Month: July 2022

Source: United States Department of Justice News

BOSTON – A Cambridge man was sentenced on July 8, 2022 in federal court in Boston for cocaine distribution.

Dante Starks, a/k/a “Tay,” 40, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton to four years in prison and three years of supervised release. In March 2021, Starks pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of cocaine.

This case was a part of Operation Landshark, a federal investigation targeting impact players and repeat offenders in Brockton and Boston, each who have prior convictions for acts of violence, firearm offenses and/or drug trafficking.

The investigation identified Starks a career offender and target impact player due to his multiple felony convictions of controlled substance offenses. In July 2018, Starks sold approximately 14 grams of cocaine to a cooperating witness in a Brockton parking lot. At the time of the offense, Starks was on probation for a 2015 conviction out of Suffolk Superior Court for multiple drug distribution offenses, for which he served one year in prison.

Previously, in 2012, Starks was convicted in Plymouth Superior Court of drug distribution offenses, assault and battery of a police officer and resisting arrest, for which he served three years in prison. In 2011, Starks was convicted in Dorchester District Court of drug distribution offenses for which he served 30 months in prison. In 2004, Starks was charged and fined for drug distribution offenses.

United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins; Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division; Colonel Christopher Mason, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police; Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz; Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden; Boston Police Commissioner Gregory Long; and Brockton Police Chief Brenda Perez made the announcement today. Valuable assistance was provided by the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Boston Field Division; Plymouth and Essex County Sheriff’s Offices; Massachusetts Department of Corrections; U.S. Parole Commission; U.S. Postal Inspection Services; and the U.S. Secret Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy E. Moran, Chief of Rollins’ Organized Crime & Gang Unit, prosecuted the case.

Operation Landshark was 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 make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. PSN is part of the Department’s renewed focus on targeting violent criminals, directing all U.S. Attorney’s Offices to work in partnership with federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement and the local community to develop effective, locally-based strategies to reduce violent crime.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

TRENTON, N.J. – A Hunterdon County, New Jersey, man was sentenced today to 33 months in prison for producing and selling fraudulent massage therapy training certificates for use in various New Jersey massage parlors that engaged in prostitution, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.

Naresh Rane, 68, of Tewksbury, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson to Count 1 of an indictment charging him with knowingly and intentionally using and causing the use of facilities in interstate commerce to promote, manage, establish, carry on, and facilitate the business of prostitution in violation of New Jersey law. U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi imposed the sentence today in Trenton federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Rane owned and operated Axiom Healthcare Academy, which purported to provide classes in massage therapy training. Rane held himself out as a businessman who, for a fee that ranged from $1,000 to $2,600, could provide massage therapy training certificates to anyone who wished to obtain a massage license without the required training. Rane was also willing to provide phony transcripts listing classes and grades.

Between November 2013 and March 2014, Rane provided 10 fraudulent massage therapy training certificates and transcripts to a former Westwood, New Jersey, councilman who then gave them to prostitutes working in different massage parlors located in Union, Passaic, Hudson and Middlesex counties. Rane admitted today that he knew the documents he was producing and selling were used to disguise prostitution activities as legitimate massage services.  

In addition to the prison term, Judge Quraishi sentenced Rane to three years of supervised release.   

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jesse Levine in Newark, with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.

The government is represented by Senior Litigation Counsel Mark J. McCarren of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Special Prosecutions Division in Newark.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

ST. LOUIS – A woman from Florissant pleaded guilty to federal charges Monday and admitted submitting fraudulent applications that triggered $828,813 in loans and grants that were supposed to go to businesses struggling with the coronavirus pandemic.

Dionneshae Forland, 51, pleaded guilty to bank fraud, theft of government property and four counts of wire fraud and admitted a scheme to fraudulently obtain money from the Paycheck Protection Program and the Missouri Small Business Grant Program.

From January 2021 through May 2021, Forland lied on PPP loan applications about the number of employees and monthly payroll expenses of the companies that she claimed needed help. She also submitted fraudulent tax forms, bank statements, payroll records and employee lists to back up the scheme.

She obtained four loans totaling $592,235 for herself. She did not spend the money for PPP-approved purposes, instead spending it on her personal expenses, her plea agreement says. She also fraudulently obtained a $150,000 loan for a company linked to her son, Dwayne Times, and two loans totaling $36,600 on behalf of two people referred to her by Times.

Forland also submitted four fraudulent grant applications to the Missouri Small Business Grant Program in July 2020, but no grants were disbursed. She was successful in fraudulently obtaining a grant for one company by falsely claiming it had been in operation since February 2017 and by submitting false documents and information about the number of employees and the payroll, her plea agreement says.  A grant of $49,988 was disbursed into a bank account controlled by Times. Times took out $8,000 in cash before the money was “clawed back” due to officials’ fraud suspicions.

As part of her plea, Forland agreed to forfeit any profits from her scheme. Nearly $600,000 has been seized from various accounts linked to Forland or Times.

Times, 31, pleaded guilty June 9 to one count each of wire fraud and theft of government property. He is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 11.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Clow is prosecuting the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

RALEIGH, N.C. – A Wilson man was sentenced today to 120 months in prison for possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. On April 7, 2022, Cody Allen Driver, 32, pled guilty to the charges.

According to court documents and other information presented in court, on January 14, 2021, officers with the Wilson Police Department received information that Driver was in possession of two firearms and methamphetamine at his residence in Wilson, North Carolina. Officers traveled to Driver’s residence and observed Driver outside his residence with a firearm in a holster on his waist. Officers took Driver into custody and secured the .22 caliber pistol from his waist. Officers then conducted a search of Driver’s residence and recovered a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun, assorted ammunition, a quantity of crystal methamphetamine, and digital scales. At the time, Driver was prohibited from possessing firearms for being a convicted felon. 

Michael Easley, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III. The Wilson Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) investigated the case and Assistant U.S. Attorney Aakash Singh  prosecuted 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. 5:21-CR-167-D.

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Source: United States Department of Justice News

TUCSON, Ariz. – On Thursday, Kyle Devan Cachora, 28, of Sells, Arizona, was sentenced by United States District Judge Jennifer G. Zipps to 25 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Cachora previously pleaded guilty to Assault With a Dangerous Weapon. 

On July 2, 2020, Cachora, an enrolled member of the Tohono O’odham Nation, stabbed a Tohono O’odham woman. The offense occurred on the Tohono O’odham Nation in San Xavier, Arizona.

The FBI and Tohono O’odham Nation Police Department conducted the investigation in this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Frances M. Kreamer Hope, District of Arizona, Tucson, handled the prosecution.

CASE NUMBER:           CR-21-00956-TUC-JGZ
RELEASE NUMBER:    2022-113_Cachora