chasing “John Wilkes Tooth” through the Mojave Desert over some stolen Astroturf.

I asked Sweeney if she had any evidence that might be helpful for the police. She told me, “We did have cameras and they came and stole them too. We actually watched the man climb the ladder and snip the wire … that being said we are putting better new ones in and hopefully it will deter people. It’s an older neighborhood but doesn’t seem particularly scary to me or anything like that. It’s sad. I feel like with all the effort they should just get a real job … I think they would sleep better at night.”