A Peoria, Illinois, man, Randall R. Ray IV, 33, was sentenced on May 10, 2022, to 14 years in prison for possession of child pornography. According to court filings, in July 2021, Ray produced and possessed a video that depicted a minor child engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Another individual found the video in Ray’s…
The FINANCIAL – -Mohamad Yassine and Hassan Rahman Sought to Launder Tens of Millions of Dollars for Criminals Worldwide Mohamad Yassine and Hassan Rahman, citizens of Lebanon, will be arraigned today on money laundering charges for operating an international money laundering organization. Yassine and Rahman were arrested in September 2021 in the Republic of Georgia…
ATLANTA – April and James Thompson have each been sentenced for mail fraud after stealing over $4 million from Forest Investment Associates (“FIA”), an Atlanta-based company that provides timberland investment advisory and management services for institutional timberland investors. “The defendants were able to engage in this fraud for so long only because the victim trusted…
WASHINGTON – Today, the Drug Enforcement Administration sent a letter to federal, state, and local law enforcement partners warning of a nationwide spike in fentanyl-related mass-overdose events. Administrator Anne Milgram outlined the current threat and offered DEA support to law enforcement officers responding to these tragic incidents. “Fentanyl is killing Americans at an unprecedented rate,” said…
The FINANCIAL — According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Zhongsan Liu, 59, of Fort Lee, participated in a scheme to fraudulently procure J-1 research scholar visas for employees of the government of the of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to enable them to unlawfully work for the PRC government in the…
SAVANNAH, GA: A Toombs County, Ga., man has admitted phoning in a bomb threat to a Port of Savannah facility on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Elliott Sherman, a/k/a “Amir Turner,” 23, awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to False Information and Hoaxes, said U.S. Attorney David H. Estes. The plea subjects Sherman…
A federal jury in Charlotte convicted two men today for the submission of fraudulent loan applications seeking more than $1.7 million in forgivable Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District…
The FINANCIAL – A Canadian man was extradited yesterday from Canada to the United States on an indictment returned in the Middle District of Florida that charges him with conspiracy to commit computer fraud and wire fraud, intentional damage to a protected computer, and transmitting a demand in relation to damaging a protected computer arising…
The FINANCIAL – U.S. Attorney Dena J. King announced today that Keon Taylor, 31, of Charlotte, was sentenced to five years in prison and three years of supervised release for using stolen identities to defraud government-funded coronavirus aid relief programs of more than $219,000. In addition to the prison term imposed, Taylor was ordered to…
OKLAHOMA CITY – LAWRENCE JUNIOR LOFTIS, 65, of Stephens County, was sentenced to serve life in federal prison for abusive sexual contact with a child under 12 years old, announced Robert J. Troester, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma. “Sexual abuse of children will not be tolerated because it exploits the most…
An 11-count indictment was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging Dwayne Golden, Gregory Aggesen, and Marquis Demacking Egerton, the owners and operators of the web-based virtual currency companies EmpowerCoin, ECoinPlus and Jet-Coin, with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, and related substantive counts, in connection with a sophisticated scheme to steal…
LOS ANGELES – A Koreatown man is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon after being arrested Saturday on federal charges alleging he worked with a Hollywood woman who ran a drug-delivery operation that in one incident sold counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl that resulted in a fatal opioid overdose. Mucktarr Kather Sei, 36, whose…
The FINANCIAL –United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces that Nikesh Ajay Patel (38, formerly from Orlando) has been arraigned on charges related to almost $20 million in fraud that he perpetrated while on federal pretrial release. Patel has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, three counts of wire fraud,…
The FINANCIAL — A California woman and Russian-born man were sentenced last week to a term of prison of 15 and 6 months, respectively, for their involvement in a conspiracy and obtaining citizenship by fraud. According to court records and evidence presented at trial, Laura Gallagher, 32, a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department…
The FINANCIAL –-Baltimore, Maryland – Chief U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar sentenced Kevin Miller, age 48, of Bel Air, Maryland, to 28 months in federal prison, followed by two years of supervised release, for conspiracy and for wire fraud, in connection with a scheme to defraud a Maryland company of more than $2 million. …
