Last Monday, Charles Agbu, a 58-year pastor based in Carson, pled guilty to an $11 million Los Angeles Medicare fraud scam. The Department of Justice accused Agbu of masterminding the reimbursement fraud. Agbu faces the specter of a 20-year prison sentence on top of a fine of $500,000. He will…
Most Los Angeles lewd conduct charges, fortunately, are relatively “small scale.” They might involve one person committing an alleged sex crime against another or a few people. However, there are times when certain crimes lead to a kind of “mass harm” and draw the attention of both community and the…
The Federal Government, under the Obama administration, has made a huge push to crack down on Medicare fraud in Los Angeles and beyond. We’ve covered many relevant stories over the past few years, citing probably dozens of examples of big time busts. We’ve also discussed some of the scary consequences…
Statistical analyses of petty theft in Los Angeles paint a pretty grim holiday picture. According to the National Retail Federation, 95% of all retail stores (that’s 19 out of every 20 stores) falls victim to petty theft during the Yuletide season: that’s a spike of 30% over normal crime rates.…
Blockbuster charges face DaVita Inc., one of the largest dialysis companies in United States, including charges of Medicare fraud in Los Angeles and beyond. DaVita is a $7 billion company that operates 2,000 dialysis clinics in the United States. The CEO alone receives $15 million annually, much of that paid…
Southland Attorney Arturo Fernando Shaw Gutierrez was arrested in a sting operation last Saturday and charged with arranging to meet a minor for lewd acts and intent to commit lewd acts at the Seal Beach Pier. According to initial reports from the Orange County Child Exploitation Task Force, the parents…
49-year old ex-professional baseball player, Lenny Dykstra, was sentenced last week to half a year in federal prison in conjunction with bankruptcy fraud charges. Dykstra, the ex-Met and Phillie who went by the nickname “Nails” and who helped the New York Mets cap off their Cinderella 1986 season with astonishing…
Nearly two decades ago, Sergio Ayala got convicted on charges of Los Angeles petty theft: he stole a leaf blower worth $150. Since the former heroin addict already had two criminal convictions “under his belt,” he found himself whalloped by California’s Three Strikes rule and landed a sentence of 25…
As someone who was recently charged with Southern California Medicare fraud, you feel alone and isolated. Odds are that you did not participate in a nine-figure con game — the kind of crime you read about in the Los Angeles Times and other big papers. You might have been making…
As the Yuletide season approaches, retailers are going to be on high alert for Los Angeles petty theft and similar crimes. If you’ve unfortunately recently been arrested for pilfering electronics or clothing — or participating in a larger scale Southern California grand theft crime syndicate — you may need to…