Business & Tech Google Employee Charged With Fraud After Winning Big on Polymarket Bet Using Insider Info A Google information security engineer who had advance access to Google's year-end round-up of popular searches, is accused of making $1.2 million on a Polymarket bet based on that insider info.
SF News Sonoma Developer Accused of Defrauding Dozens of Retirees to Be Evicted From His Estate After weeks of frustration among the victims of the Ponzi-like scheme allegedly perpetrated by Sonoma County real estate investor Ken Mattson that he was still living in the lap of luxury, Mattson and his wife are being evicted from their Sonoma estate.
SF News East Bay Man Pleads Guilty to Ponzi Scheme That Spanned Nearly 30 Years A former financial advisor from Danville faces federal charges for allegedly defrauding 93 investors of $9.5 million over three decades following an FBI and IRS investigation.
SF News Arizona Man Arrested In Check-Washing Scheme That Targeted Napa Residents Dozens of Napa County homeowners now have some answers as to why their property tax payments had not made it to the county tax collector this spring, and/or why the checks were getting deposited in other states.
SF News NYC SantaCon Organizer Accused of Diverting $1 Million In Donations to Personal Account When SF’s organizers disavowed SantaCon in 2014 due to the chaos it brought the city every Christmas, one of the event’s organizers in NYC leaned into the chaos by forming a charity — at first to appease officials and then later to allegedly collect and divert funds for personal use.
SF News Sonoma County Real Estate Investor Ken Mattson to Take Guilty Plea In Federal Fraud Case Almost a year after he was arrested by federal agents and charged with fraud and money laundering, Sonoma County developer Ken Mattson appears to be taking a plea deal.
SF News Nanny Arrested at SFO For Allegedly Charging $60,000 on Former Boss’s Credit Card An SF woman was arrested at SFO and taken into custody by Tiburon police last week on suspicion of racking up $60,000 in fraudulent charges on her former boss’s credit card for extravagant purchases including international travel, luxury hotels, and spa services.
SF News Musk Ordered to Pay $2 Billion In Twitter Shareholder Lawsuit, Found Liable But Absolved of Fraud The jury in a lawsuit over Elon Musk’s 2022 takeover of Twitter found he misled investors by claiming he might walk away over the platform’s bot estimates, prompting some to sell during a downturn before he ultimately went through with the original deal — but fraud claims were dropped.
SF News Yet Another SF Nonprofit CEO, Who Allegedly Stole $1.2 Million, Criminally Charged With Misuse of Public Money Criminal charges just came down on a former SF homelessness nonprofit CEO accused of buying a Tesla with public money, among a slew of other financial improprieties, and she's facing nine felony charges.
SF News SF Towing Company Owner Sentenced to Federal Prison for Torching Rivals’ Trucks A 29-year-old towing company owner was sentenced to five years in federal prison for orchestrating a plan to set the trucks of four rival companies on fire, along with two years for submitting fraudulent car insurance claims, with state welfare fraud charges pending.
Business & Tech Two Bay Area Men Among Five Sentenced to Prison For Scheme to Steal $2.5M From DoorDash Five people, including two from the Bay Area, have been sentenced to prison terms and restitution for their parts in a strange fraud scheme involving the creation of sham driver and customer accounts on the DoorDash platform.
SF Politics Gavin Newsom Goes on Attack Against Dr. Oz Over Inflammatory Video Accusing LA Armenians of Mafia Fraud Dr Oz’s latest conspiracy theory says that the “Russian Armenia mafia” is running fake hospice centers in LA, and Gavin Newsom is taking legal action, as many of the businesses Oz highlights aren’t even hospice care.
SF Politics Trump Announces Fraud Probe of California Social Services, Withholds Federal Funds In Wake of Minnesota Scandals The Trump administration is now waging more political war with Democrat-led states, announcing the withholding of $10 billion in social services funding to five states: Minnesota, California, New York, Illinois, and Colorado.
SF News SF City Hall Employee Who Embezzled $627K, Bought Himself VR Headsets Sentenced to Three Years in Prison The wild corruption case of a SF City Hall Workers' Comp department employee who embezzled $627,118 and blew city money and personal tech gear has ended, and that now-fired employee is headed to prison.
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.
