Month: April 2022

Source: United States Department of Justice News

PHOENIX, Ariz. – Pedro Adan Sevilla, 25, of Phoenix, Arizona, was sentenced on Monday by U.S. District Judge Scott H. Rash to 12 years in prison for his role in smuggling firearms and munitions from the United States into Mexico and for drug trafficking. Sevilla previously pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Smuggle Goods from the United States, Possession with Intent to Distribute Fentanyl and Possession of a Firearm During and in Relation to a Drug Trafficking Crime. 

Sevilla’s co-defendant, Francisco Dario Mora, 28, of Tucson, Arizona, was previously sentenced on April 29, 2021 to five years in prison for his role in the smuggling activity. On Monday, Judge Rash also issued a Final Order of Forfeiture for the value of the firearms and munitions in the amount of $32,663.48 against both defendants and ordered $12,970 cash forfeited against Sevilla.  

In September 2019, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) initiated an investigation into firearms purchased by Mora and Sevilla that were recovered in Mexico by Mexican law enforcement officials. ATF agents discovered that from June 2019 through September 2019, Mora and Sevilla conspired to export 40 firearms to Mexico, including AK-type rifles and AR-type pistols, 25,000 rounds of ammunition, and 760 AK-type and AR-type magazines. During this time frame, Mora purchased at least 19 firearms, one of which was recovered in Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico just 27 days after he purchased it. Sevilla purchased at least 21 firearms, two of which were recovered in Mexico a short time after they were purchased. Mora and Sevilla spent approximately $45,000 for the firearms and ammunition and crossed into Mexico from the United States on several dates to the deliver the firearms and munitions. 

On November 13, 2019, ATF agents executed search warrants on residences and vehicles tied to Mora and Sevilla in Tucson and Phoenix. During the search of Sevilla’s Phoenix residence, agents located a safe in Sevilla’s bedroom where they found 19 grams of cocaine and 11.9 pounds of fentanyl pills. Agents also located a bag inside Sevilla’s bedroom that contained six bags of fentanyl pills, an AR-type pistol with a loaded magazine, $12,970 cash, and a digital narcotics scale.

ATF conducted the investigation in this case, with assistance from the United States Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations. Assistant U.S. Attorney Serra M. Tsethlikai, District of Arizona, Tucson, handled the prosecution .

CASE NUMBER:       CR-19-3289-SHR-MSA      
RELEASE NUMBER:    2022-055_Sevilla

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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 Twitter @USAO_AZ for the latest news.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

A New York man pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and unlawfully spending the proceeds of his $6.8 million fraud.

According to court documents, Robert John Sabet, 46, of Brooklyn, the owner of two New York City pharmacies, conspired to bill Medicare and Medicaid for expensive prescription drugs that were not needed by patients, were dispensed in connection with kickbacks, or, in some cases, not dispensed at all. As part of the conspiracy, Sabet and others paid kickbacks and bribes to customers to convince them to fill prescriptions at his pharmacies, and paid customers cash in exchange for the ability to bill Medicare and Medicaid for over-the-counter health care-related products on their behalf. Sabet used proceeds of the scheme to purchase luxury items, such as a 2020 Porsche Taycan worth over $250,000.

Sabet pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and committing unlawful financial transactions. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 29 and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York; Special Agent in Charge Scott J. Lampert of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Office of Investigations, New York Regional Office; Special Agent in Charge Thomas Fattorusso of IRS-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), New York; and Acting Medicaid Inspector General Frank T. Walsh Jr. of the New York State Office of the Medicaid Inspector General (OMIG) made the announcement.

HHS-OIG, IRS-CI, and OMIG investigated the case.

Trial Attorney Miriam Glaser Dauermann of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan King for the Eastern District of New York are prosecuting the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

A Cameroonian national was sentenced today to 21 months in prison and two years of supervised release for his role in a scheme to trick American consumers into paying fees for pets that were never delivered and for using the COVID-19 crisis as an excuse to extract higher fees from victims.

“The Department of Justice will pursue criminals anywhere in the world when they target and exploit American consumers through fraud schemes, including when they take advantage of the circumstances presented by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “We appreciate our partners at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania and the FBI, as well as the assistance from Romanian law enforcement in arresting and extraditing this defendant.”

Desmond Fodje Bobga, 29, was extradited to the United States from Romania in April 2021. According to court documents, from approximately June 2018 to approximately June 2020, Bobga conspired with others to offer pets for sale on internet websites. He and others communicated by text message and email with potential victims to induce purchases. Following each purchase, Bobga and co-conspirators claimed that a transportation company would deliver the pet and provided a false tracking number for the pet. Bobga and his co-conspirators, posing as the transportation company, then claimed the pet transport was delayed and that the victim needed to pay additional money for delivery of the pet.

Bobga and co-conspirators told some victims that they needed to pay more money for delivery because the pet had been exposed to COVID-19. The perpetrators used false promises and bogus documents regarding shipping fees and COVID-19 exposure to extract successive payments from victims. Once Bobga and the co-conspirators received money directly and indirectly through wire communications from the victims, they never delivered any pets.

“While many people came together to support each other during the pandemic, this defendant chose to use COVID-19 as a means to defraud the victims in this matter and he will now serve a prison sentence to answer for that crime,” said U.S. Attorney Cindy K. Chung for the Western District of Pennsylvania. “Our office remains committed to addressing all types of fraud committed in relation to the pandemic.”

“Mr. Bobga was a scam artist, plain and simple,” said Special Agent in Charge Mike Nordwall of the FBI’s Pittsburgh Field Office. “He exploited those who were looking for comfort during the COVID pandemic and cashed in at their expense. The FBI is firmly committed to holding fraudsters like Mr. Bobga accountable.”

The FBI’s Pittsburgh Field Office investigated the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided substantial assistance. Law enforcement authorities in Romania, including the Romanian National Police, Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and the Cluj Brigade for Combating Organized Crime, provided significant cooperation.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher M. Cook for the Western District of Pennsylvania and Trial Attorney Wei Xiang of the Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch prosecuted the case.

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The task force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866‑720‑5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Remarks as Delivered

Good afternoon, Chairman Cartwright, Ranking Member Aderholt, and distinguished Members of this subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.

Before I address the details of our Fiscal Year 2023 request, I would like to say a word about the President’s supplemental budget request with respect to Ukraine.

The Justice Department is currently putting all available resources to use to hold accountable individuals whose criminal actions are enabling Russia’s unjust war against Ukraine.

In March, we launched the KleptoCapture Task Force. Since then, the Task Force has been hard at work with our international partners to enforce sanctions violations, dismantle Russian criminal networks, and freeze, seize, and forfeit kleptocrat assets.

The proposals the President announced today will give the Justice Department critical resources and tools to continue and strengthen this work.

Among other things, they would enable us to transfer the proceeds of forfeited Russian assets directly to Ukraine to remedy the harms of Russia’s aggression. They would close loopholes in our sanctions and forfeiture law. And they would allow us to help the people of Ukraine in their most dire hour.

We have all seen the heartbreaking images coming out of Ukraine and we have all read the accounts of Russia’s brutality.

We urge Congress to quickly consider this request. The Justice Department stands ready to provide the Committee with additional details and assistance as you consider the administration’s supplemental request.

With that, I will turn to the primary subject of today’s hearing: the Justice Department’s FY23 budget request.

Over the 413 days that I have served as Attorney General, three co-equal priorities have guided the work of the Justice Department: keeping our country safe; protecting civil rights; and upholding the rule of law.

These priorities reflect the Justice Department’s mission. And our mission is reflected in the President’s FY23 Budget request.

Our first request, and our first funding priority, is keeping our country safe from all threats, foreign and domestic – whether from hostile nation-states, terrorists, or common criminals.

As our country’s chief law enforcement officer, I am committed to supporting members of law enforcement at all levels of government as they work to protect our country, while also safeguarding civil liberties and ensuring our accountability to the American people.

To these ends, the President’s FY23 Budget requests more than $20.2 billion to support the work of DOJ’s law enforcement components and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices as they carry out their complex mission sets.

These resources will strengthen the Justice Department’s efforts:

• to reduce violent crime and gun violence;
• to counter the multitude of serious and evolving threats to our country from terrorists, cybercriminals, and hostile nation-states;
• to combat the violent drug trafficking networks that are fueling our nation’s overdose epidemic;
• and to protect our nation’s democratic institutions – including the one that you are sitting in today – from violent attack.

In FY23 alone, the President’s Budget also requests more than $8 billion in grants for states and localities nationwide to fund the police, including by funding more police officers for the beat, and by implementing community-based strategies to prevent crime and gun violence.

The President’s FY23 Budget also prioritizes the protection of civil rights. We are seeking a 32% increase in funding for the Civil Rights Division, as well as additional resources for our U.S. Attorneys, the FBI, the Community Relations Service, and our Office for Access to Justice.

Our civil rights work remains vital to safeguarding voting rights, prosecuting hate crimes, ensuring constitutional policing, and addressing unlawful discrimination.

Another area of departmental focus is safeguarding economic security, fairness, and opportunity.

This is reflected in our request for resources:

• to protect the American people from intellectual property crimes;
• to reinvigorate our antitrust enforcement and consumer protection;
• to combat corporate crime;
• and bring to justice those who seek to profit unlawfully from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In particular, the Department requests a total of $273 million – an increase of 41.6% – for the Antitrust Division to carry out its critical mission of promoting competition in the American economy and protecting workers, consumers, and businesses alike.

Finally, we are requesting $11.7 billion to ensure the just administration of our nation’s immigration courts and federal correctional systems.

This includes $1.35 billion for the Executive Office for Immigration Review to reduce the immigration court backlog by hiring more than 1,200 new staff, including approximately 200 immigration judge teams over the FY22 enacted level.

Our request of $8.18 billion for the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) will help ensure the health, safety, and wellbeing for the more than 150,000 individuals in federal custody. This request would allow BOP to hire 1,300 new correctional officers and First Step Act staff and would be used to support rehabilitative programming and improve conditions for confinement.

I respectfully ask for your support for our budget requests as the Justice Department works to uphold the rule of law, keep our country safe, and protect everyone’s civil rights.

Thank you.