Category: US Department of Justice

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

WASHINGTON — Today, the Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Department of Education (ED), and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced the immediate cancellation of approximately $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University due to the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students. These cancellations represent the first round of action and additional cancellations are expected to follow. The Task Force is continuing to review and coordinate across federal agencies to identify additional cancellations that could be made swiftly. DOJ, HHS, ED, and GSA are taking this action as members of the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. Columbia University currently holds more than $5 billion in federal grant commitments.

On March 3rd, the Task Force notified the Acting President of Columbia University that it would conduct a comprehensive review of the university’s federal contracts and grants  in light of ongoing investigations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Chaos and anti-Semitic harassment have continued on and near campus in the days since. Columbia has not responded to the Task Force.

“After the horrors of October 7th, Jewish students were shamefully targeted on American college campuses—including at Columbia University,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Any university which fails to account for the discrimination of its students will not be tolerated. Comply with federal anti-discrimination laws and take action to protect students or expect consequences.”

“Since October 7, Jewish students have faced relentless violence, intimidation, and anti-Semitic harassment on their campuses – only to be ignored by those who are supposed to protect them,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Universities must comply with all federal antidiscrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding. For too long, Columbia has abandoned that obligation to Jewish students studying on its campus. Today, we demonstrate to Columbia and other universities that we will not tolerate their appalling inaction any longer.”

President Trump has been clear that any college or university that allows illegal protests and repeatedly fails to protect students from anti-Semitic harassment on campus will be subject to the loss of federal funding.

“Freezing the funds is one of the tools we are using to respond to this spike in anti-Semitism. This is only the beginning,” said Leo Terrell, Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights and head of the DOJ Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. “Cancelling these taxpayer funds is our strongest signal yet that the Federal Government is not going to be party to an educational institution like Columbia that does not protect Jewish students and staff.”

The decisive action by the DOJ, HHS, ED, and GSA to cancel Columbia’s grants and contracts serves as a notice to every school and university that receives federal dollars that this Administration will use all the tools at its disposal to protect Jewish students and end anti-Semitism on college campuses.

“Anti-Semitism is clearly inconsistent with the fundamental values that should inform liberal education,” said Sean Keveney, HHS Acting General Counsel and Task Force member. “Columbia University’s complacency is unacceptable.”

GSA will assist HHS and ED in issuing stop-work orders on grants and contracts that Columbia holds with those agencies. These stop-work orders will immediately freeze the university’s access to these funds. Additionally, GSA will be assisting all agencies in issuing stop work orders and terminations for contracts held by Columbia University.

“Doing business with the Federal Government is a privilege,” said Josh Gruenbaum, FAS Commissioner and Task Force member. “Columbia University, through their continued and shameful inaction to stop radical protestors from taking over buildings on campus and lack of response to the safety issues for Jewish students, and for that matter – all students – are not upholding the ideals of this Administration or the American people. Columbia cannot expect to retain the privilege of receiving federal taxpayer dollars if they will not fulfill their civil rights responsibilities to protect Jewish students from harassment and anti-Semitism.”

For more information, read the HHS, ED, and GSA joint press release from Monday, March 3rd.

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Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A Kentucky man was sentenced today to 30 years in prison for producing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in the Philippines.

According to court documents, from February 2021 through November 2021, while living in the Philippines, Robert Maxwell Werner, 46, of Walton, purchased access from a Filipino individual to dozens of minor victims for in-person, livestreamed, and recorded sexual acts. For several months, Werner paid this individual for custom-created CSAM, in which the individual would sexually abuse these minors and force the minors to engage in sexual acts together for foreign customers like Werner. Werner also paid the individual for five in‑person meetings with minors at hotels and rental properties in the Philippines. During those meetings, Werner sexually abused multiple minors. In exchange, Werner would provide money, food, clothing, and basic necessities for the minors, who lived in desperate circumstances.

As part of his plea agreement, Werner admitted to engaging in sexually explicit conduct with at least one minor for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of that conduct between July 2021 and November 2021, while in the Philippines. Werner further admitted to transporting that sexually explicit material into the United States. Additionally, once he returned to the United States, Werner continued to solicit CSAM from the individual for at least another month.

Supervisory Official Matthew R. Galeotti of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Paul McCaffrey for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and Assistant Director Chad Yarbrough of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division made the announcement.

The FBI’s Child Exploitation Operational Unit investigated the case, with substantial assistance from the Philippine National Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs.

Trial Attorney Rachel L. Rothberg of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Roth for the Eastern District of Kentucky 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 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

Note: View the indictment here.

Two Administrators Charged with Operating Multibillion-Dollar Crypto Money Laundering Service

The Justice Department announced today a coordinated action with Germany and Finland to disrupt and take down the online infrastructure used to operate Garantex, a cryptocurrency exchange that allegedly facilitated money laundering by transnational criminal organizations — including terrorist organizations — and sanctions violations. Since April 2019, Garantex has processed at least $96 billion in cryptocurrency transactions.

In conjunction with the operation targeting Garantex, the Department also announced the unsealing of an indictment in the Eastern District of Virginia against Aleksej Besciokov, 46, a Lithuanian national and Russian resident, and Aleksandr Mira Serda (previously Aleksandr Ntifo-Siaw), 40, a Russian national and United Arab Emirates resident. Mira Serda and Besciokov are charged with money laundering conspiracy, and Besciokov is charged with conspiracy to violate sanctions and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.

According to court documents, between 2019 and 2025, Besciokov and Mira Serda controlled and operated Garantex. Besciokov was Garantex’s primary technical administrator and responsible for obtaining and maintaining critical Garantex infrastructure, as well as reviewing and approving transactions. Mira Serda was Garantex’s co-founder and chief commercial officer.

Garantex received hundreds of millions in criminal proceeds and was used to facilitate various crimes, including hacking, ransomware, terrorism, and drug trafficking, often with substantial impact to U.S. victims. According to the indictment, Besciokov and Mira Serda knew that criminal proceeds were being laundered through Garantex and took steps to conceal the facilitation of illegal activities on its platform. For example, when Russian law enforcement sought records relating to an account registered to Mira Serda, Garantex provided incomplete information in response and falsely claimed the account was not verified. In reality, Garantex had associated the account with Mira Serda’s personal identifying documents, even while disclosing identifying information related to other accounts requested by Russian law enforcement.

On April 5, 2022, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Garantex for its role in facilitating money laundering of funds from ransomware actors and darknet markets. According to court documents, despite the widespread publicity of the sanctions and Garantex administrator’s personal knowledge of them, Besciokov and his co-conspirators violated those sanctions by continuing to transact with U.S.-based entities. Further, Besciokov and his co-conspirators redesigned Garantex’s operations to evade and violate U.S. sanctions and induce U.S. businesses to unwittingly transact with Garantex in violation of the sanctions. For example, Garantex moved its operational cryptocurrency wallets to different virtual currency addresses on a daily basis in order to make it difficult for U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchanges to identify and block transactions with Garantex accounts.

Despite doing substantial business in the United States and operating as a money transmitting business, Garantex failed to register with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) as required.

On March 6, U.S. law enforcement, led by the U.S. Secret Service (USSS), executed a seizure order authorized by a judge in the Eastern District of Virginia against three website domain names used to support Garantex’s operations. According to court records unsealed today, Garantex.org, Garantex.io, and Garantex.academy were associated with the administration and operation of Garantex. The seizure of these domains will prevent these sites from being used for money laundering and additional crimes. Individuals visiting those sites now will see a message indicating that the site has been seized by law enforcement.

As part of the coordinated actions, German and Finnish law enforcement seized servers hosting Garantex’s operations. U.S. law authorities have separately obtained earlier copies of Garantex’s servers, including customer and accounting databases. In addition, U.S. law enforcement has also frozen over $26 million in funds used to facilitate Garantex’s money laundering activities.

Besciokov and Mira Serda are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Besciokov is also charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and with conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.    

Supervisory Official Matthew R. Galeotti of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Erik S. Siebert for the Eastern District of Virginia, Assistant Director Michael Centrella of the USSS’ Office of Field Operations, and Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran of the FBI’s Cyber Division made the announcement.

USSS and the FBI are investigating the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Zoe Bedell for the Eastern District of Virginia and Trial Attorney Tamara Livshiz of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team are prosecuting the case. The Justice Department’s National Security Division and Office of International Affairs provided valuable assistance.

The Justice Department also recognizes the critical cooperation of the German Federal Criminal Police Office, the Frankfurt General Prosecutor’s Office, the Dutch National Police, Europol, the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation, and the Estonian National Criminal Police.

Finally, the Department thanks Tether and blockchain analytics firm Elliptic for their proactive assistance in this investigation.

Any individual who believes he/she is a victim whose funds were laundered through Garantex or who may otherwise have a claim to restrained funds should reach out to law enforcement via email address GarantexClaimants@secretservice.gov.

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

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.