LOS ANGELES – A British man who traveled to the Coachella Valley to have sex with pre-teen boys pleaded guilty today to transportation of child pornography and agreed to a 13-year prison sentence.
SANTA ANA, California – An Orange County man who deceived distressed homeowners with false promises that he could help them avoid foreclosure by obtaining modifications to their mortgages – or even completely eliminating their loans – was convicted today on federal fraud charges.
SANTA ANA, Calif. – A private investigator working for a law firm retained by the Costa Mesa Police Officers’ Association (CMPOA) was convicted today of committing crimes against two Costa Mesa council members and a competitor attorney. Christopher Joseph Lanzillo, 46, Lake Arrowhead, pleaded guilty to the court to two felony counts of conspiracy to commit a crime of unlawful use of electronic tracking device, one felony count of false imprisonment by deceit, and one felony count of conspiracy to commit a crime of falsely reporting crime to agency. Lanzillo faces a maximum sentence of four years and four months in jail, as well as revocation of his private investigators’ license, at his sentencing on Jan. 13, 2017, at 9:00 a.m. in Department C-29, Central Justice Center, Santa Ana.
SANTA ANA, Calif. – A man was arraigned today for posing as a fire marshal and charging small businesses across Orange County for fraudulent inspections. Brian Lee Carsten, 36, Newport Beach, is charged with four felony counts of second degree burglary, four felony counts of extortion by force or threat, four felony counts of forgery of an official seal, four misdemeanor counts of fraudulently personating fire personnel, and two misdemeanor counts of possession of a firearm in violation of a protective order. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 11 years and eight months in state prison. Carsten is scheduled for a pre-trial hearing on Sept. 30, 2016, at 8:30 a.m. in Department N-12, North Justice Center, Fullerton.
LOS ANGELES – A federal grand jury has issued a superseding indictment that charges a West Los Angeles pharmacy and its owners with operating a years-long narcotic drug trafficking, money laundering, and tax fraud conspiracy.
CHICAGO – An Illinois man pled guilty yesterday to felony computer hacking related to a phishing scheme that gave him illegal access to over 300 Apple iCloud and Gmail accounts, including those belonging to members of the entertainment industry in Los Angeles.
LOS ANGELES – A Lancaster man was sentenced yesterday in federal court for criminal copyright infringement for illegally posting screener versions of two movies – “The Revenant” and “The Peanuts Movie” – to a publicly accessible website. As a result of the illegal upload, “The Revenant” was available for download six days before its limited release in theaters and more than 1 million people were able to download the film within a six-week period, which caused Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation to suffer losses of well over $1 million.
LOS ANGELES – A Glendale man has been sentenced to 16 months in federal prison for his role in the large-scale manufacture and distribution of synthetic drugs that are commonly called “spice.”
SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA – An Orange County man who attempted to travel to the Middle East to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) was sentenced this afternoon to 30 years in federal prison for conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the terrorist organization.
LOS ANGELES – A former executive at Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) was charged today in federal court with participating in a scheme to fraudulently generate revenue for a software company that was being purchased by Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), which was misled into paying a $98 million incentive bonus as a result of the scheme.