Local News in Brief : Woman Gets 8 Years in ‘Gift Giveaways’
A Malibu woman who operated a $10-million telemarketing scheme that bilked thousands of people through phony “gift giveaways” was sentenced Wednesday to eight years in prison.
Janice Rado, 42, tearfully told U.S. District Judge Ferdinand F. Fernandez that she was sorry for conning her customers and for developing a relationship with a U.S. Postal Service inspector in order to learn how much evidence the government had against her.
Assistant U.S. Atty. David Katz said Rado led the postal inspector to believe that she would help him sell a book he was writing. Witnesses testified later that she never even opened it.
Both Rado and the inspector, Charles Yarton, have pleaded guilty to charges that he tipped her off to an impending search of her telemarketing operation, allowing her to destroy half the firm’s incriminating documents.
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