Local News

Actions

UPDATE: Las Vegas man pleads guilty in title fraud case

Posted at 10:53 PM, Apr 05, 2017
and last updated 2018-01-10 14:18:06-05

UPDATE JAN. 10, 2018: The Nevada Attorney General's Office reported that Thomas Arvel Benson, 56, of Las Vegas, pleaded guilty in two related cases to offering a false instrument for filing or recording and offering a false representation concerning title. 

The fraudulent acts were committed between May and June of 2016. The investigation commenced after the Attorney General’s Office began its full-time participation in the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.
 
According to court records, Benson knowingly filed a false Nevada Residential Lease Agreement with the Clark County Recorder’s Office and knowingly executed a notice of legal action on Clark County property that contained a material misstatement.

His charges are punishable by up to five years imprisonment and a fine up to $10,000. Benson is scheduled to appear before the Eighth Judicial District Court on May 7 for sentencing in both cases.  

ORIGINAL STORY APRIL 5, 2017: A Las Vegas man is behind bars in Utah facing a long list of charges, including squatting.

Thomas Benson, 56, of Las Vegas, was arrested Wednesday on seven felony charges. The charges include one count of offering a false instrument for filing or record, one count of theft in the amount of $3,500 or more, two counts of burglary, one count of interfering with a public officer, one count of preventing or dissuading a person from testifying or producing evidence, and one count of bribing or intimidating witness to influence testimony.

The alleged criminal acts were committed between April 2016 and March 2017.
 
According to the indictment, the defendant or defendant’s agents falsified a Nevada residential lease agreement to be recorded at the Clark County Recorder, unlawfully controlled the personal property of others in a residence located in Las Vegas, entered the Clark County Recorder’s Office to commit a felony, and also entered the Las Vegas residence to commit a felony.

Additionally, Benson is alleged to have interfered with a public officer, dissuaded a person from testifying and intimidated a witness. 
 
Benson was indicted on March 22 and is currently being held at the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in southern Utah. He now faces extradition back to Nevada.

Police said he fled form Las Vegas to California, then Arizona and Utah where he was arrested.
 
This case is being prosecuted by the Financial Fraud Unit of the Office of the Nevada Attorney General. The case was investigated by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, which includes an investigator from the Attorney General’s Financial Fraud Unit.