Month: August 2022

Source: United States Department of Justice News

A resident of Birch River, West Virginia, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Columbus, Ohio, on charges of receipt, acquisition or purchase of illegally transported protected plants and falsification of records, Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker for the Southern District of Ohio announced.

The six-count indictment named Tony Lee Coffman, 59, as the sole defendant.

According to the indictment presented to the court, Coffman received, acquired or purchased American ginseng roots that had been illegally transported in interstate commerce from Ohio and falsified records relating to the purchase of Ohio ginseng.

The law provides for a maximum total sentence of five years in prison per count, a fine of $20,000 per count, or both. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Senior Trial Attorney Adam Cullman of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Pakiz for the Southern District of Ohio are prosecuting this case.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office of Law Enforcement and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources conducted the investigation.

The charges contained in the indictment are merely allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Awais Chudhary, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Pakistan, pleaded guilty today in federal court in Brooklyn to attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization.  Today’s proceeding was held before United States Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy.  When sentenced, Chudhary faces up to 20 years in prison.

Breon S. Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; Matthew G. Olsen, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s National Security Division; Michael J. Driscoll, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI); and Keechant L. Sewell, Commissioner, New York City Police Department (NYPD), announced the guilty plea.

“Awais Chudhary has admitted to planning to carry out a lone wolf terrorist attack in Queens against innocent civilians in an embrace of ISIS’s murderous cause,” stated United States Attorney Peace.  “Thanks to the Joint Terrorism Task Force, Chudhary’s efforts to commit deadly violence on behalf of ISIS were thwarted, lives were saved, and he now awaits sentencing for his heinous crime.”

“As he admitted today, Mr. Chudhary planned to bring terror to the people of New York City on behalf of ISIS.  The Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), with its tireless vigilance, was able to successfully disrupt his plot, keeping our city safe from this potential lone wolf terrorist.  The FBI, along with our partners on the JTTF, remain committed to our highest priority of defending the United States from terrorism,” stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Driscoll.

“Mr. Chudhary has admitted to providing material support, from American soil, to terrorists based overseas,” stated NYPD Commissioner Sewell.  “He is a naturalized U.S. citizen who abandoned the country that took him in, and instead pledged allegiance to ISIS and repeatedly and diligently promoted its violent objectives. Clearly, the threat of ISIS-inspired terrorism remains very real, and the members of our FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force will never stop working to identify anyone aiding groups that consider our country their sworn enemy.”

According to court filings, in August 2019, after watching violent terrorist propaganda videos, Chudhary pledged his allegiance to ISIS’s then-leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and began planning for a knife or bomb attack as a lone wolf ISIS supporter.  Chudhary identified targets, including the pedestrian bridges over the Grand Central Parkway and the Flushing Bay Promenade, where he intended to carry out the attacks.  Chudhary sought guidance from individuals whom he believed to be ISIS supporters, including what type of knife to use and how to prevent detection from law enforcement by not leaving “traces of finger prints [or] DNA.”  Chudhary also sent a screenshot of a document from an ISIS propaganda magazine that included a diagram of the human body depicting where to stab victims with a knife.  Chudhary conducted several reconnaissance trips to these locations and made video recordings of the areas he intended to attack. 

Chudhary ordered items online that he intended to use to commit a terrorist attack, including a tactical knife, a mask, gloves, and a cellphone chest and head strap to facilitate his recording of the attack, which he hoped would serve as inspiration to other ISIS supporters.  Chudhary was arrested as he attempted to retrieve the items from an online retailer’s locker in Queens.

The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s National Security and Cybercrime Section.  Assistant United States Attorneys Jonathan Algor and Ellen Sise are in charge of the prosecution, with assistance from Trial Attorney Kevin Nunnally of the Department of Justice’s Counterterrorism Section. 

The Defendant:

AWAIS CHUDHARY
Age:  22
Queens, New York

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 20-CR-135 (CBA)

Source: United States Department of Justice News

The president and treasurer of a Super PAC was sentenced today to 14 months in prison for scheming to lie to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) about the true identities of donors.

The Super PAC, which was also sentenced today, was ordered to pay a $150,000 fine and to serve three years of probation.

According to the admissions made in connection with their pleas, Joseph Fuentes-Fernandez, 62, of Arlington, Virginia, and Salvemos a Puerto Rico, the Super PAC for which he served as president and treasurer, raised funds to support the 2020 election campaign of Public Official-1, then a candidate for office in the executive branch of the government of Puerto Rico. Soon after Salvemos a Puerto Rico was organized, Fuentes and others also formed two shell § 501(c)(4) nonprofit social welfare organizations. These two § 501(c)(4) entities were registered within seven minutes of each other, listed the same mailing address, and shared some of the same officers.

Fuentes further admitted that he and others solicited hundreds of thousands of dollars of donations to the two shell nonprofit entities, which rapidly sent most of those funds to Salvemos a Puerto Rico. Fuentes and Salvemos a Puerto Rico then reported to the FEC that the nonprofit entities were the donors of those funds, rather than reporting the true source of the funds. The purpose of routing these donor funds through the nonprofit entities was exclusively to conceal the true identities of the donors to Salvemos a Puerto Rico. For example, in October 2020, Fuentes sent this text message to a potential donor: “You can use a third party to not disclose the true donor.” By ensuring that many of the true donors to Salvemos a Puerto Rico remained anonymous, Fuentes and Salvemos a Puerto Rico deprived the people of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the FEC of information about the true source of hundreds of thousands of dollars flowing into Puerto Rico’s political system.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow for the District of Puerto Rico, and Special Agent in Charge Joseph González of the FBI’s San Juan Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI’s San Juan Field Office investigated the case.

Trial Attorney Jonathan E. Jacobson of the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth A. Erbe for the District of Puerto Rico prosecuted the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Orlando, Florida – United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces the return of an indictment charging Dale Meyer Elliott (41, Kissimmee) with three counts of receipt of child sex abuse material and one count of possession of child sex abuse material.  If convicted, Elliott faces a minimum mandatory penalty of 5 years, and up to 20 years, in federal prison for each possession count and up to 20 years in federal prison for the possession count. The indictment also notifies Elliott that the United States intends to forfeit his cellphone, which is alleged to have been used to commit the charged offenses.

An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the Martin County Sheriff’s Office and Osceola County Sheriff’s Office. It will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Courtney D. Richardson-Jones.

This is another case brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.  

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Ocala, Florida – Senior U.S. District Judge John Antoon II has sentenced Aleia Deborah Green (20, Brooksville) for possessing stolen mail. Green was sentenced to the maximum term of probation—five years—and ordered to make full restitution in the amount of $956.53 to the 23 victims of her offense. Green had pleaded guilty on June 1, 2022.

According to court records, Green worked as a contract mail carrier for the United States Postal Service (USPS). She delivered mail for the Crystal River Post Office. On October 19, 2021, after receiving complaints about missing mail from Green’s route, federal agents conducted surveillance at a neighborhood cluster box. The agents placed a piece of mail containing money in the outgoing mail slot of the cluster box. Green subsequently retrieved that mail, opened it, and stole the money. When confronted by the agents, Green admitted to the theft. She also confessed to opening approximately 100 other pieces of mail along her route since August 2021.

This case was investigated by the United States Postal Service – Office of the Inspector General. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Hannah Nowalk.