Dorothee Burkhart, the mother of suspected spree arsonist Harry Burkhart, is "wanted in Germany on 19 counts of fraud, most stemming from allegations that she bilked apartment renters out of security deposits," reports City News Service. more ›

Every October, Americans are urged to "think pink" and do their part for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. So how is this a bad thing? more ›

It all began with a naked couple drinking some booze while parked behind a Laguna Beach restaurant in the wee hours. While cops were having a chat with 38-year-old Diandre Lemont Lopez and 21-year-old Diana May Andara, who were parked behind the White House Restaurant at 3 a.m. on September 19, they discovered "43 fraudulent gift cards and credit cards strewn across the front seat and dashboard of the car." more ›

No report on a political figure accused of fraud is complete without a shot of the figure's lavish home (or homes) and a new car with the dealer plates still on. But that's not when MyFox reporter Gina Silva found when she tried to track down embattled campaign treasurer Kinde Durkee for a comment at her home in Bixby Knolls. more ›

Matthew Taylor of Vero Beach, Florida is now a sworn enemy of the L.A. art scene. Arrested without incident on Thursday morning, Taylor, a former art dealer, faces a federal indictment that alleges he stole paintings from an art gallery in L.A. and sold the works to a collector under the false pretense that the works were those of esteemed artists. more ›

Jeffrey Stenroos, the former Los Angeles Unified School District cop who initiated a massive manhunt and community lockdown after falsely claiming he was shot outside a West Valley campus, has been found guilty of lying about the shooting. more ›

The FBI arrested Kinde Durkee, a big-shot Democratic campaign treasurer trusted by everyone from Councilman Dennis Zine to Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Friday. Durkee's arrest at her firm's office in Burbank, first reported by to The Orange County Register, was the first hint for many of her clients that anything might be awry. more ›

The DMV's Investigation Division, the L.A. County District Attorney's Office and the LAPD have arrested three men accused of fraudulent driver's license and identification card production. Peter Scott Singer, 26, of Monrovia, Todd Terrazas, 24, of West Hollywood and Lawrence Benjamin Goldstein, 22, of Los Angeles each face multiple felony counts of forging government identity documents and falsification of state seals. more ›

A Rialto woman who works as a Los Angeles County probation officer was arrested at her San Dimas workplace by feds and hauled in on charges she "bilked the federal financial aid system by using two identities to fraudulently obtain financial assistance," says the Department of Justice. more ›

A 51-year-old Pleasant Hill resident is currently sitting in the Unhappiest Place on Earth after being arrested by Walnut Creek Police for selling fake Disneyland tickets to at least seven different families in Northern California, according to SF Gate. more ›

A six-count indictment was filed against 2008 Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards by a federal grand jury Friday morning and it ain't pretty. An arrest warrant was issued charging the former senator for conspiracy and false statements in association with illegal campaign contributions and he's expected in U.S. District Court in North Carolina Friday afternoon. more ›

A Los Angeles woman has plead not guilty to claiming to be a psychic and subsequently stealing over $200,000 from a client, reports the Daily Breeze. Lisa Debbie Adams found her victim, whose name has not been released, while strolling the streets of West Hollywood and handing out flyers that detailed her services. For more than a year, Adams advised the 37-year-old woman to take out tens of thousands of dollars from an IRA, buy a Mercedes, and buy jewelry and clothes. more ›

A woman who calls herself an "environmental health inspector" is posing as a member of the Pasadena Public Health Department and running a scam on local businesses. The impostor has reportedly been approaching local restaurants, "claiming to be there to inspect their premises for safety violations in exchange for cash payment," according to a city press release. more ›

How do you solve a problem like fraud? Thanks to the FBI, the cause of the problem for a group of nuns bilked of over a quarter million dollars, has surrendered, according to the Department of Justice. Linda Rose Gagnon, 57, of Tustin, is accused of three counts of wire fraud. The injured party is the U.S. Province of the Religious of Jesus and Mary, Inc., a congregation of Roman Catholic Sisters. more ›

74 members and associates of the Armenian Power organized crime group were taken in this morning as part of "Operation Power Outage,"--an ongoing effort by the Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force to take down the gang. Most of those arrested in Los Angeles today are named in two federal indictments that charge a total of 88 defendants linked to Armenian Power, which is commonly called AP, explains the Department of Justice. more ›

Online shopping offers many benefits: unprecedented selection, effortless price comparison, and the ability to buy that Kobe beef iPod Nano case you’ve secretly coveted without wasting energy on unnecessary chores like putting pants on. Despite the benefits, online shopping is not without its headaches. In addition to the burden of keeping track of different logins and passwords, cybercrime is a growing threat. According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, US consumers lost $560 million to online fraud last year. more ›

Authorities say three women are facing criminal charges after investigators reported that the trio lied about a child's funeral to solicit money from drivers in Covina, reports ABC Local. The women, suspected of conspiracy and fraud, are thought to have collected nearly $1000. Covina Police were tipped off about the women appearing in the same place weeks earlier holding signs about a boy supposedly killed in a car accident. Investigators say no such crash occurred. more ›

More than 280 people have come forward as victims of credit or debit card fraud, and the cases are linked to a likely "skimming" case stemming from one now-shuttered Sierra Madre gas station. Authorities have released a photo of someone they say is a "person of interest" in the case, after he withdrew money from an ATM in Montebello using a card created with information obtained from the gas station, according to the Daily News. more ›

There are at least 283 reported cases of credit and debit card fraud, all originating from a now-closed EVG gas station in Sierra Madre, says Arcadia Patch. Most claims come from patrons of the station, are Sierra Madre residents, and involve a single fraudulent charge of less than $200. The investigation is ongoing, and the Sierra Madre Police urge locals to check their bank statements for fraudulent charges and to file a report. more ›

Nerdy, sure. But also tremendously costly. A contributing factor to the U.S. Postal Service's budget vortex, "an estimated $134.4 million dollars of its annual revenue is quietly slipping away to counterfeiters and perpetrators of other types of postal fraud," reports FOX LA. more ›

On the heels of major proposed reform at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power comes news that two employees have been charged with fraud for stealing around $3 million, according to the LA Times. more ›

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested four Chinese nationals over the weekend as part of a takedown of two brothels operating in the San Gabriel Valley, according to abc7. more ›

Following the death of onetime child star Corey Haim this week from a prescription drug overdose, authorities and the public quickly moved to scrutinize the actor's abuse of the pills and the possibility he had been "doctor shopping"--a practice that involves seeking prescriptions from multiple doctors at the same time. more ›

The above YouTube video helped investigators land two Diamond Bar siblings in cuffs today after they allegedly submitted false claims to insurance agents.... more ›

A 28-year-old Sherman Oaks man today was sentenced to 18 years in prison after hiring a hitman to kill a witness involved in a different case against him. “You’re your own worst enemy," said United States District Judge Percy Anderson. more ›

It probably wasn't very hard for former City Controller Laura Chick to leave her Los Angeles post early to join Schwarzenegger as his Inspector General overseeing how stimulus money was being spent in California. In Los Angeles, she was a bulldog over anything wasteful. more ›

LA County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan is looking into 9,000 registration affidavits turned in by a firm hired by the California Republican Party to determine if party affiliations were involuntarily changed, says the Daily News. While party affiliations will not affect voters on November 4th, it could on the next primary. more ›

After a two-year investigation into alleged Medicare fraud involving homeless patients, federal agents raided three hospitals this morning: City of Angels Medical Center, Los Angeles Metropolitan Medical Center and Tustin Hospital and Medical Center. The schemes involved defrauding the state and federal governments out of millions of dollars by using homeless skid row residents. A top executive at City of Angels was arrested as well as one other person, according to the LA Times. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo plans to announce civil litigation this morning. Earlier this year: FBI raids LACMA. more ›

more ›

It sounds a little like something you might see on COPS: What was just going to be a routine traffic stop in Glendale turned out to be a major nab for the FBI. more ›