The VLW Blog

A Florida man is headed to federal prison for more than seven years for running a bait-and-switch operation that advertised power scooters for Medicare patients.  Instead of the jaunty power scooters they saw on television ads, the victims were stuck with bulky power wheelchairs, and the government was stuck with thousands more in costs. When [...]

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Virginia investors who claim they were defrauded into buying overpriced real estate in coastal Carolina have lost their bid to sue seven banks in their federal mortgage fraud lawsuit. In a 36-page memorandum order, U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee last month dismissed the banks from the consolidated action where 127 plaintiffs accuse developers of [...]

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Former attorney Kristina M. Cardwell wept as she was sentenced Monday to 5½ years in prison for participating in a $1.3 million real estate fraud at the Norfolk law office of Troy Titus. Cardwell, 38, told U.S. District Judge Raymond Jackson her 2½-year-old daughter was all she cared about as she apologized for her crimes, [...]

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Financier Ed Okun – convicted in a $126 million fraud – may hear from his former wife at his sentencing hearing this week. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Carol May, who was married to Okun for a brief period in the 1970s, had not heard a word about her ex-husband in several decades. However, she [...]

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Federal authorities say a Mechanicsville doctor wrote thousands of prescriptions for people he never examined. Torino Jennings, a staff physician at Retreat Doctors’ Hospital in Richmond, is accused of issuing 50,000 to 100,000 prescriptions for the relaxant Soma and other drugs between 2004 and 2007, reports the Boston Globe. Authorities say he was compensated between [...]

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The other shoe has dropped for Franklin lawyer J. Edward Moyler Jr., who was indicted yesterday on nine counts of embezzlement. As Virginia Lawyers Weekly reported last month, Moyler admitted taking millions from a decedent’s account. He also took over $100,000 from three other estates. Moyler is due in Suffolk Circuit Court on May 26 [...]

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A Suffolk couple admits living it up on money stolen from Virginia Beach real estate developer Alan Resh. The wife, Resh’s personal assistant for 10 years, embezzled more than $2 million through counterfeit checks and wire transfers, reports The Virginian-Pilot. The couple reportedly used the stolen money to travel overseas, buy expensive cars and a [...]

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Authorities say a group of employees at a South Hill beverage wholesaler were stealing from the business. One of the defendants is a town council member. The South Hill Enterprise reports that five former employees, including South Hill Town Councilman William R. Gregory, were indicted last week in Mecklenburg County Circuit Court on charges including [...]

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An Ohio license agency employee goes on trial in Harrisonburg today accused of issuing hundreds of state identity cards to immigrants based on false credentials.  The government alleges the Ohio connection was part of a “criminal cottage industry” to provide required documentation for immigrants working at a Rockingham County meat packing plant. According to The [...]

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On the heels of news that a Chesterfield County ex-lawyer will be doing two years in prison for a mortgage rescue scam comes word that a Charlotte-area lawyer now faces the prospect of much more federal prison time. A jury yesterday convicted Victoria Sprouse in a $15 million mortgage fraud scheme, reports The Charlotte Observer. [...]

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