Clients

A Huntington Beach woman, who turned herself in to authorities Monday, on Tuesday denied authorities’ accusations that she bilked clients out of thousands of dollars in an alleged mortgage-adjustment fraud through her Costa Mesa business. “I feel that the police did not listen to my clients who had successful loan modifications completed. I feel my side of the story needs to be heard,” Vickie Khanhvi Dang, 28, said in a statement. “We have testimonials from dozens of grateful clients to support our work,” she added.

Newport Beach Mayor Mike Henn has long championed the revitalization of struggling Lido Village. He led the city's efforts to improve the commercial area's streetscape, redesign streets and parking, and bring more shoppers through its stores. When residents or council members suggested they slow down or focus on other struggling parts of town, such as Mariner's Mile, Henn insisted that Lido Village remain the top priority. "It's good for all the residents of Newport Beach," Henn said in an interview.

A Newport Beach financial advisor has been accused of ripping off two people, including a former intern from his company, out of hundreds of thousands of dollars for personal use. According to a complaint filed Monday in federal court by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Gary R. Headding, 41, stole more than $274,000 from two of his clients at Envision Direct LLC, where he is president and chief executive. In April 2007, Headding was the only financial investor left at the company, which months earlier had more than 50 clients and $40 million in funds.

It is one of the rare days of the baseball season. Scott Boras has no game to attend. The sports agent looks stranded, like the base runner on the nearby 60-inch flat-screen TV trying to score the game-winning run. Ninety feet seems so distant, almost as far as the nearest baseball game in San Francisco for Boras. The Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and San Diego Padres are all on the road. “This only happens five times a season when we don’t have a game in Southern California,” Boras said.

A Newport Beach man who pleaded not guilty to stealing money from his oil and gas business' clients is scheduled to go to trial next month. Thomas Labry, who had his Costa Mesa-based Cherokee Gas Systems Inc. shut down earlier this year by the Securities and Exchange Commission, pleaded not guilty May 3 to stealing more than $1.4 million of his clients' money between 2008 and 2009. Labry is accused of using automated equipment to make cold calls to Oklahoma residents offering them pieces of land to develop oil and natural gas wells for $25,000 a piece.

A doctor was arrested at his Irvine office on suspicion of illegally prescribing his clients with opiates and accepting cash for pills, authorities said Wednesday. Alvin Mingczech Yee, 43, of Mission Viejo was arrested Tuesday night after a 56-count grand jury indictment charged him with prescribing pills "outside the usual course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose," according to a news release from the Department of Justice. Huntington Beach and Orange police assisted Drug Enforcement Administration agents in arresting Yee. Authorities claim Yee met clients at coffee shops like Starbucks across Orange County, sometimes meeting with up to 12 people a night.

COSTA MESA - Noted sports attorney Leigh Steinberg will speak on his life, career and best-selling book, "Winning With Integrity: Getting What You're Worth Without Selling Your Soul," Monday at 7 p.m. in Classroom 7 at Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa. Steinberg has 25 years of sports business experience and is the founding partner of Steinberg & Moorad, a law firm representing more than 150 high-profile professional athletes. He is also the chairman and CEO of Assante Enterprises, a multi-billion-dollar Canadian wealth management firm that handles financial matters for clients such as Tom Cruise and David Letterman.

Skiver Advertising took home 14 awards at the 2010-11 Orange County Addy Awards, the Newport Beach-based company announced in a news release. Skiver won nine silver and five bronze awards in multiple categories at the 23rd annual advertising industry awards event. "It's awesome to know that your work is respected, and it's been great to watch the team that worked so hard for our clients to have the opportunity to step into the limelight," chief executive Jeremy Skiver said in a prepared statement.

It is about 8 a.m. on a Saturday in Newport Beach. The town is still quiet, but at a swank Irvine Co. office building in Fashion Island cars are pulling up in the front circular drive. They are full of a diverse group of people who have signed up for "Master Class," produced by a company known as STYLE 2020. Founded several years ago by O.C. entrepreneur Kathryn Moore , STYLE 2020, headquartered in Newport Beach and with a global reach, is a personal branding company.

Newport Beach officials have declined to release the results of an investigation into the tree that fell and killed motorist Haeyoon Miller in September. While the blue gum eucalyptus tree on Irvine Avenue straddled the Newport Beach-Costa Mesa border, Newport was responsible for the tree's maintenance. Newport city officials hired an arborist to investigate the accident, in addition to separate analyses by staff members and tree maintenance contractors. The Daily Pilot filed a request for the report under the California Public Records Act. The request was formally declined Friday.

NEWPORT BEACH - Some people call them teacher of the year, family doctor, engineer or Girl Scout leader. Nancy Clark calls them clients. For 15 years, Clark has run a shoplifting addiction treatment program on Old Newport Boulevard. Many clients attend in lieu of possible jail or prison sentences. Despite stereotypes about petty thieves snatching items out of financial desperation, many of the folks in the program are well-to-do. They see shoplifting as an addiction that gives an endorphin rush on par with drugs.

A doctor was arrested at his Irvine office on suspicion of illegally prescribing his clients with opiates and accepting cash for pills, authorities said Wednesday. Alvin Mingczech Yee, 43, of Mission Viejo was arrested Tuesday night after a 56-count grand jury indictment charged him with prescribing pills "outside the usual course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose," according to a news release from the Department of Justice. Huntington Beach and Orange police assisted Drug Enforcement Administration agents in arresting Yee. Authorities claim Yee met clients at coffee shops like Starbucks across Orange County, sometimes meeting with up to 12 people a night.

SANTA ANA — An Orange County Superior Court jury will decide the fate of 10 college students accused of illegally disrupting Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren's speech last year at UC Irvine. After two full days of closing statements from six defense attorneys and one prosecutor, the so-called Irvine 11 case was given to the jurors. Deliberations on two misdemeanor counts of conspiring to and then disrupting the address are set to begin Wednesday morning and last one to two days.

The trial for a San Diego attorney who allegedly instructed a client to break into a foreclosed home as a media stunt began Tuesday and is expected to last a week, prosecutors said. Michael T. Pines, 59, is charged with misdemeanor vandalism, burglary, unauthorized entry of a dwelling and resisting police. He faces up to a year in jail and $10,000 in fines. Authorities said Pines told his client, Rene Hector Zepeda, 72, to break into a home he previously owned to repossess it, then alerted the media, an agent from the bank who owned the home and police to his plan.

Newport Beach Mayor Mike Henn has long championed the revitalization of struggling Lido Village. He led the city's efforts to improve the commercial area's streetscape, redesign streets and parking, and bring more shoppers through its stores. When residents or council members suggested they slow down or focus on other struggling parts of town, such as Mariner's Mile, Henn insisted that Lido Village remain the top priority. "It's good for all the residents of Newport Beach," Henn said in an interview.

SANTA ANA — An Orange County Superior Court judge on Thursday ordered the district attorney's office to remove its main investigator and three top deputies from the case against a group of college students accused of disrupting an ambassador's speech at UC Irvine. Judge Peter Wilson's dismissal of the prosecutors attempts to remedy the D.A.'s unauthorized use of privileged documents used to help build a case against the Irvine 11, a group of UCI and UC Riverside students charged with conspiracy to disrupt Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren's February 2010 speech at the UCI campus.

Skiver Advertising took home 14 awards at the 2010-11 Orange County Addy Awards, the Newport Beach-based company announced in a news release. Skiver won nine silver and five bronze awards in multiple categories at the 23rd annual advertising industry awards event. "It's awesome to know that your work is respected, and it's been great to watch the team that worked so hard for our clients to have the opportunity to step into the limelight," chief executive Jeremy Skiver said in a prepared statement.

NEWPORT BEACH — Sixty years ago, a lawyer could make his career off the railroads. These days, a more diverse portfolio is required. In 1951, Newport Beach law firm Cummins & White was formed to serve a then-booming business in railroad law with goliath clients, such as the Santa Fe Southern Railway. This month, the firm celebrates its 60th anniversary and acknowledges the many clients — some who have been with the firm for decades — who helped the business thrive, managing partner James Wakefield said Monday.