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Tuesday 14 January 2025
Justice Department and OSHA Issue Statement on Non-Disclosure Agreements That Deter Reporting of Antitrust CrimesRead the Press Release
Today, the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division and Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), jointly affirmed that corporate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) that deter individuals from reporting antitrust crimes undermine the goals of whistleblower protection laws, including the Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act of 2019 (CAARA). CAARA prohibits employers from discharging or otherwise retaliating against a worker for (1) reporting potential criminal antitrust violations and related crimes to their employer or the federal government or (2) assisting a federal government investigation or proceeding.
NDAs that undermine CAARA or otherwise interfere with employees’ freedom to report potential crime will cost the employer when the Antitrust Division makes its charging decisions and sentencing recommendations. Companies should also be aware that using NDAs to obstruct or impede an investigation may also constitute separate federal criminal violations. Any company that so interferes with its employees’ cooperation would jeopardize its ability to satisfy its obligations under the Antitrust Division’s leniency policy, which requires an applicant to “use its best efforts to secure the timely, truthful, continuing, and complete cooperation of all current and former employees.” And the Antitrust Division’s Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs in Criminal Antitrust Investigations guidelines consider a company’s policies around NDA and anti-retaliation training in assessing the effectiveness of the company’s compliance program.
“Members of the public are often best positioned to detect and blow the whistle on antitrust crimes,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Doha Mekki of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “The Antitrust Division values this information and works to ensure that individuals are free to report misconduct without fear of retaliation or retribution.”
“By working jointly with partner agencies to break down barriers to employee reporting, OSHA is committed to strengthening our enforcement of whistleblower laws and protecting workers’ voices,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Jim Frederick. “This collaboration fosters a culture of accountability and upholds the integrity of worker rights.”
What Companies Should Know
Whistleblower Protections for Reporting Antitrust Crimes
Antitrust crimes hurt consumers, workers, and taxpayers — and threaten our free-market economy and democratic institutions. For over 130 years, criminal prosecutors have used antitrust laws as a charter of economic freedom to protect and promote competition.
Members of the public are often best positioned to detect and blow the whistle on antitrust crimes. Leads from the public about potentially illegal conduct enable the Antitrust Division and its law enforcement partners to uncover antitrust cartels and monopolization schemes, prosecute those crimes and protect competition. The Antitrust Division values this information and works to ensure that members of the public are free to report misconduct without fear of retaliation or retribution. The Antitrust Division protects to the fullest extent of the law the identity of those who report antitrust violations.
CAARA protects company employees, contractors, subcontractors or agents who report certain criminal antitrust violations. CAARA prohibits employers from discharging or otherwise retaliating against a worker for (1) reporting potential criminal antitrust violations and related crimes to their employer or the federal government or (2) assisting a federal government investigation or proceeding. Therefore, CAARA helps to incentivize the reporting of antitrust crimes and supports the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement program.
NDAs and Contractual Restrictions on Reporting May Conflict with Antitrust Enforcement and CAARA
Individuals who seek to report antitrust violations must not be deterred or prevented from coming forward for fear of adverse employment consequences.
The Antitrust Division’s work prosecuting antitrust crimes is compromised when NDAs deter individuals from providing law enforcers with relevant information on wrongdoing. When individuals believe that a corporate NDA may prevent them from reporting illegal conduct to enforcers, crimes go undetected and competition suffers. For example, some NDAs are worded so broadly as to suggest that people who report potential crimes or cooperate with law enforcement could face lawsuits and adverse employment consequences as severe as termination. This fear of retribution leads to less reporting of illegal activity and less vigorous antitrust enforcement.
NDAs that discourage individuals from reporting wrongdoing or cooperating with an antitrust investigation also undermine CAARA’s goal of protecting whistleblowers. Even the mere implication that an NDA would bar employees from reporting illegal conduct or assisting an investigation or proceeding clashes with the basic principles behind CAARA that encourage self-reporting and disclosure of wrongdoing to the government.
NDAs that Deter Reporting Will Cost Companies at Charging and Sentencing
CAARA encourages individuals to provide tips to law enforcement and cooperate in antitrust investigations, incentivizes companies to promote compliance and complements leniency and cooperation credit policies. For these reasons, NDAs that undermine CAARA or otherwise interfere with employees’ freedom to report potential crime will cost the employer when the Antitrust Division makes its charging decisions and its sentencing recommendations. Companies should also be aware that using NDAs in efforts to obstruct or impede an investigation may also constitute separate federal criminal violations. And of course, a company that interferes with its employees’ cooperation would jeopardize its ability to fulfill its obligations under the Antitrust Division’s leniency policy, which requires an applicant to “use its best efforts to secure the timely, truthful, continuing, and complete cooperation of all current and former employees.”
The Antitrust Division’s Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs in Criminal Antitrust Investigations guidelines, which prosecutors use to assess the effectiveness of compliance programs when making charging decisions and sentencing recommendations, make clear that the sufficiency and efficacy of a compliance program depends on the existence of “reporting mechanisms that employees can use to report potential antitrust violations anonymously or confidentially and without fear of retaliation.” The questions prosecutors ask in evaluating a compliance program include:
- Whether a company has an anti-retaliation policy;
- Whether it trains employees, managers and supervisors on the provisions of CAARA;
- Whether the company’s use of NDAs is consistent with ensuring that employees can report antitrust violations without fear of retaliation;
- Whether NDAs are used in a way that deters whistleblowers or violates CAARA; and
- Whether NDAs and other employee policies make clear that employees can report antitrust violations, including to government authorities.
Companies that fail to address retaliation, CAARA and NDAs in their policies and compliance structure risk losing out on the benefits associated with maintaining an effective compliance program when the Antitrust Division is making charging decisions and sentencing recommendations.
To report potential antitrust crimes to the Antitrust Division, contact the Complaint Center. If your complaint relates to potential antitrust crimes affecting government procurement, grant or program funding, contact the Procurement Collusion Strike Force Tip Center.
If you feel that you have been a victim of retaliation or would like to learn more about protections for whistleblowers, please see OSHA Fact Sheet.
Justice Department and FBI Conduct International Operation to Delete Malware Used by China-Backed HackersRead the Press Release
Note: View the affidavit here.
The Justice Department and FBI today announced a multi-month law enforcement operation that, alongside international partners, deleted “PlugX” malware from thousands of infected computers worldwide. As described in court documents unsealed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, a group of hackers sponsored by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), known to the private sector as “Mustang Panda” and “Twill Typhoon,” used a version of PlugX malware to infect, control, and steal information from victim computers.
According to court documents, the PRC government paid the Mustang Panda group to, among other computer intrusion services, develop this specific version of PlugX. Since at least 2014, Mustang Panda hackers then infiltrated thousands of computer systems in campaigns targeting U.S. victims, as well as European and Asian governments and businesses, and Chinese dissident groups. Despite previous cybersecurity reports, owners of computers still infected with PlugX are typically unaware of the infection. The court-authorized operation announced today remediated U.S.-based computers infected with Mustang Panda’s version of PlugX.
“The Department of Justice prioritizes proactively disrupting cyber threats to protect U.S. victims from harm, even as we work to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “This operation, like other recent technical operations against Chinese and Russian hacking groups like Volt Typhoon, Flax Typhoon, and APT28, has depended on strong partnerships to successfully counter malicious cyber activity. I commend partners in the French government and private sector for spearheading this international operation to defend global cybersecurity.”
“Leveraging our partnership with French law enforcement, the FBI acted to protect U.S. computers from further compromise by PRC state-sponsored hackers,” said Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran of the FBI’s Cyber Division. “Today’s announcement reaffirms the FBI’s dedication to protecting the American people by using its full range of legal authorities and technical expertise to counter nation-state cyber threats.”
“This wide-ranging hack and long-term infection of thousands of Windows-based computers, including many home computers in the United States, demonstrates the recklessness and aggressiveness of PRC state-sponsored hackers,” said U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Romero for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. “Working alongside both international and private sector partners, the Department of Justice’s court-authorized operation to delete PlugX malware proves its commitment to a ‘whole-of-society’ approach to protecting U.S. cybersecurity.”
“The FBI worked to identify thousands of infected U.S. computers and delete the PRC malware on them. The scope of this technical operation demonstrates the FBI’s resolve to pursue PRC adversaries no matter where they victimize Americans,” said Special Agent in Charge Wayne Jacobs of the FBI Philadelphia Field Office.
The international operation was led by French law enforcement and Sekoia.io, a France-based private cybersecurity company, which had identified and reported on the capability to send commands to delete the PlugX version from infected devices. Working with these partners, the FBI tested the commands, confirmed their effectiveness, and determined that they did not otherwise impact the legitimate functions of, or collect content information from, infected computers. In August 2024, the Justice Department and FBI obtained the first of nine warrants in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania authorizing the deletion of PlugX from U.S.-based computers. The last of these warrants expired on Jan. 3, 2025, thereby concluding the U.S. portions of the operation. In total, this court-authorized operation deleted PlugX malware from approximately 4,258 U.S.-based computers and networks.
The FBI, through the victims’ internet service providers, is providing notice to U.S. owners of Windows-based computers affected by this court-authorized operation.
The FBI’s Philadelphia Field Office and Cyber Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and the National Security Cyber Section of Justice Department’s National Security Division led the domestic disruption operation. This operation would not have been successful without the valuable collaboration of to the Cyber Division of the Paris Prosecution Office, French Gendarmerie Cyber Unit C3N, and Sekoia.io.
The FBI continues to investigate Mustang Panda’s computer intrusion activity. If you believe you have a compromised computer or device, please visit the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). You may also contact your local FBI field office directly. The FBI strongly encourages the use of anti-virus software as well as the application of software security updates to help prevent reinfection.
Justice Department and FBI Conduct International Operation to Delete Malware Used by China-Backed HackersRead the Press Release
Note: View the affidavit here.
PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero, the Justice Department, and the FBI announced today a multi-month law enforcement operation that, alongside international partners, deleted “PlugX” malware from thousands of infected computers worldwide.
As described in court documents unsealed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, a group of hackers sponsored by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), known to the private sector as “Mustang Panda” and “Twill Typhoon,” used a version of PlugX malware to infect, control, and steal information from victim computers.
According to court documents, the PRC government paid the Mustang Panda group to, among other computer intrusion services, develop this specific version of PlugX. Since at least 2014, Mustang Panda hackers then infiltrated thousands of computer systems in campaigns targeting U.S. victims, as well as European and Asian governments and businesses, and Chinese dissident groups. Despite previous cybersecurity reports, owners of computers still infected with PlugX are typically unaware of the infection. The court-authorized operation announced today remediated U.S.-based computers infected with Mustang Panda’s version of PlugX.
“This wide-ranging hack and long-term infection of thousands of Windows-based computers, including many home computers in the United States, demonstrates the recklessness and aggressiveness of PRC state-sponsored hackers,” said U.S. Attorney Romero. “Working alongside both international and private sector partners, the Department of Justice’s court-authorized operation to delete PlugX malware proves its commitment to a ‘whole-of-society’ approach to protecting U.S. cybersecurity.”
“The FBI worked to identify thousands of infected U.S. computers and delete the PRC malware on them. The scope of this technical operation demonstrates the FBI’s resolve to pursue PRC adversaries no matter where they victimize Americans,” said FBI Philadelphia Special Agent in Charge Wayne Jacobs.
The international operation was led by French law enforcement and Sekoia.io, a France-based private cybersecurity company, which had identified and reported on the capability to send commands to delete the PlugX version from infected devices. Working with these partners, the FBI tested the commands, confirmed their effectiveness, and determined that they did not otherwise impact the legitimate functions of, or collect content information from, infected computers.
In August 2024, the DOJ and FBI obtained the first of nine warrants in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania authorizing the deletion of PlugX from U.S.-based computers. The last of these warrants expired on January 3, 2025, thereby concluding the U.S. portions of the operation. In total, this court-authorized operation deleted PlugX malware from approximately 4,258 U.S.-based computers and networks.
The FBI, through the victims’ internet service providers, is providing notice to U.S. owners of Windows-based computers affected by this court-authorized operation.
The FBI’s Philadelphia Field Office and Cyber Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and the National Security Cyber Section of DOJ’s National Security Division led the domestic disruption operation. This operation would not have been successful without the valuable collaboration of the Cyber Division of the Paris Prosecution Office, French Gendarmerie Cyber Unit C3N, and Sekoia.io, a private French cybersecurity technology company.
The FBI continues to investigate Mustang Panda’s computer intrusion activity. If you believe you have a compromised computer or device, please visit the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). You may also contact your local FBI field office directly; FBI Philadelphia can be reached at 215-418-4000. The FBI strongly encourages the use of antivirus software, as well as the application of software security updates to help prevent reinfection.
Justice Department Sues KKR for Serial Violations of Federal Premerger Review LawRead the Press Release
The Justice Department today filed a civil lawsuit against KKR & Co. Inc. and over a dozen of its investment advisors and funds (collectively, KKR) for repeatedly flouting the premerger antitrust review process. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the complaint alleges that KKR senior executives, deal teams and investment funds evaded antitrust scrutiny for at least 16 separate transactions by failing to comply with the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (HSR Act).
“KKR’s rinse-and-repeat failures to provide complete and accurate information about its mergers and acquisitions were systemic,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Doha Mekki of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “Through document omissions, alterations, and failures to report deals, KKR threatened the integrity of the Division’s premerger reviews and, in some cases, obscured the market impact of its deals and serial acquisitions.”
The HSR Act requires parties to a merger, acquisition, or other transaction above a certain size to submit a premerger filing to the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission to aid in the agencies’ enforcement of merger law. As a sophisticated private equity firm in the business of buying and selling companies, KKR is familiar with the HSR Act and its requirements. Since 2021, KKR was required to make more than 100 premerger filings under the HSR Act.
The department’s complaint alleges that over the course of two years — 2021 and 2022 — KKR failed to make complete and accurate premerger filings for at least 16 transactions. Specifically, KKR violated the HSR Act by:
- Altering documents in HSR filings for at least eight transactions. For example, in April 2021, a KKR partner instructed a deal team member to edit a portion of an Investment Committee report in advance of the HSR review process by circling the “Competitive Behavior” section of a diligence chart and writing “[need to revise for HSR purposes]” in the document. The KKR deal team member did not merely revise the language but deleted it entirely before submitting the altered document to the Antitrust Division.
- Failing to make any HSR filing for at least two transactions. KKR did not submit an HSR filing prior to consummating an acquisition valued at $6.9 billion. It also did not submit a filing prior to consummating an acquisition worth between $376 million and $919 million.
- Systematically omitting required documents in HSR filings for at least 10 transactions. KKR repeatedly certified that it had complied with the HSR Act but did not include required documents in those filings. In many cases, KKR only identified such documents in response to an Antitrust Division investigation.
The complaint cites internal documents that reveal a pervasive culture of noncompliance with the HSR Act at KKR. One KKR employee who omitted and altered multiple documents from an HSR Act filing described KKR’s approach to its premerger filing obligations: “I’ve always been told less is more ?.” In response, a more senior executive replied, “I believe in less is more too….”
As alleged in the complaint, KKR’s conduct allowed it to repeatedly evade legally mandated scrutiny of its investment business and reap millions of dollars in revenues from closing transactions without proper prior review by the federal antitrust agencies. In some cases, KKR’s misconduct obscured the threat its deals posed to competition, including serial acquisitions affecting important markets. By preventing the federal antitrust agencies from effectively investigating the potential anticompetitive effects of KKR’s transactions, KKR imperiled competition and potentially harmed consumers across the nation.
The HSR Act authorizes civil penalties for violations of the Act at more than $50,000 per day per violation. As a result, the maximum penalty for KKR’s alleged violations exceeds $650 million. The complaint also seeks structural relief as well as other equitable relief, including compliance measures.
KKR is a global investment firm headquartered in New York. It is one of the world’s largest investment firms with over $500 billion in total assets under management.
Johnstown Man Sentenced to Eight Years in Prison for Narcotics TraffickingRead the Press Release
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – A resident of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was sentenced in federal court to 96 months in prison, to be followed by four years of supervised release, on his conviction of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and crack cocaine, United States Attorney Eric G. Olshan announced today.
United States District Judge Marilyn J. Horan imposed the sentence on George Mazey, 53, on January 13, 2025.
According to information presented to the Court, from in and around February 2021 to in and around April 2021, in the Western District of Pennsylvania, Mazey conspired with others to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 40 grams or more of a mixture and substance containing fentanyl, a quantity of a mixture and substance containing heroin, and quantities of mixtures and substances containing cocaine and cocaine base in the form commonly known as crack. Further, in and around April 2021, Mazey possessed with intent to distribute a quantity of a mixture and substance containing cocaine and fentanyl. Mazey was intercepted on a federal wiretap obtaining quantities of the drugs that he distributed to others.
Assistant United States Attorney Maureen Sheehan-Balchon prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.
United States Attorney Olshan commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Laurel Highlands Resident Agency and Homeland Security Investigations for the investigation that led to the successful prosecution of Mazey. Additional agencies participating in the investigation included the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, United States Postal Inspection Service, Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, Pennsylvania State Police, Cambria County District Attorney’s Office, Indiana County District Attorney’s Office, Cambria County Sheriff’s Office, Cambria Township Police Department, Indiana Borough Police Department, Johnstown Police Department, Upper Yoder Township Police Department, Richland Police Department, Ferndale Police Department, and other local law enforcement agencies.
This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.
Jefferson County felon sentenced for federal gun violationRead the Press Release
BEAUMONT, Texas – A Hamshire convicted felon has been sentenced to federal prison for a firearms violation in the Eastern District of Texas, announced U.S. Attorney Damien M. Diggs.
Willie Dean Nelson, III, 32, pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and was sentenced to 105 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Marcia A. Crone on January 14, 2025.
According to information presented in court, on October 26, 2022, law enforcement officers responded to a Beaumont Fastlane convenience store robbery. The caller gave the description of the vehicle and witnesses described the subject and advised he was armed. The vehicle was located nearby, and Nelson was observed exiting the vehicle. A pistol was discovered laying a few feet in front of the vehicle. Nelson admitted to throwing the firearm from the vehicle when he saw the officers because he was a convicted felon and prohibited by federal law from owning or possessing firearms or ammunition.
This case was prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.
This case was investigated by the Beaumont Police Department and the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachel Grove.
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Huntington Man Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography CrimeRead the Press Release
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Mark Radford, 33, of Huntington, pleaded guilty today to possession of child pornography.
According to court documents and statements made in court, on or about November 3, 2020, law enforcement officers seized Radford’s cell phone. A forensic examination of the cell phone revealed approximately 22 images depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Radford admitted to downloading the images from the internet. Radford further admitted that some of the images depicted prepubescent children engaged in sexual conduct.
Radford is scheduled to be sentenced on May 5, 2025, and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, at least five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine. Radford must also register as a sex offender.
United States Attorney Will Thompson made the announcement and commended the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
United States District Judge Robert C. Chambers presided over the hearing. Assistant United States Attorneys Lesley C. Shamblin and Julie M. White have prosecuted the case.
This case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative of the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia. Related court documents and information can be found on PACER by searching for Case No. 3:22-cr-61.
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High-Ranking MS-13 Gang Member Pleads Guilty to Seven Murders, Multiple Attempted Murders, Arson and Firearms OffensesRead the Press Release
Earlier today, in federal court in Central Islip, Jairo Saenz, also known as “Funny,” a high-ranking member of the Brentwood/Central Islip chapter of the Sailors Locos Salvatruchas Westside (Sailors) clique of La Mara Salvatrucha, also known as the MS-13, a transnational criminal organization, pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in connection with his participation in seven murders, namely, the January 28, 2016 murder of Michael Johnson; the April 29, 2016 murder of Oscar Acosta; the September 13, 2016 murders of Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens; the October 10, 2016 murder of Javier Castillo; the October 13, 2016 murder of Dewann Stacks; and the January 30, 2017 murder of Esteban Alvarado-Bonilla. Saenz also pleaded guilty to his participation in three attempted murders, arson, narcotics trafficking, firearms offenses and a conspiracy to kill Marcus Bohannon, who was murdered on September 5, 2016 by other members of the MS-13.
Today’s guilty plea proceeding was held before United States District Judge Gary R. Brown. When sentenced, Jairo Saenz faces up to 60 years in prison, and a minimum sentence of 40 years in prison under the terms of his plea agreement.
Carolyn Pokorny, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, James E. Dennehy, Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI) and Robert E. Waring, Acting Commissioner, Suffolk County Police Department (SCPD), announced the guilty plea.“Today, Jairo Saenz pleaded guilty to seven murders that can only be described as barbaric, and multiple acts of senseless gang violence that had turned parts of Long Island into a war zone, with MS-13 gang members wielding guns, machetes, bats and fire that threatened the safety of our communities,” stated Acting United States Attorney Pokorny. “I commend my Office’s prosecutors and the Long Island Gang Task Force who are committed to holding MS-13 gang members accountable for the crimes they have committed and harm they have caused. It is my sincere hope that today’s guilty plea brings some measure of solace and closure to the families of the defendant’s victims who continue to mourn the deaths of their loved ones.”
According to court filings and statements made during today’s guilty plea proceeding, Jairo Saenz was a high-ranking member of the Brentwood/Central Islip chapter of the Sailors clique of the MS-13 – one of the more powerful, violent and well-established cliques on the East Coast of the United States. At the time, he was second in command to his brother, Alexi Saenz, who pleaded guilty to the same crimes on July 10, 2024. Jairo Saenz committed the following crimes in order to maintain and increase his membership and status within the gang, and to further the mission of the MS-13:
January 28, 2016 Murder of Michael Johnson
On January 28, 2016, Alexi Saenz and other MS-13 members and associates were at the Jocorena Deli in Brentwood, where they saw 29-year-old Michael Johnson, and claimed to recognize him as a member of the rival Bloods street gang. At that point, Johnson was marked as their “food” – a reference to their intention to kill him.
After receiving the requisite approval from the New York leader of the Sailors clique to commit this murder, Alexi Saenz contacted Jairo Saenz and several other MS-13 members, informed them of the plan to kill Johnson and instructed them to bring weapons, including a machete and a baseball bat, to a wooded area in Brentwood. Alexi Saenz then lured Johnson to that secluded meeting location under the guise of smoking marijuana. The MS-13 members and associates, including Jairo Saenz, ambushed Johnson from behind – striking Johnson with the baseball bat, stabbing him with a knife and taking turns hacking him with the machete. They fled after hearing police sirens in the area.
Johnson was reported missing by family members. Less than one week after his murder, on February 2, 2016, members of the SCPD responded to a 911 call about a body found in the woods by a passerby and recovered Johnson’s body. An autopsy determined Johnson’s cause of death to be sharp and blunt force injuries.
April 29, 2016 Murder of Oscar Acosta
In early 2016, Alexi Saenz, Jairo Saenz and their fellow Sailors clique members decided to “green light,” or approve, the murder of 19-year-old Oscar Acosta because they suspected that he was associating with the rival 18th Street gang after previously aligning himself with the MS-13. The New York Sailors clique leader assigned roles as to which members would take the lead in planning and carrying out the murder.
On April 29, 2016, MS-13 members met Acosta in a wooded area near an elementary school in Brentwood where he had been lured under the guise of smoking marijuana. They brutally beat Acosta with tree limbs, knocking him unconscious. They bound Acosta’s hands and feet, wrapped an article of clothing around his mouth to prevent him from making noise and summoned other MS-13 members, including Alexi Saenz and Jairo Saenz, who arrived together. The MS-13 members loaded Acosta into the trunk of the Saenz brothers’ car, and drove to a more secluded area in Brentwood near the abandoned Pilgrim State Psychiatric Hospital. At the direction of Alexi Saenz, the MS-13 members removed Acosta, who was still alive, from the trunk and carried him deeper into the woods where they took turns hacking him to death with a machete. The murder was supervised by the Saenz brothers. The MS-13 members then buried Acosta’s body in a shallow grave.
Acosta’s body was discovered by law enforcement nearly five months later, on September 16, 2016, during a search for another MS-13 victim. His cause of death was homicidal violence, including sharp and blunt force injuries to his head and torso.
July 18, 2016 Attempted Murders of John Doe #1 and John Doe #2
On July 18, 2016, during a Sailors clique meeting at the Saenz brothers’ house in Central Islip, Alexi Saenz instructed the group to hunt for rival gang members who had been disrespectful to the MS-13, in order to attack and kill them.
Later that evening, Jairo Saenz and other members of the MS-13, who were driving around Brentwood armed with firearms and a machete, spotted a group of men on Apple Street. Believing these men to be members of a rival gang, three MS-13 members got out of the car driven by Jairo Saenz and attacked the group, firing rounds from two different guns, and then using a machete to hack at one of the men who had fallen to the ground.
Two individuals were injured as a result of this attack. John Doe #1 was struck with a bullet, but survived. John Doe #2 was attacked with a machete, and was permanently disfigured.
August 10, 2016 Attempted Murders of Suspected Rival Gang Members
In 2016, members of the MS-13 were engaged in a series of disputes with members of the Goon Squad, a rival gang in Brentwood.
On August 10, 2016, Alexi Saenz and another MS-13 member drove through the neighborhood around Lukens Avenue in Brentwood, and spotted several men who they believed were members of the Goon Squad. They then rallied other members of the Sailors clique, including Jairo Saenz, to come kill the rivals.
The MS-13 members divided into two vehicles and drove towards the house where the suspected Goon Squad members had been spotted. The Saenz brothers’ car kept watch for the police, while two other MS-13 members, each armed with a gun, approached the group of suspected rivals and fired numerous shots in their direction. No one was hit, although a stray bullet entered a neighbor’s house and struck the headboard of a bed in which the neighbor was sleeping.
September 5, 2016 Murder of Marcus Bohannon
On September 4, 2016, after a Sailors clique meeting at the Saenz brothers’ house in Central Islip, Jairo Saenz, Alexi Saenz and other MS-13 members went out hunting for rival gang members to kill.
The MS-13 members separated into several cars and drove around Central Islip and Brentwood, until Alexi Saenz’s group spotted 27-year old Marcus Bohannon walking along Lowell Avenue in Central Islip in the early morning hours of September 5. Suspecting that Bohannon was a member of the rival Bloods gang, two MS-13 members, carrying firearms, got out of the vehicle, approached him and started shooting. Bohannon was struck nine times, including in his head, neck, and chest, and died from his wounds.
September 12, 2016 Arson
During the summer of 2016, Sailors clique members of the MS-13 were regularly having altercations with local gang members based in a neighborhood on Freeman Avenue in Brentwood.
On September 12, 2016, the MS-13 members retaliated by setting fire to a car parked in the driveway of one of the houses in that rival gang neighborhood. Alexi Saenz directed other gang members to purchase gasoline and carry out the arson, while he drove around watching for police. Jairo Saenz drove the other MS-13 gang members to that house, where they poured gasoline on a car parked in the driveway, and set it on fire. The car exploded and set another parked car on fire.
September 13, 2016 Murders of Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens
On September 13, 2016, Sailors clique members brutally murdered 15-year-old Nisa Mickens and 16-year-old Kayla Cuevas, both students at Brentwood High School.
In the months leading up to the murders, Cuevas was involved in a series of disputes with members and associates of the MS-13. Approximately one week before the murders, these disputes escalated when Cuevas and several friends were involved in an altercation with MS-13 members at Brentwood High School. After that incident, the MS-13 members vowed to seek revenge against Cuevas.
On the evening of September 13, 2016, the Saenz brothers and other members of the Sailors clique of the MS-13 were driving in separate cars around Brentwood in search of rival gang members to attack and kill. One group of MS-13 members spotted Cuevas and Mickens walking down residential Stahley Street. Recognizing Cuevas, they called the Saenz brothers and were granted permission to kill the girls. Several MS-13 members then chased down and attacked both Cuevas and Mickens, wielding baseball bats and a machete, striking each of the girls numerous times in their heads and bodies, while the Saenz brothers’ car drove around watching for police. After the murders, the group retreated to the Saenz brothers’ home in Central Islip, where they changed clothes and hid the weapons.
Mickens, whose body was discovered later that evening on Stahley Street, not far from Cuevas’s home, sustained significant sharp force trauma to her face and blunt force trauma to her head. Cuevas, whose body was discovered the following day behind a house adjacent to where Mickens’s body was found, sustained significant blunt force trauma to her head and body and multiple lacerations.
October 10, 2016 Murder of Javier Castillo
In October 2016, the MS-13 targeted 15-year-old Javier Castillo because he was believed to be a member of the 18th Street gang, one of MS-13’s principal rivals.
On October 10, 2016, Jairo Saenz and other members of the Sailors clique convinced Castillo, who lived in Central Islip, to drive with them to Freeport – approximately 30 miles away – to smoke marijuana. Once there, they met Alexi Saenz and other Sailors clique members. The group then lured Castillo to an isolated marsh area in Cow Meadow Park, where they attacked him, taking turns hacking him to death with a machete.
Afterwards, the MS-13 members dug a hole and buried Castillo’s body, which was not recovered until one year later, in late October 2017. Castillo was determined to have suffered multiple sharp force injuries to his head, neck, torso and extremities.
October 13, 2016 Murder of Dewann Stacks
On the evening of October 13, 2016, the Saenz brothers and other members of the Sailors clique of MS-13 were driving around Central Islip and Brentwood in search of rival gang members to attack and kill.
That night, they spotted 34-year-old Dewann Stacks and, believing him to be a rival gang member, Alexi Saenz authorized his murder. While Alexi Saenz drove around watching for police presence, Jairo Saenz drove three MS-13 members, armed with two machetes and a baseball bat, to attack Stacks. The three armed MS-13 members got out of the car, and beat and hacked Stacks to death on American Boulevard, a residential street in Brentwood. Stacks sustained severe sharp and blunt force trauma to his face and head, leaving his body nearly unrecognizable.
January 30, 2017 Murder of Esteban Alvarado-BonillaOn the morning of January 30, 2017, Alexi Saenz and other members of the Sailors clique of MS-13 spotted 29-year-old Esteban Alvarado-Bonilla inside El Campesino Deli in Central Islip. Alvarado-Bonilla was wearing a football jersey bearing the number “18,” which led the MS-13 to conclude that he was a member of a rival gang, and they plotted to kill him.
After Alvarado-Bonilla was observed in the Deli, Jairo Saenz drove MS-13 members to get a mask and another vehicle, both of which would be used when committing the murder. Alexi Saenz provided the clique’s 9-millimeter handgun for use in the murder.
At approximately 10:30 a.m., a masked MS-13 member entered the deli, approached Alvarado-Bonilla from behind, and shot him multiple times, killing him. One of the bullets pierced through Alvarado-Bonilla’s head and struck the chest of a female employee of the deli, who was standing directly in front of him. The deli employee survived the gunshot wound.
Narcotics Trafficking ConspiracyFor a year and a half, from approximately April 2016 through March 2017, in order to finance the illegal operations of the Sailors clique, the Saenz brothers obtained wholesale quantities of cocaine and marijuana, which they distributed to other Sailors clique members and associates for street-level sales in Brentwood and its surrounding areas. After the sales, the profits were turned over to the Saenz brothers, for use in, among other things, purchasing firearms for use by clique members, wiring money to MS-13 leaders in El Salvador and buying additional narcotics for further distribution.
Today’s guilty plea is the latest achievement in a series of federal prosecutions by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York targeting members of the MS-13, a violent, transnational criminal organization. The MS-13’s leadership is based in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, but the gang has thousands of members across the United States. With numerous branches, or “cliques,” the MS-13 is the most violent criminal organization on Long Island. Since 2003, hundreds of MS-13 members, including dozens of clique leaders, have been convicted on federal felony charges in the Eastern District of New York. A majority of those MS-13 members have been convicted on federal racketeering charges for participating in murders, attempted murders and assaults. Since 2010, this Office has obtained indictments charging MS-13 members with carrying out more than 70 murders in the Eastern District of New York, resulting in the convictions of dozens of MS-13 leaders and members in connection with those murders. These prosecutions are the product of investigations led by the FBI’s Long Island Gang Task Force, which is comprised of agents and officers of the FBI, SCPD, Nassau County Police Department, Nassau County Sheriff’s Department, Suffolk County Probation Office, Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, the New York State Police, the Hempstead Police Department, the Rockville Centre Police Department and the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.
This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.
The government’s case is being handled by the Criminal Section of the Office’s Long Island Division. Assistant United States Attorneys John J. Durham, Paul G. Scotti, Justina L. Geraci and Megan E. Farrell are in charge of the prosecution, with the assistance of Paralegal Specialist Kerry Ucci and Automated Litigation Specialist Michael Compitello.
The Defendant:
JAIRO SAENZ (also known as “Funny”)
Age: 28
El Divisadero, Morazán, El Salvador; and Central Islip, New YorkE.D.N.Y. Docket No. 16-CR-403 (S-8)(GRB)
Greenup County Man Sentenced for Distribution of Child PornographyRead the Press Release
ASHLAND, Ky. – A Greenup County man, Richard Burton, 50, was sentenced on Monday, to 174 months in prison, by U.S. District Judge David Bunning, for distribution of child pornography.
According to his guilty plea, on January 10, 2024, law enforcement received a tip regarding child pornography on the social media platform Kik and discovered Burton was the owner of the flagged account. After reviewing the account, law enforcement found at least eight pictures or videos depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Law enforcement obtained a search warrant for Burton’s person and his electronic devices. On the devices, they located additional evidence, which corroborated the evidence found in the Kik records, along with messages revealing that Burton sent and received child pornography. Burton admitted to knowingly distributing and possessing the child pornography.
Under federal law, Burton must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence. Upon his release from prison, he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for 25 years.
Carlton S. Shier, IV, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Michael Stansbury, Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Louisville Field Office; and Col. Phillip J. Burnett, Jr., Commissioner of the Kentucky State Police, jointly announced the sentence.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI and KSP. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Melton is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted this case as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
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Great Falls man admits strangulation and child abuse chargesRead the Press Release
GREAT FALLS — A Great Falls man accused of strangling a woman and abusing a child on the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation admitted to charges yesterday, U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich said today.
The defendant, Lane Thomas Lamere, 36, pleaded guilty to strangulation and to felony child abuse. Lamere faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release on the strangulation charge and a maximum of five years in prison, a $50,000 fine and three years of supervised release on the felony child abuse charge.
Chief U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris presided. The court will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. Sentencing was set for May 14. Lamere was released pending further proceedings.
In court documents, the government alleged that on January 12, 2024, in Box Elder, on the Rocky Boy’s Reservation, Lamere entered the residence of his ex-girlfriend, identified as Jane Doe 2, who was home with a child, identified as Jane Doe 1, who was under 14 years of age. Lamere dragged Jane Doe 2 to a bedroom and choked her. Jane Doe 1 entered the room during the strangulation, and Lamere grabbed her and began assaulting the child. Jane Doe 2 ran to get help from a neighbor, who called the police as they ran back to Jane Doe 2’s house. Both Jane Doe 2 and the neighbor tried to pull Lamere off the child and struck him with a snow shovel, but he did not release Jane Doe 1. A Rocky Boy’s Police Department officer arrived and ultimately tased Lamere when he did not respond to orders to get off Jane Doe 1. Both victims were transported to Northern Montana Hospital and were treated for injuries.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office is prosecuting the case. The Rocky Boy’s Police Department and the FBI conducted the investigation.
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Gladstone Sex Offender Sentenced to 15 Years for Child PornographyRead the Press Release
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Gladstone, Mo., man who is a prior sex offender was sentenced in federal court today for receiving child pornography.
Shawn D. Clutts, 37, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs to 15 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Clutts to 25 years of supervised release following incarceration and ordered him to pay $10,000 in restitution to his victims and a $5,000 assessment.
Clutts was sentenced as a prior sex offender due to his prior felony conviction for statutory rape and statutory sodomy for the sexual abuse of a teenage girl he met on the internet. Approximately a year after completing his state sentence in that case, Clutts was arrested in this case.
On Aug. 8, 2024, Clutts pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography. Clutts admitted that he had images and videos of child pornography on his cell phone when he was stopped by a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper for an expired registration on his Honda Accord on June 22, 2023.
Investigators found 131 videos and 49 images of child pornography on Clutts’s cell phone. These included depictions of sadomasochistic behavior, infants, and toddlers. Clutts also had previously downloaded hundreds of files of child pornography utilizing the MEGA application; some of those videos were still on his cell phone. MEGA is an internet-based file-sharing application whereby users can share “links” with other users to files they have saved within MEGA. The link allows the other user access to the MEGA folder of the sender and files located within that folder.
Clutts also admitted that he engaged in chats with another user over the internet on the Kik application, in which he discussed purchasing child pornography from this user through MEGA links. Clutts had purchased child pornography from this individual before.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth W. Borgnino. It was investigated by the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
Project Safe Childhood
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, 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.usdoj.gov/psc . For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."
Fugitive Arrested After More Than Three Years on the RunRead the Press Release
BOSTON – A Lowell man was taken into custody on Jan. 10, 2025 after he was discovered inside a Lowell residence and identified as a person wanted for his role in alleged drug trafficking conspiracy.
Darasy Chhim, a/k/a “Mystickal,” a/k/a “Rizzus,” 39, is charged with conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute heroin, cocaine base, fentanyl, MDMA, 500 grams or more of cocaine and 500 grams or more of methamphetamine. Chhim was charged by indictment along with 14 co-conspirators in June 2021 and evaded apprehension until his arrest on Jan. 10, 2025.
According to court documents, it is alleged that Chhim was a member of the One Family Clique street gang. From approximately February 2019 to June 2021, it is alleged that Chhim and a dozen co-defendants conspired to distribute drugs in and around Lowell, elsewhere in Massachusetts, and in other parts of the country, including Virginia and California. It is alleged that the group trafficked various different substances in large amounts, including especially dangerous drugs like fentanyl and methamphetamine. Chhim was alleged to be part of the leadership of One Family Clique, whose members were engaged in firearm trafficking, money laundering, acts of violence against rival gangs and other criminal activity.
The charge of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute heroin, cocaine base, fentanyl, MDMA, 500 grams or more of cocaine and 500 grams or more of methamphetamine provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, at least three years and up to life of supervised release and a fine of up to $1 million. The charge also includes forfeiture of assets traceable to or involved in the alleged drug distribution offense. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.
U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy; Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division; Superintendent Greg Hudon of the Lowell Police Department; Thomas Demeo, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Boston Field Office; Ketty Larco-Ward, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Boston Division; and Stephen Belleau, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, New England Field Division made the announcement. Valuable assistance was provided by the Massachusetts State Police and the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Moran, Chief of the Organized Crime and Gang Unit and Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred M. Wyshak, III are prosecuting the case.
This case is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.
The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Franklin Certified Public Accountant Indicted on Wire Fraud, Money Laundering and Tax Fraud ChargesRead the Press Release
NASHVILLE – A federal indictment unsealed today charges Jason Alexander Jerkins, 36, of Franklin, Tennessee, with wire fraud, money laundering and tax fraud, announced Acting United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee Robert E. McGuire.
According to the indictment, Jerkins, a Certified Public Accountant, owned Jerkins Business Solutions (“JBS”) which provided tax preparation, bookkeeping, and payroll services, among other accounting and financial services, for individuals and businesses since 2015. JBS was a sole proprietorship, and Jerkins controlled its bank accounts. JBS had office locations in Fairview and Nashville, Tennessee.
To facilitate his scheme, between March 2020 and October 2024, Jerkins obtained and maintained bank account and online banking information of his clients at JBS. Using Intuit QuickBooks software, Jerkins would initiate wire transfers out of his clients’ bank accounts and into bank accounts that he controlled or could access. Jerkins used Intuit QuickBooks so that these withdrawals appeared on clients’ bank statements with descriptions including “Intuit,” “Jerkins Business Sol,” or “Jerkins Business Sale,” which concealed the nature of these fraudulent transactions from his clients and made them appear as though they were for legitimate business purposes. Jerkins would initiate these withdrawals from his clients’ accounts within days of initiating legitimate payroll or tax payments from his clients’ accounts to make it appear as if the legitimate payments were split between multiple withdrawals by Intuit. Jerkins would then withdraw funds from his clients’ accounts as if he were paying over business expenses owed by his clients, but instead of paying the expense owed by the business, Jerkins would deposit the funds into his own bank accounts or use the funds for his personal benefit. When clients confronted him about fraudulent withdrawals, Jerkins provided those clients with fraudulent documentation that made the withdrawals appear to be legitimate. And at least one time, Jerkins repaid a client the amount of a fraudulent withdrawal using funds from a second fraudulent withdrawal from another client’s account. Throughout his scheme, Jerkins initiated over four hundred wire transfers totaling over $3,900,000, from his Intuit account to transfer the unauthorized client funds to one of his bank accounts. On at least one occasion, in September 2023, Jerkins used these stolen client funds to purchase residential real property.
Finally, as part of his plan to take his clients’ money, Jerkins prepared and filed materially false tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service for at least two clients. These tax returns reported false deductions and false business expenses, which the taxpayers did not incur, to the IRS.
If convicted, Jerkins faces up to twenty years in federal prison for the wire fraud count, up to ten years in federal prison for the money laundering count, and up to three years in federal prison for each count of preparing false tax returns. The United States is also seeking forfeiture of real property purchased with the proceeds of Jerkins’ fraud scheme.
This case is being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitchell T. Galloway is prosecuting the case.
A federal indictment is merely an allegation. The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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Four Indicted in Conspiracy to Commit Bank Fraud and Money Laundering Schemes Involving More Than $128 Million in Criminal ProceedsRead the Press Release
Tampa, Florida – United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces the unsealing of an indictment charging Daniel Liburdi (35, Miami), Joseph Scotto (44, Bay Shore, NY), Gregory Walker (43, Ontario, Canada), and Frank Carbone III (35, Orlando) with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Liburdi and Carbone III are also charged with bank fraud. Each bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud offense carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in federal prison. The conspiracy to commit money laundering offense carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison. The indictment also notifies the defendants that the United States intends to forfeit three residences in Miami Beach, and one in the U.S. Virgin Islands, which are alleged to be traceable to proceeds of the offense. In addition, the government is seeking an order of forfeiture in the amount of $128,144,908.66.
According to the indictment, Liburdi, Scotto, Walker, and Carbone conspired to commit bank fraud by submitting fraudulent applications to U.S. financial institutions to obtain merchant processing accounts. These applications contained the private personal information of unwitting individuals, obtained by the conspirators under false pretenses. After fraudulently obtaining these merchant accounts, the conspirators were then able to accept credit and debit cards to further an e-commerce enterprise which used high-risk and unscrupulous sales techniques. By using the personal information of unwitting individuals, the conspirators insulated themselves from personal liability and risk associated with their business model, to the detriment of those persons, and to the financial institutions which materially rely on honest and full disclosures of ownership when providing merchant services. As a result of their activities, the conspirators obtained criminal proceeds processed through these fraudulent accounts exceeding $128 million dollars.
The indictment also charges the defendants with conspiring to launder their criminal proceeds. The conspirators allegedly used the proceeds of their bank fraud activity to pay for services in promotion of the scheme, such as advertising services. The conspirators shared in the proceeds of the bank fraud through these transactions, moving criminal proceeds in and between conspirator-controlled bank accounts.
An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.
This case was jointly investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (Tampa) and the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation (Tampa). Additional assistance was provided by the Pasco Sheriff’s Office, Homeland Security Investigations (Miami and New York), and the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation (Miami and New York). It will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Adam J. Duso.
Four Defendants Plead Guilty in Ongoing Bid-Rigging, Fraud and Bribery Investigation Related to U.S. Government IT PurchasesRead the Press Release
Four defendants pleaded guilty in the District of Maryland for their roles in schemes to rig bids, defraud the government and pay and receive bribes in connection with the sale of IT products and services to federal government purchasers, including the Department of Defense (DoD). The charges were previously announced on Oct. 29, 2024.
These are the first guilty pleas in the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation into IT manufacturers, distributors and resellers who sell products and services to government purchasers, including to the intelligence community.
On Nov. 7 and 13, 2024, Brandon Scott Glisson, a government contractor, and Lawrence A. Eady, a federal government official, both pleaded guilty to separate counts of bribery. According to public documents, between August 2019 and October 2020, Glisson paid approximately $630,000 in bribes to Eady from Glisson’s company, Alpha Greatness Omega (AGO). In exchange for the bribe payments, Eady ensured that the U.S. government purchased IT products from one of their co-conspirators’ companies at artificially inflated, non-competitive prices, and then diverted the inflated portion of the payments to AGO, which Glisson used for personal luxury purchases and to pay Eady bribes.
Antwann C.K. Rawls, an on-site government IT consultant, and Scott A. Reefe, an IT sales executive, also pleaded guilty in related cases. On Jan. 8, Reefe pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and, on Jan. 13, Rawls pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States. According to public documents, from at least 2018 until at least May 2019, Rawls, Reefe and their co-conspirators used their positions of trust to learn sensitive, confidential procurement information, including procurement budgets for large U.S. government IT contracts. They and their co-conspirators used that inside information to rig bids for U.S. government IT procurements at artificially determined, non-competitive and non-independent prices, ensuring one of their co-conspirators’ companies would win the procurement. The defendants submitted their collusive bids despite knowing the government sought independent, competitive bids for these valuable contracts, causing the U.S. government to suffer at least $1,300,000 in losses.
“These convictions bring to justice individuals who cheated and defrauded the United States government for their own personal gain,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Doha Mekki of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “Holding these individuals accountable shows that rigging bids for government contracts will not go unnoticed or unpunished.”
“These guilty pleas underscore the grave consequences of engaging in bid-rigging and bribery in government IT procurement,” said Assistant Director Chad Yarbrough of the FBI Criminal Investigative Division. “The defendants’ actions not only violated public trust but also diverted taxpayer dollars meant for essential services. The FBI remains vigilant in identifying and holding accountable those who exploit the system for personal gain, ensuring fairness and transparency.”
“Today’s outcome demonstrates our commitment to aggressively investigate those who enrich themselves with federal procurement dollars while cheating taxpayers,” said Special Agent in Charge Christopher Dillard of the DoD Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), Mid-Atlantic Field Office. “DCIS is proud to work with our law enforcement partners to protect the integrity of the procurement process, including when it impacts the intelligence community.”
Sentencing hearings will be set at a later date. Glisson and Eady each face a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. Reefe faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and Rawls faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
DCIS, FBI’s Baltimore Field Office, Central Intelligence Agency Office of Inspector General and National Security Agency Office of Inspector General are investigating the case.
Trial Attorneys Michael Sawers, Zachary Trotter and Elizabeth French of the Antitrust Division’s Washington Criminal Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sean M. Delaney and Darren Gardner for the District of Maryland are prosecuting the case.
In November 2019, the Justice Department created the Procurement Collusion Strike Force (PCSF), a joint law enforcement effort to combat antitrust crimes and related fraudulent schemes that impact government procurement, grant and program funding at all levels of government — federal, state and local. To learn more about the PCSF, or to report information on bid rigging, price fixing, market allocation and other anticompetitive conduct related to government spending, go to www.justice.gov/procurement-collusion-strike-force. Anyone with information in connection with this investigation can contact the PCSF at the link listed above.
Former Production Manager at American Distillation, Inc. Pleads Guilty After Releasing Chemical Pollutants into the Cape Fear River near NavassaRead the Press Release
RALEIGH, N.C. – Barry Darnell White, 63, pled guilty today to knowingly discharging tert-Butyl alcohol and other pollutants into the Cape Fear River in violation of the federal Clean Water Act. White did so while employed by American Distillation, Inc., a chemical processing company located in Navassa, outside of Wilmington.
“Rather than dispose of hazardous pollutants legally, this Navassa industrial site hooked a hose to a quarter-million-gallon waste tank, brazenly discharging over 50,000 gallons of pollutants into the Cape Fear River over a four-year period,” said U.S. Attorney Michael F. Easley, Jr. “We won’t let corporate polluters cut corners for cash while the rest of us bear the costs. Not in North Carolina, not on the Cape Fear River, and certainly not in Navassa, where descendants of the Gullah-Geeche people have faced more than their share of environmental calamities. We’ll fight to protect our resources and our communities - until justice rolls on like a river.”
According to the information presented in court, American Distillation, Inc. (ADI) is a chemical processing company located beside the Cape Fear River in Navassa. ADI was incorporated in 1992 to blend and market industrial grade ethyl alcohol. ADI’s services included distillation, dehydration, reaction, carbon treating, and blending of various chemicals and products from partners across the United States. ADI regularly intakes large quantities of tert-Butyl alcohol (TBOH) from its customer base, which ADI then distills into a usable product for such customers. TBOH is a pollutant that constitutes a solid waste, chemical waste, and an industrial waste under the law. During distillation, ADI created and stored byproducts in an approximately 250,000-gallon storage tank (known as Tank 14), which regularly stored liquid wastewater that included—in addition to TBOH—tert-butyl hydroperoxide, isopropyl alcohol, and acetone mixed with water. TBOH is highly flammable, colorless oily liquid with a sharp alcohol odor.
The defendant, Barry Darnell White was the Production Manager at ADI’s main facility in Navassa. White led logistics at ADI, oversaw the movement of pollutants and various waste products within ADI, and supervised numerous other employees. Such logistics included the movement of chemicals from one tank to another, and the movements from tanker trucks in and out of ADI’s facilities. White reported directly to ADI’s corporate management.
Five to six times per year, from 2020 to 2024, White released approximately 2,500 gallons of liquid wastewater from Tank 14. White did so by connecting a hose to Tank 14, then turning a valve to initiate the flow of liquid from the tank. The hose drained into a nearby pipe that drained to an outfall flowing directly to the Cape Fear River.
ADI was required to properly dispose of TBOH byproduct according to its EPA-issued permit. ADI, however, beginning in late 2019 to the beginning of 2024, was accepting more TBOH and other chemicals from its customers than it could legally and safely process and remove. To ensure operations did not come to a halt and realize maximum profit, ADI released TBOH byproduct from Tank 14 causing it to flow into the Cape Fear River. ADI management had informed some of its employees that if operations came to a halt, the company would suffer serious financial harm, potentially including dissolution.
ADI has not been charged with a crime or admitted to wrongdoing.
“Our natural resources must be protected from those who blatantly disregard environmental laws by illegally discharging industrial waste into US waters,” said Leslie Carroll, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Environmental Protection Agency’s criminal enforcement program in North Carolina. “The defendant in this case discharged wastewater containing Tert-Butyl Alcohol and other chemicals into the Cape Fear River on multiple occasions since at least 2020. Today’s guilty plea demonstrates that EPA and its partners are committed to protecting our natural resources and the communities that rely upon them.”
“This individual’s blatant violation of the Clean Water Act not only defrauded the EPA, but more critically, endangered communities relying on North Carolina rivers and streams by recklessly discharging harmful pollutants where people swim and fish” said Assistant Special Agent in Charge Keith Squires of the EPA Office of Inspector General. “The EPA OIG is committed to pursuing criminals like this who disregard and degrade the integrity of EPA’s clean water mission and put profits above human health and the environment.”
The Federal Water Pollution Control Act, referred to as the Clean Water Act (CWA) was enacted by Congress in 1948 and amended substantially in 1972 and thereafter to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation’s waters. In addition, the CWA was enacted to prevent, reduce, and eliminate water pollution in the United States and to conserve the Waters of the United States for the protection and propagation of fish and aquatic life and wildlife, for recreational purposes, and for the use of such waters for public drinking water, agricultural and industrial purposes.
The CWA prohibits the discharge of pollutants into the waters of the United States from any point source without a permit issued under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”). Except in compliance with such a permit, the discharge of any pollutant by any person is unlawful. Under the CWA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) may delegate the authority to states to implement and enforce NPDES permits. North Carolina was delegated such authority in 1975.
Michael F. Easley, Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, made the announcement after U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert B. Jones, Jr., accepted the plea. The EPA Criminal Investigation Division and EPA Office of Inspector General are leading the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney David G. Beraka is prosecuting the case.
Related court documents and information can be found on the website of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina or on PACER by searching for Case No. 7:24-CR-00104-1.
Former Police Lieutenant and Son Sentenced to a Combined 14 Years in Prison for Drug Trafficking CrimesRead the Press Release
RALEIGH, N.C. – Charles Page, age 52, and his son Treyvon Ladonte Page, age 29, were sentenced to 48 months and 120 months in prison, respectively, for their drug trafficking crimes in 2021 and 2022. At the time of Charles Page’s crimes, he was a law enforcement officer with the Ayden Police Department.
“This police lieutenant, a 13-year veteran of the force, used his official position to access confidential databases and share intelligence to advance his son’s drug trafficking,” said U.S. Attorney Michael F. Easley, Jr. “We won’t tolerate public officials breaching the public’s trust to help criminals, whether they are family or not. When law enforcement officers breach the public’s trust it undermines the rule of law and puts the entire community at risk. Many thanks to the FBI and the countless other honest officers who worked tirelessly to bring this scheme to light.”
According to court documents and other information presented in court, in July of 2021, law enforcement received information that Treyvon Page was distributing cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, and marijuana in Pitt County. Law enforcement launched an investigation that included conducting 15 controlled purchases from Treyvon Page between November 2021 and August of 2022. The purchases consisted of varying amounts of heroin and fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine.
In 2022, surveillance showed that Treyvon Page was visiting a residence in Grifton, close in time to the controlled purchases occurring. The residence belonged to his father, Charles Page, who was serving as a lieutenant with the Ayden Police Department at the time.
On September 20, 2022, law enforcement executed several search warrants across Pitt County in conjunction with the ongoing investigation. A search warrant was executed at Charles Page’s house and the following items were seized: 167 grams of pure methamphetamine; 72 grams of cocaine; 15 grams of cocaine base (crack); and three shotguns.
As part of the investigation, law enforcement conducted interviews with several cooperating sources and defendants. These interviews revealed that Charles Page was aware of Treyvon’s drug trafficking and that Treyvon would often contact his dad for confidential law enforcement information related to drug trafficking investigations. A search of Charles Page’s phone corroborated this information. In several instances, Charles Page advised Treyvon Page whether Treyvon had active warrants and told Treyvon confidential information from investigations, such as the identity of victims.
Charles Page resigned from his law enforcement position shortly after the search warrant was executed. Additionally, continued investigation revealed that Charles Page repeatedly queried Treyvon’s name and Treyvon’s drug dealing associates across confidential law enforcement databases in violation of North Carolina law.
Michael F. Easley, Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Louise W. Flanagan. Agencies involved in the investigation include the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation, the N.C. State Highway Patrol, the Pitt, Jones and Onslow County Sheriff’s Offices, the Jacksonville and Greenville Police Departments, and the Greenville Regional Drug Taskforce.
Related court documents and information can be found on the website of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina or on PACER by searching for case number: 4:22-CR-00050-FL.
Former Northeastern University Employee Sentenced for Staging a Hoax Explosion and Making False StatementsRead the Press Release
BOSTON – A former Northeastern University employee was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston for staging a hoax explosion and making false statements to a federal law enforcement agent about the hoax.
Jason Duhaime, 47, formerly of Massachusetts and San Antonio, was sentenced by United States Senior District Court Judge William G. Young to one year and one day in prison, to be followed by two years of supervised release. In June 2024, Duhaime was convicted of intentionally conveying false and misleading information related to an explosive device and two counts of making materially false statements to a federal law enforcement agent. Duhaime was arrested and charged by criminal complaint on Oct. 2, 2022, and subsequently indicted by a federal grand jury on Oct. 27, 2022.“Bomb hoaxes are not a harmless act, they inflict fear, divert resources and put both first responders and the public at real risk as they race to the scene,” said United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy. “This sentence should send a clear message to everyone who engages in bomb threats and swatting incidents that you will be held accountable and that one phone call may land you in jail.”
“Jason Duhaime apparently thought he could get away with staging a hoax explosion and lying to us about it, but this sentencing proves how wrong he was,” said Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Division. “Hoax explosive devices and fictious letters threatening violence cause real-world damage. It drains law enforcement resources, diverts us from responding to an actual crisis, puts innocent people at risk, and instills unnecessary fear in the community. FBI Boston’s Joint Terrorism Task Force takes all threats to life seriously and so should anyone thinking about making one. We will investigate, identify you, and ensure you’re held accountable for your actions.”
In September 2022, Duhaime was employed as the New Technology Manager and Director of the Immersive Media Lab (the “Lab”) at Northeastern University (“Northeastern”). At approximately 7:00 p.m. on Sept. 13, 2022, Duhaime called the Northeastern Police Department and reported that he was injured by sharp objects expelled from a plastic case he opened inside the Lab that evening. Specifically, Duhaime told an emergency police dispatcher that he and a Northeastern student who was working in the Lab that evening had collected several packages—including two plastic “Pelican cases”—from a mail area and brought them into the Lab. Duhaime said that when he opened one of the cases inside a storage closet, “very sharp” objects flew out of the case and under his shirt sleeves, causing injuries to his arms. Duhaime also reported that the case contained an anonymous “violent note” threatening to “destroy the lab” and stating: “In the case you got today we could have planted explosives but not this time!!! Take notice!!! You have two months to take operations down or else!!!!! WE ARE WATCHING YOU.”
Duhaime’s report and concern about a second, unopened Pelican case triggered a significant law enforcement response that included, among other things, the assistance of the Boston Police Department’s bomb squad, multiple federal and state law enforcement agencies and the evacuation of a portion of the Northeastern campus.
In statements to first responders and in subsequent interviews with law enforcement on both Sept. 13 and 14, 2022, Duhaime provided statements about the incident that were consistent with what he told the emergency police dispatcher. He expressly denied fabricating his story about the Pelican case, the anonymous threat letter and the injuries to his arms.
During a search of Duhaime’s office at Northeastern on Sept. 14, 2022, several laptop computers were found. A subsequent forensic examination of one of the computers revealed a word-for-word electronic copy of the anonymous threat letter that Duhaime claimed was inside the Pelican case. According to evidence presented during the trial, this electronic copy of the threat letter was created and printed between approximately 2:50 p.m. and 3:56 p.m. on Sept. 13, 2022, just hours before he reported the incident to the police. Duhaime printed the letter using a removable USB drive, which he disposed of at the campus fitness center shortly before the incident.
U.S. Attorney Levy; FBI SAC Cohen; Michael A. Davis, Vice President of Campus Security and Chief of Police at Northeastern University; Michael J. Krol, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New England; Ketty Larco-Ward, Inspector in Charge of the Boston Field Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; and Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jason A. Casey and Timothy H. Kistner of the National Security Unit prosecuted the case.East Bay Arsonist Admits to Attempting to Firebomb Oakland Federal Building and Firebombing University Police CarRead the Press Release
OAKLAND – Casey Robert Goonan, 34, of Oakland and Pleasant Hill, pleaded guilty today to federal arson charges in relation to a series of firebombings and arsons at the Oakland federal building and the University of California, Berkeley in June 2024.
According to a plea agreement filed in open court, in the early morning hours of June 11, 2024, Goonan arrived at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Oakland carrying a bag containing three explosive devices commonly known as “Molotov cocktails.” Goonan threw rocks at the building, hoping to break a window in order to throw lit Molotov cocktails inside. That plan was disrupted by protective services officers; upon fleeing from the officers, Goonan placed the Molotov cocktails in a planter on the side of building and lit them on fire.
Goonan also admitted to placing a bag containing six Molotov cocktails underneath the fuel tank of a marked University of California Police Department (UCPD) patrol car at UC Berkeley in the early morning hours of June 1, 2024, lighting the bag on fire and fleeing, causing the patrol car to catch on fire, as depicted below:
In addition to these two attacks, Goonan admitted to setting other fires on the UC Berkeley campus on June 1, June 13, and June 16, 2024.
Goonan admitted that these crimes were designed to influence and affect the conduct of governments by intimidation and coercion and to retaliate against the governments of the United States and the State of California for their conduct. Goonan also agreed that the Court should apply Section 3A1.4 of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, the terrorism enhancement, in determining the appropriate sentence.
“In America, we are all free to express our political views and petition the government. But we are not free to do so using violence,” said U.S. Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey. “Politically motivated violence undermines our democracy, and we will continue to investigate and prosecute those who engage in it.”
“Protecting the public from acts of violence and terrorism is the FBI’s top priority,” said Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Acting Special Agent in Charge Dan Costin. “Acts of arson and violence that seek to intimidate or coerce government institutions undermine democracy and the rule of law. We are grateful to our state and local law enforcement partners for their swift efforts in identifying and bringing Casey Goonan to justice before further harm could be done.”
Goonan pleaded guilty to one count of Maliciously Damaging or Destroying Property Used in or Affecting Interstate Commerce by Means of Fire or an Explosive in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 844(i), which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a minimum sentence of five years in prison. Any sentence will be imposed by the Court only after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.
Goonan, who has been in custody since being arrested, is scheduled to be sentenced on April 8, 2025, before the Honorable Jeffrey S. White, Senior United States District Judge.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nikhil Bhagat is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Tina Rosenbaum. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the FBI, ATF, the California Office of the State Fire Marshal, and UCPD.
Dubuque Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Possessing a Firearm in Furtherance of a Drug Trafficking CrimeRead the Press Release
A man who possessed drugs and a gun was sentenced today to 19 years in federal prison.
Dylan VanScoyoc, age 29, from Dubuque, Iowa, received the prison term after an August 30, 2024 guilty plea to one count of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance after a prior conviction for a felony drug offense, one count of possession of a firearm by a felon, and one count of possession of a firearm during and in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
Evidence at the plea and sentencing hearings showed that, on September 22, 2023, an officer stopped a vehicle that VanScoyoc had been driving. VanScoyoc got out of the vehicle and ran from the officer on foot before he was ultimately taken into custody. In the vehicle, officers located a designer purse that contained a loaded firearm, a digital scale, and multiple baggies containing more than 140 grams of cocaine.
VanScoyoc was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand. VanScoyoc was sentenced to 228 months’ imprisonment. He must also serve a six-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.
VanScoyoc is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Adam J. Vander Stoep and was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the East Dubuque Police Department, and the Dubuque Drug Task Force, comprised of the Dubuque Police Department and the Dubuque Sheriff’s Office.
Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
The case file number is 24-CR-1013.
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Dual Citizen of China and the United States Indicted for Filing False Tax Returns and Failing to Report Foreign Bank AccountsRead the Press Release
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – A federal grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama, has indicted Foster Dai, also known as Fa Dai, a dual citizen of China and the United States, on charges of filing false tax returns and failing to file a report of a foreign bank or financial account. The indictment was handed down on September 10, 2024, but unsealed this week. Acting United States Attorney Kevin Davidson, Special Agent in Charge Demetrius Hardeman with the IRS Criminal Investigation Atlanta Field Office, and Special Agent in Charge Paul Brown with the FBI Mobile, Alabama Field Office made the announcement.
According to the indictment, 60-year-old Dai, who previously resided in Auburn, Alabama and was a former professor in the Electrical Engineering Department of Auburn University, is alleged to have been a corporate executive officer of Shenzhen NRT, Co., Ltd., based in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The indictment alleges that Dai used accounts with China Merchants Bank and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China to receive payments from at least five entities in the PRC. The indictment alleges that Dai failed to report that income on his federal tax returns for 2018 through 2020.
In addition to the obligation to report foreign income for tax purposes, the indictment notes that United States citizens and residents who have a financial interest in, or signature or other authority over, a bank account in a foreign country with an aggregate value of more than $10,000 at any time during a particular calendar year, are required to file a “Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts” (FBAR) with the United States Treasury. The indictment alleges that Dai failed to file the required FBAR reports for the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China account in 2018, and the China Merchants Bank account in 2020.
An indictment merely alleges that crimes have been committed. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
If convicted, Dai faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine up to $250,000. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Agents with IRS Criminal Investigation and FBI investigated the case, with assistance from the United States Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division. Auburn University fully cooperated with law enforcement and the U.S. Attorney’s office during the investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Megan A. Kirkpatrick is prosecuting this case.
Drug Trafficker and Convicted Felon Sentenced on Federal Drug and Firearms ChargesRead the Press Release
MONROE, La. – United States Attorney Brandon B. Brown announced the sentencing of two men in Monroe yesterday. Chief United States District Judge Terry A. Doughty sentenced the defendants as follows:
Desmond K. Hollins, 47, of Monroe, was sentenced to 128 months (10 years, 8 months) in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release, for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and possession of firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking. In November 2022, officers with the Metro Narcotics Unit in Monroe executed a search warrant at Hollins’ home in Monroe. During that search, law enforcement officers found methamphetamine, a digital scale, and packaging material, as well as four firearms and various rounds of ammunition. The seized narcotics were sent to the crime lab for analysis and was confirmed to be a mixture and substance of methamphetamine and weighed 322.75 grams. Hollins pleaded guilty on September 4, 2024, to the charges and agreed to forfeiture of the four seized firearms and ammunition.
Justin Wright, 45, of West Monroe, was sentenced to 96 months (8 years) in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release, for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. On August 15, 2023, officers with the West Monroe Police Department went to a residence in West Monroe after receiving a report that Wright was firing a pistol in his yard. When law enforcement officers arrived, they found Wright standing in his yard with a loaded Taurus G2C 9mm pistol in his front waist band. Wright has previous felony convictions for attempted possession of a firearm by a felon and simple arson and knew he was prohibited from possessing a firearm or ammunition. He was arrested and charged with one count of felon in possession of a firearm. Wright pleaded guilty to the charge on September 24, 2024.
These cases were investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Monroe Police Department, Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Office, and West Monroe Police Department and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Jessica D. Cassidy and Seth D. Reeg.
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Des Moines Man Sentenced to 35 Years in Federal Prison for Charges Related to an Armed RobberyRead the Press Release
DES MOINES, Iowa – A Des Moines man was sentenced yesterday to 35 years in federal prison following his convictions for attempted interference with commerce by robbery, attempted possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute, and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime.
According to public court documents and evidence presented at trial, Sam Sando, 27, planned an armed robbery of a quarter pound of marijuana and recruited an accomplice, Salifou Sahr. On January 9, 2022, Sando lured the victims to an apartment complex for a purported drug deal, intending to rob the victims of marijuana. Sando and Sahr surrounded the victim’s car, and each fired three rounds into the car. One victim, Trishay Thompson, was struck and later died.
On August 7, 2024, following a two-day trial, a federal jury found Sando guilty of attempted interference with commerce by robbery, attempted possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute it, and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime.
After completing his term of imprisonment, Sando will be required to serve a five-year term of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.
In November 2023, Sahr was convicted of murder in the first degree, two counts of attempted murder, and two counts of robbery in the first degree in the Iowa District Court for Polk County and sentenced to life in prison.
United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. This case was investigated by the Des Moines Police Department.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results. For more information about Project Safe Neighborhoods, please visit Justice.gov/PSN.
Crips Gang Member Charged with March 2021 MurderRead the Press Release
Edward Y. Kim, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Jessica S. Tisch, the Commissioner of the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”), announced today the unsealing of an Indictment charging ALIEU JARJOU, a/k/a “Scally,” a/k/a “Lu Scally,” with racketeering conspiracy, murder in aid of racketeering, and a firearms offense. The charges relate to JARJOU’s membership in the “Rollin 20s” set of the Crips gang and the March 9, 2021 murder of 30-year-old Jadon Robinson. JARJOU, who was in New York City Department of Correction custody, was transferred to federal custody earlier today and made his initial appearance in federal court in Manhattan. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos.
Acting U.S. Attorney Edward Y. Kim said: “As alleged, Alieu Jarjou shot and killed Jadon Robinson on a busy Bronx street in the middle of the day. He committed this cold-blooded murder to enhance his status within the Rollin 20s Crips, a violent street gang that traffics in illegal drugs. Let this be a reminder that this Office and our law enforcement partners will catch and prosecute those who commit acts of violence in our streets.”
According to the allegations in the Indictment unsealed today in Manhattan federal court:[1]
From at least January 2021 through at least January 2022, JARJOU was a member of the Rollin 20s Crips, which is based in the Bronx, New York. In order to fund the gang, protect its territory, and promote its standing, members of the Rollin 20s Crips engaged in, among other things, murders, assaults, threats of violence, and narcotics trafficking.
On March 9, 2021, JARJOU murdered Jadon Robinson in the vicinity of 1268 Morrison Avenue in the Bronx, New York. Jadon Robinson was 30 years old.
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JARJOU, 30, of the Bronx, New York, is charged with one count of racketeering conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison; one count of murder in aid of racketeering, which carries a sentence of mandatory life in prison or death; one count of murder through the use of a firearm, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison; and one count of using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The maximum potential sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge.
Mr. Kim praised the outstanding investigative work of the NYPD.
The case is being handled by the Office’s Violent and Organized Crime Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christy Slavik and Jim Ligtenberg are in charge of the prosecution.
The charges contained in the Indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
[1] As the introductory phrase signifies, the entirety of the text of the Indictment and the description of the Indictment set forth herein constitute only allegations, and every fact described should be treated as an allegation.
Conehatta Man Sentenced for Sexual Abuse of a Minor on the Choctaw Indian ReservationRead the Press Release
Jackson, MS –On January 13, 2025, a Conehatta man was sentenced to 24 years and 4 months in federal prison for sexual abuse of a minor on the Choctaw Indian Reservation.
According to court documents, Brett Keith Thomas, 28, sexually abused a minor who was under the age of twelve years old. The abuse occurred in 2016. Thomas was indicted by a federal grand jury in July of 2023, and pleaded guilty in June of 2024.
U.S. Attorney Todd Gee and Robert Eikhoff, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Jackson Office, made the announcement.
The Choctaw Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kevin J. Payne and Brian K. Burns prosecuted the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.Chinese Telecommunications Company Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Steal Technology from Illinois-Based Motorola SolutionsRead the Press Release
CHICAGO — A Chinese telecommunications company has admitted in federal court in Chicago that it conspired to steal digital mobile radio technology developed by Illinois-based Motorola Solutions, Inc.
HYTERA COMMUNICATIONS CORP. LTD. pleaded guilty on Monday in the Northern District of Illinois to a federal charge of conspiracy to steal trade secrets. Under the terms of a plea agreement, Hytera may be fined up to $60 million. The Court must also order Hytera to make full restitution to Motorola, in an amount to be determined by the Court at sentencing.
The sentencing hearing is set for Nov. 6, 2025, before U.S. District Judge John J. Tharp, Jr.
According to the plea agreement, Hytera, through the acts of individuals acting to benefit the company, knowingly conspired to steal at least one trade secret from Motorola. In 2008, the individuals agreed to take documents and source code related to Motorola’s digital mobile radio technology, and then used some of that information to develop Hytera products, some of which were later sold in Illinois, the plea agreement states. Hytera stated in the plea agreement that the individuals knew and/or reasonably believed that some of the information they agreed to steal was reasonably protected and kept secret by Motorola, and that taking at least one trade secret would potentially injure Motorola.
The plea agreement was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Douglas S. DePodesta, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI. The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Steven J. Dollear, Melody Wells, Thomas P. Peabody, and Wesley Morrissette.
hytera_plea_agreement.pdfChinese Nationals Plead Guilty in Fraudulent Gift Card Conspiracy Involving the Purchase and Export of Apple Products to ChinaRead the Press Release
CONCORD – Three Chinese nationals pleaded guilty for their roles in a large-scale fraud conspiracy based in China, United States Attorney Jane E. Young announces.
Naxin Wu, 26, Mengying Jiang, 34, and Mingdong Chen, 28, pleaded guilty in federal court in Concord to Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud. Judge Landya B. McCafferty scheduled Wu’s sentencing for April 8, 2025 and Jiang’s sentencing for April 22, 2025. Judge Joseph N. Laplante scheduled Chen’s sentencing for April 11, 2025.
According to the charging documents, organized criminal elements in China acquire gift cards through multiple fraudulent means. For example, gift cards are obtained by hacking U.S. companies, and targeting U.S. citizens through romance and elder fraud schemes. The criminal elements then send the gift card data to multiple cells of Chinese nationals operating in the United States through a Chinese-based messaging platform.
Once U.S.-based cells receive the gift card data, they then spend the gift cards to purchase high-value electronics, principally Apple products. After purchasing the Apple products, cell members consolidate the electronics in warehouses for shipment to China, Hong Kong, or countries in Southeast Asia. The cells primarily operate in states with no sales tax, such as New Hampshire, to maximize their profits.
Wu, Jiang, and Chen are members of one cell in New Hampshire. Wu and Jiang purchased fraudulent gift cards at a discount from their face value. They then either personally used the cards or disseminated them to others, including Chen, to use. Wu was responsible for $1.4 million, Jiang for $3 million, and Chen for $400,000 of fraudulent gift cards.
The charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.
Homeland Security Investigations, Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Concord Police Department led the investigation. The Merrimack County Attorney’s Office has provided valuable assistance. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander S. Chen is prosecuting the case.
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Chicago Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Drug CrimeRead the Press Release
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Edmund Omar Johnson, also known as “Chicago” and “Polo,” 44, of Chicago, Illinois, pleaded guilty today to distribution of a quantity of a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of methamphetamine.
According to court documents and statements made in court, on June 30, 2024, Johnson sold approximately 865 grams of methamphetamine to a confidential informant at a Fourth Avenue residence in Huntington. Johnson admitted to the transaction and to arranging it with the confidential informant beforehand.
Johnson is scheduled to be sentenced on May 5, 2025, and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, at least three years of supervised release, and a $1,000,000 fine.
United States Attorney Will Thompson made the announcement and commended the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cabell County Sheriff's Office.
United States District Judge Robert C. Chambers presided over the hearing. Assistant United States Attorney Joseph F. Adams is prosecuting the case.
A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia. Related court documents and information can be found on PACER by searching for Case No. 3:24-cr-184.
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Charleston Man Sentenced to 7 Years in Federal Prison for Gun ChargeRead the Press Release
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Perry JaQuan Jackson, 26, of Charleston, was sentenced to seven years in federal prison after pleading guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Evidence presented to the court showed that on March 3, 2022, Jackson was wanted on outstanding state bench warrants related to weapons and narcotics violations. Law enforcement located Jackson and arrested him at the Northwoods Mall in North Charleston. Jackson told officers he had a gun under his vehicle’s driver seat. Officers searched the car and located the gun, another gun in the glovebox, marijuana, and cash. Later testing confirmed Jackson’s DNA was located on the gun under the driver seat. Jackson has multiple felony convictions on his record including previous state weapon convictions.
United States District Judge David C. Norton sentenced Jackson to seven years imprisonment to be followed by three years of court ordered supervision. There is no parole in the federal system.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.
This case was investigated by the FBI Columbia Field Office, the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, and the North Charleston Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Lietzow is prosecuting the case.
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Casper man sentenced to 16 years for being a felon in possession of a firearm and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamineRead the Press Release
Brian Neil Wiggins, 50, of Casper, Wyoming, was sentenced to 192 months in federal prison with three years of supervised release for being a felon in possession of a firearm and for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Chief U.S. District Court Judge Scott W. Skavdahl imposed the sentence on Jan. 10, in Casper.
According to court documents, in March of 2024, the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) received a tip that Wiggins was selling methamphetamine and regularly carrying guns despite being a previously convicted felon. DCI investigated Wiggins and discovered that he was on parole and had a scheduled meeting with his parole officer in Casper on March 22, 2024. The parole officer requested assistance from DCI to search Wiggins’ truck and property. Law enforcement searched his vehicle and located a Taurus 9mm handgun, 16 grams of fentanyl (approximately 160 pills), 167 grams of suspected methamphetamine, a digital scale, and multiple small baggies. Law enforcement also searched Wiggins’ apartment and found 33 milliliters of liquid methamphetamine, a Glock .40 caliber handgun with an obliterated serial number, a 9mm high-capacity magazine, and miscellaneous drug paraphernalia. Wiggins was indicted on May 16, 2024, and pleaded guilty on August 27, 2024.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Forearms and Explosives, and DCI investigated the crime. Assistant U.S. Attorney Paige Hammer prosecuted the case.
Case No. 24-CR-00070
Convicted Felon Sentenced to 105 Months in Federal Prison for Drug and Gun ConvictionsRead the Press Release
United States Attorney Ronald C. Gathe, Jr., announced that U.S. District Judge Brian A. Jackson sentenced Damond Reynard Lockett, age 51, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to 105 months in federal prison following his convictions for possession with intent to distribute heroin and fentanyl and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The Court further sentenced Lockett to serve four years of supervised release following his term of imprisonment and ordered the firearms involved be forfeited.
According to admissions made during his plea, on May 6, 2020, narcotic detectives with the East Baton Rouge Parish Sherriff’s Office executed a search warrant on Lockett’s Bayou Fountain apartment. During the search of the residence, detectives located three bags containing over 100 grams of a mixture of heroin and fentanyl in Lockett’s bathroom and a loaded firearm in his bedroom closet.
Lockett committed this offense while he was on supervised release for his 2015 federal conviction of conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute cocaine and cocaine base, possession with the intent to distribute cocaine, and unlawful use of communication facilities, in the Middle District of Louisiana.
This case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office, and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Eli Abad and Jessica Thornhill, who also serves as the Deputy Chief of Economic Crimes.
Business owner of Belgrade company admits tax evasionRead the Press Release
MISSOULA — The owner of a business that operated in Belgrade admitted today to failing to pay federal income taxes, U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich said.
The defendant, Guy S. Cook, 59, of Dripping Springs, Texas, pleaded guilty to tax evasion. Cook faces a maximum of five years in prison, a $100,000 fine and three years of supervised release.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Kathleen L. DeSoto presided. A sentencing date will be set before U.S. District Judge Dana L. Christensen. The court will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. Cook was released pending further proceedings.
In court documents, the government alleged that from about January 2014 to Nov. 18, 2021 in Belgrade, Cook willfully attempted to evade paying income taxes for calendar years 2014 and 2015. Cook owned Bacterin International, Inc., a business that developed clinical medical laboratories. In 2014, Cook sold his shares in the company and obtained $2,467,176 in capital gains. Cook reported this income in 2014 and 2015 including taxes due of $604,574 and $39,310 respectively. Cook did not pay these amounts to the IRS, though his tax preparer advised him he was required to do so.
Between 2017 and 2021, Cook took steps to avoid paying his taxes, including using business bank accounts and a company credit card to pay more than $300,000 of his personal expenses and debts; using nominee bank accounts to remove more than $380,000 from his business for personal use; and converting more than $600,000 in his salary to stock in his business.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office is prosecuting the case. The IRS Criminal Investigation conducted the investigation.
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Bureau of Prisons Inmate Sentenced to over One Year in Prison for Offering Bribes to Corrections OfficerRead the Press Release
DETROIT – A federal inmate with the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), was sentenced to 18 months in prison today for offering bribes to a corrections officer, announced United States Attorney Dawn N. Ison.
Ison was joined in the announcement by William J. Hannah, Special Agent in Charge of the Department of Justice, Office of Inspector General.
Robert Bibbs, 28, of Chicago, Illinois, pleaded guilty in October 2024 to one count of offering bribes to a public official before United States District Judge Jonathan J.C. Grey. Federal law classifies corrections officers as public officials.
According to court documents, between April 2023 and November 2023, Bibbs became acquainted with a corrections officer (identified in the plea agreement as CO-1) while he was an inmate at the Milan, Michigan Federal Correctional Institution (FCI Milan). During this time, Bibbs asked CO-1 to purchase pouches of loose tobacco and smuggle them into the prison for him. Bibbs requested these items so he could sell the tobacco in prison at a significant profit. In September 2023, CO-1 also purchased a gold necklace which she secretly brought into the prison and gave to Bibbs. Both the tobacco and the necklace are considered contraband within FCI Milan. Contraband is defined as prohibited materials which can reasonably be expected to cause physical injury or adversely affect the security, safety, or good order of the institution. Bibbs offered to pay CO-1 for smuggling contraband into the prison for him.
United States Attorney Ison stated, “Our justice system cannot function properly if our prisons are not safe and secure. Inmates who engage in this type of prohibited conduct endanger the safety of everyone inside the prison. We will address crime wherever it happens.”
“Contraband items such as jewelry and tobacco are used as a currency within federal prisons, which undermines the safety and security of institutions,” said William J. Hannah, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Inspector General Midwestern Region. “Today’s sentencing shows that inmates who seek to bribe Correctional Officers to introduce contraband into federal prisons will be held accountable.”
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Eaton P. Brown. The investigation was conducted by the Department of Justice-Office of Inspector General
Brockton Man Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Passport FraudRead the Press Release
BOSTON – A Brockton man was sentenced yesterday for lying that his United States passport had been lost in order to secure a replacement to enter the country, when in fact, the passport had been confiscated by the prosecutor’s office in Cabo Verde following his arrest for the murders of two victims.
Johnny Barros Brandao, 42, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton to five years in prison, to be followed by two years of supervised release. In October 2024, Brandao was convicted of one count of passport fraud.
On March 27, 2014, in Cabo Verde, Brandao allegedly shot an individual in the head using a .45 caliber revolver, took one million and five hundred thousand Cape Verdean Escudos from the victim and then dumped the victim’s body on the side of a road next to a waste dump. On July 26, 2021, Brandao allegedly shot and killed another individual using a 9mm caliber firearm and threw the victim’s body off a bank at the same place as the 2014 victim.
Brandao was arrested in Cabo Verde on these charges. On Dec. 12, 2022, after a period of pretrial detention, Brandao was released subject to supervision. The Cabo Verde court also ordered that Brandao not depart Cabo Verde – confiscating his Cabo Verdean national ID card as well as his United States and Cabo Verde passports.
On Dec. 28, 2022, Brandao applied for a replacement United States passport at the U.S. Embassy in Dakar, Senegal. In the section of the form that directs the applicant to explain how his prior passport was lost or stolen, Brandao reported he had lost his passport in Dakar, Senegal while out to dinner on Dec. 25, 2022.
United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy and Special Agent in Charge Matthew O’Brien of the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) Boston Field Office made the announcement today. Valuable assistance was provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Federal Protective Services. Assistant United States Attorneys Meghan Cleary, David Tobin and Brian Sullivan of the Major Crimes Unit prosecuted the case.
Johnny Barros Brandao, 42, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton to five years in prison, to be followed by two years of supervised release. In October 2024, Brandao was convicted of one count of passport fraud.
On March 27, 2014, in Cabo Verde, Brandao allegedly shot an individual in the head using a .45 caliber revolver, took one million and five hundred thousand Cape Verdean Escudos from the victim and then dumped the victim’s body on the side of a road next to a waste dump. On July 26, 2021, Brandao allegedly shot and killed another individual using a 9mm caliber firearm and threw the victim’s body off a bank at the same place as the 2014 victim.
Brandao was arrested in Cabo Verde on these charges. On Dec. 12, 2022, after a period of pretrial detention, Brandao was released subject to supervision. The Cabo Verde court also ordered that Brandao not depart Cabo Verde – confiscating his Cabo Verdean national ID card as well as his United States and Cabo Verde passports.
On Dec. 28, 2022, Brandao applied for a replacement United States passport at the U.S. Embassy in Dakar, Senegal. In the section of the form that directs the applicant to explain how his prior passport was lost or stolen, Brandao reported he had lost his passport in Dakar, Senegal while out to dinner on Dec. 25, 2022.
United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy and Special Agent in Charge Matthew O’Brien of the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) Boston Field Office made the announcement today. Valuable assistance was provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Federal Protective Services. Assistant United States Attorneys Meghan Cleary, David Tobin and Brian Sullivan of the Major Crimes Unit prosecuted the case.
Box Elder man admits sexually abusing child on Rocky Boy’s Indian ReservationRead the Press Release
GREAT FALLS — A Box Elder man today admitted to sexually abusing a child on the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation, U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich said.
The defendant, Brian Lee Bigbow, 47, pleaded guilty to abusive sexual contact. Bigbow faces a maximum of life in prison, a $250,000 fine and five years to life of supervised release.
Chief U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris presided. The court will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. Sentencing was set for May 20. Bigbow was detained pending further proceedings.
The government alleged in court documents that in April 2021, the victim, identified as Jane Doe 1, reported to state officials that she was sexually abused by Bigbow. In subsequent interviews, Doe 1 said the sexual abuse occurred when she was in Bigbow’s bedroom and that he had sexually abused her multiple times. Doe 1 was under the age of 12 years old at the time.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office is prosecuting the case. The FBI and Rocky Boy’s Criminal Investigators conducted the investigation.
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Boulder Man Sentenced for Transportation of A MinorRead the Press Release
DENVER – The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado announces that James Wendell Dean, 54, Boulder, was sentenced to 188 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to one count of transportation of a minor across state lines with the intention of engaging in sexually explicit conduct with the minor.
“Crimes against children are the most despicable in our society,” said United States Attorney Matt Kirsch. “Our office will aggressively prosecute anyone who harms a minor.”
“This sentence serves as a reminder that protecting children from predators is a top priority for the FBI,” said FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Mark Michalek. “We will continue to support victims of child sexual exploitation and work with our law enforcement partners to hold accountable those who prey upon children.”
United States District Court Judge Daniel D. Domenico presided over the sentencing.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation Denver Field Office handled the investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Alison Connaughty handled the prosecution.
Case Number: 2023-cr-00440-DDD
Berkeley County Man Sentenced for Elder Financial AbuseRead the Press Release
MARTINSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA – Joseph Beach, age 55, of Inwood, West Virginia, was sentenced today to 41 months in federal prison for fraudulently obtaining a quarter of a million dollars from his father.
Beach pled guilty to one count of wire fraud in March 2024. According to court documents and statements made in court, Beach was the fiduciary for his father, who is under the care of a veterans' facility and receives monthly benefits. As the fiduciary, Beach received his father’s veteran’s disability, retirement, and social security payments but used them for his own benefit. The total amount of funds stolen by Beach was $253,867.12.
Beach was ordered to pay $253,876.12 in restitution and will serve three years of supervised release following his prison sentence.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Eleanor Hurney prosecuted the case on behalf of the government.
The Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and the Social Security Administration investigated.
U.S. District Judge Gina M. Groh presided.
Activity in the U.S. Attorney's OfficeRead the Press Release
Drug Trafficking
Marcus Sather, 30, of Fort Washakie, Wyoming, was sentenced to 10 month’s imprisonment with three years of supervised release, for drug trafficking and aiding and abetting. According to court documents, in January of 2024, agents with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) were conducting controlled purchases of illegal substances from known and suspected drug dealers on the Wind River Reservation. On Jan. 17, 2024, agents successfully purchased fentanyl from Sather and a co-defendant. Sather was indicted on July 17, 2024, pleaded guilty on Oct. 15, 2024, and U.S. District Court Judge Kelly H. Rankin imposed the sentence on Jan. 6, in Cheyenne. DCI and the FBI investigated the crime. Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy W. Gist prosecuted the case. Case No. 24-00120
Sarah Elizabeth Ward, 36, of Cheyenne, Wyoming, was sentenced to 60 months with three years of supervised release, for possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and methamphetamine. According to court documents, on March 9, 2024, the Wyoming Highway Patrol (WHP) conducted a traffic stop in Natrona County to execute a search warrant on Ward’s vehicle for suspected illegal drug activity. Law enforcement located approximately 430 fentanyl pills and 140 grams of methamphetamine along with a scale and small bags consistent with drug distribution. Ward was indicted on May 16, 2024, pleaded guilty on Oct. 17, 2024, and U.S. District Court Judge Kelly H. Rankin imposed the sentence on Jan. 8, in Cheyenne. DCI and the WHP investigated the crime. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mackenzie Morrison prosecuted the case. Case No. 24-00066
Marlon Forrest, 29, of Port Maria, Jamaica, was sentenced to 80 months in federal prison with three years of supervised release, for aiding and abetting the distribution of cocaine. According to court documents, in November of 2023, DCI Southwest Enforcement Team began an investigation into a cocaine drug trafficking organization that was operating in and around Jackson, Wyoming. Agents arranged for several controlled buys through Forrest over the course of a month, who sent another individual to deliver the cocaine on his behalf. Forrest ultimately admitted to redistributing ten or more kilograms of cocaine in Wyoming. Forrest was indicted on March 13, 2024, pleaded guilty on May 22, 2024, and U.S. District Court Judge Kelly H. Rankin imposed the sentence on Jan. 9, in Cheyenne. DCI investigated the crime, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Z. Seth Griswold prosecuted the case.
Illegal Re-Entry of a Previously Deported Alien
Juan Antonio Cortez-Chavez, 32, of Tepalcatepec, Michoacan, Mexico, was sentenced to time served and will be deported for illegal reentry into the United States. According to court documents, on March 5, 2024, Cortez-Chavez was arrested by WHP in Converse County for driving while under the influence. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was notified when Cortez-Chavez admitted to being a citizen of Mexico. On March 21, 2024, ICE agents obtained fingerprints that matched an existing immigration record for Cortez-Chavez who was removed from the U.S. in 2014 and had not applied for permission to reenter. ICE investigated the crime, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron J. Cook prosecuted the case. U.S. District Court Judge Kelly H. Rankin imposed the sentence on Jan. 8, in Cheyenne. Case No. 24-CR-00073
About the United States Attorney’s Office
The United States Attorney’s Office is responsible for representing the federal government in virtually all litigation involving the United States in the District of Wyoming, including all criminal prosecutions for violations of federal law, civil lawsuits brought by or against the government, and actions to collect judgments and restitution on behalf of victims and taxpayers. The Office is involved in several programs designed to make our communities safer. They include:
Environmental Justice
The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.
Project Safe Childhood
Project Safe Childhood (PSC) is a DOJ initiative that combats the proliferation of technology-facilitated sexual exploitation crimes against children. The threat of sexual predators soliciting children for sexual contact is well-known and serious.
Project Safe Neighborhoods
Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) is a nationwide commitment to reducing gun and gang crime in America by networking existing local programs that target gun crime and providing these programs with additional tools necessary to be successful.
Victim Witness Assistance
The Victim Witness Coordinator for the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Wyoming is dedicated to making sure that victims of federal crimes and their family members are treated with compassion, fairness, and respect.To report a federal crime, go to: https://www.justice.gov/actioncenter/report-crime
536 Defendants Charged with Federal Crimes Since January 2021 Through the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces ProgramRead the Press Release
PHOENIX and TUCSON, Ariz. – The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona announced the results of the last four years of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) program. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.
In the District of Arizona, the OCDETF program is a collaboration between the United States Attorney’s Office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Diplomatic Security Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The collaboration has resulted in 536 defendants being charged in 174 separate indictments since January 2021.
Representative cases from the OCDETF program over the past four years include:
United States v. Nestor Hernandez-Morales: Hernandez-Morales pleaded guilty to Possession with Intent to Distribute Methamphetamine, Possession of a Firearm in Furtherance of Drug Trafficking Activity, and Attempted Smuggling of Firearms to Promote Drug Trafficking Activity on June 18, 2024, for his role in buying and arranging delivery of high-caliber weapons and ammunition to Mexican drug cartel members. On November 19, 2024, Hernandez-Morales was sentenced to 96 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
United States v. Jose Raul Diaz-Acedo: In January 2024, Homeland Security Investigations interdicted an arsenal of weapons and ammunition set to be smuggled into Mexico, including: AR-15 rifles, over 25,000 rounds of military caliber ammunition (including 1,800 rounds of .50 BMG), and 50 auto sears designed to convert rifles into fully automatic machine guns. Diaz-Acedo, the driver of this load, was sentenced to 37 months in prison on December 5, 2024.
United States v. Keivin Crosswell-Cervantes et. al: Three co-conspirators admitted that they delivered approximately 400,000 blue fentanyl pills, approximately 20,000 multi-colored fentanyl pills (“skittles”), and approximately 25 pounds of methamphetamine to undercover officers on September 22, 2022. Law enforcement officers also seized an AK-47-style pistol, a .45 caliber Kimber 1911 semi-automatic pistol with two magazines, and a .45 caliber FN semi-automatic pistol. See October 11, 2022 press release. Keivin Crosswell-Cervantes was sentenced to 17 years in prison for Conspiracy to Distribute Fentanyl and Methamphetamine. Carlos Alberto Castro-Ruiz was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison and Alexander Ortega-Islas was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
United States v. Maria Mendoza-Mendoza: Maria Mendoza-Mendoza, aka “La Guera,” was a high-level, Honduran-based human smuggling coordinator who, along with co-conspirators throughout Central America, Mexico, and the United States, was responsible for facilitating the illegal entry, transport, and harboring of numerous undocumented noncitizens. Mendoza-Mendoza was extradited from Honduras to the United States to face charges in June 2023. After pleading guilty to Conspiracy to Transport Illegal Aliens for Profit, Mendoza-Mendoza was sentenced to 10 years in prison in May 2024.
United States v. Jesus Ernesto Dessens-Romero: A federal jury convicted Dessens-Romero for his role as a human smuggling foot guide in an incident involving a migrant death. Dessens-Romero led a group of migrants on a perilous route through the mountains. When the victim became extremely ill, Dessens-Romero left her behind and continued with the other migrants until they were picked up by unidentified co-conspirators. The victim died; her remains were not discovered until nine months later. Dessens-Romero was convicted at trial and sentenced to 10 years in prison in July 2024.
United States v. Peter Vega: A federal grand jury indicted Vega for his role as a leader of a drug trafficking organization that distributed methamphetamine and fentanyl throughout the United States. Vega coordinated the shipping of methamphetamine and transportation of fentanyl and the laundering of the proceeds from the drug sales. After being indicted, Vega fled to Mexico. Through international cooperation, Vega was apprehended in Mexico and deported back to the United States in January 2023. Vega pleaded guilty to drug and laundering charges and was sentenced to 15 years in prison in June 2024.
United States v. Luis Salvador Flores: In October 2022, Luis Salvador Flores was sentenced to 84 months in prison, followed by 36 months of supervised release, after previously pleading guilty to Possession of Firearms by a Convicted Felon. Law enforcement officers from the Pima County Sheriff’s Department stopped Flores for a suspected traffic code infraction as he was driving to oversee a methamphetamine sale in Tucson. Inside of Flores’s vehicle, officers found numerous weapons, as well as magazines and ammunition. Flores intended to provide “security” for the drug deal, which was anticipated to involve approximately 200 pounds of methamphetamine. The intended transaction never occurred because Flores was intercepted by the law enforcement officers as he was enroute to the drug deal location.
United States v. Hector Francisco Ramirez-Roman: Ramirez-Roman, a commercial truck driver, pleaded guilty to Possession with Intent to Distribute 50 Grams or More of a Mixture or Substance Containing a Detectable Amount of Methamphetamine. He had attempted to transport 332 kilograms of liquid methamphetamine in the gas tank of his tractor-trailer, but U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents discovered the methamphetamine when he was stopped for inspection as he was crossing from Mexico into the United States. In July 2023, he was sentenced to 108 months in prison, followed by 48 months of supervised release.
United States v. Martin Garcia-Velazquez, et al.: Garcia-Velazquez was convicted of Conspiracy to Transport and Harbor Illegal Aliens for Profit for his leadership role in organizing the transportation of at least 1,000 undocumented noncitizens from the Mexico border to houses in and around Phoenix over several years. In March 2024, he was sentenced to 90 months in prison, followed by 36 months of supervised release. As a result of this multi-year investigation, federal agents seized and forfeited over $1 million, numerous firearms, with accompanying magazines and ammunition, and five vehicles.
United States v. Enrique Flores-Diaz, et al.:Flores-Diaz pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute Fentanyl for his part in a plan to sell approximately 90,000 counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl with three other persons. In February 2023, Flores-Diaz was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison. In December 2023, one co-conspirator was sentenced to 144 months in prison, for his role in the plan to distribute the counterfeit pills containing fentanyl and his unlawful possession of a firearm.
United States v Dennis Kelly, et al.: A federal grand jury indicted Kelly and multiple co-conspirators for Conspiracy to Distribute Fentanyl and Methamphetamine, Possession with Intent to Distribute Fentanyl and Methamphetamine, and International Money Laundering in May of 2022. Kelly supervised and directed several co-conspirators to distribute large quantities of methamphetamine and fentanyl on his behalf between November 2020 and August 2021. Kelly pleaded guilty to all three charges and received a sentence of 14 years in prison in June 2024.
United States v Jesus Hector Lagarda-Gil: Lagarda-Gil was sentenced to 11 years in prison in January of 2024 after pleading guilty to Conspiracy to Distribute Methamphetamine. Lagarda-Gil negotiated and coordinated the delivery of over 300 pounds of methamphetamine to undercover agents during a four-month period in 2022.
United States v. Charles Corey McCoy: In June 2023, McCoy was sentenced to 180 months in prison and five years of supervised release. McCoy had previously pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute 500 Grams of More of Methamphetamine and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering in November 2022.
United States v. Oscar Martinez-Miranda et al.: A federal grand jury indicted Martinez-Miranda and Jesus Ruiz-Reyes in March 2023 for Conspiracy to Distribute Controlled Substances and Possession with Intent to Distribute Methamphetamine, Cocaine, and Heroin. Investigators seized over 52 kilograms of methamphetamine, 1.3 kilograms of cocaine, and 1 kilogram of heroin. Both defendants pleaded guilty in 2023. Martinez-Miranda was sentenced to 108 months in prison in January 2024 and Ruiz-Reyes was sentenced to 96 months in prison in May 2024.
United States v. Yvette Porras-Ochoa: Porras-Ochoa was indicted by a federal grand jury for her role as a supervisor of a drug trafficking and money laundering organization involved in the distribution of cocaine and prescription drugs. Porras-Ochoa pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute 50 Grams or More of Cocaine, Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute Prescription Controlled Substances Oxycodone and Promethazine-Codeine, and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering in August 2024. She was sentenced to 15 years in prison in December 2024.
United States v. Gabriel Vejar-Cota: A federal grand jury indicted Vejar-Cota who was involved in the operation of a stash house in Phoenix where investigators recovered 49.855 kilograms of cocaine, 14.82 kilograms of methamphetamine, approximately two kilograms of fentanyl, approximately one kilogram of heroin, $19,970, and two firearms. Vejar-Cota pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute 500 Grams or More of a Mixture or Containing a Detectable Amount of Cocaine and 50 Grams or More of a Mixture or Substance Containing a Detectable Amount of Methamphetamine in October 2023. He was sentenced to over 10 years in prison in April 2024.
United States v. Jose Angel Rodriguez: A federal grand jury indicted Rodriguez for his role as a supervisor of a drug trafficking and money laundering organization involved in the cross-country distribution of methamphetamine and fentanyl. Rodriguez pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute 40 Grams or More of a Mixture or Containing a Detectable Amount of Fentanyl and 50 Grams or More of a Mixture or Containing a Detectable Amount of Methamphetamine and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering in December 2023. He was sentenced to 108 months in prison in October 2024.
United States v. Sally Joyce Nyemba: Nyemba – who was a practicing defense attorney – was indicted by a federal grand jury for her role in negotiating the purchase of two pounds of methamphetamine and 4,000 fentanyl-laced pills. Nyemba pleaded guilty to Attempted Possession with Intent to Distribute Methamphetamine in August 2023. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison in April 2024.
United States v. Heriberto Lopez-Landeros: Lopez-Landeros was responsible for importing large amounts of methamphetamine, fentanyl, and heroin from Mexico and transporting these drugs across the United States. He recruited semi-truck drivers to transport the drugs. During the investigation, agents seized 83 kilograms of methamphetamine, 12 kilograms of fentanyl, and 645 grams of heroin. Lopez-Landeros pleaded guilty to Possession with Intent to Distribute Methamphetamine in August 2024. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison in November 2024.
RELEASE NUMBER: 2025-004_OCDETF Program
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For more information on the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/az/
Follow the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, on X @USAO_AZ for the latest news.
Monday 13 January 2025
Woman admits assaulting victim in Browning on Blackfeet Indian ReservationRead the Press Release
GREAT FALLS — A Browning woman accused of striking another woman from behind, causing serious injury to the victim’s eye, in Browning, on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, admitted to an assault charge today, U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich said.
The defendant, Autumn Rose Rider, 30, pleaded guilty to assault resulting in serious bodily injury. Rider faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.
Chief U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris presided. The court will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. Sentencing was set for March 20, 2025. Rider was detained pending further proceedings.
In court documents, the government alleged that on July 24, 2022, the victim, Jane Doe, and Rider’s father drove Rider to a residence in Browning. While Jane Doe was standing outside of the vehicle and getting back into the car, Rider hit her from behind. The assault caused a laceration and caused Jane Doe to feel like there was a piece of glass in her eye. The victim was not sure if Rider hit her with a bottle or struck her with a fist and broke her glasses. Jane Doe was ultimately transported to Kalispell Regional Hospital for treatment of injuries to her eye and face.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office is prosecuting the case. The FBI and Blackfeet Law Enforcement Services conducted the investigation.
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Wisconsin Man Pleads Guilty to Failing to Pay Employment TaxesRead the Press Release
United States Attorney Gregory J. Haanstad announced that on January 8, 2025, Senior United States District Judge William C. Griesbach accepted the guilty plea of Douglas Larson to one count of failure to truthfully account for and pay over employment taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7202.
On November 15, 2024, a one-count information was filed alleging that Larson had failed to pay over employment taxes for each quarter from January 2018 through September 2021. During that time period, Larson failed to pay over approximately
$396,082.77 in employment taxes that he withheld from his employees' paychecks. According to the plea agreement, Larson was the owner and operator of Mods International, later known as Mods Client Services (Mods), which manufactured and installed residential and commercial buildings out of shipping containers.
In addition to the tax loss alleged in the information, the parties agreed in the plea agreement that Mods (and a related company owned and operated by Larson) failed to pay over employment taxes they withheld as well as employment taxes they owed before and after time period described above. The total tax loss agreed to in the plea agreement was $1,102,805.13.
Sentencing is scheduled for April 4, 2025, at 10:30 a.m., before Judge Griesbach. At sentencing, Larson faces up to five years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine. He also faces up to three years of supervised release after completing any period of imprisonment.
The IRS, Criminal Investigation Division, investigated the case, which Assistant United States Attorney Zachary J. Corey is prosecuting.
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For Additional Information Contact: Public Information Officer [email protected]
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Virginia Construction Company Owner Pleads Guilty to Filing False Tax ReturnsRead the Press Release
A Virginia man pleaded guilty today to filing false tax returns underreporting the income he received through his construction company.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Timothy Agnew owned and operated Red Hill Construction (RHC), which was located in Hillsville, Virginia. RHC repaired and installed roofs, remodeled homes and built home additions. Between 2017 and 2021, Agnew filed false personal tax returns that substantially underreported his gross receipts, and thus his income, from RHC. Specifically, Agnew omitted over $2,000,000 in gross receipts earned from construction projects for which the customers did not directly report those payments to the IRS, through IRS Form 1099. In all, Agnew caused a tax loss to the IRS of over $375,000.
Agnew is scheduled to be sentenced on April 3. He faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison as well as a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Acting U.S. Attorney Zachary T. Lee for the Western District of Virginia made the announcement.
IRS Criminal Investigation is investigating the case.
Trial Attorney Brian Flanagan of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee Brett for the District of Western District of Virginia are prosecuting the case.
Vanessa R. Waldref to Conclude Her Service as U.S. AttorneyRead the Press Release
Spokane, Washington – United States Attorney Vanessa R. Waldref announced that her service as the chief federal law enforcement officer for Eastern Washington will conclude later this month. Her departure coincides with the transition to a new presidential administration and the traditional appointment of new leaders for federal agencies. U.S. Attorney Waldref was recommended by Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, nominated by President Joseph R. Biden, unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate, and sworn into office on October 7, 2021. U.S. Attorney Waldref is the first woman to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington.
“Serving as U.S. Attorney has been the honor of a lifetime,” stated U.S. Attorney Waldref. “Every day I witness firsthand the unwavering dedication and extraordinary skill of the federal prosecutors, support staff, and law enforcement partners, who routinely make unseen sacrifices to protect our community. Eastern Washington and our nation are safer and stronger because of their efforts.”
Under her historic leadership, U.S. Attorney Waldref transformed the U.S. Attorney’s Office, expanding its footprint by opening a staffed Richland Branch office, hiring a record number of federal prosecutors and staff, modernizing the Office’s electronic discovery practice, and spearheading innovative collaborations with law enforcement and community stakeholders.
“When I became the United States Attorney, my vision was building an office responsive to the needs of the community, focused on public health and safety, fighting fraud, protecting civil rights, and addressing the crisis of Missing or Murdered Indigenous People,” continued U.S. Attorney Waldref. “Since day one, my goals were to forge strong partnerships with law enforcement and community stakeholders, advocate for resources to better serve all of Eastern Washington and prioritize the most impactful cases to protect our community.”
Beyond Eastern Washington, U.S. Attorney Waldref brought her expertise to Washington, DC, and impacted the Department of Justice’s national legal policy on key areas – environmental justice, public safety on Native American reservations, combatting fraud, and addressing the opioid epidemic. On December 6, 2023, U.S. Attorney Waldref testified before the United States Senate on behalf of the Department of Justice about the fentanyl epidemic on Tribal lands and its impact on public safety and the Missing or Murdered Indigenous People crisis.
During U.S. Attorney Waldref’s tenure, the Eastern District of Washington achieved significant successes, including groundbreaking criminal and affirmative civil enforcements.
Combatting Violent Crime and the Opioid Epidemic
In Spring 2024, after a long-term joint federal and state investigation, criminal conspiracy charges were filed against over 40 individuals connected to the La Nuestra Familia prison gang, including several gang leaders who were repeat violent offenders and drug traffickers. The Office also prosecuted the “Fetty Bros” drug trafficking organization, which used snapchat and other social media to obtain deadly fentanyl pills in 10,000-pack quantities and distributed those and other drugs into the Spokane community and across the United States.
In addition to prosecuting large-scale drug trafficking organizations, U.S. Attorney Waldref launched Operation Engage Spokane, a comprehensive community-level approach for addressing the opioid epidemic through prevention, treatment, and education. Ms. Waldref and her team also collaborated with the Spokane Alliance for Fentanyl Education to educate youth on the dangers of fentanyl and to remove the stigma from seeking life-saving treatment.
Protecting the Vulnerable
U.S. Attorney Waldref has emphasized the protection of our most vulnerable citizens from sexual predators, forging a strong partnership with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program (ICAC) to achieve justice for victims of child exploitation. Significant cases included guilty verdicts and 30-year sentences against a defendant who was tried and convicted of attempting to kidnap, rape, and traffic a young Spokane child and against a Kennewick couple who engaged in years-long sexual abuse of a minor victim and recorded images depicting the abuse.
Partnership with Tribal Nations
Throughout U.S. Attorney Waldref’s service, she has worked closely with Tribal Nations to support Tribal sovereignty, recognize Tribal treaty rights, reduce violent crime on Native American Reservations, and build trust through community and educational events, in order to meet and share resources with victims and their families. U.S. Attorney Waldref has also worked tirelessly to bring awareness to the crisis of Missing or Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP).
U.S. Attorney Waldref successfully advocated for additional resources to protect Tribal communities, including new attorneys and support staff to serve victims of crime. She hired the District’s first MMIP AUSA, Bree R. Black Horse, who is specifically dedicated to prosecuting MMIP-related cases, expanding outreach to Native American communities, and providing training regarding culturally sensitive practices for helping victims of violent crimes in Indian country.
“Native Americans experience some of the highest rates of violence in the country, a situation that is all the more tragic in light of the generations of trauma already suffered by Indigenous people,” stated U.S. Attorney Waldref. “The United States has a special trust relationship with each of the Tribes in Eastern Washington, and my office has focused on enhancing public safety through building relationships with the communities we serve and supporting wrap-around services to ensure victims’ voices are heard and that everyone has access to justice.”
Significant prosecutions of individuals who have perpetrated violent crime in Indian country include obtaining guilty verdicts in the trial of James and Donovan Cloud for multiple murders, kidnapping, and carjacking on Yakima Nation’s Treaty Day in 2019. Late last year, her team convicted Zachary Holt and Dezmonique Tenzsley of double murder, attempted murder of a federal officer, as well as of robberies on both the Colville and Nez Perce Reservations. As part of its efforts to address the MMIP crisis, the office also has significantly increased its prosecutions of cases involving intimate partner violence.
Environmental Protection & Public Health
U.S. Attorney Waldref was selected by Attorney General Merrick Garland as Chair of the DOJ’s Environmental Justice & Environmental Issues Subcommittee. Under her leadership, the Subcommittee played a key role in advising the Department and the 94 U.S. Attorney’s Offices on developing environmental justice practices and building task forces to effectively investigate and prosecute environmental crimes. U.S. Attorney Waldref led by example, working with federal, state, Tribal and local partners to launch Eastern Washington’s Environmental Task Force. The Office had several successes in protecting the region’s public health and safety:
- Indicting several business owners and companies for smuggling and illegally importing tens of millions of dollars in emission defeat devices from Canada into Eastern Washington;
- Successfully prosecuting a Yakima-area juice manufacturing company and its owner for violating food safety laws and selling contaminated fruit juice to school lunch programs that serve low-income students;
- Securing injunctive relief under the Safe Drinking Water Act against several Lower Yakima Valley dairies for failing to control nitrate contamination, resulting from their manure practices that endanger the community’s access to safe and clean water; and
- Hosting the Justice Department’s first regional summit focused on defending and strengthening Tribal homelands, climate adaptation, resilience and environmental justice.
Fighting Fraud and Protecting Taxpayers
U.S. Attorney Waldref’s leadership also emphasized fighting fraud and public corruption, and her White Collar Section’s work combatting financial fraud and recovering damages continued to set the standard for U.S. Attorney Offices throughout the nation. The Office’s efforts resulted in several of the most significant settlements in Eastern Washington history, highlighted by a significant increase in health care fraud work, the launch of Eastern Washington’s innovative and prolific Covid-19 Fraud Strike Force, and the Ghost Cattle prosecution.
- The U.S. Attorney’s Office obtained two of the largest health care fraud settlements in Eastern Washington history – against Providence Health & Services and Lincare Holdings, Inc., who respectively paid out $22.7 million and $29 million to resolve claims under the False Claims Act. These cases prioritized patient care and recovered funds for individuals who were overcharged for medical devices.
- Since its inception in 2022, Eastern Washington’s COVID-19 Fraud Strike Force has filed 37 indictments and recovered more than $30 million in penalties, fines, seizures, and restitution judgments against dozens of individuals and companies who fraudulently obtained COVID relief funding.
- The “Ghost Cattle” prosecution of Tri-Cities rancher Cody Easterday for defrauding Tyson Foods and another company out of more than $244 million for approximately 265,000 head of cattle that did not exist.
Civil Rights
Throughout her service, U.S. Attorney Waldref has taken a comprehensive approach to protecting the civil rights of all who call Eastern Washington home. Examples of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s accomplishments in this area include:
- Giving United Against Hate presentations with community stakeholders throughout Eastern Washington to encourage the reporting of hate crimes and hate incidents and allow for more effective law enforcement response;
- Establishing a dedicated Civil Rights Team to process complaints and concerns raised by the community, including holding businesses accountable for violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act;
- Partnering with the Northwest Justice Project to hold landlords accountable for wrongfully claiming federal funds while providing substandard housing;
- Protecting students and ensuring school districts respond effectively to harassment and discrimination against students based on sex, race, color and national origin.
Partnerships with State, and Local Law Enforcement
U.S. Attorney Waldref worked tirelessly to build strong relationships between federal, state, local and Tribal law enforcement, with a focus on sharing information and resources to solve problems and promote public safety.
“One of my goals as U.S. Attorney was to ensure our cases represented all of Eastern Washington,” U.S. Attorney Waldref explained. “I am proud to say that during my tenure, we prosecuted cases from each of the twenty counties east of the Cascade Mountains.” Under U.S. Attorney Waldref’s leadership, the U.S. Attorney’s Office even assisted on cases filed in state court, including the investigation and charging of a 1997 homicide in Stevens County.
U.S. Attorney Waldref forged relationships to focus on community-based crime prevention strategies, such as her office’s Safe Homes, Safe Community Initiative in Yakima and Spokane, which brought together local and federal law enforcement, county prosecutors, and domestic violence prevention advocates to stop gun violence and prevent domestic violence homicides.
The Office also leveraged resources to appoint Special Assistant United States Attorneys that prosecuted cases focused on sexual exploitation and domestic violence in federal, state, and Tribal courts. Currently, the U.S. Attorney’s Office is recruiting applicants for a SAUSA position with the City of Spokane to focus on drug prosecutions.
Transformation of the Eastern District
The U.S Attorney’s Office itself has transformed under U.S. Attorney Waldref’s leadership. Opening a Richland Branch office had been considered for nearly 25 years, and U.S. Attorney Waldref successfully implemented a plan for achieving this goal within her first year of service. Additionally, through her dedicated advocacy within the Department, U.S. Attorney Waldref hired a record number of federal prosecutors and staff. She also focused on modernizing the Office’s electronic discovery practices to support sophisticated litigation and the increasing volume of electronic evidence. U.S. Attorney Waldref expanded the office’s community engagement and outreach to better listen to constituents, build trust, and ensure that the public understood the work of the Office and its law enforcement partners.
Upon U.S. Attorney Waldref’s announcement that her service would be coming to an end, First Assistant United States Attorney Richard Barker stated, “In a little more than three years, Vanessa has done more than some prosecutors achieve in a lifetime. Her contributions to the U.S. Attorney’s Office will live on for years to come. From the initiatives and programs she established to the incredible attorneys that she hired, U.S. Attorney Waldref has helped make Eastern Washington a safer place to live, work, and raise families. Serving as her First Assistant has been one of the highlights of my career.”
Alison Gregoire, the first woman to serve as Criminal Chief for the Eastern District of Washington stated, “It has been my honor to serve alongside Vanessa. Her commitment to justice, to victims, and to the people of Eastern Washington is unparalleled. While we will miss her greatly, the foundation she built will endure.”
Senior United States District Judge Edward F. Shea stated, “The expansion of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Richland continues to strengthen the ongoing-Federal-Local law enforcement efforts in Southeastern Washington for the benefit of all who live here. I am certain that the people of the Tri-Cities are grateful that U.S. Attorney Waldref made the Richland Branch Office a reality.”
Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, First Assistant United States Attorney Richard Barker will become the Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington after U.S. Attorney Waldref’s departure.
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U.S. Attorney Waldref is a native of Spokane with deep roots in Eastern Washington. She served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington from 2013 to 2020, handling a wide variety of civil and criminal cases. Immediately prior to her appointment as U.S. Attorney, Ms. Waldref served as a Trial Attorney with the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the United States Department of Justice where she litigated cases in federal courts around the country arising under a range of environmental protection statutes.
From 2015-2021, Ms. Waldref has taught courses in Environmental Law, Labor & Employment Law, and Conflict of Laws at Gonzaga University School of Law. She previously worked in private practice at two Spokane-based law firms and as a litigation associate at Morrison Foerster in Washington D.C.
After graduating as the valedictorian from Gonzaga Preparatory School in Spokane, U.S. Attorney Waldref received her B.A., magna cum laude, from Georgetown University in 2002, and her J.D., magna cum laude, from Georgetown University in 2008. Following law school, she served as a law clerk to the Honorable John D. Bates on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
United States Attorney’s Office releases 2024 Community ReportRead the Press Release
FARGO – United States Attorney Mac Schneider today announced the release of the 2024 Community Report of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of North Dakota (USAO-ND). The report summarizes the office’s efforts over the course of fiscal year 2024 in the courtroom and in communities throughout the district.
“I could not be prouder of the career prosecutors, civil litigators, and talented staff of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of North Dakota,” Schneider said. “They exhibit not just excellence in the courtroom, but also a commitment to our communities and law enforcement partners that makes North Dakota a safer place. Upholding the rule of law, keeping our country safe, and protecting civil rights is not just a mission statement, it’s the daily work of the office.”
According to Department of Justice statistics, USAO-ND was number one among the 10 districts in the Eighth Circuit in defendants per Assistant United States Attorney and number six out of 94 districts nationally in this category. Even with this significant caseload, the office secured a conviction rate of over 95% in 2024. Additionally, over 95% of criminal appeals decided on the merits were resolved in USAO-ND’s favor last year.
The report discusses office initiatives to target the drivers of violent crime, new resources to increase public safety in Indian country, and prosecutions to protect children, combat dangerous drugs, fight fraud, and keep people safe along the northern border. The important work of the office’s Civil Division, which includes protecting taxpayers by representing the United States in complex litigation and enforcing federal civil rights statutes, is also highlighted.
The full report is available here:
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United States Attorney’s Office Releases 2024 Fourth Quarter Immigration Enforcement StatisticsRead the Press Release
PHOENIX, Ariz. – Today, the United States Attorney’s Office announced its immigration enforcement statistics for October 1, 2024, to December 31, 2024. These cases are prosecuted in partnership with the Tucson and Yuma Sectors of the Customs and Border Protection’s U.S. Border Patrol, along with Homeland Security Investigations, and assistance from other federal, state, and county agencies. In the three-month period ending December 31, 2024, the United States brought criminal charges in Arizona against 3,141 individuals who illegally entered or re-entered the United States. In its ongoing effort to deter unlawful immigration, the United States also filed 309 cases against individuals responsible for smuggling undocumented noncitizens to and within the District of Arizona. In this time period, the United States also prosecuted 46 reactive drug cases arising out of immigration ports of entry and checkpoints.
Reducing migrant smuggling and mitigating the risk to communities impacted by these offenses continue to be priorities for the Office and its law enforcement partners. Some of these prosecutions are directed against leaders and coordinators of alien smuggling organizations, including from Mexico and from Colombia, and also including those tied to larger transnational criminal organizations. Alien smugglers can also be home-grown, and it is often citizens of the United States who engage in dangerous crimes that hurt or kill economic migrants. Other prosecutions are aimed at deterring young adult drivers, often recruited over social media platforms, from engaging in this dangerous activity. Prosecutions against young drivers include cases brought against two juvenile smugglers during this time period, and the Office has successfully sought justice against those responsible for the online recruitment.
Protecting law enforcement officers is a key part of border vigilance. During this time period, federal prosecutors brought charges against two defendants accused of assaulting federal officers.
These statistics represent United States Attorney’s Office prosecutions only. The numbers do not include individuals apprehended by immigration enforcement officials and subjected solely to administrative process.
RELEASE NUMBER: 2025-002_2024 Fourth Quarter Immigration Enforcement Statistics
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For more information on the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/az/
Follow the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, on X @USAO_AZ for the latest news.United States Attorney Dawn N. Ison Announces ResignationRead the Press Release
DETROIT – United States Attorney Dawn N. Ison announced her resignation today, effective January 19, 2025.
“Capping my years-long public service to the Eastern District of Michigan as the United States Attorney will forever serve as the crowning point of my career,” said U.S. Attorney Dawn N. Ison. “I want to express my sincere appreciation to President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland for the opportunity to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office in this District. I am also extremely grateful for the confidence U.S. Senators Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters had in me to carry out this charge. With the extraordinary talent at the U.S. Attorney’s Office and our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, I am extremely proud of all that we have accomplished to reduce violent crime, empower communities through transparency and engagement, and protect the civil rights of all within our borders. We have collaborated with purpose, used innovative and evidence-based strategies to operate under the principles of focus, balance, and fairness in our work, and effectively included community stakeholders as partners in our efforts. It is through this shared responsibility for safety that we have accomplished so much. And so it is my hope as I prepare to leave this office, that this work—this partnership—will continue.”
Ms. Ison was nominated by President Joseph R. Biden on November 12, 2021, and confirmed by the Senate on December 14, 2021. She was sworn in as the chief federal law enforcement officer for the Eastern District of Michigan on December 21, 2021.
Under Ms. Ison’s leadership, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan worked to rebuild community trust in law enforcement, restructure the office’s approach to violent crime, and reinvigorate the office’s civil rights practice.
Rebuilding Community Trust
Under Ms. Ison’s leadership the office engaged in outreach to communities across the District. This community engagement included communities at risk of discrimination or hate crimes, communities experiencing disproportionate rates of violence, and returning citizens. That engagement also included transparency about the office’s work and enforcement efforts, educational programming, prevention efforts, and listening sessions to understand the specific concerns and needs of the various diverse communities within the District.
“I sincerely hope that any legacy I leave includes empowering communities to know that they deserve to live in peaceful neighborhoods, free of violence, hate, and other threats and that they are partners in this effort to achieve public safety for all,” stated U.S. Attorney Ison.
Restructuring Approach to Violent Crime
Ms. Ison prioritized lowering the rate of violent crime in the district which resulted in a restructuring of the office’s approach to violent crime. In 2023, the office formalized its violence reduction strategy: One Eastern District of Michigan or One EDMI. The initiative is designed to identify evidence-based strategies that have proven effective in reducing violent crime and bringing together a coalition of community, government, and law enforcement stakeholders to implement those strategies. One EDMI is a vision for the District that aims to empower local communities to use those tools they believe will be the most effective in their area, rather than apply the same practices to every situation or location.
Under Ms. Ison’s leadership, and as a part of the One EDMI partnership, the office relied on evidence-based strategies and partnered with stakeholders in the community, government, and law enforcement to lower the rate of violent crime. As a result, Assistant United States Attorneys were able to focus their efforts on the true drivers of violence–the people, groups, and places most likely to be engaged in violent crime. The office’s efforts coalesced around three principles: focus, balance, and fairness, with the goal of balancing law enforcement strategies with prevention and outreach to deter future violence. The office also committed to being transparent about its work and its outcomes so that the community would commit to this effort with a renewed confidence in the fairness of our approach.
In April 2023, the office announced the creation of the first One EDMI subgroup, One Detroit. The United States Attorney’s Office joined with a broad coalition of law enforcement, government, community, and faith partners to create One Detroit. The One Detroit partners committed to reducing violence while fostering legitimacy through engagement, coordination, and action.
In addition to revamping the enforcement strategy, Ms. Ison and the One Detroit partners focused on crime prevention. One Detroit’s prevention efforts brought Peacenics to Detroit’s 8th and 9th Precincts over the last three summers. The Peacenics are a collective gathering of the community and law enforcement coming together in the name of peace and where residents can have fun, engage with law enforcement, and obtain resources to improve the quality of their lives. The Peacenics featured vendors offering a variety of resources including job training, literacy programs, mental health and medical screenings, utility assistance, educational and vocational opportunities, tutorial and career development programs, expungement assistance, and more.
One Detroit’s reentry pillar focused on engaging with justice-impacted residents through community roundtables. The roundtables are made up of people who are currently on federal supervised release or state court probation who have been identified by the United States Probation Department and the Michigan Department of Corrections as being at moderate or severe risk of committing violent crimes. More than 200 justice-impacted residents have been served through the community roundtables so far.
One Detroit’s efforts have been successful. Violent crime in Detroit has plummeted to historic lows. Detroit ended 2024 with 203 criminal homicides, a 19% drop from 2023, and the fewest number of homicides since 1965. As a result, the One Detroit Violence Reduction Partnership was recognized as a national model by the Department of Justice.
The U.S. Attorney’s office has implemented elements of the violence reduction strategy across the Eastern District of Michigan, focusing its enforcement efforts on the drivers of violence. Those efforts have resulted in significant reductions in violent crime in Jackson and Pontiac. The prevention and reentry strategies have also been deployed elsewhere in the Eastern District of Michigan as Flint hosted its first community roundtable for justice-impacted residents in November 2024.
Protecting Civil Rights
Protecting civil rights has long been a top priority for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan and the Department of Justice. Similarly, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan has a long history of engaging in robust civil rights enforcement efforts. But under Ms. Ison’s leadership, the office redoubled its efforts. In addition to the office’s Civil Rights Unit, which is responsible for pursing civil enforcement actions, she formed the new Public Corruption and Civil Rights Unit to emphasize our commitment to prosecuting criminal civil rights cases. Ms. Ison paired these vigorous prosecutions with robust community engagement. During Ms. Ison’s tenure, the United States Attorney’s office has trained more than 800 community members how to identify, report, and help prevent hate crimes in 10 events across the District as part of DOJ’s United Against Hate Initiative. The U.S. Attorney’s Office has also handled several significant civil rights matters under the leadership of U.S. Attorney Ison. Those matters include:
Prosecuting Traditional Federal Crimes
Under Ms. Ison’s leadership, the office also focused on rooting out public corruption, combatting white collar crime, including pandemic-related fraud, and protecting the District’s citizens. Significant accomplishments in those areas include:
- The Mayor of Inkster was indicted and later pleaded guilty to bribery charges.
- The Mayor of Taylor was sentenced to nearly 6 years in prison for conspiracy to receive bribes and wire fraud.
- The President of the Madison Heights School Board pleaded guilty to bribery and tax evasion charges and was sentenced to almost 4 years in prison.
- A guilty plea to wire fraud and money laundering charges from the former Chief Financial Officer of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy for embezzling more than $40 million from the nonprofit. The plea also included a restitution agreement requiring him to pay no less than $44.3 million in restitution because of his conduct.
- The office has charged 127 individuals with participating in pandemic fraud schemes, ranging from unemployment insurance fraud conspiracies to fraud in pandemic loan programs. Of the individuals charged in such cases, the United States has thus far obtained more than 81 convictions.
- FCA US LLC (now known as Stellantis) paid a $300 million fine after pleading guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States as part of a scheme to cheat U.S. regulators and customers by making false and misleading representations about its emissions control systems on diesel vehicles.
- A conviction at trial against an ISIS fighter who left his home in Michigan and travelled to Yemen and Syria where he obtained ISIS training and spent more than 2 years as an ISIS soldier.
- The U.S. Attorney’s Office under Ms. Ison’s leadership has also protected the federal treasury by successfully defending lawsuits brought against the United States and collecting dollars that were owed to the United States. The office has collected more than $400 million in criminal and civil actions in judgments, fines, restitution, and forfeiture. These funds were returned to victims and taxpayers and represent more than four times the office’s operating budget over the last three years.
Ms. Ison became U.S. Attorney after serving as an Assistant United States Attorney for 19 years. In addition to being United States Attorney, Ms. Ison also served on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, advising the Attorney General on policy, procedure, and management impacting U.S. Attorney’s Offices.
Prior to becoming United States Attorney, Ms. Ison served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Public Corruption Unit, the Drug Task Force, and the General Crimes Units. She also served for four years as the Chief of the Drug Task Force. Prior to her government service, Ms. Ison spent twelve years in private practice as criminal defense attorney. U.S. Attorney Ison has not announced her future plans.
Under the Vacancies Reform Act, First Assistant United States Attorney, Julie A. Beck will become the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan until a successor for U.S. Attorney Ison is nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office is charged with enforcing federal criminal laws, protecting civil rights, and representing the federal government in civil litigation in 34 counties in the Eastern District of Michigan. The Office currently has approximately 120 Assistant U.S. Attorneys and approximately 90 staff members at offices in Detroit, Flint, and Bay City.
United States Attorney Clifford D. Johnson Announces DepartureRead the Press Release
HAMMOND –United States Attorney Clifford D. Johnson publicly announces today, effective at 11:59 p.m. on January 17, 2025, he will be stepping down as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana. U.S. Attorney Johnson, on December 16, 2024, tendered resignation letters to President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. and United States Attorney General Merrick Garland.
United States Attorney Johnson said, “It has been an honor and a privilege to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana. I wish to thank President Biden, Attorney General Garland and Senator Young and former Senator Braun for the opportunity to serve the citizens of the United States as this District’s U.S. Attorney. Serving as the Northern District’s U.S. Attorney is the capstone of my career in public service.”
U.S. Attorney Johnson was nominated by President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. on July 26, 2021 and unanimously confirmed by the Senate on September 30, 2021 for the Northern District of Indiana United States Attorney position. He previously was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Indiana from 1986 to August 2020. During his tenure with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Indiana, Mr. Johnson held numerous supervisory/management positions, including Chief of the Civil Division from 1997 to 2010 and twice serving as the First Assistant U.S. Attorney from (June 2010 to March 2017 and October 2017 to August 2020). Mr. Johnson, pursuant to the Vacancy Reform Act, served as the District’s Acting U.S. Attorney from March 2017 to October 2017. Before joining the United States Attorney’s Office in January 1986, Mr. Johnson was a Trial Attorney in the Employment Litigation Section of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division in Washington, D.C. from August 1980 to December 1985.
Mr. Johnson, a Gary, Indiana native, received his J.D. from Valparaiso University Law School in 1980 and his B.A. from Valparaiso University in 1976.
Under the Vacancy Reform Act, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Tina L. Nommay, who has been with the Department of Justice for over 30 years, will assume the role of Acting U.S. Attorney following U.S. Attorney Johnson’s departure.
U.S. Attorney Will Thompson Announces the HOPE Family Drug Summit to Be Held on Wednesday, January 15, 2025, at the University of CharlestonRead the Press Release
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – United States Attorney Will Thompson is joining with numerous partners to hold the HOPE (Healing, Opportunities and Possibilities to Empower) Family Drug Summit on Wednesday, January 15, 2025, at the University of Charleston.
The daylong summit is free and will focus on West Virginia families impacted by Substance Use Disorder (SUD). The summit will bring SUD survivors, families, and the professionals who support them together to share information, build connections, foster collaboration and strengthen partnerships to provide HOPE to those suffering from SUD as well as their children and families.
“Whether it is a child, parent or other family member struggling with addiction or a loved one lost to an overdose, virtually no one in West Virginia has been left unaffected by the drug epidemic,” Thompson said. “This summit is about hope and showing that recovery is real, and that those suffering from the impact of SUD are not alone. This is another way to make our communities safer.”
Summit topics include the neurobiology of addiction, evidence-based mentoring for youth in foster and kinship care, and ways to navigate treatment, recovery and support systems. Summit attendees will hear from fellow West Virginians who have lost family members to overdoses and who have seen success on the road to recovery. Summit speakers will also provide overviews of the criminal and civil legal systems and detail the latest data tracking the drug crisis in the state.
The University of Charleston is hosting the main portion of the summit at the Geary Student Union Ballroom. Other summit partners are: the Drug Enforcement Administration, Louisville Division; the Federal Public Defender’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia; the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia; Jobs & Hope West Virginia; the West Virginia Department of Homeland Security; the West Virginia Center for Children’s Justice; the West Virginia Fusion Center; West Virginia Public Defender Services; First Choice Services; Legal Aid of West Virginia; and Mission West Virginia.
Additional information about the summit, including a portal to register for this in-person event, is available at https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdwv/pr/hope-family-drug-summit.
A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia.
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Two Southern California Men Who Supplied Fentanyl Sold to Darknet Customers in All 50 States Sentenced to Federal PrisonRead the Press Release
SANTA ANA, California – An Orange County man and South Los Angeles man were sentenced today to federal prison for supplying fentanyl-laced pills to a drug trafficking ring that sold these drugs to more than 1,000 customers nationwide via the dark web.
Adan Ruiz, 27, of Garden Grove, was sentenced by United States District Judge David O. Carter to 215 months (17 years, 11 months) in federal prison. Judge Carter separately sentenced Omar Navia, 39, of South Los Angeles to 180 months (15 years) in federal prison.
In imposing the sentences, Judge Carter at today’s hearings called this case “the most sophisticated fentanyl distribution ring that this court has seen.”
Navia pleaded guilty on April 29 to one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. Ruiz pleaded guilty on June 3 to one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and one count of distribution of fentanyl.
Both defendants have been in federal custody since November 2023.
Navia and Ruiz admitted in their plea agreements that, from at least August 2021 to December 2022, they supplied fentanyl-laced pills to Michael Ta, 26, of Westminster, and Rajiv Srinivasan, 38, of Houston, who used the darknet and encrypted messaging applications to sell more than 120,000 fentanyl-laced pills and other drugs to more than 1,000 customers across the country, causing several fatal overdoses in the process. Navia further admitted to supplying methamphetamine to Ta and Srinivasan’s drug trafficking operation.
Srinivasan operated the account “redlightlabs” on multiple darknet marketplaces, including the site “Dark0de.” Srinivasan and Ta used the redlightlabs account to advertise and sell counterfeit M30 oxycodone pills containing fentanyl and other illicit drugs.
Srinivasan also used the encrypted messaging application Wickr to communicate with and sell drugs to customers. Srinivasan received virtual currency as payment for the drugs and then routed that virtual currency through cryptocurrency exchanges.
Ta communicated with Srinivasan about drug orders, obtained fentanyl-laced pills and methamphetamine from sources of supply, stored those drugs in his residence, and mailed out packages with drugs to customers who had ordered them from Srinivasan on the “redlightlabs” account.
From at least February 2022 to November 2022, Srinivasan and Ta engaged in at least 3,800 drug deals to approximately 1,400 customers in all 50 U.S. states, totaling more than 123,000 fentanyl-laced M30 pills, more than 9 kilograms (20 pounds) of methamphetamine, nearly 300 grams of “China white” (fentanyl powder) and black tar heroin, and 27 grams of cocaine.
Ta and Srinivasan admitted in their plea agreements to causing the fentanyl overdose deaths of three victims. Both defendants further admitted to distributing fentanyl-laced pills to two additional victims, both of whom suffered fatal drug overdoses shortly after they received the pills from Ta and Srinivasan.
Ta pleaded guilty in August 2023 to one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and is serving a prison sentence of 260 months (21 years and eight months). Srinivasan pleaded guilty in June 2023 to the same charge and to one count of distributing fentanyl resulting in death and is serving a prison sentence of 235 months (19 years and seven months).
The FBI investigated this matter. The United States Postal Inspection Service, and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas provided substantial assistance.
The investigation in this matter was conducted under the auspices of the FBI-led Joint Criminal Opioid Darknet Enforcement Team (JCODE), which targets darknet vendors by using sophisticated, high-tech techniques to identify drug traffickers who wrongly believe the dark web allows them to engage in criminal conduct with anonymity. Since its inception in 2018, JCODE investigations have resulted in the arrest of more than 300 darknet drug traffickers, as well as the seizure of more than $42 million in drug-tainted proceeds, over 800 kilograms of narcotics, and approximately 145 firearms.
The Northern Colorado Drug Task Force (NCDTF) also helped investigate this matter. NCDTF works to protect the community by identifying, investigating, and impacting drug-related crime in Larimer County. Participating agencies who make this effort possible include Fort Collins Police Services, Larimer County Sheriff's Office, Loveland Police Department, Windsor Police Department, the Eighth Judicial District Attorney’s Office, and Colorado Adult Parole. The Drug Enforcement Administration’s Fayetteville Resident Agency also assisted during the investigation.
Assistant United States Attorney Gregg E. Marmaro of the International Narcotics, Money Laundering, and Racketeering Section prosecuted this case.
Trafficker Sentenced to 19.5 Years in Prison for Supplying Weapons and Ammunition to Sinaloa CartelRead the Press Release
NEWS RELEASE SUMMARY – January 13, 2025
SAN DIEGO – Keith Octavio Rodriguez Padilla, a prolific firearms trafficker, was sentenced in federal court today to 19.5 years in custody for his role in supplying weapons and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition to the Sinaloa Cartel.
This case is part of a long-running investigation targeting the Valenzuela Transnational Criminal Organization (TCO), which was a significant component of the Sinaloa Cartel. The Valenzuela TCO was one of the largest importers of cocaine into the United States. The TCO sourced cocaine and other controlled substances (including fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana) from South America and Mexico, transported the drugs to multiple locations along the U.S.-Mexico border using commercial trucking companies, smuggled the drugs into the country, and distributed them throughout the United States. The TCO then smuggled the bulk cash proceeds from its drug trafficking activities back to the TCO’s leadership in Mexico.
According to court records, throughout 2020, the Valenzuela TCO, including one of its leaders, Jorge Alberto Valenzuela Valenzuela, was engaged in violent conflict with another component of the Sinaloa Cartel led by Ivan Archivaldo Guzman-Salazar. During this conflict, Jorge’s brother and previous TCO leader, Gabriel Valenzuela-Valenzuela, was killed. This led the Valenzuela TCO to procure large quantities of firearms, ammunition, tactical gear, armored vehicles, and ballistic vests. A considerable number of these items were sourced from within the United States and clandestinely smuggled into Mexico, using numerous arms trafficking networks.
During the multi-year investigation, agents identified Keith Octavio Rodriguez Padilla as a firearms and ammunition trafficker and broker for the TCO. Rodriguez Padilla and his co-conspirators worked with high-ranking organization members to supply firearms to the TCO. These firearms ranged from .50 caliber rifles, submachine guns, and grenade launchers to assault style rifles (AK-47s, AR-15s, FN SCARs) and handguns. In addition to the weapons, Rodriguez Padilla and his co-conspirators supplied tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition to the TCO. Some of these weapons and ammunition were acquired in the United States, including from California, Arizona, and Nevada, and then smuggled through the Ports of Entry in San Diego and Arizona to Mexico.
For example, on November 20, 2020, DEA and HSI agents initiated surveillance at a commercial truck yard being operated by the Valenzuela TCO in the Otay Mesa area of San Diego. Agents ultimately obtained a search warrant for this truck yard and during the search, seized approximately $3,078,880 in bulk U.S. currency, approximately 685 kilograms of cocaine, 24 kilograms of fentanyl, and a pickup truck with a trap gas tank the size of half the truck bed were discovered. The truck yard contained numerous tractors-trailers, along with numerous other vehicles. Inside one of the trailers, agents seized approximately 20,000 rounds of .50 caliber ammunition, along with approximately 427 ballistic plate carriers, approximately 1,000 rounds of .40 caliber ammunition, and approximately 104 magazines for .50 caliber ammunition. Agents learned that Rodriguez Padilla had purchased the .50 caliber ammunition on behalf of the TCO.
To date, this investigation has resulted in charges against 109 defendants and the seizure of approximately 2,000 kilograms of cocaine and fentanyl, more than $16 million in cash, and 21,000 rounds of ammunition.
“Guns and ammunition smuggled into Mexico support cartels and empower drug traffickers,” said U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath. “This case continues to deal blow after blow to that infrastructure, sending a clear message: DOJ will prosecute every angle of cartel operations – from drug importation to money laundering to arms trafficking – to combat death and destruction on both sides of the border.”
“Today’s sentencing is a direct result of the hard work and collaboration between Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and our law enforcement partners. This extensive investigation highlights our unwavering commitment to protecting our country and communities from the dangers of illegal firearms trafficking,” said Shawn Gibson, Special Agent in Charge of HSI San Diego. “We will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that the drug trafficking organizations are disrupted and held accountable.”
“Weapons trafficking fuels drug-related violence,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Brian Clark. “Money and greed are the foundation of the Sinaloa cartel business model and Padilla provided a lifeline by trafficking firearms. This sentence underscores our commitment to aggressively pursue the Sinaloa Cartel at every level, to include all facilitators who profit from drug-related violence. Strong relationships between law enforcement agencies have proven invaluable as we work together to save lives.”
“This multi-year investigation and lengthy federal prison sentence highlights the hard work, dedication, and cooperation of multiple law enforcement agencies to disrupt and dismantle violent transnational criminal organizations,” said FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge Travis Holland. “Today’s sentence serves as a reminder, we will continue to leverage the strength of federal, state, and local law enforcement to bring justice against the Cartels and individuals working on their behalf.”
“Mr. Padilla’s role in trafficking weapons and ammunition not only facilitated violence between cartel organizations, but also facilitated the endangerment of American citizens as these transnational criminal organizations bring dangerous and deadly drugs into the United States,” said Special Agent in Charge Tyler Hatcher, IRS Criminal Investigation, Los Angeles Field Office. “This sentencing demonstrates the result of well-coordinated investigations and the effectiveness of our partnered investigations. Protecting American citizens is the number one priority for every law enforcement organization, and IRS-CI is proud to be a partner in this investigation.”
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew J. Sutton and Mikaela Weber.
This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Strike Force Initiative, which provides for the establishment of permanent multi-agency task force teams that work side-by-side in the same location. This co-located model enables agents from different agencies to collaborate on intelligence-driven, multi-jurisdictional operations to disrupt and dismantle the most significant drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations.
DEFENDANT Case Number 21-cr-2960-AGS
Keith Octavio Rodriguez Padilla Age: 39 Rialto, CA
SUMMARY OF CHARGES
International Conspiracy to Distribute Cocaine for Purpose of Unlawful Importation, in violation of Title 21 U.S.C. §§ 959, 960 and 963.
Maximum Penalty: Mandatory minimum 10 years and up to life in prison, $10 million fine.
Conspiracy to Import Cocaine, in violation of Title 21 U.S.C. §§ 952, 960 and 963.
Maximum Penalty: Mandatory minimum 10 years and up to life in prison, $10 million fine.
Conspiracy to Distribute Cocaine, in violation of Title 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 846.
Maximum Penalty: Mandatory minimum 10 years and up to life in prison, $10 million fine.
Conspiracy to Launder Monetary Instruments, in violation of Title 18 U.S.C. 1956(h).
Maximum Penalty: Twenty years in prison, a fine of $500,000 or twice the value of the monetary instrument or funds involved.
Conspiracy to Smuggle Goods, in violation of Title 18, U.S.C. §§ 371 and 554(a).
Maximum Penalty: Five years in prison, fine of $250,000.
INVESTIGATING AGENCIES
Homeland Security Investigations
Drug Enforcement Administration
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation
United States Marshals Service
Customs and Border Protection, Office of Field Operations
Customs and Border Protection, Office of Border Patrol
Department of Justice, Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces
Department of Justice, Office of Enforcement Operations
Department of Justice, Office of International Affairs
San Diego County Sheriff’s Department
San Diego Police Department
Border Crime Suppression Team
San Diego County District Attorney’s Office