Articles Posted in Theft Crimes

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Two men, Jonathan Cephus, 36, and Melvin Collins, 33, are allegedly responsible for a long list of robberies that began on July 5, 2013. Cephus held up a Little Caesars in Fullerton, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Brock Zimmon.

Cephus later pistol-whipped a man as he robbed a Del Taco in Anaheim on July 22nd. On July 26th, Cephus robbed a Jack in Box in Anaheim and on August 28th Cephus again robbed a Jack in the Box in Anaheim, Zimmon said.

Four more robberies took place on September 2, 2013. The first one happened at 7 a.m. at a Burger King in Buena Park, but Collins got scared away when the clerk mentioned that there were many surveillance cameras in the store, According to Zimmon.

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Angel Bronsgeest, a 55 year old woman from Lake Forest, plead guilty on Monday to federal charges of being involved in a real estate scam that cost Southern California investors $3.5 million, according to the United States Attorney’s Office.

Bronsgeest admitted that she, along with Shawn Watkins, a 46 year old man from Utah, would allegedly solicit the victims at Orange County hotel seminars and ask them to invest in their company, The Equity Growth Group. The two claimed that their company managed hundreds of properties, generating income from their rents, which was used to buy new properties. The investors were told they would be getting interest payments and that their money was secured by collateral through filing deeds of property trusts.

“Investor money was not used to acquire new properties, nor was it secured by collateral, and many victims did not receive interest payments. In fact, money that was paid to some victims as purported interest or a return on their investment came from investments made by other victims,” the Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

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Three males were arrested for allegedly stealing 28,000.00 dollars’ worth of cell phones and cash from a safe at a Verizon store in Fountain Valley.

On Saturday, officers responded to a robbery call at a Verizon store on Warner Avenue and Magnolia Street in Fountain Valley. Reports indicate that three males entered the business – two of them armed – stole from the store and then fled.

Witnesses gave officers the description of the suspects and the car that fled from the store. Later the car was spotted about 18 miles away, in Bellflower. Fountain Valley police officers and other agencies responded, but the car continued to flee.

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On Wednesday in Portland, Oregon a U.S. District Judge sentenced Darren Bottinelli to 46 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release for healthcare fraud. Bottinelli was also order to pay $3,093,918 in restitution to his victims. The purpose of his company was to put money into trust accounts for employees of his clients, who could then draw upon those monies for eligible health expenditures.

Darren Bottinelli was the sole shareholder, officer, and director of Axis, based in Portland, Oregon. His company administered employee health reimbursement and flexible spending accounts for client employers nationwide.

Some of his clients included Goodwill Industries, Job squad, Cascade Christian Services, VersAbility Resources, and Vets Securing America; which employed veterans, mentally and physically disabled adults, other vulnerable individuals, as well as government contractors and other companies who hire hourly and minimum wage contract workers.

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A Paramount man was convicted, on October 31, of four counts of second degree robbery and one count of attempted second degree robbery after he followed home customers from local casinos and robbed them.

According to Deputy District Attorney Brian Kang, Dominick Roberson followed home and robbed three women from the Hawaiian Gardens casino. A 50 year old woman from Long beach was robbed of $1000 in cash and her purse. A 41 year old woman of Westminster was robbed of $3100 in cash and her purse. And a 51 year old woman of La Puente was robbed of $2000. He also followed home a man from the same casino, confronting him in his driveway, but the man was able to get away.

Roberson reportedly also followed another woman from the Hollywood park casino to her home in Torrance, robbing her of at least $6000 in cash.

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A 39 year old Los Angeles woman, Jennifer Choi, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison on Thursday after pleading guilty to stealing nearly $1 million over her 10 year career.

Choi’s job was to schedule hairstyling and makeup services for HBO’s actors and actresses. Without HBO’s knowledge, Choi developed her own company called Shine Glossy, which claimed to provide makeup and styling services, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Through her company, Shine Glossy, she submitted phony invoices for services that were not provided, falsely using the names of actors, making the invoices appear legitimate.

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A 29 year old man, the suspect of a yearlong shoplifting spree, was arrested at his Santa Ana home on Tuesday after police served a search warrant and found thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise.

The suspect repeatedly terrorized retailers and their employees in several Orange County cities while using a replica gun to steal high end merchandise. At his home police found what they believe to be stolen merchandise, including: Gucci and Michael Kors handbags, children’s clothes, and perfumes. The police also found drug paraphernalia in the home. They were all stolen Cpl. Anthony Bertagna of the Santa Ana police department said.

Police also found a syringe and a bent spoon used for injecting heroin.

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Several Ulta beauty stores have been hit by thieves all around the Southern California area, including the Cerritos, Lakewood, Tustin, Rosemead, Redondo Beach, and The Rolling Hills Estates stores. Stores are claiming estimated loss of $100,000.

Seargant Mark Moffet of the Lomita Sheriff’s Department has said the thieves operated in what he called a “mob style.” They would enter the store as a group, spread out and stuff as much merchandise in their pockets as they could, and then rush out before police had a chance to arrive.

An eight person team hit the Rolling Hills Estates store, where officers were able to identify a known gang member as one of the suspects. “Once we identified some players, the flood gates opened up,” Sergeant Moffet said.

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As a result of a food stamp fraud program ran by three sheriffs in Butler county, Ohio, 15 employees of two meat distributing companies were indicted in September for charges of illegally trading food stamp benefits for cash and narcotics, while many more also potentially face penalties.

The 15 employees of US Beef Cincinnati LLC and Butcher Shop Food Distributors LLC face charges of wire fraud, food stamp benefits fraud, theft of U.S. government property, money laundering and possession with intent to distribute and actual distribution of controlled substances.

The owners of US Beef, 45-year old Scott Traum and 43-year old Joey Traum, pleaded guilty in federal court last week to charges arising from their involvement in food stamp fraud. Both will be sentenced April 12.

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The FBI has charged 5 men and 4 corporations with illegally exporting high-tech microelectronics to Iran, in violation of the International Emergency Powers Act. Three of the men, including one from Aliso Viejo, were taken into custody in Houston, Texas. Two other men are believed to be out of the country.

The Iran-based company Faratel and Smart Power Systems in Texas were allegedly building uninterruptible power supplies and shipping them off for use by the Iranian Ministry of Defense, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and the Iranian Centrifuge Technology Company. According to the FBI these electronics can be used in military equipment such as surface to air and cruise missiles. The indictment states the items would be shipped to a company in Taiwan, then on to a company in Turkey, which would then send them to Iran.

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