Month: April 2023

Source: United States Department of Justice News

BENTON, Ill. – A U.S. District judge sentenced a St. Louis woman to 12 months and one day in prison after she admitted to visiting Metro East credit unions and using fake identification documents to take out loans.

Toneka D. Prince, 20, pled guilty to one count of falsely obtaining property owned by a financial institution and one count of aggravated identity theft. Prince was ordered to pay $9,800 in restitution, and after completing her prison sentence, she will serve two years of supervised release.

“Stealing identities, taking out loans in someone else’s name and defrauding a financial institution are all serious crimes, and luckily, the defendant was apprehended,” said U.S. Attorney Rachelle Aud Crowe. “I appreciate our federal and local law enforcement partners for their efforts to bring Ms. Prince to justice.”

“This type of fraudulent activity can be devastating to hardworking citizens and their families, and we appreciate our partnership with the U.S. Attorney’s Office to hold individuals accountable for their actions,” said USSS Resident Agent in Charge Stephen Webster. “The U.S. Secret Service remains committed to identifying, investigating, and pursuing those who attempt to enrich themselves through fraudulent means.”

According to court documents, Prince engaged in a scheme to defraud a credit union using identification documents of two victims in her attempts to take out loans. The identity-theft victims’ information would first be used to fill out a loan application line. Once the loan was approved, Prince would enter the credit union and pretend to be the victim in order to collect the money.

One June 24, 2022, Prince visited the First Community Credit in Glen Carbon to collect the cash from the approved loan. She presented a fake Illinois driver’s license with a victim’s real identifiable information and successfully obtained a cash loan of $9,800. She was not authorized to use the individual’s identity.

On June 28, 2022, she went to the First Community Credit Union in Fairview Heights and signed one victim’s name on a loan application for $9,900. In the application, Prince used a fake temporary Illinois driver’s license and fake Spire gas bill with the victim’s real social security number and date of birth included. Once again, she was not authorized to use the victim’s identity.

Law enforcement officers apprehended Prince at the credit union in Fairview Heights.

U.S. Secret Service led the investigation with contributions from the Glen Carbon and O’Fallon police departments. Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter T. Reed prosecuted the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA – U.S. District Judge Joshua M. Kindred sentenced an Anchorage man on April 19, 2023, to 10 years and 5 months imprisonment followed by eight years of supervised release for distributing heroin.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Jason McAnulty, aka “Snoop,” 40, distributed approximately 126 grams of heroin to a law enforcement source during two undercover operations in June 2020, netting himself $6,300.  Law enforcement began investigating McAnulty after learning that he was a source of heroin supply in the Anchorage area. In July 2020, law enforcement executed a search warrant at McAnulty’s residence where they found more than $34,000 cash and other distribution contraband. An Alaska jury convicted McAnulty of the heroin distribution following a five-day trial in March 2022. 

McAnulty was previously convicted in 2004 for first-degree robbery, a serious violent felony, that mandated a minimum 10-year prison sentence. The United States also presented evidence of McAnulty’s extensive and violent criminal history at the sentencing hearing in support of the sentence, including McAnulty’s 2015 federal conviction for attempted witness tampering in another federal criminal trial.

“Dangerous opiates such as heroin pose an ongoing threat to communities throughout Alaska,” said U.S. Attorney S. Lane Tucker for the District of Alaska.  “This sentence serves as a reminder that we will prosecute and hold accountable those who are harming our communities, and with our law enforcement partners, will persist in our disruption of heroin trafficking operations in this district.”

“McAnulty supported the opioid and heroin epidemic through his illegal drug distribution activities, posing a significant threat to communities in Alaska,” said Special Agent in Charge Antony Jung of the FBI Anchorage Field Office. “The FBI and the Anchorage Police Department will continue working together to hold drug traffickers accountable, and to stop the flow of deadly drugs into our communities.” The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Anchorage Police Department (APD), in support of Alaska’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) program, investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys George Tran and Stephan Collins prosecuted the case.

This case is part of Alaska’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA). HIDTA was established in 2018 to enhance and coordinate efforts among local state and federal law enforcement agencies, providing equipment, technology and additional resources to combat drug trafficking and its harmful consequences in critical regions of Alaska.

###

usao/ak/23-028

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Gree USA, Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of a Chinese appliance company, was sentenced today to pay a $500,000 criminal fine after pleading guilty to failing to notify the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) that millions of dehumidifiers it sold to U.S. consumers were defective and could catch fire.

Gree pleaded guilty to a felony violation of the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA). The fine, along with provisions to pay restitution to victims, was part of a $91 million resolution with three related Gree companies that represents the first corporate criminal enforcement action ever brought under the CPSA.

Gree USA, based in City of Industry, California, and a U.S. subsidiary of Hong Kong Gree Electric Appliances Sales Co., Ltd. (Gree Hong Kong), entered into a plea agreement in connection with a criminal information filed in 2021 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The criminal information filed along with the plea agreement charges Gree USA with one felony count under the CPSA of willfully failing to report consumer product safety information to the CPSC.

Gree Electric Appliances, Inc. of Zhuhai (Gree Zhuhai), a global appliance manufacturer headquartered in Zhuhai, China, and Gree Hong Kong entered into a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) in connection with the same criminal information. Under the terms of the DPA, Gree Zhuhai and Gree Hong Kong agreed to a total monetary penalty of $91 million and also agreed to provide restitution for any uncompensated victims of fires caused by the companies’ defective dehumidifiers. Consistent with Justice Department policy, the DPA with Gree Zhuhai and Gree Hong Kong credits the Gree Companies’ earlier payment of $15.45 million in civil penalties to the CPSC against the agreed-upon $91 million total monetary penalty.

According to court filings, Gree Zhuhai, Gree Hong Kong and Gree USA (collectively, the Gree Companies) knew their dehumidifiers were defective, failed to meet applicable safety standards, and could catch fire, but the companies failed to report that information to the CPSC for months. The companies reported and recalled the dehumidifiers only after consumer complaints of fires and resulting harm continued to mount.

The Consumer Protection Branch of the Justice Department’s Civil Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California previously indicted Charley Loh, 64, of Arcadia, California, and Simon Chu, 67, of Chino Hills, California – the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Administrative Officer of Gree USA, respectively – with felony CPSA and wire fraud charges for their alleged roles in the failure to report the defective dehumidifiers. Loh and Chu have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled for trial on April 25, 2023, in Los Angeles. An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

“Today’s sentencing of Gree USA is part of the Department of Justice’s ongoing efforts to hold accountable companies and executives that purposefully delay reporting dangerous consumer products to the CPSC,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The Department will continue to work closely with the CPSC to ensure consumers’ safety.”

“This corporation endangered the safety of American consumers by failing to promptly report a known problem with their defective humidifiers,” said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada for the Central District of California. “Fortunately, authorities were able to stop this practice before Gree USA, Inc. could cause greater harm. This historic case underscores our commitment to protect the public from dangerous products that could cause consumers real harm and to hold accountable corporate entities who knowing violate our laws in promotion of their greed.”

“Today’s sentencing should serve as an example that companies will be held to account when they put profits before consumer safety,” said Chair Alex Hoehn-Saric of the CPSC. “The egregious behavior detailed in this case cannot be tolerated, and we are grateful for the support of the Department of Justice in bringing this company to justice and keeping consumers safe.”

“Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) works tirelessly to protect the American consumer from health and safety risks posed by sub-standard products entering the United States,” said Acting Special in Charge Eddy Wang of HSI Los Angeles. “HSI, the Department of Justice, and the Consumer Protection Safety Commission will continue to hold corporations accountable for placing profits above people.”

As part of the Gree USA plea agreement and the Gree Zhuhai and Gree Hong Kong DPA, the Gree Companies admitted that, between 2007 and 2013, they sold in the United States more than two million dehumidifiers manufactured by Gree Zhuhai and imported by Gree Hong Kong. In September 2012, employees of the Gree Companies, including high-level executives, learned that the Gree dehumidifiers had defects that could cause them to overheat and catch fire, and that consumers had reported fires caused by the dehumidifiers. Those same employees also knew of the obligation to report dangerous consumer products to the CPSC. Despite this knowledge, Gree USA continued to sell the defective dehumidifiers in the United States for at least another six months. The Gree Companies delayed reporting knowledge of the fires to the CPSC for approximately six months, and did not report the defects in the dehumidifiers for approximately nine months. Ultimately, Gree Zhuhai recalled the defective dehumidifiers almost a year after learning about the products’ dangerous defects.

HSI investigated this case.

Assistant Director Allan Gordus and Trial Attorneys Natalie Sanders and Maryann McGuire of the Justice Department’s Consumer Protection Branch and Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Johns for the Central District of California prosecuted the case with the assistance of Patricia Vieira of the CPSC’s Office of General Counsel.

Additional information about the Consumer Protection Branch and its enforcement efforts may be found at http://www.justice.gov/civil/consumer-protection-branch.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander today sentenced Steven McCullough, age 36, of Baltimore, Maryland, to 58 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for  being a felon in possession of a firearm an ammunition.  

The sentence was announced by Erek L. Barron, United States Attorney for the District of Maryland; Special Agent in Charge Toni M. Crosby of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Baltimore Field Division; and Commissioner Michael Harrison of the Baltimore Police Department.

“Our strategy of preventing violence by removing illegal guns and repeat offenders from the streets by any legal means necessary is paying off,” said United States Attorney Erek L. Barron.  “As of today, homicides in Baltimore are down more than 17% from last year and non-fatal shootings are down nearly 20%.  We remain laser-focused on reducing violent crime in Baltimore and throughout the state.”

According to his guilty plea, on December 3, 2020, McCullough posted a video of himself on social media, which shows him approaching a vehicle holding a black handgun.  Baltimore Police officers saw the video, recognized that McCullough was in the 1200 block of North Luzerne Avenue and responded to that location.  Officers located McCullough, wearing the same gray sweatshirt and sweatpants as in the video, and attempted to place him under arrest.  McCullough ran, pulling a black firearm from his sweatshirt pocket.  A short distance later, McCullough tripped, with the gun still in his hand, and tossed the firearm out of his reach.  McCullough was arrested and the gun, a 10mm pistol was recovered.  The handgun was loaded with one round of 10mm jacketed hollow point ammunition in the chamber but was missing a magazine.  A canvass of the path of pursuit recovered a magazine loaded with nine rounds of 10mm ammunition identical to the round found in the gun.  McCullough was searched and officers also recovered approximately 36 vials containing a total of approximately 40 grams of cocaine for distribution.  McCullough admitted that he knew he has a previous felony conviction and was prohibited from possessing a firearm or ammunition.

In two separate cases last week, defendants pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a firearm in a school zone.  Terrence Johnson, age 23, of Baltimore, posted a video on social media showing him driving a car with a black and brown handgun between the center console and the driver’s seat.  Johnson was located within 1,000 feet of Green Street Academy and detectives recovered the gun, a 9mm semi-automatic pistol loaded with eight rounds of 9mm ammunition from Johnson’s waistband.  Johnson was sentenced to six months in federal prison and ordered to forfeit the gun and ammunition.

In the second case, Gerald Dean, age 31, of Baltimore, was found by BPD officers asleep in a car with the lights on and the engine running.  The pink handle of a handgun was seen protruding from under the armrest of the center console.  Officers opened the door, secured Dean, and recovered the handgun from under the armrest of the center console.  Dean was searched and officers recovered eight small green containers of crack cocaine, four small black containers of heroin, sixteen pills of methamphetamine, and one sublingual strip.  At the time, Dean was within 1,000 feet of the grounds of a school zone, specifically Katherine Johnson Global Academy (formerly Calverton Elementary/Middle School).  Dean will be sentenced on July 27, 2023.

These cases are part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (“PSN”), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.  On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

United States Attorney Erek L. Barron commended the ATF and the Baltimore Police Department for their work in these investigations.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Martin J. Clarke and Brandon K. Moore, who prosecuted the McCullough case and thanked Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys Liane Kozik and Jonathan Tsuei, who prosecuted the Johnson and Dean cases, respectively.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/project-safe-neighborhoods-psn and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #