Southern District of Florida
Press releases recorded for this federal judicial district.
Leader of South Florida Drug-Trafficking Organization Sentenced to 169 Months in Federal PrisonRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – Today, a federal district judge in Miami sentenced 42-year-old Palacio Valdes Farley to over 14 years in prison for conspiring to traffic marijuana, eutylone, and MDMA, as well as conspiring to launder proceeds of the illegal drug activity.
As part of his guilty plea to the charges earlier this year, Farley admitted that from about 2016 to 2019, he organized and led a six-member South Florida drug-trafficking organization (“DTO”). The DTO obtained marijuana from co-conspirators in California, and MDMA from a South Florida co-conspirator, then distributed the drugs in Florida. Farley also admitted that on August 3, 2019, while he was serving a prison sentence at Jackson Correctional Institute in Jackson County, Florida, another member of the DTO was arrested while attempting to smuggle marijuana, eutylone, and MDMA into the prison. The plan was for Farley to distribute the drugs to inmates. As to money laundering, Farley admitted that he conspired with members of the DTO and others to conduct financial transactions intended to disguise the origins of the drug trafficking proceeds.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and John J. Bernardo, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office, announced the sentence that U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams imposed today.
Other defendants in this case have received the following federal prison sentences: Pedro Ceballos Jaime received 120 months; Karen Xiomara Williams received 62 months; Lisa Flood received 44 months; Willie Hudson received 15 months; Robert Benton received 15 months; Denzel Wilson received 16 months; Shanequa Samuels received 24 months; and Emmanuel White received 27 months. Defendant Stephen Keane is set for sentencing on August 12, at 10:00 a.m. before U.S. District Judge Williams.
The FBI investigated this case, with assistance from Florida Department of Corrections, Office of Inspector General; Broward Sheriff's Office; Fort Lauderdale Police Department; Lauderhill Police Department; and United States Secret Service. Assistant United States Attorneys Dwayne E. Williams and Dayron Silverio are prosecuting the case. Assistant United States Attorney Annika Miranda is handling asset forfeiture.
This prosecution is a result of the ongoing efforts by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), a partnership between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, and other priority transnational criminal organizations that threaten the citizens of the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence driven, multi-agency approach to combat transnational organized crime. The OCDETF program facilitates complex, joint operations by focusing its partner agencies on priority targets, by managing and coordinating multi-agency efforts, and by leveraging intelligence across multiple investigative platforms.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 19-cr-20667-Williams.
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Murder Mail Leads to Federal Conviction of South Florida Jilted LoverRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – A 43-year-old Pembroke Pines, Florida man who used the United States postal service to solicit, plan, and pay for the murder of his former girlfriend’s new love interest pled guilty today in federal court to a charge of using the mail to commit murder-for-hire, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §1958.
As part of his guilty plea, Ryan Hadeed admitted that in September 2021, he mailed a letter to the intended hitman requesting murder services: “I need someone eliminated. I've been told you can arrange that. $10,000 All in cash and upfront. Person located in Tampa.” In that letter, and two later ones, Hadeed instructed the intended hitman to signal acceptance of the offer by posting marked sheets of paper on a store-front window, among other things. On November 10, 2021, the intended hitman received a final mailing from Hadeed that included a description and pictures of the man that Hadeed wanted killed, the victim’s home address and likely travel schedule, as well as a deadline for the murder. Also inside the envelope was $10,000 cash. Hadeed left the country on a one-way ticket the same day the hitman received the cash and pictures. During a secondary customs inspection of Hadeed when he returned to the U.S. from his international trip, additional evidence of the crime was uncovered. Law enforcement officers, who had learned of the crime, arrested Hadeed. Federal prosecutors filed a case against him in December 2021.
The intended victim, who remains alive, is romantically involved with Hadeed’s former girlfriend.
Hadeed’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for October 26, at 1:15 p.m. before U.S. District William P. Dimitrouleas. Hadeed faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; Anthony Salisbury, Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigation (HSI), Miami Field Office; Juan A. Vargas, Acting Inspector in Charge, United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), Miami Region; and Troy Walker, Special Agent in Charge, Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), Miami Region, announced the guilty plea.
HSI Miami, USPIS Miami, and FDLE investigated the case, with assistance from Florida Highway Patrol. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph A. Cooley and Deric Zacca are prosecuting the case.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 22-cr-60009.
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Movie Producer Sentenced to over 21 Years for Role in Film Financing SchemeRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida - Yesterday, a federal district judge in South Florida sentenced a 44-year-old former actor and movie producer from Bartlesville, Oklahoma, to 262 months in prison for his role in a financing scheme that defrauded investors out of more than $60 million. The defendant, Jason Van Eman, also was ordered to pay certain victims over $9 million in restitution.
The sentence comes after a federal jury found Van Eman guilty of conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering in May.
According to the evidence, Van Eman held himself out as a film producer and financier, offering to fund independent motion pictures, Broadway shows, music festivals, and other productions. Van Eman promised the victims (producers and others seeking financing), that his partner (a co-conspirator named Benjamin McConley) would match any cash that the victims contributed to their projects. Then, with the combined starting capital (which made the projects more attractive to investors), McConley would apply for and secure financing from financial institutions.
Based on these lies, victims sent over $60 million to accounts controlled by the fraudsters. Contrary to what Van Eman promised victims, his partner never matched their cash contributions or applied for financing. Instead, Van Eman and his co-conspirators stole the victims' money by transferring it to their personal and corporate bank accounts, often within days of deposit. To make the scam more believable, Van Eman and McConley recruited Benjamin Rafael, a bank employee, whose role was to assure victims that their cash contributions had been matched and that their money was secure - neither of which was true.
Van Eman, McConley, and Rafael used the stolen money to purchase luxury automobiles, personal watercraft, real estate, jewelry, home furnishings, designer clothes, hotel accommodations, and private and commercial air travel. Van Eman used some of the stolen cash to fund movies in which he was cast as an actor.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and John J. Bernardo, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), announced the sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Raag Singhal.
FBI Miami Field Division investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher Browne and Yisel Valdes prosecuted it. Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Stone is handling asset forfeiture.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 19-cr-20447.
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After Serving Federal Prison Sentence, Miami Bank Robber Returns to Old WaysRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – Yesterday, a federal district judge in Miami, Florida sentenced Leonard Williams to 81 months’ imprisonment for bank robbery (57 months) and for violating his supervised release on a 2010 bank robbery case (24 months).
On November 30, 2021, Williams began a three-year term of supervised release following a 151-month sentence for robbing banks. He left his residential reentry center to check in with his Probation Officer, but he never returned to the reentry center. Instead, two days later, Williams robbed two more banks. He entered Ocean Bank in downtown Miami and handed a bank teller a note demanding money, which read, “This is a bank robbery give me all cash 100 50 20 10 list don’t make it a [illegible writing.]” The teller told Williams she did not have any money, and when she did not comply with his demand note, Williams pointed at the note, climbed over the bank teller’s counter into the teller area, and yelled that he wanted cash. Williams then took a small, Ocean Bank zippered deposit bag containing blank checks, parking validations tickets, and a USB thumb drive before climbing back over the counter and exiting the bank with the Ocean Bank zippered bag. About an hour later, Williams entered a Citibank—the same one he robbed in 2010—and used a demand note to rob $7,113 from two Citibank tellers.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and John J. Bernardo, Acting Special Agent in Charge, FBI Miami, announced the sentence that U.S. District Judge Robert N. Scola Jr. imposed.
FBI Miami investigated the case, with assistance of City of Miami Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Egozi is prosecuting the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Michele Klco is handling asset forfeiture.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case numbers 10-cr-20843 and 22-cr-20015.
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Three Men Charged in Ecuadorian Bribery and Money Laundering SchemeRead the Press Release
A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida returned an indictment last week, which was unsealed today, charging a Florida man and two Ecuadorian citizens, who reside in Costa Rica, for their alleged roles in a bribery and money laundering scheme to obtain business from Ecuadorian state-owned insurance companies.
According to court documents, Esteban Eduardo Merlo Hidalgo, 50, of Miami, Christian Patricio Pintado Garcia, 49, of Costa Rica, and Luis Lenin Maldonado Matute, 52, of Costa Rica, allegedly conspired to pay bribes to officials of Ecuador’s state-owned insurance companies Seguros Sucre S.A. and Seguros Rocafuerte S.A. to obtain and retain business for themselves, an intermediary company, and reinsurance clients. The intermediary company also allegedly received a portion of the brokerage commission obtained from Seguros Sucre and Seguros Rocafuerte and used those funds, in part, to make the bribe payments. As further alleged in the indictment, the co-conspirators laundered funds related to the bribery scheme to and from bank accounts in Florida and used the proceeds for their personal benefit.
Merlo, Pintado, and Maldonado are each charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which carries a maximum statutory penalty of five years; one substantive violation of the FCPA, which carries a maximum penalty of five years; conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years; and four counts of engaging in transactions involving criminally derived property, which carry a maximum penalty of 10 years for each count. Merlo made his initial court appearance this afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Pintado and Maldonado remain at large. If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum total penalty of 60 years in prison. A federal district judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Special Agent in Charge Darrell J. Waldon of the IRS-Criminal Investigation’s (IRS-CI) Washington, D.C. office; and Special Agent in Charge John J. Bernardo of the FBI’s Miami Field Office made the announcement.
This case is being investigated by IRS-CI and FBI, jointly under the auspices of the Global Illicit Financial Team.
Trial Attorneys Alexander Kramer, Katherine Raut, Drew Bradylyons, and James Mandolfo of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case.
The Fraud Section is responsible for investigating and prosecuting FCPA matters. Additional information about the Justice Department’s FCPA enforcement efforts can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/foreign-corrupt-practices-act.
An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
South Florida PPE Thieves Headed to Federal PrisonRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – Today, a federal district judge in Fort Lauderdale, Florida sentenced three members of a theft ring to federal prison terms for stealing large quantities of N-95 respirator masks, nitrile medical gloves, and medical gowns from a Broward County medical supply company during the early spread of Covid-19 in the United States.
U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith sentenced Alexander G. Jolly, Kenold Million, and Pietro Felipe Sinclair each to 28 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. In addition, Judge Smith ordered the defendants to pay over $470,000 in restitution.
Jolly and Million worked for a large medical supply company that provides personal protective equipment (PPE) and other products to hospitals for front-line health care workers. Sinclair worked for the trucking company that the medical supply company used to transport pallets of products to South Florida hospitals. In April 2020, during the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, when PPE was in high demand, Jolly and Million used their jobs at the medical supply company’s warehouse in Sunrise, Florida to steal PPE. They moved pallets containing large quantities of N-95 respirator masks, nitrile medical gloves, and gowns to certain areas of the warehouse. Sinclair would load the pallets onto his work truck (along with legitimate loads) and transport the stolen PPE to Jolly and Million’s home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Once there, Sinclair transferred the stolen pallets from the truck to the home’s carport. He used pieces of cardboard and furniture to hide the pallets from view. Then, rental trucks and vans were used to move the stolen PPE from Jolly and Million’s home to different locations in Broward and Miami-Dade.
Jolly, Million and Sinclair stole more than 8.5 million pairs of gloves, more than 57,000 respirator masks, and dozens of gowns from the medical supply company’s warehouse. The total replacement cost of the stolen PPE was $470,000. This was one of the largest known thefts of PPE in U.S. history.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Justin C. Fielder, Special Agent in Charge, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Office of Criminal Investigations Miami Field Office, and Juan A. Vargas, Acting Inspector in Charge, U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), Miami Division, made the announcement.
The FDA Office of Criminal Investigations Miami Field Office investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney James Ustynoski prosecuted it.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 22-cr-60007.
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Palm Beach Art Dealer Indicted on Charges Related to Art Fraud SchemeRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – Palm Beach art dealer Daniel Elie Bouaziz was charged by Indictment with mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering in connection with his alleged scheme to sell forged high-end artwork.
The indictment alleges Bouaziz engaged in a scheme to sell paintings and other artwork that he falsely marketed for sale as original or authentic pieces by prominent artists, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Banksy, and Roy Lichtenstein. The indictment further alleges that the fraudulent art, that was purchased from Bouaziz, was picked up from Bouaziz’s South Florida galleries, mailed by commercial interstate carrier, and hand-delivered to Bouaziz’s victims. Bouaziz purchased and acquired pieces from various sources, to include online auction sites at low prices, and falsely sold the pieces as originals, at drastically increased prices, at his retail art galleries on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, Florida. To make the fraudulent art appear authentic, Bouaziz allegedly made false representations to prospective buyers regarding the provenance and originality of the art. To support these false statements, it is alleged Bouaziz, among other things: (1) provided prospective buyers with invoices and documents that included false provenance information; (2) omitted descriptors that were included with low-cost online purchases, to include “after” and “reproduction” language; (3) sold prospective buyers pieces on which false edition numbers and artists’ signatures had been added; and (4) provided prospective buyers with certificates of authenticity that included false assertions and appraisals which had a stamped signature block that read “Daniel Bouaziz, Certified International Fine Art Appraiser.”
The indictment further alleges that Bouaziz committed money laundering by engaging in transactions in criminally derived property.
Bouaziz was previously charged in a criminal complaint under case number 22-mj-08209-RMM.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; John J. Bernardo, Acting Special Agent in Charge, FBI Miami; and Matthew D. Line, Special Agent in Charge, IRS-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Miami Office, made the announcement.
FBI Miami’s West Palm Beach Office and IRS-CI Miami investigated this matter. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah J. Schall is prosecuting this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter A. Laserna is handling the asset forfeiture aspects of this case.
An indictment contains mere allegations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
If you believe you have been a victim of art fraud, please contact the FBI’s Art Crime Team at 1-800-CALL-FBI.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 22-cr-80099.
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Two Financial Asset Managers Charged in Alleged $1.2 Billion Venezuelan Money Laundering SchemeRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – Two financial asset managers have been charged with money laundering for their alleged role in a $1.2 billion international scheme to launder funds corruptly obtained from Venezuela’s state-owned and state-controlled energy company, Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA).
According to the indictment, Ralph Steinmann (Steinmann), 48, of Switzerland, and Luis Fernando Vuteff (Vuteff), 51, of Argentina, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The court documents, which include a criminal complaint charging Steinmann and Vuteff on June 12, 2022, allege that beginning in or around December 2014 and continuing until at least August 2018, Steinmann and Vuteff conspired with others to launder the proceeds of an illegal bribery scheme using the U.S. financial system as well as various bank accounts located abroad. The conspirators laundered the illicit proceeds in connection with a corrupt foreign currency exchange scheme involving bribery of Venezuelan officials.
Steinmann, Vuteff, and others discussed and agreed to create the sophisticated financial mechanisms and relationships required to launder more than $200 million related to the scheme as well as open accounts for or on behalf of at least two Venezuelan public officials to receive their bribe payments related to the scheme.
If convicted, the defendants face up to 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. Vuteff has been arrested and is pending extradition from Switzerland. Steinmann remains a fugitive from the United States.
This case is the result of the ongoing efforts by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) “Operation Money Flight,” a partnership between and among federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The OCDETF mission is to identify, investigate and prosecute high-level members of drug trafficking enterprises, bringing together the combined expertise and unique abilities of federal, state and local law enforcement.
U.S. Attorney Juan Antonio Gonzalez for the Southern District of Florida, Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, and Special Agent in Charge Anthony Salisbury of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Miami office made the announcement.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kurt K. Lunkenheimer of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida and Trial Attorney Paul A. Hayden of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case.
The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs provided substantial assistance in this matter and Swiss law enforcement authorities provided assistance.
An indictment contains mere allegations and defendants are innocent unless and until found guilty in a court of law.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
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Two Financial Asset Managers Charged in Alleged $1.2 Billion Venezuelan Money Laundering SchemeRead the Press Release
Two financial asset managers have been charged with money laundering as part of a $1.2 billion international scheme to launder funds corruptly obtained from Venezuela’s state-owned and state-controlled energy company, Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA).
According to the indictment returned today in the Southern District of Florida, Ralph Steinmann, 48, of Switzerland, and Luis Fernando Vuteff, 51, of Argentina, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The court documents, which include a criminal complaint charging Steinmann and Vuteff on June 12, allege that beginning in or around December 2014 and continuing until at least August 2018, Steinmann and Vuteff conspired with others to launder the proceeds of an illegal bribery scheme using the U.S. financial system as well as various bank accounts located abroad. The conspirators laundered the illicit proceeds in connection with a corrupt foreign currency exchange scheme involving bribery of Venezuelan officials.
Steinmann, Vuteff, and others allegedly discussed and agreed to create the sophisticated financial mechanisms and relationships required to launder more than $200 million related to the scheme as well as open accounts for or on behalf of at least two Venezuelan public officials to receive their bribe payments related to the scheme.
If convicted, the defendants face up to 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. Vuteff has been arrested and is pending extradition from Switzerland. Steinmann remains a fugitive from the United States.
Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr., of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Juan Antonio Gonzalez for the Southern District of Florida, and Special Agent in Charge Anthony Salisbury of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Miami office made the announcement.
HSI Miami is investigating the case. This case is the result of the ongoing efforts by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force’s Operation Money Flight, a partnership between and among federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.
Trial Attorney Paul A. Hayden of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kurt K. Lunkenheimer for the Southern District of Florida are prosecuting the case.
The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and Swiss law enforcement authorities are providing substantial assistance in this matter.
The Fraud Section is responsible for investigating and prosecuting FCPA matters. Additional information about the Justice Department’s FCPA enforcement efforts can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/foreign-corrupt-practices-act.
An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Former South Florida Resident Convicted of Smuggling Illegal Refrigerant from China to U.S.Read the Press Release
Miami, Florida – Yesterday, 69-year-old Jorge Murrillo pled guilty in federal district court in Miami to conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act (CAA) by importing over 300,000 kilograms of illegal hydrochlorofluorocarbon-22 (HCFC-22), worth over $1.5 million, into the United States from China. HCFC-22 is a widely used refrigerant for residential heat pump and air-conditioning systems.
The CAA regulates air pollutants, including ozone depleting substances such as HCFC-22. The CAA and its implementing regulations established a schedule to phase out the production and importation of ozone depleting substances, with a complete ban starting in 2030. To meet its obligations under an international treaty to reduce its consumption of ozone depleting substances, the United States issued baseline consumption allowances for the production and importation of HCFC-22 to individuals and companies. To legally import HCFC-22, one must hold an unexpended consumption allowance.
According to court records and a Factual Statement filed in Court, Murrillo smuggled large quantities of HCFC-22 into the United States to sell on the black market. Murrillo and his co-defendant would negotiate with a Chinese manufacturer for the purchase of large quantities of HCFC-22 and then import them into South Florida ports. At no point did Murrillo or his companies or associates hold unexpended consumption allowances that would have allowed the legal importation of HCFC-22. Between June and August 2007, Murrillo conspired to, and otherwise smuggled, approximately 309,536 kilograms of HCFC with a market value of $1,525,670, into the U.S. Murrillo resided outside the United States from the time of his indictment in 2012 until his arrest in Miami in May 2022.
Murrillo’s co-defendant, Norberto Guada, was previously convicted, in 2012, of illegally importing HCFC-22, and served a federal prison sentence.
Senior U.S. District Judge Donald L. Graham has set Murrillo’s sentencing hearing for September 20, at 11:00 a.m., in federal district in Miami. Murrillo faces up to five years in prison.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Charles Carfagno, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Criminal Investigation Division, Southeast Area Branch and Anthony Salisbury, Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Miami Field Office, announced the conviction.
EPA, Criminal Investigation Division and HSI Miami investigated the case. Customs and Border Protection assisted. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Jodi A. Mazer and Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Watts-FitzGerald are prosecuting it.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 12-cr-20514.
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South Florida Political Campaign Consultant Pleads Guilty to Defrauding Covid-19 Relief ProgramRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – Today, 42-year-old Royal Palm Beach, Florida resident Omar Smith pled guilty in South Florida federal court to lying on a coronavirus relief loan application and fraudulently obtaining hundreds of thousands of dollars intended to help small businesses financially survive the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the information to which he pled guilty, in June 2020, Smith applied for a $212,500 forgivable, federally guaranteed Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan on behalf of A Star For I, Inc., a Florida company that he owned. It is alleged that to justify the requested loan amount, Smith claimed in the on-line loan application, and through supporting fraudulent payroll tax forms, that his company employed 30 people and spent an average of $85,000 each month on payroll. In fact, A Star For I, Inc had zero employees and no payroll expenses. A bank in Utah approved A Star For I, Inc.’s PPP loan application based on the lies and wired $212,500 to the company’s bank account in Florida, says the information.
Once the money hit the bank account in July 2020, Smith spent the next few months creating a paper trail to make it appear as if A Star For I, Inc. in fact had employees and was spending the PPP money on legitimate, approved expenses, it is alleged. According to the information, Smith issued checks from the company bank account made out to others who did little or no work for A Star For I, Inc.
Smith faces up to thirty years in prison and a fine of the greater of twice the gross gain or twice the gross loss or $1,000,000. United States District Judge Robin Rosenberg will sentence Smith on a date and time to be announced.
Smith has worked on political campaigns in South Florida.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Jay Bernardo, Acting Special Agent in Charge, FBI Miami, announced the charges.
FBI Miami investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Kaplan is prosecuting it.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act is a federal law designed to provide emergency financial assistance to millions of Americans who suffered financially from the COVID-19 pandemic. One source of relief provided by the CARES Act was the authorization of hundreds of billions of dollars in forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and certain other expenses through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the Department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.
Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.
You may find related court documents and information on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 22-cr-80074.
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Four individuals, including owners of a freight forwarding company, charged for exporting 600 stolen outboard engines to MexicoRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – Four Florida residents -- Carlos Orlando Ledesma, 56, Nadia Esperanza Ledesma, 45, and Roberto Marrero-Cisneros, 65 (all from Miami), and Osmani Valdivia Perez, 55 (from Lehigh Acres), were arrested and have made their initial appearances in federal court to face charges in the Southern District of Florida that they exported around 600 stolen outboard engines to Mexico through a Miami-based freight forwarding company.
Nadia Ledesma is the President of a freight forwarding company in Miami, and Carlos Ledesma is the warehouse manager. According to allegations in the indictment, from 2015 to 2018, Carlos and Nadia Ledesma received stolen outboard engines from Valdivia and others for export to Mexico. Valdivia paid cash for the exportation of the stolen outboard engines he delivered to the freight company himself, as well as for the exportation of stolen outboard engines delivered by others. Marrero-Cisneros created false serial number stickers to be placed on the stolen outboard engines. Nadia and Carlos Ledesma and their co-conspirators caused false bills of sale to be created, and false export information to be submitted to the United States, it is alleged.
The indictment charges Carlos Ledesma, Nadia Ledesma, Valdivia, and Marrero-Cisneros with conspiring to export stolen outboard engines and to smuggle goods from the United States. In addition, it charges: Carlos Ledesma and Nadia Ledesma with four counts of exporting stolen outboard engines, one count of attempting to export stolen outboard engines, and four counts of smuggling goods from the United States; Valdivia with two counts of exporting stolen outboard engines and two counts of smuggling goods from the United States; and Marrero-Cisneros with one count of exporting stolen outboard engines and one count of smuggling goods from the United States.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Anthony Salisbury, Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Miami Field Office, and Special Agent in Charge, Zinnia P. James, Coast Guard Investigative Service (CGIS) Southeast Region, made the announcement.
This case is being investigated by HSI and CGIS, with assistance from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE). The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ana Maria Martinez of the Southern District of Florida. Asset forfeiture is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daren Grove.
An indictment and criminal complaint are charging instruments containing allegations. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at www.usdoj.gov/usao/fla.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 22-cr-20269.
Three People Charged with Robberies that Targeted Jewelry SalespeopleRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – In a multi-count indictment unsealed today, a South Florida federal grand jury has charged three people with robbing jewelry salespeople of millions of dollars’ worth of gems, other jewelry, and property.
Allan Lucas, Diana Grisales Basto, and Carlos Morales are charged with conspiring to commit Hobbs Act robbery and multiple counts of Hobbs Act robbery for forcefully taking and attempting to take jewelry and other property from victims engaged in the business of buying and selling jewelry throughout South Florida, between September 2019 and December 2020. According to court documents, the charged robberies occurred in Boca Raton, Miami Beach, Lake Worth, Boynton Beach, and Fort Pierce.
Specifically, Lucas, 30, of Miami, is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery and five counts of Hobbs Act robbery. Grisales Basto, 37, a Colombian national, is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act and robbery and four counts of Hobbs Act robbery. Morales, 44, of Miami, is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery and one count of Hobbs Act robbery.
Each count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and David Walker, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Tampa, made the announcement.
The FBI’s Tampa Division is leading the investigation of the case with valuable assistance from the FBI’s Miami Field Office, Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, Miami-Dade Police Department, Miami Beach Police Department, Tampa Police Department, Boca Raton Police Department, Palm Beach Sherriff’s Office, Boynton Beach Police Department, Fort Pierce Police Department, and the Jewelry Security Alliance.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Alejandra Lopez of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida and Trial Attorneys Lakeita F. Rox-Love and Christina Taylor of the Justice Department’s Organized Crime and Gang Section are prosecuting the case.
An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
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Three Individuals Charged with Robberies that Targeted Jewelry SalespeopleRead the Press Release
A federal grand jury in Miami, Florida, returned a six-count indictment on June 29, which was unsealed today, charging three individuals with robbing jewelry salespeople of millions of dollars’ worth of gems, other jewelry, and property.
Allan Lucas, Diana Grisales Basto, and Carlos Morales are charged with conspiring to commit Hobbs Act robbery and multiple counts of Hobbs Act robbery for forcefully taking and attempting to take jewelry and other property from victims engaged in the business of buying and selling jewelry throughout South Florida, between September 2019 and December 2020. According to court documents, the charged robberies occurred in Boca Raton, Miami Beach, Lake Worth, Boynton Beach, and Fort Pierce.
Specifically, Lucas, 30, of Miami, is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery and five counts of Hobbs Act robbery. Grisales Basto, 37, a Colombian national, is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery and four counts of Hobbs Act robbery. Morales, 44, of Miami, is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery and one count of Hobbs Act robbery.
Lucas and Grisales Basto were already in state custody and scheduled to make their initial appearance on Friday, July 8th. Morales was arrested on July 2nd. Each count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The FBI’s Tampa Division is leading the investigation of the case with valuable assistance from the FBI’s Miami Field Office, Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, Miami-Dade Police Department, Miami Beach Police Department, Tampa Police Department, Boca Raton Police Department, Palm Beach Sherriff’s Office, Boynton Beach Police Department, Fort Pierce Police Department, and the Jewelry Security Alliance.
Trial Attorneys Lakeita F. Rox-Love and Christina Taylor of the Justice Department’s Organized Crime and Gang Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Alejandra Lopez of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida are prosecuting the case.
An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Three Men Charged in $100 Million Cryptocurrency FraudRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – A South Florida federal grand jury today indicted Emerson Pires, 33, and Flavio Goncalves, 33, both of Brazil, and Joshua David Nicholas, 28, of Stuart, Florida, in connection with a global cryptocurrency-based fraud that generated around $100 million in revenues from investors. The indictment charges all three defendants with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. The indictment also charges Pires and Goncalves with conspiracy to commit international money laundering.
According to the indictment, Pires and Goncalves founded EmpiresX, a cryptocurrency investment platform and unregistered securities offering. Pires and Goncalves, along with Nicholas, the company’s so-called “Head Trader,” fraudulently promoted EmpiresX. They misled investors about, among other things, a purported proprietary trading “bot” that they claimed could generate guaranteed returns to investors in EmpiresX.
As alleged in the indictment, Pires and Goncalves then laundered investors’ funds through a foreign-based cryptocurrency exchange, and paid out early EmpiresX investors with money obtained from later investors in a Ponzi-style scheme.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Miami Field Office, and Anthony Salisbury, Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Miami Field Office, made the announcement.
“Our office is committed to protecting investors from sophisticated scammers seeking to capitalize on the relative novelty of digital currency,” said United States Attorney Gonzalez. “As with any emerging technology, those who invest in cryptocurrency must beware of profit-making opportunities that appear too good to be true.”
“The technology has changed, but the crime remains the same,” said George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Miami. “Unscrupulous fraudsters are nothing new to the investment world - what’s changing is they are now pushing their criminal activity into the cryptocurrency realm. Investors beware. Conduct your due diligence before investing. The FBI would like to commend Homeland Security Investigations for their close cooperation on this case.”
“This case should serve as a warning to any individuals who look to illegally capitalize on the perceived ambiguity of the crypto market to take advantage of innocent investors” said HSI Miami Special Agent in Charge Anthony Salisbury. “HSI will continue to work with our partners to pursue anyone who utilizes these types of schemes to victimize would be customers.”
FBI and HSI are investigating the case. Fraud Section Trial Attorneys Kevin Lowell and Sara Hallmark and Assistant U.S. Attorney Yisel Valdes of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida are prosecuting the case.
Indictments contain mere allegations and defendants are innocent unless and until found guilty in a court of law.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
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Three Florida Pharmacies Agree to Pay $830,707 to Resolve Allegations They Fraudulently Billed Federal Health Care ProgramsRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – Habana Hospital Pharmacy, Inc., Longevity Drugs, LLC, and Forest Hill Pharmacy, LLC, all Florida-based pharmacies, have agreed to pay $830,707.19 to resolve allegations they fraudulently used collaborative pharmacy practice agreements to bill federal health care programs for unlawfully prescribed medications.
The United States previously alleged that five Florida-based pharmacies, including Habana Hospital Pharmacy, Inc., Longevity Drugs, LLC, Forest Hills Pharmacy, LLC, APB&J Holdings Corporation, and Tropic Pharmacy Holdings, Inc., violated the False Claims Act through the fraudulent use of collaborative pharmacy practice agreements. Representatives of the five pharmacies signed the settlement agreement.
A collaborative pharmacy practice agreement is a written agreement between a physician and pharmacist that allows the pharmacist to provide specific patient care services for chronic health conditions to the physician’s patients. Services provided by the pharmacist are outlined in the written agreement and must be in accordance with Florida law.
The United States previously alleged that the settling pharmacies used unlawful collaborative practice agreements to delegate prescribing authority from physicians to pharmacists, resulting in unlawful prescriptions, and used the same collaborative practice agreements to write and fill prescriptions without any physician involvement. It was alleged that the fraudulent scheme resulted in the submission of false claims to federal health care programs, including Medicare and Medicaid.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Omar Pérez Aybar, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), announced the settlement.
The settlement resolved allegations in a lawsuit filed by Beatriz Morales in federal court in Miami, Florida. The lawsuit was filed under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the False Claims Act, which permit private individuals to sue on behalf of the government for false claims and to share in any recovery. The Act allows the government to intervene and take over the action, as it did in this case. The whistleblower share to be awarded in connection with the settlement is $166,141.44.
HHS-OIG investigated the matter. Assistant United States Attorney Matthew J. Feeley handled the litigation.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 17-cv-80871.
A copy of the settlement agreement is available
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South Florida Health Care Clinic Owners, Employees Sentenced for Roles in Multiple Fraud SchemesRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – A federal district judge in Miami sentenced the last of five defendants for his role in a health care fraud scheme operated out of a physical therapy clinic in Doral.
According to court records, the defendants recruited and paid off beneficiaries of Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) health insurance plans, then billed BCBS for services the clinic either never provided or which were not medically necessary. The two clinic owners also used the business, Polyclinic Healthcare Corp., to fraudulently obtain COVID-19 relief funds.
The five defendants were sentenced as follows:
- Carlos Rafael Saez Dorta, age 42, (clinic owner) was sentenced to 135 months in prison following a jury trial, three years’ supervised release, and ordered to pay $4,434,069 in restitution;
- Veronica Ramos Hernandez, age 35, (clinic owner) was sentenced to 135 months in prison following a jury trial, three years’ supervised release, and ordered to pay $4,434,069 in restitution;
- Michael Burrowes, age 43, (patient recruiter) was sentenced to 46 months in prison following a guilty plea, three years’ supervised release, and ordered to pay $73,116.61 in restitution;
- Dianelis Garcia Alvarez, age 41, (office manager) was sentenced to 35 months in prison following a guilty plea, three years’ supervised release, and ordered to pay $357,256 in restitution; and
- Deandre Mitchell Gabriel, age 33, (patient recruiter) was sentenced to 24 months in prison following a guilty plea, three years’ supervised release, and ordered to pay $30,810 in restitution;
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Miami Field Office, made the announcement.
According to evidence introduced in court, the billing fraud conspiracy resulted in more than $8 million in false claims being submitted to BCBS. Most of the claims were for unneeded or never-provided physical therapy treatments, such as electrical stimulation, ultrasound therapy, and therapeutic exercise, as well as for durable medical equipment.
Additionally, the evidence showed that in 2021 the clinic owners (Saez and Ramos) applied for a $607,585 Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan as well as a $500,000 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). As a result, Saez and Ramos received over $1 million through these COVID-19 relief programs, stealing money that was meant for legitimate small businesses suffering from the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
FBI Miami investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Shannon Shaw and Stephanie Hauser for the Southern District of Florida prosecuted the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Annika Miranda handled asset forfeiture.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act is a federal law designed to provide emergency financial assistance to millions of Americans who suffered financially from the COVID-19 pandemic. One source of relief provided by the CARES Act was the authorization of hundreds of billions of dollars in forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and certain other expenses through the PPP. The CARES Act also authorized and provided funding to the SBA to provide EIDLs to eligible small businesses, including sole proprietorships and independent contractors, experiencing substantial financial disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic to allow them to meet financial obligations and operating expenses that could otherwise have been met had the disaster not occurred. EIDL applications were submitted directly to the SBA via the SBA’s on-line application website, and the applications were processed and the loans funded for qualifying applicants directly by the SBA.
On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the Department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.
Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 21-cr-20324.
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South Florida Man Sentenced to 10 Years for Attempted Online Enticement of a MinorRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – A federal district judge sitting in Ft. Pierce, Florida sentenced Zachary S. Spiegel, 38, of Jensen Beach, to 120 months in prison after a jury found Spiegel guilty of attempted on-line enticement of a minor.
For several weeks in January of this year, Spiegel communicated online and by text message with someone whom he believed was a 14-year-old girl named Shayla. In reality, “Shayla” was a fictional persona created by a 16-year-old boy who was trying to identify child predators in the area. On January 9, Spiegel attempted to persuade Shayla to meet him in the parking lot of a Fort Pierce shopping plaza for sex in his car. Spiegel sent Shayla graphic descriptions of the sex acts he would perform on her, as well as photos of his erect penis. They agreed on a time and place to meet, but Spiegel did not make it. Spiegel later explained to Shayla that while on his way to their rendezvous, law enforcement officers pulled him over for speeding and he decided to return home. After this incident, the 16-year-old boy contacted law enforcement.
Spiegel kept communicating with a person he believed was the 14-year-old Shayla. As he had done before, Spiegel made sexually explicit comments, sent several more photos of his face and penis, and talked about meeting Shayla in person.
A law enforcement investigation led officers to Spiegel. They executed a search warrant at his Jensen Beach home on January 20, where they found him in possession of the cellular phone he had used to communicate with “Shayla.”
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Anthony Salisbury, Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Miami Field Office, announced the sentence that U.S. District Court Judge Paul C. Huck handed down on June 22.
HSI Miami, HSI Fort Pierce, and the Fort Pierce Police Department investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stacey Bergstrom and Justin Hoover are prosecuting it.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Divisions Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 21-cr-14017.
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South Florida Resident Sentenced to 30 Months for Bank Fraud and Identity Theft After a String of USPS Collection Box BurglariesRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – A Palm Beach resident who altered and cashed personal checks, which victims reported as stolen from U.S. Postal Service (“USPS”) drop boxes, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison on bank fraud and aggravated identity theft charges.
On December 30, 2021, Danny Seruto Perez pled guilty to the fraud and identity theft offenses. According to court documents, starting in or around July 2018, the United States Postal Inspection Service (“USPIS”) was alerted to a string of mail thefts from mail collection boxes after receiving complaints from multiple victims who stated that checks they had mailed out (including to pay their bills) never reached their intended recipients.
Through its investigation, USPIS learned that many of the victims’ stolen checks had been visibly altered (or “washed”) and re-written with Seruto Perez’s name as the payment recipient, and for larger payments than the original amounts written by the victims. Further investigation revealed that Seruto Perez fraudulently deposited these “washed” and stolen checks into his own bank account and into accounts held by his friends. Seruto Perez’s bank fraud scheme involved stolen checks from approximately 15 victims, totaling approximately $36,700 in stolen funds—all of which the court has now ordered him to pay back as restitution to the victims.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Joseph W. Cronin, U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), Inspector in Charge, Miami Division, made the announcement.
United States Postal Inspection Service, Orlando Domicile, investigated the case, in collaboration with the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, the Vero Beach Police Department and the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Lacee Monk and Eduardo Gardea Jr. Assistant United States Attorney Emily Stone is handling forfeiture.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 21-cr-60181.
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Former CEO of Drug Manufacturing Company Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Defraud the FDA and Distributing Adulterated DrugsRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – Raidel Figueroa, the former CEO and co-owner of Pharmatech, LLC, a drug and dietary supplement manufacturer that operated in Broward County, Florida, pled guilty to conspiring to defraud the FDA, falsifying records in an FDA investigation, obstructing proceedings before the FDA, and distributing adulterated drugs in Fort Lauderdale federal court yesterday.
Court documents show that from at least 2016 through at least March 2017, Pharmatech manufactured and distributed Diocto Liquid, a drug used to treat constipation. In July 2016, FDA initiated an inspection at Pharmatech as part of an investigation into an outbreak of Burkholderia cepacia (“B. cepacia”) infections. B. cepacia is the name for a group or “complex” of bacteria typically found in soil and water. These bacteria pose little medical risk to healthy people, but people who have certain health problems like weak immune systems or chronic lung diseases may be more susceptible to B. cepacia infections. The effects of B. cepacia can include serious respiratory infections and other types of infections. Contaminated medicines can transmit B. cepacia, and the bacteria are often resistant to common antibiotics. At the close of the FDA’s inspection in August of 2016, the FDA notified Figueroa that a water sample it had taken from Pharmatech’s water system had tested positive for the presence of B. cepacia. In response, Figueroa advised the FDA that Pharmatech was re-engineering its purified water system to prevent future contaminations.
In March 2017, the FDA started another inspection at Pharmatech. FDA investigators asked Figueroa to disclose all products that Pharmatech had manufactured after it resumed manufacturing. Figueroa lied to the FDA investigators by, among other things, knowingly excluding Diocto Liquid from its products list (even though Pharmatech shipped over 7,000 units of the drug earlier that month) and by falsely stating to the FDA that Pharmatech’s new water system had met “acceptance criteria,” which was not true.
In July 2017, the CDC notified the FDA of multiple cases of B. cepacia infections in pediatric patients at Stanford Children’s Health Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, California and Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, Maryland. FDA investigated and collected bottles of Diocto Liquid from these medical centers. The collected bottles were from the same lot that Pharmatech distributed in March 2017 – the same lot that Pharmatech failed to disclose to the FDA. Several of the bottles contained total aerobic microbial counts and total yeast and mold counts in excess of acceptable limits and some of the bottles also tested positive for the presence of B. cepacia.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Justin C. Fielder, Special Agent in Charge, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Office of Criminal Investigations Miami Field Office, made the announcement.
The FDA Office of Criminal Investigations Miami Field Office investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Deric Zacca is prosecuting this case, with assistance from Laura Akowuah, from FDA’s Office of Chief Counsel.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 22-cr-60033.
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Former Financial Advisor Sentenced to Prison for Defrauding Close to $6 Million Dollars from Clients and Spending it on Extramarital AffairsRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – Yesterday, a federal district judge in Miami sentenced German Nino, a former UBS Financial Advisor, to 78 months in federal prison for stealing millions of dollars from client accounts that he managed.
According to court documents, Nino, a resident of Broward County, was a financial advisor working at a branch office of UBS Financial Services Inc. in Miami. Nino oversaw and managed UBS investment accounts for various customers. From about 2014 to 2020, Nino made 62 unauthorized transfers (totaling close to $6 million) from UBS accounts belonging to three clients. To accomplish the fraud, Nino concealed important facts from the victims, lied to them, and committed other fraudulent acts. For example, Nino misrepresenting the true performance, balance, and rate of return of the accounts he managed. He also forged the signature of his clients on documents purporting to authorize transfers out of the accounts, prepared a fraudulent land purchase contract on which he forged a victim’s signature, removed one of the victim’s e-mail addresses from the UBS client account profile so that the victim would not receive email notifications about unauthorized transfers, and prepared fraudulent UBS account statements that falsely inflated the balance and value of the victims’ accounts.
As set out in court records, Nino spent most of the money he stole from the accounts on funding his own extramarital affairs. Nino agreed to forfeit his interest in a home in Ave Marie, Florida as part of his sentence.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), Miami Field Office announced the sentence that U.S. Senior District Judge Donald L. Graham imposed.
FBI Miami investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Deric Zacca prosecuted the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Stone is handling asset forfeiture.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 22-cr-20020.
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Man Who Acted as Russian Agent Sentenced to Federal Prison TermRead the Press Release
Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes, 36, a Mexican citizen who had resided in Singapore and spent significant time in Russia, was sentenced yesterday in the Southern District of Florida to four years and one day in prison for acting within the United States on behalf of a foreign government without notifying the Attorney General.
According to court documents, since 2019, Fuentes acted under the direction and control of someone he believed to be a Russian government official. Instructed by this Russian official, Fuentes arranged for an intermediary to lease a unit in a residential building in Miami-Dade County where a U.S. person, who had previously provided information about the Russian government to the U.S. government, resided.
Furthermore, at the direction of the same Russian official, Fuentes traveled to Miami in February 2020 to obtain the license plate number and parking location of the U.S. person’s car to provide to the Russian official upon his next trip to Russia.
Fuentes’s travel companion, at his request, took a photo of the U.S. person’s car. A WhatsApp message from Fuentes’s travel companion to Fuentes contained a close-up photograph of the specified U.S. person’s car. The manner in which Fuentes communicated with the Russian government official and his undertakings in this case are consistent with the tactics of the Russian intelligence services for spotting, assessing, recruiting and handling intelligence assets and sources.
Fuentes had not notified the U.S. Attorney General, as required by law, that he was acting in the United States as an agent of the Russian government.
Fuentes pleaded guilty in February 2022. U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks for the Southern District of Florida imposed the sentence, which included an order that the defendant be removed from the United States to Mexico promptly upon his release from confinement.
Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, U.S. Attorney Juan Antonio Gonzalez for the Southern District of Florida, Special Agent in Charge George L. Piro of the FBI’s Miami Field Office, and Director of Field Operations Vernon T. Foret of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Miami Field Office made the announcement.
FBI and CBP investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Thakur of the Southern District of Florida and Trial Attorney Matthew J. McKenzie of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section prosecuted the case.
Man Who Acted as Russian Agent Sentenced to Federal PrisonRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes, 36, a Mexican citizen who had resided in Singapore, was sentenced yesterday in the Southern District of Florida to four years and one day in prison for acting within the United States on behalf of a foreign government without notifying the Attorney General.
Fuentes is a Mexican citizen who has spent significant time in Russia. According to court documents, since 2019, Fuentes acted under the direction and control of someone he believed to be a Russian government official. Instructed by this Russian official, Fuentes arranged for an intermediary to lease a unit in a residential building in Miami-Dade County where a U.S. person, who had previously provided information about the Russian government to the United States Government, resided.
Furthermore, at the direction of the same Russian official, Fuentes traveled to Miami in February 2020 to obtain the license plate number and parking location of the U.S. person’s car to provide this information to the Russian official upon his next trip to Russia.
Fuentes’s travel companion, at his request, took a photo of the U.S. person’s car. WhatsApp message from Fuentes’s travel companion to Fuentes contained a close-up photograph of the specified U.S. person’s car. The manner in which Fuentes communicated with the Russian government official and his undertakings in this case are consistent with the tactics of the Russian intelligence services for spotting, assessing, recruiting, and handling intelligence assets and sources.
Fuentes had not notified the United States Attorney General, as required by law, that he was acting in the United States as an agent of the Russian government.
Fuentes pled guilty to the charge in February. U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks imposed the sentence, which included an order that the defendant be removed from the United States to Mexico promptly upon his release from confinement.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; Matthew G. Olsen, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Miami Field Office; and Vernon T. Foret, Director of Field Operations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Miami Field Office, made the announcement.
FBI and CBP investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Thakur of the Southern District of Florida and Trial Attorney Matt McKenzie of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section prosecuted the case.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 20-cr-20129.
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Fentanyl Dealer Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for Overdose DeathRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – A South Florida fentanyl dealer whose product killed a man was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison today.
On May 19, 2021, 21-year-old Peterson Nozinord drove another man, age 27, to a motel in Lantana, Florida. Nozinord checked the man into a room by using Nozinord’s identification. Once inside, Nozinord provided the man with four fentanyl capsules. After a short time, Nozinord left the motel.
The next day, at approximately 7:30 a.m., the Lantana Police Department responded to the motel on a request for a welfare check on the victim. Upon entering the room, the responding officer discovered the man’s lifeless body slumped on the floor with a needle in his hand. The officer also observed on the dresser seven pills, four drug capsules, and a small white plastic baggie. The capsules were later examined by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and DEA Forensic Science Labs and were identified as a mixture of fentanyl, tramadol, xylazine, and cocaine. A review of motel security cameras showed that the victim was dropped off at the motel and checked in by an individual operating a black Honda.
After conducting his initial investigation at the scene, a Lantana police sergeant departed the area of the motel to head back to police headquarters. Shortly after leaving the parking lot of the motel, the sergeant observed the same vehicle that Nozinord used to transport the victim to the motel the previous evening. The sergeant observed the vehicle run through a stop sign almost causing an accident with another vehicle. The sergeant then conducted a motor vehicle stop on the black Honda.
During the stop, the sergeant observed that the Black Honda contained two occupants. Nozinord was riding as the front seat passenger. After the driver gave the police consent to search the vehicle, the sergeant located a backpack in the glove compartment that contained an assortment of narcotics, including 16 capsules of suspected fentanyl, six baggies of suspected cocaine, and 35 tablets of suspected Xanax. Nozinord’s identification and mail addressed to him were also in the bag, along with $1,515 in cash. The suspected fentanyl was later examined by the Palm Beach County Forensic Science Lab and determined to contain the same mixture of fentanyl, tramadol, xylazine, and cocaine as the capsules found in the victim’s motel room. Nozinord’s DNA was also found on the on a blue baggie and pill bottle which contained narcotics inside the backpack, and a white baggie found next to the fentanyl pills in the decedent’s motel room.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Deanne L. Reuter, Special Agent in Charge, Drug Enforcement Administration, Miami Field Office, and Chief Sean Scheller, Lantana Police Department, announced the sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks.
The Drug Enforcement Administration, the Lantana Police Department, and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark Dispoto and Shannon Shaw prosecuted the case.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
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Two Additional South Florida Residents Charged in Elaborate Prescription Medication Diversion SchemeRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – Federal prosecutors in Miami have charged two additional men, 51-year-old Lazaro Hernandez and 37-year-old Eladio Vega, for their alleged roles in a widespread fraud scheme involving the distribution of adulterated and misbranded cancer, HIV, psychiatric, and other expensive prescription medications to unsuspecting patients. The third superseding indictment unsealed today brings the number of defendants charged in this case (19-cr-20674) to 15.
According to the indictment and other documents filed in the case, Hernandez and Vega were part of a prescription medication diversion fraud scheme that worked as follows: The operation involved a division of labor, in which street-level dealers supplied medicines to participants who inspected, cleaned, and packaged the drugs for shipment to others with established pharmaceutical wholesale companies. The wholesale company owners prepared fraudulent documentation, falsely representing that legitimate drug manufacturers had provided the medications to them. In fact, the suppliers had acquired the drugs through health care fraud, theft or burglary, or buying the medications from patients who obtained prescriptions but chose to sell them rather than take their medicines. With the false documentation, the company owners then sold the newly misbranded medications to retail pharmacies. In turn, the retail pharmacies sold the medications to patients who knew nothing about the real source of the drugs, which had been stored and transported with no regard to temperature, light, humidity, or other maintenance controls.
In order to conceal the nature of their criminal enterprise and the identities of those profiting from it, conspirators routed money obtained from sales of the mislabeled and adulterated drugs through the bank accounts of multiple shell companies, according to the court documents.
According to the indictment, Hernandez and Vega acquired and supplied to their co-conspirators the medications that were later misbranded and sold to unknowing patients. The indictment charges Hernandez and Vega with conspiracy to distribute misbranded and adulterated drugs, conspiracy to traffic in medical products with false documentation, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and four counts of mail fraud. It also charges Hernandez with two counts of money laundering.
To date, eight of the 15 defendants charged in this case have entered guilty pleas.
Hernandez is also charged in a separate case in the Southern District of Florida involving prescription medication diversion: U.S. v. Hernandez, Case No. 22-cr-60129. Hernandez made his initial court appearance in both cases today in federal magistrate court in Miami.
U.S. Attorney Juan Antonio Gonzalez for the Southern District of Florida; Special Agent in Charge George L. Piro of FBI Miami; and Special Agent in Charge Justin C. Fielder of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Office of Criminal Investigations Miami Field Office, made the announcement.
FBI Miami and FDA Office of Criminal Investigations Miami are investigating this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Tamen is prosecuting it. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Grosnoff is handling asset forfeiture.
An indictment is merely an allegation and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 19-cr-20674.
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Sex Offender Sentenced in South Florida to over 29 Years for Attempting to Sexually Entice MinorRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – A federal district judge in Fort Pierce, Florida this week sentenced a 47-year-old Orlando man to 355 months in prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release, for attempting to sexually entice a minor and committing an offense involving a minor while required to register as a sex offender.
In August 2021, Joseph Furey Lusk engaged in sexually explicit chats with someone in Martin County, Florida he believed was 15 years old. During weeks of sexually explicit chats, Lusk encouraged her to send him nude images and videos of herself and friends engaged in sexual activity. In addition, Lusk sent several photographs of his erect penis through text messages. Lusk’s attempt to entice occurred less than one month after his release from state custody on a 2018 Florida state conviction for traveling to meet a minor – a conviction that required him to register as a sex offender.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Anthony Salisbury, Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Miami Field Office announced the sentence that U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon imposed.
HSI Miami (Fort Pierce office) investigated the case, with assistance from Martin County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stacey Bergstrom is prosecuting the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Divisions Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 21-cr-14036.
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Man Arrested for Allegedly Distributing over $230 Million of Adulterated HIV MedicationRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – A Florida man was arrested today for allegedly distributing more than $230 million in adulterated HIV drugs that were ultimately dispensed to unsuspecting patients throughout the country.
According to an indictment unsealed today, Lazaro Hernandez, 51, of Miami, was allegedly part of a nationwide scheme to defraud the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and illegally distribute more than $230 million in adulterated and misbranded prescription drugs that were dispensed to unsuspecting patients. As alleged in the indictment, Hernandez acquired large quantities of HIV medication illegally and then created false drug labeling and other documentation to make it appear as though these high-priced drugs had been obtained legitimately. To carry out the scheme, Hernandez and co-conspirators established licensed wholesale drug distribution companies in Florida, New Jersey, Connecticut, and New York. Hernandez and his co-conspirators used those companies to sell the adulterated drugs at steep discounts to other co-conspirators at wholesale pharmaceutical distributors in Mississippi, Maryland, and New York. Those wholesale pharmaceutical distributors then resold the drugs to pharmacies throughout the country, which billed the drugs to health insurers, including Medicare, and dispensed the adulterated and misbranded HIV medication to unsuspecting patients.
As alleged in the indictment, between approximately 2019 and 2021, the wholesale pharmaceutical distributors paid Hernandez and his co-conspirators more than $230 million for the illegally acquired and adulterated prescription drugs. Hernandez allegedly laundered those hundreds of millions of dollars through the use of several corporations in Miami.
Hernandez is charged with conspiracy to deliver into interstate commerce adulterated and misbranded drugs, conspiracy to traffic in medical products with false documentation, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and specific money laundering offenses. If convicted of all counts, he faces a maximum total penalty of more than 100 years in prison.
The defendant was also charged in a separate, superseding indictment that was returned by a grand jury in Miami on June 14. Hernandez made his initial court appearance in both cases today in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
U.S. Attorney Juan Antonio Gonzalez for the Southern District of Florida; Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Special Agent in Charge Omar Pérez Aybar of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG); and Special Agent in Charge Kyle A. Myles of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General (FDIC-OIG), Atlanta Region, made the announcement.
HHS-OIG and FDIC-OIG are investigating the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy James Abraham of the Southern District of Florida and Trial Attorney Alexander Thor Pogozelski of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Stone is handling forfeiture.
An indictment is merely an allegation and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 22-cr-60129.
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Owner and Operator of Telemedicine and Telemarketing Companies Sentenced to 14 Years for $20 Million Fraud Scheme and $4 Million Tax EvasionRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – A Florida man was sentenced today to 14 years in prison for health care and wire fraud that cost Medicare more than $20 million dollars, and for evading taxes.
According to court documents, Marc Sporn, 59, of Delray Beach, owned and operated several telemarketing and telemedicine companies, including CPL Media Group Inc. Medipak, LLC, Real Time Physicians LLC, 24 HR Virtual MD LLC, Medtech Worldwide Inc., New World Holdings Inc., and Ins Cov LLC. Sporn used these companies to market medically unnecessary genetic tests to Medicare beneficiaries, and to sell prescriptions (i.e., doctors’ orders) for medically unnecessary genetic tests to laboratories in exchange for kickbacks and bribes. Sporn knew these laboratories would use these doctors’ orders to bill Medicare for medically unnecessary goods and services.
Through nominee owners, Sporn also operated and controlled Palm Beach companies Medi Biotech LLC and Walmol Holdings LLC. Sporn used Medi Biotech to market compounded prescription creams to customers with certain health conditions. Pharmacies and laboratories associated with Medi Biotech filled the prescriptions, billed the customers’ insurance companies, and paid Sporn kickbacks. In addition to opening bank accounts for Medi Biotech in nominee names, Sporn opened accounts in the name of Walmol Holdings, a shell corporation, and in 2014 and 2015, avoided paying over $1.6 million in personal income taxes by diverting millions through the company’s accounts. Sporn used these company accounts to purchase luxury items such as high-end watches and diamond jewelry, classic and exotic cars, two yachts, and other items. Sporn also evaded paying over $2.5 million in personal income taxes for other years dating back to 2000. When the IRS attempted to collect back taxes from Sporn, he tried to conceal assets by transferring property to trusts and individuals and by repeatedly opening and closing companies, among other things. In addition to the prison term, Sporn was ordered to pay more than $4 million in restitution to the IRS.
U.S. Attorney Juan Antonio Gonzalez for the Southern District of Florida; Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Assistant Director Luis M. Quesada of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division; Special Agent in Charge George L. Piro of the FBI’s Miami Field Office; Special Agent in Charge Omar Pérez Aybar of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG), Miami Field Division; and Special Agent in Charge Matthew D. Line of IRS-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Miami Field Office announced the sentence.
The FBI’s Miami Field Office, HHS-OIG, and IRS-CI investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Aurora Fagan for the Southern District of Florida, along with Trial Attorneys Ligia Markman and Reginald Cuyler of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, prosecuted the case.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
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Owner and Operator of Telemedicine and Telemarketing Companies Sentenced to 14 Years for $20 Million Fraud Scheme and $4 Million Tax EvasionRead the Press Release
A Florida man was sentenced today to 14 years in prison for health care and wire fraud that cost Medicare more than $20 million dollars, and for evading taxes.
According to court documents, Marc Sporn, 59, of Delray Beach, owned and operated several telemarketing and telemedicine companies, including CPL Media Group Inc. Medipak, LLC, Real Time Physicians LLC, 24 HR Virtual MD LLC, Medtech Worldwide Inc., New World Holdings Inc., and Ins Cov LLC. Sporn used these companies to market medically unnecessary genetic tests to Medicare beneficiaries, and to sell prescriptions (i.e., doctors’ orders) for medically unnecessary genetic tests to laboratories in exchange for kickbacks and bribes. Sporn knew these laboratories would use these doctors’ orders to bill Medicare for medically unnecessary goods and services.
Through nominee owners, Sporn also operated and controlled Palm Beach companies Medi Biotech LLC and Walmol Holdings LLC. Sporn used Medi Biotech to market compounded prescription creams to customers with certain health conditions. Pharmacies and laboratories associated with Medi Biotech filled the prescriptions, billed the customers’ insurance companies, and paid Sporn kickbacks. In addition to opening bank accounts for Medi Biotech in nominee names, Sporn opened accounts in the name of Walmol Holdings, a shell corporation, and in 2014 and 2015, avoided paying over $1.6 million in personal income taxes by diverting millions through the company’s accounts. Sporn used these company accounts to purchase luxury items such as high-end watches and diamond jewelry, classic and exotic cars, two yachts, and other items. Sporn also evaded paying over $2.5 million in personal income taxes for other years dating back to 2000. When the IRS attempted to collect back taxes from Sporn, he tried to conceal assets by transferring property to trusts and individuals and by repeatedly opening and closing companies, among other things. In addition to the prison term, Sporn was ordered to pay more than $4 million in restitution to the IRS.
Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Juan Antonio Gonzalez for the Southern District of Florida; Assistant Director Luis M. Quesada of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division; Special Agent in Charge George Piro of the FBI’s Miami Field Office; Special Agent in Charge Omar Pérez Aybar of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG), Miami Field Division; and Special Agent in Charge Matthew D. Line of IRS-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Miami Field Office announced the sentence.
The FBI’s Miami Field Office, HHS-OIG, and IRS-CI investigated the case.
Trial Attorneys Ligia Markman and Reginald Cuyler of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Aurora Fagan for the Southern District of Florida prosecuted the case.
The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat health care fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program. Since March 2007, this program, comprised of 15 strike forces operating in 24 federal districts, has charged more than 4,200 defendants who collectively have billed the Medicare program for more than $19 billion. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with HHS-OIG, are taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement in health care fraud schemes. More information can be found at https://www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.
Miami Man Charged with Committing Involuntary Manslaughter in Special Maritime Jurisdiction of U.S., Off Bimini CoastRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – A 36-year-old Miami man made his initial appearance today in federal court to face charges that he committed involuntary manslaughter by crashing a boat at high-speed into a well-chartered rock formation off the coast of Bimini, Bahamas and killing two people over the Fourth of July holiday week in 2020.
According to the allegations of the indictment unsealed today, as well as in-court statements, on July 2, 2020, Josbel Fernandez Echevarria operated a United States-numbered pleasure boat in the waters off the coast of Bimini, Bahamas. Echevarria was driving the boat at high speed when it crashed into a well-charted rock formation known as Turtle Rock. Two people died in the crash.
The indictment charges Echevarria with two counts of involuntary manslaughter, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1112. If convicted, he faces up to eight years in prison on each charge.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Zinnia James, Special Agent in Charge, United States Coast Guard Investigative Service (CGIS), Southeast Region, announced the charges.
CGIS, Southeast Region, investigated the case. The Royal Bahamas Police Force assisted.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Watts-FitzGerald is prosecuting this case.
An indictment contains mere allegations and a defendant is innocent unless and until found guilty in a court of law.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 22-cr-20256.
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Coral Springs Police Officer Charged with COVID Relief Fraud, Using Loan Money to Service and Repair His Vintage CarRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – A South Florida federal grand jury has charged a Coral Springs police officer with fraudulently applying to the U.S. Small Business Administration (“SBA”) for a COVID-19 relief advance grant and low-interest loan.
According to the Indictment unsealed today in federal district court, Jason Scott Carter, 44, of Boca Raton, submitted a fraudulent Economic Injury Disaster Loan (“EIDL”) application and loan agreement on behalf of Jason S. Carter, Inc., a South Florida business he allegedly owned and operated. That application falsely and fraudulently certified, among other things, that during the twelve 12 months prior to January 31, 2020, the business had gross revenues of $100,000, according to the Indictment. In reality, the business had only minimal gross revenues during that period. The Indictment also charges Carter with falsely and fraudulently certifying that he would use the funds only for business expenses to alleviate economic injury that the COVID-19 pandemic caused to the business. In fact, according to the charges, Carter spent more than $21,000 of the SBA loan money at a car repair and detailing company for luxury vehicles and high-end auto parts.
The Indictment charges Carter with one count of wire fraud. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
Carter made his initial appearance today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce E. Reinhart. He was released on bond, pending trial.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Omar Perez Aybar, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG), Miami Regional Office, and David Walker, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Tampa, announced the charges.
HHS-OIG, Miami Regional Office (Tampa) and FBI Tampa investigated this matter. Assistant U.S. Attorney Will J. Rosenzweig is prosecuting the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Laserna is handling asset forfeiture.
Indictments contain mere allegations and defendants are innocent unless and until found guilty in a court of law
In March 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act was enacted. It was designed to provide emergency financial assistance to the millions of Americans suffering the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Among other sources of relief, the CARES Act authorized and provided funding to the SBA to provide Economic Injury Disaster Loans (“EIDLs”) to eligible small businesses, including sole proprietorships and independent contractors, experiencing substantial financial disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic to allow them to meet financial obligations and operating expenses that could otherwise have been met had the disaster not occurred. EIDL applications were submitted directly to the SBA via the SBA’s on-line application website, and the applications were processed and the loans funded for qualifying applicants directly by the SBA.
On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the Department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.
Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 22-cr-80094.
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South Florida Producer of Child Pornography Sentenced to 40 Years in Federal PrisonRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – Yesterday, a federal district judge in Fort Lauderdale sentenced 23-year-old Keivon McBride to 40 years in prison for recording children as young as 12 engaged in sex acts and posting the videos for sale on the internet.
The children ranged in age from 12 to 17. McBride had sex with some of them in the back seat of his car and at his home. He recorded the illegal sex acts with his cellular telephone and often paid the children “hush money” to keep quiet. McBride sent one child a sex toy. At McBride’s direction, the child sent him a video of herself using the toy. In addition to sharing sexually explicit videos of children on social media messenger applications, McBride labeled some of the videos with QR codes and posted them for sale online.
In March, McBride pled guilty to producing and distributing child pornography.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and George L. Piro Special Agent in Charge, FBI Miami announced the sentence that U.S. District Judge Rodolfo A. Ruiz, II imposed yesterday.
FBI Miami investigated the case, with assistance from the Broward Sheriff’s Office and the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jodi L. Anton prosecuted this case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals, who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about the Project Safe Childhood initiative and for information regarding Internet safety, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 21-cr-60095.
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Davie Man Sentenced to over 19 Years for Producing Sexual Exploitation Video of 8-Year-OldRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – Yesterday, a federal district judge in Fort Lauderdale sentenced a 22-year-old Davie, Florida man to 231 months in prison for pretending to be a teenager on the internet and luring an 8-year-old child into producing child pornography.
In 2020, Christian Sandoval found the child on-line, through a popular video-sharing application. Sandoval commented on a dance video that the 8-year-old posted on the application. The two exchanged phone numbers. Through a few days of texts, Sandoval convinced the child to create sexually explicit videos of herself and send them to him. The child’s mother discovered the videos and inappropriate chats and reported the conduct to law enforcement.
In April, Sandoval pled guilty to producing child pornography.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Miami, announced the sentence that U.S. District Judge Rodolfo A. Ruiz, II imposed yesterday.
FBI Miami investigated the case, with assistance from the Town of Davie Police Department and the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jodi L. Anton prosecuted this case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals, who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about the Project Safe Childhood initiative and for information regarding Internet safety, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
You may find a copy of this press release (and any updates) on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 22-cr-60037.
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Alleged Health Care Fraudster Ordered Detained Pending Trial After Being Arrested on a Jet Ski Headed Toward CubaRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – Yesterday, a federal judge in Miami ordered that a Hialeah resident who allegedly submitted more than $4 million in fraudulent health care claims to Medicare be detained pending trial, after the defendant was arrested on board a jet ski headed south from Key West toward Cuba.
According to allegations in the criminal complaint, from February through April, 54-year-old Ernesto Cruz Graveran owned Xiko Enterprises, Inc., a Florida corporation which purported to provide durable medical equipment (“DME”) to eligible Medicare beneficiaries. The complaint alleges that Xiko, in only a two-month period in 2022, submitted approximately $4.2 million in fraudulent health care claims to Medicare for DME that Xiko never provided, and that Medicare beneficiaries never requested. As a result, Medicare paid Xiko over $2.1 million. For example, according to the claims that Xiko submitted to Medicare, one physician purportedly prescribed DME from Xiko for approximately 145 Medicare beneficiaries, and Xiko billed Medicare over $1 million for DME referred by this one physician. But, according to the complaint, none of those 145 beneficiaries were in fact patients of that physician, and that physician never prescribed any of the billed-for DME.
The government alleged in court that the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers located Graveran aboard a broken-down jet ski in the waters south of Key West, headed in the direction of Cuba, roughly 90 miles away. Graveran was aboard the jet ski along with one other individual, who was known to law enforcement to be an alien smuggler. The jet ski was outfitted with a special fuel cell to allow for long trips, and within the compartments of the jet ski, law enforcement discovered a trove of food and water bottles.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Alicia Otazo-Reyes agreed with the government that Graveran should not be released on bond, and the Court ordered that Graveran remained detained at the Federal Detention Center in Miami until his trial.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; Omar Perez Aybar, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), Miami Region; and Anthony Salisbury, Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Miami Field Office, announced the charges.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael B. Homer is prosecuting this case.
A complaint is a charging instrument containing allegations. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 22-mj-02982.
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Leader of Mexico’s United Cartels Extradited to U.S. to Face Charges of Importing over 1100 Pounds of Crystal MethamphetamineRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – Adalberto Fructuoso Comparan-Rodriguez, a/k/a “Fruto,” who is the former mayor of Aguililla, Mexico and, according to the allegations, a leader of the United Cartels in Michoacán, Mexico, made his initial appearance in federal court in Miami, Florida today after his extradition from Guatemala. A South Florida grand jury returned an indictment charging Comparan-Rodriguez with drug trafficking crimes in April 2021.
Also prosecuted for their alleged roles in the methamphetamine scheme are Alfonso Rustrian, of Mexico; Adalberto Fructose Comparan-Bedolla, (the son of Comparan-Rodriguez); Carlos Basauri-Coto; Silviano Gonzalez-Aguilar; and Salvador Valdez.
According to the allegations, in January 2021, Comparan-Rodriguez and Rustrian met in Cali, Colombia with a person they believed to be a money launderer and drug trafficker associated with Hezbollah (“buyer”). Rustrian explained that Comparan-Rodriguez was a leader of the United Cartels, and that they could supply hundreds of kilograms of methamphetamine to the buyer, it is alleged. They ultimately agreed that Comparan-Rodriguez and Rustrian would send 500 kilograms of methamphetamine from Mexico, through Texas, to the Miami area, according to the charges.
To make the methamphetamine undetectable, members of the organization hid it inside different materials. On March 20, 2021, according to the allegations, a truck carrying concrete tiles filled with methamphetamine arrived in Miami. It is alleged that Comparan-Bedolla helped crack the concrete tiles open and remove approximately 200 kilograms of methamphetamine from them. The rest of the meth (over 300 kilograms) arrived in Miami on March 26, 2021, say the court documents. This time, it was dissolved within five-gallon buckets of house paint.
According to the allegations, Comparan-Bedolla and two chemists (Gonzalez-Aguilar and Valdez) worked for days inside a warehouse, extracting pure crystal methamphetamine from the paint. Law enforcement agents seized the meth before it hit the streets and made arrests.
On March 30, 2021, Guatemalan authorities arrested Comparan-Rodriguez based upon a provisional arrest request by the United States. The government of Guatemala ordered him extradited based upon an extradition request by the United States. U.S. Attorney Gonzalez extends his gratitude to the government of Guatemala for its assistance, as well as the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs (OIA) for its substantial assistance in securing Comparan-Rodriguez’s arrest and extradition. Rustrian was also arrested in Guatemala in March 2021, at the request of the United States. Rustrian was extradited to the United States in January 2022.
DEA Miami investigated this case. OIA, along with the DEA’s Mexico City, Guatemala City, and Bogota Country Offices; Hialeah Police Department; Hialeah Gardens Police Department; City of Miami Police Department; Aventura Police Department; Miami Beach Police Department; Miami-Dade County Police Department; and Miramar Police Department assisted in this matter. Assistant U.S. Attorney Frederic “Fritz” Shadley is prosecuting the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Annika Miranda is handling asset forfeiture.
This investigation and prosecution was carried out by members of the South Florida High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force. The South Florida HIDTA, established in 1990, is made up of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies who, cooperatively, target the region’s drug-trafficking and money laundering organizations. The South Florida HIDTA is funded by the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which sponsors a variety of initiatives focused on the nation’s illicit drug trafficking threats.
Criminal complaints and indictments are charging documents that contain mere allegations. Defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 21-cr-20221.
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Fort Pierce Rap Artist Lil Polo Da Don Sentenced to Prison for Gun PossessionRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – Ronell Bernard Bryant III, 28, of Fort Pierce, Florida was sentenced Monday to 37 months in prison, by U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon, after having been convicted at trial for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
According to the court record, including evidence presented at trial, on July 9, 2020, law enforcement officers located a model FN Five-seveN pistol in the trunk of a car being driven by Bryant. The pistol was surrounded by other property belonging to Bryant. Agents located the gun case and ammunition for the pistol in the bedroom of the house where Bryant had parked. Agents also later located images depicting Bryant in possession of the same FN Five-seveN pistol. Bryant is a South Florida rap artist who goes by the stage name Lil Polo Da Don.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Ken J. Mascara, Sheriff, St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office, and Christopher A. Robinson, Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Miami Field Division, announced the sentence. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Daniel E. Funk and Christopher Hudock prosecuted the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney William T. Zloch is handling asset forfeiture.
You may find a copy of this press release (and any updates) on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 21-cr-14017.
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Sex Offender Sentenced in South Florida to Five Years for Failure to RegisterRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – Today, a federal district judge sitting in Fort Pierce sentenced John Francis Bolieau, 44, of Massachusetts, to 60 months in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for failing to register as a sex offender.
Bolieau was convicted of aggravated rape and abuse of a child, indecent assault and battery of a child under 14, and indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 in Hampshire County, Massachusetts in 2013. For these offenses, Bolieau was sentenced to 10 to 12 years in prison and 10 years of probation to follow. In addition, he was required to register as a sex offender under the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. In July 2021, Bolieau was released from prison and placed on probation, with a requirement that he wear a GPS ankle monitor. After being on probation for only three months, Bolieau cut off his ankle monitor, left Massachusetts and came to the Miami-area, without notifying his probation officer or updating his sex offender registration. On December 15, 2021, law enforcement located and arrested Bolieau in a recreational vehicle park in Highlands County, Florida. On arrest, Bolieau admitted that he had not reported to any law enforcement officer that he was in Florida, nor did he register as a sex offender in the State of Florida, as required by law.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Gadyaces S. Serralta, U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of Florida announced the sentence imposed by U.S. District Aileen M. Cannon.
The United States Marshals Service investigated this case, with the assistance of the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant United States Attorneys Luisa Berti and Stacey Bergstrom prosecuted this case.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 22-cr-14002.
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Leader of $9 Million Scheme to Defraud Prescription Drug Coupon Programs Sentenced to over 17 Years in Federal PrisonRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – Today, William Clero, 45, a resident of Miami, Florida, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore to 210 months in prison. Clero had previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud stemming from his role as the leader in a $9 million scheme to defraud prescription drug cost-savings (coupon) programs offered by pharmaceutical manufacturers to reduce the cost of prescription drugs for consumers. Clero’s co-defendant, Cesar Armando Perez Amador, 52, a resident of Miami, Florida, was sentenced to 87 months in prison for his role in the scheme.
Beginning in 2014 through April 2021, Clero and Perez established numerous retail pharmacies in Miami-Dade County that purported to provide prescription drugs to individuals with private health insurance plans or without health insurance coverage. Clero and Perez conspired to defraud prescription drug coupon programs by causing the submission of false and fraudulent claims to those programs resulting in more than $9 million in payments. The government tied 21 pharmacies to the defendants’ scheme, which pharmacies existed only to transmit the false and fraudulent claims. The pharmacies did not have real customers or prescriptions and did not dispense medications.
To conceal their involvement in the scheme, Clero and Perez recruited nominee or “straw” owners for each pharmacy and listed them on corporate records, bank records, and other business documents. As part of the scheme, Clero and Perez transferred most of the proceeds of the scheme to shell companies they controlled and diverted large amounts of money for their personal use and benefit.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Anthony Salisbury, Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Miami Field Office, announced the sentences.
HSI Miami, El Dorado Task Force-South investigated the case. The prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Aimee C. Jimenez and Ana Maria Martinez. Assistant U.S. Attorney Annika Miranda handled asset forfeiture.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 21-cr-20112.
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South Florida Caretaker Who Stole Hundreds of Thousands from Elderly Couple Pleads Guilty to Federal CrimesRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – Yesterday, in federal district court in Fort Pierce, Sherri Lynn Smith, 52, admitted that she committed bank fraud and aggravated identity theft when she used the private financial information of two seniors in her care to steal the couple’s money.
Smith worked as a caretaker for the Broward County elderly couple from 2016 through 2019. Smith had access to the victims’ bank accounts to assist them with paying their monthly bills. She used that access to embezzle approximately $300,000 out of the victims’ bank accounts without their knowledge or consent. Smith accomplished this by forging a victim’s signature on several checks made payable to herself, her family members, and her creditors. Smith also transferred money electronically from the victims’ bank accounts to her own and made electronic payments from the victims’ accounts to numerous credit card accounts belonging to Smith and her husband.
United States District Court Judge Thomas Barber, a visiting judge from the Middle District of Florida, will sentence Smith at 1:00 p.m. on August 26, in Fort Pierce. Smith faces a maximum prison sentence of 30 years on the bank fraud charge and two years on each of the aggravated identity theft counts, for a total possible sentence of 34 years.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Miami, made the announcement.
FBI Miami investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stacey Bergstrom is prosecuting it. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitchell Hyman is handling asset forfeiture.
Combatting elder abuse and financial fraud targeted at seniors is a key priority of the Department of Justice. The mission of the Department’s Elder Justice Initiative is to support and coordinate the Department’s enforcement and programmatic efforts to combat elder abuse, neglect and financial fraud and scams that target our nation’s seniors. To learn more visit https://www.justice.gov/elderjustice. The public is encouraged to report victimization and suspected fraud schemes by calling the National Elder Fraud Hotline at 1-833-FRAUD 11 (1-833- 372-8311).
You may find related court documents and information on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 21-cr-14023.
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Palm Beach Art Dealer Charged with Carrying Out Art Fraud SchemeRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – Today, Palm Beach art dealer Daniel Elie Bouaziz made his initial appearance before a federal magistrate judge in West Palm Beach to face charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering in connection with his alleged scheme to sell forged high-end artwork.
The criminal complaint affidavit alleges the following: Bouaziz engaged in a scheme to sell paintings and other artwork that he falsely marketed for sale as original or authentic pieces by prominent artists including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Banksy, and Roy Lichtenstein. Bouaziz sold the fraudulent art from his Worth Avenue galleries in Palm Beach, Florida -- Danieli Fine Art and Galerie Danieli. Victims unknowingly purchased the fraudulent art pieces (some of which were inexpensive reproductions), for tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars. Bouaziz purchased the low-cost reproductions from online auction sites, then drastically marked-up the prices and sold the works to victims as originals. Bouaziz used several tactics to deceive his victims, including falsifying a work’s provenance (the art’s ownership history) and adding a signature to a piece to make it appear authentic and increase its perceived value. In addition, Bouaziz laundered money he received from the fraudulent art scheme, according to the affidavit.
It is alleged that the following fake pieces, among others, were sold or offered for sale as authentic as part of this scheme:
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum print sold by Danieli Fine Art.
The fake George Rodrigue work being sold by Danieli Fine Art.
The fake Basquiat painting for sale at Danieli Fine Art for $12,000,000.00.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Miami; and Matthew Line, Special Agent in Charge, IRS-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Miami Office, made the announcement.
FBI Miami’s West Palm Beach Office and IRS-CI Miami investigated this matter. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah J. Schall is prosecuting this case.
The criminal complaint contains mere allegations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
If you believe you have been a victim of art fraud, please contact the FBI’s Art Crime Team at 1-800-CALL-FBI.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov under case number 22-mj-08209-RMM.
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No Bond for Fort Pierce Man Charged in Federal Court with Child Sexual ExploitationRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – Today, following a hearing, a federal magistrate judge ordered that 21-year-old Blaine Korbin Hulten remain behind bars pending his trial on charges of sexually enticing a child, producing child pornography, and distributing child pornography.
According to the allegations in a criminal complaint affidavit, Hulten had sex with a 13-year-old and a 16-year-old, while knowing their age and after communicating with the minors through a messenger application. It is also alleged that Hulten recorded his sex acts with the 16-year-old and distributed it on the messenger application’s platform. If convicted, Hulten faces up to life in prison.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida and Anthony Salisbury, Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Miami Field Office, made the announcement.
HSI Miami’s Fort Pierce Office and Martin County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case. Assistant United States Attorneys Luisa Berti and Christopher Hudock are prosecuting it.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
If you have information regarding this case, or you believe you or a family member may have been a victim, please contact the HSI tip line at 1-866-347-2423.
A criminal indictment is merely an accusation, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 22-cr-14027.
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Cruise Ship Employee from South Florida Charged with Sexually Exploiting Minor He Met on Alaskan VoyageRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – Federal prosecutors in Fort Pierce, Florida have charged a 38-year-old cruise ship employee from Stuart, Florida with enticing an underage girl he met on the ship into having sex with him and with producing child pornography by recording their sexual interactions.
According to the allegations of the criminal complaint affidavit, Daniel Scott Crow met the victim while he was working aboard a cruise ship. The victim, a 16-year-old girl at the time, was a passenger on the ship, vacationing with her family. After the cruise, Crow remained in contact with the victim and used a messaging application to solicit lewd photographs from her, says the affidavit. It is also alleged that Crow arranged to and later met the victim (who was still under 18) at a hotel, where he engaged in sexual activity with her while recording it. Crow stored the conversations and videos involving the victim on his cellular telephone, according to the charging documents.
Yesterday, Crow made his initial appearance in federal court in Fort Pierce before U.S. Magistrate Judge Shaniek A. Maynard. A detention hearing is scheduled before Judge Maynard for 10:00 a.m. on May 27. If convicted, Crow faces up to life in prison.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Anthony Salisbury, Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Miami Field Office, announced the charges.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
If you have information regarding this case, or you believe you or a family member may have been a victim, please contact the HSI tip line at 1-866-347-2423.
HSI Miami’s Fort Pierce office investigated the case. Assistant United States Attorney Christopher Hudock is prosecuting it.
A criminal complaint is merely an accusation, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 22-mj-00048.
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Eleven-Year Chase Results in U.S. Criminal Convictions of British Citizens in Death of Scuba DiverRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – After being on the lam for over a decade, the owners of a now-defunct Key Largo, Florida dive shop who maintained their vessel in such shoddy condition that is capsized and sank, killing one person, have appeared in federal court in South Florida and pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
Christopher Jones, 57, and Alison Gracey, 54, owned The Key Largo Scuba Shack, LLC, a business that operated charter scuba diving trips in the Florida Keys from approximately June 2010 to December 2011. Their main charter boat was a 24.8-foot vessel named the M/V Get Wet. On December 18, 2011, the M/V Get Wet departed the pier for a scuba trip with two crew members and six passengers. During the vessel’s first dive stop, the sea conditions went from calm to choppy and the boat operator noticed that the bilge pump had failed. As the divers reboarded the boat after the dive, the vessel began taking on water, rolled heavily, capsized, and quickly sank about 30 feet to the ocean floor. During its descent, a 300-pound bench that was not properly secured to the vessel’s deck detached. Made of buoyant material, the bench sprang towards the ocean’s surface, as the vessel itself sank. The two large and heavy objects collided, pinning one passenger’s legs against the vessel’s windshield. The passenger was trapped and drowned.
Once salvaged, Coast Guard experts inspected the M/V Get Wet and found serious deficiencies. Not one of the vessel’s bilge compartments - the engine spaces below the ship’s deck - was watertight. The aft-most bilge space, called the lazarette, was covered by a deck plate with holes for 30 bolts, of which 22 were missing and eight were loose. The wood at the bottom of the 300-pound bench was rotten, and the screws intended to secure it to the deck were too small. Beneath the deck, holes that allowed water to flow between the various bilge compartments compromised all the bulkheads. A bilge pump had been disassembled and re-assembled incorrectly.
In addition, a criminal investigation following the death of the diver revealed that Jones and Gracey knew before the tragedy that the vessel needed repairs. Jones and Gracey continued operating the M/V Get Wet despite the following, which all occurred prior to December 18, 2011:
- Following inspections, the United States Coast Guard notified Jones and Gracey that the vessel needed repairs, including securing the center engine bench cover to the deck and making repairs below the deck to make sure that the bulkhead areas were watertight.
- The dive operation’s employees repeatedly informed Jones that the M/V Get Wet flooded dangerously. The deck plates were barely attached, and the engine bench cover would rock back and forth.
- The M/V Get Wet broke down repeatedly and equipment on the boat failed, including pumps intended to de-water the vessel.
- On one voyage with Gracey aboard as dive master, the M/V Get Wet almost sank.
- In the two months before the boat sank, a marine salvor towed the M/V Get Wet to shore on three separate occasions.
Shortly after the diver’s death, Jones and Gracey fled the United States and spent over 10 years evading extradition each time law enforcement located them. In 2021, they left France for Spain, where Spanish authorities took them into custody based on an Interpol Red Notice. In January 2022, Jones and Gracey were extradited from Spain to the United States to face federal charges in Southern District of Florida.
Sentencing is set for August 18, at 1:30 pm, in the Key West Federal Courthouse before Judge James Lawrence King. Each defendant faces up to eight years in federal prison.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Zinnia James, Special Agent in Charge, Southeast Region, U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service (CGIS), announced the guilty pleas.
The U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service investigated the case. The U.S. Department of Justice's Office of International Affairs provided invaluable assistance pursuing the extradition of the defendants. The U.S. Marshals Service also assisted by transporting the defendants from Spain to Florida.
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jaime Raich worked on the investigation and initially prosecuted this case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Watts-FitzGerald is now handling.
For more details on the case, click
here to view the joint factual proffer.Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 12-cr-10013.
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South Florida Army Veteran Lied About Disability, Stole Money from VARead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – A South Florida veteran (and self-proclaimed bodybuilder) who exaggerated his mental and physical impairments to increase the disability payments he received from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) pled guilty yesterday to theft of government funds from a federal agency and now faces up to 10 years in federal prison.
As part of his guilty plea, Zachary Barton, 36, admitted he lied on a mental health test by reporting to the VA that he had been in combat, qualifying him for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder benefits. Barton also falsely reported that he could not lift more than 10 to 20 pounds or walk without a cane. The VA found that Barton was 100% disabled based on these lies. In fact, Barton routinely performed strenuous weight-lifting – leg pressing 650 pounds and chest pressing over 300 pounds. He drove, walked his pet, and shopped with no difficulty.
As a result of his misrepresentations, Barton received approximately $245,286 in VA benefits to which he was not entitled. Sentencing is scheduled for August 11, 2022, in Fort Pierce before Judge Aileen M. Cannon.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and David Spilker, Special Agent in Charge, VA Office of the Inspector General, Southeast Field Office, announced the guilty plea.
This case was investigated by the Department of Veterans Affairs – Office of the Inspector General. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Robin Waugh. Assistant United States Attorney Gabrielle Charest-Turken is handling asset forfeiture.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 21-cr-80106.
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Fraud Scheme Involving Baby Formula Leads to 18-Year Federal Prison Sentences for SwindlersRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – A federal district judge in Miami has sentenced each of three South Florida residents to 220 months in prison after a jury found them guilty of orchestrating an elaborate fraud scheme that cheated U.S. manufacturers of infant formula, eye-care products, and other FDA-regulated items out of more than $100 million.
Between 2013 and 2018, Johnny Grobman, 48, Raoul Doekhie, 53, and Sherida Nabi, 57, secured deep price discounts for infant formula and other items by lying to the U.S. manufacturers of the products. Doekhie and Nabi (who are married) told the manufacturers that they were purchasing the products to ship overseas, to Suriname, often in connection with purported government procurement contracts they held in Suriname. In fact, the defendants did not have government procurement contracts and never intended to export the products to Suriname. Instead, Grobman and others sold the products in the United States for millions of dollars, which the three defendants later split among themselves.
The defendants hid their activity from the U.S. manufacturers of the FDA-regulated products in one of three ways. The first was to send “dummy” shipments abroad. The dummy shipments did not contain the products purchased from the manufacturers, but they did generate documentation to prove that an export occurred. The second method was to “U-turn” the products: The products were shipped abroad, generating export documentation. As soon as they arrived overseas, they were shipped back to the United States. The third method was to create fraudulent export shipping documentation showing that the products were exported when they actually never left the country.
Following a 13-day trial, on February 6, 2020, a federal jury found Grobman, Doekhie, and Nabi guilty of conspiring to commit wire fraud; wire fraud; money laundering; conspiring to obtain pre-retail medical products worth $5,000 or more by fraud or deception, theft of pre-retail medical products; and smuggling goods from the United States.
On April 25, 2022, the Court entered forfeiture money judgments for the amounts of the criminal proceeds traceable to the offenses of conviction as follows: $87,187,374.83 against Grobman and $115,699,273.61 jointly against the Defendants Doekhie and Nabi.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Justin C. Fielder, Special Agent in Charge, Miami Field Office, United States Food and Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigations (FDA-OCI), announced the sentences that U.S. District Judge Roy K. Altman imposed yesterday.
“The fraud perpetrated by these defendants is nothing short of egregious,” said U.S. Attorney Gonzalez. “The 18-year prison sentences reflect the seriousness of the defendants’ crimes. Our Office will continue to vigorously prosecute those who commit these types of offenses.”
“Today’s announcement should serve as a reminder that those who fraudulently divert consumer products for profit will be held accountable for their actions,” said Special Agent in Charge Justin C. Fielder, FDA Office of Criminal Investigations Miami Field Office. “We will continue to investigate and bring to justice those who engage in fraudulent schemes involving FDA-regulated products.”
FDA-OCI investigated the case. Broward County Sherriff’s Office assisted. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Shannon Shaw, Christopher Browne, and John Shipley prosecuted the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Paster is handling asset forfeiture.
This case is the second large-scale prosecution by the South Florida U.S. Attorney’s Office and FDA-OCI targeting fraud schemes related to the so-called “gray market,” which involves the diversion and re-sale of certain goods that were not intended for distribution in the United States. In September 2019, the Office announced the convictions of five defendants, including Byramji Javat, a citizen of Pakistan and Chairman of the Dubai-based Uniworld Group, for various offenses relating to a global fraud scheme that relied upon false claims about the United States military and the Government of Afghanistan.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 18-cr-20989.
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Two Miami Dade Police Sergeants Receive United States Attorney General’s AwardRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – Today, during a ceremony at Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) headquarters in Doral, Florida, MDPD Sergeants Kurt Berardino and Christopher Perez were presented with the Fifth Annual United States Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in Community Policing.
The Attorney General’s Award recognizes individual state, local, Tribal, and territorial police officers, deputies, and troopers for exceptional efforts in community policing.
The Department of Justice announced the award recipients in March, which included 18 law enforcement officers and deputies from 12 jurisdictions across the country.
During today’s ceremony, First Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Michelle Alvarez presented Sergeants Berardino and Perez with their awards, which included a letter to each officer from United States Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. Miami Dade Police Department Interim Director George A. Perez attended the ceremony and publicly recognized the Sergeants for their exceptional work.
Sergeants Berardino and Perez were honored for their tenacious criminal investigation of a July 2020 shooting in Miami that left one child dead and another child and two adults injured. A ShotSpotter alert showed that 21 shots had been fired on a Miami street. The investigation revealed that the victims were returning home from shopping and were fired on as they were getting out of their car. Detectives Kurt Berardino and Christopher Perez (now both sergeants) immersed themselves in the subsequent investigation, poring over multiple Crime Stoppers tips, reviewing hours of surveillance footage, and questioning potential witnesses. As Berardino and Perez developed the case, they established a rapport with two of the survivors, and those survivors provided a positive identification of the subjects involved in the shooting. This positive identification was key in furthering other leads that were gathered. Evidence collected was crucial in solidifying victim statements and the timeline of the events. Arrest warrants were eventually issued, and in September 2020, the detectives traveled to Georgia, where one suspect was taken into custody and later confessed; a second suspect was also arrested. It was the tenacity, persistence, and determination of Detectives Berardino and Perez that closed this case and brought justice to the families of the victims and to the community.
The Department of Justice works closely with national law enforcement stakeholder groups during the award review period, taking advantage of their expertise and experience to determine the recipients in a competitive nomination process. The Department also works closely with its components, utilizing the breadth of knowledge within the Department to ensure a successful program that honors the exceptional service of our nation’s law enforcement officers and deputies. This year, the Department received 185 nominations from 145 agencies, recognizing a total of 347 individual officers, deputies, and troopers. There were 39 states represented in the nomination pool, covering state, local, campus, sheriff, and other agency types.
Complete information on the Fifth Annual Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in Community Policing can be found at https://www.justice.gov/ag/policing-award.
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Miami-Based VirtuOx, Inc. Agrees to Pay $3.15 Million to Resolve Allegations that it Fraudulently Billed MedicareRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – VirtuOx, Inc. (“VirtuOx”), based in Coral Springs, Florida and operating Medicare approved Independent Diagnostic Testing Facilities (“IDTF”), has agreed to pay $3,150,000.00 to resolve allegations that it submitted or caused to be submitted false claims to Medicare for reimbursement.
The United States alleged that, from January 2016 to December 2020, VirtuOx violated the False Claims Act by falsely identifying the place of service for certain services it performed to obtain a higher rate of reimbursement from Medicare. In particular, the United States alleged that, in connection with its billing for overnight pulse oximetry claims, VirtuOx knowingly submitted false claims to Medicare identifying its IDTF located in San Francisco, California as the location of service for overnight pulse oximetry tests when, in fact, no services were performed at that location in relation to the overnight oximetry claims.
The United States further alleged that, from January 2016 to December 2020, VirtuOx administered overnight pulse oximetry tests and, at times, also billed Medicare for single determination pulse oximetry tests (commonly referred to as an oxygen “spot check”) for the same patient when in fact the only test performed was the overnight test. In particular, the United States alleged that, because an awake reading is necessarily taken as part of an overnight pulse oximetry test, the separate billing of a “spot check” is redundant and generally not necessary. Accordingly, the United States alleged that VirtuOx knowingly submitted false claims by separately billing for both an oxygen “spot check” and an overnight pulse oximetry test when only an overnight pulse oximetry test was performed.
Contemporaneous with the civil settlement, VirtuOx entered into a Corporate Integrity Agreement (CIA) with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG). The five-year CIA requires, among other things, that VirtuOx retain an outside expert to perform annual claims reviews that address the place of service identified on the claim.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Omar Pérez Aybar, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), announced the settlement.
“The fraudulent billing of Medicare results in systemically higher medical care costs for all,” said United States Attorney Gonzalez. “My Office will continue to hold accountable those health care providers who manipulate the system to benefit their own bottom line.”
“By submitting false claims to Medicare, providers waste valuable taxpayer dollars and undermine the integrity of federal health care programs,” said Special Agent in Charge Omar Pérez Aybar, at the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG). “HHS-OIG will continue to investigate such actions to ensure the efficiency and integrity of these programs.”
This matter arose from a lawsuit filed by Amber Watt in federal court in Miami, Florida. The lawsuit was filed under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the False Claims Act, which permit private individuals to sue on behalf of the government for false claims and to share in any recovery. The whistleblower share to be awarded in connection with the settlement is $630,000.00.
HHS-OIG investigated the matter. Assistant United States Attorneys Jessica R. Sievert and Miriam L. Alinikoff handled the litigation.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 19-cv-61084.
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Former South Florida Pharmacy Technician Pleads Guilty to $40 Million Kickback Conspiracy Targeting Military Health Care ProgramsRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – A former Palm Beach County pharmacy technician and high-level executive assistant has pleaded guilty to her role in a multi-million-dollar kickback conspiracy that defrauded Tricare and CHAMPVA through a South Florida compounding pharmacy. Tricare and CHAMPVA are the health care benefit programs for the United States Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs.
In connection with pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy, Alisa Catoggio, 40, of Boca Raton, Florida, admitted that she was involved in a scheme that paid approximately $40 million in kickbacks to patient recruiters in exchange for their referring prescriptions issued to Tricare and CHAMPVA beneficiaries to a Broward compounding pharmacy. The prescriptions were for expensive pain creams, scar creams, vitamins, and other medically unnecessary compound drugs, which were reimbursed at amounts of up to $15,000 for a one month’s supply. In addition, the Broward pharmacy did not charge the beneficiaries the mandatory co-payments for the drugs, which constituted another form of illicit kickback. The co-conspirators used phony charities to conceal this “no-copayment” kickback activity. The fraudulent billings caused a loss to the military health care program of approximately $88 million.
Sentencing is scheduled for August 9, at 2:00 p.m., before U.S. District Judge Roy K. Altman. Catoggio faces up to 5 years in federal prison.
U.S. Attorney Juan Antonio Gonzalez of the Southern District of Florida; Special Agent in Charge Cynthia A. Bruce, Department of Defense Inspector General’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), Southeast Field Office; Special Agent in Charge David Spilker, Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General (VA-OIG), Southeast Field Office; Special Agent in Charge George L. Piro of the FBI Miami; and Special Agent in Charge Justin C. Fielder, FDA Office of Criminal Investigations’ Miami Field Office, announced the guilty plea entered May 17.
The DCIS, VA-OIG, FBI, and the FDA, investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jon Juenger prosecuted the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Daren Grove is handling the asset forfeiture component of the case.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 21-cr-60048.
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South Florida Tax Preparer Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison for Tax FraudRead the Press Release
Miami, Florida – Kasali Opabola, Jr., a Lake Worth, Florida tax preparer who failed to report his business income to the IRS, was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in federal prison and ordered to pay over $1.2 million in restitution.
Opabola, 41, was the sole officer and registered agent of FTP Tax Solutions, LLC, a company registered in Florida. Opabola grossly underreported his income from his business - FTP Tax Solutions, LLC, for tax years 2014 and 2015 and failed to file a 2016 income tax return. For those tax years, Opabola failed to pay approximately $1,289,293 in federal income taxes.
Opabola previously pled guilty to two counts of filing a false individual income tax return and one count of failure to file an individual income tax return.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida and Special Agent in Charge Matthew D. Line, IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Miami Field Office, announced the sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Kenneth A. Marra, who sits in West Palm Beach.
Assistant U. S. Attorney Robin Waugh prosecuted this case.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case no. 21-cr-80042.
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South Florida “Master” Sentenced to 50 Years after Producing Child Pornography of Boy Under 12Read the Press Release
Miami, Florida – A Lake Worth, Florida man and registered sex offender who produced child pornography with a Colorado woman with whom he shared a dominant-submissive relationship has been sentenced to 50 years in federal prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release. The Colorado woman was sentenced last year to 20 years in prison.
In November 2019, Robert Dunn and Tonya Bagley began chatting on social media and developed a consensual, online “master-slave” relationship. Bagley and Dunn, both in their early forties, agreed that Bagley would photograph herself performing oral sex on a young boy. Bagley, who was in Colorado, did so and sent the child sexual abuse images to Dunn in Lake Worth, Florida through a social media messenger application.
A CyberTip from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children led law enforcement to Dunn’s Lake Worth home on March 10, 2020. There, they found child pornography images on his electronic devices and learned of his relationship with Bagley. Bagley was arrested at her home in Colorado. In addition, the law enforcement investigation led to the rescue of a child.
On December 17, 2021, Dunn plead guilty in this case to conspiring to produce, producing, receiving, and possessing child pornography. Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Roy K. Altman handed down Dunn’s 50-year sentence. Previously, Dunn was sentenced to serve six years in Florida state prison in a separate case in which he was charged with soliciting the parent of a child using an online message board.
On December 10, 2020, Bagley pled guilty in West Palm Beach federal court to conspiring to produce child pornography and transmitting information about a minor. On May 19, 2021, U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks sentenced Bagley to 20 years in a federal prison.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Miami, made the announcement.
FBI Miami investigated the matter. Grand County Colorado Sheriff’s Office assisted.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Schiller prosecuted the cases. Assistant U.S. Attorney William T. Zloch handled asset forfeiture.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case numbers 20-cr-80069 and 20-cr-80085.
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