SF News Ongoing Wine Country Real Estate Scandal Draws Scrutiny of Lender Who Financed Accused Fraudster A new wrinkle in the case of a Sonoma County real estate tycoon accused of bilking nearly 200 investors out of $46 million, as it turns out most of his properties were financed by a single lender, raising questions about what they knew.
SF News Seemingly Bogus Mission District Immigration Attorney Fined $600,000 for Unlicensed Work The Mission District storefront that claims to house a “Law Group” does not, in fact, have any attorneys, and a court just ruled they have to pay $600,000 for conning payments from immigrants seeking legal services for years.
SF News Los Angeles Man Charged With Defrauding SF Parishioners Out of $400K at Church Where He Was a Pastor A man who was serving as a visiting pastor at a Sunset District church in recent years allegedly defrauded at least four parishioners out of tens of thousands of dollars, purporting to be a licensed attorney.
SF Politics Former SF City Hall Official Harlan Kelly Appeals His Corruption Conviction, From Prison Having served about one year of his four-year prison sentence, former SF Public Utilities Commission general manager Harlan Kelly is appealing his conviction for City Hall fraud and lying on a bank loan application.
SF News Saturday Links: Nurses, Parents Protest Kaiser’s Pause on Trans Youth Surgical Care The Safeway strike deadline has been extended; ICE detained all the adults at SF immigration court without children on Friday; and Kaiser staff rallied in SF on Friday over the company's recent pause on gender-affirming care for youth.
SF News Day Around the Bay: SF Venture Capital Firm Fined $215M Over Russian Oligarch Funds A Flywheel taxi flipped over in Civic Center on Friday morning; four detainees escaped from a New Jersey ICE facility during a riot that broke out over hunger and poor conditions; and a local firm was fined for managing a sanctioned Russian oligarch’s investments.
SF News Wine Country Developer Arrested by Feds, Charged With Fraud and Money Laundering Federal officials allege that Sonoma County real estate tycoon Kenneth Mattson bilked nearly 200 investors out of at least $46 million in a series of fraudulent real estate deals, and arrested him today in a wine country gymnasium parking lot.
SF News Man Convicted Of Defrauding Bay Area Investors Over Fake Space Tech Company — For A Mere $50K Ramesh Nathan was convicted of wire fraud and money laundering for scamming investors, including veterans, with false claims about a fake space tech company and using their money for personal expenses.
SF News Day Around The Bay: Officials Introduce Bill Prohibiting ICE From California Schools Without Warrant California Tesla owners claim that Tesla alters odometers to speed up warranty expiration; police were called to three different Bay Area schools on Friday; and officials have introduced a bill keeping ICE off CA school campuses.
SF News Two SF Women Charged With $500K In Welfare Fraud by Claiming They Were Caring for 17 Kids An SFMTA employee and her partner have pleaded guilty to a $30,000-a-month Section 8 fraud scheme where they claimed they were caring for 17 children, but were not caring for any children whatsoever.
SF News SF DA Charges Five SF Food Markets With Ringing Up $4 Million in Fraudulent Food Stamps Charges Three food markets in Chinatown, one in the Tenderloin, and another the Richmond District are accused of handing people cash for allowing the stores to ring up bogus EBT purchases to the tune of $4 million.
Business & Tech Shocker: California Leads the Nation in Cryptocurrency Fraud, According to FBI More than 20% of all cryptocurrency fraud happened right here in California last year, and the FBI San Francisco Field Office was kept busy, dealing with a staggering $260 million in crypto scams in 2023 alone.
SF News Feds Convict SF Software Engineer for Tax Evasion Over Fraudulent Medical Deductions An SF software engineering manager was found guilty on three counts of tax evasion for overstating his medical tax deductions by more than $1 million for an appendectomy that he had nine years prior to the deductions.
SF News Santa Clara County DA Is Looking For This Convicted Con Artist Who Skipped Out on Prison Sentencing A scamster who likes to bilk investors with phony tech invention schemes may be out there conning someone new, after he was a no-show at a sentencing hearing last month in Santa Clara County.
SF News Scandal-Plagued SF Towing Company Hit With Federal Indictment for Faking Car Accidents, Collecting Insurance Money New federal indictments lay out a slew of insurance fraud charges against the co-owner of the Bayview’s notorious Specialty Towing, among them a charge that he loaded a tow truck full of four clunkers, faked an accident, and tried to collect full insurance.
SF News 28-Year-Old Chinese National Charged In Multi-Million-Dollar Fraud Scheme Involving Fake Names, Bank Accounts A federal judge has ordered the 28-year-old suspect in a broad-ranging fraud scheme to remain detained at Santa Rita Jail after he reportedly tried to flee the country and return to China.
Business & Tech Founder of Social Media Startup IRL Charged With $170M Fraud Scheme The founder of the app IRL, which, pre-pandemic, sought to connect users with real-world events but later pivoted to online events and more social media features, has now been charged with fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
SF Politics Former SFPD-Affiliated Nonprofit Director Arrested for Fraud, Theft, Misuse of $700,000 in Public Money The former director of the SFPD’s now-dissolved nonprofit SF SAFE was arrested Tuesday on 34 felony counts, after reports of profligate misspending of public money on lavish parties, forged checks, and possibly her own rent. But did city officials get some of these gifts too?
SF News CFO of Shen Yun-Affiliated Media Outlet Arrested for $67 Million Money-Laundering Scheme Just days after Trump was found guilty, the CFO of the far-right newspaper Epoch Times was arrested and charged in a $67 million money-laundering crypto scam. The Epoch Times, of course, promotes and helps fund the ubiquitously advertised propaganda musical Shen Yun.
SF News SF Worker Who Bought VR Headsets With City Money Now Accused of Stealing $627K In Workers' Comp It’s now two arrests in two months for a since-fired city HR manager who allegedly used city funds to buy fancy tech gear, as he was arrested again Thursday for charges of stealing $627,000 from the city through a fraudulent workers' compensation scheme.
SF News Former Lefty O’Doul’s Owner Nick Bovis Sentenced to Nine Months in Prison Over Mohammed Nuru Case The one-time owner of Lefty O'Douls and the Gold Dust Lounge Nick Bovis is now heading to prison, as he was sentenced to nine months for fraud and bribery in the Mohammed Nuru case.
SF News Former SF Man Gets Four Years In Prison, $5 Million Fine In Crypto Fraud Scheme A one-time San Francisco man was just sentenced to four years in prison for a cryptocurrency scheme that promised “10% returns every 30 business days,” but actually made no money whatsoever, and now he’s headed to prison for four years.
Business & Tech Former Facebook Executive Pleads Guilty to Swindling Company Out of $4 Million A one-time Facebook executive based in Atlanta has pleaded guilty to defrauding $4 million out of Facebook parent company Meta, by embezzling money from her company credit card, and directing contracts to friends in exchange for kickbacks.
SF News SF Man Charged With Section 8 Fraud Scheme In Which He Allegedly Used Funds to Pay For Maui Timeshare A San Francisco man has been indicted on federal fraud charges for a scheme in which he allegedly received Section 8 housing payments for years while concealing his actual income from the feds.
SF News Scammers Are Now Applying To California Colleges Just To Steal The Financial Aid A stunning 20% of all applications to California community colleges are now “ghost students,” that is, scammers using someone else’s name to pocket the financial aid and never show up for a single class.
