News

Two Los Angeles County men -- one of them an illegal alien -- have been charged via federal criminal complaints with possessing Molotov cocktails during the recent civil unrest in downtown Los Angeles and Paramount stemming from protests against federal immigration enforcement operations, the Justice Department announced today.

An illegal alien from Mexico who is living in Los Angeles was charged today with a felony count for allegedly spitting on a federal agent executing a warrant for his arrest earlier this week.

A San Gabriel Valley man and commercial real estate broker has pleaded guilty to a years-long pattern of obstructing the IRS from collecting taxes he owed, leading that agency to collect $770 in tax liabilities when he earned approximately $1 million from his employment during that time, the Justice Department announced today.

Five men have pleaded guilty for their roles in laundering more than $36.9 million from victims of an international digital asset investment scam conspiracy that was carried out from scam centers in Cambodia, the Justice Department announced today.

An illegal alien from China pleaded guilty today to federal criminal charges for illegally exporting firearms, ammunition and other military items to North Korea by concealing them inside shipping containers that departed from the Port of Long Beach, and for committing this crime at the direction of North Korean government officials, who wired him approximately $2 million for his efforts.

The founder and former CEO of an investment firm that specializes in debt instruments was sentenced today to 40 months in federal prison for falsifying financial records to fraudulently inflate the value of the funds he managed, allowing him to charge investors millions of dollars in unauthorized fees.

A San Fernando Valley man pleaded guilty today to a federal criminal charge for possessing two suitcases containing more than a dozen clothing items – including a cow pajama onesie – caked in methamphetamine while preparing to board a flight from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to Australia late last year.   

A former politician who served on the Orange County Board of Supervisors was sentenced today to 60 months in federal prison for accepting more than $550,000 in bribes for directing and voting in favor of more than $10 million in COVID-19 pandemic relief funds to a charity affiliated with one of his daughters.

The founder of a now-shuttered non-profit organization has been indicted on federal charges alleging he bribed then-Orange County Supervisor Andrew Hoang Do to obtain approximately $12 million in COVID-19 pandemic-related funds, pocketed the bulk of that money, then laundered it to avoid detection by law enforcement, the Justice Department announced today.

A Washington state man has been arrested on a federal criminal complaint alleging he provided material support to the Palm Springs fertility clinic bomber by shipping and paying for significant quantities of ammonium nitrate – an explosive precursor – prior to the suicidal terror attack last month, the Justice Department announced today.

The owner and operator of two West Covina hospices was arrested today on a 14-count federal grand jury indictment alleging she filed more than $4.8 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare – which paid more than $3.8 million on those claims – for medically unnecessary services for people not terminally ill and for paying kickbacks to marketers to procure patients.

Disbarred plaintiffs’ personal injury attorney Thomas Vincent Girardi was sentenced today to 87 months in federal prison for leading a years-long scheme in which he embezzled tens of millions of dollars of settlement money that belonged to his clients, some of whom awaited payment for treatment of severe physical injuries.