Six People Charged with Numerous Felonies Relating to Local Property Management Company

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Source: Santa Barbara County District of Attorney

Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce E. Dudley announced today that a felony complaint was filed against Gordon Alan Welterlen, 37, of San Diego, Nicole Michelle Milan, 31, of San Diego, David Zarate, 44, of Oxnard, Rosa Maria Bradley, 40, of Santa Barbara, William Lee Gormley, 35, of San Diego, and Christina Renata Hesler, 40, of San Diego.

The suspects are charged in a 275 count felony complaint.  The complaint alleges two counts of Accessing and Using a Computer System of Wolf & Associates Property Management in violation of Penal Code Section 502(c)(2), 1 count of Multiple Identifying Information Theft in violation of Penal Code section 530.5, 6 counts of Unlawful Transfer of Identifying Information for Identity Theft, in violation of Penal Code Section 530.5(d)(2), 1 count of conspiracy to commit Multiple Identifying  Theft, 1 count of conspiracy to commit Unemployment Insurance Benefit Fraud, and 263 counts of Unemployment Insurance Benefit Fraud in violation of Unemployment Insurance Code section 2101.
Additionally, the Aggravated White Collar Crime Enhancement, pursuant to Penal Code section 186.11 is charged, stating that the alleged felony conduct in this case amounted to a taking of more than $500,000.

The investigation in this matter is on-going.  Anyone who completed an application with Wolf & Associates between 2017 and 2020 may have had their personal identifying information compromised. If you believe your information was compromised, you may contact the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office at: IdTheft@co.santa-barbara.ca.us

Ms. Milan, Ms. Bradly and Mr. Welterlen were arraigned today.  Each defendant is being held on $250,000 bail is this case.  Additionally, Ms. Milan and Mr. Welterlen are being held on $1,000,000 bail in a related case. The next hearing in this matter is on August 21, 2020 in Department 10 of the Santa Barbara Superior Court. 

The Santa Barbara Police Department and the Investigation Division of the California Employment Development Department conducted the investigation in this matter.

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photodude
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Aug 13, 2020 08:59 AM
Six People Charged with Numerous Felonies Relating to Local Property Management Company

I am a landlord, and am fastidious about protecting my tenants information.

Rental applications contain all sorts of sensitive information. My tenants fill out paper applications, and I securely keep them under lock and key. They are not stored on my computer.

My computer is behind several firewalls. Also I have a physical switch in the cat5 cable connecting my router to my computer. That switch is in the 'off' position whenever I'm not using the Internet.

I don't click on links that I don't know.

Before using email, I run a program called MailWasher Pro, which screens email at the server against my filters and blacklist. When malicious or suspicious email is found, it it deleted at the server, and never has a chance to come into my computer and do nefarious things..

SantaBarbaraObserver
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Aug 13, 2020 08:17 AM
Six People Charged with Numerous Felonies Relating to Local Property Management Company

There isnt a law protecting the consumer in this regard. Crazy huh? Our lawmakers passed 000's of laws last year alone, and yet there is not a single one that requires property managers or landlords to hold application data in confidence or face fines and or charges. Think about that for a minute. They require you give them your entire financial history, all your personal data, and they are not required to hold that data securely or in confidence. With all the ID theft and ease of which one's financial life can be stolen, our lawmakers think its more important to ban straws, force private businesses to place woman on their boards and drive 3ft from the a swerving bicyclist than to offer legal protection for the most valuable data a person owns. Instead, any body or entity that collects this data should be liable for the losses that incur as a result of their negligence. Seems pretty simple right? Unless you realize that our lawmakers are bought and sold by industry and in this case, property owners and managers who dont want to burden themselves with such trivial matters as your entire financial life...

vvorker
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Aug 13, 2020 07:13 AM
Six People Charged with Numerous Felonies Relating to Local Property Management Company

Bravo, Mrs.Dudley, I worked for the Wolfe for 2 days, they are a den of vipers. Got out with my life. Should be interesting days ahead for rental agencies. Did I hear correct, that 1/3 of local rental units are on eviction moratorium??? That's quite a few when the day of reckoning comes. I bet Dario Panni is not sleeping well at night also!!! Good olde Karma in action!

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