Tag: California

Prosperident’s Hall of Shame is the place where we profile embezzlers and some of their antics.

Understandably, some of the people profiled there would be happier if we removed them from our website. Occasionally, we receive a genuine request for removal, but many of the removal requests involve the embezzler or someone close to them doing what they do best — lying to us about why the content should be removed. (For a particularly hilarious example of someone trying this, please click HERE.)

We recently received another good one. We have profiled someone named Hector Ramos of Murrieta, CA, who was arraigned in 2017 for allegedly embezzling $800,000 from a not-for-profit health organization in California.

Today we were contacted by someone who gave their name as John Aberdeen. Initially this person claimed to be a journalist owning the copyright for a story we posted about Hector Ramos. (click HERE for our story).

We reviewed our content. Our initial story was taken (with proper attribution, of course) from a California newspaper, but the author was listed as “Teri Figeroa”, not John Aberdeen, and we could not find any record of a John Aberdeen at that newspaper, or any other paper in California. Neither the phone number nor email address provided by Mr. “Aberdeen” checked out. Also, this person’s poor grammar and apparent slow typing speed made it unlikely that he was the author of the article.

So, we didn’t take down our content, as we had promised Mr. “Aberdeen”. Instead we rewrote it and added a bit of information.

Mr. Aberdeen quickly contacted us again through our website, but now his story changed and he claimed to be a member of Mr. Ramos’ legal team. When our customer service representative challenged him on this assertion, his story changed yet again, and he told us we would hear from his lawyers (interesting, when he had just claimed to be one).

The transcript of our online chat, reproduced below, makes for interesting reading.

Initial contact:

john aberdeen 9:09 AM joined the chat
(Prosperident Staffer) 9:09 AM joined the chat
(Prosperident Staffer) 9:10 AM Good morning
john aberdeen 9:10 AM Good Morning
(Prosperident Staffer) 9:10 AM How can we help you today?
john aberdeen 9:10 AM Can you connect me with your technical team.
(Prosperident Staffer) 9:11 AM Certainly. Are you a dentist?
john aberdeen 9:11 AM No
(Prosperident Staffer) 9:12 AM Ok. If you tell me how we can help, I can connect you with the right person here.
john aberdeen 9:14 AM I found my copy righted work on your website
you need to remove content on immediate basis.
(Prosperident Staffer) 9:15 AM I’m sorry about that. We will correct it right now. Do you have a URL or other information so that I can find the right page?
john aberdeen 9:16 AM https://www.prosperident.com/head-of-it-department-accused-of-embezzling-800k-from-california-non-profit-clinic/
original url
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-nonprofit-theft-charges-20171201-story.html
(Prosperident Staffer) 9:16 AM Thanks for letting me know. I’ll have it removed within the next hour, and I’ll email you when it is done.
john aberdeen 9:17 AM ok thank you
(Prosperident Staffer) 9:17 AM Is there anything else we can help with?
john aberdeen 9:18 AM no thank you
(Prosperident Staffer) 9:19 AM Have a good day, Mr. Aberdeen

Second contact:
john aberdeen 9:59 AM joined the chat
john aberdeen 10:00 AM Hi
(Prosperident Staffer) 10:00 AM joined the chat
john aberdeen 10:00 AM This side john aberdeen
(Prosperident Staffer) 10:01 AM Hi Mr. Aberdeen
john aberdeen 10:01 AM i sanded you request to remove the content
but your team update the content
https://www.prosperident.com/head-of-it-department-accused-of-embezzling-800k-from-california-non-profit-clinic/
(Prosperident Staffer) 10:01 AM Yes we did.
john aberdeen 10:01 AM why
(Prosperident Staffer) 10:02 AM We updated it to remove copyrighted information.
john aberdeen 10:02 AM I think you not understand
(Prosperident Staffer) 10:02 AM I think you’re right. It doesn’t look like you actually own the copyright on this information. And I’m pretty sure you’re not a journalist. So what’s the real issue?
john aberdeen 10:03 AM i am not a journalist i am legal team
(Prosperident Staffer) 10:03 AM I see.
john aberdeen 10:04 AM your admin copy our website content
we not authorized you to use our content.
(Prosperident Staffer) 10:04 AM That’s interesting, because the first time you contacted us, you indicated that you owned the copyright. What is “our content”?
What law firm are you with? I deal with attorneys on a daily basis, and I’m pretty sure you are not one.
john aberdeen 10:08 AM if you think then we go legal
you don’t worry
(Prosperident Staffer) 10:09 AM We look forward to hearing from your lawyers. We will have a wonderful discussion with him about the first amendment.

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.

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

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – A woman is facing multiple fraud charges accused of a scheme while working at a dental office.

Investigators say Karla Morales and her husband Raymundo filed nearly 80 fraudulent insurance claims while she worked for Delano Family Dentistry.

The dentistry confirmed she was fired in March.

Court documents say Morales forged the claims while making the reimbursements payable to her husband.

The couple allegedly made nearly $47,000.

Morales pleaded not guilty to all charges Thursday.

Content retrieved from: https://www.kget.com/news/local-news/woman-pleads-not-guilty-in-alleged-insurance-fraud-scheme/1343548405

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.

LOS ANGELES (CNS) – A former office manager at a Beverly Hills dental
office was sentenced today to 180 days in county jail for insurance fraud.
Claudia Ventura, 40, also was ordered to complete 200 hours of community
service and five years of formal probation, according to the Los Angeles
County District Attorney’s Office.
Ventura pleaded no contest April 10 to two felony counts of insurance
fraud.
Co-defendant Tom Kalili, who owned and operated a dental office called
Beverly Hills Medical Suites, pleaded no contest April 10 to one felony count
each of insurance fraud and failure to file an income tax return. Kalili, 59,
was sentenced April 29 to one year in county jail and five years of probation,
along with paying just over $786,000 in restitution to various insurance
companies.
The case stemmed from a multi-year joint investigation by state
regulators and tax agents.

Authorities are searching for a San Jose dental clerk suspected of pocketing patient fees after allegedly scamming an insurance company by faking thousands of dollars worth of dental work and spending her loot on high-end clothes and trips to Reno.

Rochelle Banting faces a $50,000 warrant for felony grand theft, insurance fraud and forgery.

In charge of the billing in two dentists offices over five years, Banting embezzled about $40,000, according to District Attorney Investigator Glenn McGovern.

“You cannot have one person be the only one who understands the billing process,” McGovern said. ” I see this more and more where they trust someone, they are the only one who understand the whole process and they get out of control.”

Banting allegedly scammed her insurance carrier, which was not identified, by filing false claims for her, her husband or her six children, that were directly reimbursed to her. Later, at another dentist’s office, she directly pocketed cash payments from patients, McGovern said.

Banting appears to have left her family and is believed to be currently in hiding.

Do you have questions about embezzlement?  Give Prosperident a call at 888-398-2327 or send an email to requests@dentalembezzlement.com

Content retrieved from: http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2011/03/15/san-jose-dental-clerk-suspected-of-scam/

When Detective Dan Salcedo retired after more than 16 years investigating homicides for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, he wasn’t “looking to do anything other than [go to the] beach and golf.” But in the summer of 2014, just a few months after he’d left his desk, his old department came calling.The Orange County Sheriff’s Department was initiating a Cold Case Homicide Task Force, and they wanted to hire back a few retired investigators to work part-time and head up the team. It was an offer Salcedo, who has more than 200 homicide investigations under his belt, couldn’t resist. He was back, at least a few days a week, as a “part-time retired cold case homicide task force investigator,” as he tells LAist.

On March 7, 1986, Dr. Cedric Horn, a 77-year-old dentist, left his home for a business meeting in Northern California, with plans to also visit his daughter in Oregon. Horn never returned. His family members reported him missing on March 13, 1986. His body was never found, although his car did surface in Houston several weeks after he’d been reported missing.

According to the O.C. Register, a neighbor claimed at the time that Horn believed that one of his business partners, along with some of his money, had gone missing shortly before his own disappearance.

Steven White, a business associate of Horn’s, was identified as a person of interest in the case early on, but White had disappeared from Orange County shortly thereafter and the case had been gathering dust ever since.

The Cedric Horn case—which had been cold for nearly three decades—was one of the first that Dan Salcedo looked at when he returned to the force. Salcedo began to pour over the original case book, which had been assembled by the investigators who’d worked on the case in 1986 and 1987. Steven White’s name had been mentioned as a person of interest then, but “him disappearing from Orange County and not wanting to be contacted by our guys” had slowed things down.

On Dec. 12, 1987, White had been convicted by a Florida jury for murdering another business associate in April 1987, and had been in a Florida prison facility ever since.

“Really not much had been initiated, as far as his involvement in the Cedric Horn case,” Salcedo told LAist. But Salcedo pushed on, he found “some things that the guys back in the day had gathered that pointed to Steven White possibly being responsible for the disappearance.” Salcedo was not able to share details, but he said the evidence was sufficient enough for him and his partner to request a trip to Florida to speak with White about the case.

Salcedo and his partner William Griffin—another retired O.C. detective who had returned to the Cold Case task force part-time—traveled to Florida in May 2015.

After coordinating with Florida prison officials, Salcedo and Griffin went in to meet White, who is now 66. The suspect was “very cordial and very soft-spoken,” according to Salcedo.

If anyone could get a confession out of White, it would be Salcedo. In an O.C. Register story about his retirement, Saucedo’s colleagues and supervisors praised his “old-fashioned detective work,” saying he did his best “when sitting across the table from suspects or knocking on doors. More specifically, the detective was blessed with, as his last supervisor described it, ‘the gift of gab.'” Another supervised compared him to Columbo, the famously chatty ’70s-era television detective.

Griffin and Salcedo were cautiously optimistic as they went in to speak with White. They’d come a long way, but the case was still nearly three decades old, and they had no way of knowing if White would be cooperative, as Salcedo told LAist. They needn’t have worried.

“[White] let us know what the circumstances were both prior to and following Cedric Horn’s death, and that he was solely responsible for it,” Salcedo said.

“I don’t know that without us going here he would have ever confessed to anyone what he had done, ” Salcedo said, adding that he considers their trip to talk to him “well worth it.”

White arrived in California Wednesday, and made his first appearance in a Santa Ana courtroom this afternoon. Because White is already serving 25 years to life in his Florida sentence, he now faces a “special circumstance allegation of committing another murder,” meaning he would face at least life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of Horn’s murder, according to City News Service.

It’s believed that White befriended Horn to try and convince Horn to enter into business dealings with him, and White is accused of gaining access to Horn’s bank accounts and fraudulently transferring funds from Horn’s account into his own, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. White was charged with Horn’s murder shortly after Salcedo and Griffin returned from Florida, but he fought extradition charges, which is why it took almost a year for him to be brought to California.

“There certainly is a satisfaction in it,” Salcedo said.

Do you have questions about embezzlement?  Give Prosperident a call at 888-398-2327 or send an email to requests@dentalembezzlement.com

Content retrieved from: http://laist.com/2016/04/28/cold_case_murder.php