Fraud

SANTA ANA — The Blue Note Bandit’s remarkable run is over, authorities said Friday. After 15 bank robberies in Orange County during a two-and-a-half-month period, including at least two in Costa Mesa, authorities Wednesday arrested and booked David Andrew Camp, 50, an unemployed salesman from Laguna Niguel, for allegedly committing the crimes. A team of FBI and Orange County Sheriff’s Department personnel arrested Camp on an unrelated warrant from Los Angeles.

In almost all serious categories, crime was down in Newport Beach in 2009 compared with 2008. From public drunkenness and driving under the influence to robberies and assaults, police saw decreases in many frequent crimes last year. According to Police Department statistics, there was a 28% decrease in public drunkenness in 2009. Police recorded 730 incidents in Newport Beach last year, compared with 1,009 incidents in 2008. Last year’s total was the lowest amount of drunkenness incidents tallied since 2006, according department statistics.

A San Clemente man who operated a Ponzi scheme out of his Newport Beach-based company was sentenced to 13 years and three months in federal prison, federal officials announced Tuesday. John Anthony Miller, 52, was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty last year to mail fraud, bribery, passport fraud and identity fraud charges related to the Ponzi scheme he operated through his companies, JAM Jr. Enterprises and Forte Financial Partners. From 2000 through 2008, Miller ripped off more than 130 people out of more than $21 million, officials said.

A federal judge Tuesday threw out the government’s case against Newport Beach resident and former Broadcom executive William Ruehle, scolding the prosecutors for their “shameful” conduct that tainted justice. U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney dismissed the Securities and Exchange Commission’s case against Ruehle, 67, the company’s former chief financial officer, and Henry T. Nicholas III, Broadcom’s former chief executive. Both were accused of lying to the government about backdating stock options for employees.

A Newport Beach woman is scheduled to be arraigned today on a dozen charges that she is the mastermind of a mortgage fraud scheme that ripped banks off of more than $3.6 million. Mailan Thu Tran, 45, of Newport Coast, is charged with 11 counts of grand theft and one count of conspiracy to commit grand theft with sentencing enhancements for the crimes of making banks lose more than $2.5 million. She faces up to 14 years and eight months in prison if convicted on all charges.

Offering stock options that couldn’t be cashed in for two or three years was key to retaining employees with the Broadcom business in its first years, Broadcom co-founder Henry Samueli testified Tuesday during the fraud trial of the company’s chief financial officer. “It was a wonderful retention tool,” Samueli, a Newport Beach billionaire, testified during William Ruehle’s trial. Samueli testified in Ruehle’s defense that he came highly recommended as a potential hire by every Wall Street banker he talked to, and was widely known as a man of unshakable integrity.

Offering stock options that couldn’t be cashed in for two or three years was key to retaining employees with the Broadcom business in its first years, Broadcom co-founder Henry Samueli testified Tuesday during the fraud trial of the company’s chief financial officer. “It was a wonderful retention tool,” Samueli, a Newport Beach billionaire, testified on Tuesday during William Ruehle’s trial. Samueli testified in Ruehle’s defense that he came highly recommended as a potential hire by every Wall Street banker he talked to, and was widely known as a man of unshakable integrity.