United States v. Claire Patricia Haviland et al.

Case summary

United States v. Claire Patricia Haviland et al., No. 2:24-cr-00570-WLH (C.D. Cal.), is a 254-page racketeering indictment returned by the October 2023 grand jury and filed September 26, 2024 as Document 1, the only hosted filing. It charges members and associates of the San Fernando Valley Peckerwoods, which it calls a criminal organization engaged in narcotics trafficking and fraud, with racketeering conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. § 1962(d), drug conspiracy under 21 U.S.C. § 846, bank fraud conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. § 1349, bank fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1344, aggravated identity theft and firearms offenses, with forfeiture allegations; Haviland, Brian Glenn Ekelund, John Michael Reed and dozens of others are named. The Paycheck Protection Program enters at Count Three, which charges Sean Craig Gluckman, Colin Nicholas Slack, Henisi Utsler, Amanda Joy Ravin and Maria Anna James with conspiring to commit bank fraud through PPP loans; the indictment explains that the SBA delegated authority to lenders including Benworth Capital, Fountainhead SBF LLC, Harvest Small Business LLC and Prestamos CDFI, LLC to underwrite and approve PPP loans, and its overt acts include Utsler's request on September 18, 2021 that the SBA forgive a $20,833 PPP loan, forgiven on November 23, 2021, and Ravin's forgiveness payment on March 30, 2022 for a $20,833 loan Utsler had obtained. These are allegations. The page carries no docket entry after the indictment.