Category: US Department of Justice

Source: United States Department of Justice

After a four-day trial, a federal jury returned a guilty verdict today for Rui Jiang, of Falls Church, Virginia, who was charged with attempting to obstruct the congregants of a church in Haymarket, Virginia, in the free exercise of their religious beliefs. The charge included that the defendant’s attempted act involved a dangerous weapon and an attempt to kill. Jiang also faced charges for transmitting online threats and a firearms violation. The jury found Jiang guilty on all counts.

According to evidence presented at trial, Jiang began posting online threats against the church on the evening of Sept. 23, 2023, which made clear his intention to kill congregants.

On the morning of Sept. 24, 2023, police began searching for Jiang in response to a concerned citizen’s call about his posts. Police officers located Jiang inside the front entrance to the church while Sunday services were underway. Church volunteers, independently concerned about Jiang’s behavior, had just approached Jiang when police arrived. Jiang was armed with a semiautomatic handgun and two full magazines of ammunition. He had an additional 34 rounds of ammunition in his nearby car.

During a search of Jiang’s apartment, police discovered five copies of a letter, each signed by Jiang in ink, which read in part, “To the families of those men about to be slain – I am sorry for what I have done and about to do (sic).”

Jiang was arrested by Prince William County Police on Sept. 24, 2023, and has been in custody since that time.

Jiang faces a mandatory minimum penalty of five years in prison and a maximum penalty of life in prison. A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for June 18. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mac Warner of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney Erik S. Siebert for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Acting Assistant Director in Charge Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI Washington Field Office made the announcement. 

The FBI investigated the case, with substantial assistance from the Prince William County and Fairfax County Police Departments. The Anne Arundel County Police Department also provided assistance.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nicholas A. Durham and Troy A. Edwards Jr. for the Eastern District of Virginia and Trial Attorney Kyle Boynton of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section are prosecuting the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A Florida man was sentenced today to nine years in prison for paying a child in a foreign country to engage in a commercial sex act with him.

According to court documents, Rugh James Cline, 44, a former Florida-licensed attorney of Tampa, travelled to Cambodia and paid four Cambodian children to engage in sex acts with him on multiple occasions. Additionally, when he was arrested in Cambodia, Cline was found to be in possession of a laptop containing hundreds of images of child sexual abuse material.

Supervisory Official Antoinette T. Bacon of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Sara C. Sweeney for the Middle District of Florida, and Special Agent in Charge Matthew Fodor of the FBI Tampa Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI investigated the case. The U.S. Department of State, Cambodian National Police, and Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided assistance.

Trial Attorney Gwendelynn Bills of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ilyssa Spergel and Courtney Derry for the Middle District of Florida prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ 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, visit www.justice.gov/psc.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A worker at a DVD and Blu-ray manufacturing and distribution company used by major movie studios was arrested today in Memphis, Tennessee, for allegedly stealing DVDs and Blu-rays of blockbuster movies from the company and selling them before their official scheduled release dates. A digital copy of at least one of the stolen Blu-rays was illegally distributed tens of millions of times over the internet, causing the copyright owner tens of millions of dollars in losses.

According to court documents, Steven R. Hale, 37, of Memphis, worked for a multinational company that, among other things, manufactured and distributed DVDs and Blu-rays of movies. From approximately February 2021 to March 2022, Hale allegedly stole numerous “pre-release” DVDs and Blu-rays, that is, discs being prepared for commercial distribution in the United States and not available for sale to the public. These included DVDs and Blu-rays for such popular films as “F9: The Fast Saga,” “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” “Godzilla v. Kong,” “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” “Dune,” and “Black Widow.” Hale allegedly sold the DVDs and Blu-rays through e-commerce sites. At least one pre-release Blu-ray that Hale allegedly stole and sold, “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” was “ripped” — that is, extracted from the Blu-ray by bypassing the encryption that prevents unauthorized copying — and copied. That digital copy was then illegally made available over the internet more than a month before the Blu-ray’s official scheduled release date. Copies of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” were downloaded tens of millions of times, with an estimated loss to the copyright owner of tens of millions of dollars.

The indictment, unsealed today, charges Hale with two counts of criminal copyright infringement and one count of interstate transportation of stolen goods. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on each criminal copyright infringement count and 10 years in prison on the interstate transportation of stolen goods count. A federal district judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Supervisory Official Antoinette T. Bacon of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Reagan Fondren for the Western District of Tennessee, and Special Agent in Charge Joseph E. Carrico of the FBI Nashville Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI is investigating the case.

Senior Counsel Matthew A. Lamberti and Trial Attorney Debra Ireland of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Raney Irwin for the Western District of Tennessee 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

A federal jury convicted a Michigan businessman yesterday for not paying employment taxes and not filing his own individual income tax returns.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Dale Thrush, of Farwell, owned and operated several automotive repair service locations and a gas station. Thrush was responsible for withholding Social Security, Medicare and income taxes from his employees’ wages and paying those funds over to the IRS on behalf of his employees. From October 2014 through December 2016, Thrush withheld those funds from his employees’ wages but did not pay over the full amount of the withheld taxes to the IRS. Instead, Thrush used some of those funds to pay personal expenses, including the remodeling and construction costs for his wife’s business.

In addition, Thrush did not file his own individual income tax returns for 2013 through 2016 despite being legally obligated to do so.

Thrush was convicted of three counts of willful failure to pay payroll taxes and four counts of willful failure to file individual income tax returns. He was acquitted of seven counts of willful failure to pay payroll taxes.

Thrush is scheduled to be sentenced on July 17. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each count of not paying employment taxes and a maximum penalty of one year in prison for each count of not filing his individual income tax returns. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Karen E. Kelly of the Justice Department’s Tax Division made the announcement.

IRS Criminal Investigation is investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys Mark McDonald and Evan Mulbry of the Tax Division are prosecuting the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A New York woman pleaded guilty today for her role in a deadly human smuggling conspiracy that left a family of four, including two children under the age of three, dead in the St. Lawrence River.

According to court documents, Janet Terrance, 45, of Hogansburg, conspired with five others to bring Indian and Romanian nationals into the United States for private financial gain. Co-conspirators Dakota Montour, 31, and Kawisiiostha Celecia Sharrow, 43, both of Akwesasne-Mohawk, New York, entered guilty pleas on Jan. 23, 2025, and Oct. 8, 2024, respectively.

“The defendant and her coconspirators — fueled by greed, indifference, and recklessness — smuggled aliens via vehicle and boat across the U.S.-Canada border in dangerous weather conditions,” said Supervisory Official Antoinette T. Bacon of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “They endangered the lives of two small children and their parents for profit, resulting in the family’s tragic deaths. Dismantling transnational criminal organizations that smuggle people into and throughout the United States is a top priority for the Department of Justice.”

“A family of four died because a smuggling organization put them in harm’s way for profit,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Daniel Hanlon for the Northern District of New York. “Our top priority is the prosecution and dismantling of smuggling organizations. By securing our northern border, we aim to avoid more tragedies like this one.”

According to court documents, Terrance, Montour, and Sharrow worked with a human smuggling organization (HSO) on the Akwesasne Mohawk Indian Reservation (AMIR) and in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, that smuggled aliens from mainland Cornwall to Cornwall Island, and then into northern New York. The HSO routinely smuggled aliens from various countries into the United States. The HSO arranged for aliens to stay in local motels in Cornwall before transporting the aliens to the AMIR to stage the aliens on the banks of the St. Lawrence River. Members of the HSO would then transport the aliens by boat across the St. Lawrence River to later be driven into New York.

Terrance, Montour, and Sharrow admitted in their plea agreements that in late March 2023, the co-conspirators were employed to illegally transport a Romanian family of four — mother, father, one-year-old boy, and two-year-old girl — from Cornwall into New York. The children were Canadian citizens. Both Montour and Terrance admitted that they were hired to transport the Romanian family to the AMIR from mainland Cornwall.

Montour admitted that he was aware of the dangerous weather conditions on March 29, 2023 — high winds, freezing temperatures, and limited visibility — yet the family of four was loaded into a small boat by another co-conspirator to cross the St. Lawrence River. The boat capsized, and the family died as a result.

“The tragic deaths of two innocent, unknowing toddlers and their parents underscores the devastating impacts of alien smuggling,” said Special Agent in Charge Erin Keegan of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (ICE HSI) Buffalo. “Janet Terrance and her co-conspirators moved forward with this smuggling attempt despite the dangerous conditions and sheer illegality of the act, placing these victims in the situation that ultimately killed them. ICE HSI Massena is committed to enforcing U.S. laws at our border to protect the safety and the security of our communities.”

“The Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service is dedicated to keeping our community safe,” said Acting AMPS Chief Ranatiiostha Swamp. “By working closely with Homeland Security on this investigation, we are enhancing efforts to combat human smuggling and cross-border illegal activity, ensuring the safety and security of our territory.”

Montour pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit alien smuggling, four counts of alien smuggling for financial gain, and three counts of alien smuggling resulting in death. Montour faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on each of the conspiracy and alien smuggling for financial gain counts and a mandatory penalty of life in prison on the alien smuggling resulting in death counts.

Sharrow and Terrance pleaded guilty to two counts and one count of conspiracy to commit alien smuggling, respectively, and each to four counts of alien smuggling for financial gain. They each face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on the conspiracy counts and two of the alien smuggling for financial gain counts and a mandatory minimum of five years and maximum penalty of 15 years in prison on two of the alien smuggling for financial gain counts.

A federal district court judge will determine the defendants’ sentences after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

HSI Massena engaged in an extensive years-long investigation of the case, with assistance from the U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), HSI’s Human Smuggling Unit in Washington, D.C., CBP’s National Targeting Center, New York State Police, Canada Border Services Agency, AMPS, St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Police Department, Ontario Provincial Police, Sûreté du Québec, St. Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the Cornwall Police Service. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided significant support with foreign legal assistance requests.

Trial Attorney Jenna E. Reed of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Stitt for the Northern District of New York are prosecuting the case.

The investigation is being conducted under the Extraterritorial Criminal Travel Strike Force (ECT) program, a joint partnership between the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and HSI. The ECT program focuses on human smuggling networks that may present particular national security or public safety risks, or present grave humanitarian concerns. ECT has dedicated investigative, intelligence and prosecutorial resources. ECT coordinates and receives assistance from other U.S. government agencies and foreign law enforcement authorities.