Month: February 2023

Source: United States Department of Justice News

A federal district court yesterday entered an order approving the last in a series of four settlements that collectively recovered nearly $5 million stolen from consumers by a transnational network of fraudsters.

The settlement represents the culmination of a civil action pursued by the United States to disrupt a bank fraud scheme and recover stolen victim funds. In a civil complaint filed on Aug. 13, 2021, the United States alleged that Guy Benoit, Edward Courdy, Harold Sobel, and more than 25 other individuals and corporations defrauded American consumers out of millions of dollars by charging unauthorized debits against their bank accounts. According to the complaint, the defendants posted unauthorized debit transactions in the name of sham corporate entities against the bank accounts of unsuspecting consumers. The defendants also used thousands of sham “micro transactions” to attempt to prevent banks from detecting the defendants’ unauthorized debits.

On Aug. 20, 2021, U.S. District Judge John F. Walter granted a temporary restraining order enjoining the fraud scheme, freezing fraud scheme assets, and appointing a receiver over corporate entities used in the scheme. In the following months, the United States obtained permanent injunctions against 28 defendants. In parallel, the receiver seized over $1 million in assets stolen as part of the fraud scheme and further recovered nearly $5 million through settlements with third parties the receiver identified as having received stolen victim funds.

“The scheme described in the government’s filings involved an elaborate plot to reach into consumers’ bank accounts and steal their hard-earned savings,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The Department of Justice will use all of the tools at its disposal to halt practices like these, recover funds stolen from victims, and bring offenders to justice.”

“This action showcases the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s relentlessness in pursuing justice and holding individuals and corporations, both domestically and internationally, accountable for their unlawful actions,” said Inspector in Charge Eric Shen of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s (USPIS) Criminal Investigations Group. “We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to investigate and stop sophisticated fraud schemes targeting U.S. consumers.”

The USPIS conducted the investigation in this matter. The government is represented in the civil action by Trial Attorney Michael Wadden and Assistant Director Lisa Hsiao of the Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch.

For more information about the Consumer Protection Branch and its enforcement efforts, visit https://www.justice.gov/civil/consumer-protection-branch.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

A federal grand jury in Las Vegas returned an indictment today charging a Nevada woman with assisting in the preparation of false income tax returns.

According to the indictment, from 2015 through 2020, Jessica Avras, of Las Vegas, owned and operated a tax preparation business. Avras allegedly prepared and filed materially false federal income tax returns for clients that fraudulently reduced their federal income tax liability and/or inflated their tax refunds. The indictment charges that Avras routinely reported fictitious businesses on her clients’ returns and claimed that those businesses had generated significant losses. She also allegedly fabricated deductions on her clients’ tax returns, including noncash charitable contributions, sales taxes and unreimbursed employee expenses.

Avras is charged with 31 counts of assisting in the preparation of false income tax returns, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7206(2), and scheduled for her initial court appearance on Feb. 22, 2023, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Brenda Weksler of the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada. If convicted, she faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison for each count. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, and United States Attorney Jason M. Frierson for the District of Nevada made the announcement.

IRS-Criminal Investigation is investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys Thomas Flynn and Samuel Robins of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Schmale of the District of Nevada are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

MADISON, WIS. – Timothy M. O’Shea, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Roxanne E. Rankin, 52, Minneapolis, Minnesota was sentenced today by Chief U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson to 72 months in federal prison for distributing 50 grams or more of methamphetamine. The prison term will be followed by 48 months of supervised release. Rankin pleaded guilty to this charge on August 26, 2022. 

On December 6, 2021, West Central Drug Task Force officers arranged the purchase of one pound of methamphetamine from Rankin through a confidential informant.  Rankin advised she would bring one-half pound and obtain the second half after getting the money from the buyer.  Rankin drove from Minnesota to an agreed-upon location in Hudson, Wisconsin.  There, she met with the confidential informant and provided a bag containing 222 grams of methamphetamine in exchange for $4,000.  As Rankin was driving away, she was pulled over and arrested.  At the time, Rankin was on probation out of Minnesota.

At sentencing, Judge Peterson explained that the case involved two aggravating factors.  First, Rankin had a prior 2002 federal conviction for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine.  Second, Rankin was involved in serious drug trafficking which can have a devastating impact on the community. 

The charge against Rankin was the result of an investigation conducted by the West Central Drug Task Force and the Drug Enforcement Administration.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven P. Anderson prosecuted this case. 

Source: United States Department of Justice News

PHOENIX, Ariz. – Last week, Vanessa Rene Dundon (a.k.a. Sioux Z, a.k.a. Suzie Q), 38, of Indian Wells, Arizona pleaded guilty to Possession with Intent to Distribute Methamphetamine. Sentencing is scheduled for April 18, 2023 before United States District Judge Diane J. Humetewa.

Dundon was stopped in her vehicle on the Hopi Reservation in April 2021, March 2022, and April 2022. On each occasion she had controlled substances in her vehicle. At the change of plea hearing, Dundon admitted that on April 17, 2022, she possessed 58.4 grams of pure methamphetamine and that she intended to deliver it to other individuals in exchange for payment.

A conviction for Possession with Intent to Distribute Methamphetamine carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $1,000,000, or both.

The Phoenix Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Hopi Law Enforcement Services conducted the investigation in this case. Assistant United States Attorneys in the Violent Crime Section, District of Arizona, Phoenix, are handling the prosecution.

CASE NUMBER:            CR-22-08043-PCT-DJH
RELEASE NUMBER:    2023-015_Dundon

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For more information on the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/az/

Follow the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, on Twitter @USAO_AZ for the latest news.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A Fulda, Minnesota, man was sentenced in federal court today for exchanging pornographic photos and videos online with an 11-year-old child victim in Boone County, Mo.

Douglas Howard Canfield, 56, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes to 15 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Canfield to eight years of supervised release following incarceration. Canfield will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison and will be subject to federal and state sex offender registration requirements, which may apply throughout his life.

On March 1, 2022, Canfield pleaded guilty to attempting to produce child pornography. Canfield admitted that he sent pornographic photos and videos of himself to the child victim and solicited pornographic photos from the child victim. Canfield communicated with the child victim over the Fastmeet dating application on her cell phone. Canfield engaged the child victim in explicit conversations about sex on numerous occasions in June 2019.

In July 2019, the Boone County, Mo., Children’s Division received an anonymous report regarding the child victim’s online activity. A Boone County sheriff’s deputy contacted the child victim’s mother, who turned over the cell phone to investigators and granted permission for them to examine the phone and access the child victim’s accounts. Investigators identified Canfield, who was contacted by the FBI in Minnesota.

Canfield admitted to investigators that he used the Fastmeet application to communicate with four or five minor females, from whom Canfield solicited pornographic images.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ashley S. Turner. It was investigated by the Boone County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department Cyber Crimes Task Force and the FBI.

Project Safe Childhood

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.usdoj.gov/psc . For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”