Ben Chapman

This morning, federal and local law enforcement arrested 10 defendants—eight in Los Angeles County and two foreign nationals—charged in a 15-count indictment with stealing the identities of elderly victims, using that information to obtain title reports for residential properties, then soliciting millions of dollars in hard-money loans from private lenders by falsely representing the loans as secured by the victims’ properties. These arrests are the tip of the iceberg in terms of the fraud permeating California. Under the leadership of @AGPamBondi, we will target rampant fraud committed against the government and private citizens alike. The defendants arrested in L.A. County are scheduled to make their initial appearance and be arraigned this afternoon in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles. Those arrested in Sacramento and Florida will make their initial appearances in federal court there. The wire fraud and money laundering counts each carry a 20-year statutory maximum federal prison sentence, and the aggravated identity theft charge carries a mandatory consecutive two-year prison sentence. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.