Former San Francisco real estate investor accused of pandemic relief fraud granted bail

Filed 1h ago · Via Courthouse News · The Buffoon Desk

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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: The Strobridge Litho. Co., Cincinnati & New York. · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Luke Brugnara, the San Francisco real estate investor facing wire fraud and money laundering charges, was ordered released from federal pretrial custody Monday after a magistrate judge found he'd finally met bail conditions set months earlier, including a $50,000 cashier's check and a $100,000 bond.

San Mateo County plans to be waiting: Brugnara has an active arrest warrant there and a newly filed case alleging forgery, perjury and grand theft tied to a fraudulent deed investigated over the past eight months. He also skipped a February bond revocation hearing and was later arrested for allegedly threatening to shoot trespassers at a beach while carrying a firearm.

The $50,000 check reportedly came from his former landlord, who says she gave him the money for help with her autistic son — an account prosecutors say has shifted with each hearing. The judge called further inquiry into the funds a fishing expedition and let it stand.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

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A judge calling it a fishing expedition is one thing, but most of us would at least want to know where the boat came from. The money arrived from a woman who says it was meant to help her son, and her version has wandered a bit, and the court decided that was close enough for government work. He walks out the front door and into another county's handcuffs, which is about the shortest parole anybody ever served.

Source: Read the original at Courthouse News → Scored: Faster Does It · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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