Tag: los angeles

ICE Busts Iranian ‘King of Instagram’ Who Was Living Large in a $5 Million Hollywood Hills Mansion While Flashing Cash, Luxury Cars and Naked Models to His Million Followers

Immigration agents in Los Angeles arrested Iranian national Farzad “Tony” Toutouni late last month after years of the 55-year-old criminal illegal alien openly living a flashy, high-profile lifestyle as an Instagram influencer, complete with exotic cars, stacks of cash, private aircraft, and parties featuring nude women, and posting about it to more than one million followers.

According to the official ICE press release, Toutouni, who has also used the name Robert, first entered the United States legally in 1983.

An immigration judge ordered him removed in 1993, but he was not removed at that time.

A second removal order came in 1999, after which he was deported to Mexico.

Toutouni later admitted he re-entered the country illegally in 2011, near Saint Clair, Michigan, by crossing the river on an electric raft he purchased in Canada.

Once back inside the United States, he built the online persona of a self-made entrepreneur and “Pelvis Philanthropist,” posting relentlessly about a life of luxury while authorities say he continued a crime spree that began as early as 1989.

ICE detailed his numerous arrests for criminal threats, criminal conspiracy, and possession and sale of a controlled substance. He was sentenced to more than 16 months in prison for a fake check, grand theft of an access card, conspiracy to commit a crime, possession or alteration of access card equipment, forgery, kidnapping, robbery, and extortion.

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Watchdog: Almost 10,000 Dead People on Los Angeles County Voter Rolls

There are nearly 10,000 dead people on Los Angeles County, California’s active voter rolls, the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) alleges in a Help America Vote Act complaint filed with state election officials.

The complaint raises serious concerns about California’s voter registration maintenance ahead of tomorrow’s midterm elections. Among the allegations, PILF lawyers “identified 9,766 potentially deceased active voter registrants” in Los Angeles County.

In addition, 1,279 duplicate registrations are also allegedly on Los Angeles County’s voter rolls, as well as 1,340 registrants with fictitious birth dates and over 700 registrants with birth dates that make them at least 110 years old.

California has a responsibility to maintain accurate voter rolls,” PILF President J. Christian Adams said in a statement on the group’s website. “Election officials should investigate these discrepancies and ensure that voter registration records are accurate.”

PILF lawyers warned California election officials last year that significant errors were pervasive throughout the state’s voter rolls.

The September 2025 complaint alleged that almost 95,000 dead people were on California’s voter rolls, along with more than 57,000 duplicate registrants, and more than 7,600 registrants with fictitious birth dates.

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Chinese Couriers Posed As Federal Agents To Scam Over $10 Million In Cash From Elderly Victims In 19 States

A federal judge in Pennsylvania sentenced three Chinese nationals this month for their roles in a scheme in which couriers went to elderly victims’ homes, posed as federal law enforcement officers and took cash they said would be protected, the Justice Department announced. More than 50 victims in 19 states lost more than $10 million.

The scheme began with a computer “pop-up” that falsely told victims their computers or bank accounts had been compromised, according to the release. Couriers then collected the cash in person, and the conspiracy moved it to other members in Los Angeles.

Chief U.S. District Judge Matthew W. Brann handed down the sentences in the Middle District of Pennsylvania over four days:

  • Yankun Jiang, 26, of State College, received 84 months on October 22 and was ordered to pay $1,267,122 in restitution. Prosecutors say he started as a courier and became a key supervisor of the couriers, collecting stolen cash from the others, packaging it and coordinating delivery to Los Angeles.
  • Lei Bao, 24, of New York, received 30 months on October 20 and was ordered to pay $377,591. She made several cash pick-ups and, on at least five occasions, carried suitcases of stolen cash from Philadelphia to Los Angeles.
  • Hanlin Yang, 26, of State College, received 24 months on October 23 and was ordered to pay $400,800. He went to the homes of at least six victims to pick up cash.

Together the three got 138 months. The restitution orders total $2,045,513, about a fifth of the more than $10 million the conspiracy took, so most of the money is unaccounted for in the sentences. The release does not say how much was recovered.

The three were among eight Chinese nationals indicted in July 2025, when the office announced the charges. The Sun-Gazette reported that the eight had obtained student visas to attend college in the United States, and that the conspiracy ran from about August 2023 to February 22, 2024. The charge was conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries up to 20 years. The new release does not say what happened to the other five defendants or whether any of the three faces deportation.

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Useless Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass Bans New Oil and Gas Drilling Throughout the City Because of Racism

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has just announced that she has banned all new oil and gas drilling throughout the city and then went on to explain that this was a problem that was being driven by racism.

This is especially ironic, given the fact that so many Democrats have been campaigning on gas prices in this midterm election cycle. Do they think this drilling ban will help lower prices?

Bass is not a serious mayor. She’s an absolute joke, and this is another reminder.

From the Center Sqaure, via Yahoo News:

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has signed an ordinance prohibiting new oil and gas drilling throughout the city and establishing a 20-year timetable to phase out existing wells.

Under the new ordinance, current drilling sites are designated as “nonconforming uses” and must cease operations within two decades, unless an earlier deadline applies. The ordinance restricts the expansion and redevelopment of existing operations while establishing limited exceptions for work strictly necessary to address public health, safety or environmental threats.

Bass, who is running for reelection on Tuesday against Los Angeles City Council member and fellow Democrat Nithya Raman, framed the legislation as a long-overdue victory for environmental justice in frontline neighborhoods that have historically borne the brunt of urban drilling…

“For too long, communities throughout Los Angeles have lived with the impacts of oil and gas drilling in their neighborhoods, leading to significant health conditions,” Bass said in a press release on Thursday, the day she signed the ban. “Signing this ordinance is another important step toward phasing out oil and gas drilling in Los Angeles once and for all.”

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$34 Million Los Angeles School Sits Vacant And Vandalized Since 2021

In 2003, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) had 703,000 students. “The district had been running year-round schedules, with the school year shortened by nearly a month, to accommodate its burgeoning student population,” reports the Los Angeles Times.

Over the last 23 years, district enrollment has declined by more than 50%. When it became obvious that enrollment had passed its peak, the LAUSD canceled 18 construction projects for new schools in 2007.

But one of those projects, zombie-like, came back from the dead. A charter school, Camino Nuevo Charter Academy, won approval from the school board to build a school at 1215 Miramar Avenue. The state had already earmarked the funds for a charter school, so LAUSD gave the project the green light.

“The school was paid for with a combination of state funds, district funds, and a state loan the charter would have to repay,” reports The Times. “The district’s facility division acquired the land and managed the construction, which began in 2011, with the Camino Nuevo charter school opening in 2013.”

At the time, the LAUSD school board was all for charter schools. It helped relieve some of the overcrowding in the district and didn’t appear to threaten enrollment.

All that changed as the decades rolled by. Camino Nuevo closed the campus in 2021 and left behind an $8 million construction debt that any new tenant must pay.

“Ultimately, the campus was too far away” from the other Camino Nuevo schools, said Ana Ponce, head of Camino Nuevo at the time. “Those students found alternatives, predominantly other charter high schools, that were closer to our middle school campuses.”

So a beautiful campus built to accommodate 500 students never saw more than half that number, then closed its doors. In debt and facing a now-hostile school board, other charters are reluctant to take possession.

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LA family slapped with shocking $10K water bill after nearby fire hydrant repairs

A Los Angeles homeowner is demanding answers after getting hit with a jaw-dropping water bill — and he suspects a nearby fire hydrant may be to blame.

Joshua Ward, whose family has lived for two generations at their home near Sunland Boulevard and Wornom Avenue, said he’s never seen anything close to the $10,000 charge.

Even during last year’s summer heat, Ward’s water bill averaged about $1,400. In April, it was $765, and by June, it had dropped to roughly $640.

He believes a nearby fire hydrant repair may have sent his latest bill through the roof.

Neighbors confirmed the water had been shut off several times during the work as the hydrant was moved farther up the street.

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Los Angeles County DA Considers Charges Against Eric Swalwell Over Allegations of Alleged Rape of Beverly Hills Woman

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office is currently reviewing a criminal case against former Rep. Eric Swalwell over allegations that he drugged, raped, and choked Beverly Hills woman Lonna Drewes in 2018, but no charging decision has been made.

According to multiple reports, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department Special Victims Bureau is still in the early stages of investigating the allegations, which were first made public in April 2026 when Drewes accused Swalwell of drugging, sexually assaulting, and choking her during a July 2018 encounter in a West Hollywood hotel room.

Swalwell resigned from Congress in April.

In August, The Daily Mail reported, FBI agents confronted Swalwell with a search warrant when he landed at San Francisco Airport on Saturday. They then took the former congressman’s electronic devices, including his cell phone, reportedly as part of a federal criminal investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.  Per the Standard, the warrant was issued under federal statute 18 U.S.C. § 242.

Swalwell is being accused of multiple counts of sexual misconduct and assault, a lengthy prison sentence appears firmly on the table should he be convicted.

In was previously reported that the Intel Community had a classified report detailing Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell’s intimate relationship with Fang Fang.

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Feds Storm Skid Row with a 100-Vehicle Convoy to Take Down Drug Network Operating in Tents and Storefronts

Federal agents and Los Angeles police raided Skid Row before dawn Thursday, serving dozens of warrants in a takedown of dealers supplying fentanyl, meth, cocaine, and PCP to the blocks of homeless encampments that plague downtown Los Angeles.

Authorities called the raid Operation Skid Row, and targeted more than two dozen suspected street dealers and suppliers after a three-month investigation.

The FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the LAPD used phone taps, undercover officers, and drones to build the cases.

By morning, agents had arrested 28 people.

A convoy of roughly 100 law enforcement vehicles cordoned off blocks and parks around Fifth and Crocker streets, trapping dealers who had been working the sidewalks.

Investigators said the dealers were not standing on corners in the open. Some sold from a Mercedes. Some posed as homeless men living in tents that were in fact drug dens. Others used storefronts or posed as social workers and homeless-services providers.

Drugs were also stashed in single-room-occupancy units and low-income housing.

Agents seized narcotics, guns, and luxury cars.

Officials said homeless people were not the target. The warrants were for dealers, and multiple gang members are among those facing charges.

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Karen Bass: Trump ‘Invaded’ L.A. to Intimidate Latino Immigrants

Tuesday on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said President Donald Trump “invaded last June with federal troops for no reason at all to intimidate a whole sector of our population, Latino immigrants.”

Bass said, “Well, first of all, I was horrified that the president would basically say that another country is perfectly fine to take out or to attack our city and our sister city two hours away. The role of the president is to protect and defend the American people. He went to war with Iran, and he basically said, it‘s okay, that it‘s a small price to pay to attack 3.8 million people in the nation‘s second largest city. I was horrified by those comments. But then again, we are the city that he invaded last June with federal troops for no reason at all to intimidate a whole sector of our population, Latino immigrants.”

She added, “I think that when our city was invaded by the Marines and and 4000 National Guard troops for no reason at all, that that’s all part of the plan to get the U.S. public to acclimate to military intervention in our cities. I said from day one, I thought L.A. was an experiment and this was going to spread around the country. We saw that that was the case. Now, maybe the next time it happens, Americans won’t be so outraged because they’ve seen so many cities have federal intervention from the military. It’s a misuse of the military and irresponsible words.”

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Los Angeles County Introduces 10.25% Sales Tax

Los Angeles County introduced a 10.25 percent sales tax on Thursday, four months after voters approved Measure ER.

The Essential Services Restoration Act (Measure ER) overwhelmingly passed in L.A. County earlier this year, raising the sales tax by a half-cent to support health care and other essential services – from 9.75 percent to 10.25 percent.

“For every $100 in taxable purchases, Measure ER adds 50 cents in tax, bringing the total to $110.25,” noted NBC News. “The increase is temporary. Measure ER allows the tax to remain in effect for five years until Oct. 1, 2031 as it is projected to generate about $1 billion annually.”

Supporters of the measure say that it will support roughly 700,000 L.A. County residents dealing with the loss of health insurance as federal funding for Medi-Cal is reduced:

Proponents say Measure ER will provide health care support for those who are losing Medi-Cal so they don’t show up to the local emergency rooms sicker with more serious illnesses.

The federal funding cut will also impact public hospitals and clinics, but if Measure ER passed, it would make up for the lost funds and save some of the public health care facilities and programs.

Critics of the measure, however, charge that it imposes an “unreasonable and unfairly harsh” sales tax in a county with an already high tax. L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger also said that residents are “stretched thin” with one of the highest metropolitan sales taxes in the nation.

“This proposed half-cent increase would push us even higher, making our county less affordable for families and less appealing for consumers to shop and businesses to operate,” Barger said.

“Moving forward, my responsibility is to ensure the revenues generated are managed with accountability and measurable results,” she also said. “Taxpayers deserve to know how these funds are being spent, whether promised outcomes are being achieved. I will be a strong advocate for rigorous oversight and fiscal responsibility every step of the way.”

The Libertarian Party of L.A. County also filed a lawsuit against the tax.

According to LA Mag, spending from the “tax revenue collected by the measure will be tracked through annual audits by the Auditor-Controller, public reporting and a nine-member Citizens’ Oversight Committee that includes the Director of the Department of Public Health and other members appointed by the Board of Supervisors.”

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