Little Crimes earn Prison Sentences too – Just ask David Liptak

DAVID LIPTAK, 50, of Milford, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer in Bridgeport to 10 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for embezzling $108,000 from his employer. LIPTAK also was ordered to pay full restitution and a fine of $3,000.

According to court documents and statements made in court, LIPTAK was employed by Consolidated Management Group (“CMG”) of Westport.  CMG provided management services to condominium associations, including managing the bank accounts and expenses of the associations. From approximately June 2008 to March 2012, LIPTAK embezzled approximately $108,000 from CMG.

On May 14, 2014, LIPTAK pleaded guilty to one count of interstate transportation of money obtained by fraud.  He was ordered to report to prison on February 23, 2015.

Geoffrey W. Nehrenz indicted for role in Ponzi Scheme

An eight-count federal indictment has been returned charging a Uniontown man for his role operating a Ponzi scheme in which 19 investors were defrauded out of approximately $5.5 million, law enforcement officials said.

Geoffrey W. Nehrenz, 36, faces one count of securities fraud, three counts of wire fraud, one count of mail fraud, one count of fraud by an investment advisor, and two counts of money laundering.

“This defendant took advantage of people who trusted him and used their hard-earned money to fund his lifestyle,” said Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

“Geoffrey Nehrenz callously preyed on the desires of 19 individuals to make wise investments and duped them out of millions,” said Stephen D. Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Cleveland Office. “The FBI will continue to root out fraudsters like Mr. Nehrenz.”

“Promoters of Ponzi schemes prey upon trusting investors and then steal their hard-earned money. Investors should be wary that programs promising unbelievable returns on investments should be looked at carefully,” said Kathy A. Enstrom, Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office. “Remember the old cliché: ‘If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.’”

Between October 2009 and September 2013, Nehrenz promoted and sold investment contracts to clients through Keystone Capital Management, LLC (“KCM”) an investment adviser company located in Uniontown, which is an Ohio limited liability company registered as an investment adviser firm, but not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Nehrenz was the managing member, president, and chief executive officer of KCM, according to the indictment.

Nehrenz induced 19 clients to invest in Keystone by promoting KCM’s ability to generate positive investment returns in equity markets while mitigating risk. He falsely represented to potential clients that their funds would be pooled, invested during the day in large- and mid-capitalization, publicly traded U.S. securities exclusively, and converted to cash overnight. Rather than investing the funds, Nehrenz used client money to pay his personal expenses, to pay business expenses to promote and prolong his investment scheme, and to make speculative, high-risk trades with domestic and overseas private placement vehicles without his clients’ authority, transactions known as “side pocket investments,” according to the indictment.

Nehrenz induced at least 19 clients to invest approximately $7 million into his hedge fund, resulting in losses to his clients in the amount of approximately $5.5 million.

Former Finance Director for Town of Plymouth – David J. Bertnagel arrested for Embezzlement

DAVID J. BERTNAGEL, 41, of Thomaston, was arrested today on a federal criminal complaint charging him with embezzling more than $800,000 from the Town of Plymouth.

According to the criminal complaint, from July 2014 to October 2014, BERTNAGEL was employed as the Finance Director for the Town of Plymouth. For approximately six years prior to that time he was a part-time employee in the Town’s Finance Department. From approximately October 2011 through October 2014, it is alleged that BERTNAGEL issued 207 checks totaling approximately $808,030 from the Town’s payroll account to himself. BERTNAGEL used the embezzled funds to make mortgage payments, pay credit card bills, fund home improvement projects and purchase more than $100,000 in coins, stamps and other collectibles. He also converted more than $182,000 of the stolen funds by way of cashed checks, ATM withdrawals and money orders.

The complaint also alleges that BERTNAGEL did not file a tax return with the Internal Revenue Service for the 2011 tax year and, although he did file tax returns for the 2012 and 2013 tax years, he failed to report any of his embezzled income.

Since 2011, Plymouth has received approximately $450,000 in grant awards from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The criminal complaint charges BERTNAGEL with theft from a local government receiving federal funds, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years.

Mortgage Fraud – Emeka Udeze Sentenced to Prison

Emeka Udeze, age 39, of Bowie, Maryland, was sentenced to 37 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release for conspiring to commit wire fraud in connection with two separate mortgage fraud schemes. Judge Messitte also entered an order that Udeze pay restitution and forfeit $2,098,378, the amount of actual losses suffered by the mortgage lenders as the result of the minimum of 20 transactions Udeke brokered in furtherance of the fraud schemes.

According to his plea and court documents, Udeze was a licensed mortgage broker who worked at various companies, including Newgate Mortgage, owned by co-defendant Shola Risikat Balogun, and EWA Mortgage. Udeze also registered a Maryland company called E&T Consulting, Inc., which he claimed was established to provide general services.

Udeze admitted that in both schemes, he submitted fraudulent mortgage loan applications for buyers, inflating the buyer’s income and creating bogus employment information in an effort to qualify these individuals for loans that they otherwise were unqualified to secure. In some cases, no mortgage payments were made and the property went swiftly into default. In other cases, the borrowers attempted to make mortgage payments for a period of time until they could no longer make payments.

In the first scheme, from at least 2006 through at least December 2008, Udeze, Balogun, Daniel Ofei and others contacted individuals who wished to purchase homes. The buyers, who typically had moderate to low incomes, provided the conspirators with accurate income and employment information. Udeze and others then submitted fraudulent loan applications on behalf of the buyers, inflated the buyer=s income and created bogus employment information in an effort to secure the loan. Udeze, Balogun and others collected origination fees, commissions, yield spread premiums and broker=s fees from each loan that closed. In all, Newgate Mortgage was responsible for originating nearly 100 fraudulent transactions, causing millions of dollars of losses to lending institutions.

In a separate scheme, from May 2009 to January 2010, Udeze conspired with Bonnie Kreamer, Nieshia Williams and Rhonda Scott to arrange for individuals to buy and sell real estate so they could improperly obtain money from the transactions. The co-conspirators used many fraudulent techniques, including: short sales in which the property would be sold for a higher price than the seller was aware of; sales of properties not owned by the seller; multiple sales of the same property at the same time; the seller and/or buyer were shown different settlement statements and the conspirators used the difference in sales price to enrich themselves; and money that should have been paid to lien holders was instead disbursed to the co-conspirators, including shell companies created by Udeze and others in order to disguise that the money was really for their benefit. This fraud scheme involved at least 25 victims, including lenders, sellers and buyers of real estate, title insurance companies and lien holders, who incurred losses of over $3 million.

Bonnie Kathleen Kreamer, a/k/a Bonnie Meehan, age 49, of Riva, Maryland; Shola Risikat Balogun, age 48, of Upper Marlboro; Rhonda Scott, age 53, of Oxon Hill, Maryland; Daniel Ofei, age 40, of Bowie, Maryland; Nieshia Williams, age 35, of Fort Washington, Maryland; Gregory Green, age 50, of Waldorf, Maryland; and Demetrius Peete, age 47, of Manassas, Virginia, each previously pleaded guilty to their roles in the fraud schemes. Kreamer, who was responsible for the daily operations at Sanford Title, was sentenced on to 51 months in prison, and ordered to pay restitution of $2,499,048 to the victims and forfeit $4.8 million. Scott was sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to forfeit $2.7 million and pay restitution of $703,000. Balogun, who organized the mortgage fraud scheme involving Newgate Mortgage, was sentenced to 37 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution and forfeit $1,352,378. Ofei, was sentenced to 37 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $5,950,000. Williams was sentenced to 27 months in prison and ordered to forfeit $3.1 million and pay restitution of $1,445,593. Peete was sentenced to a year and a day in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $394,908 and forfeit $1.5 million. Green was sentenced to three months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $404,596.

Mortgage Fraud – FilipMilios sentence to Prison for his role in this $5 million+ Mortgage Scam

FILIPPOS MILIOS, also known as Filip Milios, 56, of Newington, was sentenced to 97 months of imprisonment, followed by five years of supervised release, for orchestrating a mortgage fraud scheme that involved dozens of Connecticut properties and resulted in nearly $5.7 million in losses to lenders.

According to court documents and statements made in court, from approximately June 2005 to July 2010, MILIOS and others conspired to defraud banks and mortgage lenders in obtaining dozens of mortgages for the sale of properties owned by MILIOS and others.  The conspiracy involved the use of straw borrowers, false mortgage applications, false HUD-1 forms and fraudulent down payments in connection with the purchase of more than 50 houses primarily located in Hartford, New Haven and Middlesex counties.

As part of the scheme, MILIOS purchased properties, either in his own name, in a limited liability corporation in which he had an interest, or in the name of a co-conspirator.  MILIOS and others then recruited borrowers to purchase these properties.  Unbeknownst to the lenders who extended mortgages to the borrowers, MILIOS and his co-conspirators submitted fraudulent documents in connection with the loan applications, including false HUD-1 forms, employment verification letters and rental verification letters.

MILIOS also made the down payments on behalf of the borrowers who were recruited to purchase the properties.  Attorney Gabriel Serrano, who served as a closing attorney for most of the fraudulent transactions, often released the seller’s proceeds checks from closing to MILIOS before receiving the down payment, and MILIOS used the seller’s proceeds checks to purchase the down payment check for the same transaction.  MILIOS also failed to disclose to mortgage lenders that he paid money to borrowers, mortgage brokers, and recruiters.

MILIOS also engaged in a money laundering conspiracy with Serrano.  The conspiracy involved Serrano’s disbursing the fraudulently-obtained loan proceeds to the private lenders who had loaned MILIOS money when he originally purchased the properties.

Lenders lost $5,692,813 as a result of this scheme.

MILIOS was originally charged by criminal complaint in January 2013 and has been detained since March 20, 2014, when his bond was revoked after he made an attempt to flee the country on a shipping container vessel while awaiting trial.  On September 15, 2014, he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and bank fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

MILIOS, who is a citizen of Greece, faces immigration proceedings when he is released from prison.

On August 6, 2013, Serrano also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and bank fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.  Seven other co-conspirators involved in this scheme have also pleaded guilty.  All await sentencing.

Medicare Fraud Scheme – Dr. Mansour Sanjar and Dr. Cyrus Sajadi sentence to Prison in $97 Million scheme

The two physician owners of a Houston-area mental health clinic were sentenced to 148 months and 120 months respectively for their roles in a $97 million Medicare fraud scheme. A group home owner who sent residents to the clinic in exchange for kickbacks was also sentenced to 54 months in prison for her role.

“Doctors are not only bound by oath to serve the health of their patients, they are bound by duty to serve as gatekeepers for Medicare spending,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell. “In this case, without the criminal participation of Drs. Sanjar and Sajadi, this fraud simply could not have happened.”

Physicians Mansour Sanjar, 81, and Cyrus Sajadi, 67, the owners of Spectrum Care P.A., a community mental health clinic, were each convicted following a jury trial on March 12, 2014, of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks, as well as related counts of health care fraud and paying illegal kickbacks. Chandra Nunn, 36, a group home owner, was convicted of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks, as well as related counts of receiving illegal kickbacks. In addition to the prison sentences, U.S. District Judge Vanessa D. Gilmore of the Southern District of Texas ordered Sanjar and Sajadi to pay $8,058,612.39 in restitution, and Nunn to pay $1,885,667.41 in restitution. Co-defendants Adam Main, Shokoufeh Hakimi, Sharonda Holmes and Shawn Manney were also convicted and are scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 20, 2015.

According to evidence presented at trial, Sanjar and Sajadi orchestrated and executed a scheme to defraud Medicare beginning in 2006 and continuing until their arrest in December 2011. Sanjar and Sajadi owned Spectrum, which purportedly provided partial hospitalization program (PHP) services. A PHP is a form of intensive outpatient treatment for severe mental illness. The Medicare beneficiaries for whom Spectrum billed Medicare for PHP services did not qualify for or need PHP services.

Evidence presented at trial showed that Sanjar and Sajadi signed admission documents and progress notes certifying that patients qualified for PHP services, when in fact, the patients did not qualify for or need PHP services. Sanjar and Sajadi also billed Medicare for PHP services when the beneficiaries were actually watching movies, coloring and playing games, which are not activities covered by Medicare.

Evidence presented at trial also showed that Sanjar and Sajadi paid kickbacks to group care home operators and patient recruiters, including Nunn, Holmes and Manney, in exchange for delivering ineligible Medicare beneficiaries to Spectrum. In some cases, the patients received a portion of those kickbacks. According to evidence presented at trial, Spectrum billed Medicare for approximately $97 million in services that were not medically necessary and, in some cases, not provided.

Don’t Screw with the IRS – Kenneth Frank Harycki pleads Guilty faces Prison

KENNETH FRANK HARYCKI, 51, plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States by preparing and filing tax forms that he knew to be fraudulent. HARYCKI pleaded guiltyd to perpetrate,” said U.S. Attorney Luger. “By his guilty plea, Mr. Harycki has taken responsibility for his actions, but that does not excuse his criminal acts. This defendant not only violated his accounting license by covering up a tax fraud, he eroded the trust of the residents of Stillwater, who elected him to a position of high public office.”

According to his guilty plea, during the course of the conspiracy, HARYCKI owned and operated businesses that provided bookkeeping, payroll, and accounting services, including tax- related services, to clients. In 2007, the defendant began providing services to two separately charged co-conspirators. Within the first few payroll cycles for Model Health Care (Model), a company controlled by the two separately charged co-conspirators, the defendant concluded that while payroll taxes were being withheld from the wages of employees, those taxes were not being paid over to the government. The defendant learned that these co-conspirators had directed that the withheld taxes not be paid to the government and, instead, the taxes would be used for other purposes, including compensating the co-conspirators and their family members and funding other businesses operated by the co-conspirators.

According to the defendant’s guilty plea, on February 18, 2010, HARYCKI created the entity MKH Holdings, Inc., to assume control over bank accounts used to fund businesses operated by the co-conspirators. The entity was used to cause funds falsely reported on income tax returns to be paid to the co-conspirators and others. During the course of the conspiracy, HARYCKI also incorporated other businesses, obtained employer identification numbers, paid for personal expenses, filed false tax returns, and opened and used numerous bank accounts for the benefit of the separately charged co-conspirators in order to avoid payment of taxes.

The tax loss from the defendant’s relevant conduct is between $1 million and $2.5 million.

Bank Fraud earn prison sentence for Maria Rosa Esteves

MARIA ROSA ESTEVES, 41, of Bridgeport, was sentenced to 12 months and one day of imprisonment, followed by six months of home confinement and three years of supervised release, for embezzling more than $450,000 from the bank where she was employed.  ESTEVES also was ordered to pay full restitution, and to perform 60 hours of community service during her term of supervised release.

According to court documents and statements made in court, ESTEVES was employed by People’s United Bank from 1993 to 2014.  Beginning in 2006, ESTEVES worked primarily in the bank’s Adjustments Department, ultimately holding the title of Lead Adjuster with responsibilities that included arranging for bank cashiers’ checks to be issued to customers when a customer’s account needed to be adjusted.  ESTEVES used her position in the Adjustments Department to embezzle $452.122.08 from the bank by causing the bank to issue cashiers’ checks that ESTEVES would then use to pay persons or entities that she owed money to, including her utility company, homeowner’s insurance company and mortgage providers.  ESTEVES also embezzled money by depositing cashiers’ checks into bank accounts she controlled and from which she, or others associated with her, were able to access the funds.  In total, ESTEVES misappropriated more than 300 cashiers’ checks.

ESTEVES was ordered to report to prison on March 2, 2015.

On August 14, 2014, ESTEVES pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement from a federally insured bank.

Irina Vorotinov – Alkon Vorotinov – Charged with Insurance Fraud against Mutual of Omaha

IRINA VOROTINOV, 48, was charged with defrauding Mutual of Omaha Insurance Company for more than $2 million in life insurance proceeds by falsely claiming that her former husband died. Her son, ALKON VOROTINOV, 25, is charged with actively concealing the fraudulent scheme. IRINA was charged by criminal complaint with mail fraud, and ALKON was charged with having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony and concealing the crime.

According to the criminal complaint and documents filed in court, on April 22, 2010, Igor Vorotinov purchased a life insurance policy on his own life from Mutual of Omaha, and listed IRINA VOROTINOV and ALKON VOROTINOV as the beneficiaries. On October 1, 2011, police in Moldova received a phone call reporting a dead body at the entrance of the Cojusna village in central Moldova. Documents recovered from the body, including a passport, hotel cards, and contact phone numbers, identified the man as Igor Vorotinov.

According to the criminal complaint and documents filed in court, IRINA VOROTINOV traveled to Moldova to identify the body. Along with Igor’s cousin and a representative from the U.S. Embassy, IRINA went to the morgue where she identified the body as Igor. At IRINA’S request, the body was cremated on October 20, 2011, in Odessa, Ukraine. IRINA returned to Minnesota on October 29, 2011, and filed a death claim with Mutual of Omaha on November 7, 2011. Mutual of Omaha paid IRINA $2,048,414.09 in the form of a check sent on March 23, 2012, by U.S. mail to IRINA’S home in Maple Grove, Minnesota.

According to the criminal complaint and documents filed in court, IRINA and ALKON VOROTINOV opened an account at a local branch of U.S. Bank and deposited the check, which they both knew to be the life insurance policy proceeds resulting from the death of Igor Vorotinov. Between March 29, 2012 and January 2015, IRINA and ALKON together transferred more than $1.5 million of the life insurance proceeds to accounts located in Switzerland and Moldova.

According to the criminal complaint and documents filed in court, on November 27, 2013, ALKON was stopped by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in Detroit, Michigan upon returning from a trip to Moldova. A computer seized by CBP agents contained digital photographs of Igor Vorotinov taken on April 19, 2013 and on May 12, 2013, in which Igor is alive.

Former VP of Finance Jason A. Green Sentenced to Prison for Fraud against US Foodservice

The former Vice President of Finance for the NW Division of US Foodservice was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to 30 months in prison, three years of supervised release and $496,845 in restitution, announced Acting United States Attorney Annette L. Hayes.  JASON A. GREEN, 37, of Puyallup, Washington, conspired with his friend, Jimmie Dillingham, to steal from GREEN’s employer, US Foodservice.  GREEN pleaded guilty to mail fraud, resulting in a loss of nearly half a million dollars to US Foodservice, in November 2013.  In November 2014 Dillingham pleaded guilty to mail fraud and will be sentenced later this year.  At the sentencing hearing U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton told GREEN, “This offense is serious, it tears at the fabric of society . . . [it is the type of offense that] has a corrosive effect on people who didn’t have your opportunity.  You were blessed.  I can’t see the motivation.”

According to records in the case, beginning in July 2009 and continuing until late 2010, GREEN and Dillingham made up phony invoices indicating that Dillingham’s company had done work for US Foodservice.  GREEN abused his access to payment systems at the company to approve expenditures for work that was never done.  GREEN changed computer codes in the accounting records to conceal the fraud.  In one part of the scheme, the men invented a security company and submitted phony bills for work it allegedly did at a Clark County warehouse.  GREEN used his access to US Foodservice accounts to cancel the contract with a legitimate company and instead steered the business to Dillingham’s company.  The warehouse property was later sold.  After the men submitted the invoices for payment, Dillingham would deposit the checks and share the funds with GREEN.  Both men gambled significant amounts of the embezzled money at area casinos.

In December 2010, the company tried to untangle shortfalls in various accounts and GREEN quit his job when confronted about fraudulent entries in the books.  The company notified law enforcement which began the financial investigation.