fraudulent

Published on: June 10, 2018

General Manager of Anaheim Company Accused of Embezzlement

On June 6, an executive at a company in Anaheim was arrested on suspicion of embezzlement that reportedly took place over the span of seven or more years. He is now facing several felony charges for the allegations.

Jeffrey Joseph Lenhardt has been the general manager of Foam Plastics and Rubber Products in Anaheim since September of 1990. Twenty-four years later in November of 2014, another worker at the company allegedly found discrepancies that led to suspicion of Lenhardt’s activities when noticing a cash transaction that was not written in the business ledger.

Lenhardt, who reportedly started his fraudulent behavior by offering customers off-the-books purchases of leftover pieces of materials from the shop that would have otherwise been refuse, is accused of accepting cash for the transactions without recording them.

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Published on: February 25, 2018

Upcoming Depositions for Daily Sun News Executives in Theft Case

by Staycie R. Sena

A woman who was employed by the Villages Daily Sun has been accused of pilfering fraudulent commissions from the company. Several staff members including upper-level executives of the outlet are scheduled for depositions this week.

The Villages Daily Sun in Florida states that it is a part of a media group, and they are the “oldest, largest, and most trusted source of news and information for residents of The Villages community.”

Bellview resident Grace Mimm worked as a sales manager at the Daily Sun for many years. One of her duties was recruiting new customers for the paper, for which she was paid commissions.

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Published on: December 8, 2017

Urban Decay Executive Faces Grand Theft Charges for Pilfering over $1 Million

by Staycie R. Sena

An executive for the cosmetics company Urban Decay has been accused of stealing more than $1 million through bank transfer transactions between the business and fraudulent accounts he created. He is facing felony charges for the allegations.

Irvine resident Ranjeet Reddy Paladugo holds a position as the vice president of finance at the Newport Beach based company Urban Decay. He is suspected of utilizing several banks in order to create fake accounts, which were similarly named after business affiliates of the company, in order to embezzle funds that he transferred from Urban Decay. On July 17 he allegedly stole over $1 million from Urban Decay.

Paladugo purportedly commissioned a transaction in the amount of $598,500 which he transferred through one of the phony accounts. He then transferred that money into his personal bank account. This procedure was repeated again in the same amount, and routed through a second bogus business account. Paladugo is said to have used the stolen money for personal use, including the down payment on a house.

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Published on: October 11, 2017

Auto Broker Cheats Car Buyers and Sellers out of Millions

by Staycie R. Sena

Scott Radtke, owner of California Motoring Company in Clovis, CA works as a broker by matching interested buyers with sellers of automobiles. Court documents allege Radtke conned at least $2.8 million from 17 car dealerships, 11 financial institutions and 48 customers through fraudulent car sales transactions.

Beginning in September 2016 the Department of Motor Vehicles started receiving several complaints from Radtke’s customers who had purchased cars and never received titles or registration, and car dealerships that never received money for sales. DMV issued a statement that they have a zero tolerance policy for business conducted in this manner and they opened an investigation.

Radtke is suspected of employing several methods of stealing money from clients, many of whom were reported as elderly. Some of the accusations include scamming customers who had purchased vehicles for which he accepted payment. He then forged their names on fraudulent loan applications or payment plans from lenders for thousands of dollars over the amount of the initial transactions, which would force them by contract to foot the bill for their purchased vehicle a second time. Another alleged ploy took the form of accepting and selling trade-in vehicles without giving customers the money he had acquired from the sales.

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Published on: February 7, 2017

Ex-HBO Employee Steals Nearly $1 Million

by Staycie R. Sena

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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