Category: MIL-OSI

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A federal jury convicted four pharmacy owners yesterday for conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Raef Hamaed, of Maricopa County, Arizona; Kindy Ghussin, of Greene County, Ohio; Ali Abdelrazzaq, of Macomb County, Michigan; and Tarek Fakhuri, of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, all licensed pharmacists, billed Medicare, Medicaid, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan for prescription medications that they did not dispense at pharmacies they owned in Michigan and Ohio. The defendants collectively caused over $13 million of loss to Medicare, Medicaid, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

Hamaed, Ghussin, Abdelrazzaq, and Fakhuri were convicted of conspiracy to commit health care and wire fraud. Abdelrazzaq was also convicted of two counts of health care fraud and Fakhuri was convicted of one count of health care fraud. Sentencing hearings will be set at a later date. 

Hamaed, Ghussin, Abdelrazzaq, and Fakhuri face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the conspiracy count, and Abdelrazzaq and Fakhuri face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on each health care 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; Special Agent in Charge Cheyvoryea Gibson of the FBI Detroit Field Office; and Special Agent in Charge Mario Pinto of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) made the announcement. 

The FBI Detroit Field Office and HHS-OIG investigated the case.

Trial Attorneys Claire Sobczak, Kelly M. Warner, and S. Babu Kaza of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case.

The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat health care fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program. Since March 2007, this program, currently comprised of nine strike forces operating in 27 federal districts, has charged more than 5,400 defendants who collectively have billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $27 billion. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with HHS-OIG, are taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement in health care fraud schemes. More information can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

An Indiana man was sentenced today to 17 and a half years in prison for possessing and creating images of child sexual abuse. 

According to court documents, Timothy J. Carpenter, 36, of Portage, came to the attention of law enforcement around July 2022 after he used peer-to-peer software to knowingly receive and distribute child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on the internet through his cellular device.

During the investigation, Indiana State Police (ISP) recovered Carpenter’s cellular phone, which contained hundreds of images and dozens of videos depicting the sexual abuse of children. During an interview with ISP investigators, Carpenter admitted that he used his phone to access CSAM. Further analysis of Carpenter’s phone revealed that Carpenter also created multiple videos depicting a prepubescent child fully nude in a shower. These videos show Carpenter concealing a camera in multiple locations near the shower to capture video of the child’s genitals and pubic region.

In addition to the prison sentence, Carpenter will also be required to register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student and to pay restitution totaling $76,000 to his victims.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Clifford D. Johnson for the Northern District of Indiana; and Special Agent in Charge Sean Fitzgerald of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Chicago Division made the announcement.

HSI investigated this case with the assistance of the ISP, Lake County Sheriff’s Special Victims Unit, and Porter County Prosecutor’s Office.

Trial Attorney Eduardo A. Palomo of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily A. Morgan for the Northern District of Indiana prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Justice Department. Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A federal jury convicted a Nevada man today for defrauding three banks of more than $11.2 million in COVID-19 pandemic relief funds intended to help small businesses impacted by the pandemic.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Meelad Dezfooli, 30, of Henderson, engaged in a scheme to submit fraudulent loan applications under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a program that provided loans to help small businesses continue paying employee salaries and certain other basic business expenses during the pandemic. Dezfooli submitted three fraudulent PPP loan applications to federally insured banks, purportedly for the benefit of companies that the defendant controlled, and obtained more than $11.2 million in proceeds from those loans.   

The evidence at trial showed that Dezfooli falsely represented certain material information in his loan applications, including information about payroll, employees, and use of the loan proceeds. After fraudulently obtaining more than $11.2 million in PPP funds, Dezfooli laundered and/or spent the proceeds by, among other things: buying approximately 25 residences and two luxury cars, funding a personal investment account, and gambling extensively. After he was originally charged, Dezfooli continued laundering criminal proceeds by selling five of the residences that he acquired with the fraudulently obtained PPP funds. 

The jury convicted Dezfooli of three counts of bank fraud, three counts of money laundering, and four counts of engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived property. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 5 and faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison on each of the bank fraud counts, 20 years in prison on each of the money laundering counts, and 10 years in prison on each of the counts of engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived property. 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 Jason M. Frierson for the District of Nevada; Special Agent in Charge Carissa Messick of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Phoenix Field Office; Special Agent in Charge Jon Ellwanger of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Office of Inspector General (FRB-CFPB OIG), Western Region; Special Agent in Charge Weston King of the Small Business Association Office of Inspector General (SBA-OIG), Western Region; and Special Agent in Charge Ryan Korner of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General (FDIC-OIG), San Francisco Region made the announcement.

The IRS-CI, FRB-OIG, FDIC-OIG, and SBA-OIG investigated the case.

Trial Attorneys D. Zachary Adams and Taylor G. Stout of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section (MLARS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel R. Schiess for the District of Nevada prosecuted the case. Legal Assistant Alexa Stiles and Paralegal Holly Butler of MLARS provided substantial assistance throughout the investigation and trial.  

MLARS’ Bank Integrity Unit investigates and prosecutes banks and other financial institutions, including their officers, managers, and employees, whose actions threaten the integrity of the individual institution or the wider financial system.

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Justice Department in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic, visit www.justice.gov/coronavirus.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Justice Department’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Abraham Yusuff, of Round Rock, Texas — the leader of a scheme to defraud the IRS of over $110 million — was sentenced today to more than 14 years in prison. Meghan Inyang, of San Antonio, and Christopher Eduardo, of Round Rock, two of Yusuff’s co-defendants, were also sentenced today to over three years and over two years in prison, respectively. In total, seven individuals have now been sentenced to prison for their involvement in the scheme. 

“Yusaf and his codefendants secured $30 million in fraudulent refunds from the IRS — and sought even more,” said Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division. “They stole the identities of honest taxpayers, filed hundreds of returns in those taxpayers’ names seeking bogus refunds and assumed the identities of real-life CPAs and other professionals to trick the IRS into directing the refunds into accounts and debit cards they controlled. The significant sentences handed down by the court reflect not only the injury caused to the Treasury, but also the financial harm and stress the defendants imposed on the innocent taxpayers and accounting professionals swept up in their scheme.”

“Yusuff and co-defendants didn’t just steal money, they stole the lives of hundreds of victims by changing all their contact information with the IRS and posing as authorized representatives for the taxpayers,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Lucy Tan of IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Houston Field Office. “This insidious and complex scheme victimized both the real tax professionals and the people they represent, which is why IRS-CI special agents help take down criminal enterprises and put criminals behind bars.”

“Stealing someone’s identity is abhorrent and despicable behavior. This week’s sentencing serves as a stark reminder that fraud and the pursuit of quick gains comes with severe consequences,” said Special Agent in Charge Christopher J. Altemus Jr. of IRS-CI Dallas Field Office. “I’m proud of the women and men of IRS-CI for their commitment to protect our tax system and their resolve to ensure that those who engage in fraudulent activities face the full extent of the law.”

According to court documents and statements made in court, from 2018 to 2021, Yusuff led a stolen-identity-refund-fraud scheme with Eduardo and Inyang, as well as Christian Mathurin, of Nashville, Tennessee; Dillon Anozie, of San Antonio; Babajide Ogunbanjo, of Austin, Texas; and Aydin Mammadov, of Houston.

As part of the scheme, and to avoid fraud detection procedures the IRS established, Yusuff recruited and directed Eduardo, Mathurin, Anozie, Ogunbanjo and Mammadov to provide addresses to him for the purpose of receiving mail, including IRS correspondence such as identity verification letters. Yusuff and others then contacted the IRS posing as authorized agents of multiple taxpayers. They used stolen information relating to the taxpayers and their real tax preparers to falsely persuade the IRS they were legitimate representatives. The defendants then directed the IRS to change the addresses on file for the taxpayers and to send their tax information, including account transcripts and wage records, to the addresses and emails the defendants controlled. Communicating over Telegram, Yusuff instructed his defendants to send him photographs of the mail the IRS had sent and then instructed them to destroy the mail. 

The defendants used this information to electronically file more than 370 tax returns claiming fraudulent refunds and directed the IRS to split the refunds among several prepaid debit cards registered in the names of the victim taxpayers. Prior to issuing tax refunds to some taxpayers, the IRS sent verification letters to the addresses the defendants controlled, and the defendants and others, pretending to be the taxpayers, instructed the IRS to release the refunds.

Yusuff, Inyang, Eduardo, Anozie, Ogunbanjo and Mammadov obtained the prepaid debit cards that were to be used to receive the fraudulently claimed refunds. Once the refunds were deposited onto the prepaid debit cards, they further concealed the funds by purchasing, among other things, money orders from local stores in amounts that were designed to avoid having to furnish identification or trigger reporting requirements. They also used prepaid debit cards and money orders to purchase designer clothing, home renovation materials and used cars at auction. The defendants kept or received money orders purchased with the fraudulent refunds as their share of the illegal proceeds.

At sentencing, the government offered victim impact statements from several individuals whose identities were stolen, including victim taxpayers and accountants. The victims spoke of the financial harm and stress that Yusuff and his co-defendants caused them. 

In addition to the terms of imprisonment, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pittman for the Western District of Texas sentenced Yusuff to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay restitution and a forfeiture judgment in the amount of $30,370,365. Eduardo was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $2,823,377 in restitution to the IRS. Inyang was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $762,512 in restitution to the IRS.

Judge Pittman previously sentenced the other co-defendants to prison:

• Dillon Anozie (30 months)
• Aydin Mammadov (18 months)
• Babajide Ogunbanjo (16 months) and
• Christian Mathurin (12 months).

IRS-CI and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration investigated the case.

Assistant Chief Michael Boteler and Trial Attorneys Mary Frances Richardson and Curtis Weidler of the Justice Department’s Tax Division prosecuted the case. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas assisted in this matter.