Updating a story we reported here, Margaret Diekemper was sentenced to two years of probation and a $500 fine for her role in a bankruptcy fraud scheme in the Southern District of Illinois following a plea agreement reached with the government last November. Diekemper was also prohibited from any [...]
According to this Wisconsin State Journal article, Ismail Beciri was charged in the Western District of Wisconsin with four counts of structuring financial transactions to avoid federal reporting requirements after a federal agents searched his home for evidence of bankruptcy fraud. Beciri filed bankruptcy in November 2007. During the course [...]
In a previous post (here) we commented that the Judicial Conference of the United States had certified to the House of Representatives that impeachment proceedings may be warranted against U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Porteus (E.D. La.) and the House Judiciary Committee has formed a task force to investigate the matter. While no new developments have [...]
Tammy Beecher and Wyatt Beecher, a Pennsylvania couple, were each sentenced to fifteen days in prison by U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Andrew Smyser in the Middle District of Pennsylvania for contempt of court for untruthful conduct in their joint bankruptcy case.
According to a press release issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office,' [...]
Eunice Roper-Allen, of the Allen Funeral Home, who was indicted last month in the Central District of Illinois, has entered a not guilty plea to charges that she concealed assets in her bankruptcy case and defrauded a funeral home client by falsifying a decedent's funeral expenses.
In the three bankruptcy-related counts, the indictment charges Roper-Allen [...]
The trial of Louis Rivas on a multitude of bankruptcy and non-bankruptcy criminal charges arising from the collapse of his foreign curency exchange firm, The Forex Project (discussed in this post), has been re-scheduled to July 20, 2009.
U.S. District Judge Curtis Collier granted a common defense motion to extend [...]
According to this news report, Calisto Tanzi, the founder of Italian food manufacturer Parmalat was sentenced earlier this month in Milan to serve ten years in prison for his criminal role in the firm's well-publicized collapse. Tanzi was convicted and sentenced on bankruptcy fraud and criminal association charges. Dubbed [...]
Anthony Dehaney, whose conviction in a multi-million dollar mortgage fraud scheme we previously reported on here, was sentenced today in the Southern District of Florida to eight years in prison. Dehaney pleaded guilty to conspiracy, mail fraud and making a false declaration in a bankruptcy case last October. He admitted before [...]
Sonia Alburez was charged last week with four counts of bankruptcy fraud for allegedly filing fraudulent bankruptcy petitions in the Northern District of California.
According to the indictment, Alburez solicited homeowners who were delinquent in their mortgage payments and convinced them that her company, Community Home Saver Program, could prevent or [...]
According to this news report, Juan Tenorio and Charlene Tenorio each were sentenced to terms of probation after a jury in the District of Guam convicted them of concealing nearly $75,000 in income from their engineering firm during their 2002 bankruptcy case. U.S. District Judge Francis Tydingco-Gatewood sentenced Juan to five [...]
According to this AP story, Italian financial police have said that they have arrested fashion designer Gai Mattiolo on charges of fraudulent bankruptcy in Rome. The charges relate to Mattiolo's allegedly siphoning funds from his fashion house before filing bankruptcy.
As described, the charge of fraudulent bankruptcy appears to be the more [...]
William H. Spencer and Paul Boghosian were convicted on numerous federal charges relating to their fraudulent conduct in proposing a reorganization plan in the 2003 Hawaiian Airlines bankruptcy case. Spencer was convicted following a two-week jury trial in Manhattan. Boghosian pleaded guilty on October 29th.
According to trial evidence, in connection [...]
The Deloitte Forensic Center and its Reorganization Services Group has produced the findings of a report that studied the correlation between bankruptcy and fraud. The primary question examined was whether the increased scrutiny that follows a company's bankruptcy filing leads to more incidents of fraud claims as compared to companies that have not [...]
Four defendants in the Southern District of West Virginia have been charged in separate cases with various bankruptcy crimes in a small fraud sweep that U.S. Attorney Charles T. Miller hopes will "serve as a warning to those who would abuse the [bankruptcy] system."
Victoria Caudill was charged with concealing assets [...]
As expected, Joey Diekemper has reached a plea agreement with the government and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bankruptcy fraud in Illinois bankruptcy fraud case with ties to a double homocide of two potential witnesses. Diekemper entered a guilty plea on Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Clifford Proud. Outside [...]
Several news outlets here and here are now reporting that Joseph Diekemper, whose wife's guilty plea to conspiracy to conceal assets in bankrutpcy case we reported here, is due in court tomorrow for a change of plea hearing. He is expected to plead guilty under a plea agreement with [...]
Margaret Diekemper pleaded guilty in the Southern District of Illinois to conspiring with her husband, Joseph "Joey" Diekemper, to conceal assets in their bankruptcy case. Twenty-two other felony counts will be dismissed as part of plea bargain. The couple was indicted in June on numerous bankruptcy felony counts inlcuding concealing [...]
Does a false declaration made knowingly and fraudulenly in a bankruptcy case need to be "material" to constitute a bankruptcy crime? The statute prohibiting such statements (18 U.S.C. 152(3)) does not expressly say so but for years courts have held or assumed that a false statement in a bankruptcy case must relate [...]
Now that debtors must produce copies of their tax returns in bankruptcy cases as part of the bankruptcy laws' already numerous disclosure requirements it was only a matter of time before we began to see some criminal cases built on debtors' making or using false writings (or documents containing false statements) within an [...]
Updating a case we reported on earlier (here) Moty Rosenkrantz a/k/a Michael Rosenkrantz, the owner of B&W Motor Cars, pled guilty to structuring banking transactions to avoid reporting requirements and making a false oath in a bankruptcy case. The defendant admitted in his guilty plea that in July 2003 [...]
According to this news report, a Saratoga Springs lawyer whose firm helped its clients Ronald and Esther Persaud file bankruptcy petitions has been granted testimonial immunity as a government witness in the criminal trial of the Persauds on charges including wire fraud, conspiracy and bankruptcy fraud. John M. Hogan, Jr., who requested [...]
We have a (belated) update regarding Illinois attorney Gary Peel who was convicted on bankruptcy bribery, obstruction of justice and child pornography charges in a case whose background is discussed here and here.
Since we last reported, Judge Stiehl denied Peel's motion for a new trial and sentenced him to [...]
Following a two year federal investigation, Don W. Reinhard, a former Tallahasee investment advisor, has been charged in a 23 count indictment in the Northern District of Florida with numerous federal charges, including making false delcarations in his bankruptcy case, fraudulently concealing or transferring assets, making false statements by submitting false income [...]
Earlier this week in this post, we reported on Brenda Hartman' s loss of her Oregon state insurance producer's license as a collateral conseqence of her conviction for committing bankruptcy fraud. Today, we again are reporting on collateral consequences - only this time there was no bankruptcy criminal conviction [...]
Antony Dehaney of Lauderhill and Coral Springs, Florida pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, one count of mail fraud and a single count of making a false declaration in a bankruptcy case in what is described as a $10 million mortgage fraud scheme.
According to [...]
The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services has revoked the state insurance producer license of a woman who pleaded guilty to committing bankruptcy fraud.
Brenda G. Hartman was convicted in the District of Oregon of violating 18 U.S.C. section 157 by among other things fruaudulently failing to disclose in her [...]
Conspiracy, financial elder abuse, grand theft, unauthorized practice of law, false advertising and misleading advertising as a paralegal are among a variety of state criminal charges brought against a Colorado paralegal for allegedly providing illegal bankruptcy petition preparer services in California.
According to Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, an investigation began [...]
A federal jury in the Eastern District of Tennessee has indicted Louis Rivas on multiple charges of mail fraud, money laundering and fraudulent transfers in contemplation of bankruptcy relating to the collapse of Rivas' alleged foreign currency exchange firm - and its investment endeavor, The Forex Project - which the indictment (available here) alleges [...]
Arjinderpal "AJ" Sekhorn, a doctor, and his wife Daljit - a dentist - were indicted earlier this month in the Eastern District of California each on multiple bankruptcy criminal charges arising from an alleged scheme to transfer more than a million dollars in assets to avoid paying creditors.
According to news reports [...]
In April of this year, the Department of Justice, Executive Office for United States Trustees released its public report of information concerning the results of debtor audits. The report, entitled, Debtor Audits by the United States Trustee Program Fiscal Year 2007, is available here.
While the report does not identify the number [...]
Did you know that the United States Trustee Program initiated an independent study on the nature and prevalence of fraud, abuse and error in the bankruptcy system? The final report, by the RAND Corp. entitled, Identifying Fraud, Abuse, and Error in Personal Bankruptcy Filings (authored by Noreen Clancy and Stephen [...]
Stevan Charles Pedroarena a/k/a Esteban Carlos Pedroarena Toomey was convicted in the Southern District of California following his guilty plea (available here) to a two-count superceding indictment charging him with making a false declaration in a bankruptcy case (18 U.S.C. 152(3)) and tax evasion. The bankruptcy fraud charges stem from Pedroarena's failure to report [...]
Thomas Kerry, 55 of Louisiana was sentenced in the Eastern District of Louisiana to 3 months of incarceration in a half-way house, 3 months of home confinement and a $3,000 fine following his guilty plea to charges that he concealed approximately $50,000 in money market and cash accounts by failing to disclose the [...]
According to this article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the conduct of a last minute bidder who appeared at the bankruptcy auction of Fort Lauderdale's New River Marina, has been referred to the U.S. Trustee's Office in Miami for criminal investigation. The day after the auction, which ended without a [...]
The U.S. House Judiciary Committee has formed a task force to investigate allegations of bankruptcy fraud and perjury against U.S. District Judge Thomas Porteous. According to The Times-Picayune (here), the move is the first congressional action on the subject since the Judicial Conference of the United States recommended in [...]
Many readers have written to ask when we would be returning to regular blogging. We at the Bankruptcy Fraud Resource Center are pleased to announce a new season of bankruptcy fraud news, commentary, updates and analysis and a return to regular "daily" blogging for all of your bankruptcy fraud information. As [...]
According to this report in The Bay City Times, U.S. District Judge Thomas L. Ludington has granted Patrick B. Kalahar's motion for judgment of acquittal following Kalahar's conviction in the Eastern District of Michigan on multiple charges of bankruptcy fraud. Kalahar was charged by superceding indictment (available here) [...]
A limited number of discounted promotional copies of the new bankruptcy fraud treatise, Bankruptcy Crimes Law & Procedure are now available to readers of this blog at 35% off the regular retail price of $289.00. The promotional copies are available at $187.85 for a very limited time. The Table [...]
Two of the most valuable sources of information in the investigation of a debtor's alleged bankruptcy fraud are the debtor's bankruptcy attorney and drafts of the debtor's schedules (including the completed intake questionnaire). With limited exceptions, a debtor's bankruptcy counsel may properly be interviewed by investigating authorities, and both he [...]
One of the most common misconceptions concerning bankruptcy fraud is that a amending a petition or schedule to supply missing (or to correct inaccurate) information in an original filing protects the debtor from a bankruptcy fraud charge. In the classic context, suppose a debtor omits an asset from the schedules. [...]
One of the perils of bankruptcy work, particularly in representing debtors, is the risk that a client accused (or convicted) of bankruptcy fraud will claim "my lawyer told me to do it." Of course, the allegation is nearly never true, and is no defense besides. But the allegation once made [...]
Barbara Jean Pearson has pleaded guilty in the District of Maine to the sole count of a criminal information charging her with converting federal funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and to count 6 of an indictment (available here) [...]
Updating yesterday's post concerning the case of Illinois attorney Gary Peel, his motion for a new trial is available here.
In the most relevant aspect of the motion, Peel argues that the district court's exclusion of certain evidence pertaining to his ex-wife prevented him from presenting a complete defense. [...]
Convicted attorney Gary Peel has filed a motion for a new trial of charges for which he was convicted on March 23, including bankruptcy bribery, obstruction of justice and possession of child pornography, according to this excellent article in The Madison Record. I will post the motion and discuss [...]
Andrew Andros pleaded guilty this week to a single count indictment in the Western District of Pennsylvania charging him with concealing financial accounts with Ameritrade, Spectra Fund and e-Trade during his 1999 bankruptcy case. The indictment is available here. Andros' plea agreement (available here) with the government contemplates [...]
Gary Peel, whose well publicized conviction for bankruptcy bribery, obstruction of justice and possessing child pornography has been reported in numerous columns on this blog, was finally detained pending his June 25 sentencing date. As reported here, Judge Stihel originally ordered Peel detained pending sentencing but stayed the order [...]
The Justice Department has produced a tidy little report entitled "Operation Truth or Consequences: Case Summaries by State and Judicial District," which I believe I made available some time ago. The report contains a summary of the charges brought against each of the individuals indicted (or otherwise formally charged) in [...]
James LoCastro has pleaded guilty to a 2 count criminal information (available here) charging him with failing to file a tax return and concealing gambling income during his 1999 chapter 13 bankruptcy case in the Northern District of New York. According to the plea agreement in the case ([...]
