The former Armenian Consul in Los Angeles and a Beverly Hills immigration attorney are among five people arrested last night and this morning on federal criminal charges that allege they obtained and sold to illegal aliens documents called “letters of refusal,” which allowed those illegal aliens to avoid deportation.

Issued by embassies and consulates, a letter of refusal states that a country will not issue a travel document for a particular individual, essentially blocking that person’s deportation to that nation. According to the criminal charges that led to this week’s arrests, the five defendants sold official letters of refusal from the Armenian consulate for as much as $35,000. Those letters prevented the removal of the Armenian nationals to Armenia. The investigation revealed that many of those who purchased the letters were Armenian nationals facing deportation after being convicted in the United States of felony offenses.
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A San Marcos man pleaded guilty this morning to a felony charge of using the Internet to distribute a pirated copy of “Slumdog Millionaire” in violation of federal copyright law.

Owen Moody, 25, pleaded guilty to uploading a copyrighted work being prepared for commercial distribution, admitting that he uploaded a copy of “Slumdog Millionaire” late last year to a website called thepiratebay.org, so that others could download the movie over the Internet. Moody also posted a link to the upload at the Internet websites called demonoid.com and mininova.org.
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A former officer with the Bell Police Department pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court to a federal civil rights charge for sexually assaulting a female motorist.

Feliciano Sanchez, 34, pleaded guilty late yesterday to one count of deprivation of rights under color of law, admitting that he sexually assaulted the victim by forcing her to provide oral sex after stopping her for a traffic violation. Sanchez admitted that on May 16, 2007, he took the victim in his patrol car to a location where he placed his hand on his duty weapon and forced her to orally copulate.
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A former Rockwell and Boeing engineer from Orange County was remanded into custody this morning after a federal judge convicted him of charges of economic espionage and acting as an agent of the People’s Republic of China, for whom he stole restricted technology and Boeing trade secrets, including information related to the Space Shuttle program and Delta IV rocket.

Dongfan “Greg” Chung, 73, of Orange, Calif., who was employed by Rockwell International from 1973 until its defense and space unit was acquired by Boeing in 1996, was found guilty by United States District Judge Cormac J. Carney, who presided over a three-week bench trial last month.
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A former player with the Tennessee Titans pleaded guilty this afternoon to federal fraud charges related to a $5 million Ponzi scheme in which he collected funds with promises of high rates of returns on investments in loan programs, including multimillion dollar condominium projects in Mexico.

Reed Kyle Diehl, 30, of Coto de Caza, pleaded guilty this afternoon in United States District Court to three counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering.
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Federal and State authorities this morning arrested 20 defendants accused of being part of ring that defrauded Medi-Cal out of nearly $4.6 million by using unlicensed individuals to provide in-home care to scores of disabled patients, many of them children with cerebral palsy or developmental disabilities.

The 20 defendants arrested this morning are among 42 defendants named in a 41-count indictment that was returned by a federal grand jury on June 25. The indictment is part of an investigation called Operation License Integrity, a two-year investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, and the Office of the California Attorney General-Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse. The indictment alleges that the 42 defendants and two others, one of whom has already pleaded guilty to health care fraud charges, conspired to bill Medi-Cal nearly $4.6 million for in-home licensed nursing services that were actually provided by unlicensed individuals. Read the rest of this entry »

In the nation’s largest-ever gang investigation and prosecution, a law enforcement task force this morning arrested an additional 11 defendants named in federal charges that are linked to the Hawaiian Gardens gang that was previously the subject of a sweeping racketeering indictment. The 11 defendants arrested today are among 24 people named in a federal narcotics-trafficking indictment that outlines a drug pipeline to and from members of the Varrio Hawaiian Gardens gang.

In related developments across four Southern California counties today, another nine defendants were arrested and are expected to be charged in state court. Authorities also seized eight firearms, more than 400 rounds of ammunition, one pound of methamphetamine and a ballistic vest. Seven additional defendants charged in federal court were recently taken into custody. Read the rest of this entry »

A man who obtained two Academy Award “screeners” of Hollywood movies and made them available to Internet users pleaded guilty today to two felony charges of uploading a copyrighted work being prepared for commercial distribution.

Derek Hawthorne, 21, of Moorpark, pleaded guilty this morning, admitting that he uploaded “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Australia” to websites, where visitors could download the movies to their own computers.

The two movies had been shown in theaters, but were not yet available on DVD. Hawthorne obtained screeners of the movies, used a computer program that allowed him to upload the movies and made them available for viewing on the Internet. Authorities are continuing to investigate how Hawthorne obtained the screeners. Read the rest of this entry »

A federal jury has convicted a physician assistant for his role in a $7.7 million Medicare fraud scheme, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division, United States Attorney Thomas P. O’Brien and Inspector General Daniel R. Levinson of the Department of Health & Human Services.

After a seven-day trial, a federal jury found Ronald Luis Bradshaw, 59, of North Hollywood, guilty on all charged counts, including conspiracy to commit health care fraud, multiple counts of health fraud and aggravated identity theft for prescribing medically unnecessary durable medical equipment to hundreds of Medicare beneficiaries under the stolen identity of a doctor. Read the rest of this entry »