fraud – Attorney Legal Counsel

Lawsuit accuses local law firms and attorneys of filing bogus cases against businesses and others

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 14:21:04 +0000

Two Newport Beach law firms are being sued on allegations of filing fraudulent civil-rights lawsuits against individuals and small-business owners, the Riverside County district attorney’s office said.

Prosecutors said the defendants, which also include four lawyers and another individual, filed suits alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, including more than 100 cases in Riverside alone.

Riverside County prosecutors filed a civil case April 24 against Craig Gerald Cote, 67, of Huntington Beach, Babak Hashemi, 40, of Lake Forest, Joseph Richard Manning, 50, of San Clemente, Michael John Manning, 43, of San Clemente and James Rutherford, 66, of Rancho Mirage. All but Rutherford are attorneys.

Also listed as defendants are Newport Beach law firms Manning Law APC and the Law Offices of Babak Hashemi, according to court records.

The defendants were served with the case Monday, court records show.

Rutherford also has been a plaintiff in more than 200 ADA-related lawsuits filed by the lawyer defendants in Orange, San Diego, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, including one last year against a Laguna Beach hotel, according to prosecutors and court records. The Laguna case was dismissed by a judge in December.

The civil suit alleges the defendants violated the Unfair Competition Law and False Advertising Law outlined in California’s Business and Professions Code, the district attorney’s office said.

“The ADA laws are designed to help and protect disabled persons. The individuals who make false statements in court and the attorneys who manipulate these laws do so for the purpose of illegitimate financial gain,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement. “These abuses not only hurt the specific small-business owners, they also jeopardize the long-term legal protections of the disabled persons these laws were designed to help.”

A court date in the case is scheduled for June 24, according to Riverside County Superior Court records.

The DA’s office said anyone with information about the case can contact Senior Investigator Joel Pabelico at ADAvictim@rivcoda.org.

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Former Los Angeles deputy mayor Raymond Chan convicted in real estate corruption scandal

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Thu, 28 Mar 2024 10:16:42 +0000

Former Los Angeles deputy mayor Raymond Chan was convicted on Wednesday of racketeering, bribery, fraud and giving false statements to investigators in a sprawling pay-to-play corruption scandal at City Hall.

The federal jury reached the guilty verdict less than 24 hours after lawyers finished closing arguments, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Sentencing was set for June 10. Chan’s lawyer, John Hanusz, told the judge that they will appeal.

“Chan used his leadership position in City Hall to favour corrupt individuals and companies willing to play dirty,” US attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement. “With today’s verdict, we send a strong message that the public will not stand for corruption and that pay-to-play politics has no place in our community.”

This was Chan’s second trial in the bribery case involving downtown Los Angeles real estate development projects. The first fell apart after his lawyer, Harland Braun, was hospitalised and unable to return to work for months. A judge declared a mistrial last April.

China’s graft busters shame city boss for wasting US$21 billion on pet projects

In the latest trial, assistant US attorney Brian R. Faerstein told jurors that Chan and former city councilmember Jose Huizar used the downtown real estate boom of the prior decade to enrich themselves and their allies, the Times reported.

Faerstein described Chan, 67, as a crucial intermediary between Chinese developers looking to build high-rises and Huizar, who headed the powerful committee that shepherded such projects.

In opening arguments on March 12, Faerstein said Chan “got bribes for himself, and he got bribes for other public officials.”

Chan is the last defendant charged in the City Hall corruption investigation to go on trial. Huizar, who pleaded guilty to racketeering and tax evasion charges, was sentenced in January to 13 years in prison. More than a half-dozen others have been convicted or pleaded guilty to federal charges, including Huizar’s brother, Salvador Huizar.

“This case was, and always has been, about Jose Huizar,” Hanusz said.

Los Angeles City Hall. Photo: AP

Hanusz agreed that Huizar and the others were corrupt. But he said while Huizar accepted flights to Las Vegas, casino chips and lavish hotel stays, Chan received none of those things.

Chan, while working with developers, was motivated not by greed but by a desire to make Los Angeles more business-friendly, Hanusz said.

Chan was the top executive at the Department of Building and Safety until 2016, when he became the deputy mayor in charge of economic development under mayor Eric Garcetti, who was not implicated in the scandal. Chan held that job for slightly more than a year, then left city government to become a private-sector consultant, representing real estate developers.

Prosecutors have accused Chan of secretly setting up a consulting firm while working for the city and overseeing government actions for which he was paid by a developer after he left his city employment, the Times said.

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Ex-celebrity lawyer Tom Girardi found competent to stand trial for alleged $15 million client thefts

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Sat, 06 Jan 2024 05:47:07 +0000

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Disgraced Los Angeles celebrity lawyer Tom Girardi has been found competent to stand trial on charges that he stole more than $15 million from his clients.

A federal judge filed a notice of the brief order Tuesday under seal. Lawyers for both sides were given five days to identify any information in it that they would like the judge to keep confidential.

Girardi, 84, is the estranged husband of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Erika Jayne.

Girardi pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles last year to wire fraud on charges that he embezzled from clients, including an Arizona widow whose husband was killed in a boat accident; a Los Angeles couple injured in a car wreck that paralyzed their son; and a man who was severely burned in the 2010 San Bruno gas pipeline explosion.

If convicted, he could be sentenced to decades in federal prison.

The Associated Press sent messages to his public defenders seeking comment.

At issue in the competency hearing was whether Girardi understood the charges and proceedings against him and could help with his own defense. His lawyers argued that he was unable to take part in the trial because he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, which they said has left him confused and with memory problems. He currently is staying in the memory care unit of a nursing home.

Prosecutors contended that Girardi was exaggerating his symptoms.

As one of the nation’s most prominent plaintiff’s attorneys, Girardi took on powerful corporations, movie studios and Pacific Gas and Electric in a case that led to a $333 million settlement, which was portrayed in the 2000 Julia Roberts film “Erin Brockovich.”

But his law empire collapsed, he was disbarred in California in 2022 over client thefts, and he faces mounting legal problems.

Girardi also faces federal wire fraud charges in Chicago, where he is accused of stealing about $3 million from family members of victims of a 2018 Lion Air crash that killed 189 people.

The Chicago court is expected to follow the competency decision in California.

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Man hid mom’s death in 1990, stole $830K in benefits: feds

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 16:52:19 +0000

A California man was sentenced in a stolen benefits case, federal prosecutors say.

Getty Images/iStockphoto

A California man kept his mother’s death hidden and her bank account open for more than 30 years — when he stole $830,000 in government benefits paid to her, federal prosecutors said.

In 1990, after his mother’s terminal pancreatic cancer diagnosis, the now 65-year-old Poway man “methodically laid a foundation” for his fraud scheme that went undetected for 32 years, prosecutors wrote in court documents.

“As far as the United States is aware, Defendant’s crime is the largest financial loss that the United States Government has suffered in any individual deceased beneficiary case that has been federally prosecuted,” prosecutors wrote in his sentencing memo.

The man’s mother died in Japan on Oct. 22, 1990, court documents say. Afterward, he went on to steal her benefits from November 1990 until September 2022, according to the U.S. attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California.

The benefits included his mother’s Social Security Administration widow’s pension and an annuity from the Department of Defense, which pays annuities to “eligible survivors” of retired or active duty military members who have died, prosecutors said.

Since the man never alerted the SSA or the Defense Department of his mother’s death, the agencies continued paying her benefits, according to prosecutors. The man is accused of forging her signature on eligibility documents to keep the payments coming and forging income taxes.

When federal agents confronted the man about the fraud in June 2022, he lied — telling them “his mother was alive in Japan” — and continued to steal her benefits for about three more months, a sentencing memorandum says.

Now, a judge has sentenced the man to two years in federal prison, the attorney’s office announced in an Oct. 27 news release.

This comes after the man pleaded guilty to money laundering and Social Security fraud on June 27, McClatchy News previously reported.

McClatchy News contacted the man’s defense attorney for comment on Oct. 30 and didn’t receive an immediate response.

Man now owes $850,000 and must give up home

As part of the man’s sentencing, the man was ordered to pay $858,876.28 in restitution, the release said.

He must also give up $830,000 in assets, including his home in Poway, which was originally his mother’s home, according to the sentencing memo.

According to a Zillow estimate, the 1,200-square-foot, four-bedroom, two-bathroom home is valued at just under $850,000.

In a sentencing memo submitted on the man’s behalf, his attorney, Knut S. Johnson, wrote that his client was diagnosed with “mental illness” in the 1970s, resulting in him becoming bankrupt and unable to remain employed after his mother died.

“This is not the case of a person who stole $800,000.00 and bought frivolous items — it is the case of a mentally ill man unable to care for himself who could not leave his childhood home and so continued to receive her modest retirement checks,” Knut wrote.

Knut said his client received about $25,000 in his mother’s benefits each year while “his mental health declined” and “so did the condition of his childhood home.”

Meanwhile, prosecutors described the man as methodical in his scheme in their sentencing memo.

In addition to stealing his mother’s benefits, the man also used her identity to open credit accounts in her name with at least nine different banks, prosecutors said.

This caused a loss of over $28,000, according to the release.

The “defendant’s fraud and concealment of his mother’s death resulted in a financial windfall beyond his wildest dreams: more than $800,000 in stolen public money, and access to credit that he could never have obtained in his own right,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo.

Poway is about 20 miles northeast of San Diego.

Julia Marnin is a McClatchy National Real-Time reporter covering the southeast and northeast while based in New York. She’s an alumna of The College of New Jersey and joined McClatchy in 2021. Previously, she’s written for Newsweek, Modern Luxury, Gannett and more.

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Todd and Julie Chrisley’s attorney wants to reduce even more time off prison sentence

attorneylegalcounsel99 — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 19:42:53 +0000

Todd and Julie Chrisley’s attorney is hopeful the couple will have their prison sentences reduced even more after some time was shaved off both of their jail time this week.

“They were able to get some time off for both of them,” lawyer Jay Surgent told People Friday. “There’s going to be the adoption of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, changes, modifications, recommendations for reduction of sentences for nonviolent offenders.

“So [I] don’t know at this point in time, but they should be getting two points a piece for that. So that’ll further reduce their sentences.”

Surgent also said he is working on the “Chrisley Knows Best” alums’ appeals.

Todd and Julie Chrisley’s attorney is hopeful their sentences will be reduced even more.Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

“There’s hope,” he shared. “There’s always hope, but I feel as though they have a strong appeal.”

The attorney’s comments come hours after Todd and Julie’s sentences were each shortened by more than a year, according to federal prison records obtained by Page Six Friday.

The dad of five will now be released from Florida’s Federal Prison Camp Pensacola on Jan. 22, 2033 — which is two years shy of his original 12-year sentence.

Court records previously obtained by Page Six showed the Chrisleys’ prison sentences were each reduced by more than a year.Getty Images

Meanwhile, Julie will be released from Kentucky’s Federal Medical Center Lexington on Oct. 19, 2028, 14 months short of her seven-year sentence.

In January, Todd, 54, and Julie, 50, reported to their respective prisons two months after they were sentenced for fraud and tax evasion.

For more Page Six reality TV update

Prosecutors accused the reality stars of submitting fake documents to banks when applying for loans.

Todd and Julie were sentenced to 12 and seven years, respectively, behind bars.NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

The mom of three was also alleged to have submitted false credit reports and bank statements when trying to rent a home in California.

The couple — who tied the knot in 1996 — were found guilty of their crimes in June 2022 and sentenced to a combined 19 years behind bars.

Since their incarceration began, Todd and Julie’s children have spoken out about how life has been for their parents behind bars.

The “Chrisleys Knows Best” alums were found guilty of fraud and tax evasion in June 2022.Getty Images

The pair’s daughter, Savannah Chrisley, recently revealed that her folks hadn’t spoken to each other since they turned themselves in.

“195 days without a word to each other…” the 26-year-old wrote on her Instagram Stories last month alongside throwback pics of her parents. “My heart is breaking…”

Todd and Julie are also parents to sons Chase, 27, and Grayson, 17. The “Growing Up Chrisley” star is also dad to daughter Lindsie, 33, and son Kyle, 32, both of whom he shares with his ex-wife, Teresa Terry.

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