Month: February 2023

Source: United States Department of Justice News

PITTSBURGH – A resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Pittsburgh to distributing and possessing material depicting the sexual exploitation of minors, and upon conviction, was sentenced to 96 months’ imprisonment and 10 years’ supervised release, United States Attorney Cindy Chung announced today.

U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan imposed the sentence on Cody Green, age 25.

According to information presented to the court during the guilty plea hearing, Green was communicating with other individuals using private communication applications, to include Wickr and Tumbler, and distributed on July 16, 2021, and Aug. 30, 2021, images and videos to those individuals which depicted the sexual exploitation of prepubescent minors. A search warrant was executed at his residence on Sept. 1, 2021, by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other members of the Western Pennsylvania Violent Crimes Against Children Task Force. Green’s cellular telephone was seized and found to contain 19 still images and 248 videos containing child sex abuse material, some of which depicted sex acts with children younger than 2 years old.

Prior to imposing sentence, Judge Ranjan emphasized the egregious nature of Green’s conduct and communications, and stated that he hoped that he would take advantage of sex offender and mental health treatment while incarcerated. Judge Ranjan further ordered Green to pay a total of $15,300 in special assessments, as well as restitution to ten child victims totaling $32,000. The court revoked Green’s bond and he was taken into custody.

Assistant United States Attorney Carolyn J. Bloch prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

United States Attorney Chung commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other members of the Western Pennsylvania Violent Crimes Against Children Task Force for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Green.

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 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

CHARLESTON, W.Va. –  United States Attorney Will Thompson announced today that the Southern District of West Virginia collected $3,418,522.70 in criminal and civil actions in Fiscal Year 2022. Of this amount, $1,771,403.30 was collected in criminal actions and $1,647,119.40 was collected in civil actions. 

Additionally, the Southern District of West Virginia worked with other U.S. Attorney’s Offices and components of the Department of Justice to collect an additional $2,698,400.58 in cases pursued jointly by these offices. Of this amount, $2,372.47 was collected in criminal actions and $2,696,028.11 was collected in civil actions.

In 2022, the Southern District of West Virginia recovered $907,074.64 from Dr. Craig M. Morgan and Eye Consultants of Huntington Inc. to resolve allegations that they submitted false claims to Medicare and Medicaid. In late 2021, the District recovered $500,000 from Henry Schien, Inc., (“HSI”) a wholesale medical distributor based in Long Island, New York, as part of a settlement agreement with the United States to resolve civil penalty claims arising from its improper distribution of opioids and other controlled substances to medical and dental practitioners in five states in violation of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

The U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, along with the department’s litigating divisions, are responsible for enforcing and collecting civil and criminal debts owed to the U.S. and criminal debts owed to federal crime victims. The law requires defendants to pay restitution to victims of certain federal crimes who have suffered a physical injury or financial loss. While restitution is paid to the victim, criminal fines and felony assessments are paid to the department’s Crime Victims Fund, which distributes the funds collected to federal and state victim compensation and victim assistance programs.

Additionally, the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Southern District of West Virginia, working with partner agencies and divisions, collected $2,255,269 in asset forfeiture actions in FY 2022. Forfeited assets deposited into the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund are used to restore funds to crime victims and for a variety of law enforcement purposes.

 A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia.

 

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Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A Massachusetts man was sentenced today to 33 months in prison for his role in a scheme in which he accepted bribes from an Afghan company in exchange for helping it deceive the U.S. military into awarding at least 10 contracts at inflated values.

According to court documents, Todd Coleman, 48, of South Deerfield, was an analyst at a U.S. company who was deployed to Afghanistan in 2011 and 2012 to evaluate bids for U.S.-funded reconstruction contracts awarded by the U.S. military. At that time, Coleman and Orlando Clark, a manager of reconstruction projects at a different U.S. company who was also deployed to Afghanistan, received approximately $400,000 in bribes from an Afghan company. In return, Coleman and Clark assisted the company in obtaining millions of dollars in contracts that involved the construction of an Afghan police station and a security checkpoint for U.S. forces.

To conceal their conduct, Coleman and Clark registered fictitious companies in the State of Georgia and opened bank accounts to which bribes were sent via wire transfers from Afghanistan. Coleman and Clark also created false invoices to make it appear as though they were involved in a car-exporting business in the United Arab Emirates. In reality, Coleman and Clark used the bribe payments to enrich themselves by purchasing personal items, such as a BMW. During the scheme, Coleman and Clark also travelled to the United Arab Emirates to receive cash bribes, which they smuggled into the United States without declaring the currency.

On Jan. 4, Clark pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official and (in an unrelated scheme) conspiracy to commit visa fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 12 and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on each charge. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan for the Northern District of Georgia; Inspector General John F. Sopko of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR); Special Agent in Charge Stanley A. Newell of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), Transnational Operations Field Office; and Special Agent in Charge Peter Tolentino of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), Economic Crimes Field Office made the announcement.

SIGAR, DCIS, and NCIS investigated the case.

Trial Attorney Matt Kahn of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Russell Phillips for the Northern District of Georgia prosecuted the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

CONTACT: Barbara Burns            
PHONE:       (716) 843-5817    
FAX #:          (716) 551-3051        

ROCHESTER, N.Y.-U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross announced today that Robert Colon, 32, of Rochester, NY, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute fentanyl before U.S. District Judge Frank P. Geraci, Jr.  The charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1,000,000 fine.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Cassie M. Kocher, who is handling the case, stated that between January 2022, and March 9, 2022, Colon sold quantities of cocaine, fentanyl, and/or para-fluorofentanyl to an undercover law enforcement officer on different occasions, which resulted in an arrest warrant being issued on March 23, 2022. Colon was taken into custody on May 30, 2022. At that time, he possessed approximately 189 baggies containing fentanyl, approximately 16 baggies of cocaine, and $1,748 in cash, which represented drug proceeds.  

The plea is the result of an investigation by the Rochester Police Department, under the direction of Chief David Smith, the Greater Rochester Area Narcotics Enforcement Team, and Homeland Security Investigations, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Matthew Scarpino.

Sentencing is scheduled for June 15, 2023, at 2:00 p.m. before Judge Geraci.
 
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Source: United States Department of Justice News

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that DILLON JORDAN, a/k/a “Daniel Jordan,” a/k/a “Daniel Maurice Hatton,” a/k/a “Daniel Bohler,” was sentenced today to five years in prison in connection with operating a prostitution business with national and international reach from 2010 through 2017.  JORDAN pled guilty to conspiracy to violate the Mann Act on September 1, 2022, before U.S. District Judge John P. Cronan.  Judge Cronan imposed today’s sentence.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “For years, the defendant operated and profited from an extensive prostitution business that catered to wealthy men and was predicated on the exploitation of young women.  This Office is committed to prosecuting the perpetrators of sex crimes, especially those who use physical and emotional abuse to make a profit.”

According to the allegations in the Indictment and statements made in Court:

From in or about 2010 through at least in or about May 2017, JORDAN operated a prostitution business throughout the United States and abroad.  JORDAN maintained a roster of women who resided around the United States and who, in exchange for payment, performed sexual acts for JORDAN’s clients at locations throughout the United States, including the Southern District of New York, and abroad.  JORDAN communicated with the clients of his prostitution business by email to coordinate the prostitution services, which included sending to clients photos of women who were available for hire for prostitution services, discussing the price of prostitution services, and overseeing travel logistics for women to travel to engage in prostitution.  At times, JORDAN himself arranged the interstate travel for the women to engage in prostitution, and at other times, clients, at JORDAN’s direction, arranged the interstate travel for the women whom JORDAN directed to those clients.  To facilitate his prostitution business, JORDAN also coordinated with a United Kingdom-based madam by sharing and referring customers and prostitutes.

JORDAN personally recruited women to work for him to engage in prostitution. JORDAN emotionally and sexually abused at least some of the women who engaged in paid sex work at his direction or whom he sought to recruit to engage in prostitution on his behalf.  Prior to operating the prostitution business that is the basis of this conviction, JORDAN was in prison in Cuba for eight years for sex crimes.  JORDAN began operating the prostitution business that is the basis of this conviction immediately upon his return to the United States from Cuban prison in 2010.  

JORDAN primarily managed the finances of the prostitution business through two front companies – a purported party and event planning company and a movie production company – incorporated in California.  JORDAN opened multiple bank accounts for these companies, which he used to accept cash, wire, and check payments for prostitution services from clients and to pay for the expenses of the prostitution business, including paying the women for their prostitution services by cash and check.  By using the two front companies to receive deposits from the prostitution business, JORDAN ensured that transactions involving those proceeds from the prostitution business would disguise the nature, source, and origin of those proceeds.   

In imposing today’s sentence, Judge Cronan emphasized that JORDAN’s “whole business was based on the exploitation of women… Each of whom has endured permanent physical and emotional scars… I may have well gone beyond five years, if I had the authority to do so.”

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In addition to the prison term, JORDAN, 50, of Lake Arrowhead, California, was sentenced to three years of supervised release.  JORDAN was further ordered to pay a forfeiture of $1,429,717.

Mr. Williams praised the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. 

This case is being handled by the Office’s Money Laundering and Transnational Criminal Enterprises Unit.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Cecilia E. Vogel is in charge of the prosecution.