Month: September 2024

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

On July 31, 2024, the Office of Information Policy (OIP) hosted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Best Practices Workshop for agency FOIA professionals on creating and implementing backlog reduction plans.  A summary of the best practices discussed is now available on OIP’s Best Practices Workshop Series page.  

The workshop consisted of representatives from five agencies including the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, Department of the Interior, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.  Panelists discussed a range of best practices including approaching backlog reduction as an ongoing endeavor rather than a static plan, establishing short and long term goals, investing in personnel and technology, and the importance of leadership support in ensuring success.

A detailed list of the best practices discussed at these and other OIP workshops, and related guidance, can be found on the Best Practices Workshop Series page of OIP’s website. 

Launched in 2014, the Best Practices Workshop series was designed as a part of the United States’ Second Open Government National Action Plan commitment to modernize FOIA administration.  The goal of the series is to improve FOIA processes by leveraging effective strategies from across the government, highlighting successes achieved by agencies, and sharing successful approaches on a wide range of FOIA issues. 

We invite you to suggest discussion topics for upcoming Best Practices Workshops, and you can e-mail your suggestions for new workshop topics to DOJ.OIP.FOIA@usdoj.gov (link sends e-mail) using the subject line “Agency Best Practices Workshop Suggestion.”

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Between Aug. 20 and Sept. 5, four Delaware men were arrested and/or self-surrendered in Delaware on federal charges relating to an alleged international “sextortion” scheme that targeted thousands of victims throughout the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

According to a superseding indictment unsealed today, Sidi Diakite, 30; Almamy Diaby, 22; Abdul Aziz Sangare, 26; and Abdoul Aziz Traore, 31; all residents of Wilmington, and other co-conspirators allegedly operated an international, financially motivated “sextortion” and money laundering scheme in which the conspirators engaged in cyberstalking, interstate threats, extortion, money laundering, and wire fraud. As part of the scheme, the conspirators, utilizing multiple payment methods, attempted to extort approximately $6.9 million from thousands of potential victims, and they successfully extorted approximately $1.9 million from these victims through CashApp and Apple Pay alone.

The superseding indictment also charges Hadja Kone, 28, of Wilmington, Delaware, who was previously arrested in April; and Siaka Ouattara, 22, of Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, whom the Ivorian authorities separately arrested in February in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, on Ivorian charges stemming from the same scheme.

As alleged in the superseding indictment, the conspirators posed as young females online and initiated communications with thousands of potential victims, who were primarily young men and included minors from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The conspirators allegedly offered to provide and/or provided victims with sexual photographs, video recordings, and/or “web cam” or “live video chat” sessions depicting what they falsely portrayed to be a young female, when in fact the conspirators were the ones operating the accounts. Unbeknownst to the victims, during the web cam/live video chats, the conspirators surreptitiously recorded the victims as they exposed their genitals and/or engaged in sexual activity. The conspirators thereafter sent the victims copies of the victims’ fraudulently obtained sexual images and threatened to distribute the victims’ sexual images to the victims’ friends, family members, significant others, employers, and co-workers, and to publish the victims’ sexual images widely online, unless the victims transferred funds to designated recipients. Ouattara, Kone, Diakite, Diaby, Sangare, Traore, and others also operated infrastructure to transfer the funds illegally obtained from the victims to conspirators located in Côte d’Ivoire and elsewhere overseas.

Diakite, Diaby, Sangare, Traore, Kone, and Ouattara are each charged with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and to send interstate threats, conspiracy to engage in money laundering, money laundering, and wire fraud. If convicted, the defendants each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each conspiracy count and money laundering count, and a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each wire fraud count.  A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney David C. Weiss for the District of Delaware, and Acting Assistant Director James C. Barnacle Jr. of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division made the announcement.

The FBI is investigating the case, with assistance from the government of Cote d’Ivoire.

Trial Attorney Austin M. Berry of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Senior Trial Attorney Mona Sedky of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Briana Knox for the District of Delaware are prosecuting the case.

If you, your child, or someone you know is being exploited via sextortion, contact your local FBI field office, call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), or report it online at the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). Additional resources can found at Financially Motivated Sextortion — FBI.  For more information about this particular financially motivated sextortion case and if you believe you are a victim in this particular case, please also visit www.justice.gov/criminal/criminal-vns/case/united-states-v-hadja-fanta-kone-siaka-ouattara-sidi-diakite-almamy-moustapha-diaby.

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

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A Colombian national was extradited to the United States on Friday to face charges related to kidnapping and assaulting two members of the U.S. military who were on temporary duty in Bogotá, Colombia.

Kenny Julieth Uribe Chiran, 35, of Bogotá, made her initial court appearance today in Miami, Florida, before Magistrate Judge Eduardo Sanchez of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

According to court documents, Uribe Chiran and her co-conspirators targeted, incapacitated, and kidnapped two U.S. soldiers in Bogotá in order to rob them of their valuables.

Uribe Chiran is charged with kidnapping an internationally protected person, conspiracy to kidnap an internationally protected person, assaulting an internationally protected person, and conspiracy to assault an internationally protected person.

Uribe Chiran is the last of the three co-defendants to be extradited to the United States. Arango Castellanos was extradited in May 2023 from Colombia to the United States, pleaded guilty in January to the charges in the indictment, and was sentenced in May to 48 years and nine months in prison. Silva Ochoa was extradited in April from Chile to the United States and is currently scheduled for trial in November.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida, and Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey B. Veltri of the FBI Miami Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI is investigating the case, and the U.S. Marshals Service escorted Uribe Chiran from Colombia to the United States. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, the FBI Miami Field Office, the Office of the Legal Attaché Santiago, and the Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section’s Judicial Attaché Office in Bogotá provided significant assistance in securing the arrest and extradition of Uribe Chiran. The United States also thanks Colombian law enforcement authorities for their valuable assistance.

Trial Attorneys Clayton O’Connor and Elizabeth Nielsen of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Bertila Fernandez for the Southern District of Florida are prosecuting the case.

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

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The Justice Department announced today that the Western Union Remission Fund began its second distribution of approximately $18.5 million in funds forfeited to the United States from the Western Union Company (Western Union) to approximately 3,000 victims located in the United States and abroad. These victims stand to recover the full amount of their losses.

This is the second distribution of the second phase of the Western Union Remission. The first distribution of the second phase paid approximately $40 million to over 25,000 victims. Through two phases, the Western Union Remission Fund has distributed over $420 million to more than 175,000 victims who received full compensation for their losses.

The second phase of the Western Union Remission was opened in March 2022 to provide victims who had not filed petitions in the first phase of distributions an opportunity to file for remission. The Justice Department continues to review petitions for remission and reconsideration request forms from those victimized by the scheme. The Justice Department anticipates authorizing more distributions for victims in the coming months.

“Western Union aided and abetted fraud schemes that collectively caused thousands of victims to lose hundreds of millions of dollars,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The Justice Department has now returned more than $420 million forfeited from Western Union to more than 175,000 victims, who have received full compensation for their losses. The sixth distribution from the Western Union Remission Fund demonstrates yet again that the Criminal Division is committed to using all of its authorities to make crime victims whole.”

“The latest distribution of $18.5 million to approximately 3,000 victims again highlights the commitment of our prosecutors and law enforcement partners,” said U.S. Attorney Gerard M. Karam for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. “Western Union allowed fraudsters to carry out schemes against the most vulnerable people in our society, and we are proud to uphold accountability for those involved in these schemes and ensure proper compensation for the harm that victims suffered.”

“This $18.5 million disbursement to approximately 3,000 victims represents the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s commitment to the American people and the many victims of financial fraud,” said U.S. Postal Inspector in Charge Christopher Nielsen of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s (USPIS) Philadelphia Division. “The Western Union Remission process has now disbursed over $420 million to approximately 175,000 victims. This accomplishment reflects our continued efforts with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section to provide financial reimbursement to those victimized by a large scale and sophisticated mass marketing fraud.”

In 2017, Western Union entered into a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with the United States. Pursuant to the DPA, Western Union acknowledged responsibility for its criminal conduct, which included violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and aiding and abetting wire fraud, and agreed to forfeit $586 million, which has been made available to compensate victims of the international consumer fraud scheme through the remission process. Western Union simultaneously resolved a parallel civil investigation with the Federal Trade Commission.

In this scheme, fraudsters targeted consumers, including seniors, through multiple scams. Three specific scams directed towards seniors include the grandparent scam, where the fraudster would pose as the victim’s relative in need of immediate money to avoid personal harm, lottery, or sweepstakes scams; where the fraudster would tell the victim that they had won a large cash prize but had to pay fees such as taxes to claim the prize; and romance scams, where the fraudster would pose as an online love interest and request funds for a visit or for another purpose. In each of these scams, the fraudsters convinced their victims to send money through Western Union.

Certain owners, operators, or employees of Western Union agent locations were complicit in the schemes. Western Union aided and abetted the fraud scheme by failing to suspend or terminate complicit agents and by allowing them to continue to process fraud-induced monetary transactions. Western Union fulfilled its obligations under the DPA and the court granted the motion to dismiss the information.

The Justice Department, through the Asset Forfeiture Program, works diligently to restore lost funds to victims of crime and acknowledges the significant assistance of the USPIS Philadelphia Division’s Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Office in the Western Union remission. The victim compensation payments in the Western Union case would not have been possible without the extraordinary efforts of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section and the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Central District of California, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and Southern District of Florida. The FBI Los Angeles Field Office, IRS Criminal Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations Philadelphia, Federal Reserve Board and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Office of Inspector General, and Department of the Treasury Office of Inspector General provided valuable assistance.

More information about the Western Union Remission Fund and its compensation to victims is available at www.WesternUnionRemissionPhase2.com. Further questions may be directed to the Western Union Remission Administrator by phone at (855) 786-1048 or by email at info@WesternUnionRemissionPhase2.com.