Category: US Department of Justice

Source: United States Department of Justice

A Colorado man was sentenced yesterday to eight years and one month in prison followed by three years of supervised release for cyberstalking and obstruction of justice offenses committed in Hawaii.

According to court documents, from May 2022 to August 2022, John B. Hart, 54, of Louisville, while living in Hawaii, engaged in a cyberstalking campaign to harass and intimidate his former girlfriend, Jane Doe 1; her former partner, John Doe 1; and her then-partner, John Doe 2. Hart frequently posed as John Doe 1 while targeting his other two victims, and also pretended to target himself in an attempt to deflect attention away from himself and falsely implicate John Doe 1. Hart hid his true identity by using multiple “burner apps” to generate dozens of fake phone numbers that he used to message his victims. Hart also falsely reported the conduct to local and federal law enforcement authorities and others, claiming that John Doe 1 was responsible and posed a genuine and serious threat to Hart and others. Two days after being questioned by federal agents, Hart deleted one of his personal e-mail accounts in an attempt to obstruct the ongoing investigation.

Hart pleaded guilty in April to three counts of cyberstalking and one count of obstruction of justice.  In his plea agreement, Hart admitted to posing as John Doe 1 and committing acts directed at each of his three victims, including, among other things: (1) sending communications to Jane Doe 1 encouraging her to kill herself; (2) sending communications to Jane Doe 1, her family members, and her associates claiming that John Doe 2 was a human trafficker who may have kidnapped Jane Doe 1; (3) sending communications to Jane Doe 1’s family members, John Doe 2, and their associates that contained express or implied threats to kill, kidnap, rape, and otherwise injure Jane Doe 1; (4) creating online dating profiles in Jane Doe 1’s name, and sending messages causing multiple men to appear at Jane Doe 1’s workplace; (5) sending communications to John Doe 2 claiming to have sexual photos and videos of Jane Doe 1 and threatening to post them online and distribute them to her friends and family; and (6) spray-painting Jane Doe 1’s vehicle and placing metal spikes on the ground near her tires, while her vehicle was parked outside of her place of employment. 

Hart has been detained since his August 2023 arrest in Colorado.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Clare E. Connors for the District of Hawaii, Special Agent in Charge Steven Merrill of the FBI Honolulu Field Office, and Acting Assistant Director James C. Barnacle Jr. of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division made the announcement.

The FBI investigated the case.

Senior Trial Attorney Mona Sedky of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sara D. Ayabe and Aislinn Affinito for the District of Hawaii prosecuted the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

North Carolina automotive parts manufacturer and seller, Rudy’s Performance Parts Inc. (Rudy’s), and its owner, Aaron Rudolf, have agreed to pay a total of $10 million in criminal fines and civil penalties for manufacturing, selling and installing devices, commonly known as “defeat devices,” used to remove or disable required emissions controls in motor vehicles.

Rudy’s pleaded guilty and was sentenced today in federal court in Washington, D.C., for conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act. U.S. District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden for the District of Columbia ordered Rudy’s to pay a criminal fine of $2.4 million and to complete a three-year period of organizational probation, consistent with a plea agreement. Rudolf, sole owner and chief executive officer of Rudy’s, previously pleaded guilty for conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act by tampering with monitoring devices on approximately 300 diesel trucks, which involved the installation of defeat devices on those trucks. He was sentenced in April to three years of probation and ordered to pay a $600,000 criminal fine. 

Separate from the criminal actions, the Justice Department, on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), filed a civil suit in 2022 against Rudy’s and Rudolf for violating the Clean Air Act by manufacturing, selling and installing defeat devices and failing to adequately respond to the EPA’s formal requests for information. Under a consent decree filed July 29, Rudy’s and Rudolf will pay a $7 million civil penalty for those violations. The consent decree would also prohibit them from making, selling, offering to sell and installing defeat devices, transferring intellectual property that would allow others to make or sell defeat devices and investing in or profiting from defeat devices manufactured or sold by other businesses. The decree is subject to court approval.

“Defeat devices, such as those sold by Rudy’s, can lead to pollution at high levels that pose health risks and harm the environment,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “This plea agreement and civil settlement show that we will take strong action to enforce the Clean Air Act and emissions controls requirements for motor vehicles.”

“For too many years, companies like Rudy’s have installed illegal defeat devices to evade the public health protections of the Clean Air Act, to the detriment of communities across America,” said Assistant Administrator David M. Uhlmann of EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “Today’s announcement demonstrates that EPA will vigorously pursue criminal and civil penalties until this blatant illegal behavior comes to an end.” 

“Those selling defeat devices are willing to pollute the environment so that they can personally profit,” said U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves for the District of Columbia. “Today’s sentencing makes clear that there will be significant consequences for those who traffic in these devices. Anyone considering peddling or installing these devices is on notice of the substantial costs of doing so.”

“The Clean Air Act’s protections are essential for the health and safety of our communities,” said U.S. Attorney Sandra J. Hairston for the Middle District of North Carolina. “Tampering with emissions controls adds excess pollutants to the air we breathe and harms both public health and the environment. Settlements like these are essential to hold entities who violate the Clean Air Act accountable and to prevent harmful air pollution.”

According to court documents in the criminal case, Rudy’s sold defeat devices, known as delete tuners, which tampered with the on-board diagnostic systems (OBDs) of vehicles. Rudy’s top selling product was the Mini Maxx delete tuner originally manufactured by another company, identified in court documents as “Company A.” Rudy’s also sold the XRT Pro, another Company A delete tuner. After Company A stopped making these tuners, Rudy’s conspired with others to manufacture imitation Company A tuners. Rudy’s reached an agreement with a software technician to convert certain tuners into imitation Company A tuners. That agreement ran from July 2015 through December 2016, when the software technician stopped converting tuners.

After that, Rudy’s manufactured the imitation delete tuners in-house using a laptop computer that Rudy’s purchased for $850,000. The laptop contained software to convert tuners into imitation Company A tuners. In-house manufacturing lasted from about December 2016 through July 2018. In total, Rudy’s sold approximately 43,900 imitation tuners, generating about $33 million in revenue.

The civil lawsuit alleges that from at least 2014 through mid-2019, Rudy’s and Rudolf manufactured and sold over 250,000 products designed to remove or disable EPA-mandated emissions controls. These products included hardware parts such as plates that block a vehicle’s exhaust gas recirculation system and pipes that replace pollution treatment components in a vehicle’s exhaust system.

Disabling or removing emissions controls and tampering with the OBD of a diesel truck causes its emissions — including nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, particulate matter and non-methane hydrocarbons — to increase significantly. Diesel exhaust is a mobile source air toxic because it poses cancer and noncancer health risks. In the civil complaint, the EPA estimates that the number of products sold by Rudy’s amounted to adding over 1 million vehicles’ worth of pollution to America’s roads.

The $7 million that Rudy’s and Rudolf will pay pursuant to the consent decree was based on their financial capability.

The EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division investigated the criminal case.

Senior Counsel Krishna S. Dighe and Trial Attorney Stephen J. Foster of the Environment and Natural Resources Division’s (ENRD) Environmental Crimes Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer L. Blackwell for the District of Columbia are prosecuting the criminal case. Senior Counsel Elizabeth L. Loeb of ENRD’s Environmental Enforcement Section, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Cassie Crawford and Rebecca Mayer for the Middle District of North Carolina and Attorney-Adviser Lauren Tozzi of EPA’s Air Enforcement Division are handling the civil case.

The consent decree was lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. It is subject to a 30-day public comment period and approval by the Court. A copy of the consent decree and information on submitting comments is available on the Justice Department’s website at www.justice.gov/enrd/consent-decrees. 

Stopping the manufacture, sale, and installation of illegal delete devices is a priority for the EPA. You can learn more about the EPA’s criminal enforcement actions on defeat devices here and here.

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.