The former president of Service Employees International Union, Local 660, has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges in a scheme that defrauded a non-profit organization formed by another labor leader through the use of bogus consulting contracts.

In a plea agreement filed this afternoon in United States District Court in Los Angeles, Alejandro Stephens, 65, a resident of the Koreatown District of Los Angeles, agreed to plead guilty to two counts of mail fraud and one count of filing a false federal income tax return.

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The founder and manager of two Beverly Hills hedge funds pleaded guilty today to federal fraud charges, admitting that he ran a Ponzi scheme targeting family members who suffered losses of more than $25 million.

Bradley L. Ruderman, 46, of Beverly Hills, pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and two counts of investment adviser fraud related to the Ponzi scheme he ran from 2003 through 2009. Ruderman also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of failing to file a federal income tax return for the year 2007.
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An attorney arrested earlier this month after accepting $50,000 in cash as part of a payment made in exchange for the lawyer’s promise to tamper with a federal grand jury investigation was indicted this afternoon by another federal grand jury.

Alfred Nash Villalobos, 44, a South Lake Tahoe resident who recently relocated from West Hills, was indicted on charges of endeavoring to obstruct a grand jury investigation and interfering with interstate commerce by extortion.
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Five people related to an extended Guatemalan family were sentenced to federal prison late yesterday, all receiving multi-decade sentences for their roles in an international sex trafficking ring that lured young Guatemalan women and girls into the Los Angeles area and forced them into prostitution.

“In this disturbing case, the defendants lured young, uneducated and impoverished women and girls to the United States, where they were forced to work as prostitutes in terrifying conditions,” said United States Attorney Thomas P. O’Brien. “There were at least 10 victims who were forced into becoming prostitutes under a variety of threats, as well as actual physical attacks that included rapes.”
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An Orange County man who admitted running a multi-faceted fraud scheme that bilked hundreds of victims out of approximately $55 million was sentenced today to 27 years in federal prison.

Colin Nathanson, 62, who lived in Coto De Caza until his arrest in 2005, was sentenced to 324 months in prison by United States District Judge Cormac J. Carney. Prior to his arrest, Nathanson was the president and chief executive officer of Giant Golf Company and Play Big Enterprises, Inc., both of which sold golf clubs and golf accessories out of Irvine and Rancho Santa Margarita.

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A Newport Beach man convicted of falsely claiming to be an attorney to courts, real lawyers and paying clients has been sentenced to an additional two years in federal prison for again posing as a lawyer only days after he completed a seven-year prison term.

Harold Goldstein, 64, was sentenced yesterday afternoon by United States District Judge David O. Carter, who imposed the maximum penalty for the violation of supervised release.
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Los Angeles Investigators Examine Tax Fraud Related to Foreign Bank Accounts

A Malibu man was charged today with failing to inform the government of a Swiss bank account as part of a scheme to move at least $1 million from the United States into Swiss bank accounts with the goal of avoiding the payment of federal income taxes.
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A federal grand jury has indicted three men on kidnapping charges for abducting a Van Nuys man who was shot, shocked with a taser and held captive for five days while his kidnappers attempted to negotiate a $1 million ransom payment.

The two-count indictment returned Thursday afternoon charges the defendants with two counts – conspiracy to commit kidnapping and kidnapping. The indictment alleges that the kidnapping victim was shot and shocked with a taser during his abduction, and that he was bound and blindfolded and while he was held captive for five days. The captors allegedly withheld necessary medical treatment for the victim’s life-threatening gunshot wound.
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A federal jury this afternoon convicted a prominent Beverly Hills real estate agent and a licensed real estate appraiser on federal charges for their roles in a massive mortgage fraud scheme that caused more than $40 million in losses to federally insured banks.

After a five-week trial, the jury convicted Kyle Grasso, 38, formerly of Santa Monica, and Lila Rizk, 42, of Trabuco Canyon, of conspiracy, bank fraud and numerous loan fraud charges for their roles in the mortgage fraud scheme. Additionally, Grasso was convicted of three counts of money laundering.
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A man with a lengthy criminal record that includes two prior convictions for bank robberies has been sentenced to 16 years in federal prison for committing a series of bank robberies that earned him the moniker the “Goofy Hat Bandit.”

William Vance Turner, 58, who was residing in Ladera Heights when he was arrested by the FBI in 2007, was sentenced late Monday by United States District Judge Margaret M. Morrow.

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