Month: August 2022

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Security News: Utica Man Sentenced to 15 Years for Receiving and Possessing Child Pornography

Source: United States Department of Justice News

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – John Seiselmyer, age 50, of Utica, New York, was sentenced today to serve 15 years in federal prison for receiving and possessing child pornography, announced United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman and Janeen DiGuiseppi, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and New York State Police (NYSP) Superintendent Kevin P. Bruen.

As part of his previous guilty plea, Seiselmyer, admitted that from February 2020 to June 2020 he used a laptop computer to download child pornography over the internet using peer-to-peer file sharing software. A subsequent search of Seiselmyer’s apartment revealed that he was in possession of over 9,000 images and 955 video files depicting child pornography.  Seiselmyer is a registered sex offender who was convicted in 2007 of Criminal Sexual Act in the First Degree involving a victim who was less than 11 years old.

Chief United States District  Judge Glenn T. Suddaby also imposed a 25 year term of supervised release, which will start after Seiselmyer is released from prison, and ordered him to pay a $200 special assessment and restitution in the amount of $30,000.  Seiselmyer will also be required to continue to register as a sex offender.

Seiselmyer’s case was investigated by the FBI Syracuse Mid-State Child Exploitation Task Force, comprised of FBI Special Agents and Investigators of the New York State Police, Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI), with assistance from the Utica Police Department.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey J. L. Brown as a part of Project Safe Childhood.

Launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, Project Safe Childhood is led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), and is designed to marshal federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.

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Security News: Schenectady Man Sentenced to 60 Months for Distributing Heroin and Cocaine Base

Source: United States Department of Justice News

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Gregory Sherrills, Jr., age 40, of Schenectady, New York, was sentenced today to 60 months in prison for distributing heroin and cocaine base.

The announcement was made by United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman and Janeen DiGuiseppi, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

In pleading guilty, Sherrills Jr. admitted to selling heroin and cocaine base to another person on seven occasions between December 2019 and March 2021 at various locations in the city of Schenectady.  In total, the defendant distributed approximately 120 grams of heroin and 60 grams of cocaine base.  This conviction represented his fourth felony drug conviction.

United States District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino also ordered that Sherrills Jr. serve a 4-year term of supervised release following his release from prison,

This case was investigated by the FBI and the Schenectady Police Department, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Emmet O’Hanlon.

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Security News: Syracuse Man Sentenced to 84 Months for Drug Conspiracy

Source: United States Department of Justice News

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – Carlos Esteras, 41, of Syracuse, NY was sentenced today to serve 84 months in prison following his conviction for conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl and possessing fentanyl with the intent to distribute, announced United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman and Frank A. Tarentino III, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), New York Division.

As part of his prior guilty plea, Esteras admitted that between June and July 2021, he conspired with others to distribute fentanyl in the Syracuse, NY area.  Esteras personally distributed or possessed with intent to distribute at least 124 grams of fentanyl. Esteras had previously been convicted of three felony and 15 misdemeanor offenses in state court.

Chief United States District Judge Glenn T. Suddaby also sentenced Esteras to a four-year term of supervised release to begin after he serves his term of imprisonment and ordered him to pay a forfeiture judgment in the amount of $5,760, which represented the proceeds from drug sales.

This case was investigated by the DEA-Syracuse Resident Office, which includes Task Force Officers from the City of Auburn Police Department, the City of Syracuse Police Department, the New York State Police, and the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office. Other agencies that assisted in this investigation included the New York State Police, the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office, the Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security-Homeland Security Investigations, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Sutcliffe.

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Security News: Attorney General Merrick B. Garland Delivers Remarks to Announce Action to Protect Reproductive Rights

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Remarks as Delivered

Good afternoon.

Today, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the State of Idaho. The suit seeks to hold invalid the state’s criminal prohibition on providing abortions, as applied to women who are suffering medical emergencies.

Under a federal law known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, every hospital that receives Medicare funds must provide necessary stabilizing treatment to a patient who arrives at an emergency room suffering from a medical condition that could place their life or health in serious jeopardy.

In some circumstances, the medical treatment necessary to stabilize the patient’s condition is abortion. This may be the case, for example, when a woman is undergoing a miscarriage that threatens septic infection or hemorrhage, or is suffering from severe preeclampsia.

When a hospital determines that an abortion is the medical treatment necessary to stabilize a patient’s emergency medical condition, it is required by federal law to provide that treatment.

As detailed in our complaint, Idaho’s law would make it a criminal offense for doctors to provide the emergency medical treatment that federal law requires. Although the Idaho law provides an exception to prevent the death of a pregnant woman, it includes no exception for cases in which the abortion is necessary to prevent serious jeopardy to the woman’s health.

Moreover, it would subject doctors to arrest and criminal prosecution, even if they performed an abortion to save a woman’s life, and would then place the burden on the doctors to prove that they are not criminally liable.

The United States therefore seeks a declaratory judgment that Idaho’s law violates the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution and is preempted by federal law, to the extent it is in conflict with EMTALA. 

The United States also seeks an injunction prohibiting Idaho from enforcing its law against healthcare providers who provide the emergency treatment required by EMTALA.

In the days since the Dobbs decision, there have been widespread reports of delays and denials of treatment to pregnant women experiencing medical emergencies. 

Today, the Justice Department’s message is clear: it does not matter what state a hospital subject to EMTALA operates in. If a patient comes into the emergency room with a medical emergency jeopardizing the patient’s life or health, the hospital must provide the treatment necessary to stabilize that patient. This includes abortion when that is the necessary treatment. Any state law that prevents a hospital from fulfilling its obligations under EMTALA violates federal law.

On the day Roe and Casey were overturned, we promised that the Justice Department would work tirelessly to protect and advance reproductive freedom. That is what we are doing, and that is what we will continue to do.

We will use every tool at our disposal to ensure that pregnant women get the emergency medical treatment to which they are entitled under federal law.

And we will closely scrutinize state abortion laws to ensure that they comply with federal law. 

I would now like to welcome Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, who is the head of our Reproductive Rights Task Force, to the podium to share more details from our complaint.

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Security News: U.S. Justice Department Seeks Seizure of Boeing 747 Cargo Plane Grounded in Argentina

Source: United States Department of Justice News

The Boeing 747 Aircraft Was Recently Transferred from a Designated Iranian Airline to South America in Violation of U.S. Export Control Laws

The U.S. Department of Justice transmitted a request to Argentinian authorities today to seize a Boeing 747-300M cargo plane following the unsealing of a seizure warrant in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The warrant, which was issued on July 19, 2022, alleges that the U.S.-made plane is subject to forfeiture based on violations of U.S. export control laws related to the unauthorized transfer of the plane from Mahan Air, an Iranian airline affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp-Qods Force (IRGC-QF), a designated terrorist organization, and Empresa de Transporte Aéreocargo del Sur, S.A. (EMTRASUR), a Venezuelan cargo airline and subsidiary of Consorcio Venezolano de Industrias Aeronáuticas y Servicios Aéreos, S.A (CONVIASA), a Venezuelan state-owned company.

In 2008, the Department of Commerce issued, and has since periodically renewed, a Temporary Denial Order prohibiting Mahan Air from, among other things, engaging in any transaction involving any commodity exported from the United States that is subject to the Export Administration Regulations. As alleged in the seizure warrant, in or around October 2021, Mahan Air violated the Temporary Denial Order and U.S. export control laws when it transferred custody and control of the Boeing aircraft to EMTRASUR without U.S. Government authorization. Additional violations of U.S. export control laws subsequently occurred between February and May 2022 when EMTRASUR reexported the aircraft between Caracas, Venezuela; Tehran, Iran; and Moscow, Russia, without U.S. Government authorization.

Further, as alleged in the seizure warrant, in June 2022, Argentinian authorities detained the flight crew of the Boeing aircraft, including five Iranians. The registered captain of the aircraft was identified as an ex-commander for the IRGC and a shareholder and member of the board of Iranian airline Qeshm Fars Air. Argentinian law enforcement also searched the aircraft and found a Mahan Air flight log documenting the aircraft’s flights after the unlawful transfer to EMTRASUR, including a flight to Tehran, Iran, in April 2022. Mahan Air was designated in 2011 by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) for providing material support to the IRGC-QF, and Qeshm Fars Air was designated in 2019 for being controlled by Mahan Air and for providing material support to the IRGC-QF.

In addition, CONVIASA, EMTRASUR’s parent company, was designated by OFAC in 2020, and its fleet was blocked pursuant to Executive Order in 2019. Concurrent with today’s action, the Department of Commerce issued a Temporary Denial Order denying the export privileges of EMTRASUR for 180 days with the possibility of renewal.

“The Department of Justice will not tolerate transactions that violate our sanctions and export laws,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “Working with our partners across the globe, we will give no quarter to governments and state-sponsored entities looking to evade our sanctions and export control regimes in service of their malign activities.”

“The seizure of this aircraft demonstrates our determination to hold accountable those who seek to violate U.S. sanctions and export control laws,” said U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves for the District of Columbia. “We will aggressively seek to prevent sanctioned entities from gaining access to America-made items or profiting from their illegal transfer. Working with our federal and international partners, we will be unflagging in our efforts to bring to justice those who violate these sanctions and to seize assets where appropriate and lawful.”

“Today’s coordinated actions target the unlawful transfer of an Iranian cargo plane to a Venezuelan airline and the airline’s subsequent operation of that plane in violation of our rules,” said Assistant Secretary of Export Enforcement Matthew S. Axelrod of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security. “We will continue to take significant and direct enforcement action against foreign airlines operating U.S.-origin aircraft in violation of U.S. export controls.”

“This seizure demonstrates the FBI’s persistence in using all of our tools to hold the Iranian Government and affiliated individuals and companies accountable when they violate U.S. laws,” said Acting Assistant Director of Counterterrorism Kevin Vorndran of the FBI. “The FBI, along with our international partners, will continue to seek out those individuals who contribute to the advancement of Iran’s malign activities and ensure they are brought to justice, regardless of where, or how, they attempt to hide.”

This matter is being investigated by the Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security’s Miami Field Office and the FBI Miami Field Office.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Rajbir Datta of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andy Camacho of the Southern District of Florida, and Trial Attorney Elizabeth Abraham of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are handling the seizure and investigation, with assistance from Paralegal Specialist Brian Rickers and Legal Assistant Jessica McCormick. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided significant assistance in working with the Argentinian authorities.

A photograph of the TARGET Aircraft from Sept. 6, 2019 with the Mahan Air livery and logo.

A photograph of the TARGET Aircraft from Jan. 23, 2022 with the EMTRASUR livery and logo.