Albert Noah Abrams, 64, of Tarzana, was sentenced by United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner. At the conclusion of the sentencing hearing, Judge Klausner remanded Abrams into custody.

Abrams was arrested in this case in February and pleaded guilty in September to one count of distributing child pornography.

The case against Abrams resulted from an investigating into the sharing of child pornography on a peer-to-peer network. Following a search of Abrams’ residence in 2011, federal agents reviewed files on a computer and two external hard drives and determined there were more than 3,500 pictures and over 4,200 videos of suspected child pornography, according to a sentencing memorandum filed by prosecutors. Investigators also determined that the computer equipment had more than 3,000 deleted pictures of child pornography and over 4,000 deleted movie files that had names suggesting child pornography.

Prosecutors said in court papers that Abrams had been collecting child pornography for over a decade and that “he also downloaded the ‘Hunter’s Guide to Finding Child Lovers,’ which is a 170-page document giving pedophiles advice on how to find and have sexual contact with children.”

Nearly two dozen victims depicted in the child pornography found in Abrams’ residence submitted impact statements to the court, where many of them said that the crime is never-ending as the images are continually circulated around the Internet. “I live everyday with the horrible knowledge that many people somewhere are watching the most terrifying moments of my life and taking grotesque pleasure in them,” one victim wrote, according to the prosecutor’s sentencing memo.

In sentencing the defendant today, Judge Klausner said that Abram’s crime was more than merely looking at pictures and was not a victimless crime.

After the conclusion of the seven-year prison term, Abrams will be on supervised release for the rest of his life, and he will always be required to be registered as a sex offender.

Abrams resigned from the Board of Neighborhood Commissions in 2011, days after federal authorities executed the search warrant at his residence. The Board of Neighborhood Commissioners is a policy-setting and oversight commission for Los Angeles Neighborhood Councils and the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, according to the city’s website.

The investigation into Abrams was conducted by the Southern California Regional Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement Team (SAFE Team).

In this procedure you take a loan and use the house which you are looking to buy as security. If you fall short to make the expenses consistently it will only improve the prices and can even eventually cause to foreclosed. The prices of these home mortgages will be just like all other kinds. Re-financing is another type in which the dealing of one debt for another occurs. The advantage of this technique can be the low per month interest and lesser per month bills. This technique has become well-known due to the large problems in the international economic climate.

Subprime loaning represents the technique were the loaning company who gives cash to the debtors who never yet fulfill underwriting recommendations. The danger engaged in this technique is high as it is mostly used to people with bad record of credit worthiness or those who have a record of misbehavior. Another one is the mortgage mortgage, where the client has to put the value of their home security for the cash obtained.

They are usually given in one huge transaction and have a set amount. This should only be used only if you are certain that you will be able to pay it off. One similar type of home loan is home equity history of credit score, in which the house is used as the collateral for a history of credit score. The repayment will be the amount borrowed and also the interest rates. The history of credit score is offered for a draw period which can be up to 20 years.

People must be advised about the key benefits of the mortgage loans and its benefits. You can decrease the prices by selecting appropriate plans. It is possible to bring down the payment amount and also to decrease the prices. You can even modify the expenses based on your per month income. This can be considered as the main and best function. By making the per month bills cost-effective, you can avoid the charges for overdue expenses.

Yoel A. Wazana, 38, owner and production manager of Wazana Brothers International, Inc., which does business under the name Micro Solutions Enterprises (MSE), is scheduled to make his initial appearance this afternoon in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles.

In a plea agreement filed this afternoon in United States District Court, Wazana agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of false representation of a Social Security number. Wazana admits in the plea agreement that he caused two employees to use the Social Security numbers of relatives in order to remain in the firm’s employ after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) had begun an investigation of the company’s compliance with federal hiring laws.

Wazana Brothers International has agreed to plead guilty to one misdemeanor count of continuing employment of unauthorized aliens. In a plea agreement filed last month, the firm admits hiring approximately 55 unauthorized workers, and then continuing to employ them after the ICE inspection had begun. The company admits that it knew or deliberately avoided knowledge of the fact that the individuals were not authorized to work in the United States.

The company’s plea agreement represents a global settlement of criminal and civil charges against the firm. Under the terms of the plea agreement negotiated by ICE and the United States Attorney’s Office, Wazana Brothers International agreed to pay approximately $267,000 in civil and criminal fines.

Beyond the monetary sanctions, the plea agreement calls for the company to be on probation for three years, during which time it will implement a series of stringent measures to ensure it is complying with the nation’s hiring laws. Those steps include retaining an independent compliance monitor to oversee the completion and maintenance of the firm’s hiring records, and providing training to employees regarding federal hiring laws. The plea agreement takes into account the company’s willingness to take responsibility for its prior criminal conduct and to implement a rigorous program to ensure full compliance with federal hiring laws in the future.

“ICE is committed to holding businesses accountable when they knowingly hire or retain illegal workers,” said Claude Arnold, special agent in charge of HSI Los Angeles. “Employers who willfully violate our nation’s hiring laws gain an unfair economic advantage over their law abiding competitors. Our goal is to protect job opportunities for the nation’s legal workers and level the playing field for those businesses that play by the rules.”

The charges against Wazana and his company are the result of an investigation into MSE’s hiring practices that was initiated by ICE in 2007. According to court documents, shortly after MSE received notification in April 2007 that ICE planned to audit the company’s payroll and hiring records, Wazana directed that about 80 of MSE’s most experienced employees – at least 53 of whom did not have work authorization – be relocated to another manufacturing facility. When investigators requested hiring records from Wazana Brothers International on three separate occasions, the company failed to provide paperwork for those unauthorized workers. The plea agreements filed in this case also describe how, after learning of the ICE audit, Wazana conducted meetings with MSE’s assembly line workers, instructing them to obtain valid work authorization documents and return with those documents, suggesting that he did not care if the documents were actually theirs.

In February 2008, federal authorities executed a search warrant at MSE’s Van Nuys plant. During the enforcement operation, agents arrested eight current and former company workers on criminal charges and another 130 employees on administrative immigration violations.

The felony charge of false representation of a Social Security number carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The individuals charged include Hudson Hallum, State Representative for District 54; his father, Kent Hallum; West Memphis City Councilman Phillip Wayne Carter; and West Memphis Police Officer Sam Malone. In addition to waiving indictment, the defendants entered guilty pleas to the charge contained in the information. In doing so, each acknowledged his participation in a conspiracy to bribe voters to influence absentee votes in the Arkansas District 54 primary, its runoff election, and the general election, all of which were held between February and July 2011. At the time of the elections, District 54 included West Memphis, Marion, Earle, and Turrell, Arkansas, as well as other rural areas of Crittenden County.

“The most fundamental rights we enjoy as American citizens include the ability to vote and, if we so choose, to run for elected office. In a nation in which every person’s vote matters, protecting the integrity of the electoral process from those who seek to win office by cheating the system is critical. Voter fraud schemes such as that carried out in the 2011 District 54 race have the devastating effect of eroding public confidence in elected officials and disenfranchising voters,” said Duke.

In response to the guilty pleas, SAC Coleman stated, “The right to vote is among the most precious we hold as American citizens; having open, honest, and fair elections is essential to our democracy. Election fraud schemes involving the bribery of Arkansas voters will be aggressively investigated by the FBI.”

In addition to this federal investigation, H.G. Foster, State of Arkansas Special Prosecuting Attorney, has been appointed to conduct an investigation of additional fraud allegations related to the Special Election for District 54 held last year. Foster stated, “I am grateful for all of the hard work that the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the FBI and the Arkansas State Police have put into this investigation, and for the Federal convictions that have come from it. The file has been received in my office and I anticipate a statement regarding State action on the findings within the next two weeks. Our Election process is one of our dearest and most vital institutions and to see it protected by the actions of these agencies is gratifying indeed.”

According to the felony information, Hudson Hallum, age 29, was elected to House Seat 54 on July 12, 2011. Kent Hallum, age 53, managed the finances and certain logistics of his son’s campaign for the District 54 seat, including the campaign’s effort to solicit and secure votes cast by absentee ballot. Hudson Hallum hired Phillip Wayne Carter, age 43, who is both a West Memphis City Councilman and a Crittenden County Juvenile Probation Officer, to implement the Hallum campaign’s absentee ballot strategy. The information further charges that Sam Malone, age 32, who is a Crittenden County Quorum Court member, a West Memphis police officer, and a Crittenden County School Board member assisted Carter in implementing the Hallum campaign’s absentee ballot strategy.

Hudson Hallum, along with others, declared his candidacy as a Democrat in the special primary election for House Seat 54, which took place on April 20, 2011. Because neither Hudson Hallum nor any other Democratic candidate obtained the required majority of votes in the special primary election, a special primary runoff election took place on May 10, 2011. Hudson Hallum was certified as the winner in the special primary runoff by 8 votes. Hudson Hallum also won the special general election held on July 12, 2011, and was subsequently certified as the winner of the House District 54 special election.

According to the felony information, Hudson Hallum and Kent Hallum tasked Phillip Wayne Carter, Sam Malone, and others with identifying absentee ballot voters within District 54; obtaining and distributing absentee ballot applications to particular voters; determining when absentee ballots were mailed to absentee voters by the Crittenden County Clerk’s Office; and making contact with recipients of absentee ballots to assist those voters in completing the ballots. Once such absentee ballots were completed, the absentee voters typically placed their ballots in unsealed envelopes, which were retrieved by Carter, Malone and others and then subsequently delivered to either Hudson Hallum or Kent Hallum for inspection to ensure that the absentee ballot votes had been cast for Hudson Hallum. After inspection by Hudson Hallum or Kent Hallum, the absentee ballots that contained votes for Hudson Hallum were sealed and mailed to the Crittenden County Clerk’s Office. If a ballot contained a vote for Hudson Hallum’s opponent, it was destroyed.

At the hearing held today, the defendants admitted that certain absentee ballot voters received things of value in exchange for their votes being cast for Hudson Hallum. For example, in or about May 2011, Carter and Malone provided a chicken dinner to an individual in exchange for the absentee ballot votes of that individual and one other individual. Further, the felony information states that on or about May 4, 2011, Carter contacted Hudson Hallum about a family of eight who had requested a “family meal” in exchange for their absentee ballot votes being cast in favor of Hudson Hallum. Carter requested $20 from Hudson Hallum to pay for the food, to which request Hudson Hallum agreed.

In addition, according to the felony information, on or about May 5, 2011, Carter notified Hudson Hallum that some absentee ballot voters were “holding on” to their absentee ballots because they needed money for food. Hudson Hallum instructed Carter to obtain money for the absentee voters from Kent Hallum. Hudson Hallum further told Carter that $20 to $40 was too much to pay for one vote, but that this amount was acceptable to pay for the votes of multiple members of a household. On that same date, Hudson Hallum also told Carter, “We need to use that black limo and buy a couple of cases of some cheap vodka and whiskey to get people to vote.” Two days later, Carter and Kent Hallum spoke with an individual in Memphis, Tennessee about getting a discounted price for the purchase of 100 half pints of vodka for the campaign.

The maximum statutory penalty for the conspiracy charge is 5 years imprisonment plus a potential fine of $250,000.

David Paul Holden, 31, of Corona, who at the time of the offense worked at the Anaheim office of the California Employment Development Department (EDD), was sentenced this morning by United States District Judge David O. Carter. In addition to the prison term, Judge Carter ordered the defendant to pay $510,454 in restitution to the EDD.

Holden pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of bribery in May, admitting that he was personally responsible for obtaining more than $500,000 in unemployment benefits for more than 50 ineligible persons. Holden collected more than $40,000 in cash kickbacks from the ineligible workers he had contacted through a network of recruiters.

“Corrupt public officials such as Mr. Holden undermine confidence in taxpayer-funded programs, especially those designed to help people in need,” said United States Attorney André Birotte Jr. “This sentence sends a message that neither the Department of Justice nor the community will tolerate the abuse of our public institutions.”

According to court documents, Holden worked at the EDD office in Anaheim, where he processed unemployment insurance claims and had access to EDD’s electronic database for approving claims and making payments of both state and federal unemployment benefits. Through personal contacts and a network of recruiters, Holden contacted more than 50 individuals and persuaded them to provide their social security numbers and other information so that Holden could arrange for them to receive unemployment checks. These people were not qualified to receive unemployment benefits because, for example, they were already employed, had voluntarily quit their jobs or had been terminated for misconduct. Holden then manipulated EDD’s electronic database to make it appear that these people were entitled to benefits and caused EDD to issue checks to those persons. In return for the unemployment benefits, the recipients each gave the recruiters cash payments of up to $5,000, and much of that money was passed on to Holden.

“Today’s sentencing highlights the Office of Inspector General’s efforts to investigate fraud against the Department of Labor’s Unemployment Insurance Program. The defendants in this case participated in a complex scheme to defraud a program that serves as a lifeline for millions of unemployed workers. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to safeguard this and other Department of Labor programs,” said Abel Salinas, Special Agent in Charge of the Los Angeles Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations.

Six of the recruiters used by Holden also have pleaded guilty in the scheme. They are: Narciso Rodriguez, 29, of Riverside; Patricia Cordova, 31, of Anaheim; Ulysses Hernandez, 25, of Fontana; Zaharid Hernandez, 26, of Bloomington; Cristobal Salgado, 26, of Moreno Valley; and Melissa Salgado, 25, of Moreno Valley. Judge Carter previously sentenced Rodriguez to 18 months in custody, and the remaining defendants are scheduled to be sentenced this fall.

Lister, who is also known as “Tiny” and “Zeus,” a 54-year-old Chatsworth resident, was charged this afternoon in a criminal information with one count of conspiracy.

A second person involved in the scheme – Arcelia Chavez, 48, of Northridge, who is a self-employed certified tax preparer – was also charged today with conspiracy.

In plea agreements that were also filed this afternoon in United States District Court, both Lister and Chavez agreed to plead guilty to the conspiracy charges.

The court documents filed today outline a scheme that ran from November 2005 through June 2007 and involved Lister, Chavez and several other individuals, including: Sami Sager Sweiss, formerly a mortgage loan officer based in Woodland Hills; Jason Patterson, a real estate agent in Long Beach; J.R., formerly a manager of a Washington Mutual Bank branch in Woodland Hills; and Wanda Tenney, formerly an escrow officer based in the San Fernando Valley.

Lister conspired with these individuals to fraudulently acquire title to four residential properties he could not afford. With the help of these individuals and others, Lister obtained mortgages for the four properties through fraudulent means, including submitting mortgage applications that included inflated income and asset amounts, fabricating bank statements and falsifying other documents to substantiate the
fraudulent statements in the loan applications, and falsifying escrow records to deceive lenders into believing Lister had made required down payments.

In addition to fraudulently obtaining the mortgages, Lister and his co-conspirators concealed from lenders the fact that he would receive kickbacks from sellers after the real estate deals closed.

Relying on the fraudulent applications and documents, lenders issued mortgages totaling $5.7 million. Lister subsequently defaulted on the four mortgages, causing those lenders and their successors to lose approximately $2.6 million.

After acquiring title to the four residential properties, Lister obtained fraudulent home equity lines of credit on each of the four properties. Lister drew down a total of $1,146,000 in cash from the four HELOCs, but did not pay back any of the principal.

Lister also admitted in his plea agreement that Chavez aided and abetted him in obtaining one of the fraudulent mortgages and a fraudulent HELOC by preparing a false CPA letter, as well as fabricating W-2s and a pay stub. The false CPA letter stated that Chavez had prepared Lister’s tax returns. Chavez separately admitted in her plea agreement that she prepared the false and fictitious documents, actions that caused lenders to lose approximately $1.1 million.

Lister and Chavez will be summoned to appear in federal court in Los Angeles in September.

The charge of conspiracy carries a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.

On July 30, 2012, Sweiss pleaded guilty to a conspiracy count before United States District Judge Dale S. Fischer. As part of his guilty plea, Sweiss admitted that he conspired with Lister, Patterson, Tenney and Chavez to commit mortgage fraud.  Sweiss is scheduled to be sentenced on March 18, 2013.

In a plea agreement filed Tuesday in United States District Court in Los Angeles, Ernesto Diaz, 57, who formerly worked as a realtor, agreed to plead guilty to one count of mail fraud. As part of the agreement, Diaz has agreed to cooperate in an ongoing investigation into against his company, Crown Point Education Inc., which had offices in Montebello and El Monte.

Diaz joined the Crown Point scheme in March 2010 after the company had been in business for approximately one year. Diaz spoke at seminars to recruit distressed homeowners and to train salespersons in the Crown Point program.  In his plea agreement, Diaz admitted that he and others promised distressed homeowners at these seminars that, in exchange for fees that were generally $15,000 per property, Crown Point would eliminate the homeowners’ mortgages within six to eight months through a secret process that involved sending packets of documents to lenders. Even though he told victims that he could eliminate their mortgage woes, Diaz admitted in his plea agreement that the process had never been successful. Diaz failed to tell distressed homeowners that earlier Crown Point clients – including Diaz’s own brother – had lost their houses to foreclosure and been evicted from their houses.

In the plea agreement, Diaz admitted that another person affiliated with Crown Point filed bankruptcy documents in the names of Crown Point clients to delay foreclosure and eviction. Diaz acknowledged that Crown Point filed many bankruptcy documents without the knowledge of the company’s clients and that signatures of debtors and notaries were forged on many documents filed with the Bankruptcy Court.

In his plea agreement, Diaz admits that approximately 200 homeowner-victims paid Crown Point nearly $2.5 million for help they did not receive.

The claims made to distressed homeowners were based on discredited “Sovereign Citizen” claims that mortgages are invalid because the banks did not actually lend the money used to fund mortgages and the notes were securitized.

Diaz has agreed to make his initial court appearance before a United States Magistrate Judge on September 13.

The charge of mail fraud carries a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in federal prison.

The case against Diaz is part of an ongoing investigation being conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Deramus pled guilty to one count of stealing an income tax refund. During the plea hearing, she admitted that she filed tax returns using other people’s names, dates of birth and social security numbers. She further admitted that those people did not know that she had taken their identity nor filed taxes in their names. She then received the tax refunds and used the money for herself. Deramus also pled guilty to two counts of taking debit cards issued in others names and cashing out the debit cards at ATM’s. Deramus admitted that she obtained debit cards in other people’s names that were loaded with IRS refunds and cashed out those debit cards at ATM’s.

Deramus further pled guilty to two counts of aggravated identity theft. These counts stem from her obtaining the names, dates of birth and social security numbers from various businesses and agencies. Deramus used that identifying information to file the fraudulent tax returns. Lastly, Deramus pled guilty to possessing fifteen or more unauthorized debit cards.

“Identity theft is a rising problem in this district and across the country,” stated U.S. Attorney Beck. “Businesses that store the personal information of employees, clients, or customers must protect it. We must train and carefully screen those who have access to personal names, addresses and social security numbers. Much identity theft can be prevented if business, agencies and individuals act together.”

“Identity theft is an ongoing problem in the United States and the use of stolen identities to file fraudulent tax returns is on the rise,” stated Resident Agent in Charge Clayton Slay, U.S. Secret Service in Montgomery, Alabama. This particular scheme had ties to several cities and communities in Alabama and Georgia. Slay continued by saying “This was a collaborative effort between the Montgomery and Troy Police Departments, the Chambers County Sheriff’s Office, local bank investigators, U.S. Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Secret Service dating back to October 2010. With the assistance of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division and through the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Ms Deramus and others are being prosecuted for their involvement in this scheme. The U.S. Secret Service will remain proactive in the investigation of individuals and groups associated with these types of crimes.”

If convicted of these charges, Deramus could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. This case was investigated by the United States Secret Service and the Internal Revenue Service. Assistant United States Attorney Brent Woodall is prosecuting the case.

PHOENIX – On August 27, 2012, Kevin M. Silva, 54, and Christine A. Silva, 67, both currently of Castro Valley, Calif., were sentenced by U.S. District Judge David G. Campbell to 24 months in prison and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service. They were ordered to self-surrender on Oct. 29, 2012.  The Silvas each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the government with respect to false claims upon the United States and the actual presentation of a false claim upon the United States on June 4, 2012.

In the course of their prior guilty pleas, the Silvas admitted to conspiring and agreeing to participate in a scheme to obtain payment of false claims for refunds from the IRS by filing false federal income tax returns. In each instance, the Silvas claimed refunds to which they knew they were not entitled. All of the fraudulent claims were based primarily upon representations that money had been withheld by various financial institutions on behalf of the couple during the subject tax years and that the couple was entitled to the claimed withholdings. No such withholdings ever occurred. In support of each claim, the Silvas submitted to the IRS various false IRS Forms 1099-OID. The Silvas admitted the following with respect to each return:

In total, the Silvas admitted to falsely claiming $1,544,034 in refunds and agreed to repay the remaining outstanding balance of $535,581.13 to the IRS. The payment was made via a cashier’s check on August 23, 2012. In the course of the investigation, the IRS was able to recover over $250,000 from the Silvas in addition to the payment.