Orange County Man Sentenced in Stock Scam

An Orange County man who turned fugitive for a month after he was convicted of Southern California’s largest stock-manipulation scheme has been sentenced to seven years and three months in federal prison. Ahmad Naim Bayaa, 44, of Irvine, the principal architect of a $12.5-million scam involving Southland Communications Inc., was arrested in March as he left a Huntington Beach convenience store where he and a cohort allegedly tried to pass counterfeit checks. Charges of forgery and passing counterfeit checks are pending in state court. Bayaa’s failure to appear at his original sentencing date in February caused U.S. District Judge Richard A. Paez in Los Angeles on Tuesday to add two more years to what would have been a five-year sentence. Southland Communications is a Santa Ana-based provider of paging services.