Embezzlment

Bell Gardens City Councilman Mario Beltran pleaded not guilty Friday to charges that he embezzled more than $11,000 from his campaign funds to pay a defense attorney and expert witness in an unrelated criminal case. The charges, stemming from a grand jury indictment unsealed Friday, are the latest in a series of encounters with the district attorney's office for the 31-year-old official. Last year, Beltran was convicted of filing a false police report claiming he had been robbed.

The bad news arrived in November, when workers at Casa Youth Shelter were told a fellow employee had allegedly embezzled more than $200,000 from the Los Alamitos nonprofit. The toll, however, may be much higher than they thought.

A man suspected in the disappearance and death of his ex-wife will stand trial on charges of embezzlement, tax evasion and perjury. Dave Hawk of Lemoore was arrested in June on suspicion of stealing more than $300,000 from his children's trust fund accounts and lying about his income during child custody, visitation and support proceedings. Hawk waived his right to a preliminary hearing Friday. His attorney said he will plead not guilty next month to 10 felony charges. Hawk has been named the prime suspect in the death of Debbie Hawk, who was reported missing from her home in June 2006.

A former supervisor at a Mercedes-Benz dealership who pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $1 million from the company was sentenced Monday to 18 months in federal prison, authorities said. David Delgado, 37, was also ordered to pay the money back to Mercedes-Benz of Laguna Niguel, where he worked for more than seven years.

Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak is suspected of attempting to embezzle more than $43 million in state funds, prosecutors said. Police detained Storchak on Thursday along with Viktor Za- kharov, head of the firm Sodexim, and the chairman of Moscow's Interregional Investment Bank, Vadim Volkov. They have not been formally charged.

When the executive who was asked to head one of the largest and costliest public works projects in the nation abruptly departed earlier this year, Irvine city officials cited health reasons. What they did not say was that Marty Bryant -- a longtime city employee appointed this year to shepherd the billion-dollar Great Park -- had a troubled past: He pleaded guilty in 1989 to embezzling public funds in San Juan Capistrano to feed a cocaine habit.

A former American Red Cross employee who managed finances at the Orange County chapter has been sentenced to six months in jail and six months of house arrest for embezzling $110,000 from the agency, authorities said Monday. Karen Shuerger, 59, formerly of Santa Ana and now living in Henderson, Nev., pleaded guilty in May to three counts of wire fraud and one of mail fraud in connection with the case.

A former employee has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $1 million from a Mercedes-Benz dealership. Under a plea agreement, David Delgado, 36, could face up to three years in federal prison when he appears for sentencing Sept. 7 and must repay the $1,053, 970 he embezzled, the FBI reported. Delgado supervised temporary employees at Mercedes-Benz of Laguna Niguel.

It has been a good long while, that is to say most likely forever, since the Uruguay pressing of Elvis Presley's "Loco por las Muchachas" went on sale in the British Midlands. Not to mention the official press packet from the opening of Graceland, the sheet music to "Old Shep" and enough Elvis mouse pads to click the King back from the grave.

Janett Humphries, former president of the union representing Los Angeles school workers, was sentenced Monday to five years' probation for embezzling funds to pay for her own travel and for campaign workers for the City Council campaign of Martin Ludlow in 2003. In handing down the sentence, U.S. District Judge Manuel Real rejected a request by prosecutors that Humphries get jail time.