On Q Professional Investigations

A 24-hour caregiver has been accused of being part of a scheme that bilked an elderly Palos Hills woman out of $631,000.

Two other women who also were allegedly involved are being sought but may have fled the country, Palos Hills police Chief Paul Madigan said Thursday.

Marion Issert, 65, of Joliet, was arrested Wednesday and charged with one count of felony senior financial exploitation, Madigan said.

Authorities believe the other two women fled to the Philippines. Madigan said police believe one was a friend of the victim’s who may have helped Issert get a job as her caregiver.

The suspects allegedly took the money from the woman’s bank account between June and October, police said, taking the woman to banks to transfer funds out of her account.

Police said the suspects initially asked the woman to donate the money to a church group in the Philippines, but she refused.

“Apparently they took it upon themselves to get the money transferred into their own accounts, and they were trying to send the money overseas,” Madigan said.

Palos Hills police were notified about a possible theft a few weeks ago by the PLOWS Council on Aging, he said.

“PLOWS was contacted by a bank who thought there was some suspicious activity on the accounts, which is an understatement,” Madigan said.

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FRAZER TOWNSHIP (KDKA) – Four people are facing numerous charges after police say they tried to pass off thousands in fake $100 bills at the Pittsburgh Mills Mall.

Police say three men and one female, a juvenile, from the Bronx, New York, passed off the counterfeit money at about 20 stores.

They allegedly would buy $5 or $6 worth of merchandise at a store to make change out of the fake bills. Police say they had thousands in fake $100 bills.

“They were making small purchases, small items and they would pay with big bills and receive real money for the correct change, so they were washing the money,” said Frazer Police Sgt. Brian Pazak.

Among the stores hit were Victoria’s Secret, American Eagle, Foot Action, H&M and Starbucks.

Mall security reported the bogus bills at one of the stores and an officer spotted the foursome leaving the mall and pulled them over.

They were later arrested during a traffic stop.

The suspects have been identified as 27-year-old Raul Agero, 26-year-old Steven Orr, 18-year-old Juan Quinones and a 17-year-old female.

All four face 22 counts of forgery each, plus additional counts of theft and corruption of a minor.

The three men were taken the Allegheny County Jail and the juvenile female was taken to the Shuman Center.

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Following recent high-profile hack attacks on U.S. companies, President Obama wants new protections for American consumers.

On a visit to the Federal Trade Commission, Obama unveiled several pieces of proposed legislation he said will boost cyber-security, improve consumer privacy and prevent identity theft. The measures are expected to be included in his State of the Union address next week.

“This is a direct threat to the economic security of American families, and we’ve got to stop it,” Obama said of cyber-crime. “If we’re going to be connected, then we have to be protected.”

Congress will need to act on the proposals, and require Republican support. Here is how Obama’s proposed measures might impact you:

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Today, we are announcing a partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to send AMBER Alerts to the Facebook community to help find missing children.

The new initiative will deliver AMBER Alerts to people’s News Feeds in targeted search areas after a child has been abducted and the National Center has issued an alert.

These alerts, which include photographs and other details about the missing child, are shown on mobile and desktop. People can share the alert with friends and link directly to the National Center’s missing child poster, which always has the most up-to-date information about the case.

For years, people have used Facebook to post news articles about missing children and AMBER Alerts. In several cases, someone saw a post or photo in their News Feed, took action, and a child was safely returned.

In 2014, an 11-year-old girl was safely recovered after a motel owner recognized her from an AMBER Alert that a friend had shared on Facebook. The woman called the police, and the child was found unharmed. It’s amazing word-of-mouth efforts like this that inspired us to develop a more systematic way to help find missing children on Facebook.

We know the chances of finding a missing child increase when more people are on the lookout, especially in the critical first hours. Our goal is to help get these alerts out quickly to the people who are in the best position to help.

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A couple of years after Igor Vorotinov’s wife told his insurer that he died in Moldova, the FBI grew suspicious.

The purported death of Igor in October 2011 netted his widow, Irina Vorotinov, reportedly of Minneapolis, Maple Grove and Plymouth, more than $2 million from a life insurance claim.

That claim — which included a badly putrefied body, found lying on the side of a rural Moldovan village road — was false, prosecutors now say.

Irina Vorotinov, 50, and her son, Alkon Vorotinov, 25, were charged Tuesday in federal court in St. Paul — the purported widow with mail fraud, and her son with having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony and concealing a crime.

According to a criminal complaint, Mutual of Omaha, the insurance company that paid Vorotinov’s claim, hired a private firm to investigate the 2011 death.

That firm interviewed the Moldovan police officer who found the supposed body of Igor Vorotinov.

The officer received an anonymous 902 call (the equivalent of 911 in the United States), saying a dead body was at the entrance of Cojusna village in Moldova, an eastern European country between Romania and Ukraine.

The officer said he found the body on the side of the road between two bushes and determined there were no signs of violence; he then called his son to help him take it to a morgue in Straseni.

A passport and hotel cards belonging to Igor Vorotinov were found with the body.

Neither the police officer nor the morgue took pictures of the body, because neither authority “had access to a camera,” the complaint stated.
Irina Vorotinov traveled to Moldova from the Twin Cities, identified the body as her husband and ordered it cremated. She then took the ashes back home to Minnesota.

In March 2012, she received a check from Mutual of Omaha for $2,048,414.09 in life insurance proceeds.

More than a year later, in June 2013, the FBI received a tip from an anonymous source in Moldova that Igor Vorotinov was not in his widow’s urn.

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Just before the winter holiday break in 2013, the accounts clerk at Helen Cox High School reported an astonishing crime. She told investigators that an armed robber showed up at the Harvey school’s office and made off with potentially thousands of dollars in cash and checks, all of it collected from students for senior dues, candy sales and other school functions such as dances, according to Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office records.

But after school officials investigated, they pointed to the clerk herself as the culprit. Nieli Hebert, 45, is suspected of embezzling about $75,000 over more than a year, according to a new audit and Sheriff’s Office records. Prosecutors are trying to decide whether to charge Hebert with a crime, her attorney said Tuesday.

Soon after Hebert reported the robbery, she resigned. School system officials began to examine Cox’s books and talk to other employees. They eventually told police that Hebert might have stolen the money, and the Sheriff’s Office arrested her March 31.

Witnesses told investigators that Hebert received cash and checks collected by teachers for the student activity fund. She entered the amounts in her computer and gave receipts to teachers.

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MUSKOGEE OK Jan 8 2015 — Authorities are asking for the public’s help in identifying a man who committed a jewelry theft Dec. 26 inside Arrowhead Mall.

Muskogee Police Sgt. Michael Mahan said a white man entered Zales about 1 p.m. and asked to look at wedding rings. The man was shown a ring valued at more than $4,000, which he took and then began to walk toward the register, Mahan said.
Store personnel asked for the ring for payment purposes, at which point the man fled the store and got into a white automobile driven by a second unknown person, Mahan said.

Anyone with information regarding the crime may contact the Muskogee Police Department at 918-683-8000 or Muskogee Crime Stoppers at 918-682-COPS.

Crime Stoppers offers rewards up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest.

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WICHITA, KAN. - A former banker from Great Bend appeared in federal court in Wichita Monday on charges including embezzlement, money laundering and making false entries in bank records, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said.

Brian W. Harrison, 55, Great Bend, Kan., is charged with three counts of making false entries in bank records, 16 counts of falsifying loan and credit applications, two counts of embezzlement, and two counts of money laundering.

The indictment, which was unsealed today, alleges the crimes occurred while Harrison was a vice president and loan officer at Farmers Bank & Trust in Great Bend.

The indictment alleges Harrison made false statements to Farmers Bank to hide the poor performance of loans he made, approved and maintained. The false statements served to deflect questions from Farmers Bank about the performance of Harrison’s portfolio. The indictment alleges Harrison:

Falsified credit and loan applications without authority of the borrower.

Obtained loans based on false statements.

Refinanced or consolidated loans to hide problems with loan repayments.

Authorized loans in the name of a borrower without the borrower’s authority.

Instructed a borrower to dispose of loan collateral in a way that damaged Farmers Bank.

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Woodinville police officers and booked into the King County Correctional Facility in downtown Seattle on 30 counts of suspected theft from his employer, SportsArt of Woodinville.

According to King County Superior Court documents, King confessed to the embezzlement and to stealing up to $30,000 from a local high school booster club that is not identified.

The 49-year-old King is a self-described active Mormon church member and local sports booster. He posted a photo of himself with Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll on his Facebook page.

King County Sheriff’s Sgt. D.B. Gates told KIRO 7 that King, while working in the accounts receivable department at SportsArt, created a bogus company and bank account with a name similar enough to SportsArt that “he was able to take some of the checks that were coming in to the business and deposit them into the fake account.”

In a jail courtroom Wednesday, SportsArt employee Anne Devney told Judge Mark Chow that King replaced her when she left the company, but that she was recently re-hired to uncover King’s alleged theft.

Devney asked Chow to set a high bail, arguing the amount King allegedly stole is enough to skip town with and “he’s licensed to carry a firearm, and we worry about that because he could take that against people at SportsArt.”

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Civilian security personnel at public schools in the Fredericksburg area and statewide could carry stun guns and other nonlethal weapons if Del. Mark Cole gets his way.

Cole, R–Spotsylvania County, has introduced a bill for the upcoming General Assembly session that would allow school boards to equip security officers with stun guns, batons and spray devices such as Mace.

The bill would not let those officers—who are employed by school systems, not sheriff’s offices—have actual guns.

“I’m not concerned about them having to Taser a student or something like that,” Cole said. “I’m concerned about an armed intruder.” He added that he thought a bill allowing nonlethal weapons rather than guns had the best chance of passing.

School systems in Spotsylvania and Stafford counties have security officers at every high school.

They also have armed school resource officers. or SROs, at all middle and high schools. SROs are sworn deputies who report to sheriff’s offices.

Some Spotsylvania officials have questioned the effectiveness of the unarmed security personnel, with Supervisor Greg Cebula calling them “glorified hall monitors.”

Last year, the Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors voted to reject state grants that would have partially covered the cost of hiring security personnel at Lee Hill and Spotswood elementary schools.

Cole, who is also Spotsylvania’s deputy county administrator, said his bill is unrelated to that discussion, which he said “highlights the plight” of the security officers. Spotsylvania’s security personnel carry radios but don’t have any weapons, schools spokeswoman Rene Daniels said.

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