Month: June 2022

Source: United States Department of Justice News

BOSTON – The principal of a Connecticut environmental consulting firm was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Springfield for paying bribes to procure consulting contracts at higher educational institutions in Massachusetts and New York.

Stephen Dinapoli, 42, of Wilton, Conn., was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Mark G. Mastroianni to two years of probation. Dinapoli was also ordered to pay forfeiture of $66,718. The government recommended a sentence of two years in prison. On Dec. 21, 2021, Dinapoli pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and two counts of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds.

Dinapoli is the principal of Big East Environmental, an environmental project management and consulting firm based in Connecticut. From 2015 to 2019, Dinapoli paid cash bribes to co-conspirator Floyd Young, who held positions involving facility maintenance at three collegiate institutions including American International College (AIC) in Springfield, Mass. Specifically, Dinapoli paid Young in cash during face-to-face meetings in order to obtain contracts for environmental consulting work at AIC, Cornell Tech and Cooper Union. These bribes were typically 15% of the value for each contract with the collegiate institutions. In total, Dinapoli paid Young $66,718 in bribes to procure contracts with a total value of approximately $444,786.

Young was charged in a separate case and, in August 2020, pleaded guilty to steering contracts for construction, repair, maintenance and other work for the collegiate institutions to favored contractors, including Dinapoli, in exchange for bribe payments typically in the amount of 15% of the contract. A sentencing hearing for Young has not yet been scheduled by the Court.

United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins and Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Breslow of Rollins’ Springfield Branch Office prosecuted the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that MICHAEL AVENATTI was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court by United States District Judge Jesse M. Furman to 48 months in prison for fraud and aggravated identity theft.  AVENATTI was previously found guilty on February 4, 2022, following a two-week jury trial.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said:  “Lawyers have a duty to be loyal and advocates for their clients.  Far from being a loyal advocate for his client, Michael Avenatti stole his client’s identity and her money in order to line his own pockets.  Now, Avenatti will serve a substantial prison sentence for his brazen crimes and betrayal of his client.”

According to the allegations in the Indictment, court documents, and evidence presented at trial:

AVENATTI met Stormy Daniels in February 2018, when she was seeking an attorney to assist her with respect to a non-disclosure agreement that she had earlier signed with President Donald Trump.  Daniels later signed a book deal to publish her memoir, and AVENATTI, pretending to act as her attorney and in her interests, stole a portion of the advance on that deal by directing her literary agent to send the money to a bank account AVENATTI controlled. 

Specifically, AVENATTI stole two installments of Daniels’ book advance, totaling $297,500.  AVENATTI sent to Daniels’ literary agent a fraudulent and unauthorized letter purporting to be from Daniels and appearing to bear her signature, which directed that future payments be sent to a bank account controlled by AVENATTI.  In fact, AVENATTI wrote the letter himself, never received authorization from Daniels, and caused Daniels’ signature to be copied and pasted from another document onto the letter without her consent.

After transmitting the fraudulent letter to Daniels’ literary agent, AVENATTI received an installment of Daniels’ advance, worth $148,750, and promptly spent the money to satisfy his own personal and business expenses.  When Daniels began inquiring of AVENATTI as to why she had not received the payment, AVENATTI lied to Daniels, telling her that her publisher had not made the payment.  Approximately one month after diverting the payment, after Daniels threatened to go directly to her publisher about the missing payment, AVENATTI obtained a personal loan to pay $148,750 to Daniels, so that Daniels would not realize that AVENATTI had previously taken and used Daniels’ money.

A short time later, AVENATTI pressured the publisher to make the next installment payment early, purportedly at Daniels’ request though in truth without her awareness.  AVENATTI soon received that installment, another payment of $148,750, which he again spent for his own purposes.  For months after he had stolen this installment, Daniels repeatedly asked AVENATTI about the missing payment and, after he again falsely claimed that the publisher had not made the payment, asked that AVENATTI, as her lawyer, assist her in obtaining the book payment.  AVENATTI continued to lie and claim that he was fighting with the publisher on her behalf when, as he knew, the publisher had made the payment early, but that he had stolen it.  At the same time, further to avoid discovery of his scheme, AVENATTI, purporting to act as Daniels’ attorney, told her publisher and literary agent not to respond to direct requests for information from Daniels.

*                *                *

In addition to the prison sentence, AVENATTI, 51, of Los Angeles, California, was sentenced to three years of supervised release, as well as restitution and forfeiture.  AVENATTI is currently serving a thirty-month sentence for extorting NIKE, Inc., imposed by Judge Paul G. Gardephe in United States v. Avenatti, 19 Cr. 373.  Thirty months of imprisonment in this case were imposed consecutively with AVENATTI’s other sentence, and the remainder will run concurrently.

Mr. Williams praised the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Special Agents of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

The cases are being handled by the Office’s Public Corruption Unit.  Assistant United States Attorneys Matthew Podolsky, Robert B. Sobelman, and Andrew A. Rohrbach are in charge of the prosecution.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Sold knock-off designer goods at a fraction of the price of genuine handbags and accessories

Source: United States Department of Justice News

The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont announced that Ryan Goodrich, 37, of Athens, Vermont was arraigned yesterday on an indictment that alleges on March 3, 2022, Goodrich unlawfully possessed an unregistered short-barrel shotgun, unlawfully possessed multiple shotguns and an AR-style rifle due to Goodrich’s prior felony convictions, and unlawfully possessed heroin.  

According to court records, Vermont Game Wardens began an investigation of Goodrich in late winter of 2022 for violations of fish and wildlife regulations.  During their investigation, the wardens obtained a search warrant for Goodrich’s Facebook account, which revealed a photograph of a short-barrel shotgun.  The messages within the account revealed Goodrich had discharged the weapon and likely possessed it at his residence.  The wardens coordinated with agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to execute a search warrant at Goodrich’s residence on March 3, 2022.  During the search, agents located the short-barrel shotgun (which was loaded), multiple additional shotguns, multiple rifles (including an AR-style rifle), 2,978 rounds of ammunition, $6,000 in U.S. Currency, and 880 bags of heroin.  

After the warrant was executed, the federal grand jury returned an indictment on March 10, 2022.  Agents attempted to locate Goodrich in and around Athens, and in doing so, encouraged people who knew him to have Goodrich turn himself in to law enforcement.  Goodrich did not do so.  On April 9, 2022, Keene, New Hampshire Police located Goodrich at a hotel in Keene. Officers obtained a search warrant for the hotel room, but Goodrich was not inside when it was executed.  Agents found evidence of Goodrich’s prior presence, including personal paperwork in a backpack.  On April 19, 2022, law enforcement learned that Goodrich was attempting to obtain transportation to Texas.  Goodrich was subsequently located and apprehended at a hotel in Deerfield, Massachusetts.

The United States Attorney’s Office emphasizes that an indictment contains allegations only and that Goodrich remains presumed innocent until and unless he is convicted of a crime. Goodrich faces a maximum sentence of 10 years of imprisonment on each firearm violation.  The actual sentence would be determined with reference the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

United States Attorney Nikolas P. Kerest commended the investigatory efforts of Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.  He also thanked the Keene Police Department, the Massachusetts State Police, the Deerfield Police Department, and the Greenfield Police Department for their assistance in locating and apprehending Goodrich.  

The prosecutor is Assistant United States Attorney Jonathan Ophardt.  Goodrich is represented by Assistant Federal Public Defender Mary Nerino. 

This case is being 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.  See https://www.justice.gov/psn for more information.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

LONDON, Ky. — Jake Messer, 39, of Rockholds, Kentucky, was sentenced to Life in federal prison on Tuesday, by United States District Judge Robert E. Wier.  On February 10, 2022, Messer was convicted by a federal jury of two counts of kidnapping, following his indictment in November of 2020.

According to evidence at trial, the kidnappings were motivated by an unsuccessful drug deal, where Messer and his co-conspirators lost $10,000.  Jake Messer organized, directed, and recruited assistance for the armed kidnappings.  Messer ordered the two victims transported to a remote trailer in Clay County, where they were held for 24 hours.  There, the victims were separated, interrogated, threatened, and assaulted.  After several hours of captivity, Messer held the female victim down and raped her.  Messer then provided his father, George Oscar Messer, duct tape and zip ties.  His father then duct taped the victim and sexually assaulted her a second time, at gunpoint. The victims only escaped after a family member spotted them in a ditch on the side of the road with Messer. Thereafter, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Kentucky State Police (KSP) recovered 15 firearms, including an assault rifle, from the Messer residence.

Messer received numerous sentencing enhancements, including use of a dangerous weapon, acting as an organizer, demanding ransom, and sexually exploiting a victim.  At the sentencing hearing, witnesses also testified that Jake Messer had previous incidents of violence, sexual assault, and threats.  In rendering the sentence, Judge Wier described the Messers’ conduct as the “very basement of human conduct.”  Judge Wier also said the sentence reflected the importance of declaring that the rule of law exists and applies to everyone, regardless of location and culture.

 “This is a disturbing example of the incidence of unspeakable violence that often accompanies illegal drug trafficking,” said Carlton S. Shier, IV, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky.  “This case included kidnappings, threats, firearms, repeated sexual assaults, and even a true sense of lawlessness.  This unconstrained violence and infliction of suffering certainly warrants the sentence imposed.  Cases like this will embolden our efforts to combat this blight on our communities; it should also serve as a stark warning to those who continue to participate in destructive violence and drug trafficking.”

“This is the second defendant to receive a life sentence from an armed drug-trafficking group that kidnapped, tortured and raped the victims in this case,” said ATF Special Agent in Charge R. Shawn Morrow of the Louisville Division. “This was a joint effort between the Kentucky State Police and ATF. We hope this life sentence brings some sense of justice to the victims and sends a very clear message that ATF and our law enforcement partners will not stand by and allow these acts of violence.”

United States Attorney Shier, Special Agent in Charge Morrow, and Colonel Phillip Burnett, Jr., Commissioner of the Kentucky State Police, jointly announced the sentence.          

This case prosecuted as part of the Department of Justice’s “Project Safe Neighborhoods” Program (PSN), which is a nationwide, crime reduction strategy aimed at decreasing violent crime in communities. The PSN program involves a comprehensive approach to public safety — one that includes investigating and prosecuting crimes, along with prevention and reentry efforts. In the Eastern District of Kentucky, U.S. Attorney Shier coordinates PSN efforts in cooperation with various federal, state, and local law enforcement officials.                                                                                                                                                         

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