Fraud

A Newport Beach woman pleaded not guilty Friday to stealing nearly a quarter-million dollars from a local hair salon. Bethany Jane Brady, 43, faces charges of grand theft, computer fraud and money laundering, among others, after police said she stole more than $245,000 from Hampton Salon in Newport Beach. Prosecutors said Brady was the salon’s bookkeeper for more than 15 years, and in the last three, began siphoning money for her personal expenses. Brady worked for an accounting firm and oversaw the Hampton Salon account.

A Newport Beach woman charged with stealing nearly $250,000 from a local salon remained jailed Monday, as she delayed her arraignment until the end of the month. Bethany Jane Brady, 43, is charged with four felonies including grand theft, identity theft and computer fraud for allegedly bilking Newport Beach’s Hampton Salon out of $245,000. Prosecutors said between October 2006 and August 2009 she used the salon’s bank account to pay her utility bills and credit card debt.

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.

Costa Mesa police are asking for the public’s help to find a woman accused of defrauding people out of thousands of dollars, after attempts through her attorney at persuading the suspect to turn herself in failed, officials said Friday. Vickie Khanhvi Dang, 28, is wanted on suspicion of grand theft for allegedly running a sham mortgage-adjustment firm out of an office on Anton Boulevard in Costa Mesa. Since October 2008, Dang promoted her business on local Vietnamese radio stations, Police said.

This corrects an earlier version of this story. Authorities seized a local firm’s records, and at least one employee faces arrest after Costa Mesa detectives and Orange County district attorney fraud investigators served an Anton Boulevard business with a search warrant Wednesday. Authorities searched Dinh & Associates PC, at 575 Anton Blvd., across the street from South Coast Plaza. Detectives and prosecuting investigators carried out boxes of files and electronics Wednesday morning as potential evidence in their criminal investigation.

Local billionaire and Broadcom Corp. founder Henry Samueli next year will be at the mercy of a federal judge, who’ll sentence him to prison for pleading guilty to lying to government investigators about his role in a fraud. On Thursday, Samueli lost an appeal in the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He was appealing Judge Cormac Carney’s decision to not accept a plea bargain that he and prosecutors had agreed to last year. Samueli pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about his company’s alleged stock-option back-dating scheme for Broadcom employees.

A Santa Ana woman who did not appear in federal court Friday to be sentenced for defrauding a local consulting company committed suicide in a Costa Mesa park and was found Saturday morning, authorities said. Jamie Watkins, 52, hanged herself from a tree at Shiffer Park off Bear Street in Costa Mesa sometime either Friday night or Saturday morning, police said. She was facing 10 years in federal prison for defrauding Deloitte Consulting LLP out of $550,000 between June 2000 and October 2003.

A Costa Mesa woman was sentenced to 10 years in prison Friday for her part in the largest medical insurance fraud scheme the country has seen. Sue Nanda, 41, pleaded guilty to 22 felony counts of conspiracy earlier this year for helping doctors and attorneys defraud California out of $154 million in insurance claims. Nanda was a “capper” for Unity Outpatient Surgery Center in Orange County, meaning she helped persuade patients to receive unnecessary surgical procedures so doctors could file claims with insurance companies and get paid.