Articles Posted in Orange County

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An ex-insurance agent from San Clemente has been accused of using fraudulent practices to profit off of investments he made for at least six elderly clients in Southern California.

55-year-old Mark Malatesta, a man employed as a licensed insurance agent, was taken into custody on Monday after the California Department of Insurance detectives found what they believe is supporting evidence that he was taking part in a monetary ruse which cost his former clients over $1.6 million. The alleged victims were reported as senior citizens, who are said to be a target demographic of an increasing number of deceptions designed to cheat them out of their money, as reported by Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones.

Malatesta has been accused of a procedure called “churning,” wherein a broker who typically has permission to make independent determinations on how to invest money from the client’s account performs transactions “chiefly to generate commissions that benefit the broker,” as described by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

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A woman was taken into custody on allegations that she stole the identities of at least two of the elderly patients for whom she provided in-home health care, and used the information for her personal financial gain.

Aujana Johnson-Payne works for an agency in Orange County where she is sent on live-in assignments to clients’ homes, and she supplies them with meeting their healthcare needs. Many of the patients are senior citizens who live with debilitating symptoms after suffering strokes, developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other serious afflictions.

Johnson-Payne has been accused of abusing her position with two elderly patients in her care when at some point during her employment she reportedly stole their credit card or debit card information and assumed their identities to make purchases for herself.

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On Thursday a woman was taken into custody and charged for an incident that occurred on February 8 in Irvine, when a woman walking toward a store had her purse snatched.

Approximately one week ago in the evening a woman parked her car in the lot of Bath and Body Works and walked through the parking lot toward the entrance of the store. Before she was able to make it to the door someone advanced upon her from behind and tried to grab the purse off of her shoulder.

The victim fought to keep her belongings and wrestled with the perpetrator until she fell to the ground. She reported that the woman stealing her purse then began kicking her in the forehead and upper body before taking the bag and driving away in a black sedan.

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A Dana Point resident who allegedly made millions of dollars in purchases through fraudulent means at several businesses in San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties is facing 89 charges for the schemes.

Over a nine-month period last year, businesses in three Southern California counties were the victims of a forced-sale scheme consisting of the perpetrator purchasing expensive merchandise with credit cards; some of which were fake and others were inactive. The standard authorization process that the credit card machines typically issue was surpassed by the customer requesting that the sales associate enter the transaction by hand or telling them to force the sale through.

When the transactions were processed by the credit card companies the merchants received notification that the payment was not approved.

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On February 5, 2017, following the 51st Super Bowl game, a man who authorities came to believe was driving under the influence of alcohol was involved in a hit-and-run accident when his vehicle made impact with a bicyclist. He reportedly drove off quickly without stopping after the incident took place.

An investigation to locate the perpetrator of the accident, which occurred in Laguna Niguel, was opened by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Their findings led them to believe that the person responsible for the event was 53-year-old Timothy Anthony Cronin.

As a part of their year-long inspection of the evidence, authorities collected statements from people who had been in his presence that day, and those interrogated informed deputies that Cronin, a proclaimed New England Patriots fan, was allegedly intoxicated on Super Bowl Sunday in 2017. Investigators surmised that Cronin was on his way home from a celebration and under the influence when the accident took place.

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A Riverside County woman who worked as a foreclosure specialist at Fannie Mae in Irvine has been accused of taking over $1 million through accepting bribery and employing fraudulent sales practices with company-owned properties.

Shirene Hernandez, a 45-year-old resident of Riverside County, was a real estate owned foreclosure specialist for the government-sponsored Fannie Mae in Irvine. Her job duties entailed matching properties owned by the company with brokers and accepting sales offers when proposed by the brokers.

During a time period spanning from April 2011 and July 2016 Hernandez has been accused of personally profiting off of the sales transactions of the properties through fraudulent means. Court documents reflect that Hernandez allegedly accepted gifts and cash from certain brokers in order for them to gain the listing so they would profit off of the sales commissions. In addition, some of the foreclosed properties were said to have been purchased by Hernandez at a price below market value, using different names, and then rented out for profit. In total, it was estimated that Hernandez acquired more than $1 in profits from the alleged fraud.

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A 42-year-old man has been arrested after being identified as the possible perpetrator of stealing personal property from inside of classrooms at three different Orange County schools.

On January 11, a teacher at Irvine Baptist Church noticed that her wallet was missing from her purse, which she had left inside of an unoccupied classroom. She reported that her wallet contained money, her driver’s license, and a bank card.

The culprit’s image was seen when a review of the church surveillance video showed a man entering the classroom and shuffling through the woman’s bag before taking her wallet and exiting the room. The offender’s car, a white Chevy Malibu, was also seen in video footage from a parking lot camera.

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After an FBI investigation into what they believe is a fraudulent operation targeting homeowners facing foreclosure by offering low interest loan modifications, three men from Southern California are facing federal charges as suspects in the alleged hoax.

At the start of 2014 under the name Hope Services, homeowners in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure were offered deals for modifying their loans in order to assist them and stop the seizure of their properties. The potential clients were told they were preapproved for the process and they were asked to submit three payments, which would be held in an account, in order to complete the new loan agreements.

Toward the end of 2014 many complaints were received about Hope Services from people who had submitted payments and did not receive their modified loans as promised. The alleged scam operation then changed their name to HAMP Services, which has the same acronym as an existing government program for home loan modification, and they continued to solicit services to new victims until April 2015.

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When a Garden Grove woman was pulled over for reckless driving on Saturday morning, police discovered she was carrying a rather large quantity of prescription narcotics in the vehicle.

Shauna Kester had been driving near the Festival of the Arts grounds in Laguna Beach when she was reportedly seen by an on-duty officer while operating the vehicle erratically. With the assistance of another patrolman in the vicinity Kester was pulled over.

The officers requested that Kester step out of the vehicle, and they began to question her. She disclosed that she had been smoking marijuana earlier in the evening. The officers then searched her car and located a cosmetic storage case containing hundreds of prescription pills comprised of over fifteen different kinds of medication.

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46-year-old Juan Manuel Rodriguez is employed as an Orange County probation officer. While on assignment with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department Tactical Apprehension Team he has been suspected of taking money from the residents of the homes where he assisted in serving search warrants.

On August 8 Rodriguez visited a residence in Santa Ana in order to serve a search warrant. The person being served was distracted during the period that Rodriguez was inspecting their identification card, and they claimed that $150 had gone missing from their wallet. The victim alerted one of the sheriff’s deputies on site immediately after noticing the money was gone.

According to prosecutors, sheriff’s officials made the decision to organize a sting operation two days after the incident was reported in an attempt to apprehend the offender. A vehicle was rigged with a hidden surveillance camera and $1,200 was planted inside.

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