Month: February 2023

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Daniel B. Brubaker, Inspector in Charge of the New York Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (“USPIS”), announced that JEFFREY SOBERMAN PARKET, a former bond trader and the former principal of several hedge funds, pled guilty today in Manhattan federal court to wire fraud and bank fraud.  PARKET obtained over $65 million in loans from individual and institutional lenders by fabricating assets, doctoring bank and brokerage statements, and forging business correspondence and signatures, resulting in over $37 million in victim losses.  PARKET pled guilty before United States District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Parket traded on his reputation as a respected financier and fabricated paper assets to defraud lenders of millions of dollars in loans that they never would have made if not for his lies and the sophisticated ruses he used to support those lies.  His scheme cost some of his victims everything they had.  He will now be held accountable for his deceit.”

USPIS Inspector in Charge Daniel B. Brubaker said: “Parket took advantage of his investors’ trust, among them his friends and family members, and perpetrated an intricate scheme involving fraudulent documents and identity theft to hide his fraud from them.  However, Postal Inspectors and our law enforcement partners unraveled Parket’s web of deceit and exposed all his crimes.  Parket’s conviction today vindicates the investors he defrauded of almost $40 million.  His conviction should also serve as a warning to would-be fraudsters: Postal Inspectors will dedicate every resource in our arsenal to protect the integrity of the mail and pursue anyone who betrays the public trust and preys on innocent investors.”

As alleged in the Complaint and Information and based on other filings and statements made in court:

From at least 2016 through December 2021, PARKET fraudulently obtained over $65 million in short-term loans from individuals and financial institutions by materially misrepresenting his financial condition and pledging fake collateral.  Claiming that he needed short-term liquidity for investment opportunities or real estate purchases, PARKET constructed elaborate stories and submitted hundreds of pages of supporting documents to obtain loans he had no intention of repaying.  Among other things, he falsified bank and brokerage statements and contracts allegedly reflecting his significant assets and ownership interests in valuable investment accounts.  To furnish proof of some of these ownership interests, PARKET also used the names, titles, and forged signatures of actual company executives he falsely claimed were his business associates.  He created fake email addresses for them and forged lengthy email correspondence regarding measures supposedly taken by PARKET and his purported business associates to secure the loans.

To perpetuate the scheme, PARKET used loans from new lenders to pay back earlier lenders. He also made fraudulent representations about delayed acquisitions and temporary liquidity issues to induce his existing lenders to extend the maturity date of his loans or to provide him millions of dollars in additional loans.

PARKET’s individual victims included friends and professional acquaintances, some of whom he persuaded to provide him numerous loans.  His institutional victims included short-term bridge lenders, a real estate services company, a bank insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and an insurance company focused on helping clients save for retirement.

Throughout the offense period, PARKET also persuaded family members to transfer funds to his personal accounts by falsely promising to safely invest their life savings on their behalf.  He then used the funds to pay down fraudulently obtained loans.

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PARKET, 59, of Great Neck, New York, pled guilty to one count of wire fraud affecting a financial institution and one count of bank fraud, each of which carries a maximum potential sentence of 30 years in prison.

The statutory maximum penalties are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge.  Sentencing has been scheduled for June 28, 2023.

Mr. Williams praised the outstanding investigative work of USPIS.

This case is being handled by the Office’s General Crimes Unit.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane Y. Chong is in charge of the prosecution.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Thank you, Ginger [Baran Lyons], and good morning, everyone! It is wonderful to be with you in Washington, D.C., the ancestral and traditional homeland of the Nacotchtank or Anacostan and Piscataway peoples.

I am proud to welcome you to the Department of Justice 2023 Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month Observance Event. This is OVW’s first in-person awareness month event in the Great Hall in many years, and it is worthy of that distinction: we will hear from Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta and from two organizations doing remarkable work: Jewish Women International and MCSR.

Since the Violence Against Women Act passed in 1994, we have made strides in reducing intimate partner violence. But so many young people still experience physical and emotional abuse, sexual violence and stalking at the hands of current or former dating partners. We have more work to do. Today, we will hear directly from people who are at the forefront of that work: youth experts actively working in violence prevention.

It is critically important that you are here together to bring your advocacy and dedication. As Ginger noted, you are usually way ahead of us, and we are following your lead.

When I was 16 and sleeping on the couch of a domestic violence shelter, I really could not have imagined that one day I’d be running the Office on Violence Against Women. But when I see these awesome young advocates at work, I absolutely picture them running OVW – and the world. OVW has seen firsthand the impact that student-led efforts have on violence prevention efforts, promoting how to take a stand, how to intervene, and how to call out harmful behaviors.

In addition to the youth experts in the room, we have many young people joining us on the livestream. I hope all of you recognize that what you have to say is vital in bringing about change in the way that your peers – as well as adults and future generations – understand and respond to dating violence.

First of all, as adults, we are dying to know what you really think. I know it does not always feel that way, but I swear we desperately do. And we need your help because us adults trying to do prevention and connect with young people is always going to miss the mark. Do you want to see us try to make a TikTok about healthy relationships? I didn’t think so.

Your voice and your actions are powerful. You lift up survivors so that they are seen and heard. You engage with your communities and stop dating violence before it even happens.

And one thing I see this generation do really well, is you recognize and acknowledge the nuances, the barriers, the opportunities, the unique lived experiences that will allow you to create deep and lasting systemic change.

To those of you here today who are turning your pain into action, please believe me when I say that you are so valued for who you are. You are enough, even when you don’t feel that way. You are so brave, and you are changing the world. 

As President Biden said in his Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month proclamation, “by recognizing the signs of dating and domestic violence, setting positive examples of healthy relationships that lift up instead of tear down, and making clear that abuses of power are never acceptable, we can build a culture where respect is the norm, dignity is the rule, and safety is the expectation — both online and offline.” I want to thank JWI and MCSR for ensuring we move, ever forward, toward that vision and for contributing to today’s program.

Now, it is my honor to introduce Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. She is a champion for civil rights, for survivors, and for improving access to justice for all. Please join me in giving her a warm welcome.

Source: United States Department of Justice

Updated February 15, 2023

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Baltimore, Maryland – A federal jury convicted Jacky Lynn McComber (formerly Jacky Lynn Kimmel), age 50, of Elkridge, Maryland, on federal charges of submitting false claims and making false statements, in connection with the hours she claimed to have worked on a federal contract with the National Security Agency (NSA).  McComber was the CEO and owner of InfoTeK, an information technology (IT) services corporation, which had an ongoing contract with the NSA. 

The guilty verdict was announced by Erek L. Barron, United States Attorney for the District of Maryland; Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Kevin Gerrity, Acting Inspector General of the National Security Agency; and Robert P. Storch, Inspector General of the Department of Defense, Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service.

According to evidence presented at trial, from July 2011 until March 2018, the NSA had an ongoing contract, known as the Ironbridge contract, with InfoTeK to provide maintenance and enhancement support for the information technology and software requirements of the NSA’s National Security Operations Center (NSOC) and the Counter Terrorism Mission Management Center (CTMMC).  Because the subject matter of these contracts involved classified information, most of the work had to be performed at secure, access-controlled locations and there were severe limitations on the amount of work that could be performed off-site.  InfoTeK billed the NSA monthly for the hours worked by its employees and contractors.

According to the evidence presented at the four-week trial, the Ironbridge contract required InfoTeK to identify a Program Manager (PM) who would be responsible for overseeing InfoTeK’s performance of its contractual obligations and serve as InfoTeK’s point of contact with government officials.  From 2011 to 2013, several individuals, including McComber, served as the PM on the Ironbridge contract.  Starting in the summer of 2013, Individual A held the position of Senior Program Manager on the Ironbridge contract, until she was replaced by McComber in mid-March 2016.  McComber held the position through September 2017.  According to trial testimony, for 17 months, beginning in mid-March 2016 when McComber took over the PM position, she billed an average of 144 hours per month to the NSA for her supposed work.  In all, between March 14, 2016 and September 30, 2017, InfoTeK billed NSA for 2,603.5 hours of work on the Ironbridge contract purportedly performed by McComber in her role as Senior Program Manager.  NSA paid these charges in full, at a total cost of $388,878.78.

A subsequent review and comparison by the NSA OIG in the fall of 2017 of McComber’s NSA access control records with the time InfoTeK billed for her work on the Ironbridge contracts established that McComber was not within access control at the NSA’s Fort Meade location for 2,342.5 (90%) of the 2.603.5 hours she had recorded on her timesheets and that InfoTeK subsequently billed to NSA.  In addition to not being physically present at the worksite for the vast majority of hours she billed to the Ironbridge contract, the evidence showed that McComber did not work the number of hours on the Ironbridge contract that she recorded on her timesheet.  For example, on occasions when McComber billed a full eight-hour day to the Ironbridge contract, she participated in charity events, attended her high school reunion, vacationed in Texas and in Ocean City, Maryland, and performed business development efforts on behalf of InfoTeK that were unrelated to the Ironbridge contract.  Other testimony by former InfoTeK officers indicated that McComber was only in InfoTeK’s Columbia, Maryland offices irregularly and when she was there, she did not appear to be working on Ironbridge-related matters.  As a result of McComber’s false claims as to the time she worked on the Ironbridge contract between March 2016 and September 2017, the NSA substantially overpaid InfoTeK.

As further detailed in trial testimony, on October 3, 2017, McComber participated in a voluntary interview with NSA OIG investigators concerning allegations received from a whistleblower that she had charged the government for hours that she did not actually work.  McComber falsely claimed that her consistent billings of eight hours per day spent on Ironbridge-related work most days were legitimate and that she did not falsely fill out her timesheet or put any false information on it.  

McComber faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for each of 19 counts of submitting false claims and for one count of making false statements.  U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander has scheduled sentencing for May 12, 2023. 

United States Attorney Erek L. Barron and Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite commended the National Security Agency Office of Inspector General and DCIS for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron and Mr. Polite thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Jefferson M. Gray and Trial Attorney Peter L. Cooch of the Justice Department’s Fraud Section, who are prosecuting the case.

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Source: United States Department of Justice News

BOISE – Isaac Bright, 29, of Nampa, was sentenced to ten years in federal prison, the maximum allowable sentence, for unlawful possession of a firearm, U.S. Attorney Josh Hurwit announced today.

According to court records, on January 29, 2022, a police officer with the Wilder Police Department attempted to conduct a traffic stop on a vehicle driven by Bright. Bright failed to stop, resulting in a high-speed pursuit. Bright was eventually arrested after discharging a firearm at the officer. When Bright was arrested, he possessed a 9mm caliber pistol. At the time of the arrest, Bright was prohibited from possessing firearms due to a 2016 conviction for unlawful possession of a firearm.

Bright is a documented member of the Latin Kings gang with an extensive criminal history, including convictions for second degree kidnapping, domestic battery in the presence of a child, and malicious injury to property.  At the time of the offense, Bright was on supervised release for his 2016 firearm offense.

Senior U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill also ordered Bright to serve three years of supervised release following his prison sentence. Bright pleaded guilty to the federal firearm charge on October 3, 2022.

U.S. Attorney Hurwit credited the cooperative efforts of the Wilder Police Department and the Treasure Valley Metro Violent Crimes Task Force, which led to charges. The Task Force is comprised of federal, state, and local agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Ada County Sheriff’s Office; Boise Police Department; Caldwell Police Department; Canyon County Sheriff’s Office; Meridian Police Department; Nampa Police Department; and Idaho Department of Correction.

This case was prosecuted by the Special Assistant U.S. Attorney hired by the Treasure Valley Partnership and the State of Idaho to address gang crimes. The Treasure Valley Partnership is comprised of a group of elected officials in southwest Idaho dedicated to regional coordination, cooperation, and collaboration on creating coherent regional growth. For more information, visit www.treasurevalleypartners.org.

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