CAR DEALER TO BE SENTENCED FOR $1 MILLION FRAUD: SUNNYVALE (AP) — A luxury used car dealer in Northern California faces prison time after pleading no contest to defrauding customers of more than $1 million in cash and cars.
Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Georg Behrens says 50-year-old Wisal Ameen, also known as Andy Paul, is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 26 for grand theft, conspiracy, passing insufficient funds checks, and money laundering.
Behrens says Ameen, who ran Sunnyvale Motorcars, would promise to pay sellers after he sold their cars for them, but instead he would pocket the money he received.
To car buyers, he would falsely promise to pay off the prior owner and facilitate title transfers, Behrens says, leaving them without the titles to the cars they had purchased.
4 SUSPECTS IN MILPITAS 7-ELEVEN KILLING: MILPITAS (AP) — Four suspects have been arrested in the killing of a convenience store clerk in Northern California during a robbery that netted just $200.
Milpitas Police Sgt. Gene Smith says 67-year-old Mohammad Reza Sadeghzadeh was attacked inside a 7-Eleven in Milpitas at about 2 a.m. on Sept. 8, 2012.
Smith says video surveillance showed three men with handguns enter the store in hooded shirts and masks.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports) that the suspects — Delmon Armstead, Jerry Coneal, Warner Travis, all 19, and 20-year-old Bianca Barrow — were arrested on suspicion of murder and second-degree robbery.
Coneal and Armstead were 17 at the time but are being prosecuted as adults, police said.
POT BUSINESSMAN PLEADS NO CONTEST TO OAKLAND FRAUD: OAKLAND (AP) — The man behind a national chain of stores that provide supplies to medical marijuana growers is expected to receive probation following his conviction on charges that he defrauded an Oakland grant program.
The Oakland Tribune reports (http://bit.ly/IHyC5v) that 29-year-old Dharminder "Dhar" Mann will be sentenced next month. He pleaded no contest on Friday to five felony counts of defrauding the city.
Mann was accused of pocketing Oakland redevelopment funds he received to help renovate some of his properties.
His attorney, James Brosnahan, says Mann made the building repairs, but had serious problems with paperwork.
Brosnahan says the judge has indicated he will sentence Mann to five years of probation and order him to repay $44,000.
Mann is also facing a lawsuit from the city.
DEPUTY SHOOTS BANK ROBBERY SUSPECT IN MARIN COUNTY: SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (AP) — Authorities in the San Francisco Bay Area are investigating whether a bank robbery suspect shot by a sheriff's deputy is responsible for a string of bank robberies dating back to last year.
San Rafael police spokeswoman Margo Rohrbacher says the man was shot and wounded on Wednesday after he crashed his car and drew a gun. He was suspected of robbing a bank in Novato earlier.
The man has not been identified. His injuries are not considered life-threatening.
The Marin Independent Journal reports that authorities are investigating the man in connection with ten bank robberies in Marin County going back to Dec. 12, 2012.
LAWSUIT: OAKLAND CREMATORIUM WILL POLLUTE AIR: OAKLAND (AP) — A lawsuit says Oakland failed to consider the health impact of burning 3,000 bodies a year when it approved a crematorium in East Oakland.
Filed Wednesday by Communities for a Better Environment, it claims city planners wrongly designated the Neptune Society crematorium a general manufacturing facility that could be approved without a public hearing.
Residents say they are worried the crematorium will add to pollution that already exists because of a nearby freeway and airport.
Neptune Society spokesman Mike Miller tells the San Francisco Chronicle (http://bit.ly/Jaq7Qx ) he hasn't seen the suit so he wouldn't comment.
The city approved a crematorium in 2012 after air quality management district said there wouldn't be enough pollution to put the community at risk.
Players: Robber invades California bingo game
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Witnesses say about 100 people were playing bingo in San Jose, Calif., when a man who said he had a gun burst through the doors and stole the night's receipts.
Bingo player John Esparza tells KNTV (http://bit.ly/1cDyFKL) no one was hurt Wednesday night during the robbery at Oak Grove High School. The bingo fundraisers pay for the school band's uniforms and trips to Spain, France and Italy.
The man was wearing a ski mask. He told people he had a gun and took money from the cash box.
Esparza says several people chased the man when they realized what was going on, but he got away. Others called 911.
Esparza says the game ended because there was no cash left to pay winners.
