Category: US Department of Justice

Source: United States Department of Justice

The Department of Justice announced today that, pursuant to a court-ordered default judgment and final order of forfeiture entered today, it has secured the forfeiture of approximately $5,315,746.29 of proceeds of a business email compromise (BEC) scheme and property involved in the subsequent laundering of the proceeds. The judgment is the result of a civil forfeiture complaint filed by the United States in June 2024 seeking the forfeiture of the funds.

As alleged in the complaint, in January 2023, a workers union based in Dorchester, Massachusetts, was defrauded out of $6.4 million after it received a spoofed email that appeared to be from its investment manager. The email misled the workers union into transferring the funds to the wrong bank account, which was controlled by a third party.

After the workers union sent the payment, the fraudulently obtained funds were transferred through several intermediary bank accounts, with some funds transferred, or attempted to be transferred, to a cryptocurrency exchange and to various foreign bank accounts located in Hong Kong, China, Singapore, and Nigeria. Investigators also traced proceeds of the scheme to seven domestically held bank accounts, the contents of which were subsequently seized.

Matthew R. Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley for the District of Massachusetts; and Special Agent in Charge William Mancino of the U.S. Secret Service made the announcement.

The United States Secret Service investigated the case.

Trial Attorneys Jasmin Salehi Fashami and Adrienne Rosen of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Lyons for the District of Massachusetts prosecuted the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice

The owner of a contractor company that provided fuel truck services to the U.S. Forest Service’s wildfire fighters pleaded guilty to a seven-count indictment yesterday for his role in schemes to rig bids, allocate territories, and commit wire fraud over an eight-year period. Kris Bird, 62, pleaded guilty to all charges against him two weeks before trial, with no assurances from the government as to the sentence prosecutors will recommend to the judge. The plea follows a judicially authorized wiretap investigation that led to the indictment of two executives in December 2023. Both executives pleaded guilty and are now scheduled to be sentenced in June 2025.

As set out in the factual basis filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho, Bird admitted to conspiring with Ike Tomlinson, 61, and others to rig bids and allocate territories in the market for wildfire-fighting fuel truck services for certain dispatch centers of the U.S. Forest Service’s Great Basin wildfire dispatch region between March 2015 and March 2023, in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act. Bird further admitted to conspiring to commit wire fraud during the same period, and to committing five acts of wire fraud. At the change-of-plea hearing, Bird also admitted to the forfeiture allegations in the indictment.

“Bid-rigging and other collusive, anticompetitive agreements are neither sophisticated nor lawful. As the defendants have now conceded, they selfishly damaged essential taxpayer-funded services critical to protecting the American public from wildfires,” said Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “The meticulous investigation led by the Antitrust Division’s Procurement Collusion Strike Force and its law enforcement partners left the defendant with little choice but to plead to the indictment. The Justice Department will not treat bid-rigging as business as usual.”

“Citizens and Idaho businesses must have access to fair competition for government contracts,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Justin Whatcott for the District of Idaho. “The guilty pleas in this case help ensure equal opportunities for all Idaho businesses and protects taxpayers from paying inflated contract prices.”

“The defendant illegally profited from American taxpayer money,” said Special Agent in Charge Mehtab Syed of the FBI Salt Lake City Field Office. “The FBI and our partners are committed to rooting out fraud and protecting fair competition in the bidding for government contracts.”

“We will continue working with our law enforcement partners to fight fraud in federal contracting,” said Assistant Inspector General for Investigations James Adams of the General Services Administration Office of Inspector General.

A violation of the Sherman Act carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine for individuals and a maximum penalty of a $100 million fine for corporations. The maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by victims if either amount is greater than the maximum. A violation of the wire fraud statute carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The Antitrust Division’s San Francisco Office, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Idaho, FBI Salt Lake City Field Office, Boise Resident Agency, and General Services Administration Office of Inspector General investigated the case. Assistant Chief Christopher J. Carlberg and Trial Attorneys Elena A. Goldstein, Daniel B. Twomey, and Matthew Chou of the Antitrust Division’s San Francisco Office, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean M. Mazorol for the District of Idaho are prosecuting the case.

Anyone with information about this investigation or other procurement fraud schemes should notify the PCSF at www.justice.gov/atr/webform/pcsf-citizen-complaint. The Justice Department created the PCSF in November 2019. It is a joint law enforcement effort to combat antitrust crimes and related fraudulent schemes that impact government procurement, grant and program funding at all levels of government—federal, state and local. For more information, visit www.justice.gov/procurement-collusion-strike-force.

Source: United States Department of Justice

A civil forfeiture complaint was filed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleging that $47 million in proceeds from the sale of nearly one million barrels of Iranian petroleum is forfeitable as property of, or affording a person a source of influence over, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) or its Qods Force (IRGC-QF), designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs).

The forfeiture complaint alleges a scheme between 2022 and 2024 to facilitate the shipment, storage, and sale of Iranian petroleum product for the benefit of the IRGC and IRGC-QF. The facilitators used deceptive practices to masquerade the Iranian oil as Malaysian, including by manipulating the tanker’s automatic identification system (AIS) to conceal that it onboarded the oil from a port in Iran. The facilitators presented falsified documents to the Croatian storage and port facility, claiming that the oil was Malaysian. The facilitators paid for storage fees associated with the oil’s storage in Croatia in U.S. dollars, transactions that were conducted through U.S. financial institutions that would have refused the transactions had they known they were associated with Iranian oil. The petroleum product was sold in 2024, and the United States seized $47 million in proceeds from that sale.

The civil forfeiture complaint further alleges that the petroleum product constitutes the property of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), which has perpetuated a federal crime of terrorism by providing material support to the IRGC and IRGC-QF. As alleged, profits from petroleum product sales support the IRGC’s full range of malign activities, including the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, support for terrorism, and both domestic and international human rights abuses.

Funds successfully forfeited with a connection to a state sponsor of terrorism may in whole or in part be directed to the U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund.

FBI Minneapolis Field Office and Homeland Security Investigations New York are investigating the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Karen P. Seifert, Maeghan O. Mikorski, and Brian Hudak for the District of Columbia and Trial Attorney Adam Small of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are litigating the case. They received assistance from former Paralegal Specialist Brian Rickers and the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs.

A civil forfeiture complaint is merely an allegation. The burden to prove forfeitability in a civil forfeiture proceeding is upon the government.

Source: United States Department of Justice

View the criminal complaint.

Earlier today, extensive coordination and cooperation efforts between U.S. and Brazilian law enforcement and prosecution authorities culminated in a significant enforcement operation to dismantle a transnational criminal organization allegedly responsible for the illicit smuggling of hundreds of individuals from Brazil to the United States. The enforcement operation included the arrest on U.S. charges of a previously convicted alien smuggler who allegedly re-entered the United States illegally after deportation to Brazil and was residing in Worcester, Massachusetts. The Brazilian Federal Police (PF) executed multiple search warrants in Brazil and arrested an alleged Brazil-based human smuggler.

Flavio Alexandre Alves, also known as “Ronaldo,” 41, was arrested in Worcester, Massachusetts on a criminal complaint charging him with conspiracy to bring aliens to and transport aliens within the United States for the purpose of commercial or financial gain in violation of law. Alves will appeared in federal court in Worcester earlier today and was temporarily detained pending a detention hearing on Friday.

According to court documents, Alves conspired with others to transport aliens from Brazil, through Mexico, and then into the United States. Once the aliens arrived in the United States, Alves allegedly purchased airline tickets for the aliens to other U.S. destinations. Alves also allegedly transferred money from the United States to aliens and smugglers located in Mexico to pay for expenses associated with transit into the United States and collected fees from aliens for being smuggled into the United States. Alves was previously convicted of human smuggling in the Central District of California in 2004 and was deported to Brazil in February 2005. Court documents indicate that Alves has been residing in the United States without immigration status after illegally re-entering the United States.

It is alleged that between May 2021 and August 2022, Alves purchased more than 100 individual airline tickets from Tucson or Phoenix to destination cities in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania (Boston, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Philadelphia). Some of these purchases were for migrants who had recently had encounters with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers or were recently released from detention.

Additionally, HSI offices in Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and Philadelphia, supported by other partner law enforcement agencies, detained four individuals today associated with the alien smuggling organization on administrative immigration violations.

The investigation and arrest of Alves was coordinated under Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA) and the Extraterritorial Criminal Travel Strike Force (ECT) program. JTFA, a partnership with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has been elevated and expanded by the Attorney General with a mandate to target cartels and transnational criminal organizations to eliminate human smuggling and trafficking networks operating in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, and Colombia that impact public safety and the security of our borders. JTFA currently comprises detailees from U.S. Attorneys’ Offices along the southwest border. Dedicated support is provided by numerous components of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, led by the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section (HRSP) and supported by the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, the Office of Enforcement Operations, and the Office of International Affairs (OIA), among others. JTFA also relies on substantial law enforcement investment from DHS, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and other partners. To date, JTFA’s work has resulted in more than 355 domestic and international arrests of leaders, organizers, and significant facilitators of alien smuggling; more than 315 U.S. convictions; more than 260 significant jail sentences imposed; and forfeitures of substantial assets.

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

HSI New England led U.S. investigative efforts, working in concert with HSI Brasilia, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Philadelphia and the HSI Human Smuggling Unit in Washington, D.C. HSI received substantial assistance from CBP’s National Targeting Center International Interdiction Task Force. OIA provided crucial assistance in this matter.

Trial Attorney Alexandra Skinnion and Acting Deputy Chief Frank Rangoussis of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen Noto for the District of Massachusetts are prosecuting the case.

A criminal complaint is merely an allegation. The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Source: United States Department of Justice

An Alaska woman was sentenced yesterday to 12 months in prison for evading taxes on income she earned from the business she operated.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Tina H. Yi, was the sole owner and operator of SJ Investment LLC, a hotel, bar, and liquor store in Nome, Alaska, that did business as Polaris HBL. Yi created the business in approximately April 2007 and operated it until approximately October 2017, when the property was destroyed in a fire.

From approximately 2014 to 2018, Yi maintained two sets of financial records relating to the business’s income and expenses, one of which accurately captured SJ Investment’s income and expenses, and one that understated the business’s income. Yi provided the false records to her accountant to prepare her tax returns. As a result, her 2014 through 2018 tax returns were false.

Yi caused a total tax loss to the IRS of over $550,000.

In addition to her prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Timothy M. Burgess for the District of Alaska ordered Yi to serve three years of supervised release. The court will determine restitution at a later date.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Karen E. Kelly of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Michael J. Heyman for the District of Alaska made the announcement.

IRS Criminal Investigation investigated the case.

Trial Attorney John C. Gerardi of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Bradley for the District of Alaska are prosecuting the case. Former Tax Division Trial Attorney Ahmed Almudallal assisted with the prosecution.