27-month jail term given to Lawrence County woman for mail fraud

By The Tribune-Review Wednesday, April 22, 2009

A federal judge Tuesday sentenced a Lawrence County woman to serve 27 months in prison for embezzling from a Canonsburg business.

Carole L. McConnell, 48, of New Castle, who pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud, was sentenced by Senior U.S. District Judge Maurice B. Cohill.

Prosecutors said McConnell embezzled $358,892 between February 2006 and April 2007 while she worked as the financial controller for AZCAR USA. McConnell forged company checks made payable to herself and her creditors, prosecutors said.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_621736.html

First Choice Federal Credit Union warns members of multiple scam methods

February 9, 2009

First Choice Federal Credit Union warns members of multiple scam methods

Shayna Marti

Issue date: 2/9/09 Section: Community News

NEW CASTLE, Lawrence County--State police say a credit card scam in Lawrence County is now even more sophisticated as online theives target customers of the First Choice Federal Credit Union. Investigators say the scam artists are using a bogus message online, by text and on the phone.

On Friday, members of the credit union in New Castle received text messages telling them that a third party has accessed their account. The message advises members to go to a web site, which asks for personal account information.

CEO of First Choice Federal Credit Union Marilyn Wehr says the web site is a hoax and that members should disregard the message. The scam artists are using a phony web address is FirstChoiceFCU.net, whereas the credit union's real web address is FirstChoiceFCU.com.

"They had copied our web site, taken our logo, and everything on the site was fraudulent," Wehr said, "They had purchased the domain."

The FBI has now joined the investigation, and according to Wehr, the fake web site is based in Portugal.

With the help of the FBI, the credit union has now shut down the fake web site.

Members of the credit union are reminded to disregard any phone calls or text messages that ask for personal account information.

http://media.www.wcn247.com/media/storage/paper1389/news/2009/02/09/CommunityNews/Slick.Thieves.Continue.Credit.Union.Scam-3620260.shtml

Two indicted in PA fraud allegations

Wednesday, February 4, 2009 at 12:56PM

In the following press release (page 3) Mary Beth Buchanan, United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania announced that a grand jury returned a one-count indictment charging Anthony J. Staph Jr., age 42, 132 Firestone Drive, New Castle, Pennsylvania 16105 with Bank Fraud. The indictment alleges that Staph participated in a Bank Fraud Scheme involving Affordable Housing of Lawrence County, Inc. and First Commonwealth Bank.

It is alleged that participants in the bank fraud scheme arranged for Affordable Housing of Lawrence County to purchase seven properties at prices in excess of their fair market values, and that Affordable Housing of Lawrence County applied for a loan from First Commonwealth Bank to purchase the properties.

It is further alleged that Staph prepared fraudulent appraisals of the seven properties that were to serve as collateral for Affordable Housing of Lawrence County’s loan from First Commonwealth Bank. It is alleged that the appraisals were fraudulent in that they overstated the fair market value of the properties, misrepresented the condition of the properties, and falsely represented that the properties were occupied.

In a separate but related charge, the United States Attorney filed a one-count Information charging Gary F. Felasco, Jr., age 41, of Warren, Pennsylvania with willfully failing to file his 2005 income tax returns.

http://www.mortgagefraud.org/journal/2009/2/4/two-indicted-in-pa-fraud-allegations.html