South Carolina
Couple sentenced for rent-to-own scheme
ANDERSON, S.C. (AP) — A couple who ran a rent-to-own scheme that marketed itself as a Christian organization promising to create a “win-win” scenario for home buyers and sellers were sentenced to prison Tuesday in South Carolina.
Federal Judge Timothy Cain also ordered Michael “Bubba” Roush and Dana Roush to pay $2.6 million in restitution to the nearly 200 victims of Kingdom Connected Investments, the company that operated the scheme, The Greenville News reported.
Michael Roush pleaded guilty to a mail fraud conspiracy charge in June 2019, nearly three months before his wife was found guilty of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and equity skimming by a federal grand jury.
Federal prosecutors said last September that the couple’s company had promised mortgage relief to homeowners by purchasing their home and finding a rent-to-own buyer for the property. The company also agreed to pay the seller’s mortgage.
Instead of using the payments from buyers to pay down the mortgages, prosecutors said the couple used the money for personal expenses and to expand their real estate business. A news release from the U.S. Attorney’s office said the company received $2.6 million from buyers and only paid $1.4 million in mortgage payments.
The sellers often received foreclosure notices, and the buyers learned they didn’t have ownership when the home was purchased by a third party at a foreclosure sale. Nearly 130 properties were involved in the scam, which also targeted homeowners in North Carolina and Georgia, according to the newspaper.
Dana Roush has been in the Anderson City Jail for a year after violating a condition of her bond, the newspaper reported. She was sentenced to approximately 11 years in prison for her role in the company and another embezzlement case. Michael “Bubba” Roush was sentenced in Anderson to nearly seven years in prison.
Michael Roush’s attorney asked the judge to consider a lighter prison sentence to allow him to work and repay victims, the newspaper reported. It was not immediately clear if Dana Roush had a lawyer who could comment.
Virginia
Judge allows U.S. lawsuit against Libyan commander to move ahead
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — A federal judge has rejected a request from a Libyan military commander who once lived in Virginia to toss out lawsuits accusing him of war atrocities.
At a hearing Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Judge Leonie Brinkema said the accusations against Libyan National Army leader Khalifa Hifter are “very problematic and they’re allegations of some very, very serious conduct.”
The lawsuits, filed by the families of victims, claim that civilians were killed indiscriminately during Hifter’s military campaigns. Some family members allege that relatives were singled out for torture and execution by Hifter’s army.
Hifter, once a lieutenant to Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, defected to the U.S. during the 1980s and spent many years living in northern Virginia. According to one of the lawsuits, Hifter and his family purchased 17 properties in Virginia between 2014 and 2017, paying $8 million in cash.
He is widely believed to have worked with the CIA during his time in exile.
Hifter returned to Libya in 2011 after Gadhafi’s fall, and his army gained control of eastern Libya, including Benghazi. Last year, he launched a campaign to take Tripoli, Libya’s capital. But his army suffered significant setbacks in recent months after the United Nations-backed government opposing him received military support from Turkey. Hifter has received backing from Russia and Egypt.
While Brinkema is allowing the core claims in the two separate lawsuits to go forward, she did toss out some. She also dismissed Hifter’s two sons, who served as battalion commanders in the Libyan National Army, as defendants.
Brinkema also ordered a pause in the case for 60 days while she solicits an opinion from the State Department on whether allowing the suits to proceed will interfere with diplomatic efforts. One of the arguments Hifter’s lawyers are making in favor of dismissal is that the matter is a “political question” not suited to judicial review, and that allowing a judge to render an opinion on whether Hifter committed war crimes interferes with the executive branch’s ability to conduct foreign policy.
After the stay is lifted, the case would then proceed to discovery, which could theoretically allow for Hifter to be questioned under oath in a deposition.
Brinkema, though, acknowledged the logistical difficulties and suggested it could take years.
“I don’t have any idea how in the world plaintiffs will get discovery,” Brinkema said.
New York
Wall Street trader gets 5 years in prison in Ponzi scheme
NEW YORK (AP) — A former Wall Street trader was sentenced Monday to over five years in prison after admitting to defrauding investors of $19 million in a Ponzi scheme.
Paul Rinfret, 71, of Manhasset, New York, was sentenced Monday in Manhattan federal court.
The sentencing followed his October guilty plea to wire and securities fraud. U.S. District Judge Gregory Woods in Manhattan said Rinfret should spend five years and three months behind bars.
Prosecutors said he carried out the fraud from at least 2016 through 2019, investing only a small portion of the money he raised from six victims.
When he did invest, he lost money but falsified monthly account statements to make it seem as though his investors were enjoying excellent results, prosecutors said.
They said he used money from investors on a nearly $50,000 Hamptons vacation rental and spend over $40,000 on jewelry and tens of thousands of dollars on the venue where his son held an engagement party.
More than $20 million in forfeiture was ordered, along with over $12 million in restitution.
In a letter to the judge, Rinfret said: “I do not offer excuses. I made terrible mistakes for which I have and will continue to pay. All responsibility is mine. I hate myself for the recklessness I showed.”
In court papers, Assistant Federal Defender Jennifer Willis had asked that her client be sentenced to a year in prison, noting that Rinfret’s arrest had led his wife of 44 years to file for divorce, two children to stop speaking with him and to a foreclosure action against his home.
He started his own investment business after the 2008 economy collapse when his employer’s business closed, she said, and some of the first investors were family members.
“He is truly a man who has lost everything,” she wrote.
