Source: United States Navy
The Navy announced in December it awarded Northrop Grumman Corp. a $3.5 billion contract to conduct the mission-systems integration for the E-130J, which will be the successor to the E-6B Mercury for the Take Charge and Move Out (TACAMO) mission.
Source: United States Navy
When former Joint Chiefs of Staff Joint Force Development (J7) director U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Stuart Munsch needed a cross-disciplinary team of regional and defense experts to examine in detail a full suite of integrated deterrence options for the Indo-Pacific theatre, he called upon the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) for support.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Roberto Gustavo Cortes Ripalda (Cortes), 58, the co-founder, co-owner, and CEO of international advisory firm Biscayne Capital, was sentenced earlier today in Brooklyn, New York to 10 years in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Cortes pleaded guilty to the charge in September 2023. Cortes was also ordered to pay $3.4 million in forfeiture and $103million in restitution to over 110 victims.
“For more than five years, Roberto Cortes and his co-conspirators ran Biscayne Capital as a Ponzi scheme, lying to investors — including the defendant’s own friends and family members — and ultimately causing more than $155 million in investor losses,” said Matthew R. Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The sentence will hold Cortes accountable for his years of lies and deception. Thank you to our partners for their hard work and collaboration to achieve this result.”
“Today’s sentence reflects the seriousness of Roberto Cortes’s criminal conduct in orchestrating a years-long scheme with his co-conspirators to prop up a failing business while defrauding Biscayne Capital investors and clients around the globe,” said U.S. Attorney John J. Durham for the Eastern District of New York. “Using illegal Ponzi payments to their victims, Cortes and his co-conspirators were able to disguise and perpetuate this scheme for years until Biscayne Capital finally collapsed under the defendants’ lies. Today’s sentence demonstrates our Office’s commitment to holding accountable investment professionals who abuse the trust of their clients for personal profit.”
“Regardless of the complexity of the investigation, IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agents and our law enforcement partners will utilize their skills and unique authorities to hold bad actors like the defendant accountable,” stated IRS-CI Executive Special Agent in Charge Kareem A. Carter. “This was a brazen scheme of staggering proportions. Mr. Cortes and his co-conspirators prioritized their own greed, stealing $155 million from investors. Today’s sentencing sends a clear message that we remain vigilant and will vigorously pursue those who attempt to enrich themselves through fraudulent means.”
According to court filings, Cortes and his co-defendant Ernesto Heraclito Weisson Pazmino (Weisson) founded Biscayne Capital in 2005 to support the financing of South Bay, their real estate development business focused on acquiring and demolishing properties to build luxury homes. After South Bay began experiencing financial trouble in 2007, Cortes and Weisson recruited investors to inject funds into South Bay’s operations. Rather than using those investor funds to fund South Bay’s real estate development projects, Cortes, Weisson, and their co-conspirators used the bulk of the funds to pay outstanding interest and principal debt obligations to other investors.
Cortes and his co-conspirators took numerous steps to perpetuate and conceal the scheme, including distributing investment documents with false and misleading information, deceiving investors about the purpose, risk, return, and security of their investments, and creating and sending fake account statements to unsuspecting clients to conceal the scheme. By the time the Biscayne Capital/South Bay Ponzi scheme collapsed and Biscayne Capital went into liquidation, Biscayne Capital clients had lost over $155 million.
IRS-CI investigated the case.
Bank Integrity Unit Deputy Chief Randall Warden and Trial Attorney Morgan Cohen of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Drew Rolle and Benjamin Weintraub for the Eastern District of New York are prosecuting the case. Trial Attorney Brandon Burkart of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section assisted with the investigation.
The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided significant assistance in securing the arrest and extradition from Spain and obtaining evidence in this case. The Department of Justice also thanks the Governments of the Cayman Islands, Curaçao, Ecuador, Spain and Switzerland for their valuable support.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
A federal grand jury in Florence, South Carolina, returned an indictment on April 22, charging Nasir Ullah, 28, and Naim Ullah, 32, both of Sumter, South Carolina, and Puquan Huang, 49, of Buford, Georgia, with conspiring to launder millions of dollars of proceeds derived from drug trafficking.
“As alleged in the indictment, the defendants laundered tens of millions of dollars in drug proceeds from the United States through China and the Middle East, enabling a continuous flow of fentanyl and other dangerous drugs into our country from Mexico,” said Matthew R. Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Dismantling transnational criminal organizations and Chinese Money Laundering Organizations that support them is a critical priority for the Department. Alongside DEA and our local law enforcement partners, we will continue to prosecute the financial networks that fuel illegal drug trade and profit from the sale of deadly substances.”
“We are committed to dismantling criminal organizations that seek to profit through the distribution of dangerous drugs like cocaine and fentanyl across South Carolina and beyond,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Brook B. Andrews for the District of South Carolina. “This $30 million money laundering operation, which has international ties, was conducted in multiple communities in our state. We will continue to work tirelessly with our law enforcement partners to trace these illicit funds, disrupt these networks, and hold those involved accountable for the harm they present.”
“Cases like this exemplify the value of partnerships,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Jae W. Chung of the DEA Atlanta Division. “The volume of dangerous drugs, including deadly fentanyl, impacts our communities beyond comprehension. This investigation and subsequent arrests demonstrate DEA’s commitment to protecting our community by destroying these drug trafficking and money laundering organizations.”
According to court documents, unsealed today, Ullah, Naim Ullah, and Huang allegedly worked for a money laundering organization that laundered at least $30 million in proceeds related to the distribution of illegal drugs, including cocaine and fentanyl, which were unlawfully imported into the United States, typically through Mexico. Ullah, Naim Ullah, Huang, and their co-conspirators allegedly traveled throughout the United States to collect drug proceeds. They communicated with co-conspirators in China to arrange for the laundering of these proceeds through transactions designed to conceal the illegal source of the proceeds, including disguising the source of the drug proceeds by moving money through the shipment of electronic goods to China and the Middle East.
Ullah, Naim Ullah, and Huang are charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering. If convicted, they each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
The DEA’s Charleston, South Carolina Resident Office is investigating the case, with assistance from the DEA’s Special Operations Division, Bilateral Investigations Unit; DEA’s Office of Special Intelligence, Document and Media Exploitation Unit; DEA’s offices in Columbia, South Carolina and Atlanta; the FBI’s offices in Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina; the U.S. Air Force, Office of Special Investigations; the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division; the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office; the South Carolina Highway Patrol; the Fort Mill Police Department; the York County Sheriff’s Office; the North Charleston Police Department; the Mount Pleasant Police Department; and the Richland County Sheriff’s Department.
Trial Attorneys Mary K. Daly and Jasmin Salehi Fashami of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Everett E. McMillian for the District of South Carolina are prosecuting the case.
The Third and Fifth Judicial Circuit Solicitor’s Offices of South Carolina provided assistance in this 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
A Florida man was sentenced today to 50 months in prison for not paying taxes withheld from his employees’ wages and filing a false tax return.
The following is according to court documents and statements made in court: Matthew Brown, of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, owned and operated multiple businesses in and around Martin County, Florida. One of these businesses was a payroll services company known as Elite Payroll. Elite Payroll provided payroll services to small businesses in and around St. Lucie, Martin, and Palm Beach Counties. Elite Payroll was hired by its clients to collect and pay over the Social Security, Medicare, and federal income taxes withheld from clients’ employees’ wages and to pay over those funds to the IRS each quarter. The timely payment of these taxes is critical to the functioning of the U.S. government, including because they are the primary source of funding for Social Security and Medicare. The federal income taxes that are withheld from employees’ wages also account for a significant portion of all federal income taxes collected each year.
Between 2014 and 2022, Brown did not pay over $20,000,000 in taxes withheld from the wages of employees of clients of Elite Payroll and from other businesses he controlled and instead enriched himself. To effectuate his scheme, Brown charged his clients the full amount of their tax liabilities but then filed false employment tax returns with the IRS that substantially underreported their liabilities, and pocketing the difference. For example, for one quarter in 2021, a client owed approximately $219,000 in taxes. Elite Payroll collected that amount from the client but filed a false tax return with the IRS claiming that the client only owed approximately $32,000, which Elite paid. Brown then kept the remaining approximately $190,000.
Instead of paying over the funds, Brown purchased commercial and residential real estate, including his multimillion-dollar home, a Valhalla 55 Sport Yacht, a Falcon 50 Aircraft, and a large collection of cars including Porsches, Rolls Royces, and 27 Ferraris.
In addition to his prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon for the Southern District of Florida ordered Brown to serve two years of supervised release and to pay $22,401,585 in restitution, and a $200,000 fine to the United States.
Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney Karen E. Kelly of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Hayden O’Bryne of the Southern District of Florida made the announcement.
IRS Criminal Investigation investigated the case.
Trial Attorney Andrew Ascencio of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Porter for the Southern District of Florida prosecuted the case.