Those who misused the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was meant to help struggling businesses stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic, continue to pay a price in the legal arena. According to People magazine, one of the latest such offenders is Miami real estate broker Daniela Rendon, 31. She was accused of improperly using $381,000 in COVID-19 relief funds in the form of loans and grants to finance a luxury lifestyle, which included a costly condo, a Bentley automobile and cosmetic surgery.  This led to an indictment last February for 10 counts of white-co ..read more

Russell Laffitte, who had headed a highly respected bank in South Carolina, has received a sentence of 7 years in federal prison for assisting former attorney Alex Murdaugh, now a convicted murderer, in stealing almost $2 million from his clients’ legal settlements. According to the Associated Press, as reported by NBC News, Laffitte was sentenced Tuesday, August 1, 2023, when a federal jury in Charleston, South Carolina, found him guilty of 6 charges pertaining to bank fraud and wire fraud. The former CEO of Palmetto State Bank became the first of Murdaugh’s accomplices in a widespread fraud ..read more

The United States Department of Justice has announced that a Houston woman has been sentenced to 12 years in federal prison after being convicted on 7 counts of aiding and assisting in preparing false tax returns. U.S. District Judge David Hittner ordered the woman to serve 144 months (12 years) in federal prison, to be immediately followed by a year of supervised release (probation). In addition, she was ordered to pay restitution of $71,180, said U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani. Hamdani said the total sum the woman owes the United States from her criminal and civil cases is more than $1.9 ..read more

Three persons have been charged in Houston for participating in a nearly $7 million Medicaid fraud and kickback scheme involving a local dental clinic, says United States Attorney for the Southern District of Texas Alamdar S. Hamdani. According to My Texas Daily, one suspect, of Humble, was arrested last week. Two others, from Houston, were arrested on a similar charge last August and now face a superseding indictment. The charges allege that one of the Houston men operated the Floss Family Dental Care clinic in Houston, while the other two men served as the clinic’s managers. The superseding ..read more

Notorious crimes of fraud or theft often involve high-profile people and million-dollar offenses, but even far smaller cases can lead to jail time. Take the case of 2 Ohio sport fishermen who were sentenced on May 11 to spend 10 days in jail and serve 6 months of probation for trying to rig a fishing tournament last September by weighing down the fish they’d caught. The jail time could have been as much as 6 months to 1 year, but prosecutors recommended otherwise. The men also must pay a $2,500 fine as part of their punishment. However, the fine can be cut in half if the men—36 and 43 years o ..read more

Fraud involving COVID-19’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), as well as health care fraud on a corporate level, can mean years in prison, even for such non-violent white-collar crimes. Take the case of two brothers in Georgia and Florida. For a $1.6 million COVID-19 fraud scheme, the first brother was sentenced on April 10, 2023, to 2 years and 3 months in prison, and the second brother was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison. As reported by the U.S. Department of Justice, the brothers’ scheme involved fraudulent applications for $1.6 million in unwarranted loans through the PPP. The ..read more

Charlie Javice, 31, has been charged with conspiracy, bank fraud and wire fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission. She was arrested for those white-collar crimes in New Jersey on Monday, April 3. Javice, who was named to Forbes’s “30 Under 30” list of young business stars in 2019, denies the charges’ allegations. The case involves a student loan assistance startup called Frank, which Javice founded in 2017. In 2021, as CEO, she sold it to JPMorgan Chase for $175 million. As part of the deal, CBS News reported, Javice received a $9.7 million payout and a job as a managing partner at JP ..read more

An actress and former yoga studio owner who lives in Monterrey, Mexico, was arrested by federal authorities on January 31 in Houston upon her arrival on a flight from Mexico. She and a Fresno, California, hairstylist have been charged in a 12-count indictment alleging they defrauded a California physician out of over $2.7 million before his death, then tried to defraud his estate out of an additional $20 million or more, the Justice Department announced on February 1. According to the Internal Revenue Service, Anna Renee Moore made her initial court appearance in the United States District Co ..read more

More than actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman will have a prison record for the college admissions cheating scandal in which well-off parents paid money so their kids could get into elite universities. Now, the so-called ringleader or mastermind in the scandal has been sentenced to 3 and a half years—or 42 months—in federal prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release, or probation. (Most white-collar crime investigations are federal in nature, not state or local.) William “Rick” Singer, 62, also was ordered to pay over $10 million in restitution to the IRS and to forfeit millio ..read more

“Fraud is on the rise here in Houston,” says Sergeant Darren Schlosser of the Houston Police Department’s Auto Theft Division Vehicle Fraud Unit. And some such fraud cases have involved persons using fake identities to purchase expensive vehicles at Houston-area auto dealerships. According to KPRC Channel 2 at Click2Houston.com, a woman was recently arrested on outstanding warrants after police said she purchased 2 vehicles worth $100,000 while using a stolen identity in Houston. Schlosser said many of the “fraudsters” who Houston police deal with are “serial fraudsters.” He said the woman wh ..read more