LAT:
Moments after the brash Encino real estate broker was sentenced to 10 years and 10 months in prison for her key role in a tawdry pandemic loan scam, [the] prosecutor ... asked a judge to put her in prison immediately. There was a “high, high likelihood,” he said, that [the convict] would flee, just as two relatives had done after their convictions in the same case.
[The trial judge] disagreed. “I’m going to give her 30 days to self-surrender,” he said.
[The convict] vanished on Jan. 28, dodging both her federal prison sentence and her upcoming trial on unrelated state mortgage fraud charges.
It was a crushing blow to prosecutors and investigators who uncovered the conspiracy by [the convict] and seven others to use fake companies, phony payrolls, forged tax returns and stolen driver’s licenses to get $18 million in emergency loans meant to rescue small businesses ravaged by 2020 lockdowns.