Fraud

A Baltimore man claiming to be a financial adviser who could produce high returns without high risk pleaded guilty Friday to mail fraud in connection with a scheme that bilked $890,000 from clients, according to federal and state prosecutors. Casey Charles, 33, faces up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine, prosecutors said. According to prosecutors, Charles established Infinite Equity Strategies LLC in 2007. Via direct mail and ads in newspapers and on TV, he promoted the company as a financial adviser whose clients had not lost money in the recession.

Circuit Judge Dennis M. Sweeney denied Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold's request for acquittal on all charges in his misconduct trial, clearing the way for closing arguments Tuesday. The defense rested today after calling a total of three witnesses: two doctors to testify to Leopold's health in 2010, and the county personnel director, who said she processed Leopold's requests to give some of his pay back to the county. Leopold's attorneys also entered his health records into evidence after asking Sweeney to seal them to preserve his privacy as a patient.

A federal grand jury in Baltimore indicted a man Tuesday in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme in which he allegedly bilked banks out of $2.5 million, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. Joshua S. Goldberg was charged with three counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The indictment alleges Goldberg and others, through the Baltimore-based Worthington Mortgage Group, falsified applications and appraisals to get mortgages from 2004 to 2008 on at least five properties.

Attorneys likely will begin laying out their cases before week's end in the criminal trial of Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold, who is accused of using taxpayer-funded police officers for his personal and political benefit. Leopold on Thursday waived his right to a jury trial, which means the case will be heard and decided by Circuit Judge Dennis M. Sweeney. The decision came after the trial opened Thursday with a day of jury selection. Leopold, 69, was indicted last March on four counts of misconduct in office and one count of fraudulent misappropriation by a fiduciary.

For nearly a year since John R. Leopold was charged with using his taxpayer-funded police detail to arrange sexual liaisons and defeat his political adversaries, the Anne Arundel County executive has said little in public about the allegations. This week, he will answer the accusations in court. Jury selection is scheduled to start Wednesday in the trial of Leopold on charges of misconduct and fraud. Prosecutors could begin presenting their case against the second-term Republican by the end of the week.

Michael Mershon can get pretty stirred up about lighting. He's been working in the business for more than 30 years, most of that time in Maryland, and said he's seen local governments waste millions of dollars on lighting jobs through contract practices that were sloppy, or worse. He was worked up enough early last year to file a complaint with the Howard County auditor, detailing how companies he was representing were prevented from bidding against a large lighting company for a job on a county athletic field.

Three Marylanders have been indicted for mortgage fraud related to homes in Baltimore's Reservoir Hill neighborhood, federal prosecutors announced Friday. Kimberly Eileen McMillian, 45, of Baltimore, Olutoyin Oladosu, 53, of Lanham, and Glenroy Emanuel Day, Sr., 73, of Baltimore, were indicted by a grand jury Wednesday on charges of conspiracy to commit and committing wire fraud, the U.S. Attorney's Office for Maryland said in a statement. McMillian, prosecutors allege, pretended to be a real estate agent representing New York investors interested in buying properties in Baltimore.

An Upper Marlboro mortgage broker has admitted to inflating her clients' incomes so that they would qualify for larger mortgage loans - a scheme that caused lenders to lose more than $1.3 million, officials said. Licensed mortgage broker and the owner of the Newgate Mortgage company, Shola Risikat Balogun, pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a plot she led to make money off loan origination fees, commissions and other premiums, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for Maryland.

A 48-year-old Baltimore man was sentenced to five years in prison for fraudulently claiming hundreds of thousands of dollars in unemployment benefits from the state using false identities, a scheme he conducted in part while already behind bars on unrelated charges, according to the Maryland U.S. attorney's office. Kevin Bernard Smith, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit access device fraud and aggravated identity theft, will also have to serve three years of supervised release, prosecutors said.