Tag: California
Meth Lab Bust
⏱ 2 min read A clandestine methamphetamine lab was busted in Calaveras County, California, where five Mexican nationals were allegedly producing thousands of pounds of meth to distribute in the US. The lab was operated by Luis Reyna Carrillo, 33, his wife Mariana Vanessa Mendoza Camacho, 33, Juan Jesus Manriquez Diaz, 31, Alvaro Rosales, 44,…
Meth Kingpin Busted
⏱ 2 min read Fabian Gomez, a 37-year-old South Lake Tahoe resident, was part of a large-scale methamphetamine distribution operation that spanned two years, from August 2020 to May 2022. Along with other co-conspirators, Gomez peddled methamphetamine in and around South Lake Tahoe, with some of the supply coming from Sacramento. During this time, he…
PPP Loan Scam
⏱ 2 min read Gurjeet Bath, a 37-year-old Fresno man, has been sentenced to 14 months in prison for his role in a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan scam. Bath, who operated two trucking businesses in Fresno County, applied for and received three PPP loans totaling over $1 million in 2020 and 2021. However, he…
Medicare Scam
⏱ 2 min read Sophia Shaklian, a 38-year-old woman from the Larchmont area of Los Angeles, has been sentenced to 35 months in federal prison for her role in a massive Medicare scam. From March 2019 to August 2024, Shaklian and her co-schemers used multiple bogus hospice and diagnostic testing providers enrolled with Medicare to…
Army Employee Jailed
⏱ 2 min read Thelmo Meneses Santos, Jr., a 60-year-old former Army civilian employee from Merced, California, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexually abusing two minors between 2015 and 2023. The abuse occurred while Santos was employed by the US Army in Japan, where he began targeting the victims when they were…
Sutter Facilities Pay $3.2M
⏱ 2 min read Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento, and Sutter Fairfield Surgery Center have been caught in a shocking case of negligence, failing to effectively guard against theft and diversion of controlled substances, leading to at least 628 violations of recordkeeping and security requirements under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). The investigation was initiated following…
Medicare Scam
⏱ 2 min read Jahangeer Ali, a 34-year-old Pakistani national, has been charged with healthcare fraud for his role in a scheme to bill Medicare Advantage plans for laboratory testing services that were never performed. The alleged scam took place at Oregon Clinical Laboratory in Klamath Falls, Oregon, between June 2025 and January 2026. Ali,…
ATM Jackpotting
⏱ 2 min read Carlos Luis Vera La Cruz, a 45-year-old Miami man, pleaded guilty on March 20, 2026, to conspiracy, bank larceny, and accessing a protected computer in furtherance of fraud. Vera La Cruz and his co-conspirators engaged in an ATM ‘jackpotting’ scheme, where they stole money from ATMs at targeted banks and credit…
Tax Prep Scam
⏱ 2 min read Amy Evangelista, a 60-year-old tax preparer from Lathrop, California, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for defrauding the IRS of over $1.2 million. From 2017 to 2020, Evangelista falsified over 1,000 tax returns, creating phantom companies and fake business expenses to increase refund amounts without her clients’ knowledge or consent.…
Identity Thief Raked in $114K Using Dead Man’s Social Security
⏱ 2 min read A notorious identity thief swiped more than $114,000 in Social Security benefits using a dead man’s identity, authorities say. Richard Warren Ralston, 69, of Mesa, Arizona, applied for retirement benefits in Auburn, California, using the identity of a man who died in 1965. The brazen scheme went undetected for over a…
