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24 April 2014
Maryland Man Sentenced for Defrauding Thousands of Homeowners in $4 Million Nationwide Home Loan Modification ScamRead the Press Release
BOSTON – A Maryland man was sentenced today to serve one year and a day in prison for defrauding thousands of homeowners in a $4 million nationwide home loan modification scheme.
Acting Assistant Attorney General David A. O’Neil of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz of the District of Massachusetts and Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) Christy Romero made the announcement.
Brian Kelly, 37, of Forest Hill, Md., was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Rya W. Zobel of the District of Massachusetts and ordered to serve three years of supervised release following his prison term. Restitution will be determined at a later date.
Kelly pleaded guilty on May 2, 2013, to one count of conspiracy, nine counts of mail fraud and nine counts of wire fraud.
According to court records, Kelly and others, operating under the name Home Owners Protection Economics Inc. (HOPE), made a series of misrepresentations to induce struggling homeowners to pay HOPE $400 to $2,000 in up-front fees in exchange for HOPE’s help obtaining federally funded home loan modifications. Kelly was one of HOPE’s more successful salespeople, receiving approximately $24,000 after arranging fraudulent home loan modifications totaling approximately $180,000.
Also according to court documents, the conspirators misrepresented that, with HOPE’s assistance, the homeowner was guaranteed to receive a loan modification under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), which is part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and is a federally funded mortgage-assistance program. For example, the defendants routinely claimed that the homeowner had already been approved for a loan modification, provided phony “approval codes,” quoted new (and wholly fictitious) mortgage terms and due dates, touted their 98 percent past success rate and claimed that they were “underwriters” or were otherwise affiliated with the homeowners’ mortgage companies. HOPE also claimed that it would offer homeowners refunds in the unlikely event that they did not receive a loan modification.
According to court documents, in exchange for the up-front fees, HOPE sent its customers, including homeowners in Massachusetts, a do-it-yourself application package, which was virtually identical to the application that the government provides free of charge. The HOPE customers had no advantage in the application process, and, in fact, most of their applications were denied. Through these misrepresentations, HOPE was able to persuade thousands of homeowners to pay more than $4 million in fees.
Two co-defendants, Christopher S. Godfrey, 44, of Delray Beach, Fla., and Dennis Fischer, 42, of Highland Beach, Fla., were convicted after trial and were each sentenced on Feb. 20, 2014, to serve 84 months in prison. A third co-defendant, Vernell Burris, Jr., 54, of Coconut Creek, Fla, pleaded guilty and was sentenced on Feb. 25, 2014, to serve a year and a day in prison.
The case was investigated by SIGTARP and is being prosecuted by Senior Trial Attorney Mona Sedky of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Bookbinder in the District of Massachusetts’s Computer Crimes Unit.Long Island Pediatrician Pleads Guilty to Child Sexual ExploitationRead the Press Release
Earlier today, Rakesh K. Punn, a licensed medical doctor and pediatrician, pleaded guilty to child sexual exploitation. Today’s plea took place before United States District Judge Joanna Seybert. At sentencing, Punn faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 30 years in prison.
The plea was announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
“We trust doctors – especially pediatricians – to care for our children. The defendant took advantage of that trust in the most egregious manner,” stated United States Attorney Lynch. “He took advantage of children who came to him for medical help. In doing so, he not only violated the criminal law, but betrayed his oath as a licensed physician to do no harm.” Ms. Lynch thanked the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office, the Nassau County Police Department, and the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (“CEOS”) and High Technology Investigative Unit (“HTIU”) for their joint investigation leading up to this case.
According to previous court filings, between September 6, 2007 and January 21, 2008, Punn sexually exploited three minor pediatric patients, under the guise of medical treatment, at his home-office in Bethpage, New York, and recorded the activities. Punn also submitted fraudulent insurance claims for the purported treatment of those three children and three other pediatric patients, when, in fact, the purported treatments had not been conducted for any medically accepted purpose, but rather, solely for the sexual gratification of the defendant.
Nassau County law enforcement authorities initially arrested Punn on July 15, 2010, and subsequently filed an indictment that charged Punn with multiple counts of violating New York State sexual abuse and fraud laws, based on his conduct, which allegedly included recording sexually explicit activity involving his minor patients during their visits to his office, located in his home in Bethpage, New York. Those charges remain pending. On January 4, 2012, a federal indictment was filed that charged Punn with sexual exploitation of children and health care fraud. Punn has remained in custody since his initial arrest.
This prosecution is part of Project Safe Childhood, 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 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.
The government’s case is being prosecuted by Eastern District of New York Assistant United States Attorney Allen L. Bode and Department of Justice Trial Attorney Amy Larson.
The Defendant:
RAKESH K. PUNN
Age: 56
Bethpage, New York
E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 12-CR-0011(JS)
Liberty Couple Sentenced for $2.7 Million Embezzlement, Check Kiting Scheme to Fund Gambling, Lavish SpendingRead the Press Release
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Liberty, Mo., husband and wife were sentenced in federal court today for a nearly $2.7 million embezzlement and check kiting scheme and for filing a false tax return.
Laura Dejong, 55, and her husband, Craig Dejong, 56, both of Liberty, were sentenced in separate appearances before U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple. Laura Dejong was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison without parole. She was taken into custody immediately after today’s hearing. Craig Dejong was sentenced to two years and six months in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered the Dejongs to pay a total of $3,300,718 in restitution to their victims, including $2,679,227 to Kansas City Screw Products, Inc., $482,711 to the Internal Revenue Service and $138,780 to two financial institutions.
On June 18, 2013, Laura Dejong pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud and both of the Dejongs pleaded guilty to one count of filing a false tax return.
Laura Dejong admitted that she embezzled $2,679,227 from her employer, Kansas City Screw Products, Inc., from January 2003 to November 2011. Kansas City Screw Products is a family-owned and -operated metal fabrication business in Kansas City. Laura Dejong, who was employed as a secretary and bookkeeper for approximately 23 years, forged checks drawn on two company bank accounts.
Laura Dejong also engaged in a check kiting scheme between the company’s two banks in order to falsely inflate the company’s bank account balances, thereby increasing the amount of money she could embezzle. Her check kiting began in late June 2011. The total amount of checks written by Laura Dejong to cause the check kite increased from $44,000 in June 2011 to $847,000 in November 2011. The total loss from the check kite to Central Bank was $97,015.
According to court documents, significant gambling activity was identified for the Dejongs, totaling approximately $4.5 million from January 2002 to December 2011. The majority of the Dejongs’ gambling was at slot machines.
Records indicate that the Dejongs took at least eight cruises and spent more than $100,000 on payments for the cruises, vacations and airfare between 2005 and 2011. During the time of the embezzlement scheme, according to court documents, the Dejongs used the stolen money to purchase a 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe, a 2009 Honda Accord, a 1997 Crownline boat (20-foot fiberglass runabout), a 1997 Prestige boat trailer, a 1985 Chevrolet RV/motor-home (now a KC Chiefs party bus), a 2008 Jayco travel trailer, four Ameriprise Brokerage accounts; four Kansas Speedway season tickets (for Passholder seats, parking passes, and track passes), four Kansas City Chiefs Club Level season tickets and parking passes, membership to the Chiefs Wolfpack Club, an exclusive members-only facility, and their residence.
As part of their pleas, the Dejongs signed a stipulation forfeiting their home in Liberty and all of the above-listed property. The forfeited funds will be used to provide restitution to the victims of their crimes.
The Dejongs admitted that they filed joint tax returns for tax years 2005-2010 but did not declare any of the embezzled money as income. During this time, Laura Dejong’s gross annual salary at Kansas City Screw Products ranged from $22,752 to $33,333. Craig Dejong was unemployed for four years and listed no income for the two years in which he claimed to be employed as a computer programmer.
As a result of filing false tax returns in those six years, the Dejongs owe the Internal Revenue Service a total of approximately $482,711.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane Pansing Brown. It was investigated by the FBI and IRS-Criminal Investigation.Law Enforcement Officer and Three Others Sentenced to Prison for Stolen Identity Refund Fraud SchemeRead the Press Release
Tampa, Florida – U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Kovachevich today sentenced Corey A. Coley, Sr. to seven years and three months in federal prison for conspiracy, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. Coley was a Probation Officer for the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. As part of his sentence, the court also entered a money judgment in the amount of $671,022.99, the proceeds of the charged criminal conduct. Coley pleaded guilty on January 15, 2014.
Coley’s co-conspirators, Albert E. Moore, Jr., Tigi Moore, and Mattie Philon previously pleaded guilty and were sentenced for their roles in this case. Albert Moore, Jr. was sentenced to 6 years and 3 months’ imprisonment. Tigi Moore, who worked as a data integrity specialist at Tampa General Hospital, was sentenced to 4 years in federal prison. Philon was sentenced to 2 years’ imprisonment for her part in the scheme.
According to court documents, the co-conspirators engaged in a scheme to defraud the government by submitting fraudulent tax returns and then using the resulting tax refunds for their own benefit and the benefit of others. Coley obtained identities used in the scheme from the information in the records of his former employer, the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. Tigi Moore also obtained identities used in the scheme from the information in the records of her former employer, Tampa General Hospital. In total, the conspirators received $671,022.99 of fraudulently obtained tax refunds and filed fraudulent returns requesting more than $1.8 million of tax refunds.
"Mr. Coley misused his position as a Juvenile Probation Officer to steal identities of people. These stolen identities were then used to file false tax returns in their names. Coley's brazen abuse of trust is reprehensible and inexcusable," said James D. Robnett, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation. "Coley's sentence today to 87 months in federal prison holds Mr. Coley accountable for his criminal actions. Individuals such as Albert Moore, Tigi Moore and Mattie Philon who commit identity theft and refund fraud of this magnitude deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the law. IRS-Criminal Investigation and its partners in the Tampa Bay Alliance, will continue to investigate those individuals is perpetrate this criminal conduct."
This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. It was being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Sara C. Sweeney.
Kicking Woman Sentenced to High End of Guidelines for Residential BurglaryRead the Press Release
The United States Attorney's Office announced that KYLE KANE KICKING WOMAN, 26, of Browning, Montana, was sentenced to a term of 24 months imprisonment, three years supervised release, and a special assessment of $100 during a federal court hearing in Great Falls, Montana, on April 24, 2014, before U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris.
KICKING WOMAN was sentenced in connection with his January 8, 2013, guilty plea to burglary. In an Offer of Proof, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Weldon stated it would have proved that KICKING WOMAN and Michael Bad Old Man entered a residence in Browning, Montana. Occupants of the house were sleeping, and KICKING WOMAN and Michael Bad Old Man assaulted the occupants.
At sentencing, Weldon stated, "It is actions like this that destroy an individual's sense of safety and security. Residents on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and in Montana deserve far better."
The District Court sentenced KICKING WOMAN to 24 months of imprisonment, with three years of supervised release to follow. For the same offense, Michael Bad Old Man was previously sentenced to 27 months imprisonment, with three years of supervised release to follow.
Because there is no parole in the federal system, the truth in sentencing guidelines mandate that KICKING WOMAN will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, KICKING WOMAN does have the opportunity to shorten the term of custody by earning credit for good behavior. However, this reduction will not exceed 15% of the overall sentence.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Kansas City, Kan., Man SentencedFor Failing to Register as Sex OffenderRead the Press Release
KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A man who has been living in Kansas City, Kan., was sentenced Wednesday to two years in federal prison for failing to register as a sex offender, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said. His sentence will be followed by 10 years on supervised release.
Bryan Shuck, 32, Kansas City, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of failure to register under the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. In his plea, he admitted that he was convicted on a charge of deviate sexual assault on July 27, 2004, in Shelby County, Mo. He later registered at an address in Missouri. In May 2013, investigators determined that he was living and working in Kansas City, Kan., without registering in Kansas.
Grissom commended the U.S. Marshals Service, the Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Office, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim Martin for their work on the case.
Justice Department and Bazaarvoice Inc. Agree on Remedy<br /> to Address Bazaarvoice’s Illegal Acquisition of PowerReviewsRead the Press Release
The Department of Justice and Bazaarvoice Inc. have agreed on a remedy that will address Bazaarvoice’s illegal acquisition of PowerReviews Inc. by requiring Bazaarvoice to divest the assets it acquired from PowerReviews and adhere to other requirements to fully restore competition in the provision of online product ratings and reviews platforms.
On Jan. 8, 2014, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco ruled that Bazaarvoice violated Section 7 of the Clayton Act when it acquired PowerReviews, its only serious competitor. Today’s proposed remedy, if approved by the court, will resolve the department’s competitive concerns associated with Bazaarvoice’s acquisition of PowerReviews.
“As a result of today’s agreement, Bazaarvoice will remedy the harm caused by its unlawful acquisition of PowerReviews,” said Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “In addition, Bazaarvoice has agreed to meaningful additional measures that will allow a divestiture buyer to quickly achieve the competitive position that PowerReviews would have occupied today, absent the unlawful transaction.”
The proposed remedy requires Bazaarvoice to sell all of the PowerReviews assets to a divestiture buyer and contains other provisions to compensate for the deterioration of PowerReviews’ competitive position that occurred as a result of the transaction. Under the terms of the agreement, Bazaarvoice is required to provide syndication services to the divestiture buyer for four years, allowing the divestiture buyer to build its customer base and develop its own syndication network. Bazaarvoice is required to waive breach of contract claims against its customers, allowing them to switch to the divestiture buyer without penalty. Bazaarvoice is also required to waive trade-secret restrictions for any of its employees who are hired by the divestiture buyer, enabling the buyer to leverage Bazaarvoice’s post-merger research and development efforts.
Additionally, the agreement provides for the appointment of a trustee to oversee the divestiture process and to monitor Bazaarvoice’s compliance with its other obligations under the proposed remedy.
Bazaarvoice’s acquisition of PowerReviews was not required to be reported under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, which requires companies to notify and provide information to the department and the Federal Trade Commission before consummating certain acquisitions. The department began its investigation shortly after the transaction closed.
On Jan. 10, 2013, the department filed a civil antitrust lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco against Bazaarvoice. The department alleged that Bazaarvoice’s June 2012 acquisition of PowerReviews eliminated the company’s only significant rival, in violation of the antitrust laws.
The department’s trial against Bazaarvoice, conducted by Judge William H. Orrick III, began on Sept. 23, 2013. The trial lasted three weeks, with closing arguments taking place on Oct. 15, 2013. On Jan. 8, 2014, the court found that Bazaarvoice violated Section 7 of the Clayton Act by acquiring its primary rival, PowerReviews.
The proposed remedy, along with the department’s competitive impact statement, will be published in the Federal Register, consistent with the requirements of the Antitrust Procedures and Penalties Act. Any person may submit written comments concerning the proposed remedy within 60-days of its publication to James J. Tierney, Chief, Networks & Technology Enforcement Section, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 450 Fifth Street, N.W., 7th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20530. These comments will be published either in the Federal Register or, with the permission of the court, will be posted electronically on the department’s website. At the conclusion of the 60-day comment period, the court may enter the final judgment upon a finding that it serves the public interest.Justice Department Settles Immigration-Related Discrimination Claim Against Supermarket ChainRead the Press Release
The Justice Department reached an agreement today with Mexico Foods LLC, aka El Rancho Corp., a supermarket chain based in Garland, Texas, resolving claims that the company engaged in discrimination during the employment eligibility verification process in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
The department’s investigation was initiated based on a referral from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The investigation revealed that El Rancho required lawful permanent residents to present a new employment eligibility document after being hired when their Permanent Resident cards expired, even though the Form I-9 and E-Verify rules prohibit this practice because lawful permanent residents have permanent work authorization in the United States, even after their Permanent Resident cards expire. The investigation also uncovered evidence that El Rancho routinely requested a specific work authority document from lawful permanent residents during the initial employment eligibility verification process even though under the law employees are allowed to choose what documents to present. The department found that El Rancho’s discriminatory practices were based on employees’ citizenship status.
Under the settlement agreement, El Rancho must pay $43,000 in civil penalties, undergo training on the antidiscrimination provision of the INA and submit to monitoring for a period of 18 months, during which the department may review the company’s employment eligibility verification practices.
“The Justice Department is committed to ensuring that work-authorized immigrants do not face discrimination in employment,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Jocelyn Samuels for the Civil Rights Division. “We applaud El Rancho for cooperating with the department and taking immediate action to correct its employment eligibility verification practices.”
The Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices (OSC) is responsible for enforcing the anti-discrimination provision of the INA. The statute prohibits, among other things, citizenship status and national origin discrimination in hiring, firing or recruitment or referral for a fee, document abuse and retaliation or intimidation . This matter was handled by OSC Trial Attorney Richard Crespo and OSC Equal Opportunity Specialist Joann Sazama. For more information about protections against employment discrimination under immigration laws or how to sign up for a free webinar, call OSC’s worker hotline at 1-800-255-7688 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired), call OSC’s employer hotline at 1-800-255-8155 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired) or visit the OSC website at www.justice.gov/crt/about/osc .
Applicants or employees who believe they were subjected to different documentary requirements based on their citizenship status, immigration status or national origin, or discrimination based on their citizenship status, immigration status or national origin in hiring, firing, or recruitment or referral, should contact the worker hotline above for assistance.
Justice Department Announces Joseph F. Klimavicz as<br /> New Chief Information OfficerRead the Press Release
The Department of Justice today announced that Joseph F. Klimavicz will become its new chief information officer (CIO), arriving in late May. Klimavicz will provide leadership and oversight of the department’s information technology programs and services in support of the department’s technology-intensive law enforcement mission.
Klimavicz will replace Luke McCormack, who left the department in November 2013. Kevin Deeley, deputy CIO, has served as acting CIO since McCormack’s departure. Deeley will continue to serve as deputy CIO.
“Joe has the leadership and technical skills needed to oversee the Justice Department’s information management and technology programs,” said Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole. “Joe is well positioned to lead the department’s efforts to continue to enhance our cyber security protections and our law enforcement sharing programs. As acting CIO, Kevin has ensured that the department’s overall information technology efforts have remained on track and that our cyber security programs have remained strong. I want to thank him for his leadership during this time of transition.”
The Office of the CIO provides strategic direction, management services and oversight to cross-component information technology efforts, and provides IT infrastructure services such as telecommunications, desktop and data center services and IT security.
Prior to joining the department, Klimavicz was the CIO of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) at the Department of Commerce since January 2007. In that capacity, he was responsible for all aspects of the acquisition, management and use of NOAA’s information technology resources, to include NOAA’s high performance computing and communications infrastructure. During his tenure at NOAA, he strengthened the agency’s cyber security posture, consolidated and expanded high performance computing and modernized a variety of business systems.
Klimavicz served as deputy CIO for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency from December 2003 to January 2007. While there, he managed the design, implementation and operation of the information technology infrastructure. Klimavicz has served in various roles in the Department of Defense, including director of the Enterprise Services Office and Chief, Infrastructure Operations and Support Division for the National Imagery and Mapping Agency.
He received a U.S. Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Executive Service for his outstanding efforts in information technology in 2012. Klimavicz received Bachelor of Science and Master of Engineering degrees from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1983 and 1988, respectively.Jury Convicts Turkish National of Resisting DeportationRead the Press Release
ALEXANDRIA, La. –United States Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced that a federal jury found Erdinc Coskun, 43, of Turkey, guilty yesterday, of two counts of preventing or hampering his deportation from the United States. United States District Judge Dee D. Drell presided over the trial.
Following the two-day trial, the jury found Coskun guilty after deliberating for eight minutes. Based on witness testimony and documents admitted into evidence, it was shown that Coskun refused to leave the United States on April 2, 2013 and May 1, 2013. Both times Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents brought Coskun to the Alexandria International Airport and attempted to put him on a commercial flight, and each time he refused to comply with the agents. After the refusals, he was returned to incarceration.
Coskun faces four years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count of preventing or hampering his deportation from the United States. Sentencing is set for August 1, 2014.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement – Enforcement and Removal Operations conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon B. Brown is prosecuting the case.
Jamestown Man Sentenced on Drug ChargesRead the Press Release
BUFFALO, N.Y.--U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Boris Aguayo-Matos, 35, of Jamestown, N.Y., who was convicted of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute one kilogram or more of heroin and possession of a firearm in relation to drug trafficking activities, was sentenced to 121 months in prison by Chief U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas S. Duszkiewicz, who handled the case, stated that on March 17, 2011, based on information obtained through a wiretap investigation, the defendant was arrested in Celeron, N.Y. by with the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Department deputies. At the time of his arrest, deputies seized approximately a ½ kilogram of heroin and two firearms.
During a subsequent search of the defendant’s residence and other locations, deputies also seized additional quantities of heroin, cocaine, firearms, vehicles and approximately $300,000 in United States currency.
Aguayo-Matos was one of eight defendants arrested in this heroin trafficking investigation. All defendants have been convicted.
The sentencing is the culmination of an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, under the direction of James J. Hunt, Acting Special Agent in Charge, New York Field Division, the Southern Tier Regional Drug Task Force, under the direction of Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Lieutenant David Bentley, the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Department, under the direction of Sheriff Joseph Gerace, and the Jamestown Police Department, under the direction of Harry Snellings.
Iranian Man Charged in Fraudulent Scheme Involving Kodak SoftwareRead the Press Release
ROCHESTER, N.Y.-- U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Navid Salehvaziri, 32, of Tehran, Iran, was arrested and charged by criminal complaint with devising a fraudulent scheme to sell pirated copies of sophisticated printing software owned by Kodak worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The defendant was arrested in Virginia, and appeared today before a United States Magistrate Judge in Virginia to answer the charge, which carries a maximum sentence 20 years in prison, a fine of $250,000, or both.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John J. Field, who is handling the case, stated that according to the complaint, Salehvaziri established a website, “KodakPrinergy.com,” to offer for sale unauthorized, pirated copies of Kodak Prinergy Evo software. The software contains proprietary “computer to plate” technology, and is used in commercial printing applications. In an undercover operation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arranged to purchase a copy of the software from the defendant for $1500. The software received by the FBI was not an authorized copy, and Kodak’s regular security and access control features were disabled. It was determined by Kodak to be a full-featured version of its Prinergy Evo technology worth approximately $345,000.
Salehvaziri was arrested in Virginia, and appeared today before a U.S. Magistrate Judge. The defendant will appear in Rochester Federal Court at a later date.
The criminal complaint is the culmination of an investigation by Special Agents of Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The fact that a defendant has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.Information: Federal Court ArraignmentsRead the Press Release
The United States Attorney's Office today announced that those persons listed below were arraigned before the U.S. Magistrate and the indictments handed down by the Grand Jury unsealed.
Appearing before U.S. Magistrate Strong on April 22, 2014 and entering pleas of Not Guilty were:
- DUSTIN JAY STEELE, a 31-year-old resident of Great Falls, appeared on charges of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, possession of a firearm during a drug crime, possession of a stolen firearm and felon in possession of a firearm. If convicted of the most serious charges contained in the indictment, STEELE faces life imprisonment, $5,000,000 in fines and 5 years supervised release. The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Great Falls Police Department and the Russell Country Drug Task Force. PACER Case Reference: 14-26
Appearing before U.S. Magistrate Lynch in Missoula on April 23, 2014 and entering pleas of Not Guilty were:
- LLOYD NICKLE, a 48-year-old resident of Minot, North Dakota appeared on charges of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. If convicted of them most serious charges contained in the indictment, NICKLE faces life imprisonment, $10,000,000 in fines and 5 years supervised release. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. PACER Case Reference: 13-23
Appearing before U.S. Magistrate Lynch in Missoula on April 24, 2014 and entering pleas of Not Guilty were:
- BRIAN DAVID BAUER, a 26-year old resident of Missoula, appeared on charges of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. If convicted of the most serious charges contained in the indictment, BAUER faces 20 years imprisonment, $1,000,000 in fines and 3 years supervised release. The case was investigated by the Northwest Drug Task Force. PACER Case Reference: 14-23
- JULIA SHANI BENTON, a 30 year-old-resident of Bozeman, appeared on charges of conspiracy to distribute heroin, possession with intent to distribute heroin and distribution of heroin. If convicted of the most serious charges contained in the indictment, BENTON faces 40 years imprisonment, $5,000,000 in fines and 4 years supervised release. The was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Missouri River Drug Task Force. PACER Case Reference: 14-11
- FRANCIS BERCAW, a 63-year-old resident of Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, appeared on charges of aiding or advising a false tax return. If convicted of the most serious charges contained in the indictment, BERCAW faces 3 years imprisonment, $250,000 in fines and 1 year supervised release. The case was investigated by the IRS - Criminal Investigation Division. PACER Case Reference: 14-07
- CHELLE CAUDLE, a 45-year-old resident of Gaston, North Carolina, appeared on charges of aiding or advising a false tax return. If convicted of the most serious charges contained in the indictment, CAUDLE faces 3 years imprisonment, $250,000 in fines and 1 year supervised release. The case was investigated by the IRS - Criminal Investigation Division. PACER Case Reference: 14-07
- MICHAEL HERBERT JOHNSON, a 26-year-old resident of Missoula, appeared on charges of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. If convicted of the most serious charges contained in the indictment, JOHNSON faces 20 years imprisonment, $1,000,000 in fines and 3 years supervised release. The case was investigated by the Northwest Drug Task Force. PACER Case Reference: 14-23
- AUSTIN DAVID LAWRENCE, a 21-year-old resident of Bozeman, appeared on charges of conspiracy to distribute heroin; possession with intent to distribute heroin and distribution of heroin. If convicted of the most serious charges contained in the indictment, LAWRENCE, faces 40 years imprisonment, $5,000,000 in fines and 4 years supervised release. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Missouri River Drug Task Force. PACER Case Reference: 14-12
- TELLY LOPEZ PAYNE, a 37-year-old resident of Bozeman, appeared on charges of conspiracy to distribute heroin, possession with intent to distribute heroin, conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. If convicted of the most serious charges contained in the indictment, PAYNE faces life imprisonment, $10,000,000 in fines and 5 years supervised release. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Missouri River Drug Task Force. PACER Case Reference: 14-13
- BRANDT JONATHAN MILLER, a 29-year old resident of Missoula, appeared on charges of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. If convicted of the most serious charges contained in the indictment, MILLER faces 20 years imprisonment, $1,000,000 in fines and 3 years supervised release. The case was investigated by the Northwest Drug Task Force. PACER Case Reference: 14-23
The indictment is merely a formal charging document. It is not proof of guilt and all persons indicted are presumed to be innocent of any crime until proof of guilt is established by trial or guilty plea.
If any of the above cases are of interest to your media organization and the community it serves, we encourage you to monitor the progress of the case regularly through the U.S. District Court calendar and the PACER system so that you stay current and not miss any important developments in the case.
To establish a PACER account, which will allow you to review documents filed in the case, please go to, http://www.pacer.gov/register.html.
To access the district court's calendar, please go to https://ecf.mtd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/PublicCalendar.pl.
Individual Indicted for Wire Fraud, Money Laundering and Aggravated Identity TheftRead the Press Release
SAN JUAN, PR – On April 24, a federal grand jury returned a 18-count indictment charging Miguel A. Merced-Torres for the use of interstate wired communications to commit fraud and money laundering, announced United States Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez. The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Secret Service.
Merced-Torres was the incorporator and resident agent of MM Technology Wireless Group, a corporation registered with the Puerto Rico State Department since June 9, 2009. From on or about July, 2006, to on or about February, 2013, the defendant devised a scheme and artifice to defraud other persons, and to obtain money and property by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises.Through the scheme and artifice to defraud, Merced-Torres obtained money from investors by falsely representing himself as a representative of the Federal Communications Commission, hereinafter “FCC.” Merced-Torres falsely promised said investors that they were going to receive financial benefits and profits from their investments in cellular tower administration contracts. The defendant and his coconspirators would convince victims to invest money by falsely representing that the FCC was actively seeking individuals to invest money in exchange for the FCC’s issuance of cellular tower administration contracts, which would render considerable profit for the investors.
When victims began to inquire about delays in signing the cellular tower administration contracts, and after some victims requested the return of their money, Merced-Torres would have emails sent from an email account he had created, “[email protected],” falsely representing that the emails were sent by FCC officials. The e-mails provided false reasons for the delays in signing the cellular tower administration contracts, such as: 1) problems with the security clearance of investors and subsequent investigations by the FBI; 2) inadvertent notification of incorrect dates for the signing of contracts; 3) alleged electoral bans for signing contracts within the first 10 days of each month; 4) serious car accident involving the alleged FCC interim program administrator, who remained in a coma and connected to life-support machinery; among others.
As part of the manner and means of the conspiracy, the defendant would make partial payment of money to victims, under the representation that the money was a loan to the victim to ease his or her financial hardship caused by the delays, and under the understanding that said money would have to be paid back to the FCC prior to signing the contracts.
Merced-Torres requested and received bank wire transfers totaling the sum of $2,611,461.48 from victim “J.M.,” for the purpose of investing in the fraudulent scheme. He also received $2,369,678.00 in deposits from five other victims. In addition, on or about July 2008, the defendant informed victim “R.C.” of a vehicle he wanted to lease, a 2007 BMW 750i. Merced-Torres asked “R.C.” to purchase the vehicle for him, and indicated that the transaction and car payments would be credited towards the investment amounts owed by “R.C.” Between, September 2008 and February 2013, “R.C.” made car payments totaling $39,823.80 in benefit of the defendant.
The defendant is also charged with four counts of money laundering, in that he did knowingly engage and attempt to engage in monetary transactions by and through a financial institution, affecting interstate or foreign commerce, in criminally derived property of a value between $20,000 and $100,000, such property having been derived from a specified unlawful activity, that is, wire fraud.
Counts 14-18 charge Merced-Torres with aggravated identity theft. The defendant did knowingly transfer, possess, and use, without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person, that is, names and unique email addresses of other persons during and in relation to wire fraud violations.
Miguel Merced-Torres is facing a money judgment of $9,089,777.37. He is also facing a forfeiture allegation of: a land lot located at Turabo Ward in the municipality of Caguas; a residential apartment located at Islabella Condominium in Caguas; a land lot located at Tomas de Castro Ward in Caguas; an apartment at Villas del Mar Condominium in the municipality of Cabo Rojo; a land lot located at La Serranía Urbanization in Caguas; a lot located in Turabo Gardens Urbanization in Caguas; a land lot located at Tejas Ward in the municipality of Las Piedras; a land lot located in San Lorenzo Valley Urbanization in the municipality of San Lorenzo; and a house located on Calle Rufo Ramirez, Barrio Celada, in the municipality of Gurabo.
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office is committed to prosecuting financial crimes and protecting the citizens of Puerto Rico. The joint efforts of the FBI and the Secret Service lead to the arrest of this individual, who no longer will be able to defraud investors,” said United States Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin R. Martin. The maximum penalties are up to 20 years for the wire fraud charges, up to 20 years for the money laundering charges and two mandatory consecutive years for each aggravated identity theft charge. An indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until convicted through due process of law.
Idaho Man Pleads Guilty to Embezzlement of Public FundsRead the Press Release
BOISE – Randolph Louis Deyton, 46, of Boise, Idaho, pleaded guilty today in United States District Court to embezzlement of public funds, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced.
According to the plea agreement, between 2002 and August 2011, the defendant was employed by the United States government. Starting in approximately 2006, the defendant was responsible for the Work Based Learning Program (WBL). In this position, he maintained a bank account for Job Corps participants. On December 5, 2011, the United States Forest Service determined the bank account maintained by the defendant was overdrawn. It was further determined that the account was overdrawn due to a withdrawal by the defendant in the amount of $6,500.00. On March 20, 2012, the defendant admitted that on or about August 23, 2011, he withdrew $6,528.00 from the WBL bank account. He admitted to misapplying the funds to his own personal use. A subsequent investigation determined that on or about December 21, 2010, the defendant used the debit card from the WBL bank account to purchase money orders of approximately $3,229.89.
Sentencing is set for July 14, 2014 before the Honorable Edward J. Lodge in Boise. Embezzlement of public funds is punishable by a maximum of ten years imprisonment, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000.
The case was investigated by the United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Law Enforcement and Investigations division.
Idaho Man Indicted for Distributing Child PornographyRead the Press Release
Orlando, FL – United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III announces the return by a grand jury of an indictment charging Charles Keith Rolfe (60, Heyburn, Idaho) with distribution of child pornography. If convicted, Rolfe faces a mandatory minimum of 5 years, up to a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison. The indictment also notifies Rolfe that the United States intends to forfeit two cells phones which are alleged to have been used in the commission of his crimes.
According to the indictment and criminal complaint, in the summer of 2013, Rolfe began an online correspondence with an Orlando man. The two men discussed their mutual interest in child pornography and began trading images of child pornography via their cell phones. In October 2013, federal agents arrested the Orlando man for production, distribution, receipt, and possession of child pornography, and took over the man’s online identities. In January 2014, posing as the Orlando man, agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations began communicating with Rolfe via a Mobile Messaging Application (MMA). On February 28, 2014, as charged in the indictment, Rolfe sent an undercover agent images of child pornography through the MMA. Rolfe also wrote to the undercover agents about attempting to molest a young child. On April 2, 2014, federal agents arrested Rolfe in Idaho and transported him to the Middle District of Florida.
An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of the federal criminal laws, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.
This case was investigated by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations. It will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Joseph M. Schuster.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, 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 the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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 Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
Hidalgo Drug Trafficker Gets Life in Federal PrisonRead the Press Release
McALLEN, Texas – Daniel Nunez, 38, of Hidalgo, has been ordered to prison for life following his conviction for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana and conspiracy to transport and attempt to transport monetary instruments to Mexico to promote drug trafficking, United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson announced today. Nunez pleaded guilty Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012.
Today, U.S. District Judge Randy Crane handed down the sentence and noted that this was a significant drug trafficking conspiracy over a long period of time.
Nunez had been involved in an organization that had crossed marijuana into the United States from Mexico. They would arrange to cross marijuana from Mexico through the Rio Grande River in the Military Highway area, and transport it to stash locations in Edinburg and Hargill. From there, the marijuana would be taken to another stash location where it would be loaded onto tractor trailers for further distribution in the Dallas area as well as Panama City and Orlando, Fla., and Steele, Ala. areas.
Nunez also arranged to transport the proceeds of his drug-trafficking organization from various locations in Florida back to Hidalgo County, and from there, transport it into Mexico.
According to previous court records, the exploits of Nunez were celebrated in narco-corridos that were posted to YouTube entitled “Corridos De Arranque” that sung of “El Patron y El Comandante,” “El Comandanta y Su Gente,” “El Guero y su Clicka,” “El Reinocertonte (M-50)”and El-M-3.
Several others have been charged and convicted with sentences so far ranging from more than two years to nearly 18 years in prison.
Nunez will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.
The investigations leading to the criminal charges were conducted in McAllen, Panama City, Orlando and Steele. This Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force investigation was led by Homeland Security Investigations, FBI and Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation. These cases are being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Patricia Profit.Hartville Man Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison for Enticement and Child PornographyRead the Press Release
Mark A. Steffee, 43, of Hartville, Ohio, was sentenced to 14 years in prison after previously being found guilty of enticement and possession of child pornography, said Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.
Steffee used a computer connected to the Internet to attempt to persuade, induce, entice and coerce a 14-year-old girl to engage in illegal sexual activity with him. This took place from September 2005 through December 1, 2005, and again from on or about March 5, 2013, through on or about March 27, 2013, according to court documents.
Steffee also possessed a computer that contained child pornography, according to court documements.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael A Sullivan following an investigation by the United States Secret Service, the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Hartville Police Department.
Glasgow Man Sentenced to Prison for Child Pornography ChargesRead the Press Release
The United States Attorney's Office announced that RONALD HAROLD FIELDS, 53, of Glasgow and Sidney, was sentenced to a term of 160 months imprisonment, 10 years supervised release, and a special assessment of $100 during a federal court hearing in Great Falls, Montana, on April 24, 2014, before U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris.
FIELDS was sentenced in connection with his January 9, 2014, guilty plea to receipt of child pornography. In an Offer of Proof, Assistant U.S. Attorney Cyndee Peterson stated that in July 2012, the Valley County Sheriff's Office was investigating Defendant Ronald Harold Fields for sex crimes committed against a minor. Fields' Acer Aspire One notebook computer and two Fuji Film SDHC cards were seized and forensically examined. Images of child pornography were located on the computer and SD cards. The images were created between October 1, 2010, and December 17, 2010. As part of the investigation, law enforcement also searched Fields' truck and seized a Casio digital camera. When the camera and its SD care were analyzed, the examiner located child pornography images and a video.
Gang Member Found Guilty of Supplying Firearms to Armenian PowerRead the Press Release
LOS ANGELES – A long-time street gang member and associate of the Armenian Power has been convicted at trial for his role in supplying firearms to a leader of the organized crime group.
Miguel Ramirez, 38, of Los Angeles, was found guilty yesterday afternoon of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
According to the evidence presented during a brief trial, Ramirez sold and distributed at least three firearms, including a loaded Intratec model Tec-22 semi-automatic with a threaded barrel, a large-capacity magazine and a laser sight. These firearms were discovered by officers on November 23, 2009.
Ramirez sold and distributed these firearms to Mher “Capone” Darbinyan, a powerful Armenian Power gang leader, who was himself convicted at trial last week for crimes including racketeering conspiracy, extortion, bank fraud and firearms offenses (see: http://www.justice.gov/usao/cac/Pressroom/2014/047.html). The evidence showed that Ramirez had repeatedly offered Darbinyan other firearms and ammunition, including expanding ammunition designed for use on human targets
Ramirez is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner on July 14, at which time he faces a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.
Out of the 90 defendants charged in the two indictments targeting Armenian Power, 86 have now been convicted. One defendant is scheduled to go on trial on July 15, two defendants are fugitives and prosecutors dismissed charges against one defendant.
The case was investigated by the Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force, which is composed of the FBI, the Glendale Police Department, the Los Angeles Police Department, the Burbank Police Department, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, IRS – Criminal Investigation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Secret Service. The Huntington Beach Police Department and the Beverly Hills Police Department provided assistance.
Release No. 14-051
Freeport Man Sentenced to 51 Months in Federal Prison for Tax FraudRead the Press Release
ROCKFORD — A Freeport, Ill. man was sentenced yesterday in federal court by U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Kapala on a federal charge relating to his preparation of fraudulent federal income tax returns. The defendant, JASON BOOTH, 32, was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay restitution of $159,926.98 to the IRS, and $90,200.00 to the Iowa Department of Revenue, for a total of $250,126.98.
Booth pled guilty to the charge on Jan. 16, 2014, admitting that he conspired with others to defraud the U.S. Department of the Treasury by obtaining payments through fraudulent claims for individual income tax refunds. According to the written plea agreement, between March 2006 and January 2008, Booth created false returns, knowing that the taxpayers whose names he put on the false returns had not authorized him to use false information in the returns. Some of the taxpayers had authorized Booth to create income tax returns for them, but many did not know Booth. Due to the false information, the income tax returns claimed refunds that were not actually owed to the taxpayers. After creating the false returns, Booth filed them electronically with the IRS. When claimed refunds were approved and disbursed by the IRS, the refunds were wired to bank accounts that had been designated by Booth when he electronically filed the false returns. Some of those accounts were owned by Booth, but several were owned by others that conspired with Booth. The co-conspirators were allowed to keep a portion of each refund in exchange for the use of their accounts for the deposit of the refunds. They delivered the balance of the refunds to Booth. Booth used the co-conspirators accounts because he was not always able to open accounts in his name and because using varied accounts made discovery of his filing false returns less likely. Booth admitted that as a result of the filing of the false federal income tax returns, $159,926.98 was disbursed by the IRS into the accounts he designated.
The sentencing was announced by Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and James C. Lee, Special Agent-In-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation Division.
The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael D. Love.
Four More Individuals Charged in Manhattan Federal Court with Participating in A Multi-State Robbery Crew That Used Violence, Including Firearms, to Steal More Than $1 Million in Luxury WatchesRead the Press Release
Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, George Venizelos, the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), and William J. Bratton, the Police Commissioner of the City of New York (“NYPD”), announced the unsealing of a seven-count Superseding Indictment yesterday charging eight members of a robbery crew operating across New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and Connecticut with robbery conspiracy and robberies of high-end jewelry and watch stores using violence, including firearms, and resulting in the theft of more than one million dollars in watches and other goods.
The Superseding Indictment charges SEAN ROBINSON, 42, ALLEN WILLIAMS, 35, ROBERTO GRANT, 33, TERRELL RATLIFF, 22, TYRONE DEHOYOS, 35, RALIK HANSEN, 28, RONALD MCINTYRE, 36 and KENDAL THOMPSON, 30, with robbery conspiracy, substantive robbery, and firearms offenses. Five of the defendants – WILLIAMS, GRANT, RATLIFF, DEHOYOS, and THOMPSON – were previously arrested and detained pending trial. Yesterday, ROBINSON was arrested in Brooklyn, New York, and McINTYRE was transferred into federal custody, and both were arraigned before Judge Robert P. Patterson and detained pending trial. HANSEN remains wanted by the FBI and is considered to be armed and dangerous.
According to the allegations contained in the Superseding Indictment, other court documents previously filed in federal court, and statements made in Court yesterday:
Between approximately July 1, 2013, and January 30, 2014, a highly organized crew engaged in a series of violent robberies of high-end jewelry and watch stores located in four states, smashed display cases with hammers, while customers and employees were in the stores, and stole more than one million dollars in luxury watches. The crew used violence as necessary to carry out the scheme. For example, during one robbery in September 2013 in Brooklyn, New York, two of the robbers displayed handguns, and a store owner was shot when he attempted to prevent members of the crew from fleeing with their stolen watches. In another robbery in August 2013 in Richmond, Virginia, the robbers used a handheld stun gun to subdue a female store employee before fleeing with more than a $100,000 in watches.
Among the stores robbed by the crew are: Cartier in Manhattan, New York; the Borgata Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey; Schwarzschild’s Jewelers in Richmond, Virginia; Martin Jewelers in Cranford, New Jersey; Henry Reid and Sons Jewelers in New Canaan, Connecticut, and Litan Jewelers in Brooklyn, New York.
Mr. Bharara praised the investigative work of the FBI and the NYPD. He also thanked the police departments of Cranford, New Jersey; Atlantic City, New Jersey; Richmond, Virginia; and New Canaan, Connecticut, and the Manhattan and Brooklyn District Attorneys’ Offices, and the Union County, New Jersey, Prosecutor’s Office, for their assistance in the investigation, which he noted is ongoing.
The case is being prosecuted by the Office’s General Crimes Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys Andrea Griswold and Richard Cooper are in charge of the prosecution.
The charges contained in the Superseding Indictment are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. The maximum sentences are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencings of the defendants will be determined by the judge.
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U.S. v. Allen Williams et al. S3 Indictment
Former Sheriff’s Deputy Indicted for Illegal Possession of A Machine GunRead the Press Release
CONTACT: Fred Alverson
Public Affairs Officer
DAYTON, OHIO – A federal grand jury has indicted Eric A. Spicer, 44, of Beavercreek, Ohio, charging him with using fraudulent and forged documents to obtain a machine gun illegally. Spicer formerly held the rank of major with the Greene County Sheriff’s Office.
Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, and Michael Boxler, Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Columbus Field Division (ATF), announced the indictment returned today.
The seven-count indictment alleges that Spicer forged the Greene County Sheriff’s name on documents he provided to a firearms dealer in New York in 2009. The documents claimed that the machine gun would be used for official law enforcement purposes. The ATF began investigating Spicer, executed a search warrant at his home in March 2014 and seized the machine gun. At the time of the search, Spicer told the ATF that he was a sworn and commissioned police officer of the Jackson Township Police Department.
The indictment charges Spicer with one count each of illegal possession of a machine gun, making a false statement to a law enforcement official, making a false statement in conjunction with the purchase of a firearm, possession of an unregistered firearm, and possession of a firearm transferred in violation of the National firearms Act. He is charged with two counts of making a false entry on an application to acquire a firearm.
Making a false statement to a law enforcement official is punishable by up to five years in prison. All other counts carry a possible punishment of ten years’ imprisonment.
Spicer will be summoned to appear before a U.S. Magistrate Judge for an initial appearance on the charges.
U.S. Attorney Stewart commended the investigation by ATF agents and Assistant U.S. Attorney Dwight Keller, who is prosecuting the case. Stewart also acknowledged the cooperation of the Greene County Sheriff’s Office during the investigation, and the assistance of the Beavercreek Police Department during the search of Spicer’s residence.
An indictment is a formal accusation and is not proof of guilt. Defendants are presumed innocent until and unless they are found guilty.
Former Senior Partner at KPMG Who Provided Confidential Client Information That Was Used to Make Stock Trades That Generated More Than $1.25 Million in Illegal Profits Sentenced to Federal PrisonRead the Press Release
LOS ANGELES -- A former senior partner at the accounting firm KPMG LLP was sentenced today to 14 months in federal prison for his involvement in an insider trading scheme in which he provided confidential information about publicly traded clients to a man who paid him with cash bribes and luxury items.
Scott London, 51, of Agoura Hills, who oversaw KPMG’s audit practice for the Pacific Southwest until he was terminated last year after 29 years at the firm, was sentenced by United States District Judge George H. Wu.
In addition to the prison term, which London was ordered to begin serving on July 18, Judge Wu ordered him to pay a $100,000 fine.
London pleaded guilty last July to one count of securities fraud through insider trading.
According to court documents, London provided confidential information about KPMG clients to Bryan Shaw, a close friend of his, over a period of several years. Shaw then used this information to make highly profitable securities trades that allowed Shaw to realize more than $1.27 million in illegal proceeds.
London was a senior partner at KPMG who supervised more than 500 accounting professionals at the firm and personally handled audits for major KPMG clients, including Herbalife Ltd. and Skechers USA, Inc. As a result of his position, London had access to confidential information about KPMGs clients before that information was disclosed to the public. In his plea agreement, London admitted that he disclosed inside information to Shaw regarding at least 14 separate earnings announcements or acquisitions for KPMG clients.
Shaw admitted that he gave London approximately $70,000 in cash and luxury items in exchange for the inside information about KPMG’s clients. According to court documents, Shaw also said that he typically arranged to meet London on a side street near Shaws business so that he could give London bags containing $100 bills wrapped in $10,000 bundles. Shaw also said that he gave London a $12,000 Rolex watch, as well as jewelry and concert tickets, in exchange for the confidential information.
On two occasions in early 2013, acting at the direction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Shaw met with London and gave him cash as supposed payment for confidential information about KPMG clients, according to court documents. In the first instance, London met with Shaw on a street corner in Encino and accepted a bag with $5,000 in cash as payment for confidential information about Herbalife’s earnings announcement in February 2013. London later met with Shaw in a parking lot in Woodland Hills and accepted another bag with $5,000 in cash, which was supposedly London’s share of the illegal profits from trades based on confidential information about Decker’s February 2013 earnings announcement.
Shaw pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in May 2013. Judge Wu is scheduled to sentence Shaw on May 19.
The criminal investigation into the insider trading scheme was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
In a separate action filed last year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit against London and Shaw (see: http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2013/lr22670.htm).
Release No. 14-048
Former Owner, Medical Director, of Diagnostic Testing Center Sentenced to 46 Months in PrisonRead the Press Release
Also Ordered to Forfeit More than $2 Million
NEWARK, N.J. - A radiologist who owned and operated a diagnostic testing center in Orange, N.J., was sentenced today to 46 months in prison and ordered to forfeit more than $2 million for overseeing a sprawling cash-for-patients scheme to bribe doctors for testing referrals, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Ashokkumar Babaria, 64, of Moorestown, N.J., previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Claire C. Cecchi to an information charging him with one count of offering and paying doctors and other health care providers illegal cash kickbacks for patient referrals in violation of the federal health care anti-kickback statute. Judge Cecchi imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Babaria, then a licensed radiologist, was the medical director and owner of Orange Community MRI LLC (Orange MRI). The facility provided diagnostic testing services, such as MRIs, CAT Scans, ultrasounds, echocardiograms and dual-emission X-ray absorptiometries, known as “DEXA Scans.” From 2008 through 2011, Orange MRI made nearly $2 million in corrupt revenues from Medicare and Medicaid billings for tests performed on patients who were referred to Orange MRI by doctors who were paid cash kickbacks for those referrals.
Babaria negotiated, approved and paid kickbacks to physicians for each diagnostic test referred and provided cash to his subordinates to do the same. During his guilty plea proceeding, Babaria admitted to several specific acts, including his 2009 approvals of kickback arrangements to pay one doctor roughly $100 for each of his MRI referrals and another doctor $75 for each MRI referral and $25 for each ultrasound or DEXA scan referral.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Cecchi sentenced Babaria to three years of supervised release, ordered him to forfeit $2,014,601 and fined him $25,000.
Defense counsel: Joseph D. Mancano Esq., Philadelphia
To date, 17 individuals have been convicted as a result of the investigation. Including Babaria, 15 people have pleaded guilty and two doctors were convicted at trial: Chikenzie Onyenso, 55, of Randolph, N.J., on Oct. 15, 2013, and Maryam Jafari, 43, of Hoboken, on Feb. 4, 2014.
Fourteen health care providers have agreed to forfeit a total of $370,960 in illegal kickbacks. Former Orange MRI executive director Chirag Patel, 38, of Warren, N.J., agreed to forfeit an additional $89,180 in corrupt gains.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Tom O’Donnell, as well as criminal investigators from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, for the investigation.
The government is represented by Deputy Chief Scott B. McBride of the U.S. Attorney’s Economic Crimes Unit and Deputy Chief Joseph G. Mack of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Health Care and Government Fraud Unit.
U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman reorganized the health care fraud practice at the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s Office shortly after taking office, including creating a stand-alone Health Care and Government Fraud Unit to handle both criminal and civil investigations and prosecutions of health care fraud offenses. Since 2010, the office has recovered more than $535 million in health care fraud and government fraud settlements, judgments, fines, restitution and forfeiture under the False Claims Act, the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and other statutes.
13-144Former Marine Hose Executive Who Was Extradited to United States <br /> Pleads Guilty for Participating in Worldwide Bid-Rigging ConspiracyRead the Press Release
A former executive of a rubber hose manufacturer, who was extradited from Germany in early April 2014, today pleaded guilty and was sentenced to serve two years in prison for participating in a conspiracy to rig bids, fix prices and allocate market shares of marine hose sold in the United States and elsewhere, the Department of Justice announced.Romano Pisciotti, an Italian national and a former manager of Parker ITR Srl’s Oil & Gas Business Unit, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Ft. Lauderdale, to a one-count felony indictment that was filed under seal on Aug. 26, 2010, and unsealed on Aug. 5, 2013.
Pisciotti was extradited from Germany on April 3, 2014, in the first successfully litigated extradition on an antitrust charge. Pisciotti was arrested in Germany on June 17, 2013, and made his initial appearance in U.S. District court on April 4, 2014. Pisciotti will serve a total of two years in prison with credit for the nine months and 16 days he was held in the custody of the German government pending his extradition. He has also agreed to pay a $50,000 criminal fine.
“Today’s guilty plea demonstrates the Antitrust Division’s ability to bring to justice those who violate antitrust laws, even when they attempt to avoid prosecution by remaining in foreign jurisdictions,” said Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “The Antitrust Division and its law enforcement partners will continue to protect consumers from cartels that affect the domestic and international economy.”
Marine hose is a flexible rubber hose used to transfer oil between tankers and storage facilities. During the conspiracy, the cartel affected prices for hundreds of millions of dollars in sales of marine hose and related products sold worldwide.According to the indictment, Pisciotti carried out the conspiracy by agreeing during meetings, conversations and communications to allocate shares of the marine hose market among the conspirators; use a price list for marine hose in order to implement the conspiracy; and not compete for customers with other marine hose sellers either by not submitting prices or bids or by submitting intentionally high prices or bids, all in accordance with the agreements reached among the conspiring companies. As part of the conspiracy, Pisciotti and his conspirators provided information received from customers in the United States and elsewhere about upcoming marine hose jobs to another co-conspirator who served as a coordinator of the conspiracy. The coordinator acted as a clearinghouse for bidding information that was shared among the conspirators, and was paid by the manufacturers for coordinating the conspiracy. Pisciotti recruited at least two individuals from other marine hose firms to participate in the conspiracy. The department said the conspiracy began at least as early as 1999 and continued until at least May 2007. Pisciotti was charged with participating in the conspiracy from at least as early as 1999 until at least November 2006.
As a result of the department’s ongoing marine hose investigation, five companies – Parker ITR; Bridgestone Corp. of Japan; Manuli SPa of Italy’s Florida subsidiary; Trelleborg of France; and Dunlop Marine and Oil Ltd., of the United Kingdom – and eight other individuals have pleaded guilty and have been sentenced to serve prison terms ranging from 12 months and one day to 30 months. An additional individual was sentenced to serve six months home confinement. Indicted fugitive Uwe Bangert, a German national formerly associated with Dunlop Marine and Oil Ltd., remains at large.The investigation is being conducted by the Antitrust Division’s Washington Criminal I Section, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) of the Department of Defense’s Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Navy Criminal Investigative Service and the FBI. The U.S. Marshals Service and other law enforcement agencies from multiple foreign jurisdictions are also investigating or assisting in the ongoing matter. The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida provided assistance.
Anyone with information concerning bid rigging or other anticompetitive conduct in the marine products industry is urged to call the Antitrust Division’s Washington Criminal I Section at 202-307-6694.
Former Federal Prison Employee Pleads Guilty to Sex OffenseRead the Press Release
BECKLEY, W.Va. – United States Attorney Booth Goodwin announced that Jeffrey S. Walton, 48, of Ronceverte, West Virginia, pled guilty in federal court in Beckley today to abusive sexual contact with a female federal inmate. Walton admitted that on one occasion in May or June of 2013, he touched the breasts of an inmate at the Federal Prison Camp at Alderson. At the time of the incident, Walton was employed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons and was acting as the inmate’s work supervisor at the Alderson facility. Walton is no longer employed by the Bureau of Prisons.
Walton faces up to two years in prison and a $250,000 fine. United States District Judge Irene Berger has scheduled the sentencing for July 31, 2014.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney John File is handling the prosecution.
Former Executive Director of Public Charter School Sentenced to Nine Months in Prison for Stealing $29,000 in Funds-Defendant Wrote Series of Checks for Personal Benefit-Read the Press Release
WASHINGTON – Monique S. Murdock, 45, the former executive director of Nia Community Public Charter School, was sentenced today to nine months in prison on a federal theft charge stemming from the embezzlement of $29,000 in funds meant for the school.
The sentence was announced by Ronald C. Machen Jr., U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia; Dana J. Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Valerie Parlave, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office; Charles J. Willoughby, Inspector General for the District of Columbia; Steven Anderson, Special Agent in Charge, Mid-Atlantic Regional Office, Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Education, and Robert E. Craig, Special Agent in Charge of the Mid-Atlantic Field Office of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS).
Murdock, of Fort Washington, Md., pled guilty in November 2013 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to a charge of theft from a program receiving federal funds. As part of her guilty plea, Murdock also admitted making unauthorized purchases with a government-issued purchase card while she worked for another employer in Virginia.
She was sentenced by the Honorable Richard J. Leon. Upon completion of her prison term, Murdock will be placed on three years of supervised release; Judge Leon ordered that the first three months of that time be spent on home confinement. Judge Leon also ordered Murdock to pay more than $40,000 in restitution for her crimes. Finally, he ordered her to pay an additional $29,000 forfeiture money judgment.
According to the government’s evidence, Murdock was a co-founder of Nia Community Public Charter School and its executive director from June 2006 through October 2008. As the executive director of the Northeast Washington school, she had the primary responsibility of overseeing its fiscal management.
Public charter schools are independently-operated public schools that are open to all District of Columbia residents. Enrollment is on a space-available basis. Public charter schools receive public funds based on the number of students they enroll. Nia Community Public Charter School, for example, received funding through the District of Columbia Public Charter School Board as well as through the U.S. Department of Education.
Between July 2006 and August 2008, the school received more than $3.3 million from the District of Columbia Public Charter School Board. The school also received more than $548,000 from the U.S. Department of Education during the 2007 and 2008 fiscal years.
From March 2008 through August 2008, Murdock signed five checks on the school’s account, totaling $29,000, and converted them to her own personal use and benefit.
The theft charge involved the money stolen from the charter school.
The guilty plea also resolved a criminal investigation in Virginia. After separating from the school, Murdock was hired in August 2009 as a Child Youth and School Services Assistant Director by the Cody Development Center in Fort Myer, Va. In this position, she was provided with a government purchase card that was to be used for buying work-related items.
As part of her plea, Murdock admitted that from February 2012 through December 2012 while employed by the Cody Development Center, she used her government purchase card to make $11,773 in unauthorized gift card purchases.
Murdock’s restitution payments will include $29,000 to the U.S. Department of Education and another $11,773 to the U.S. Department of Defense.
The theft from Nia Community Public Charter School was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office, the District of Columbia Office of the Inspector General, and the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General. The activities at the Cody Development Center were investigated by the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Defense.
U.S. Attorney Machen, U.S. Attorney Boente, Assistant Director in Charge Parlave, Inspector General Willoughby, Special Agent in Charge Anderson, and Special Agent in Charge Craig commended the work of those who investigated the matters. They also acknowledged the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, including Paralegal Specialists Krishawn Graham and Diane Hayes and Assistant U.S. Attorney Catherine K. Connelly, who assisted with forfeiture issues. Finally, they thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Lionel André, who prosecuted the case.
14-097Former Corporal Sentenced to Death in Barracks MurderRead the Press Release
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Jorge Avila Torrez, 25, of Zion, Illinois, was sentenced to death today by a federal jury for the premeditated murder on July 11, 2009 of Amanda Jean Snell, 20, in her room at Keith Hall, an enlisted barracks aboard Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington, Va.
U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady continued sentencing until May 30, 2014, to give Torrez an opportunity to file any post-trial motions.
Dana J. Boente, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Rocco Pierri, Special Agent in Charge of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service’s (NCIS) Washington Field Office; and M. Douglas Scott, Arlington County Chief of Police, made the announcement after the verdict was accepted by Judge O’Grady.
Torrez was indicted on May 26, 2011, by a federal grand jury for the premeditated murder of Snell, who was serving as a Petty Officer Second Class for the U.S. Navy. According to court records and evidence at trial, at the time he murdered Snell, Torrez was a corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps and lived in a room on the same deck as Snell’s, eight doors away. Torrez later told a prisoner with whom he was detained in the Arlington County Detention Center that he entered Snell’s room through her unlocked door, jumped on her as she slept in her bed, bound her wrists with the power cord from her laptop computer and strangled her with the rest of the cord. Torrez stated that he then dragged Snell’s body from the bed to a wall locker, in which he hid her remains. Snell was discovered there by her Navy supervisor on Monday morning, July 13, 2009, when she failed to report for duty at 11:00 p.m. on the previous Sunday night at the Pentagon.
On April 8, 2014, following a six-day trial, a jury convicted Torrez of the premeditated murder of Snell. That same jury began hearing evidence on April 21, 2014, to determine whether he should receive the death penalty or life imprisonment without the possibility of release. Besides evidence relating to Snell’s murder, the jury considered evidence related to Torrez’s prior convictions for having abducted three young women in Arlington, Va. in February 2010, one of whom he raped, sodomized, strangled and left for dead, for which he is currently serving five life sentences in Red Onion State Prison.
This case was investigated by NCIS and the Arlington County Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael E. Rich, Jonathan L. Fahey, James L. Trump and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert J. Heberle are prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on https://pcl.uscourts.gov.Former Chief Investment Officer of Construction Supply Company Sentenced to 37 Months in Prison for Bank Fraud SchemeRead the Press Release
BROOKLYN, NY – Rodney Watts, 42, the former Chief Investment Officer of GDC Acquisitions, LLC (“GDC”), was sentenced today in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, to 37 months in prison to be followed by 5 years of supervised release. As part of the sentence, Watts was ordered to pay more than $15 million in restitution and $18 million in forfeiture. In May 2013, the defendant was convicted, following three weeks of trial, by a federal jury on charges of bank, mail and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit bank, mail and wire fraud, and false statements. Watts also served as the Chief Financial Officer of GDC at one time. These charges arose out of the defendant’s scheme to defraud Amalgamated Bank, GDC’s asset-based lender, of $21 million in fraudulent loans. Watt’s co-defendant, Courtney Dupree, the former Chief Executive Officer of GDC, was convicted by a federal jury in December 2011 of similar charges. In June 2013, Dupree was sentenced to 84 months’ imprisonment to be followed by 5 years’ supervised release. As part of the sentence, Dupree was ordered to pay more than $15 million in restitution and $18 million in forfeiture.
The sentence was announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, George Venizelos, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), and Philip Bartlett, Inspector-In-Charge, United State Postal Inspection Service (“USPIS”), New York Division.
“Instead of building their company through hard work and drive, Watts and his cohorts created the illusion of success for GDC based on lies and deceit. Watts then spent years propping up that illusion and using it to defraud a bank out of millions of dollars,” stated United States Attorney Lynch. “Executives who play fast and loose with corporate financial information should expect to be investigated and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.” Ms. Lynch extended her grateful appreciation to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Postal Inspection Service, the agencies responsible for leading the government’s criminal investigation.
GDC, based in Long Island City, Queens, is a holding company that owns various subsidiaries, including JDC Lighting, a lighting distributor; Unalite Electric and Lighting, a lighting maintenance company; and Hudson Bay Environments Group, a furniture distributor. The defendant helped orchestrate a scheme to defraud Amalgamated Bank and C3 Capital, a mezzanine lender based in Kansas, City, Missouri, by obtaining and attempting to obtain loans on the basis of false financial statements and other material misrepresentations. He and others gave Amalgamated Bank false financial information for GDC in which they had fraudulently inflated the company’s accounts receivable in order to obtain initially, and then maintain, credit lines totaling approximately $21 million. The defendant and his co-conspirators inflated the accounts receivable by a variety of means, including by recording in the corporate books sales that had never taken place. For example, the defendant represented to Amalgamated Bank in writing in November 2009 that GDC had $25.2 million in accounts receivable when, in fact, it had only approximately $9 million. In addition, the defendant and others defrauded Amalgamated Bank by causing GDC to acquire a company covertly, contrary to the terms of their loan agreement, and by concealing the acquisition from the bank. The scheme unraveled when one of the accountants turned himself into the FBI and cooperated in the government’s investigation in an undercover capacity for approximately two months.
This prosecution was the result of efforts by President Obama's Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force (FFETF) which was created in November 2009 to wage an aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. With more than 20 federal agencies, 94 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and state and local partners, it’s the broadest coalition of law enforcement, investigatory and regulatory agencies ever assembled to combat fraud. Since its formation, the task force has made great strides in facilitating increased investigation and prosecution of financial crimes; enhancing coordination and cooperation among federal, state and local authorities; addressing discrimination in the lending and financial markets and conducting outreach to the public, victims, financial institutions and other organizations. Over the past three fiscal years, the Justice Department has filed more than 10,000 financial fraud cases against nearly 15,000 defendants including more than 2,700 mortgage fraud defendants. For more information on the task force, visit http://www.StopFraud.gov.
The government’s case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Catherine M. Mirabile and Brian Morris.
The Defendant:
RODNEY WATTS
Age: 42
Bronxville, NY
E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 10-CR-627 (S-2) (KAM)
Former Belfair Resident Pleads Guilty to Manufacturing, Distributing and Possessing Child PornographyRead the Press Release
A former Belfair, Washington resident who once served as the president of an elementary school PTA pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to four child pornography offenses, announced U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan. DAVID MICHAEL NAVARRO, 38, was arrested in August 2013, after investigators traced a video posted on the internet to NAVARRO. The video showed the rape of an 8-year-old child. Under the terms of the plea agreement, both sides will recommend a sentence of between 20 and 25 years in prison when NAVARRO is sentenced on July 21, 2014. NAVARRO pleaded guilty to two counts of production of child pornography, one count of distribution of child pornography, and one count of possession of child pornography. The production counts carry a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of 15 years. U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle is free to impose any sentence between that mandatory minimum and the maximum of 30 years in prison.
According to the facts in the plea agreement, between November of 2011 and May of 2013, NAVARRO produced multiple videos of himself engaged in sexually explicit conduct with a young child. Some of the videos seized from the defendant also depicted him engaged in sexually explicit conduct with a second young child, and one video depicted NAVARRO engaged in sexually explicit conduct while seated next to an unidentified child on an airplane. Law enforcement analysis revealed more than 700 images of child pornography and 157 videos of child pornography on NAVARRO’s electronic devices including cameras, computers, thumb drives, and smartphones. NAVARRO admits that he shared much of the child pornography he produced over the Internet, trading for other images of child pornography.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, NAVARRO must register as a sex offender following his release from prison. Prosecutors will recommend he be placed on supervised release for the rest of his life.
The case was investigated by the FBI and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Marci Ellsworth.
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 United States Attorney’s 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.
Former Background Investigator for Federal Government Pleads Guilty to Making A False StatementRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – Brian T. Rapier, 34, a former background investigator who did work under contract for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), pled guilty today to a charge stemming from his falsification of work on background investigations of federal employees and contractors, announced U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. and Patrick E. McFarland, Inspector General for the Office of Personnel Management.
Rapier, of Sumter, S.C., pled guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to making a false statement. The Honorable Beryl A. Howell scheduled sentencing for July 25, 2014. The charge carries a statutory penalty of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. As part of the plea, Rapier has agreed to pay $173,446 in restitution to the federal government.
According to a statement of offense submitted to the Court, Rapier was employed by USIS, formerly known as U.S. Investigations Services Inc., as an investigator under contract to conduct background investigations on behalf of OPM’s Federal Investigative Services.
Between June 2009 and April 2010, in more than four dozen Reports of Investigations on background investigations, Rapier represented that he had interviewed a source or reviewed a record regarding the subject of the background investigation. In fact, he had not conducted the interviews or obtained the records of interest. These reports were utilized and relied upon by the agencies requesting the background investigations to determine whether the subjects were suitable for positions having access to classified information, for positions impacting national security, or for receiving or retaining security clearances.
Rapier’s false representations have required Federal Investigative Services to reopen and rework numerous background investigations that were assigned to him during the time period of his falsifications, at an estimated cost of at least $173,446 to the U.S. government.
Federal Investigative Services has a robust integrity assurance program which utilizes a variety of methods to ensure the accuracy of reported information. The falsification of investigative case work by the defendant was detected through the program.
This is one of numerous cases prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia since 2008 involving false representations by background investigators and record checkers working on federal background investigations. In addition to Rapier, 17 other background investigators and two record checkers have been convicted of charges.
Federal Investigative Services, through its workforce of approximately 7,600, including 6,100 field investigators, is responsible for conducting background investigations for numerous federal agencies and their contractors, on individuals either employed by or seeking employment with those agencies or contractors. Federal Investigative Services conducted more than 2.3 million investigations during the 2013 fiscal year. More than 700,000 of these investigations involved applicants for access or continued access to classified information.
In performing background investigations, the investigators conduct interviews of individuals who have information about the person who is the subject of the review. In addition, the investigators seek out, obtain, and review documentary evidence, such as employment records, to verify and corroborate information provided by either the subject of the background investigation or by persons interviewed during the investigation. After conducting interviews and obtaining documentary evidence, the investigators prepare a Report of Investigation containing the results of the interviews and document reviews, and electronically submit the material to OPM in Washington, D.C. OPM then provides a copy of the investigative file to the requesting agency, which can use the information to determine an individual’s eligibility for employment or a security clearance.
In announcing the plea, U.S. Attorney Machen and Inspector General McFarland praised the efforts of Special Agent Christopher Sulhoff, OPM, Office of the Inspector General, and Philip Kroop, David Newcomer, and Jeffry Addicks, OPM, Federal Investigative Services. They also acknowledged the work of Paralegal Specialist Nicole Wattelet of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, as well as Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ellen Chubin Epstein and Philip A. Selden, who investigated and prosecuted this matter.
14-096Former Army Soldier Convicted of Felony Murder of His Five Year Old DaughterRead the Press Release
HONOLULU - A federal jury today found former Army soldier Naeem Williams, 34, guilty of the felony murder of his five year old daughter, Talia Williams, on Wheeler Army Airfield. The jury found Williams guilty of killing his daughter on July 16, 2005, by engaging in child abuse that included beating and punching her. Williams was also convicted of participating, along with his wife, Delilah Williams, in a pattern and practice of assault and torture from December, 2004, until July 16, 2005, that resulted in Talia’s death. In addition, Williams was convicted of conspiring to engage in a pattern and practice of assault and torture leading to death, obstructing justice, and making false statements to Army Criminal Investigation Division agents on the night of his arrest in July, 2005.
Williams is potentially eligible for the death penalty. The penalty phase is scheduled to begin on April 29, 2014. If the jury finds Williams eligible for death, it will then deliberate on whether he should receive the death penalty.
Florence Nakakuni, United States Attorney for the District of Hawaii, said the government will not be able to comment on the verdict until all proceedings have been completed.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Army Criminal Investigation Division. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Darren Ching and Trial Attorney Steve Mellin from the Capital Case Section of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
Former Army Contracting Officials Sentenced for Filing False Tax Returns and Filing False Financial Ethics Disclosure FormsRead the Press Release
Velma I. Salinas-Nix and Kenneth H. Nix, of Boerne, Texas, were sentenced today to serve 20 months in prison and 30 months in prison, respectively, for filing false tax returns and making false statements to the U.S. Army by filing false financial ethics disclosure forms, the Justice Department announced. On Jan. 22, 2014, Kenneth Nix pleaded guilty to one count of filing a false federal income tax return. The next day, Velma Salinas-Nix pleaded guilty to one count of filing a false tax return and one count of making false statements. The Nixes were each ordered to pay $153,248 in restitution.
According to court documents, Velma Salinas-Nix was a senior civilian official of the U.S. Department of the Army. During the relevant period, she was the Deputy Director and Alternate Principal Assistant Responsible for Contracting (Deputy PARC) for ACA - Americas (also known as the 410th Contracting Support Brigade) in San Antonio with influence over and responsibility for the disbursement of millions of dollars in Army funds for the procurement of goods and services. Previously, she was the Chief of Contracting for the Chicago District for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. During parts of 2004 and 2005, Kenneth Nix also worked for the Army as the Chief of Contracting for the U.S. Military Group in Bogota, Colombia, and during parts of 2008 and 2009, as Chief of Staff of the Mission and Installation Contracting Command in San Antonio.
According to court documents, from 2000 through at least 2009, Kenneth Nix had a working relationship with Person A, the president and CEO of Company A, a federal contractor. During this period, Kenneth Nix received at least $500,000 in gross income for federal contracting related work he performed. Kenneth Nix directed that he be kept off Company A’s books and he received payment in multiple forms, including cash, blank money orders, checks, home improvements of the couple’s residences, paid housing and parking, plumbing supplies and use of a debit card. Most of the income was deposited into joint bank accounts the Nixes controlled. In at least two instances, Velma Salinas-Nix deposited blank money orders that her husband received from Company A for $25,000 each into her bank account. In order to conceal the true source of the money orders, she falsely wrote the name and initials of her mother in the remitter field.
According to court documents, the Nixes also received gifts of substantial value from Person A between 2000 and 2009, knowing that Person A and Company A had received and were seeking Army contracts and that Kenneth Nix worked for Company A. These gifts included, among other things, a Rolex watch, a pearl bracelet, a trip for the Nixes to Panama with Person A, custom architectural drawings and a $5,000 Home Depot gift card. In October 2009, Velma Salinas-Nix participated in a voluntary interview with federal agents, during which she knowingly provided false information by denying her husband’s receipt of income from Company A, the existence of large money orders provided by Company A and her receipt of gifts from Person A during the relevant period.
According to court documents, from 2004 through 2009, Velma Salinas-Nix also willfully signed and submitted materially false financial ethics disclosure forms, known as Office of Government Ethics Forms 450 (OGE-450 Form), to the Army. She knowingly omitted all of the income and gifts from Company A and Person A on these forms. In 2004 and 2009, Kenneth Nix willfully signed and submitted materially false OGE-450 Forms to the Army on which he knowingly omitted all income from Company A. Both Nixes provided non-public Army contracting information to Company A and awarded Company A with contracts from their Army positions. For tax years 2000 through 2004, and 2006 through 2008, the Nixes willfully filed false joint federal income tax returns omitting all income Kenneth Nix received from Company A.
The case was investigated by the Department of the Army-Criminal Investigation Division, IRS-Criminal Investigation, the FBI and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service. Trial Attorney Rebecca Perlmutter for the Tax Division and Trial Attorneys Mary Strimel and Richard A. Hellings for the Antitrust Division are prosecuting the case.
Florida Man Who Possessed Stolen Gun Silencers Is SentencedRead the Press Release
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Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that RICHARD SLEEVA, 51, of Naples, Florida, was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson in Hartford to three years of probation for possessing stolen firearms silencers. SLEEVA was also ordered to perform 450 hours of community service.
According to court documents and statements made in court, SLEEVA was a Federal Firearms Licensee and had obtained silencers as a member of Gemtech’s Board of Directors prior to his removal from the Board in 2001. When he was removed from the Board, SLEEVA failed to return the silencers after Gemtech repeatedly demanded that he do so. Gemtech then reported the firearms as stolen.
SLEEVA’s Federal Firearms License expired in 2003.
On September 22, 2011, SLEEVA pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a stolen firearm and admitted that, from 2001 through September 2009, he unlawfully possessed three Gemtech firearms silencers at a former residence in Pennsylvania.
As part of the resolution of this case, SLEEVA agreed to forfeit approximately 117 firearms that he owned and possessed at residences in Pennsylvania and Newtown, Connecticut. The firearms, which SLEEVA voluntarily turned over to ATF agents in 2009, include more than 40 firearms silencers, more than 40 short-barreled shotguns, as well as several machine guns, semi-automatic handguns and semi-automatic rifles.
This matter was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, with assistance of Homeland Security Investigations. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert M. Spector.
PUBLIC AFFAIRS CONTACT:
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Tom Carson
(203) 821-3722 [email protected]Fifty-Five Charged in Massive Crackdown on West Coast Crips Street Gang and OthersSome Defendants Charged in RICO Case That Includes Allegations of Execution-style Murders of Fellow Gang Members and an AssociateRead the Press Release
SAN DIEGO, CA – Thirty-five people, many of whom are alleged members and associates of the West Coast Crips criminal street gang, are charged in complaints unsealed today with participating in three drug- and gun-related conspiracies, including one that alleges a racketeering enterprise with execution-style murders, a takeover-style robbery, high-speed chases, witness intimidation and other acts of violence.
At the same time, the District Attorney’s office will be filing charges against 22 defendants in a parallel investigation involving crimes such as robbery, drug sales, and illegal firearm possession and sales.
This morning before dawn, a contingent of more than 500 local, state and federal law enforcement officials hit dozens of locations around the county looking for defendants, guns and drugs. Thirty federal defendants and 19 state defendants are in custody as of 3 p.m. today, and during searches yesterday and over the course of the yearlong investigation, authorities have seized more than 16 firearms, including sawed-off shotguns, pistols and revolvers, many rounds of ammunition plus 4.5 pounds of methamphetamine, 4,400 pounds of marijuana and $300,000 in counterfeit bills.
Five federal defendants are still at large, including Randy Alton Graves, the lead defendant in the racketeering case. Graves is considered armed and dangerous and believed to be driving a baby blue Mercedes with paper license plates. Anyone with information is asked to contact the FBI at 858-320-1800.
According to the racketeering complaint, Graves was overheard on court-authorized wiretaps discussing his connections to past killings and his status as a “G,” or senior member. “I got multiples on my jacket…I don’t think it’s too many (expletives) as highly decorated the way I am. I know I got 5, 6 bodies…I got 35 years in and ain’t been around here flexing my muscle cause I’m a G and everybody respects me.”
In another call quoted in the complaint, Graves expressed fear that a female gang associate was going to talk to police about a murder committed by West Coast Crip members. “You run your mouth, you die, period. You run and hide, we get the next closest thing to you, period, no ifs ands or buts.”
The federal racketeering statute known as “RICO” historically has been used to prosecute mobsters and organized crime, but federal prosecutors have been using the statute on street gangs in recent years because they are increasingly acting as organized, sophisticated criminal enterprises.
The federal RICO complaint charges 17 alleged members and associates of the West Coast Crips and describes a criminal enterprise that has committed five murders, numerous attempted murders, armed robberies, high speed chases and other violent crimes, as well as prostitution, money laundering and importation and distribution of methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana.
Two other complaints charge 12 and 6 people, respectively, with Methamphetamine trafficking conspiracies and firearms offenses. The 12-defendant complaint alleges that for at least a period of time last fall, a methamphetamine source-of-supply was using El Cajon Valley High School students to smuggle methamphetamine into the United States from Mexico. The six-defendant complaint alleges that both WCC and 5/9 Brim gang members worked together to conduct their methamphetamine and other trafficking activities.
The five murders alleged in the RICO conspiracy equate to about ONE-THIRD of all gang-related murders in the city of San Diego in 2013 – and about 13 percent of the overall murder tally in the entire city.
“Today’s RICO charges can be viewed as nothing less than a virtual wrecking ball crashing into the ruthless, ultra-violent West Coast Crips, a gang that has been a scourge on San Diego communities for far too long,” said U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy. “This violent gang culture has spilled over into our communities with public acts of violence, high-speed chases and the recruitment of kids to be drug couriers. With these charges, we are restoring some peace to our residents.”
“Working cooperatively with our law enforcement partners, we shut down a significant arm of this violent street gang today, pulling dozens of its members off the streets in one coordinated sweep,” District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said. “The DA’s Gangs Division is proud to participate in targeted operations like this one. It’s an approach that’s working and is disrupting some of San Diego's most violent gangs.”
San Diego FBI Special Agent in Charge, Daphne Hearn, commented, “Today's arrests and charges are the result of two long term multi-agency investigations conducted by two FBI Safe Streets Task Forces, specifically the Violent Crimes Task Force - Gang Group and the East County Regional Gang Task Force. Dedicated personnel from federal, state and local law enforcement agencies worked in unison to go after violent street gang members and associates who pose a serious threat to the safety and security of our communities. The FBI will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to restore safety and security to our neighborhoods."
“This is a true collaborative effort by all involved and I am extremely proud of the investigators who made this happen. Many of the offenders arrested today have gang ties to the City of San Diego. This operation combined with continued enforcement will have a positive impact on all of our neighborhoods.”
“This case perfectly demonstrates how agencies share information and work together to increase the reach and depth of their individual investigations. The number of defendants indicted, the variety of the charges filed, the quantities of the drugs and number of firearms seized, and the stiff prison sentences many defendants will face if convicted are the result of committed teamwork,” said Carlos A. Canino, Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, Los Angeles Field Division.
The West Coast Crips gang has been around for more than 30 years and claims several hundred members. The gang claims territory with borders roughly defined by Interstate 94 to the north, National Avenue to the South, Interstate 5 on the West and Interstate 15 on the east.
Membership can be gained through family connections. Or, some are inducted through acts of violence. All are expected to put in “work,” which in gang jargon means committing criminal acts when asked to.
The West Coast Crips is a hierarchical organization with seniority based on a member’s age. The oldest are referred to as Original Gangsters, or OGs, mostly in their 40s and 50s. They call the shots. They supply younger gang members with guns and drugs and let the youngsters to their dirty work.
The “homies” are in their 30s and early 40s. They’ve already put in the “work” for the gang and have earned the trust of fellow gang members.
The so-called “babies” are the youngest members, in their 20s and 30s. Many create cliques within the larger gang, and maintain a distinct identity. “3-Babiez” is one of the cliques of 20-somethings. The younger generation typically receives drugs from more senior gang members and deals to street users and distributors. This generation also manages prostitutes and enforces discipline on gang members and associates.
The following are key acts of violence alleged in the RICO complaint:
- Three members of the “3-Babiez” clique - Marcus Anthony Foreman, Wilbert Ross and Terry Carry Hollins – were involved in the fatal shooting of a random Hispanic gang member as revenge for the October 31, 2012 carjacking of West Coast Crip with a .40-caliber handgun.
According to the complaint, a Crip approached the victim, Andres Caldera, and asked for a cigarette. When Caldera asked where the man was from, he yelled, “I am from West Coast,” pulled out a .40-caliber handgun and fired a single shot at Caldera’s face. - A few days after that murder on December 2, 2012, the same trio of defendants robbed a Logan Heights business in takeover style, forcing employees onto the floor and holding guns to their heads, the complaint said. During a police chase, the trio ditched their getaway car and the gun, but officers arrested all three and recovered the gun - which happened to be the same gun used in the Oct. 31 murder.
- The complaint says that on April 6, 2013, West Coast Crip member Meashal Fairley was murdered in front of a San Diego nightclub during an argument over Fairley’s suspected cooperation with law enforcement.
- The third killing described in the complaint occurred in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant on October 25, 2013. Defendant Ross had a dispute with a person identified in the complaint as A.H. They set up a meeting at the restaurant, supposedly to resolve the dispute, which was over a rental car. But upon arrival, A.H. was attacked by a group of West Coast Crips led by Ross. In self-defense, A.H. fatally stabbed one of his attackers, Jeffrey “JJ” Rees, the complaint said.
- Chyrene Borgen, a West Coast Crip associate, was gunned down at a Halloween party early on November 1, 2013, after she had criticized the “3-Babiez” for what she believed was their involvement in Meashal Fairley’s murder, the complaint said. Following this murder, several defendants posted “selfies” on Facebook from the murder scene. One of the defendants is wearing a T-shirt that said: “3 BABIEZ, YELLOW TAPE GANG, ANYBODY KILLA.” About the same time, Cook appeared on a cell phone video along with other members of the 3-Babiez clique in which, as a group, they boasted about how they are willing to kill anybody, including women.
- A pregnant woman and West Coast Crips member, who is identified in the complaint by the initials K.S., was shot by a 3-Babiez member because she, too, dared to criticize the gang for the murders of her friends Meashal Fairley and Chyrene Borgen, the complaint said. K.S.and her baby survived the shooting, but gang members were still looking to kill her in the hospital.
- According to the complaint, West Coast Crips member Paris Hill was murdered by fellow Crips for giving a statement to police about the Rees gang-related murder. Within days of Hill’s murder, the gang was already putting hits out on witnesses, the complaint said.
This case is the latest in a series of large-scale, multiagency crackdowns on street gang activity in San Diego County neighborhoods. Including today’s indictments and complaints, more than 350 people, many of them documented gang members and associates, have been charged in a number of major federal gang prosecutions since January of 2012, with scores of guilty pleas entered.
This kind of law enforcement action would not have been possible without our partners from the FBI’s East County Regional Gang Task Force and the Violent Crimes Gang Task Force. Participating agencies include the FBI, the San Diego Police Department’s gang unit; the ATF; the El Cajon Police Department; the La Mesa Police Department; San Diego County Probation; the IRS; U.S. Postal Inspectors; the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department; and the California Highway Patrol.
This investigation was coordinated by an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). The OCDETF program was created to consolidate and coordinate all law enforcement resources in this country's battle against major drug trafficking rings, drug kingpins, and money launderers.
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DEFENDANT Case Number: 14MJ1494 Randy Alton Graves Age: 50 El Cajon, CA Darnell James Graves-Butler Age: 27 El Cajon, CA Dameon Deshawn Shelton Age: 40 National City, CA Leon Franklin Age: 39 San Diego, CA Brandon Lamar Whittle Age: 29 San Diego, CA Andre Lamar Harrison Age: 44 San Diego, CA Cleotha Young Age: 36 San Diego, CA Sharod Levale Jackson Age: 45 San Diego, CA Terry Carry Hollins Age: 32 San Diego, CA Jermain Gerald Cook Age: 29 San Diego, CA Donald Eugene Bandy Age: 25 San Diego, CA Marcus Anthony Foreman Age: 26 San Diego, CA Wilbert Ross Age: 31 Chula Vista, CA Brenda Rodriguez Age: 23 San Diego, CA Gaquayla Aunicia Lagrone Age: 31 San Diego, CA Solcamire Castro-Hernandez Age: 28 San Diego, CA Luis Salgado-Viscarra Age: 26 Spring Valley, CA SUMMARY OF CHARGESConspiracy to Conduct Enterprise Affairs Through a Pattern of Racketeering Activity, in violation of Title 18, U.S.C. Section 1962 (d)
Maximum Penalty, based on the underlying racketeering crimes: Up to life in prison.
DEFENDANT Case Number: 14MJ1492 David William Centrone Age: 31 El Cajon, CA Alexis Rubeiry Beltran-Rodriguez Age: 18 Unknown Terry Gerald Woods Age: 53 El Cajon, CA Reuben Carlton Morales Age: 27 El Cajon, CA Rene Faburrieta Age: 33 Long Beach, CA Steven Luis Figueroa Age: 25 Long Beach, CA Anthony Gilbert Garcia Age: 31 El Cajon, CA Blake Austin Tenney Age: 21 El Cajon, CA Tima Jeanmarie Gates Age: 40 Spring Valley, CA Jorge Aguilar-Valdez Age: 19 El Cajon, CA Dean Fredrick Malzahn Age: 51 El Cajon, CA Mark Manuel Espinosa Unknown SUMMARY OF CHARGESConspiracy to Distribute Methamphetamine, in violation of Title 21, U.S.C. Sections 841 (a)(1) and 846
Maximum Penalties, based on alleged drug amounts: Up to life in prison; 10 year mandatory minimum.Carrying a Firearm During and in Relation to Drug Trafficking Crime, in violation of Title 18, U.S.C. Section 924 (c)(1)
Maximum Penalties: Five year mandatory minimum penalty, which must be run consecutive to any other penalty imposed in the case (for the first 924(c) conviction); 25 year mandatory minimum penalty, which must be run consecutive to any other penalty imposed in the case (for each subsequent 924(c) conviction).
DEFENDANT Case Number: 14MJ1491 William Eugene Wash Age: 27 Lemon Grove, CA Jessie Smith Age: 30 San Diego, CA David Rojas Age: 21 San Diego, CA Terrence Mack Carter Age: 29 El Cajon, CA Terrell Davon Guss Age: 22 Spring Valley, CA Kevin Darryl Adell Age: 33 San Diego, CA SUMMARY OF CHARGESConspiracy to Distribute Methamphetamine, in violation of Title 21, U.S.C. Sections 841 (a)(1) and 846
Maximum Penalties, based on alleged drug amounts: Wash, Smith and Rojas: Up to life in prison; Carter, up to 40 years in prison.Possession of Marijuana with Intent to Distribute, in violation of Title 21, U.S.C. Section 841 (a)(1)
Maximum Penalties, based on alleged drug amounts: Up to 5 years in prison.Carrying a Firearm During and in Relation to Drug Trafficking Crime, in violation of Title 18, U.S.C. Section 924 (c)(1)
Maximum Penalties: 5 year mandatory minimum penalty, which must be run consecutive to any other penalty imposed in the case.Felon in Possession of a Firearm, in violation of Title 18, U.S.C., Sections 922(g)(1) and 924(a)(2)
Maximum Penalties: 10 years in prison.
INVESTIGATING AGENCYEast County Regional Gang Task Force
Violent Crimes Gang Task Force
Task Force agencies include: FBI
San Diego Police Department’s gang unit
ATF
El Cajon Police Department
La Mesa Police Department
San Diego County Probation
IRS
U.S. Postal Inspectors
San Diego County Sheriff’s Department
California Highway Patrol.*Indictments and complaints are not evidence that the defendant committed the crime charged. All defendants are presumed innocent until the United States meets its burden in court of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
- Three members of the “3-Babiez” clique - Marcus Anthony Foreman, Wilbert Ross and Terry Carry Hollins – were involved in the fatal shooting of a random Hispanic gang member as revenge for the October 31, 2012 carjacking of West Coast Crip with a .40-caliber handgun.
Federal Way Man Pleads Guilty to Using Firearm During Drug Trafficking CrimeRead the Press Release
A south King County man pleaded guilty to using a firearm during a drug crime in an attempted drug robbery that turned into a fatal shooting, announced U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan. LENNY BRIKN, JR, 19, of Federal Way, pleaded guilty today to Using a Firearm During and in Relation to a Crime of Violence and Drug Trafficking Crime. The charge carries a mandatory minimum seven year prison term. Both prosecutors and the defense will recommend a seven year term when BRIKN is sentenced on August 1, 2014 by U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik.
“Unfortunately this case proves once again: Guns and drugs are a deadly mix,” said U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan. “The use of guns in the drug business endangers the public and will not be tolerated.”
According to the records filed in King County Superior Court as well as the indictment, David Ross, 35 of Renton, Washington, and an associate arrived at a Federal Way apartment complex to sell marijuana to two men – BRIKN and his brother, Deshawn Boykin. Ross was armed with a gun, despite having two previous felony drug convictions that prohibit him from possessing a firearm. BRIKN and Boykin drew “Mac 10” style semi-automatic pistols, ordered Ross and his associate to lie on the ground, and attempted to rob them of the marijuana they brought to the drug deal. BRIKN and Boykin ultimately ran away, and Ross drew his gun and fired multiple times at the fleeing men. Boykin was hit twice and died of his wounds at St. Francis Medical Center.
Ross is charged with conspiracy to distribute marijuana, unlawful possession of a firearm and discharging a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. Discharging a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime carries a mandatory minimum ten year sentence in addition to any other sentence imposed in the case. Ross is scheduled for trial in June 2014.
The case was investigated by the Federal Way Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Todd Greenberg.
Farmington Man Pleads Guilty to Assaulting a Federal EmployeeRead the Press Release
ALBUQUERQUE – Charles L. Palmer, 23, of Farmington, N.M., pleaded guilty today in federal court in Albuquerque, N.M., to assaulting a federal employee who was engaged in the performance of his official duties.
On Nov. 19, 2013, Palmer was charged in a two-count indictment with (1) assaulting a federal employee, and (2) driving a motor vehicle on federal lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) while under the influence of alcohol. According to the indictment, Palmer assaulted a BLM Ranger on May 25, 2013 and drove a vehicle in the Glade Run Recreational Area, which is located on federal lands administered by BLM, while under the influence of alcohol.
Today, Palmer entered a guilty plea to Count 1 of the indictment. According to the plea agreement, on May 25, 2013, Palmer was drinking beer at the Glade Run Recreation Area with about 30 other individuals. When two marked patrol vehicles with flashing emergency lights approached the group, Palmer got into his truck and began to drive away. A uniformed BLM Ranger tried to stop Palmer from driving away and ordered him to stop. Palmer disregarded the Ranger’s directions and instead struggled with the Ranger while the truck continued to move forward. As the truck passed a tree, the tree knocked the Ranger to the ground and Palmer accidently ran over the Ranger with his truck. Palmer then escaped in his truck and Deputy Sheriffs from the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office apprehended Palmer later that day. In entering his guilty plea, Palmer admitted that his actions constituted a crime because the Ranger was performing his official duties.
According to court records, the BLM Ranger was not seriously injured and did not sustain any permanent impairment as a result of the assault.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, Palmer faces a sentence not to exceed 14 months in prison, a fine not to exceed $10,000, obtain an ignition interlock device for two years, and restitution to the BLM Ranger as ordered by the court.
This case was investigated by the BLM with assistance from the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney William J. Pflugrath.Elyria Man Faces Narcotics and Firearms ChargesRead the Press Release
A seven-count indictment was filed charging an Elyria man with federal narcotics and firearms violations, said Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.
Jerry L. Wells, Jr., 33, faces four counts of distribution of heroin, one count each of possession with intent to distribute marijuana and MDMA, and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Wells distributed heroin on four occassions in February. He also possessed 30 grams of MDMA and 60 marijuana plants on Feb. 21, according to the indictment.
On that same date, Wells possessed a Taurus 9 mm pistol despite several previous convictions in Lorain County Common Pleas Court, including heroin trafficking, cocaine trafficking and burglary, according to the indictment.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert F. Corts following an investigation by the Elyria Police Department and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
If convicted, the defendant's sentence will be determined by the court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation. In all cases, the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.
An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
El Departamento de Justicia Resuelve una Queja de Discriminacion Relatcionada a Inmigración contra una Cadena de SupermercadosRead the Press Release
WASHINGTON – El Departamento de Justicia llegó a un acuerdo hoy con Mexico Foods, LLC, alias El Rancho Corp., una cadena de supermercados con sede en Garland, Texas, por medio de cual se resuelven acusaciones de que la compañía incurrió en discriminación durante el proceso de verificación de elegibilidad de empleo en violación de La Ley de Inmigración y Nacionalidad (INA por sus siglas en inglés).
La investigación del departamento fue iniciada basado en una remisión del Servicio de Ciudadanía e Inmigración de los Estados Unidos (USCIS por su siglas en inglés). La investigación reveló que El Rancho requería que los residentes permanentes legales presentaran un nuevo documento de elegibilidad de empleo después de haber sido contratados cuando se les vencían sus Tarjetas de Residentes Permanentes, aunque esta práctica está prohibida conforme con las reglas del Formulario I-9 y de E-Verify porque los residentes permanentes legales cuentan con autorización de trabajo permanente en los Estados Unidos, aun cuando se les vencen sus tarjetas de residencia. La investigación también descubrió evidencia que El Rancho rutinariamente les solicitaba un documento específico de autorización de trabajo a los residentes permanentes legales durante el proceso inicial de verificación de elegibilidad de empleo, a pesar de que bajo la ley empleados tienen el derecho de escoger cual documento van presentar. El departamento encontró que las prácticas discriminatorias de El Rancho se basaban en el estatus de ciudadanía de los empleados.
Según este acuerdo, El Rancho debe pagar $43,000 en sanciones civiles, participar en adiestramiento sobre la provisión antidiscriminatoria del INA, y estar sujeto a un período de monitoreo de 18 meses, durante el cuál el departamento pudiera revisar las prácticas de verificación de elegibilidad de empleo de la compañía.
"El Departamento de Justicia está comprometido en garantizar que los inmigrantes que tienen autorización de trabajo no enfrenten barreras discriminatorias en el empleo," dijo Sub-Procuradora General Interina, Jocelyn Samuels, para la Divsión de Derechos Civiles. "Aplaudimos a El Rancho por su cooperación con el departamento y por tomar acción inmediata para corregir sus prácticas de verificación de elegibilidad de empleo."
La Oficina del Consejero Especial para Prácticas Injustas Relacionadas es responsable de exigir el cumplimiento con la provisión anti-discriminación de la INA. La ley prohíbe, entre otras cosas, discriminación a base del estatus the cuidadania u origen nacional durante la contratación, despido, o el reclutamiento o la referencia por comisión, abuso de documentos, y represalias. Este asunto fue manejado por Abogado de OSC Richard Crespo e Investigadora de OSC Joann Sazama. Para más información sobre las protecciones contra discriminación en el empleo bajo las leyes de inmigración o como registrarse para un seminario virtual gratis, llame a la línea directa de OSC para trabajadores al 1-800-255-7688 (1-800-237-2515, TTY para personas con discapacidad auditiva), llame a la línea directa de OSC para empleadores al 1-800-255-8155 (1-800-237-2515, TTY para personas con discapacidad auditiva), o visite el sitio de internet a www.justice.gov/crt/about/osc.
Los solicitantes o empleados que consideren que fueron sujetos a diferentes requisitos de verificación a base de su estatus de ciudadanía, estatus migratorio, u origen nacional, o discriminación por estatus de ciudadanía, estatus migratorio, u origen nacional con relación a la contratación, el despido y el reclutamiento o la referencia por comisión, deberán comunicarse a la línea dedicada a los trabajadores anteriormente citada para poderlos ayudar.
East County Regional Gang Task Force Seeks Public’s Assistance to Locate FugitiveRead the Press Release
SEE OFFICIAL FBI NEWS RELEASEThe East County Regional Gang Task Force is seeking the public’s assistance in locating Randy Graves, age 51, of El Cajon, California. Graves is wanted on federal racketeering charges and considered to be armed and dangerous. Graves is approximately 6’0” feet tall, 205 pounds, black hair, and brown eyes.
Graves is known to drive a 2007 Mercedes Benz, SL 600 light blue in color with paper license plates.
Anyone with information concerning the whereabouts of Graves is asked to contact the FBI at telephone number (858) 320-1800. Graves should be considered armed and dangerous.
*Indictments and complaints are not evidence that the defendant committed the crime charged. All defendants are presumed innocent until the United States meets its burden in court of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Dutch Man to Plead Guilty to Selling Illegal Drugs for Bitcoins Worth Millions on Shuttered Silk Road WebsiteRead the Press Release
CHICAGO — A Dutch man who allegedly used the shuttered Silk Road underground website to sell illegal drugs for bitcoins worth millions of dollars has agreed to plead guilty to a federal drug conspiracy charge filed against him today. The defendant, CORNELIS JAN SLOMP, through his attorney, authorized the government to disclose that he will plead guilty to conspiracy to import and distribute various controlled substances when he is arraigned on the charge that was brought in a criminal information filed in U.S. District Court.
Slomp, also known as “SuperTrips,” 22, of Woerden, the Netherlands, was charged following an undercover investigation led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
He was charged with distributing worldwide approximately 104 kilograms of powder 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine, also known as MDMA; 566,000 ecstasy pills containing MDMA; four kilograms of cocaine; three kilograms of Benzodiazepine; and substantial quantities of amphetamine, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and marijuana, in addition to allowing substantial quantities of methamphetamine, ketamine, and Xanax to be distributed through his SuperTrips vendor account from March 2012 through August 2013.
Slomp was arrested on Aug. 27, 2013, at the Miami International Airport where he arrived on a flight from Europe. Court documents allege that Slomp was intending to meet with alleged co-conspirators in Florida and to spin-off his entire U.S. Silk Road operations and customers to one of his co-conspirators, as well as to retrieve from that individual Slomp’s share of the illegal drug proceeds that the individual generated as Slomp’s largest wholesale re-distributor in the U.S. of fronted illegal drugs.
Slomp was arrested based on a warrant and criminal complaint filed in Federal Court in Chicago and, after he was transferred here to face prosecution, he did not contest detention and was ordered to remain in federal custody.
Upon conviction, he faces a mandatory minimum of five years and a maximum of 40 years in prison and a $5 million fine, and the Court must impose a reasonable sentence. The government is also seeking forfeiture of approximately $3,030,000 in alleged proceeds from Slomps’ drug trafficking. The government seized the equivalent of that amount in bitcoins, a digital currency, and exchanged it for cash.
“Illegal drug-trafficking is not new but drug-trafficking using a sophisticated underground computer network designed to protect anonymity of buyers and sellers presents new challenges to law enforcement that we are prepared to meet,” said Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.
“In the global black market for all things illegal, Slomp allegedly was a prolific vendor on Silk Road,” said Gary Hartwig, Special Agent-in-Charge of HSI in Chicago. “HSI will remain vigilant against criminals who traffic contraband and illicit goods across our nation’s borders. Those who mistakenly believe the anonymity of the Internet ― even on the Deep Web ― shields them from scrutiny are finding out they can’t evade detection in cyberspace.”
Messrs. Fardon and Hartwig commended U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Postal Inspection Service agents in Chicago for their assistance in the investigation. The HSI office in Miami, the HSI Attaché Office in The Hague, and the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs also provided assistance with this case.
According to court documents, Slomp used Silk Road to sell illegal drugs and received approximately 385,000 in bitcoins from more than 10,000 transactions as payment. From January 2011 until it was shut down by law enforcement in October 2013, Silk Road allowed vendors and buyers to exchange goods and services online. It was dedicated to the sale of illegal drugs and other illicit, black market goods using bitcoins and was designed to facilitate illegal commerce by ensuring anonymity among its users. The underground website operated on a special worldwide network of computers that concealed the true Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of the users. Each communication, wrapped in a layer of encryption, bounced through numerous relays within the network so the end recipient had no way of tracing the communication back to its true originating IP address.
During the undercover investigation, HSI agents surreptitiously entered the website and observed a vendor who had offered various controlled substances for sale for about 18 months. In April 2012, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport seized an envelope mailed from the Netherlands that tested positive for MDMA concealed inside an empty DVD case. During the investigation, agents collected more than 100 similar envelopes in Chicago, each mailed from the Netherlands or Germany, containing various controlled substances. The investigation resulted in identifying Slomp as the alleged Silk Road vendor who was responsible for mailing the envelopes seized in Chicago.
The charge describes 11 unnamed co-conspirators in Europe and the U.S. who allegedly assisted Slomp in supplying, manufacturing, selling, packaging, shipping, and distributing various illegal drugs. Two of these individuals in the Netherlands allegedly manufactured hundreds of thousands of ecstasy pills of different colors, most of which bore a question mark, which was Slomp’s unique identifying logo.
In August 2012, Slomp and Individual J in Florida allegedly agreed that Slomp would front wholesale quantities of illegal drugs on credit and they would divide the proceeds in half after Individual J resold the drugs to Silk Road customers under the vendor names “UnderGroundSyndicate” and “BTCMaster.” Slomp allegedly imported a half-kilogram of fronted MDMA every week for a year to Individual J, as well as substantial quantities of other illegal drugs.
The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew S. Boutros.
The public is reminded that an information contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Information
Doctor Sentenced for His Role in Operation of Pill MillRead the Press Release
Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Kathryn Keneally, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division, Jose A. Gonzalez, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Miami Field Office, and Mark R. Trouville, Special Agent in Charge, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Miami Field Division, announce that Dr. Stephen Anthony, 65, formerly of Davie, was sentenced yesterday to 70 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. In addition, Dr. Anthony was ordered to pay $552,000 in restitution. Dr. Anthony previously pled guilty to conspiring to distribute and dispense large amounts of oxycodone without a legitimate medical purpose and outside the usual course of professional practice. In addition, Dr. Anthony pled guilty to money laundering and income tax evasion.
According to court documents, Anthony agreed to forfeit $338,300 in money and property representing the illegal narcotics proceeds he earned as a result of his involvement as a physician at Broward Urgent Care in Fort Lauderdale. As set forth in the plea agreement, between April 2010 and February 2011, Anthony was employed as a clinic doctor at Broward Urgent Care which, at the time, was owned by co-conspirators, Vincent Colangelo and Nicholaus Thomas. Colangelo pled guilty to narcotics, money laundering and federal income tax offenses on April 2, 2012, arising from his ownership of six pill mill clinics and pharmacies in Broward and Miami-Dade Counties. Thomas pled guilty on November 18, 2011 to narcotics and money laundering charges. Colangelo and Thomas sold Broward Urgent Care to Anthony after the Florida legislature enacted legislation in October 2010 requiring that pain management clinics be owned by licensed physicians. According to a review of medical records, while at Broward Urgent Care, Anthony wrote 12,510 prescriptions for oxycodone and 5,776 prescriptions for Xanax, and more than 99% of Anthony’s patients received prescriptions for oxycodone. In total, Anthony prescribed 42,374,370 milligrams of oxycodone during the ten months he worked as a physician at Broward Urgent Care.
According to the plea agreement, between 2000 and 2007, Anthony evaded the payment of approximately $556,262 in individual income and employment taxes. Anthony evaded taxes by depositing monies into a bank account in the name of a third party. Instead of paying taxes, Anthony purchased thousands of dollars in personal items including jewelry and automobiles.
U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer stated, “Oxycodone is one of the most abused prescription medications in Florida and throughout the United States. Every day individuals die from prescription drug overdoses. Dr. Anthony, while a physician at Broward Urgent Care, nefariously hid behind his medical license and prescribed over a million pills of oxycodone during a ten-month period. Thanks to the dedicated work of our federal and local law enforcement partners, Dr. Anthony was convicted and stands behind bars, no longer able to practice medicine.”
IRS Special Agent in Charge José A. Gonzalez stated, “This sentencing sends a clear message that specialists who hide behind their medical licenses to commit illegal activities for profit, will be discovered, investigated and prosecuted. IRS-CI will account for the monies derived from the illegal activity to ensure that the proper amount of tax is paid and the money laundering transactions are charged.....sending the message that crime does not pay.”
This case is the 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 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 Ferrer and Assistant Attorney General Keneally commended the IRS-CI, DEA, and the Broward Sheriff’s Office, as well as the many other state and local agencies for their investigative work. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Scott Behnke and Roger Powell and DOJ Tax Division Trial Attorney Greg Tortella.
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 http://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 http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
Delaware County Man Pleads Guilty to Stealing Hospital Patients' Identities for Use in Tax Fraud SchemeRead the Press Release
PHILADELPHIA - Reynaldo Estrada, 50, of Brookhaven, PA, pleaded guilty today to charges arising out of his theft of personal identifying information of hospital patients. Estrada pleaded guilty today to one count each of conspiracy to commit identity theft, aggravated identity theft, and aiding and abetting the use of a false Social Security number.
Between October 2010 and October 2011, while he was working for Crozer Chester Medical Center’s Environmental Services Department and at Community Hospital in Chester, Pennsylvania, Estrada stole scores of treatment authorization forms containing the names, addresses, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers of patients. Estrada admitted today that he gave the forms to co-conspirators Rafael Henriquez Polanco and Yanira Lopez, who paid him for the stolen identities, knowing that the forms would be used as a part of a tax fraud scheme. Polanco and Lopez are charged in a separate indictment with using the identifying information provided by Estrada to prepare and file approximately 144 false and fraudulent federal individual income tax returns claiming bogus refunds in excess of $1.7 million. Both Polanco and Lopez have pleaded guilty to all charges against them.
U.S. District Court Judge Mitchell S. Goldberg scheduled Estrada’s sentencing for July 31, 2014. Estrada faces a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison.
The case was investigated by Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Department of State Diplomatic Security Service, and U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kevin Brenner.
UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE, EASTERN DISTRICTof PENNSYLVANIA
Suite 1250, 615 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
PATTY HARTMAN, Media Contact, 215-861-8525Darien Houston Sentenced as Armed Career CriminalRead the Press Release
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - On Apr. 24, 2014, Darien Houston, 43, of Chattanooga, Tenn., was sentenced as an armed career criminal to serve 15 years in prison, by U.S. District Court Judge Curtis L. Collier. Houston's criminal history includes 23 felony convictions which include second degree burglary, possession of cocaine for resale, possession of marijuana for resale, felony escape, forgery, theft of property and concealing stolen property, among others. Houston is an admitted member of the Vice Lords street gang.
In January 2014, Houston pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. The federal case arose after the Chattanooga Police Department served a search warrant on Houston’s residence in May 2012. The search of the residence revealed a Smith & Wesson .38 Special caliber revolver. Houston initially denied having any knowledge of the revolver, but later consented to an interview. He waived his Miranda rights and admitted to knowing the revolver was in the apartment and handling it.
U.S. Attorney William C. Killian praised the efforts of the law enforcement agencies involved in this investigation. “Thanks to their dedication and cooperation, a career criminal will serve a lengthy sentence in federal prison,” said Killian
“The success of this investigation is a result of the collaborative efforts of ATF and our local partners," said ATF Special Agent in Charge Jeff Fulton. "This investigation is more evidence that ATF's commitment to combating violent crime is unwavering. ATF's Frontline strategy utilizes every available resource to make our communities a safer place to live."
Agencies involved in the investigation which led to the indictment and conviction of Houston included the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and Chattanooga Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Poole represented the United States.
DNA Links Oakland Man to 2009 Modesto Bank RobberyRead the Press Release
FRESNO, Calif. — A federal grand jury returned a three-count indictment today against Enouche Trosclair, 44, of Oakland, charging him with conspiring to commit armed bank robbery, armed bank robbery, and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.
According to court documents, on December 16, 2009, three masked men, two of whom were armed with guns, entered the U.S. Bank on Tully Road in Modesto and robbed the bank of approximately $8,997. Officers discovered the get-away vehicle that had been abandoned, finding a cellphone, a beanie with eye cut-outs and gloves that had been used in the robbery. Law enforcement personnel obtained DNA from these items. In 2014, Trosclair’s DNA was collected pursuant to California law and was entered in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a criminal justice DNA database. Trosclair’s DNA was matched to the DNA on items worn by one of the bank robbers.
This case was the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Modesto Police Department. United States Attorney Kathleen A. Servatius is prosecuting the case.
On April 15, 2014, Trosclair was arrested and appeared on the charges in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, Sacramento. The Honorable Magistrate Judge Kendall J. Newman ordered Trosclair detained and transported to Fresno to be arraigned on April 29, 2014.
If convicted, Trosclair faces a maximum statutory penalty of five years in prison for conspiracy, 25 years for armed robbery and up to life in prison for brandishing the firearm. All three charges are punishable by a $250,000 fine. Any sentence, however, would be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables. The charges are only allegations; the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Convicted Hostage Takers Ordered to Federal PrisonRead the Press Release
McALLEN, Texas – Miguel Angel Navarro, Milton Leonel Trevino and Onan Herrera-Sanchez have been ordered to prison for their involvement in the hostage taking of a University of Texas-Pan American student, announced United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson. Trevino, 21, of Pharr, and Herrera-Sanchez, 30, of Honduras, both pleaded guilty, while Navarro, 36, of Hidalgo, was convicted by a jury on both counts with which he was charged after a four-day trial and less than four hours of deliberation on Jan. 24, 2014.
Today, U.S. District Judge Randy Crane, who presided over the trial, handed Navarro a sentence of 408 months on one count of conspiracy to commit hostage taking and 408 months for hostage taking, to be served concurrently. Herrera-Sanchez and Trevino received respective sentences of 240 and 120 months in federal prison. Navarro will be on supervised release for life following completion of his prison term, while Trevino will serve a four-year-term. As a non-U.S. citizen, Herrera-Sanchez is expected to face deportation proceedings following his release from prison.
At the hearing today, additional testimony was presented including the effect the crime had on the victim. During Navarro’s sentencing hearing, the victim explained that her health, confidence, concentration and grades in school, among other things, had been negatively impacted since the offense occurred. She further stated that no matter how much time the defendants spent in jail, it would never repair the damage that had been done to her and her family. She added that although outwardly she may appear normal, emotionally, she was no longer the same person. She also noted that Navarro had no remorse for what he had done.
Navarro was given the opportunity to allocate during the hearing, but initially remained silent. Judge Crane then informed him that the victim was in court and he could apologize if he wanted. Navarro responded by indicating he had nothing to say to her and that he put his faith in the appellate process.
In handing down Navarro’s sentence, Judge Crane took into consideration the defendant’s prior state conviction for criminal solicitation, among other conduct, and noted that he hoped the lengthy prison sentence would prevent Navarro from engaging in violent crime again and that it served as a deterrent to others.
The victim testified at trial and told the jury about the events that unfolded Sept. 25-26, 2012, during which she was forcibly taken from a University of Texas-Pan American parking lot and put in a vehicle occupied by Navarro as well as Milton Leonel Trevino and Onan Herrera-Sanchez. She was then taken to another location where she was transferred to a different vehicle and ultimately to the residence of Trevino, where she was held against her will.
Trevino testified for the government and admitted he and the others knowingly and intentionally conspired with each other to detain and make threats in order to compel another person to pay a sum of money as an explicit or implicit condition of the victim’s release. Trevino admitted he assisted in the actual abduction of the victim and he guarded her while they waited for the ransom money.
The victim’s father also testified and described to the jury about receiving the ransom calls, during which a demand for money was made in exchange for his daughter’s release. He further testified that during the calls, he was told that if the money was not paid, he would never see his daughter again.
Navarro's former wife testified that at his request she assisted in transporting the victim from one location to another. She further claimed she was unaware of the kidnapping at that time, but suspected the female was the victim of the university kidnapping once she was made aware of media news reports. She further admitted she spoke to Navarro during the early morning hours of Sept. 26, given her concerns of his involvement in the kidnapping. At that time, he told her, among other things, not to worry and that they were just trying to get money.
The victim was eventually released physically unharmed by Trevino.
The investigation was the result of a joint investigation by the FBI and the University of Texas-Pan American Police Department with assistance from the Edinburg Police Department and Texas Rangers. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Linda Requénez and Grady J. Leupold.
Colorado Springs Convict Arrested Three Days After Getting Out of Prison for Possessing Sawed-off ShotgunRead the Press Release
DENVER – Anthony Ishmael Medina, age 20, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Court Judge R. Brooke Jackson to serve 51 months in federal prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm, U.S. Attorney John Walsh and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Denver Special Agent in Charge Luke Franey announced. Following his prison sentence, Judge Jackson ordered Medina to serve 3 years on supervised release. The defendant appeared in custody, and was remanded immediately following the sentencing hearing.
Medina was indicted by a federal grand jury on September 25, 2013. He pled guilty before Judge Jackson on November 21, 2013. He was sentenced on Tuesday, April 22, 2014.
According to the stipulated facts contained in the plea agreement, on July 22, 2013, state parole officers went to Medina’s home in Colorado Springs. The defendant had been convicted on March 9, 2012 of Vehicular Assault – DUI, a class 4 felony, in El Paso County, Colorado. He was sentenced to serve two years in prison. Medina had been released from prison only three days prior to the search, as he was beginning his term of parole. During a search of the residence, parole officers found a JC Higgins, model 20, 12-gauge sawed-off shotgun in Medina’s bedroom closet. Colorado Springs Police officers and ATF agents later determined that Medina admitted to possessing the weapon, and that he couldn’t figure out how to get rid of it. During the sentencing hearing it was revealed that Medina was an admitted member of the “Los Meadows Varrios” street gang, which is affiliated with the Surenos.
“The defendant was out of prison for only three days before being found with a sawed-off shotgun,” said U.S. Attorney John Walsh. “Instead of getting rid of the weapon in a lawful way, he decided to keep it. The result is he will now have to serve 51 months in prison for possessing that firearm for three days.”
“Not only was this individual a convicted felon, but he was also in possession of an unregistered sawed-off shotgun,” said Denver ATF Special Agent in Charge Luke Franey. “Protecting the public by holding convicted felons accountable for their actions will remain a top priority for ATF.”
This case was investigated by the Colorado Division of Parole, the Colorado Springs Police Department, and the ATF.
Medina was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Hosley, Chief of the Major Crimes Section of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado.
Co-owner of Kenner-based Laboratory Technology Sentenced for Role in Falsification of Produced Water Toxicity TestingRead the Press Release
MARTHA HEBERT, age 64, a resident of Kenner, Louisiana, was sentenced today to two years’ probation and fined $10,000 by U.S. District Judge Eldon E. Fallon after having pleaded guilty in January to a one count felony bill of information charging her with misprision of a felony, announced the U.S. Attorney Kenneth Allen Polite, Jr.
In addition to probation and her fine, HEBERT voluntarily agreed in her plea with the government to not engage in produced water toxicity testing for a period of five years and closed Laboratory Technology in March of this year.According to court documents, HEBERT was the co-owner of Laboratory Technology, (LT), located in Kenner, Louisiana. LT was a company that performed water toxicity tests for companies that were required by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to adhere to certain limits involving the discharge of produced water. These companies were involved in the production of oil and gas in the Gulf. During the process of producing oil, a certain amount of contaminated water is produced. Untreated produced water is toxic and the discharge of untreated produced water is prohibited.
The Clean Water Act required companies to perform toxicity tests on produced water samples pursuant to a permit (Permit) issued by the EPA. The Permit imposed limitations on the amount of pollutants that could be discharged into waters of the United States. The Permit required monitoring of any discharges to determine whether they were in compliance with the pollutant discharge limitations set forth in the Permit. The Permit required that discharge samples (Samples) be sent to a lab such as LT for testing. The laboratory test results of the discharge Samples were recorded on a report known as a Discharge Monitoring Report, commonly known as a ADMR.@ The DMRs were sent to EPA. Companies relied upon the accuracy of LT’s test results when they submitted their DMRs to EPA.
HEBERT acted as the office manager for LT and was responsible for sending clients the results of the water toxicity tests. The purpose of the toxicity test, in simple terms, was to determine if a company’s treated produced water was within its Permit limits. Accurate reporting of the results of the toxicity tests is material to a company’s DMR. EPA had specific protocols in place for performing the toxicity tests. If one of the required steps in the protocol was not followed, the results were not valid and could not be used on the DMR.
Beginning in approximately July 2008 through June 15, 2012, LT’s laboratory supervisor, LEONARD JOHNSON, did not follow the required protocol for testing the toxicity of the companies’ samples. In order for it to appear that the toxicity tests had been performed, JOHNSON instructed lab employees and HEBERT to enter fake weight numbers in the information provided to the LT’s clients. This information was used by the clients to prepare the required DMRs.
HEBERT knew that Johnson was signing all reports certifying the accuracy of the toxicity test results when in fact he had not followed the required protocol and that the information was false. HEBERT did not make this known to a judge, or other person in civil or military authority under the United States.
The case was investigated by the Environmental Protection Agency-CID and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Canadian Man Sentenced for Importation of EcstasyRead the Press Release
BUFFALO, N.Y.--U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Anthony Ighodaro, 32, of Toronto, Ontario, who was convicted of the importion of ecstasy pills containing both 3,4 Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, and N Benzylpiperazine [BZP] into the United States from Canada, was sentenced to time served (45 months) by U.S. District Richard J. Arcara. The defendant was also ordered to be removed from the United States.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Thomas S. Duszkiewicz and Carol G. Bridge, who handled the case, stated that on July 25, 2010, Ighodaro attempted to enter the United States from Canada at the Peace Bridge Port of Entry. The defendant was referred by Customs and Border Protection officers to a secondary inspection because of inconsistencies in the information he provided concerning the rental vehicle he was operating. During the subsequent investigation, law enforcement officers, with the assistance of a narcotics detection K-9, found six duct taped bundles secreted in the rear bumper of the car which contained approximately 31,128 Ecstasy pills. The pills had a street value in excess of $620,000 and were believed to be destined for the Atlanta, Georgia area.
The sentencing is the result of an investigation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, under the direction Special Agent in Charge James C. Spero and Customs and Border Protection, under the direction of Randy Howe, Director of Field Operations.