Cybercrime & Technology

MARTINEZ – Two men were sentenced today to prison for their role in stealing more than $90,000 from some 200 people in Northern California by stealing personal financial information with a sophisticated skimming device placed inside ATM and credit card payment devices at gas station pumps.

This morning in Contra Costa County Superior Court in Martinez, the two men pleaded guilty to all felonies they were charged with, including conspiracy and identity theft. David Karapetyan, 32, pled guilty to 37 felonies and received a seven-year prison sentence. Zhirayr Zamanyan, 31, pled guilty to five felonies and received a five-year prison sentence. Two other defendants, Edwin Hamazaspyan, 31, and Naum Mints, 21, are scheduled to appear in court on February 15.

In March, the Attorney General's office took over prosecution of the case from the Contra Costa District Attorney's office because the crimes occurred in multiple jurisdictions throughout Northern California. An amended complaint was filed in October.

In their high-tech crime spree, the gang traveled to gas stations across the Bay Area in a rented Cadillac Escalade. From November 2009 to February 2010, they are believed to have stolen $90,000 from 196 people through their skimming scheme.

The thieves acquired keys to unlock various kinds of gas station pumps. Once they opened the pumps, they were able to connect two cables inside to their two-inch electronic device, which looked like a circuit board encased in electrical tape, and recorded ATM and credit card data as well as victims' PINs. No tampering was visible on the outside of the pumps. The gang would later return to retrieve the skimmers, which took less than 20 seconds.

The investigation began in February when police in Solano and Contra Costa counties reported an increase in identity theft and a 7-Eleven store employee in Martinez noticed a skimming device inside a gas pump. Police removed the device, replaced it with a mock device and conducted 24-hour surveillance. Karapetyan and Zamanyan were arrested when they arrived to remove the device. In total, seven devices were found inside gas pumps in Martinez, Benicia, Livermore, Hayward, Oakland, San Mateo and Sacramento.

Banks have reimbursed the victims.

The Northern California Computer Crimes Task Force, a partnership of 17 local, state and federal agencies, participated in the investigation with assistance from the U.S. Secret Service, Martinez Police Department and the Glendale Police Department.

The amended complaint and second amended complaint, as well as the arrest affidavit for Mints, are attached to the electronic version of the press release on the Attorney General’s website: www.ag.ca.gov.

SACRAMENTO – In a case prosecuted by the state Department of Justice, William Arthur Sassman II, who looted the life savings of dozens of investors to bankroll his own lavish lifestyle and finance his own investments, was sentenced today to 18 years in prison.

Sassman convinced people who had painstakingly saved for their retirement that he could make a lot of money for them. Instead he used their money for his fine clothing, his expensive cars, his several homes and his own illegal investments.

Sassman, 42, of Sacramento, appeared in Sacramento County Superior Court today where he had previously entered a guilty plea on 13 felony counts of grand theft.

Judge Lloyd G. Connelly sentenced Sassman to prison and ordered him to pay more than $4.45 million in restitution to 48 victims. No funds have been found, however, and it is unlikely victims will receive repayment.

An investigation by agents of the Department of Justice revealed that Sassman, a licensed insurance agent, operated a Ponzi scheme starting about 10 years ago in which he repaid current investors with money from new investors.

Using a book he wrote, “Secrets of a Worry Free Retirement,” Sassman convinced investors, many of whom were senior citizens, to shift their life savings to 'high return' investments. These investments included foreclosed properties and real estate on Mare Island (Vallejo) and in other states, commercial property in El Dorado Hills near Sacramento, the production of a laptop computer stand called the 'Notefloat,' which never sold, and annuity, stock and foreign currency investments.

Sassman actually invested little of the money and rarely paid the double to triple digit returns he promised. Instead, he spent investors' millions financing his lavish lifestyle. He charged more than $1 million on his American Express cards, spent $300,000 on automobiles, including two Ferraris, and spent more than $121,000 at Polo Ralph Lauren. Sassman possessed three invitation-only Centurion cards, which are black metal cards issued by American Express for high spenders. He also had an electronic card for collecting public assistance despite owning three homes and numerous cars.

The limited funds Sassman did invest were channeled into other illegal operations in which Sassman himself was victimized. Sassman failed to disclose to investors that he had invested more than $200,000 in a “Nigerian swindle” in 2000-2002. He also lost money in a 'stock trading program' run by a group subsequently indicted in federal court in 2009 for running a Ponzi scheme and a European investment scam that promised a 200 percent profit in 45 days or 800 percent annually.

As Sassman’s empire fell apart in September 2009, he sought bankruptcy for himself and his companies, but he continued to solicit funds from investors. When Sassman was arrested in November 2009, investigators discovered that in the two months before his arrest he had sent another $20,000 to a new “Nigerian swindle.”

Since his arrest, Sassman has remained in custody with bail set at $2 million. But investigators discovered that he had family members gain access to stolen funds to support his family and put funds on his jail commissary account.

Sassman's victims include a Sacramento resident who invested more than $250,000 in one of Sassman’s companies. Sassman promised her a seven percent annual return. Her money was combined with money from other investors for a total of more than $700,000. Of that money, Sassman spent approximately $400,000 on personal expenses, more than $50,000 went to Sassman's wife, and more than $34,000 was paid in returns to other investors. The victim lost $170,000 of her investment.

In January 2007, a Sacramento couple gave Sassman more than $80,000 that was supposed to be invested in real estate and interest-bearing accounts, but the entire amount was used to pay previous investors.

The investigation was conducted by the Department of Justice, with assistance from the Department of Insurance and the Department of Corporations.

SACRAMENTO – The California Attorney General’s Office announced the arrest today of a con man who defrauded entrepreneurs by promising to help them secure patents on inventions ranging from sophisticated software to garden products but then stole their inventions and made thousands of dollars selling their patent rights.

“This thief of intellectual property pretended he was helping entrepreneurs obtain patent protection but instead sold their inventions and took all the profits,” said Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr.

Today, Franklin Michael Beninsig, 53, who currently lives in Reno, was arrested and booked in Washoe County Jail. He faces four felony charges in Sacramento County, including theft and embezzlement. If convicted, he could receive five years in prison. Bail was set at $50,000.

From 2004 to 2008, Beninsig represented himself as a patent law expert and investment consultant. At his Hot Pepper Ventures office on Investment Boulevard in El Dorado Hills, Beninsig wooed entrepreneurs by promising to help them file patent applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. He claimed he worked with ghost writers and patent lawyers in India who could draft patent applications quickly and inexpensively.

But when Beninsig filed patent applications for his clients’ inventions, he listed himself as either the sole inventor or a joint inventor.

Bob Pingree, chief executive of Nexxus Systems in Scottsdale, Arizona, paid Beninsig $8,000 in 2004 to file a patent application for software that searches for online and broadcast media preferences. Beninsig listed himself on the application as the sole inventor.

When Pingree questioned him, Beninsig promised to remove his name, but instead he sold the patent rights for $55,000 plus royalties.

Jerry Ponzo, president of Backyard Dream in Granite Bay, met Beninsig in 2008 at an investors’ conference in Silicon Valley and later paid him nearly $13,000 to find investors for his new product, a three dimensional galvanized wire panel for climbing plants. Beninsig found no investors, but he claimed Ponzo’s patent applications were not written correctly and offered to fix them. Instead, he listed himself as a joint inventor, which Ponzo discovered when he checked the patent office’s website.

The Attorney General Office’s investigation began when it received a complaint from an entrepreneur who complained he gave $30,000 to Beninsig to find investors for his product, a biodegradable mobile urinal, intended for truckers and other long-haul drivers, called The iPee. Beninsig wasn’t charged in that case in part because he arranged some meetings with investors, which proved unsuccessful. But the entrepreneur tipped investigators to other disgruntled inventors with whom Beninsig was involved.

The Attorney General’s office is prosecuting Beninsig’s case. The complaint and arrest declaration are attached.

MARTINEZ, Calif. – The California Attorney General’s Office today filed criminal charges against three men who stole more than $150,000 from about 200 people by creating fake credit and debit cards from banking information they skimmed from ATM and credit cards through devices placed inside gas station pumps in Northern California.

“These thieves broke into gas station pumps and installed devices that collected customers’ debit and credit card numbers and ATM PINs,” Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. said, “and later they used that stolen information to create fraudulent cards, make purchases and withdraw thousands of dollars from victims’ accounts.”

David Karapetyan, 32, Zhirayr Zamanyan, 30, and Edwin Hamazaspyan, 31, all of Los Angeles, were scheduled to appear today in Contra Costa County Superior Court to face charges. The complaint against them includes 42 counts of felony identity theft and one count of conspiracy.

If convicted on all charges, the three could each face up to 31 years in prison.

In March, the Attorney General’s office took over prosecution of the case from the Contra Costa District Attorney’s office because the crimes occurred in multiple jurisdictions throughout Northern California. An amended complaint was filed today.

In their high-tech crime spree, the three traveled to gas stations and banks across the Bay Area in a rented Cadillac Escalade. From November 2009 to February 2010, they are believed to have stolen $158,800 from 196 people.

They acquired keys to unlock various kinds of gas station pumps. Once they opened the pumps, they were able to connect two cables inside to their two-inch electronic device, which looked like a circuit board encased in electrical tape, and recorded ATM and credit card data as well as victims’ PINs. No tampering was visible on the outside of the pumps. The trio would later return to retrieve the skimmers, which took less than 20 seconds.

The investigation began in February when police in Solano and Contra Costa counties reported an increase in identity theft and a 7-11 Store employee in Martinez noticed a skimming device inside a gas pump. Police removed the device, replaced it with a mock device and conducted 24-hour surveillance. Karapetyan and Zamanyan were arrested when they arrived to remove the device. In total, seven devices were found inside gas pumps in Martinez, Benicia, Livermore, Hayward, Oakland, San Mateo and Sacramento.

Banks have reimbursed the victims.

The Northern California Computer Crimes Task Force, a partnership of 17 local, state and federal agencies, led the investigation with assistance from the U.S. Secret Service, Martinez Police Department and the Glendale Police Department.

SACRAMENTO -- Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today filed a $60 million lawsuit against a pair of Sacramento companies that lured desperate homeowners with a deceptive marketing scheme that promised to obtain mortgage modifications through the use of computer-generated “forensic loan audits.”

“These defendants dangled the term 'forensic loan audit’ as a sure-fire remedy for the mortgage problems of homeowners in distress,” Brown said. “In fact, it was no remedy at all, and hundreds of desperate California homeowners took the bait and lost their money -- and sometimes their homes.”

Brown filed the $60 million lawsuit against US Loan Auditors, My US Legal Services, and five individuals, including two attorneys, who operate a fraudulent mortgage audit scheme that preys on desperate homeowners anxious to save their homes. The suit demands civil penalties, restitution for victims, and permanent injunctions to keep the companies and other defendants from fraudulently marketing forensic loan audits and legal services of little value.

The companies, based in Rancho Cordova, work together to market and sell “forensic loan audits” to homeowners, who pay thousands of dollars in up-front fees for a dubious computer-generated review of their mortgages. The audits purport to show violations of law by lenders, which sales agents cite to convince homeowners they have a strong legal case. Sales agents use these findings to encourage homeowners to stop making their mortgage payments and instead pay additional fees to bring “predatory lending” lawsuits against their lenders.

Both companies deceive homeowners by assuring them that filing these lawsuits will give them “legal leverage” to obtain a loan modification and prevent lenders from foreclosing or collecting monthly mortgage payments. Homeowners who filed these lawsuits have lost thousands of dollars and placed themselves in greater danger of losing their homes.

My US Legal Services bilks clients for months, filing cookie-cutter complaints with little or no merit, billing unjustified monthly fees, and then dodging clients’ phone calls or stringing them along with false assurances that a settlement is in progress.

Hundreds of California homeowners, many of them facing possible loss of their homes, have been duped into paying thousands of dollars to the two companies -- one homeowner paid more than $55,000 -– but received little or no relief.

Meanwhile, the litigation mill run by My US Legal Services has littered courts with hundreds of lawsuits that have scant chance of success. Two federal judges have expressed concern about the legitimacy of these lawsuits and have several times sanctioned attorneys involved.

In addition to the companies, Brown is suing the three owners: attorney and real estate broker James Sandison, Jeffrey Pulvino, and Shane Barker, as well as two California attorneys, Sharon L. Lapin and Jonathan G. Stein.

The State Bar filed disciplinary charges yesterday against Sandison for alleged misappropriation of clients’ funds and aiding the unauthorized practice of law.

The Attorney General’s investigation, assisted by the State Bar and the Department of Real Estate, located victims throughout California cities hit hard by the foreclosure crisis: Corning, Fresno, Hayward, Irvine, Manteca, Richmond, Sacramento, Salinas, Sanger, Santa Ana, Stockton, Tracy, Vacaville and West Sacramento.

In February, Brown, along with the Bar and the Department of Real Estate, issued an alert (http://ag.ca.gov/newsalerts/release.php?id=1862&) warning consumers to be wary of forensic loan audits that require homeowners to pay up-front fees. There is no evidence or statistical data to support claims that forensic loan audits of a lenders’ mortgage practices – even if performed by a licensed mortgage professional or a lawyer -- help homeowners obtain loan modifications or any other foreclosure relief.

Brown has led the fight against fraudulent mortgage rescue and loan modification companies. He has obtained court orders to shut down several companies and has brought criminal charges against deceptive loan modification consultants. For more information on Brown’s actions against loan-modification fraud, see: http://ag.ca.gov/loanmod.

If you are a homeowner who has been scammed, you can file a complaint online with the Attorney General’s office at: www.ag.ca.gov/consumers/general.php. You can learn more about avoiding scams and obtain a complaint form by visiting the Department of Real Estate’s website at: www.dre.ca.gov.

If you have a complaint against Sandison, Lapin, Stein or any other lawyer involved in a loan modification or foreclosure relief service, contact the State Bar Complaint Hotline at 1-800-843-9053. Complaint forms and an explanation of the attorney discipline system are available online at: www.calbar.ca.gov.

Attached are a copy of the complaint and a sample of the fraudulent advertising mailers sent by the companies.

FRESNO -- Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced the arrest today of bank manger Jeri Sell, who two years ago was named Tulare Woman of the Year, on felony charges of embezzling $679,000 from customers of the Tulare branch of Citizens Business Bank, some of whom were friends of hers. An investigation showed she had a serious gambling problem.

Sell, 55, was arrested at her home this morning by Tulare police. She was charged in a complaint filed by Brown’s attorneys with five felony counts of embezzlement.

“This inside job is a painful case of violated trust,” Brown said. “A person who was an honored and respected pillar of the community apparently took money for her own use that had been deposited, in full confidence that it would remain safe, by people she knew.”

The complaint alleged that Sell withdrew funds from several customers’ accounts from 2005 to 2009 and used her position as manager to conceal her thefts from both the customers and the bank.

One couple lost $203,110.27. In reviewing a long list of unauthorized withdrawals, the wife demonstrated that it was impossible she had made them. For example, a withdrawal for $4,000 on March 17, 2006, she could not have made because she was out of town at a pistachio convention. Another withdrawal was made at the same moment she was getting a body wrap treatment.

Another customer lost $298,000. A bank employee said Sell requested $50,000 in cash for the customer, then took the funds from the vault and placed the money in a zippered bag.

Sell was able to hide her theft from bank customers by placing mail holds on their accounts so they would not have access to their banks statements. When the unauthorized transactions were discovered, Sell claimed the cause was computer error and, in one case, alleged that a customer had been the victim of identity theft.

When the scheme was starting to unravel because of an internal bank audit, Sell left a voicemail for one customer who lost $84,575, saying, “I want to apologize, I’ve done some things on your account that I’m not proud of. I’m thinking of killing myself. Please call me back.”

Sell’s bank accounts showed unexplained deposits of more than $500,000, and the investigation revealed Sell had made ATM withdrawals at the Tachi Palace Resort and Casino in Lemoore of more than $379,000. Investigators concluded that Sell had a gambling issue and was losing money.

Sell had been a respected member of the Tulare community for more than three decades. Besides being named the Tulare Chamber of Commerce’s Woman of the Year in 2008, Sell was also a grand marshal of the Tulare County Fair Parade and was active in raising money for local bond drives.

Copies of the complaint and arrest warrant are attached.

LOS ANGELES -- Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr., charging fraud, civil conspiracy, waste of public funds and breach of fiduciary duty, sued eight top Bell officials and council members today, and demanded they return hundreds of thousands of dollars in unwarranted salaries.

Brown’s lawsuit also called for a reduction of pension benefits for the officials.

“We are filing our lawsuit on behalf of the public to recover the excess salaries that Bell officials awarded themselves and to ensure their future pensions are reduced to a reasonable amount,” Brown said.

Brown also said he is widening his statewide probe of public salaries and benefits, and called for specific legislative action to reform salary and pension practices.

As part of the broadened investigation, he is serving a subpoena on the city of Vernon to obtain compensation records for city officials and employees. News articles have reported that one city official there received an annual salary of $785,000, and another received compensation totaling $1.6 million in a single year. Vernon, an industrial city near Bell, has a population of less than 100.

Brown’s statewide probe will focus on the many local and other government agencies that are paying annual salaries in excess of $300,000 and on the dozens of public pensioners who are receiving annual pensions in excess of $200,000. Examples include:

• An annual pension for a former city manager that is over half a million dollars.

• Annual compensation for the chief administrator of a public hospital that is over $800,000.

• Annual compensation for a county administrator that is over $420,000.

• Annual compensation in a single year of over $438,000, including payments for unused sick leave and vacation, for a city manager of a city of 36,000.

“These high salaries and pensions demand prompt and comprehensive reform,” Brown said. “Accordingly, I am calling for legislative action to:

• Establish a Compensation Commission to cap public salaries at reasonable levels,
• Eliminate loopholes that allow exceptions to the limits on pension benefits,
• Require a full and complete public posting of all public employee salaries, and
• Amend the state Constitution to require charter cities to comply with salary and pension laws.”

Brown’s lawsuit was filed against former city manager, Robert Rizzo; former assistant city manager, Angela Spaccia; former police chief, Randy Adams; council members Oscar Hernandez, Teresa Jacobo, and George Mirabel; and former council members Victor Bello and George Cole. The suit’s charges include fraud, civil conspiracy, waste of public funds, and breach of fiduciary duty. It also alleges that the defendants deliberately misled the public about the true amount of their compensation.

The suit demands the defendants return all excessive compensation and asks the court to establish appropriate salary levels for pension purposes. Rizzo’s last annual base salary was $787,638, Adams’ $457,000, and Spaccia’s $336,000. Bell city council members were paid $96,000 a year before they took a recent cut. Cities of similar size pay their council members $4,800 a year.

Since 1993, the Bell city council raised Rizzo’s salary 16 times, with an average increase of 14 percent a year. In 2005 alone, the city council raised his salary by 47 percent. Since 2003, council members also awarded themselves salary increases of 16 percent a year.

In 2008, Rizzo had a phony memorandum prepared for public distribution that showed council members were paid $673 per month and Rizzo was paid $15,478 per month, Brown charged. In fact, council members were actually paid $7,666 per month, and Rizzo was paid $52,325 per month.

“I’m going to continue to do everything in my power to go after corrupt officials who, rather than doing the public’s business, scheme behind closed doors to line their own pockets,” Brown said. “These officials must be forced to give up their ill-gotten gains, and we must enact strict reforms to prevent these kinds of abuses in the future.”

CalPERS, the state’s public employee retirement system, applauded the Attorney General’s efforts.

“We welcome the support and involvement of the Attorney General in helping to scrutinize extraordinarily high compensation,” said Anne Stausboll, Chief Executive Officer of CalPERS. “I'm confident that CalPERS’ own efforts and those of the Attorney General will help protect our members and employers, and restore public confidence in pensions and their value in public service.”

Copies of the complaint and subpoena served in Vernon are attached.

LOS ANGELES – Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced that a Laguna Niguel movie producer has been charged with 89 felony counts for orchestrating a “cold and calculated” $9 million Ponzi scheme in which he promised investors up to 35% returns for making loans to his B-movie production company.

“This con artist sold securities under the guise of a loan to fool investors and try to avoid following the rules,” Brown said. “He ran a cold and calculated scam, making promises he never intended to keep and using the funds of new victims to pay off the earlier ones.”

Mahmoud Karkehabadi (aka Mike Karkeh), 53, owner of Alliance Group Entertainment, was arraigned late Tuesday on the 89 felony counts, including securities fraud and grand theft. Bail has been set at $11 million. If convicted of all charges, Karkehabadi faces more than 25 years in prison.

More than 150 individuals from across the country made “movie production loans” to Alliance Group Entertainment, which has produced four B-movie flops since 2005, including “Confessions of a Pit Fighter” (2005) starring rapper Flavor Flav and “Hotel California” (2008).

Karkehabadi and his agents told investors they would get their money back within a year, regardless of a project’s success, with returns of 18 to 35%. When the year was up, Karkehabadi convinced investors to roll their “loans” over into the latest movie project or agree to extensions on the date for repayment.

A review of Alliance Group Entertainment bank records showed the majority of funds deposited into the company’s accounts were from investors – and their money was the source of most of the principal and interest payments made to earlier investors. The accounts showed deposits of more than $11 million from investors – and just $535,000 in revenue from the movies produced by the company.

The Department of Corporations referred the case to Brown’s office in 2007 after receiving complaints from victims. Brown’s office launched an investigation in 2008, searching bank records and conducting interviews with investors across the country.

In 2003, the Attorney General’s office secured a $5 million judgment against Karkehabadi for deceptively marketing credit cards that could not be used in stores and violating the state’s false advertising and unfair business practices laws. Karkehabadi subsequently filed for bankruptcy. He did not disclose either of these facts to investors in Alliance Group Entertainment.

Two California-based agents who sold securities to victims of the Alliance Group Entertainment scheme are also being charged. Timothy Cho (aka Hin-Kong Cho), 54, of Newport Beach remains at-large, while Deanna Salazar, 53, of Yucca Valley, has agreed to surrender.

Brown’s Special Crimes Unit is prosecuting the case. Karkehabadi is seeking a reduced bail, and a bail hearing is set for September 3 in Orange County Superior Court.

A copy of the complaint, filed in the Orange County Superior Court, is attached.

SACRAMENTO – Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today filed a $34 million lawsuit against television’s “Tax Lady Roni Deutch” for orchestrating a “heartless scheme” that swindled thousands of people facing serious and expensive tax collection problems with the IRS.

“Tax Lady Roni Deutch is engaged in a heartless scheme that swindled people with tax problems,” Brown said. “She promises to significantly reduce their IRS tax debts, but instead preys on their vulnerability, taking large up-front payments but providing little or no help in lowering their tax bills.”

Deutch manufactures credibility by boasting that her tax resolution law firm, which has annual revenues of at least $25 million, is the largest of its kind in the nation. She spends $3 million a year on advertising, much of it on late-night cable TV, and frequently offers tax advice on NBC’s Today Show, CNN, and CNBC.

Desperate debtors turn to Deutch based on her misleading ads that feature fictional testimonials claiming she secured large reductions in the featured clients’ federal tax debts.

For example, her ad entitled “It’s Your Turn” features three clients whom Deutch claims to have “saved” from having to pay thousands of dollars to the IRS. In fact, those clients still owe the IRS the full amount of their taxes, plus interest and penalties.

When potential clients call Deutch’s boiler room, sales agents employ high-pressure sales tactics plus a series of misrepresentations and false promises to persuade them to retain her firm. The sales agents claim Deutch’s success rate in dealing with the IRS is as high as 99 percent. But the percentage of clients whose tax bills Deutch actually reduces is a mere 10 percent.

Rather than cut clients’ debts, Deutch often escalates them. She places clients in an endless loop of requests for duplicate documents that increases her fees and, due to further delays in payments to the IRS, increases clients’ IRS fines and penalties.

One woman from Pico Rivera, who owed the IRS $13,000, turned to Deutch after seeing a TV ad. She paid Deutch a $1,900 retainer, but by the time the Deutch firm ended its representation, she owed the IRS hundreds of dollars more in interest and penalties, and the IRS had placed a levy against her Social Security benefits. Despite failing to take any effective action on her behalf, Deutch refused to refund the woman’s retainer by falsely billing her for time the firm did not spend on her case. Deutch regularly uses false billing statements to deny her clients’ refund requests.

Hundreds of clients have filed complaints with the Attorney General and other government agencies, describing Deutch’s failure to reduce their IRS debts as she advertised and her refusal to refund retainers of as much as $4,700.

Brown’s lawsuit says thousands of consumers in California and around the country have fallen victim to Deutch’s unlawful scam, losing millions of dollars that could have been used to pay their IRS tax liabilities. The lawsuit charges that Deutch operates a deceptive tax resolution scheme that employs “a bevy of false promises and misrepresentations.”

Brown’s action seeks to permanently prevent Deutch from engaging in such unfair business practices and false advertising, and force her to pay victims restitution of at least $33.9 million plus civil penalties.

Brown's lawsuit follows the consumer alert he issued on March 30, 2010, warning consumers to be wary about tax debt scams. It is also one of a series of actions he has taken to protect consumers who suffered during the financial crisis and resulting economic downturn, including his 2008 lawsuit against Countrywide Home Loans that resulted in an $8.68 billion settlement, as well as recent enforcement actions against scams in the foreclosure consultant, loan modification, and property tax reassessment industries.

LOS ANGELES – Praising the “dedicated and courageous efforts” of local law enforcement officials, Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today released the California Department of Justice’s annual crime report for 2009, which continued the promising trend of declining crime rates in California, including a 6.6% reduction in the state’s violent crime rate.

“This latest drop in crime,” Brown said, “is good news for Californians and reflects well on the dedicated and courageous efforts of peace officers throughout the state. Yet it is no cause for complacency. Crime remains a serious problem in California, and law enforcement officials at every level must redouble their efforts to ensure public safety.”

“Crime in California 2009 - Advance Release” is compiled by the California Department of Justice based on data reported by police and sheriff’s departments in all of California’s 58 counties.

The 2009 figures, drawn from crime reports, show that crime rates have declined in every category of offense measured, from homicide (-8.9%) and robbery (-8.6%) to motor vehicle theft (-15.8%) and arson (-14.3%).

In fact, last year’s drop marked the third consecutive year in which violent crime (-6.6%), property crime
(-10.1%), and larceny and theft (-6.5%) rates have all declined. Almost 20,000 fewer violent crimes were committed in 2009 than in 2006.

Overall, since statewide crime peaked in 1992, crime rates in all three categories have been cut in half – the rates have tumbled -58.9% for violent crime, -51.7% for property crime, and -48.5% for larceny and theft. In total, more than 1.4 million arrests were made in California in 2009, down from more than 1.9 million 20 years ago.

Driving the downward trend were California’s five largest counties, all of which recorded significant crime rate declines from 2008 to 2009:

• Los Angeles: violent crime (-9%), property crime (-11%), and larceny and theft (-3.3%)
• San Diego: violent crime (-2.2%), property crime (-22.5%), and larceny and theft (-14.2%)
• Orange: violent crime (-3.6%), property crime (-10.5%), and larceny and theft (-3.7%)
• Riverside: violent crime (-13.4%), property crime (-12.4%), and larceny and theft (-11%)
• San Bernardino: violent crime (-4.5%), property crime (-11%), and larceny and theft (-8.7%)

For more detailed crime statistics and local data, please see the attached report and data tables.