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Date: 02-09-2023
Case Style:
United States of America v. Lisa Kay Camp and Berry Lee Biddle
Case Number: 5:18-cr-00200
Judge: Stephen V. Wilson
Court: United States District Court for the Central District of California (Los Angeles County)
Plaintiff's Attorney: United States Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles
Defendant's Attorney:
Description: Los Angeles, California criminal defense lawyer represented Defendants charged with engaging in a scheme that defrauded more than 4,000 job seekers by tricking them into paying fees in exchange for employment opportunities that turned out to be nonexistent.
Lisa Kay Camp, 61, and Barry Lee Biddle, 48, both formerly of Lake Elsinore, pleaded guilty in September 2019 and October 2019, respectively, to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for running a telemarketing scam. They fled together from pretrial supervision in August 2020 before their sentencing hearings, which were scheduled for October 2020. They remain at large.
From May 2009 to July 2013, Camp, with the help of Biddle and her adult children, operated a fraudulent telemarketing business that went by various fictitious names, including “Contractor Management,” “Commercial Crews,” “US Tradepros,” and “IPower Marketing.” The defendants used auto-dialer services and multiple websites to lure prospective job seekers to pay for background checks that were never performed and to receive job leads that never existed.
Camp controlled nearly two dozen bank accounts in various company names through which she projected the appearance of legitimacy and the co-schemers received money from victims. Biddle set up, maintained, and operated the computer workstations, phone network, and websites used by the fraudulent telemarketing business.
The aggregated amount of loss to job seekers over the four-year period of the scheme was approximately $2,181,316 with at least 4,183 victims defrauded.
Three other defendants – all of whom are children of Camp – have been sentenced in this case after each pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud:
Andrea Maureen Aviles, 41, of Lake Elsinore, who was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison;
Gerald James Camp, 42, of Lake Elsinore, who was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison; and
Allisa Lynn Vasquez, 39, of Sun City, who was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison.
The FBI investigated this matter.
Assistant United States Attorney Julius J. Nam of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section is prosecuting this case.
Outcome: Defendants were each sentenced to 108 months in prison.
Plaintiff's Experts:
Defendant's Experts:
Comments: