Sacramento Federal Criminal Defense Law Blog

A man accused of embezzling money from a California company was indicted on July 11 by a federal grand jury. The man, Dennis Blieden, has become well-known in the poker field for his quick climb from unknown to superstar, but according to court papers, he may have used stolen money to help fund his rise.

Blieden allegedly forged the signature of an executive at the company where he worked, StyleHaul, on a fake lease for a condominium in Mexico. He then transferred funds for his own use by claiming expenses on the condo from employees and company clients. Furthermore, he created fake wire transfer letters that appeared to be client payments. The press release from the Department of Justice says that he purchased cryptocurrency with the money he had embezzled and used it for online gambling. He reportedly wrote more than $1 million in personal checks to some other poker competitors, moved over $8 million into cryptocurrency accounts and paid more than $1 million in credit card bills with embezzled funds.

Federal prosecutors say that a 29-year-old man embezzled more than $22 million from a California marketing firm to enter poker tournaments, invest in cryptocurrencies, and pay his credit card bills. The man was taken into custody in Las Vegas on July 10 according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California. He has been charged with 14 counts of wire fraud, forfeiture, and aggravated identity theft and could be sentenced to more than 200 years in a federal prison if convicted on all counts.

The man was hired by the marketing company, which represents several social media influencers, in October 2015. Prosecutors say that he took advantage of the control he had over the firm's bank accounts to transfer funds to his personal account until he was fired in March 2019. The company ceased operations in the United States in March but continues to do business in the United Kingdom according to media reports.

Fraud is one of the most common white collar crimes. Professionals who engage in fraud often think of it as a victimless crime. They may assume that insurance will cover any losses or that they are stealing from a corporation, not from people.

The federal government is quick to disabuse people of those misconceptions when it discovers cases of health care fraud. After all, taxpayers are often the ones left covering the bill when providers defraud health care insurance programs.

A former CBS Employees Federal Credit Union manager has admitted that he embezzled more than $40 million from his employer over two decades. The 62-year-old man entered his guilty plea to embezzlement charges on May 20 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. He faces the prospect of being sent to prison for up to 30 years when he is sentenced on Sept. 16. He has been held in federal custody since March because U.S. attorneys believe that he is a flight risk and poses an economic threat to the community.

According to court documents, the man stole the money by forging the signatures of credit union members on checks made out to himself or by transferring credit union funds into his personal bank account on the internet. He then falsified credit union records to conceal his activities and make the institution appear profitable. Prosecutors say his embezzlement was the primary reason the National Credit Union Administration determined the Studio City-based institution to be insolvent and ordered its liquidation.