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FRAUDBARON.com
The Anti-Fraud Professionals'
Source for Fraud News
#513 Updated: 11/28/07 10:36 a.m.

Oral Roberts Ex-Accountant Files Suit
webcpa.com | 11/27/07 | WebCPA Staff
A former senior accountant at Oral Roberts University has filed suit for wrongful termination,
claiming he was ordered to "cook the books" by former university president Richard
Roberts, who resigned last week amid accusations that he misspent university funds on
vacations, shopping and horses.  Huddleston said in his suit that he was ordered to list
tens of thousands of dollars as expenses instead of assets, according to the Associated
Press. Nearly $123,000 in funds from the university and Oral Roberts Ministries was used to
remodel the home of Roberts, son of televangelist Oral Roberts, and his wife Lindsay,
according to the suit.  The suit said Huddleston "was improperly and unlawfully directed to
perform functions and duties in violation of state and federal law in an effort by the
defendants to 'cook the books' and hide from the appropriate authorities and the public the
continued wrongdoing."  Huddleston was fired on the day an audit was scheduled to occur.
University regents requested the audit after two professors sued for wrongful termination
and accused Roberts of misspending funds. Two students have also sued the university,
claiming the terminations lowered the value of their degrees.

Man told to pay millions in fraud case
star-telegram.com | 11/2/07 |Yamil Berard
has been ordered to pay about $5 million in a case that involved a Fort Worth healthcare
facility.  The settlement may be used to help repay more than 1,800 investors who bought
municipal revenue bonds intended to develop 10 healthcare facilities for Alzheimer's
patients in four states, including the former St. Joseph Gardens in Fort Worth.  But that
money -- and about $30 million recouped from an earlier class-action lawsuit -- would fall far
short of covering losses to investors, many of whom were likely to be senior citizens.  
"These were everyday folks," said Gregory Blaies, a Fort Worth attorney who was involved
in the investors' class-action suit.  The federal Securities and Exchange Commission said
that Robert A. Kasirer operated a Ponzi-type scheme to enrich himself and his associates.
The agency announced this month that a U.S. district court in California had issued a final
judgment in the case, ordering Kasirer to pay $5 million, supposedly his profits.  Kasirer's
attorney declined comment Tuesday.   The "serial fraud," as described in SEC documents,
began in the mid-1990s and continued over four years.  All told, federal officials said that
$144 million in tax-exempt bonds were sold for two facilities in Florida, one in Chicago, one
in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., and six in Texas: in Fort Worth, Austin, Brownsville, Houston,
east Houston and Texas City.  The facilities were to be developed by Heritage Housing
Development, a Los Angeles nonprofit created in 1993 that was controlled by Kasirer, the
SEC said in federal court documents.  Bond buyers were led to believe that proceeds from
each bond offering would be used to finance one specific healthcare facility.  Instead, the
SEC said in court filings, "from the very beginning, the costs of developing the [healthcare]
facilities, including payments to defendant Kasirer and some of his family members,
outstripped the proceeds from the facilities' respective bond offerings. The defendants
covered the resulting cash shortfalls by operating a type of Ponzi scheme, commingling
bond proceeds and diverting bond proceeds from more recent offerings to pay the
expenses of earlier projects."  Kasirer used the nonprofit housing-development company to
divert bond proceeds and to commingle funds inappropriately, the SEC said. Numerous
tactics were also used to misappropriate funds, the agency said, including having
employees of the nonprofit make false requests for funds to the trustee bank that oversaw
the bond funds.  Board members for the nonprofit were allegedly selling products to the
healthcare facilities. Bond investors said that Kasirer pocketed $3.8 million in profits from
the sale of the St. Joseph facility to Heritage Housing. Heritage selected a company Kasirer
owned to manage the facilities. And Kasirer himself was taking a cut of the fees paid to the
bond underwriter's counsel in the deals, the SEC said. (Excerpt)

KC man pleads guilty in fraud scheme
bizjournals.com | 11/28/07 | Staff Writer
A Kansas City man who was charged in November for his role in a multimillion-dollar
mortgage fraud scheme pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Kansas.  Leslie Saunders,
vice president of Heritage Financial Investments from 2002 to 2004, admitted that in 2003
he had submitted a bogus appraisal on a Kansas City house to a mortgage company to
extract a loan worth nearly $200,000 from an account at UMB Bank in Overland Park
belonging to Liberty Escrow Services Inc. That loan then was deposited into an account
that belonged to Scott Alexander, a Merriam man who was charged along with several
other individuals in a separate indictment that outlined a widespread Kansas City-area
mortgage fraud scheme that obtained $14 million worth of bad loans.  The others named in
the indictment are Wildor Washington Jr. and Victoria Bennett of Leawood, Maurice Ragland
of Lee's Summit, Kara Robinson-Franks of Grandview and Terrence Cole of Kansas City, Kan.
Saunders is scheduled for sentencing Feb. 11. He faces 20 years in federal prison and
$500,000 in fines. As part of his plea agreement, Saunders will testify in any related court
proceedings if the government asks.

Son of NY socialite charged with robbing estate
reuters.com | 11/27/07 |  Edith Honan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The son of the late socialite Brooke Astor pleaded innocent on
Tuesday to charges that he swindled money from his mother's $198 million estate, built
from marrying into one of America's great family fortunes.  A Manhattan grand jury indicted
Anthony Marshall, 83, on 16 counts, including grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen
property and falsifying business reports. It also charged Marshall's former lawyer, Francis
Morrissey, with six counts, including forgery. Morrissey is expected to appear in court
later in the week, prosecutors said.  The indictment alleges Astor's signature was forged on
a modified will that transferred money from some of her favorite charities into Marshall's
control. Astor, who died of pneumonia in August at age 105, was the heir to a
tremendous family fortune and a philanthropist who was a fixture on the city's
social scene for decades.  "Tony Marshall faithfully and effectively managed his mother's
affairs for more than 25 years, increasing the value of her investments from $19 million to
$82 million," Marshall's lawyer, Kenneth E. Warner, said in a written
statement. "Brooke Astor loved Tony, her only child, and whatever he received was in
accordance with her wishes."  Appearing tired and walking with a cane, Marshall posted
$100,000 in bail and surrendered his passport before leaving New York State Supreme
Court with his wife, Charlene.  Marshall, a Broadway producer, is also fighting a civil lawsuit
brought by his son, Philip, claiming he neglected his mother in her final years and looted her
estate. Astor's last years were marked by controversy when a court ordered her care
be taken away from Marshall after he was accused by his son of keeping her in squalid
conditions. Marshall denied the accusations.  Guardianship of Astor was given to her friend
Annette de la Renta, wife of fashion designer Oscar de la Renta. Astor had married Vincent
Astor, heir to the real estate fortune of John Jacob Astor. She inherited about $60 million,
which grew to hundreds of millions, allowing her to donate some $195 million to libraries,
museums and charitable groups.

High-Profile Lawyer Sentenced for Taxes
ap.google.com | 11/27/07 | Thomas Watkins
A civil rights lawyer known for his high-profile cases against police and President Bush was
sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison for federal tax evasion, bankruptcy fraud and
money laundering.  Stephen Yagman, 63, was convicted of trying to avoid paying more than
$100,000 in federal income taxes while living what prosecutors said was a lavish lifestyle
that included shopping sprees and Aspen vacations.  Yagman told U.S. District Judge
Stephen Wilson that he was "a target" for prosecutors because of his legal campaigns
against police.  In a statement spanning two days at the end of his sentencing hearing,
Yagman argued that his problems stemmed from careless inattention.  "I am kind of a
savant, focused on civil rights," Yagman said Monday. "I got sloppy." Wilson said he had
known Yagman professionally for 20 years and called him brave for taking on the
establishment — but he also said Yagman committed his crimes knowingly. He ordered
Yagman to surrender Jan. 15, serve two years of supervised release after his prison
term and pay the costs of his prosecution.  Prosecutors had asked for a nine-year minimum
prison sentence.  "The fact that the defendant is a lawyer is an aggravating factor," federal
prosecutor Alka Sagar said Monday. "He of all people knew the implications of his conduct."
Defense attorney Barry Tarlow said he would appeal Yagman's conviction.  Yagman led high-
profile legal campaigns against police, and over several years filed dozens of lawsuits
claiming that Los Angeles police abused and framed suspects and made false arrests.
He also sued President Bush and other officials, alleging violations of constitutional rights of
a detainee at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and sought class-action
status on behalf of all detainees.  Yagman filed for bankruptcy in 1999, but prosecutors said
he failed to disclose that he lived in a 2,800-square-foot home near the beach. He had,
however, made mortgage and property tax payments on the property and claimed the
homeowner's mortgage-interest deduction on his tax returns.  The government argued that
Yagman paid only a fraction of his income taxes from 1994 to 1997, eventually owing the
IRS more than $158,000 in back taxes, interest and penalties.  Prosecutors also alleged he
failed to pay $30,000 in payroll taxes that his law firm owed during that period and claimed
he hid about $617,000 he received from his mother and elderly relatives from the IRS.
Yagman also tried to hide $70,000 in assets to avoid paying out a civil judgment awarded
against him and his firm in 1996, prosecutors said.  
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