Cormac Carney

Safieh Fard, Mortgage Scammer, Gets 5 Years After Guilty Plea, Withdrawal and Conviction

A Newport Beach jewelry store owner, who withdrew her guilty plea in a family mortgage scam case just before sentencing only to be found guilty in Santa Ana federal court anyway, has learned her fate. U.S. District Court Judge Cormac Carney sentenced 52-year-old Safieh Fard to 63 months in prison.

How To Steal $1 Million in California & Avoid Prison

Before he became a wildly successful Verizon franchisee in Southern California, Michael Scott Grayson was a crook.We know this fact because in 2008 the FBI arrested Grayson for his role in a 2004-2005 conspiracy that used false statements and fake documents to steal enormous amounts of money in ... More >>

Accused iPhone 5 Scammer Faces Federal Trial

Orange County's Robert Andrew Paniagua is building an accomplishment-loaded resume that is unrelated to his carpet cleaner career.In 2004, at the age of 19, Paniagua was convicted of DUI. Cops caught him driving under the influence again two years later. In 2007, he was convicted of lying to a cop. ... More >>

Swindler Sold Chinese Counterfeit Cisco Products But Escapes Serious Punishment

In Dec. 2008, a federal grand jury in Southern California indicted Eric Letvin for a engaging in a criminal conspiracy involving the selling of counterfeit Cisco Systems, Inc. hardware in league with an Orange County business and a Chinese manufacturer.Three years later, Letvin--the owner of Prima C ... More >>

Andrew Stolper, Shamed Ex-Federal Prosecutor in Santa Ana, Launches Litigation Finance Firm in Irvine with Convicted Former FBI Agent

Has this ever happened to you? Someone tells you about a person you have never heard of before, then a couple days later the same name pops up from a completely different source.That happened to yours truly when it came to Santa Ana-based federal prosecutor Andrew Stolper.Make that former prosecutor ... More >>

Southern California Swindler, An Ex-South African Special Forces Soldier, Gets Prison

A federal judge in Orange County has punished an ex-South African special-forces soldier for possessing an illegal cache of firearms and operating a $2.6 fraud scheme involving an ice-making business in Riverside. U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney sentenced South African Johannes Verma ... More >>

Should An Orange County Drug Dealer Get Punishment Break Because of Lousy Childhood?

In May 2011, La Habra police officers attempted to stop a Brea man driving a Toyota Solaro, but the suspect led cops on a wild chase, running lights and speeding while dumping the white, powdery contents of two bags. Officers eventually managed to detain Joseph Matthew Dattilio and, despite him ... More >>

Newport Coast Chinese Furniture Importer Gets Prison For Bilking Banks

A Newport Coast importer of Chinese furniture for stores like Home Depot, Lowe's, Costco and TJMaxx has been punished by a federal judge for cheating in a scheme to defraud banks involving a $130 million loan deal.This week inside Orange County's Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse, U.S. District Court ... More >>

This Week, Mexican Human Smuggler Gets Nine Months More In Prison Than Caucasian Guilty of Same Crime

While on routine patrol just after 4 a.m. on Oct. 19, 2011, the crew of the United States Coast Guard Cutter Petrel spotted an open-bow, panga boat operating without lights in rough waters near San Diego.The boat weaved through commercial freightliners in an attempt to avoid detection, but the Coast ... More >>

William Ruehle, Ex-Broadcom CFO, Shares His Amazing Government Persecution Story at UCI

"Something happened," William J. Ruehle matter-of-factly tells UC Irvine law students, who spent Wednesday's lunch hour being mesmerized by the former Broadcom chief financial officer's dissection of his virtual lynching by overzealous federal prosecutors. That something was a 2006 report by a Unive ... More >>

Orange County Man, Who Suffered Brutal Chinese Prison, Can't Stay Out of Trouble

Last year, U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney handed Chrisstian Pax Joseph Manshack a punishment lighter than that requested by federal prosecutors: eight months in prison plus three years of supervised probation. But Manshack, who has enjoyed a wild criminal career involving internatio ... More >>

Disneyland Sex Slave Pimp: I'm A Pimp For Life!

If you want to know what William Earl Flavors thinks of himself, just consider the acronym he's worn on a baseball cap: PTID. PTID stands for pimp 'til I die. Nice.Normally, we might disregard cap insignia for substantive meaning, but that's not the case with Flavors. He really is a p ... More >>

10 Past and Current Orange County Pro Athletes Disgraced in 2012

The Rams are, of course, long gone and the Honda Center remains in need of an NBA team, but Orange County still has the Angels, Ducks, a whole bunch of mixed-martial arts fighters and assorted pro sports retirees who reside and/or hailed from here.Current and former pro athletes get into trouble som ... More >>

Orange County Chiropractor Gets Lengthy Prison Trip For Fraud Scheme

Christian Eunsung Chung, a chiropractor in Orange and Los Angeles counties, was the co-mastermind of a massage parlor scheme that stole more than $1.7 million from the U.S. Treasury through false Medicare claims and today he can give back rubs for free to his cellmate.Federal prosecutors inside the ... More >>

Lorenzo Oliver, Who Sued Anaheim Over Opossum Killing Arrest, Settles for $400k

The City of Anaheim can pretend all it wants that it is dead, but that will not disappear a $400,000 settlement with a father and son city cops arrested and detained respectively for the shovel killing of an opossum. Lorenzo Oliver's subsequent wrongful arrest lawsuit was rejected in federal court i ... More >>

Federal Judge Punishes Orange County Mail Thief

With an accomplice in January, Henry Gerhard Amudson stole more than 40 pieces of mail in cities like Mission Viejo and Lake Forest and doctored checks to steal money before police stopped them in Costa Mesa.Amudson faced a maximum prison term of five years and a $250,000 fine.But this month, U.S. D ... More >>

Safieh Fard, Who Copped to Family Mortgage Scam Then Withdrew Plea, is Found Guilty

A year ago, jewelry store owner Safieh Fard did something her sister and two of her sons did the year before: plead guilty in Santa Ana federal court to charges related to mortgage scams the family pulled with Newport Beach oceanfront properties for years. But heading into sentencing, the then-50-ye ... More >>

Anaheim Mail Thief Gets Sentenced in Federal Court

To give herself unearned resources to buy a stash of methamphetamine, Anaheim's Kimberly Dawn Keister stole mail earlier this year from at least 24 residences or businesses in places like Lake Forest and Mission Viejo.In January, police stopped Keister's vehicle in Costa Mesa and found drugs as well ... More >>

Lying on a U.S. Passport Application Earns How Much Prison Time?

Orange County's Chrisstian Pax Joseph Manshack lied on his U.S. passport application so he could flee the country for Asia in the hopes of outrunning domestic violence charges.But any relief Manshack felt when he first landed in Thailand evaporated while in China.Communist agents arrested him for ov ... More >>

Igor Olenicoff, Billionaire Tax Felon, Has UBS Influence Excuse Confirmed by Whisteblower

Bradley Birkenfeld helped the wealthy dodge taxes, went to prison and is now reportedly getting $104 million from the IRS for whistleblowing on some clients. Among them: billionaire Igor Olenicoff, who lives in Laguna Beach and oversees Olen Properties real estate in Newport Beach. Interestingly, Ol ... More >>

[UPDATED, with Ruling] Lawsuit Demands FBI Expunge Secret Files on OC Muslims

See the update at the end of this post on the ruling issued in Fazaga v. FBI.ORIGINAL POST, AUG. 13, 2:55 P.M.: It's no secret that the government has used informants to spy on Muslim-American communities. Orange County Muslims know it well.You may have read about them here at the Weekly. Former-con ... More >>

Lorenzo Oliver Can Sue Anaheim Cops for False Arrest in Opossum Slaying

Anaheim Police have enough on their hands when it comes to the questionable way they protect human citizens but now the department is coming under fire for the way it protects possums.A federal appeals court ruled Lorenzo Oliver can sue Anaheim Police for false arrest because cops detained him and h ... More >>

David Andrew Lewis, Child Pornography Felon, Enjoys Secrecy Granted By Federal Judge Cormac J. Carney

Orange County's David Andrew Lewis enjoys a bizarre, special privilege few child pornography offenders ever get: the right to near absolute secrecy from public knowledge about his crimes.Mass murders, rapists, burglars, organized crime bosses, arsonists, vandals, thieves, polluters, kidnappers, drug ... More >>

Disneyland Slammed By Federal Judges For Dissing Disabled Visitor

Anaheim, oh dear, Anaheim. You've had to endure the insufferable Curt Pringle, Harry Sidhu and the Rams. Lately you've watched your city literally on fire as cops clash with outraged residents alarmed over continual evidence of police brutality and hoodlum antics. How bad are things now in Anah ... More >>

Alien Smuggling Dana Point Harbor Boat Captain Gets Federal Prison Term

A 36-year-old Orange County boat captain who smuggled six illegal immigrants to Dana Point Harbor from Mexico in February got sentenced to prison this week.U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney sentence Brian Bokkes to six months in federal prison plus a second six months in a federal halfway h ... More >>

Ex-NFL & USC Star Johnnie Morton Jr. Sentenced For Federal Grand Jury Lies in Orange County

Former University of Southern California and Detroit Lions football star Johnnie Morton, Jr. faced up to five years in prison for repeatedly lying to a federal grand jury in 2009, but caught a break this morning in Santa Ana.U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney, a onetime football star himself ... More >>

How Long Could a Child Molester Dupe U.S. Immigration Officials?

In theory, U.S. immigration officials only allow foreigners with good morals to become citizens, but in 1989 Mexican Bernard Gari beat the system. In the months leading up to his citizenship, Gari sexually molested two Orange County kids under the age of 14 and kept that ugly fact a secret from ... More >>

Disneyland Area Pimp For 14 & 17 Year Old Girls Seeks Reduced Federal Prison Sentence

The pimp who sold two minor girls, ages 14 and 17, for sex to adult men in multiple cities, including Anaheim near Disneyland in April, has changed his mind, admitted to his sex crimes and signed a guilty plea.Facing a potential life in prison sentence, Eric Lamar Wells' quick, pre-trial admission w ... More >>

FBI Busted SoCal Cocaine Dealer Gets A Huge Break

Because Miguel Angel Dominguez didn't use violence and quickly admitted his role in a Mexico-California-Washington cocaine distribution network cracked by FBI surveillance teams monitoring cells phones, federal prosecutors were willing to chop five months off a proposed 46-month prison sentence. ... More >>

SoCal Real Estate Agent Swindler: I'm Too Young Looking For Prison!

Saying he's repentant for filing false mortgage documents resulting in the loss of more than $763,000 in 2005 and 2006, Southern California real estate agent Mario Alberto Mariscal hopes that U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney goes easy on him today at a sentencing hearing in Santa Ana.In a ... More >>

Accused Disneyland Pimp of Underaged Girls Pleads Not Guilty and Demands Bail

The mother and father accused of pimping two underage girls, 14 and 17 years old, near Disneyland in April have pleaded not guilty and, over opposition from the Department of Justice, demanded release from federal custody on bail.But U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney declined to reconsider ... More >>

Richard H. Nickles Gets 12 Years in Federal Pokey for Brazen Ponzi Scam That Took Seniors

The owner and operator of a Santa Ana investment firm that advertised safe investments in the pages of the Orange County Register and Los Angeles Times has been sentenced to 144 months in federal prison for operating a Ponzi scheme that collected more than $10 million from more than 35 victims, man ... More >>

OC Real Estate Swindler Who Stole $1 Million Learns His Punishment

In the 1993 film Falling Down, Michael Douglas plays a character who snaps while sitting in a Los Angeles traffic jam and goes on a wild crime spree.Orange County's David Richard Sparks can probably sympathize with Douglas' role.About three years ago, Sparks--once a successful businessman, husband o ... More >>

David Richard Sparks, GOP "Christian Family Man," Gets 6.5 Years for $4.3 Million Scam

Orange County Republican insider, former Irvine planning commissioner and "Christian family man" David Richard Sparks will pray in a federal prison cell for the next 6 1/2 years. Over the recommendation of federal prosecutors, who sought 15 months less prison time for Sparks, a U.S. District Court ... More >>

Dana Point Harbor Boat Captain Admits to Smuggling Aliens From Mexico

​A 28-year-old Orange County citizen has pleaded guilty for attempting to smuggle six foreign nationals into the U.S. on a boat to Dana Point earlier this year.Brian Bokkes admits that he was the "captain" of a 1987 Four Winns Pleasure Craft boat that brought the fee-paying, undocumented aliens fr ... More >>

Gerald M. Shaw, Fraudster Who Stung Investors for $4.3 Million, Gets 70 Months in Club Fed

​Not to get all Andy Rooney on you, but have you ever noticed that convicted fraudsters often fall "ill" just prior to sentencing, as if the federal court is going to take mercy on the sacks of lying shit and just let them skate?Gerald M. Shaw's lawyer informed U.S. District Court Judge Cormac Ca ... More >>

[UPDATED with Judge's Ruling:] Justice Dept. Must Pay for Lying in Suit Against FBI by OC Muslims

​UPDATE, NOV. 18, 10:57 A.M.: "The Court must impose monetary sanctions to deter the Government from deceiving the Court again," Judge Cormac Carney of the U.S. District Court in Santa Ana writes in his Islamic Shura Council v. FBI ruling. He gave the council 14 days to come up with ... More >>

Glen Justice, Local Oncologist, Sentenced to 18 Months For Health Care Fraud

​An Orange County oncologist, whose fraudulent health care schemes caused losses of up to $1 million, was sentenced to a year-and-a-half in federal prison yesterday.In a precious paradigm of irony, the 66-year-old doctor who pleaded guilty to five counts of health care fraud is named Glen Justice. ... More >>

[UPDATED: Feds' Records Stay Secret, Judge Rules] More Mosque Mole Fallout: ACLU and CAIR Sue FBI

Craig Monteilh​[UPDATED April 28, 12:12 pm] The Associated Press is reporting today that Judge Cormac Carney has ruled that CAIR and the ACLU may not obtain FBI records pertaining to surveillance of Muslims in Southern California because of unspecified U.S. National Security concerns. Carney made ... More >>

Mixed Jury Results in Dana Point Deputy Force Case

Exercise?​A federal jury this afternoon issued mixed results for a group of South County residents--including a male supermodel and world champion athlete--who sued Orange County Sheriff's Department deputies in Dana Point for false arrest and excessive force during a 2007 incident.The panel rejec ... More >>

Jury Deliberates Dana Point Deputy Excessive Force Case

Prietto: Does this guy look like a troublemaker?​The lawyer for a group of South Orange County residents--including a famous athlete and a successful Laguna Beach actor/model--told a federal jury today that sheriff's deputies lied on the witness stand to cover up excessive force used during an ear ... More >>

The Incredible Reappearing Videotape

An excessive-force lawsuit against OC sheriff's deputies reveals video evidence the cops once claimed didn't exist

Sheriff's Deputies Wreck Another Case

[Moxley Confidential] OCSD's omission of key facts about a stalled car crashes a burglary prosecution

How to Beat a Whore-Coke-Meth-Painkiller-Ecstasy-Drug Lair Rap: Become a Multi-Billionaire

Our bunk mate​The very super-rich aren't like you or me. Imagine if the feds built a case against you, complete with several witnesses who worked for you, that alleged you had:* hired prostitutes for yourself and your customers;* used cocaine, methamphetamines, Ecstasy, prescription painkillers, a ... More >>

The Other Really Expensive Loafer Drops: Charges Against Henry T. Nicholas Dismissed

Henry T. Nicholas​It was one of the most unusual dismissal of charges ever witnessed: Broadcom co-founder and Anaheim Ducks owner Henry T. Samueli was testifying in another executive's case in Santa Ana last week when U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney leaned over and said he was tossing out Sam ... More >>

Criminal Charges Against Ducks Owner Henry Samueli Dropped

Then can we seek criminal charges against the other guy?​Henry Samueli is on a roll.Last month, the National Hockey League reinstated him as the owner of the Anaheim Ducks, as Clockwork informed you.This afternoon, a federal judge set aside the Broadcom Corp. co-founder's guilty pleas and dismisse ... More >>

Anaheim Ducks Owner, Broadcom Co-founder Samueli May Be Prison Bound

Wikipedia.org Henry Samueli's next uniform may be an orange jumpsuit.The Anaheim Ducks owner, Irvine's Broadcom Corp. co-founder and UC Irvine Henry Samueli School of Engineering namesake may be prison bound. Orange County Register reports a federal court today dismissed an appeal ... More >>

Ex-Coto de Caza Fraudster Gets 27 Years in Federal Pokey

​Former Coto de Caza resident golf equipment company CEO Colin Nathanson was sentenced today to 27 years in federal prison for his admitted masterminding of a multifaceted fraud scheme that bilked hundreds of victims out of approximately $55 million. ... More >>

It's a Quick Read 37

Orange County Register: County officials have agreed to pay more than $4 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Fernando Ramirez, 24, an undocumented immigrant who was beaten by Orange County jail inmates in 2006. . . . A woman jumped to her death from the Children's Hospital of Orange County p ... More >>

Delinquent Mike