On Q Professional Investigations

Toronto Canada March 4 2015 Three people are each facing 10 charges after they allegedly held a 14-year-old girl captive in a hotel and forced her into prostitution.

On Feb. 27, hotel security officers in the Bay St. and Dundas St. W. area responded to a noise complaint, and went to a room where they found a girl who had allegedly been confined there for a week.

The girl’s belongings, including her cell phone, were taken from her and the phone in the hotel room was disabled, say police.

The accused allegedly advertised sexual services online and arranged for the girl to meet with clients. She was forced to perform sexual services and hand over any money she made to her captors, police said.

The same day security officers found the girl, Toronto police’s Sex Crimes Human Trafficking Enforcement Team arrested two men and a woman.

Toronto residents Sage Finestone, 21, and Nicholas Faria, 19, as well as 18-year-old Natasha Robataille, of no fixed address, are each facing 10 charges, including forcible confinement, trafficking a person under 18, advertising another person’s sexual services, as well as a number of other trafficking offences.

The 14-year-old girl is safe at home with her family, but police believe there may be more victims.

Anyone with information is asked to call 416-808-7400 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477).

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Dayton OH March 3 2015 A Miamisburg U.S. Bank manager who allegedly embezzled more than $5.2 million to reportedly feed a gambling habit has agreed to enter a guilty plea.

Amy Scarpelli, 48 when she was arrested last year, is scheduled to plead guilty to one count of embezzlement in front of U.S. District Court Judge Walter Rice on April 2 in Dayton’s U.S. District Court.

“The parties have reached a plea agreement, which will be filed on the day that there’s a change of plea hearing,” assistant U.S. attorney Brent Tabacchi said. “The ultimate format of the plea agreement, whether it’s a binding plea agreement or some other iteration, is still to be determined.”

There are other people listed in the federal complaint against Scarpelli, but Tabacchi did not address whether or not they will face prosecution in this case.

As for Scarpelli’s plea deal, prosecutors and defense attorneys Dennis Gump and Lawrence Greger are still determining the parameters and don’t agree on the actual loss amount. Whether or not the attorneys agree on a sentence range, Rice ultimately can impose any sentence he chooses.

“I think she’s accepting responsibility for her participation in the statement of facts that she’s willing to accept,” Gump said. “We’ve worked closely with the U.S. attorneys office and they’ve provided us everything that we’ve asked for.”

The federal statutory maximum penalty for embezzlement is 30 years, but Gump said the range Scarpelli would face is more like four to six or seven years.

“I think gambling is a disease no different than alcohol or drugs,” Gump said. “And I think that we present to the court our sentencing memorandum as they will be presenting theirs and then it will be up to Judge Rice to decide that sentence in that range.”

A federal complaint alleged that Scarpelli and her friends gambled, vacationed and spent freely from 2009 to 2014. The document stated that Scarpelli had approximately $12,287,112.37 in “coins in,” or money spent at slot machines, at Hollywood Casino, while her domestic partner had $7,702,695.22 in “coins in.” Both were awarded “icon” status at the casino in Lawrenceburg, Ind.

Scarpelli and her domestic partner also allegedly purchased some lots at Lake Waynoka. A Secret Service investigation “revealed Caribbean cruises,” paid for by Scarpelli and her domestic partner. Scarpelli also bought a lake house, campers, boats, motorcycles and cars, according to a court document.

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It didn’t take long for fraud to find its way to Apple Pay.

Some banks are witnessing a growing incidence of fraud on Apple Inc.’s mobile-payment service as criminals exploit vulnerabilities in the verification process banks follow when users add a credit card to the service, according to people familiar with the matter.

Banks are tightening this process in an attempt to curb the fraud, these people said.

The problem was brought to light in late February in a blog post by Cherian Abraham, a payments expert who works with banks and retailers on mobile-payment strategies. He said fraud “is growing like a weed, and the bank is unable to tell friend from foe.”

Mr. Abraham said it isn’t “an anomaly” for fraud to account for about 6% of Apple Pay transactions, compared with about 0.1% on transactions that involve swiping a credit card.

He said that fraud rates on credit cards vary, depending on the bank that issued them.

Mr. Abraham is an adviser to SimplyTapp, which provides the host-card-emulation technology for contactless payments on devices using Google Inc.’s Android operating system. Those payment systems compete with Apple Pay.

Mr. Abraham said other mobile-payment services might be exposed to the same fraud problem, “irrespective of origin, scale, intent or patron saint.”

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