Free Republic

Two men suspected of withdrawing over $164,000 with fraudulently-obtained unemployment benefit debit cards were arrested this month in Thousand Oaks, officials said Monday. A resident called 911 on the afternoon of Aug. 6 when she saw two people “acting suspiciously” at a Bank of America ATM on 1440 N. Moorpark Rd., the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. Deputies responded and stopped a car just as it was leaving the area, finding two grocery bags full of cash and a large amount of Visa debit cards in different people’s names, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Investigators found...

  LOS ANGELES – A San Fernando Valley man was sentenced today to 259 months in federal prison for overseeing a long-running $3.3 million credit card, loan and real estate fraud scheme using stolen identities, primarily that of children.          Turhan Lemont Armstrong, 50, of Northridge, was sentenced by United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner, who also ordered him to pay $3,305,609 in restitution. Judge Klausner also has ordered the forfeiture of two homes – one in Northridge, the other in Perris – purchased with illicit funds obtained from the scheme.          At the conclusion of a two-week trial that...

A Las Vegas resident was sentenced to 65 months in prison today for his role in a stolen identity tax fraud, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Nicholas A. Trutanich for the District of Nevada.According to court documents and statements made in court, Josiah Ntekume engaged in a scheme to file false tax returns using stolen identities in order to obtain tax refunds. Coconspirators provided Ntekume with names, addresses, dates of birth, and social security numbers, and Ntekume used these stolen identities to establish prepaid debit card...