News

Two men from California are facing forgery charges for an alleged fraud scheme aimed at Target in Reston.

Officers patrolling the 12100 block of Sunset Hill Road last Wednesday (Dec. 11) as part of a Christmas Anti-Theft Team were contacted around 5:21 p.m. by the department store’s loss prevention officer, who reported a man who was suspected of committing fraud at another location the previous day, the Fairfax County Police Department says.


News

Federal prosecutors have charged a travel agent accused of orchestrating a Ponzi scheme and ultimately defrauding the George Mason University men’s basketball team earlier this year.

Maurice Eugene Smith, 44, of Atlanta is believed to have used the nearly $160,000 paid by the school to cover his personal expenses instead of booking the team’s anticipated trip to the Bahamas, according to court records.


News

A former Fairfax City property manager will serve two years in prison for embezzling money from the 70-plus homeowners’ associations she served.

Rose Kasande Bailey, a 60-year-old Warrenton resident, was sentenced to two years in prison yesterday (Tuesday) after pleading guilty in August to wire fraud, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia announced.


Countywide

Inova has agreed to pay nearly $2.4 million to settle allegations that it falsified Medicaid reimbursement claims tied to sterilization and hysterectomy procedures.

The settlement comes after Inova voluntarily disclosed issues to federal and state authorities, revealing that some Medicaid claims were improperly modified by employees between January and August 2020, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced on Friday (Nov. 15).


News

A Springfield woman accused of embezzling more than $250,000 from her employer pleaded guilty to wire fraud in federal court today (Thursday).

Jennifer Giorffino, 53, faces up to 20 years in prison after misappropriating the funds from her employer, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia announced, identifying the organization only as one “dedicated to accounting for prisoners of war.”


News

A Great Falls man pleaded guilty on Friday (March 15) to failing to pay $1.8 million to the Internal Revenue Service.

Rick Tariq Rahim, 55, owned and operated several businesses, including laser tag facilities, and he worked as an Amazon reseller, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Virginia.


News

A McLean resident has pleaded guilty to spending federal COVID-19 relief funds intended for his home business on personal expenses, including gambling and real estate payments.

Mehdi Pazouki, 65, pleaded guilty in federal court on Friday (Feb. 23) to defrauding the Small Business Administration of approximately $455,000 in loans created to help businesses survive during the pandemic, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Eastern District of Virginia.


News

A 58-year-old tax preparer from Mount Vernon was sentenced to 18 months in prison last week for filing fake tax returns for his “unsuspecting” clients, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Lawrence Appiah-Osei pleaded guilty in June to operating the scheme from 2017 to 2020 from his Mount Vernon home, defrauding the U.S. government of more than $1.4 million, according to a release published Friday (Nov. 3) by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.


News

A 32-year-old man from Groveton pleaded guilty on Thursday (Nov. 2) to defrauding the government of more than $1.4 million in fraudulent pandemic-related Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and unemployment benefits.

George Mensah, Jr., 32, admitted in federal court to wire and mail fraud by collecting fees with two unnamed conspirators through CashApp, Zelle and bank transfers, according to court records. The scheme ran from Oct. 2020 to Sept. 2021, during which time Mensah admitted to preparing dozens of fake PPP loans and unemployment insurance claims under the CARES Act.


News

(Updated at 5:10 p.m.) A 57-year-old contractor from Centreville could face up to two decades in jail for using his custom home building company to defraud McLean homeowners.

Pedro Felipe Valdes Sanchez pleaded guilty yesterday to defrauding “several couples” who hired his company to build or remodel their houses in and around McLean, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced.


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