BigJoda

This is low, even for a lawyer.  The clients of this lawyer sued after a plane crash killed family members.  The lawyer took settlement funds and deposited them into his account and then spent the money elsewhere.  I have always had a dim view of lawyers.  This guy has done nothing to alter that view.

Read the entire story here:

A lawyer who allegedly defrauded the victims of a fatal plane crash.

A lawyer accused of bilking the relatives of victims of a deadly plane crash has pleaded not guilty to felony charges.

During an appearance in 5th District Court on Thursday, court records said that Matthew Terry Graff, 38, waived his preliminary hearing on a pair of second-degree felony counts of unlawful dealing of property. His attorney, Greg Skordas, entered the plea on his behalf.

Graff represented the husbands of two women who died in a plane crash last year near Moab. Ten people died in that crash. Graff is accused of depositing settlement funds from a lawsuit into his private bank account, but spending the money elsewhere…

Technorati Tags: Fraud, Lawyer

UPDATE:  The suspect plead guilty and was sentenced to 127 days in jail.  Hopefully, this will be enough time to dissuade her from extortion as a full time vocation in the future.  Read the update here.

This is a story we don’t see much of though I suspect it happens frequently, especially in child custody cases.  This dunce sent text messages AFTER going to police, leaving a nice little evidence trail behind.  This has got to be an extreme example of one of the dangers of internet dating.

Read the entire story at the OC Register:

Oh Susanna, don't you cry for me! Courtesy of the OC Register.

A woman is set to be charged this afternoon with trying to extort a man she falsely accused of rape.

Susanna Maria Coetzee, 28, of Newport Beach is to be charged in North Justice Center with trying to extort $15,000 from a man she met online, and falsely telling police he raped her.

Coetzee faces a felony count of attempting to extort and a misdemeanor count of falsely reporting a crime, and faces three years in prison if convicted. She is being held without bail on a probation violation for a DUI conviction.

Coetzee met a 37-year-old man on www.seekingarrangement.com, a Web site billed as “the elite sugar daddy dating site.”

The company defines sugar daddy as “a wealthy, usually older man who gives expensive gifts to a young person in return for intimacy or companionship.”

Coetzee met the man, whom prosecutors identified only as John Doe, for drinks on April 1, and afterward went to a hotel in Anaheim.

Prosecutors said that she began to have sex with the man, and then backed off and asked for a check. When he refused, she accused him of rape, and then started yelling that she had been raped, prosecutors said.

Security at the hotel called police. Coetzee filed a report saying that the man had pushed her to the bed, covered her face with a pillow to keep her from screaming, raped her and hit her on the head with the handset of the phone, prosecutors said.

Over the next two weeks, prosecutors said, Coetzee sent the man several dozen text messages in an attempt to get $15,000 from him in exchange for dropping her accusation…

Technorati Tags: False Rape Claim, Internet Dating

Wow, that’s no small potatoes.  What is truly shocking is how that much money could go missing for so long and not draw attention of supervisors within the D.C. government.  I also wonder why someone who steals so much doesn’t just say enough is enough and flee the country with $20 or 30 million?  The article did mention the woman was psychologically challenged.  You think??

Read the entire story here:

Harriette wanted to be seen as a benefactor. Now she can be seen as a convict.

Harriette Walters, the mastermind of the $48.1 million D.C. tax scam, was sentenced this morning to 17 1/2 years in federal prison, capping the prosecution of the largest embezzlement in District government history

Walters said little as U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan sentenced the 52-year-old to near the top of a sentencing range laid out in a plea deal she had reached with prosecutors. She is the last of 11 people to be sentenced in the scheme, which Walters admitting running for nearly two decades.

“I’ve accepted full responsibility for the part I played,” said Walters, speaking for the first time. She was apologetic. She said she cooperated fully and accepted full responsibility.

“This scheme was very sophisticated,” Sullivan said. “It spanned 18 years. The city lost, the citizens lost…”

Technorati Tags: Embezzlement

I have never understood how someone worth tens of millions of dollars is supposed to view a fine of $1 million as anything other than a joke.  If I knew I could make 20 or 30 million but would eventually have to pay a million dollar fine and spend a few years in prison, I might take the plunge.  This guy allegedly made $3 million in one summer alone.  Now he is going to be an investigator-for-hire.  I disagree that this is somehow a victory for law enforcement.

Read the entire story here:

This is the face of all those Viagra emails.

A West Bloomfield man identified by a federal prosecutor as “the world’s most notorious illegal spammer,” pleaded guilty Monday to federal fraud and money laundering charges.

Alan M. Ralsky, 64, known as the “Spam King” for his years as a prolific and sophisticated e-mailer for hire, entered pleas before U.S. District Judge Marianne O. Battani to crimes that could cost him $1 million and put him behind bars for more than seven years.

Ralsky also agreed to help the government in future investigations in return for a possible reduction in his sentence.

For years, Ralsky has flooded the Internet with unsolicited promotions for everything from mortgages to male enhancement pills.

He pleaded guilty to being the mastermind of a scheme that boosted the value of “pink sheet” Chinese penny stocks by spamming tens of millions of Internet e-mail addresses with promotional messages.

When the prices rose, Ralsky and his co-defendants unloaded their stocks at a profit, according to government investigators.

It was alleged that Ralsky made about $3 million from illegal spamming in the summer of 2005 alone…

Technorati Tags: Internet, Mail Fraud, Spam

This guy was arrogant AND a compulsive gambler – not a good combination for a fugitive facing 10 years in prison.  He allegedly bilked a series of banks out of more than $30 million.  His favorite movie is ‘Catch Me If You Can.’  I wonder what it will be after 10 years in Federal Prison?

Read the entire story here:

Maybe his newest favorite movie will be 'The Great Escape.'

His favorite movie is “Catch Me If You Can,” and he thought he could emulate it, according to authorities.

“He honestly thought with his background and his knowledge, he could hide from us,” said Jim Phelps, with the U.S. Marshals Service and supervisory director of the Joint Criminal Apprehension Team.

But when marshals caught up with Park City resident Jeffrey F. Geddes in San Diego, they told him their favorite movie was “The Fugitive.”

“He was in shock when we caught him. You literally could see his lips drying out and his tongue turning white. He was caught totally off guard,” Phelps said.

In March, a warrant was issued for Geddes, who failed to show up for sentencing after being convicted on 56 counts of bank and wire fraud. He had pleaded guilty to bilking Zions Bank and other banks out of an estimated $30 million by claiming he owned a tile business that supplied Home Depot.

When it came time for sentencing, however, in which he was likely looking at 10 years in federal prison, he went on the run. Phelps, however, said his investigators have uncovered evidence suggesting that Geddes had been planning since November to flee…

Technorati Tags: Bank Fraud, Wire Fraud