Sacramento accountant pleads guilty to Ponzi scheme

William Murray, a Sacramento accountant who stole more than $13 million from 52 clients between 2001 and 2009, pleaded guilty today in federal court to mail fraud and interference with tax administration.

U. S. District Judge Edward J. Garcia ordered Murray to immediately be taken into custody by deputy U. S. marshals. The judge set sentencing for May 28.

Murray, 55, told clients to write checks to accounts under his control so he could pay taxes or make investments on their behalf. Much of the money went to support his extravagant lifestyle, including the purchase of real property, a classic car, a fleet of limousines, expensive jewelry and rugs, and fine wines.

He changed his clients' addresses to his own so they would not receive the IRS' delinquent tax notices.

As demands for payment arrived from clients and the IRS, Murray's fraud became a Ponzi scheme that he perpetuated by using more than $3.5 million in recent client receipts to pay off demands stemming from earlier theft.

Before the house of cards collapsed, Murray was a man of some prominence. He was a certified public accountant with a solid client base.

He regularly offered tax advice on a local television channel. He was used as an expert witness in courts in five counties.

He served as a federal tax agent between 1976 and 1980, when he moved to Sacramento to join a former IRS colleague in private practice.

Murray's plea agreement calls for the forfeiture of all his remaining assets to the government, victim restitution, and full disclosure of his finances to the victims.

Source: http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/crime/archives/2010/03/sacramento-acco.html

Pictured: The credit crunch tent city which has returned to haunt America

A century and a half ago it was at the centre of the Californian gold rush, with hopeful prospectors pitching their tents along the banks of the American River.

Today, tents are once again springing up in the city of Sacramento. But this time it is for people with no hope and no prospects.

With America's economy in freefall and its housing market in crisis, California's state capital has become home to a tented city for the dispossessed.

Rich and poor: The tents and other makeshift homes have sprung up in the shadow of Sacramento's skyscrapers

Shanty town: The tent city is already home to dozens of people, many left without jobs because of the credit crunch

Those who have lost their jobs and homes and have nowhere else to go are constructing makeshift shelters on the site, which covers several acres.

As many as 50 people a week are turning up and the authorities estimate that the tent city is now home to more than 1,200 people.

In a state more known for its fantastic wealth and the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, the images have shocked many Americans.

Conditions are primitive, with no water supply or proper sanitation.

Many residents have to walk up to three miles to buy bottled water from petrol stations or convenience stores.

Ben Cardwell, carries supplies to his tent at a homeless settlement

Tammy Day, a homeless woman, cooks potatoes on a campfire at the site

At other times, charity workers arrive to hand out free food and other supplies.

Joan Burke, who campaigns on behalf of the homeless, said the images of Americans living in tents would shock many.

'It should be an eye- opener for everybody,' she said. 'But we shouldn't just be shocked, we should take action to change things, because it's unacceptable.

'It is unacceptable that in this day and age we have gone back to a situation like we had during the Great Depression.'

Homeless: Keith and Tammy Day cook dinner

Authorities in Sacramento, where Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has his office, admit the sight of families living in such poverty is not pretty.

But faced with their own budget crisis and a £30billion deficit, they have had little choice but to consider making the tent city a permanent fixture.

The city's mayor Kevin Johnson said: 'I can't say tent cities are the answer to the homeless population in Sacramento, but I think it's one of the many things that should be considered and looked at.'

Shanty towns sprung up during the Great Depression as people lost their jobs and homes

Migrant Mother: Dorothea Lange's famous photograph from the Great Depression features Florence Owens Thompson, 32, a mother-of-three who had just sold the family's tent to buy food

As America's most powerful state California had the same gross domestic output as Italy and Spain, but it has been among the hardest hit by the recession and housing crisis.

Foreclosure rates last year rocketed by 327 per cent, with up to 500 people a day losing their home.

Coupled with massive job cuts that have seen one in ten workers laid off, many people who once enjoyed a middle class existence are now forced into third world conditions.

Former car salesman Corvin and his wife Tena are among the newest residents of the tent city.

Tent city residents queue up to receive supplies handed out by a local charity

The couple, who are in their fifties, lost their home and jobs around the same time.

With homeless shelters full in Sacramento, they had little choice but to use what savings they had left to buy a tent.

The couple admit they have yet to tell their grown-up children about their hand-to-mouth existence.

Tena said: 'I have a 35-year-old son, and he doesn't know. I call him, about once a month and on holidays, to let him know that I'm well and healthy.

'He would love me anyway, but I don't want to worry him.'

The shame of Sacramento's tent city was given a much wider airing after it was featured on the Oprah Winfrey show which is watched by more than 40million people a week.

Many of those who have found themselves homeless worked in the building trade.

But with no new home builds and as many as 80,000 people losing their job every month, there is little chance of employment. Governor Schwarzenegger last month approved a budget to address the state's deficit, ending a three-month stalemate among lawmakers.

As well as increasing taxes, he has imposed drastic cuts in education, healthcare and services that will affect everyone living in the state.

Many of those living in the tent city are pinning their hopes on President Obama's $787 billion stimulus package which is aimed at rescuing the economy and creating jobs.

The President has also announced plans to save the homes of nine million people from foreclosure by restructuring their mortgage debt.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1159677/Pictured-The-credit-crunch-tent-city-returned-haunt-America.html

At least 6 hurt in Rancho Cordova explosion; house destroyed

At least six people were injured this afternoon - three of them critically - by a residential explosion on Paiute Way between Kachina and Calle del Sol ways, officials said.

A Sacramento Metro Fire spokesman said a Pacific Gas & Electric crew was on scene at the time of the explosion and that one PG&E worker was injured.

At least three people suffered third-degree burns, according to police. At least one of the injured had been inside the home at 10708 Paiute Way at the time of the explosion.

One firefighter was injured and was being given oxygen as he was loaded into an ambulance at the scene.

Sheriff John McGinness said paramedics told him on the scene that all injuries appeared to be "survivable."

The blast happened around 1:40 p.m. One home was destroyed and two others were damaged, said Capt. Christian Pebbles, spokesman for the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District.

Spot fires can be seen on nearby roofs, and broken glass was strewn as far as 25 yards from the scene of the explosion.

At least one worker was on scene when the explosion occurred, said PG&E spokesman Brian Swanson.

"Our main priority now is to make the scene safe," Swanson said. "It's hard to say what happened at this point."

Swanson said PG&E will be launching an investigation into the cause of the explosion with fire and law enforcement departments.

A voluntary evacuation noticed was served at 10 homes in each direction from the scene of the explosion, said sheriff's Capt. Scott Jones. Most decided to stay in their homes or go to a neighbor's. An evacuation center has been set up at White Rock Elementary School, but Jones said few families appeared to be taking advantage of it.

Paiute Way resident John Turner said he was sitting in his duplex when he heard what he described as a big "boom."

"I felt my whole house shake," said Turner, 30. "The ceiling fans kinda jumped and rattled a bit."

The impact was so jarring - "It was quite dramatic," Turner said -- that he checked the rooms of his duplex to make sure nothing exploded inside. Then he went next door to make sure his neighbors were alright.

Other neighbors began pouring out of their homes and looking down the street. That's when Turner saw flames and smoke billowing out of a home about a block and a half from his duplex.

He said he also saw two Pacific Gas & Electric trucks parked by that house.

As Turner spoke to The Bee via telephone minutes after the explosion, sirens wailed in the background. He said he saw at least four firetrucks on the scene at that time, and two ambulances.

Joe DeAvila, who was visiting his son on Paiute Way, estimated that the explosion had the force of a 500-pound bomb.

"I was in Vietnam," he said. "I know what they sound like."

DeAvila said when he went out to look, he saw a dazed-appearing woman leaving the site, and PG&E trucks on the scene.

"There were a lot of looky-loos. Eventually the police came and cleared 'em out," he said.

At the temporary evacuation center at White Rock School, a police car pulled up carrying Gigi Lopez, 50, and her mother, Lucy Lopez, 76. Gigi, who was weeping, was wearing a bath robe, pajamas and socks. Lucy was wrapped in a blanket and suffered a bruise on her forehead. Both were shivering.

They were at home baking cookies for Christmas when the explosion occurred. Lucy went to lie down for a rest. The explosion threw her off her bed and she was struck by something in the head. Lucy was out back in the house.

They live next door to the explosion site.

Gigi Lopez said she saw her neighbor - whose house exploded - and another neighbor thrown by the force.

"I saw her fly through the air onto the ground," Gigi Lopez said.

Lopez said her neighbors called PG&E last night about a gas smell on the street.

"Nobody did nothing about it until this morning, and it was too late," Gigi Lopez said.

Source: http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/1497801.html

America's Worst-Selling Housing Markets

Miami-area home sellers looking to unload their properties might want to make sure they have comfortable couches.

It looks like they're going to be there a while.

That's because Miami tops our list of the nation's most sedentary housing markets. These 10 spots feature a potent mix of dropping prices and sluggish sales rates. Also on the list: Denver, San Diego, Baltimore and Chicago.

In compiling our list, we looked at price growth and sales rates in the country's 40 largest metropolitan statistical areas. We took the cities in the midst of year-over-year price declines, based on National Association of Realtors data, then calculated how quickly these cities are shedding inventory from their peaks, which occurred between four and six months ago, based on data from ZipRealty, an aggregator of multiple listing service data. Atlanta, a likely contender for the top ten, was not considered due to irregularities in inventory reporting.

By using sales rate, instead of the months remaining of inventory, we wind up with a figure that shows how quickly homes have been leaving the market from its most saturated point, the most straightforward indicator for measuring sedentary vs. active sales.

In Chicago, for example, where the median home sale price in the fourth quarter of 2007 was $261,000, a 2.6% drop from the previous year, there were 72,842 homes on the market, with 2.2% of them selling each month.

While this sales rate alone isn't extraordinary, it matters because Chicago's housing supply is overstocked, with 50% more houses on the market than two years ago. Prices, as a result, are continuing to sink.
Behind The Numbers

It's important to note that housing markets never contract to zero inventory. Their inventory cushions also differ. From 2002 to 2006, New York had an average unsold inventory rate of 1.7%. But another healthy market during that time, Charlotte, N.C., maintained a 2.9% unsold housing inventory rate.

"Every market is a little bit different," says Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, a Manhattan-based real estate appraisal company. "But while faster sales don't necessarily mean a bottom is around the corner, it is a significant reversal." That's because prices typically go up after inventory goes down.

Another important point is that the country's most sedentary housing markets are not the ones with free-falling prices.

Some of the country's more active markets are Las Vegas and Sacramento, Calif., where houses are moving off the listing pages at monthly rates of 3.4% and 4.2%, respectively, from their peak inventory gluts.

But both those markets were dramatically overbuilt during the boom, and sales are largely a result of homeowners slashing prices. In Sacramento, 50% of area homes have been marked down from their original listing prices; it’s 48% in Las Vegas, according to ZipRealty.

Chicago-area sales are more sluggish, but even though prices have declined (they are down 2.6% for the year), they're nowhere near the double-digit falls seen in Las Vegas and Sacramento.

The markets that are really in trouble are those in Florida, which have experienced all the overbuilding and lending problems of Las Vegas and Sacramento but are experiencing flat sales. In September 2007 in Orlando, No. 2 on our list, there were 35,365 homes on the market. Since then, available inventory has shrunk at the excruciatingly slow monthly rate of 0.6% per month. It's the same story in Miami, where homes have been selling at an underwhelming rate of 0.2% per month.

Miller says there's generally a three to six month lag between when a city starts putting a serious dent into its inventory and when prices start to improve.

For these 10 markets, that moment can't come soon enough.

Found at: http://promo.realestate.yahoo.com/promo/americas-worst-selling-housing-markets.html