In a case brought by his office’s Securities Division and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has entered a final judgment imposing approximately $25.6 million in restitution and an equal civil monetary penalty against Safeguard Metals LLC and its owner, Jeffrey Ikahn, for operating a fraudulent scheme targeting elderly and retirement-aged individuals.

The judgment stems from a fraudulent scheme conducted by the defendants from October 2017 through at least July 2021. According to the court’s findings, the defendants solicited approximately $68 million, the majority of which was retirement savings, from at least 450 persons for the purpose of purchasing precious metals, primarily consisting of silver coins. Six Maryland victims lost approximately $350,000. The court found that defendants systematically and widely disseminated false and misleading information, failed to communicate material facts to customers, and fraudulently overcharged Safeguard Metals’ customers for the precious metals they sold. Source: Maryland Attorney General's Office

State auditors referred an investigation of questionable credit card use by a State Department of Assessments and Taxation worker to the criminal division of the attorney general's office…The Office of Legislative Audits report released last week said its investigation was sparked by a tip to its fraud, waste and abuse hotline. Source: MarylandMatters.com 

The Carroll County Sheriff’s Office said the couple fraudulently reported a burglary and theft at their Maryland home. Source: NBCNEWS.com

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The Maryland Attorney General’s office announced the guilty plea of a  43-year old Baltimore man for violations of Maryland environmental laws regarding the issuance of fake lead paint certificates. The investigation began following a referral from the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE)  February 2024, after an MDE review found that man, a Maryland-certified Lead Paint Inspector and principal operator of Green Environmental, LLC, was using an X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) device that was not on the list of MDE-approved machines. The review also discovered that he did not possess the required radioactive material license (RAM) to operate the XRF. Source: Maryland Attorney General

Source: Maryland Attorney General

A scheme uncovered by Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming thanks to a tip on the OIG hotline. Source: baltimorebrew.com

Source: Maryland Attorney General

Source: US Attorney, District of Maryland

A 56-year-old Berlin, Maryland, resident, who was a former office manager and bookkeeper for an Ocean City-based home builder, admitted to embezzling at least $1,790,000 from her former employer. She forged a business owner’s signature on business checks at least 500 times. She then concealed the embezzlement from her employer and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by making false entries into the business’ books and records. Source: US Attorney District of Maryland

Maryland’s largest union, now representing 50,000 public employees including in Baltimore, made a series of unusual payments in 2022 to an apparently fictitious Washington law firm. Source: Baltimore Brew