Month: September 2022

Source: United States Department of Justice News

EVANSVILLE – Chris Lynn Carder II, 36, of Evansville, Indiana, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to distribution of child sexual abuse material.

According to court documents, in July of 2019, an FBI agent working in Salt Lake City, Utah, was conducting an undercover investigation online using the social networking application Kik. On July 18, 2019, the agent was contacted by the Kik user “clcarder” and they began communicating. During their communications, clcarder expressed an interest in sex with children and sent two videos depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct to the agent.

The individual using the username clcarder was later identified by law enforcement to be Carder. A search warrant was executed at Carder’s residence in Evansville on March 12, 2020. Following the search, Carter admitted to FBI agents that he created the Kik account and that he used the username clcarder to send materials depicting the sexual abuse of children. Pursuant to the search warrant, investigators were able to access the data stored on Carder’s two cellular telephones and they found child sexual abuse materials on his electronic devices. The images and videos distributed and possessed by Carder included depictions of the sexual abuse of children under twelve years old and some involved sadistic or masochistic conduct or other depictions of violence.

Zachary A. Myers, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, and Herbert J. Stapleton, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Indianapolis Field Office, made the announcement.

FBI investigated the case. The sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge Richard L. Young. As part of the sentence, Judge Young ordered that Carder be supervised by the U.S. Probation Office for eight years following his release from federal prison and ordered Carder to pay $6,000 in restitution to the child exploitation victims. Carder must also register as sex offender wherever he lives, works, or goes to school, as required by law.

U.S. Attorney Myers thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd S. Shellenbarger who prosecuted this case.

In fiscal year 2019, the most recent year for which data is available, the Southern District of Indiana was second out of the 94 federal districts in the country for the number of child sexual exploitation cases prosecuted.

This case was 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 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals 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 www.justice.gov/psc

Source: United States Department of Justice News

PROVIDENCE – Four Georgia men who admitted to a federal judge in Rhode Island that they participated in a scheme that exploited Providence-area homeless and transient individuals by recruiting them to cash hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of counterfeit business checks at banks in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Maine, have been sentenced to federal prison, announced United States Attorney Zachary A. Cunha.

Cortavious Benford, 27, and Michael Williams, 27, of Atlanta; Austin Weaver, 27 of Decatur; and Jalen Ronald Stanford 28, of East Point, admitted that they created counterfeit checks, generally in the amount of $2,000 or more, made payable to homeless individuals who agreed to be driven to banks in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Maine to cash them. These individuals were often paid approximately $100 for each check that they successfully cashed.

A United States Secret Service investigation determined that between October 2018 and February 2021, approximately $677,687 worth of counterfeit checks were presented to banks throughout the four states by members of the conspiracy, causing actual losses to financial institutions of nearly $481,000. Several homeless individuals were arrested as they attempted to cash counterfeit checks.

On February 5, 2021, Williams and Benford recruited and drove a homeless person to a Providence bank to cash a check, threatening to injure the man if he failed to provide them with all the proceeds. From inside the bank, the man pointed to a vehicle that was parked outside of the bank as containing individuals who recruited him and provided him with the counterfeit check. Providence Police located the vehicle a short distance away and arrested Williams and Benford. They were found to be in possession of $12,000 in cash. 

A court-authorized search of a Providence residence that law enforcement determined the four men used when in Rhode Island resulted in the seizure of a computer which had a program used to design and print checks; a printer; blank check stock; and an envelope containing numerous stolen checks and approximately $5,000 in cash.

Weaver and Stanford were arrested on later dates.

The four men were convicted in federal court in Rhode Island on a charge of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Cortavious Benford was sentenced on Tuesday by U.S. District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell, Jr., to 24 months in federal prison; Austin Weaver was sentenced on July 15, to 30 months of incarceration; Jalen Ronald Stanford was sentenced in June to 24 months in prison; and Michael Williams was sentenced in February to 41 months imprisonment. Each of the defendants has been ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $480.943.71 jointly and severally with each other.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Lee H. Vilker.

United States Attorney Cunha thanks the Providence, RI,  and Medway, MA, Police Departments for their assistance to the United States Secret Service in the investigation of this matter.

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