News

An Irvine man was arrested today on a nine-count federal grand jury indictment charging him with running a Ponzi scheme that conned victims – family and friend included – by persuading them to invest in his stock options trading fund, but then using most of the money to pay for personal items, including trying to buy coastal real estate.

A former Major League Baseball (MLB) player was found guilty by a jury today of lying to federal law enforcement officials about bets on sporting events that he placed with an illegal gambling operation. 

The former leader of Panama’s largest drug trafficking organization that conspired to smuggle tons of cocaine into the United States has been found guilty by a jury of a federal narcotics trafficking charge, the Justice Department announced today.

A San Fernando Valley man was sentenced today to 200 months in federal prison for breaking into an elderly man’s home, later stealing his jewelry and mail, then providing the victim’s personal identifying information (PII) to fellow criminals, who then joined him in looting the victim’s estate via a forged trust and power-of-attorney forms.

A San Gabriel Valley woman was sentenced today to 64 months in federal prison for stalking a victim then impersonating him and his wife to further stalk government employees at a United States consulate in Vietnam, which she threatened to bomb.

An associate of the Mexican Mafia prison gang was sentenced today to 120 months in federal prison for participating in an attack on a fellow Orange County jail inmate in 2019, an assault that left the victim with his throat slashed.

A Chilean national was sentenced today to 135 months in federal prison for enticing a 14-year-old girl he met online – and traveled to Southern California to meet in person – to engage in criminal sexual activity and for possessing sexually explicit images of the victim on his cell phone.

An illegal immigrant from Mexico was sentenced today to 48 months in federal prison for lighting and throwing a Molotov cocktail at law enforcement during an anti-immigration enforcement riot in Paramount last year.

A Long Beach man was found guilty by a jury today of distributing fentanyl-laced cocaine that resulted in the overdose deaths on the same day in Orange County of two victims who were engaged to be married.

A Hawaii man was sentenced today to 48 months in federal prison for defrauding a 79-year-old Orange County victim out of nearly $2 million via false promises to broker the sale of the victim’s yacht and by taking out unauthorized loans against the victim’s Irvine condominium, which left the victim homeless.

A Long Beach man pleaded guilty today to federal criminal charges for sending a dozen payments to suspected members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization, and for illegally possessing a homemade bomb.

A Chinese national was sentenced today to 46 months in federal prison for his role in laundering more than $36.9 million from victims in a digital asset investment conspiracy that was carried out from scam centers in Cambodia.