Onetime Orange County Political Operative Faces 8-Year Prison Trip
A former Orange County Republican Party operative who swindled $1.25 million pleaded guilty this week in an Arizona federal court to bank fraud, tax evasion, wire fraud and money laundering, and now faces a maximum eight-year prison sentence plus a minimum forfeiture of $650,000.
You saw Frances Akhavi’s wild tale on these pages last July after she signed a guilty plea with federal prosecutors in hopes of winning reduced punishment, but wrote the word for innocent in Farsi next to her signature, a stunt that didn’t amuse U.S. District Court Judge Diane Humetewa in Phoenix.
The judge rejected the deal and ordered Akhavi to face trial, a move Irvine City Council member Lynn Schott hailed at the time to the Weekly as an opportunity for her close friend to prove her innocence.
“She has not yet had her day in court,” said Schott, who predicted Akhavi’s exoneration.
But the swindler agreed for a second time on Monday that she’d operated “a scheme to defraud” Wells Fargo Bank and eight individuals by telling a series a lies that won her access to other peoples’ credit cards and financial accounts.
Read more: https://www.ocweekly.com/onetime-orange-county-political-operative-faces-8-year-prison-trip/
