Bank Fraud

A Beverly Hills real estate agent to the stars and an appraiser were convicted Monday on federal charges of conspiracy and bank fraud for their roles in a multimillion-dollar Westside real estate fraud ring, but jurors couldn't reach a verdict on another prominent agent accused of being part of the scheme. Real estate agent Kyle Grasso, 38, and licensed appraiser Lila Rizk, 42, were found guilty of multiple counts of conspiracy, bank fraud and loan fraud for their participation in a scheme in which banks lost more than $40 million on loans totaling $142 million.

A Boston bank cheated California's two largest employee pension funds of nearly $57 million by inflating fees it charged for foreign currency trades, according to a suit filed Tuesday by the state attorney general's office. The pension funds, including the giant California Public Employees' Retirement System, didn't even know they were being fleeced by State Street Corp., the state's lawyers said. The scheme was uncovered by whistle-blowers with firsthand knowledge of how State Street operated, they said.

Prosecutors charged a fundraiser for Hillary Rodham Clinton and other top Democrats in an alleged $292-million Ponzi scheme that spanned more than a decade, saying he gave some of the money to election campaigns. In an indictment returned in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Hassan Nemazee is charged with bank fraud and aggravated identity theft. He was arrested in August on charges that he used forged documents to obtain a $74-million loan. Prosecutors allege that he fraudulently obtained loans worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

A La Canada man pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to five felony counts of bank fraud arising from a $9-million Small Business Administration loan brokerage scam. Kenneth Seychong Park, 49, will be sentenced Nov. 18 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, where he faces three to six years in prison and $5 million in fines. Six SBA loan borrowers who participated in the scam pleaded guilty earlier this year and will be sentenced in October and November.

In an agreement requiring him to cooperate with prosecutors, Joseph Waldholtz, the ex-husband of Rep. Enid Greene (R-Utah), pleaded guilty Wednesday to providing his ex-wife with false information for her taxes and to falsifying spending reports from her congressional campaign. Also on Wednesday, the couple was granted a divorce by a Salt Lake City judge.

A federal indictment unsealed this week accuses a Fillmore man of defrauding a local bank of $209,000 six years ago and then blowing most of it in Las Vegas, officials said Wednesday. Vernon Marquez, 52, was charged Tuesday with 12 counts of bank fraud, Assistant U. S. Atty. General Peter S. Spivack said.

Former Anaheim banker Gerald J. Garner, who battled with regulators through the nine years that his American Commerce National Bank existed, has agreed to a lifetime industry ban and a $167,000 fine to settle accusations that he lied about his bank's condition and misappropriated funds.

Two members of the anti-government "freemen" group were arraigned Friday as efforts continued to resolve peacefully the 19-day-old standoff at a Montana ranch. Security was tight as a mother and son who had surrendered to FBI agents Thursday appeared in U.S. District Court and pleaded not guilty to indictments on 51 counts, including mail fraud, armed robbery, manufacturing bogus checks and money orders and obtaining property and money through false statements.

In the wake of a federal investigation and judge's warning that her activities may constitute bank and mail fraud, M. Elizabeth Broderick was a no-show at her own seminar Sunday, which drew nearly 500 people from across the nation hoping to hear her methods for paying off debts for free. At her popular seminars, held once every two weeks, Broderick takes orders for checks bearing the words "Payable at Office of Postmaster," which she says can be used to pay bills.