California Consumer Fraud Law
<h2> <center> United States of America v. Marice L. Curry </h2> </center>
Sacramento, California criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with Aiding and Assisting in the Preparation of False Tax Returns in violation of 26 U.S.C. 7206(2). Marice Curry, 35, of Fresno, filed more than 50 fraudulent tax returned in 2023. United States Sentencing Commision: Of the 66,662 cases reported to the Commission in fiscal year 2025, 324 involved tax fraud. ... More...
$ (08-27-2026 - CA)<h2> <center> United States of America v. Esmeralda Soriano, a.k.a. “Esmeralda Aguilar” and “Esmeralda Silva”
Los Angeles, California, criminal defense lawyer represents the Defendant charged with food stamp fraud in violation of 7 U.S.C. 2024(b). Reported by <a href="https://www.morelaw.com/vendors/vendor.asp?f=Kent&l=Morlan&i=28729&z=74119&s=OK" target="_new">Kent Morlan</a> Esmeralda Soriano, 48, a.k.a. “Esmeralda Aguilar” and “Esmeralda Silva,” of Santa Ana, owned Soriano Produce is a l... More...
$ (08-08-2026 - CA)<h2> <center>United States of America v. Sangsoo Kim </h2> </center>
San Francisco, California, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with illegal reentry following removal in violation of 8 U.S.C. 1326 and false use of a passport in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1543. Digested by <a href="https://www.morelaw.com/vendors/vendor.asp?f=Kent&l=Morlan&i=28729&z=74119&s=OK" target="_new">Kent Morlan</a> Sangsoo Kim, 56, a national of South Korea, admi... More...
$ (07-31-2026 - CA)<h2> <center> United States of America v. Olof Kyros Gustafsson aka “El Silencio" </h2> </center>
Los Angeles, California, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud. Digested by <a href="https://www.morelaw.com/vendors/vendor.asp?f=Kent&l=Morlan&i=28729&z=74119&s=OK" target="_new">Kent Morlan</a> Olof Kyros Gustafsson, 32, a.k.a. “El Silencio,” was the CEO of Escobar Inc., a corporation registered in Puerto Rico that held ... More...
$ (07-31-2026 - CA)<h2> <center> United States of America v. Andrea Nicole Doherty </h2> </center>
San Diego, California, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with defrauding customers of her former Porsche restoration and resale business and pocketing more than $827,000. Digested by <a href="https://www.morelaw.com/vendors/vendor.asp?f=Kent&l=Morlan&i=28729&z=74119&s=OK" target="_new">Kent Morlan</a> Andrea Nicole Doherty, 38, admitted that she took over CPR Classic ... More...
$ (07-31-2026 - CA)<h2> <center> United States of America v. Michael Stamp and Marcus Plank </h2> </center>
San Francisco, California, criminal defense lawyers represent the Defendants charged with securities fraud. Digested by: <a href="https://www.morelaw.com/vendors/vendor.asp?f=Kent&l=Morlan&i=28729&z=74119&s=OK" target="_new">Kent Morlan</a> Michael Stamp and Marcus Plank accused of exploitation of their employer’s confidential information allowed them to make more than $300,000 in illegal ... More...
$ (07-26-2026 - CA)<h2> <center> United States of America v. Scott Allen Simpkins </h2> </center>
Los Angeles, California criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with obstructing a federal investigation. Reported by <a href="https://www.morelaw.com/vendors/vendor.asp?f=Kent&l=Morlan&i=28729&z=74119&s=OK" target="_new">Kent Morlan</a> Scott Allen Simpkins, 34, of Brea, was a deputy assigned to LASD’s Lakewood Station and worked for LASD’s Special Enforcement Bureau a... More...
$ (07-14-2026 - CA)<h2> <center> United States of America v. Gilberto Barron </h2> </center>
Fresno, California criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in violaition of 18 U.S.C. 1349, money laundering in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1956, and aggravated identity theft in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1028A. Reported by <a href="https://www.morelaw.com/vendors/vendor.asp?f=Kent&l=Morlan&i=28729&z=74119&s=OK" target="_new">Kent Morlan</a> Gil... More...
$ (06-29-2026 - CA)<h2> <center> United States of America v. Daniel Damato </h2> </center>
Oakland, California, criminal defense lawyers represented the Defendant charged with wire fraud in violaiton of 18 U.S.C. 1343. Reported by <a href="https://www.morelaw.com/vendors/vendor.asp?f=Kent&l=Morlan&i=28729&z=74119&s=OK" target="_new">Kent Morlan</a> Daniel Damato engaged in a wire fraud scheme in which he knowingly sold counterfeit sports memorabilia and attempted to obstruct the ... More...
$ (06-29-2026 - CA)<h2> <center> United States of America v. Daniel Chartraw </h2> </center>
Sacramento, California, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant accused of wire fraud. Reported by <a href="https://www.morelaw.com/vendors/vendor.asp?f=Kent&l=Morlan&i=28729&z=74119&s=OK" target="_new">Kent Morlan</a> Daniel Chartraw, 53, formerly of South Lake Tahoe and Lodi, engaged in a wide-ranging series of fraudulent schemes involving cryptocurrency companies, sham busines... More...
$ (06-20-2026 - CA)<h2> <center> United States of America v. United States and State of California ex rel. Jason Vellen v. Circle Medical Care of California, Circle Medical Technologies, Inc., Dr. Nicole Tsang, D.O, and George Favvas </h2> </center>
San Francisco, California, qui tam lawyers represented the Plaintiff on a violation of the False Claims Act. Reported by <a href="https://www.morelaw.com/vendors/vendor.asp?f=Kent&l=Morlan&i=28729&z=74119&s=OK" target="_new">Kent Morlan</a> Circle Medical Care of California operates an online telehealth platform through which it offers mental health treatment and primary care medical service... More...
$ (06-19-2026 - CA)<h2> <center> United States of America v. Victor Hugo Villalobos Almazan and Nayeli Noemi Montoya Rodriguez </h2> </center>
San Diego, California criminal defense lawyers represented the Defendants charged with bank fraud. Reported by <a href="https://www.morelaw.com/vendors/vendor.asp?f=Kent&l=Morlan&i=28729&z=74119&s=OK" target="_new">Kent Morlan</a> Victor Hugo Villalobos Almazan and his wife, Nayeli Noemi Montoya Rodriguez, Mexican nationals entered the United States on tourist visas. They posed as legitim... More...
$ (06-18-2026 - CA)<h2> <center> United States of America v. Jose Manuel Perez </h2> </center>
Los Angeles, California, pro se defendant defended himself without the help of a lawyer charged with smuggling goods into the United States. Reported by <a href="https://www.morelaw.com/vendors/vendor.asp?f=Kent&l=Morlan&i=28729&z=74119&s=OK" target="_new">Kent Morlan</a> Jose Manuel Perez, 34, of Oxnard, and other co-conspirators smuggled wildlife into the United States from Mexico and else... More...
$ (05-28-2026 - CA)<h2> <center> United States of America v. Philip Frederick Camino </h2> </center>
Santa Ana, California, criminal defense lawyers represented the Defendant charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Reported by <a href="https://www.morelaw.com/vendors/vendor.asp?f=Kent&l=Morlan&i=28729&z=74119&s=OK" target="_new"> Philip Frederick Camino, 46, of Culver City, California, submitted and caused to be submitted false and fraudulent applications to the United States Small Bu... More...
$ (05-28-2026 - CA)<h2> <center> United States of America v. Violetta Mailyan </h2> </center>
Los Angeles, California, criminal defense lawyers represented the Defendant charged with wire fraud and attempted obstruction of criminal investigation of heath care cases. Reported by Kent Morlan Glendale Doctor Violetta Mailyan, age 45, was accused of submitting more than t$45 million in bogus claims to Medicare for Botox injections that were medically unnecessary or never provide and usin... More...
$ (05-22-2026 - CA)<h2> <center> United States of America v. Hector Perez </h2> </center>
Sacramento, California criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Reported By <a href=”https://www.morelaw.com/about” target=”_new”>Kent Morlan</a> Hector Perez, age 35, of Stockton, California, and his brother Flavio Perez, 30, of Stockton, carried out a fraudulent scheme targeting invoice factoring ... More...
$ (05-20-2026 - CA)<h2> <center> United States of America v. Sydney Johnson and Brandon Marion </h2> </center>
San Diego, California, criminal defense lawyers represented the Defendants charged with illegally importing 27 protected parrots and parakeets in a modified spare tire in the trunk of a car. Reported by Kent Morlan Sydney Johnson, age 27, of Santee and Brandon Marion, age 38, of Temecula tried to sneak 11 orange-fronted parakeets (Eupsittula canicularis) and 16 white-fronted Amazon parrots ... More...
$ (05-20-2026 - CA)<h2> <center> United States of America v. Tyler Robert Buchanan </h2> </center>
Santa Ana, California, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. From September 2021 to April 2023, Tyler Robert Buchanan, 24, of Dundee, Scotland, and other individuals conspired to conduct cyber intrusions and virtual currency thefts. The victims and intended victims included interactive entertainment companie... More...
$ (04-19-2026 - CA)<h2> <center> United States of America v. Jeanett Valenzuela Ayub </h2> </center>
San Diego, California, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with conspiracy to launder millions of dollars of health care fraud proceeds. Jeanett Valenzuela Ayub, age 51, of Chula Vista,m California, and her co-conspirators billed Medicare nearly $51 million for bogus prescriptions and were paid approximately $20 million, ultimately laundering at least $14 million dollars ... More...
$ (04-19-2026 - CA)<h2> <center> United States of America v. Anar Rustamov </h2> </center>
San Francisco, California, criminal defense lawyer represents the Defendant charged with large scale fraud. Anar Rustamov, age 38, formerly of Sunnyvale, California and a national of Azerbaijan, was part of a scheme to submit thousands of fraudulent claims to Medicare Advantage Organizations (“MAOs”) on behalf of unsuspecting beneficiaries for medical equipment such as blood glucose monitor... More...
$ (03-22-2026 - CA)<h2> <center> Giuseppe Pampena, et al. v. Elon R.Musk </h2> </center>
San Francisco, California, commercial litigation lawyers represented the Plaintiffs on a class action securities fraud theory. Lead Plaintiffs Steve Garrett, Nancy Price, John Garrett, and Brian Belgrave (“Plaintiffs”) bring this securities class action against Defendant Elon Musk (“Defendant”) on behalf of all persons and entities who sold Twitter, Inc. (“Twitter”) stock from M... More...
$ (03-21-2026 - CA)United States of America v. Bryan Azevedo
Oakland, California, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and making false statements. Former San Leandro City Council Member Bryan Azevedo , 49, of San Leandro, Calif., was charged by information on Oct. 20, 2025, with one count of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and one count of making a false statement to federal... More...
$ (02-18-2026 - CA)United States of America v. Ping “Jenny” Gao
San Diego, California, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with wire fraud.... More...
$ (02-18-2026 - CA)United States of America v. Daren Li
Los Angeles, California, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with International Money Laundering. Daren Li, 42, is a fugitive after cutting off his ankle electronic monitoring device and absconding in December 2025. He was sentenced by United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner, who will determine restitution at a later date. Li pleaded guilty in November 2024 to one... More...
$ (02-17-2026 - CA)United States of America v. Bryan Azevedo
Oakland, California, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and making false statements to a government agency. Former San Leandro City Council Member Bryan Azevedo , 49, of San Leandro, Calif., was charged by information on Oct. 20, 2025, with one count of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and one count of making... More...
$ (02-14-2026 - CA)United States of America v. John Tamahere McCabe
Santa Ana, California, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with fraud. The Defendant was accused of defrauding a 79-year-old Orange County, California, victim out of nearly $2 million via false promises to broker the sale of the victim’s yacht and by taking out unauthorized loans against the victim’s Irvine condominium, which left the victim homeless. John Tamahere ... More...
$ (01-29-2026 - CA)United States of America v. Jing Guo
San Diego, California, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with participating in an international fraud and money laundering scheme. Jing Guo, age 36, of San Gabrie, California participated in an international fraud and money laundering scheme that tricked more than 40 elderly victims out of more than $1.2 million. According to charging documents, Guo and others used ... More...
$ (01-29-2026 - CA)<H2> Gildardo Lugo Cerbantes v. Equifax Information Services, LLC., et al.
Oakland, California, consumer credit lawyer represented the Plaintiff who sued on a Fair Credit Reporting Act violation. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is a U.S. federal law regulating how consumer credit information is collected, used, and shared, promoting accuracy, fairness, and privacy for consumers. It gives consumers rights to access their credit reports, dispute inaccuracies, know ... More...
$ (01-16-2026 - CA)<H2> United States of America v. Daniel James Harris
Oakland, California, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with bank fraud.... More...
$ (01-16-2026 - CA)<H2> United States of America v. Sayee Chaitanya Reddy Devagiri
San Jose, California, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.... More...
$ (01-16-2026 - CA)<H2> United States of America v. John Wesley Warr
San Ana, California, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with mail fraud.... More...
$ (01-16-2026 - CA)<H2> United States of America v. Phillp Flores
San Diego, California, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with bribery. Philip Flores, the owner, president, and chief executive of Intellipeak Solutions, Inc., a former defense contractor based out of Fredericksburg, Virginia, admitted that he participated in a bribery scheme with former Naval Information Warfare Center employee James Soriano. U.S. District Judge Todd... More...
$ (01-16-2026 - CA)<H2> Dr. James Taylor, ex rel. United States of America v. Kaiser Permanente
San Francisco, California, qui tam lawyers represented the Plaintiffs who sued the Defendant on a False Claims Act violation theory. Under the Medicare Advantage (MA) Program, also known as Medicare Part C, Medicare beneficiaries may opt out of traditional Medicare and enroll in private health plans offered by insurance companies known as Medicare Advantage Organizations, or MAOs. The Centers f... More...
$556000000 (01-15-2026 - CA)<H2> United States of America v. Israel Claustro
Santa Ana, California, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with mail fraud. Orange County Superior Court judge Israel Claustro, age 50, was charged with defrauding California’s workers’ compensation program. “Judge Claustro violated the law for his personal financial benefit,” said First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “We will not hesitate to ... More...
$ (01-07-2026 - CA)United States of America v. Ramesh "Sunnty" Balwani and Elizabeth A. Homes
San Francisco, California criminal defense lawyers represented the Defendants charge with fraud. Elizabeth Holmes’s and Ranesh “Sunny” Balwani’s defrauding investors out of $452 by lying about Theranos’s blood-testing technology. The Indictment further alleged that Holmes and Balwani devised a scheme to defraud patients through advertisements and marketing materials boasting abou... More...
$ (12-22-2025 - CA)<H2> United States of America v. Xin Mian Pan (a/k/a “Henry Pan”), Hua Liang Xie (a/k/a “Nolan Xie”), Jinhua Wang (a/k/a “Johnson Wang”), Uni-Tile & Marble, Inc., Uni-Stone & Cabinet, Inc., and Shenzhen Top & Profit International Forwarding Co. Ltd.
San Francisco, California, criminal defense lawyers represented the Defendants charged with evading more than $109 million in anti-dumping duties, countervailing duties, and other duties imposed on quartz surface products, wooden cabinets and vanities, and ceramic tiles manufactured in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and imported into the United States. Xin Mian Pan, 63, of San Francis... More...
$ (12-19-2025 - CA)United States of America v. Kirill Afanasyev
San Francisco, California, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud.<br> <br> Jose Vicente Badillo, Kirill Afanasyev, Jason Naraja, and Jaime Respicio conspired to defraud an auto insurance company by submitting a fraudulent insurance claim on a wrecked car that Afanasyev purchased in May 2019. The Indictment alleges that, when Afanasyev bought... More...
$0 (11-07-2025 - CA)<h1> United States of America v. Cody Holmes, Steven Taylor </h1></h1>
Los Angeles, California criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendants charged with Fraud in Public Homelessness Funds, seven counts of bank fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft, and one count of money laundering.<br> <br> Federal law enforcement today announced the arrest of the former chief financial officer at a downtown Los Angeles-based developer of affordable housing and crimin... More...
$0 (10-16-2025 - CA)<h1> United States of America v. Jonathan Rinderknecht, a.k.a. “Jonathan Rinder,†and “Jon Rinder,†</h1></h1>
Los Angeles, California criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with destruction of property by means of fire.<br> <br> A former Pacific Palisades resident now living in Florida has been arrested on a federal criminal complaint charging him with maliciously starting what eventually became the Palisades Fire of January 2025, one of the most destructive wildfires in Los Angeles his... More...
$0 (10-08-2025 - CA)Judah Rosenwald, et al. v. Kimberly-Clark Corporation
San Francisco, California, consumer law lawyers represented the Plaintiffs on class action theory.<br> <br> Plaintiffs allege that they purchased Kleenex Germ Removal Wet Wipes. They sued Kimberly-Clark in August<br> 2022, claiming that the wipes' labels misled them into believing that the wipes contained germicides, not just soaps, and would kill germs, not just wipe them away. The district court... More...
$0 (09-25-2025 - CA)