Wire Fraud

Three people from South Jersey were to be arraigned this afternoon in federal court in Camden in connection with a $2.6 million time share mortgage fraud scheme, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey said. Ashley Lacerda, 32, of Egg Harbor Township, Francis Santore, 52, of Northfield and Brian Corley, 27, of Egg Harbor, were among 16 defendants charged on April 17 with a variety of offenses, including conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. Authorities said Lacerda, Santore and Corley worked for The Vacation Ownership Group and that the investigation revealed that from at least March 2009 to September 1, 2011, the defendants, often using false identities, telephoned owners of time-share vacation properties purchased through Flagship Resort Development, Wyndham Vacation Resorts Inc. and other time-share developers.

For years, Bob Landau has fought the system here, crusading against what he perceives as the ills of township government and school district policies. Some hail him as a reformer; others call him a pest. But his years as an activist stood Landau in good stead this month when he pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud charges. Instead of sending Landau to jail - he could have faced five years in prison - U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle 3d sentenced him to five months in a halfway house, to be followed by five months' house arrest.

A Camden County criminal investigator's romance with a mortgage broker has cost her her job and could send her to prison for obtaining a fraudulent loan, officials said. Asha Ritchards, 31, of Sicklerville, appeared yesterday in U.S. District Court in Camden, where she tearfully pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and admitted she lied on loan applications for a house her then-boyfriend used as a rental property. "She fell in love with this guy. He's a smooth-talking, handsome guy," defense attorney Leonard S. Baker said.

TRENTON - A Bucks County woman has admitted stealing more than $400,000 from Dow Jones & Co. Federal prosecutors say Jacqueline Bucco, 32, of Bensalem, faces up to 20 years in prison when she is sentenced Oct. 13. Bucco pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal complaint charging her with wire fraud. She admitted she accessed a dormant internal system that contained company funds and transferred money to three bank accounts she controlled. Bucco worked at the Dow Jones office in Monmouth Junction for about two years before leaving the firm in March.

The former president of a Blue Bell insurance brokerage accused by fellow executives of absconding with the company's money was charged in federal court yesterday with stealing $600,500 in cash and fleeing to the Cayman Islands in 1995. David G. Bockius, 33, back now and living in Springfield, claims the money was stolen from him in Jamaica, Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard W. Goldberg said after the charges were announced. The prosecutor said Bockius was arrested May 16 and released five days later after putting up a real-estate bond that included his house, his father's house and a 1964 Corvette.

The arraignment for two high school friends of disgraced NBA referee Tim Donaghy is scheduled for this morning in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. Thomas Martino and James Battista, who were indicted by a federal grand jury earlier this month, will appear before Judge Carol Amon. Donaghy, a Drexel Hill native, pleaded guilty before Amon in August to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and transmitting betting information. He is to be sentenced April 18. Martino, 42, of Marcus Hook, is charged with lying to the grand jury in 2007.

The U.S. attorney in Philadelphia charged Michael J. Smith, of Springfield, Delaware County, with participation in mortgage fraud that caused losses of $665,000 to lenders. Smith, a former mortgage broker, allegedly participated in a conspiracy with John C. Lucidi Jr. and Eric Maratea, both of whom are charged elsewhere, in a scheme to buy properties, mostly at the Jersey Shore, at inflated prices so that buyers could receive kickbacks of tens of thousands of dollars. Smith was one of the buyers, according to the four-count indictment.

A Drexel Hill man pleaded guilty yesterday to mail- and wire-fraud charges in what federal prosecutors said was a scheme to cheat 15 insurance companies out of more than $300,000 by filing false auto insurance claims. Joseph Focoso, 55, of the 1100 block of Cobbs Road, accepted a deal offered by federal prosecutors and pleaded guilty to two charges of mail fraud and one count of wire fraud before U.S. District Judge Robert F. Kelly. Under the agreement, Focoso, whom prosecutors called the ringleader of the fraud scheme, agreed to cooperate with the government and to testify against others who might be indicted.

A Philadelphia Sheriff's Office employee and three others were charged today in a scheme that federal prosecutors say bilked the city out of $400,000. Richard Bell, an employee in the Sheriff's accounting department, orchestrated the scheme, prosecutors said, by writing bogus checks from 2007 to 2010 on the Sheriff's Office bank accounts. Bell, 36, of Philadelphia, forwarded the checks to Robert Rogers, also of Philadelphia, according to court documents. Rogers, 44, then cashed the checks made payable to himself and forwarded checks to others.

Ten years ago, a federal judge called Peter D. Bistrian a "consummate con man," and sentenced him to 30 months in prison for his role in a $1.5 million loan scam. As of yesterday, Bistrian admitted to another federal judge, nothing much had changed. Bistrian, 49, a onetime University of Delaware football player who has worked as a loan broker and investment counselor, pleaded guilty to fraud charges in two cons that cheated victims of a total of $1.8 million. He also pleaded guilty to trying to avoid prosecution by fleeing to Canada last August.

The U.S. attorney in Philadelphia charged Michael J. Smith, of Springfield, Delaware County, with participation in mortgage fraud that caused losses of $665,000 to lenders. Smith, a former mortgage broker, allegedly participated in a conspiracy with John C. Lucidi Jr. and Eric Maratea, both of whom are charged elsewhere, in a scheme to buy properties, mostly at the Jersey Shore, at inflated prices so that buyers could receive kickbacks of tens of thousands of dollars. Smith was one of the buyers, according to the four-count indictment.

A Dela­ware County man was charged Thurs­day with join­ing a mort­gage fraud con­spir­a­cy that resulted in losses of more than $600,000. Federal prosecutors said Mi­chael J. Smith, 31, of Spring­field, was a mort­gage bro­ker for companies in West Chester and New­town Square, who schemed with John C. Lucidi, Jr. and Eric Maratea, among others, to buy properties at the Jer­sey Shore at inflated prices so buyers could re­ceive kickbacks of tens of thousands of dollars.

Three people from South Jersey were to be arraigned this afternoon in federal court in Camden in connection with a $2.6 million time share mortgage fraud scheme, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey said. Ashley Lacerda, 32, of Egg Harbor Township, Francis Santore, 52, of Northfield and Brian Corley, 27, of Egg Harbor, were among 16 defendants charged on April 17 with a variety of offenses, including conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. Authorities said Lacerda, Santore and Corley worked for The Vacation Ownership Group and that the investigation revealed that from at least March 2009 to September 1, 2011, the defendants, often using false identities, telephoned owners of time-share vacation properties purchased through Flagship Resort Development, Wyndham Vacation Resorts Inc. and other time-share developers.

Former Temple University physician and medical school assistant dean Joseph J. Kubacki was sentenced in federal court Thursday to more than seven years in prison after being convicted by a jury of defrauding Medicare, private insurers, and patients by filing false medical claims. Kubacki, 63, was convicted in August of 150 counts of health-care fraud, wire fraud, and making false statements in health-care matters. U.S. District Judge Eduardo C. Robreno also ordered Kubacki to repay Temple about $1 million and patients a total of $5,445 for co-pays they should not have been billed for. Kubacki was chairman of the ophthalmology department at Temple University School of Medicine and also served as an assistant dean.

A 48-year-old Montgomery County man was sentenced Friday to 60 months in prison on embezzlement and tax charges after pleading guilty in federal court last September. Jeffrey Abramowitz, of Plymouth Meeting, was a partner in a Philadelphia law firm from 2004 until last year when he defrauded clients, including family members, his law partner and Korean emigrants who did not speak English. Abramowitz's bilked his victims out of $2.1 million, according to a sentencing document.

A SOUTH JERSEY man charged in November with scamming at least two nuns and others was captured yesterday by the FBI in Las Vegas. Federal prosecutors said that Adriano Sotomayor, 54, of Margate, had been on the lam since he was indicted Nov. 15 on 13 counts of wire fraud. Sotomayor, who had numerous aliases, bilked members of the Dominican Sisters of the Rosary of Fatima and others of more than $439,000 between May 2009 and June 2011, according to the indictment. Sotomayor allegedly collected the money - sent by wire transfers - at three Atlantic City casinos, among other places.

A South Jersey man charged in November with scamming several people, including at least two nuns, was arrested Monday by the FBI in Las Vegas, authorities said. Federal prosecutors said Adriano Sotomayor, 54, of Margate, had been on the lam since he was indicted Nov. 15 on 13 counts of wire fraud. Sotomayor bilked members of the Dominican Sisters of the Rosary of Fatima and others of more than $439,000 between May 2009 and June, according to the indictment. Sotomayor allegedly collected the money - sent by wire transfers - at three Atlantic City casinos, among other places.

PHILADELPHIA Museum zoning OK'd Proposed zoning changes sponsored by City Councilman Mark Squilla to allow construction of a Museum of the American Revolution, at 3rd and Chestnut streets, were approved yesterday by Council's rules committee. Initially, the museum was going to be built in Valley Forge National Historical Park, then it was planned for a nearby location. Both times it was met with resistance. Finally, the museum found a home in the city's historic district.

HOUSTON - Jailed Texas financier R. Allen Stanford helped to fake profit numbers for his Caribbean bank and funnel millions of dollars of depositor funds to a secret Swiss bank account used to pay for personal expenses, bribes to regulators and employee bonuses, the man who was in charge of the tycoon's books told jurors Friday. James M. Davis, the former chief financial officer for Stanford's companies, testified that the financier's bank never reported having an unprofitable year because he and Stanford worked together to fabricate figures for annual reports and other documents.

FOR ALMOST 30 minutes yesterday, embezzler Bonnie Sweeten told a federal judge that she was "very sorry" to all the victims she scammed of more than $1 million over four years. "Not a day that goes by," she said, that she doesn't feel "shame and sorrow" for her actions. "How could I do these things to people that trusted me, to my family?" she asked. At one point, she turned to her parents, who were sitting in the courtroom. "You didn't raise me this way," she said, sobbing. U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn Jr. sentenced her to more than eight years in a federal lockup and ordered her to pay almost $1.1 million in restitution to her victims.