The Lexington Police Department is warning consumers of fraudulent money circulating in the city.

According to a post on their Facebook page, the bills look real, however they are actually props used in movies, with “for motion picture use only” on the front and back.

http://liarcatchers.com/fraud_investigation.html

It is not illegal to possess prop money, but it is against the law to use it as legal tender.

Police say the bills are being used in Craigslist transactions and other social media sales.

Please be sure to check the money you accept for goods or services. If this fake money is presented for payment, any information that can be obtained about the person passing the bills can be e-mailed to fraud@lexingtonpolice.ky.gov or submitted as an anonymous tip at www.bluegrasscrimestoppers.com.

A teenager has died after a Thursday night shooting near Churchill Downs, WAVE 3 News.

According to WAVE, a police officer found the victim lying the street suffering from multiple gunshot wounds about 11:30 p.m., following a series of shots fired in the neighborhood near the race track.

http://liarcatchers.com/wrongful_death.html

The victim was taken to University of Louisville Hospital where he later was pronounced dead.

Homicide Detectives are investigating. Anyone with information is asked to call the anonymous police tip line at 502-574-LMPD (5673).

The Missing Person Squad reports the details of a missing juvenile on Saturday, March 12, 2016 at 8:30 a.m. in Syosset.

Syosset, NY – March 15th, 2016 – The Missing Person Squad reports the details of a missing juvenile on Saturday, March 12, 2016 at 8:30 a.m. in Syosset.

According to detectives, Sonia Landaverde, 15 years old was last seen leaving Mercy First  Group Home located at 525 Convent Road on Saturday, March 12, 2016 at 8:30 a.m. on foot in an unknown direction.

Detectives request anyone with information regarding the above juvenile to contact Missing Persons at 516-573-7347 or call 911.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

All callers will remain anonymous.

Three other teens have also recently been reported missing from Mercy First Group Home. Nikos Inslee and Joseph Russo have been missing since March 9, and X’zayreon Burden went missing for a second time on March 12, after returning to the group home a day earlier.

A 34-year-old Laurel woman has been arrested on a charge of insurance fraud.

Attorney General Jim Hood says Arnisha Dean is accused of making a false and fraudulent statement to her insurance company, United Automobile Insurance Company. Hood said Friday that Dean bought insurance online on a vehicle and minutes later filed a claim for damage to a vehicle that had been wrecked a few hours earlier that same day.

http://liarcatchers.com/insurance_fraud.html

Dean was booked into the Jones County Jail. Her arraignment is set for March 15. It was not immediately known if Dean is represented by an attorney who could comment on her case.

If convicted, she faces up to three years behind bars and $5,000 in fine

A Lexington gas station employee went out of her way to help a man down on his luck, only to become the victim of a robbery.

Detectives say the man walked into the Shell station and poured himself a coffee. It was around 7:00 a.m. and customers were in and out of the store.

The man spilled his coffee and the woman behind the counter walked over to help him clean it up.

“She said they had a nice rapport going for a couple of minutes,” said Detective Mark Thomas with the Lexington Police Department.

http://liarcatchers.com/contact.php

When the man couldn’t find enough change to pay for the coffee, the woman paid for the difference.

But no good deed goes unpunished.

“He was gone for a couple minutes, but she was surprised to see him back in the door.  He walked to the counter, smiled, nodded and opens a pocket knife and says he’s ready for the cash,” said Thomas. “It was disheartening.  She’d helped him clean up, even gave him coffee when he couldn’t pay, now he’s come back in with a knife to rob her.”

Crime Stoppers is offering a cash reward for information leading to an arrest.

You can remain anonymous and call in your tip at (859) 253-2020.

A Louisville attorney pleaded guilty in United States District Court yesterday, before Magistrate Judge Dave Whalin, to criminal counts of wire fraud and money laundering, stemming from his activities as the executor of seven estates in Louisville, announced United States Attorney John E. Kuhn, Jr.

“Attorneys are professionally and ethically bound to serve their clients’ best interests,” stated U.S. Attorney John Kuhn.  “We simply cannot tolerate attorneys or any other fiduciaries using their positions of trust to steal from those they are obligated to protect.  This prosecution serves the principle of justice and vindicates the breach of a trust that is an absolutely essential component of a multitude of professional relationships.”

http://liarcatchers.com/fraud_investigation.html

David Cary Ford, 53, admitted that from November 6, 2008, through February 11, 2015, while a practicing attorney, he served as executor of the estates of Saundra A. Benzinger, Kenneth L. Keith, William T. Lawson, Mary Helen Pfeffer, Elinor E. Starr, Mary Augustine Starr, and Richard Steinmetz. Ford took funds from those estates totaling approximately $1,666,671.18, and used those estates’ funds for personal expenses and enjoyment, including significant gambling activity, instead of using the funds as designated by the decedents of those estates, or for the benefit of the beneficiaries of those estates, in the following amounts:

$   737,981.00             Estate of Saundra Benzinger

$   492,862.18             Estate of Elinor Starr

$   290,315.00             Estate of Mary Starr

$     62,343.00             Estate of Kenneth Keith

$     26,300.00             Estate of Richard Steinmetz

$     17,025.00             Estate of Mary Helen Pfeffer

$       8,200.00             Estate of William Lawson

Specifically, as executor of these estates, Ford was authorized at various banks to pay estate expenses. However, Ford also used these estate accounts, without authorization, to withdraw cash and to pay his personal expenses with estate client funds.  In his capacity as executor, Ford processed these withdrawals of estate funds and mischaracterized them as estate expenses.

Further, Ford admitted that from July 21, 2014, to July 28, 2014, he laundered fraud proceeds by using funds from one estate to conceal the depletion of the funds from another estate. Specifically, to promote his unlawful activity and to conceal or disguise the source and nature of proceeds from that unlawful activity, on July 24, 2014, after depleting the funds of the Estate of Kenneth L. Keith, Ford took $35,960.18 from the estate of Elinor E. Starr, in a cashier’s check, deposited those funds into his escrow account, and then on July 28, 2014, used $25,000 of those funds to pay a beneficiary of the Estate of Kenneth L. Keith.

As part of the plea agreement, Ford agreed to make restitution to the beneficiaries of the estates ($1,554,555.36 to various charities, nonprofits and religious organizations, and $47,771.78 to individuals) in the following amounts:

Victim                                                                                    Amount

Ford faces a maximum penalty of forty years’ imprisonment, $750,000 in fines, and supervised release for a period of three years. Sentencing is scheduled on June 6, 2016, in Louisville.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jason Snyder, and it results from an investigation conducted by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

An Evansville, Indiana man pleaded guilty today in United States District Court, before Magistrate Judge H. Brent Brennenstuhl, to the charge of transportation of a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity, announced United States Attorney John E. Kuhn, Jr.

In court, Zachary Andrew Coleman, 28, pleaded guilty to a single count Indictment pursuant to a plea agreement reached with the United States.  According to the plea agreement, on or about February 6, 2015, Coleman picked up a twelve year old female from her residence in Owensboro, Kentucky and took her to his home in Evansville, Indiana for the purpose of engaging in criminal sexual activity with her.  Coleman communicated with the minor via a social networking site called MyLOL and sent sexually explicit messages to the minor, while claiming to be a teenager himself.  Conversations obtained via a search of the minor’s computer show Coleman arranged to pick the minor up at her home for the purposes of transporting her to engage her in sexual activities that would violate Kentucky law.

http://liarcatchers.com/pedophile_tracking.html

Coleman was arrested on May 5, 2015 by federal authorities.  Coleman faces a statutory mandatory minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life imprisonment, a fine of $250,000, and supervised release of not less than 5 years and not more than life.  The sentencing hearing is scheduled to take place in Owensboro on June 9, 2016 at 9:00 CST.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney A. Spencer McKiness, and is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) with assistance from the Daviess County, Kentucky Sheriff’s Office, and the Evansville, Indiana Police Department.

***

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc.  For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”