Month: April 2022

Source: United States Department of Justice News

CLARKSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA – Sarah Kuhn, of Morgantown, West Virginia, was sentenced today to three years of probation for a firearms charge, United States Attorney William Ihlenfeld announced.

Kuhn, 31, pleaded guilty in September 2021 to one count of “Aiding and Abetting the False Statement in Connection with the Acquisition of Firearms.” Kuhn admitted to working with another to purchase a firearm, making a false statement claiming the firearm was for her, when, in, fact, the firearm was meant for someone else. The crime occurred in July 2020 in Monongalia County.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Zelda E. Wesley prosecuted the case on behalf of the government. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, & Explosives and the Mon Metro Drug Task Force, a HIDTA-funded initiative, investigated.

Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Kleeh presided.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

            WASHINGTON – Herbert Smallwood, 41, of Suitland, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to a charge of second-degree murder while armed for stabbing an acquaintance last year in Southeast Washington, announced U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and Robert J. Contee III, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

            Smallwood pleaded guilty in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. He is to be sentenced on July 22, 2022, by the Honorable Milton C. Lee, Jr.

            According to the government’s evidence, on June 30, 2021, at approximately 7 p.m., Smallwood was traveling in an SUV that was following another vehicle being driven by an acquaintance. The other vehicle, a Ford Focus, crashed and flipped over in the rear of the 1600 block of 17^th Place SE. Smallwood got out of the SUV with a knife and stabbed the victim, Joseph Ogundoju, multiple times. Mr. Ogundoju, 46, died a short time later.

            Surveillance video shows Smallwood’s vehicle following Mr. Ogundoju’s vehicle immediately before it crashed. The victim’s blood also was found on Smallwood’s clothing. Smallwood was arrested on June 30, 2021. He has been in custody ever since.

            In announcing the plea, U.S. Attorney Graves and Chief Contee commended the work of the Metropolitan Police Department, which investigated the case. They also acknowledged the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Victim/Witness Advocate Latrice Washington-Williams and Paralegal Specialist Grazy Rivera. Finally, they expressed appreciation for the work of Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Ganjei, who investigated and prosecuted the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

MINNEAPOLIS – A Slayton, Minnesota, man was sentenced to 12 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and $435,517.78 in restitution for converting collateral that secured loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, announced U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger.

According to court documents, in October 2015, Mark Alan Engelkes, 54, pledged 15,641 bushels of soybeans as collateral to the U.S Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) Commodity Credit Corporation (“CCC”) in order to obtain loan proceeds of nearly $80,000. During the application process for the CCC loan, Engelkes agreed to not move or dispose of the collateral until the loan was paid in full. However, in April 2016, officials from the USDA learned that Engelkes had removed the pledged grain without prior approval and sold it. In addition to the USDA CCC loan, the defendant also defaulted on other farm financing from USDA, resulting in a total loss amount to the government of $435,517.78.

On October 21, 2021, Engelkes pleaded guilty to one count of conversion of USDA CCC crops. He was sentenced on April 1, 2022, by Chief U.S. District Judge John R. Tunheim.

This case was the result of an investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Office of Inspector General.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsey Middlecamp and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Hillary Taylor prosecuted the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, today announced the appointment of Andrea Griswold as Chief Counsel to the United States Attorney. 

Since March 2013, Ms. Griswold has served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York.  Since June 2020, she has served as the Deputy Chief and then Co-Chief of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force.  Prior to assuming a supervisory position in that unit, Ms. Griswold investigated and prosecuted a wide variety of significant securities fraud and public corruption cases, and also served as an Acting Chief of the Narcotics Unit.  Prior to her public service, she worked for more than five years as an associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.  Ms. Griswold received her B.A. from Georgetown University and her J.D. from New York University School of Law.   

In making the appointment, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “I am thrilled to have Andrea Griswold join my senior leadership team as Chief Counsel to the United States Attorney.  Andrea is a star.  She is a brilliant lawyer, a natural leader, and a wise counselor.  I am confident that she will bring her trademark excellence to this new role.”    

Ms. Griswold will continue to serve as Co-Chief of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force for the next several months as she transitions into her new position.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Miami, Florida – In one of the largest cryptocurrency forfeiture actions ever filed by the United States, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida successfully forfeited approximately $34 million worth of cryptocurrency tied to illegal Dark Web activity.  

According to the U.S. Government’s civil forfeiture complaint, law enforcement agents identified a South Florida resident raking in millions by using an on-line alias to make over 100,000 sales of illicit items and hacked online account information on several of the world’s largest Dark Web marketplaces.  For example, the South Florida resident sold hacked online account information for popular services such as HBO, Netflix, and Uber, among others, and accessed the Dark Web by utilizing the TOR (The Onion Router) Network. The Onion Router Network is a special network of computers distributed around the world designed to anonymize a user’s internet traffic by concealing computers’ IP (Internet Protocol) addresses. 

As detailed in the complaint, records analyses revealed that the South Florida resident utilized so-called “tumblers” and illegal Dark Web money transmitter services to launder one cryptocurrency for another—a technique called “chain hopping”—in violation of federal money laundering statutes.  A tumbler is a Dark Web mixing service that pools together multiple cryptocurrency transactions. Then, the tumbler distributes the cryptocurrency to a designated cryptocurrency wallet at random times, and in random increments. The goal is to obscure the original source of funds. Law enforcement agents seized various cryptocurrency wallets associated with the illegal Dark Web conduct.   

This forfeiture action is the result of Operation TORnado, a joint investigation that stems from the ongoing efforts by OCDETF, a partnership between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.  The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, and other priority transnational criminal organizations that threaten the citizens of the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence driven, multi-agency approach to combat transnational organized crime.  The OCDETF program facilitates complex, joint operations by focusing its partner agencies on priority targets, by managing and coordinating multi-agency efforts, and by leveraging intelligence across multiple investigative platforms.

Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; Matthew D. Line, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Miami Field Office; George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Miami; Deanne L. Reuter, Special Agent in Charge, DEA Miami; Anthony Salisbury, Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Miami Field Office, and Joseph W. Cronin, Inspector in Charge, Miami Division, U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), made the announcement.

IRS-CI, FBI, DEA, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) investigated the case.

Asset Forfeiture Division Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitch Hyman and Deputy Chiefs Nicole Grosnoff and Nalina Sombuntham prosecuted this asset forfeiture action. Monique Botero, Chief of the Southern District of Florida’s International Money Laundering and Narcotics Section, is the lead prosecutor on Operation TORnado.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 21-cv-62182.

###