News

A one-time Virginia Senate candidate will have to spend time in jail and pay restitution to her victims after fraudulently posing as an immigration lawyer.

Jasmine Moawad, a 49-year-old woman originally from Bolivia, was sentenced to five years in jail for fraud on Friday, March 7, with all but six months suspended, the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office announced.


News

A Centreville woman could face up to two decades in prison for embezzling thousands of dollars from the Herndon-based farmers’ cooperative where she worked.

Paula Sue Leventhal, 64, pleaded guilty in federal court on Wednesday (Feb. 19) to wire fraud after she redirected $550,000 from the cooperative to her personal bank accounts, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced.


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.


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