Embezzlment

SACRAMENTO AND WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Kinde Durkee, once a go-to campaign treasurer for Democrats in California, pleaded guilty Friday to five counts of mail fraud after an FBI investigation found she stole more than $7 million in political funds from at least 50 clients, including U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. U.S. Atty. Benjamin B. Wagner said the theft appears to be the largest embezzlement scheme ever by a campaign treasurer. He estimated that Durkee may have pilfered as much as $10 million in the last 11 years, using the funds for such routine expenses as meeting her business payroll and buying Baskin-Robbins ice cream.

The Lynwood Unified School District's former chief business officer was charged Thursday with embezzling more than $700,000 in public funds and filing false tax returns. William Douglas Agopian, 60, of Santa Ana allegedly used the money from a district bank account to pay for tickets to professional baseball games, gas and his personal taxes over a four-year period, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. "The allegations do involve a significant violation of public trust involving funds that are intended for the students of the Lynwood Unified School District," said prosecutor Dana Aratani.

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Four current and former Irwindale officials will go to trial this spring on embezzlement charges laid out in a grand jury indictment. The charges stem from a series of trips city officials made to New York between 2001 and 2005, allegedly to get a higher bond rating. During the trips, prosecutors said officials improperly used city money to treat themselves to baseball games and Broadway shows that had nothing to do with city business. Prosecutors said that not only did the officials spend city money on inappropriate things but also "double dipped" by getting meals paid for by bond consultants while collecting a per diem from the city.

Los Angeles County prosecutors said Thursday they would not pursue misdemeanor charges against campaign treasurer Kinde Durkee for allegedly claiming to be an accountant when she did not have a license. Durkee already has been charged in federal court with mail fraud in connection with the alleged embezzlement of a client's money, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office noted in a statement. "In light of the significant prison time she faces in that case, misdemeanor charges are not warranted as the … violations are not likely to result in additional punishment or time in prison," the statement said.

The head of the state's ethics agency Friday proposed new measures to prevent fraud in the handling of political funds in response to a federal investigation of Kinde Durkee, who is suspected of embezzling from campaign accounts she controlled. In addition, Fair Political Practices Commission Chairwoman Ann Ravel said politicians affected by the investigation would receive some leeway in meeting financial reporting requirements. Attorneys for politicians told Ravel at a hearing near the Capitol on Friday that financial records needed to make those reports have been withheld by banks, and they expressed concern that other needed documents possessed by Durkee have been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury.

A former employee of the Screen Actors Guild pension and health plans has filed a complaint alleging that he was fired for attempting to uncover an embezzlement scheme involving a previous executive of the funds. Craig E. Simmons, a former human resources executive with the SAG plans, alleges in a complaint filed this week with the Labor Department that he attempted to blow the whistle on a $5-million to $10-million embezzlement scheme by the funds' former chief information officer, Nader Karimi.

Former Major League Baseball star and self-styled financial guru Lenny Dykstra has been charged with selling pieces of his former life as he struggled to battle numerous creditors in Bankruptcy Court. Dykstra helped the New York Mets win the 1986 World Series and later became a celebrity stock picker and entrepreneur before his finances dissolved in the summer of 2009. Dykstra was charged with one count of embezzling from a bankruptcy estate, the Justice Department said Friday. The former Mets and Phillies outfielder had been arrested on separate charges Thursday by the Los Angeles Police Department's commercial crimes division.

A former tycoon who challenged the rule of Russian leader Vladimir Putin was sentenced to remain in prison until at least 2017 after his conviction this week on embezzlement and money-laundering charges in a politically charged case widely condemned in the West. Judge Viktor Danilkin sentenced Mikhail Khodorkovsky to 14 years in prison to be served concurrently with a previous eight-year term that he was soon to complete. It was not immediately clear when Khodorkovsky would gain his freedom: The judge implied that the new term would keep him behind bars until 2020, but his defense team said the term would be calculated to start with his arrest in 2003.

Russian prosecutors said Friday they would seek a 14-year prison sentence for onetime oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is on trial for embezzlement and money laundering while already in his seventh year of incarceration on a tax evasion conviction, all charges he has vehemently denied. Khodorkovsky, once the head of Yukos Oil and the richest man in Russia, is widely seen as the nation's leading political prisoner and a personal foe of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The current trial is seen by some observers as a referendum on whether Russia has changed since Putin was succeeded as president by Dmitry Medvedev, a lawyer who has complained about judicial corruption and manipulation, which he described as "legal nihilism.