SANTA ANA, Calif. – A man was sentenced today to a court offer of 60 days in jail for hate crimes after threatening to kill Persian hookah lounge customers in Lake Forest. Defendant Charges Sentence Andrew Alan Carruthers, 29, Lake Forest Pleaded guilty today to: ...

SANTA ANA, Calif. – A man was sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison today for the cold case murder of a woman whose body was left in a parking lot in Santa Ana in 2007. Defendant Felony Charges Sentence Jose Esteban Cardenas Zuniga, 41, Mammoth Lakes Found g...

The Justice Department announced today that it has reached a settlement with CitiStaff Solutions Inc., and CitiStaff Management Group Inc. (collectively CitiStaff), companies that provide staffing services in the greater Los Angeles, California area.  The settlement resolves the department's inve...

A real estate investor was sentenced today for his role in a conspiracy to rig bids at public real estate foreclosure auctions in Northern California, the Department of Justice announced. Brian McKinzie was charged on June 30, 2011, in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in the Norther...

A 33-year-old man was sentenced today to 18 years and eight months in state prison for driving under the influence of alcohol, fatally striking a pedestrian and injuring another, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced. On Aug. 22, Leopoldo Leon of Walnut Park pleaded no conte...

A Rancho Cucamonga man was sentenced today to three years in state prison for leading police on a high-speed pursuit that ended at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced. Deputy District Attorney Robert DuFour said Tony Carl Calloway J...

SANTA ANA, Calif. – A man is scheduled to face trial tomorrow for the special circumstances murder of a man who was dragged and run over by his truck as he was robbed in Anaheim. Defendant Charges Maximum Sentence Court Date Jasper Bear Belknap, 21, Anaheim Char...

LOS ANGELES – Un Hag Baeg, 58, of Marina del Rey, a Korean national currently living in the United States, pleaded guilty yesterday afternoon to conspiring to defraud the United States government by evading federal excise taxes due on 143 million cigarettes sold domestically but which the co-con...

A priest for the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Jose was sentenced to 36 months in prison, announced Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department's Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Brian J. Stretch for the Northern District of California. According to documen...

The United States filed a civil complaint against Michel Cordon Bleu Inc. of Los Angeles, California, and its owner and President Michel G. Blanchet to prevent the distribution of adulterated seafood products in violation of federal law, the Department of Justice announced today. Michel Cordon Bl...

LOS ANGELES – A Compton man with a lengthy criminal history was sentenced today to 156 months in federal prison for firearms offenses, including dealing firearms without a license. Francisco Juantonio Hilt, 39, of Compton, was sentenced by United States District Court Judge R. Gary Klausner aft...

SAN DIEGO – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced criminal charges against Ramil Abalkhad, owner of Romano's Jewelers, and Melina Abalkhad, owner of MBNB Financial Inc., for conspiracy to engage in illegal financing and debt collection practices. Romano's Jewelers had several retai...

LOS ANGELES – The owner-operator of a Burbank medical clinic was sentenced today to 37 months in federal prison on federal healthcare fraud charges for participating in a scheme to defraud Medicare by prescribing unnecessary services and equipment, which often were not even provided. Knarik Var...

SANTA ANA, California – An Orange County man was sentenced to 97 months in federal prison Friday for fraudulently taking $2.2 million from distressed homeowners based on false promises that he could help them avoid foreclosure by obtaining modifications to their mortgages. Kevin Frank Rasher, 4...

LOS ANGELES – A former director of South Korea's Earthquake Research Center at the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) has been sentenced to 14 months in federal prison for using a Southern California bank account to launder bribes he received from two seismological compa...

LOS ANGELES – A Garden Grove preschool has entered into a voluntary civil settlement agreement with the United States to resolve allegations that it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to agree to provide EpiPen injections when required and requested at its facility. OC ...

SANTA ANA, California – A Rancho Mirage cosmetic surgeon who has been on the run for four months after pleading guilty in a scheme that duped health insurance companies into paying tens of millions of dollars for cosmetic procedures that were not medically necessary was sentenced in absentia this...

LOS ANGELES – A former employee of the Glendale City Attorney's Office has been charged with embezzling $609,764 she illegally obtained by creating documents to make it appear the money was being used to pay civil claims against the city. Cassandra Alexander, 53, who resides in the Winnetka dis...

SANTA ANA, Calif. – A man was convicted today of kidnapping, forcibly raping, and sodomizing a 14-year-old girl and attempting to kidnap three other victims ages 11 to 16 with the intent to commit a sex offense. Defendant Charges Maximum Sentence Court Date Elias Om...

SANTA ANA, Calif. – A man was charged with special circumstances murder during attempted rape after the 68-year-old victim died due to injuries sustained in the assault. Defendant Charges Minimum Sentence Court Date Michael Aon Varela, 30, Garden Grove Charged o...

LOS ANGELES – A Lynwood woman who dropped out of law school – but who later allegedly stole the identity and bar license number of a New York attorney – surrendered herself last night on federal charges that accuse her of filing immigration petitions on behalf of foreign nationals who believed s...

LOS ANGELES – A Walnut resident has been arrested on federal charges of making a hoax threat by falsely reporting to airline and law enforcement officials that an acquaintance of his planned to blow up an airplane and posed a threat to the United States. Dino Ninku, 36, of Walnut, was arrested ...

The Justice Department announced today that Westlake Services LLC and its subsidiary, Wilshire Consumer Capital LLC, have agreed to pay $760,788 to resolve allegations that the companies violated the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (“SCRA”) by repossessing 70 vehicles owned by SCRA-protected serv...

LOS ANGELES – A federal grand jury today returned an indictment that alleges the former head of Santa Monica-based ServiceMesh, Inc. paid bribes to former IT executives at Commonwealth Bank of Australia to approve millions of dollars in contracts that inflated ServiceMesh revenues and fraudulent...

A woman was sentenced Wednesday to 13 years in prison for kidnapping the three young children of her murdered half-sister, whose body was found last year in northern Los Angeles County. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge M.L. Villar imposed the term on Brittney Sue Humphrey, 23, who pleaded no cont...