News

SAN DIEGO –  The last of 25 defendants in a $65 million fraud scheme that preyed on thousands of elderly victims in San Diego and beyond admitted their crimes on Friday, marking a significant step toward accountability in the sprawling international case that was bolstered by YouTube scambaiters. The 25 defendants – mostly Chinese nationals – were arrested in August 2025 after a nationwide, weeklong takedown in California, New York, Texas and Michigan. Three charged defendants remain fugitives.

SAN DIEGO – Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of California filed 114 border-related cases this week, including charges of bringing in aliens for financial gain, reentering the U.S. after deportation, and importation of controlled substances. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California is the fourth-busiest federal district, largely due to a high volume of border-related crimes. This district, encompassing San Diego and Imperial counties, shares a 140-mile border with Mexico. It includes the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the world’s busiest land border crossing

SAN DIEGO – San Diego CPA Oladapo Olagbemi was sentenced in federal court today to 18 months in prison for preparing false tax returns containing $5 million in improper deductions and credits that resulted in $1.5 million in losses to the public fisc. Olagbemi, who managed San Diego-based D.A.O. Accounting, Consulting, and Taxation, pleaded guilty in June to four counts of aiding and assisting the preparation of false tax returns, admitting to multiple schemes between tax years 2019 and 2023 to help clients get illegitimate refunds by claiming business expenses, charitable gifts, and energy

SAN DIEGO – Ricky Jesus Rodriguez and his daughter, Jasmine Rodriguez, pleaded guilty in federal court today, admitting they participated in a months-long conspiracy to smuggle banned refrigerants from Mexico into the United States on behalf of American air conditioning companies. Ricky Rodriguez admitted that he was paid tens of thousands of dollars to coordinate the smuggling of R-22, a hydrochlorofluorocarbon long banned from production and import in the United States.  He admitted that he recruited others, including his daughter, to join the smuggling ring, and helped coordinate her role

SAN DIEGO – Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of California filed 111 border-related cases this week, including charges of bringing in aliens for financial gain, reentering the U.S. after deportation, and importation of controlled substances. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California is the fourth-busiest federal district, largely due to a high volume of border-related crimes. This district, encompassing San Diego and Imperial counties, shares a 140-mile border with Mexico. It includes the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the world’s busiest land border crossing

SAN DIEGO – Hasan Korkmaz, the owner and operator of San Diego Logistics Group Inc., a Santee trucking company, pleaded guilty in federal court today to all 18 counts of an indictment charging him with bank fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft. According to his plea agreement, in 2022 and 2023, Korkmaz executed a credit card “bust-out” scheme—where fraudsters establish seemingly legitimate credit card accounts in other people’s names and then “bust out” by maxing out the credit line with no intention of paying the balance. 

SAN DIEGO - Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of California filed 99 border-related cases this week, including charges of bringing in aliens for financial gain, reentering the U.S. after deportation, and importation of controlled substances.

SAN DIEGO – Isaac Jimenez, a U.S. citizen residing in Tijuana, was sentenced in federal court today to 12 years in prison for his role in a human smuggling conspiracy whose members kidnapped migrants and extorted their families for ransom. Two victims in unrelated kidnappings—a father of four U.S. citizen children and a 21-year-old woman from Tijuana—were never heard from again. The woman was found dead in Tijuana; the man is believed to have been killed in Mexico by Jimenez’s coconspirators.

SAN DIEGO – Troy Clinton Van Sickle, a resident of Temecula, pleaded guilty in federal court today, admitting that he stole more than $1.8 million from two elderly women he claimed to be romantically interested in, and then obstructed federal law enforcement efforts to investigate the fraud scheme. According to his plea agreement, Van Sickle targeted a wealthy divorced woman in Los Angeles and cultivated what appeared to be a romantic relationship in order to gain access to her finances. Van Sickle concealed his criminal history, which included convictions for fraud, theft, extortion, and

SAN DIEGO – Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of California filed 112 border-related cases this week, including charges of bringing in aliens for financial gain, reentering the U.S. after deportation, and importation of controlled substances. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California is the fourth-busiest federal district, largely due to a high volume of border-related crimes. This district, encompassing San Diego and Imperial counties, shares a 140-mile border with Mexico. It includes the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the world’s busiest land border crossing

SAN DIEGO – An indictment unsealed in federal court today charges two alleged white supremacists from Riverside County with hate crimes in connection with racially-motivated attacks on two U.S. Marines and a third man at the Oceanside pier in June 2025. Austin Yohe and Daniel Burns are also charged with obstruction of justice for lying to Riverside court personnel, local law enforcement officers in Oceanside, and FBI agents about their roles in the assault.  The FBI arrested Yohe yesterday afternoon in Riverside, California.  At approximately the same time, Burns was taken into custody at an

SAN DIEGO – Geovany Andres Rojas, aka “Araña,” a Colombian national and alleged high-level narco-terrorist and prolific cocaine trafficker, was extradited from Colombia to the United States today. Rojas was ​handed over to U.S. officials this morning under heavy security at a Colombian National Police air base in Bogotá. The sendoff was attended by Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella. Rojas arrived at an undisclosed location in San Diego at 4:30 p.m. PST, flanked by DEA and FBI agents.