Search

Reports that former vice president and former salesman of California-based Homestore Inc., Clayton Chan and Geoffrey Infeld, will plead guilty to charges that they participated in fraudulent transactions to inflate the company’s advertising revenue.

LOS ANGELES -- Kinde Durkee, a former campaign treasurer for a number of California Democrats, pleaded guilty on Friday to five counts of mail fraud involving a long-running scheme in which she stole millions of dollars from candidates. Federal prosecutors said the scheme, in which Ms. Durkee stole more than $7 million from dozens of campaigns, is the largest case of embezzlement by a campaign treasurer ever brought to court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A politically connected financial firm and its founder pleaded guilty Friday to taking part in fraud and bid-rigging conspiracies related to the municipal bond business. The Justice Department said CDR Financial Products of Beverly Hills, Calif., and its owner, David Rubin, entered guilty pleas in federal court in Manhattan. The department said that they each acknowledged their roles in schemes intended to win contracts to invest the proceeds of municipal bonds issued by state, county and local governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the guilty plea of charity events promoter Aaron Tonken to federal charges of fraud in Los Angeles, California. Sentence to be given to Tonken; Accounts on the admission of Tonken on the accusation against him; Statement given by Tonken's lawyer Alan I. Rubin.

Reports that Timothy N. Belden, former head of trading at Enron Corporation's Portland, Oregon office, pleaded guilty to conspiring to illegally manipulate the California power market during the state's energy crisis. How the plea establishes that traders took advantage of California's energy crisis; Calls for reimbursement and greater regulatory scrutiny; Details of the plea and its ramifications; Possibility that Enron itself could be charged with a crime.