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Six More Arrested in Identity Theft Case
The federal grand jury in Texas has indicted six individuals suspected of stealing the personal information of UC Irvine graduate students. A crime alert was first sent out by the UC Irvine Police Department on March 20. Dozens of UCI graduate students reported fraudulent income tax returns. To date, the number of victims has increased to 163 reported cases. All targeted students participated in UCI’s Graduate Student Health Insurance Program.
The case first led to Texas when evidence pointed to Michael Tyrone Thomas, a 27-year-old employee at United Healthcare in the Student Resources Department in Dallas, Tx. Thomas is suspected of having lifted the social security numbers of the UCI graduate students from Graduate Student Health Insurance Program forms.
According to the Orange County Register, in addition to Thomas, those indicted also include Christopher Chiota, 31, Gilbert Gotoro, 38, Kennedy Mpezini, 32, Tendeka Daniel Parirenyatwa, 31 and Kudzai Mangoma, 29.
Each individual could spend up to 10 years in prison and may receive a maximum fine of $250,000, if found guilty.

Sentencing Delayed for Samueli, Again
The sentencing of Henry Samueli, after whom UC Irvine’s School of Engineering is named, has been postponed again after Federal Judge Cormac Carney refused to approve the proposed plea agreement. The agreement originally called for Samueli to pay $12 million, an additional fine of $250,000 and serve five years probation. However, now that the plea agreement has been rejected, Samueli may be subject to jail time.
Samueli pleaded guilty to having a role in backdating employee stock option grants for Broadcom Corporation, where he previously served as the chairman. Originally, his plea was accepted on June 23. However, sentencing was not set until Aug. 18 but was delayed to Sept. 8. Following the rejection of the plea agreement on Sept. 8, the next meeting in the case is scheduled for Sept. 29, at which time a hearing will be held.

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