Category: US Department of Justice

Source: United States Department of Justice

The Justice Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) today announced that it will provide an Organizational Assessment of the Sacramento, California, Police Department through its Collaborative Reform Initiative. This is a voluntary program that is offered at the request of law enforcement agencies that are seeking to improve their services and operations. Over the next year, the Sacramento Police Department will work in partnership with the COPS Office Collaborative Reform Initiative team to focus on:

• Organizational Structure and Workload Analysis
• Civilianization and Alternate Response
• Calls for Service Analysis
• Community Policing
• Technology

“It is exciting to see a department voluntarily taking a close look at how it can improve in critical areas,” said Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer. “The shared goals of public safety and community trust are essential for agencies that want to continue to serve their residents to the best of their ability.”

“Departments that prioritize this internal work end up strengthening both their agencies and their relationship with those they serve,” said Director Hugh T. Clements Jr. of the COPS Office. “Taking on this type of work demonstrates a true commitment to excellence.”

Regular updates on the team’s work with the Sacramento Police Department will be provided at cops.usdoj.gov/active-oa-site-sacramento-ca-police-department  as part of the transparency and public accountability of this new Organizational Assessment effort.

The Collaborative Reform Initiative encompasses three programs offering expert services to state, local, territorial, and Tribal law enforcement agencies: the Collaborative Reform Initiative Technical Assistance Center, Critical Response, and Organizational Assessment programs (complete details of these programs can be found at cops.usdoj.gov/collaborativereform). Managed out of the COPS Office, this continuum of services is designed to build trust between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve; improve operational efficiencies and effectiveness; enhance officer safety and wellness; build agencies’ capacity for organizational learning and self-improvement; and promote community policing practices nationwide.

The Organizational Assessment program provides the most intensive form of technical assistance on the continuum, involving in-depth assessments and long-term assistance to improve the fairness, effectiveness, and efficacy of agency operations that build trust with communities. A continual assessment and implementation process ensures that time and resources are used to focus on identifying areas for improvement, reinforcing agency strengths, and assisting with the implementation of improvements expeditiously. At the same time, the process provides transparency and accountability with routine public reporting and community input. Each engagement will be supported by a multidisciplinary assessment team composed of subject matter experts with diverse experience and perspectives, including in law enforcement, community engagement, research and evaluation, program management, and organizational reform.

The COPS Office is the federal component of the Justice Department responsible for advancing community policing nationwide. The only Justice Department agency with policing in its name, the COPS Office was established in 1994 and has been the cornerstone of the nation’s crime fighting strategy with grants, a variety of knowledge resource products, and training and technical assistance. Through the years, the COPS Office has become the go-to organization for law enforcement agencies across the country and continues to listen to the field and provide the resources that are needed to reduce crime and build trust between law enforcement and the communities served. The COPS Office has been appropriated more than $20 billion to advance community policing, including grants awarded to more than 13,000 state, local, territorial, and Tribal law enforcement agencies to fund the hiring and redeployment of approximately 138,000 officers.

Source: United States Department of Justice

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles returned a superseding indictment today charging a former Syrian government official with torture.

According to court documents, Samir Ousman Alsheikh, 72, of Lexington, South Carolina, was the head of Damascus Central Prison, colloquially known as Adra Prison, from approximately 2005 through 2008. In that role, Alsheikh allegedly ordered subordinates to inflict and was sometimes personally involved in inflicting severe physical and mental pain and suffering on political and other prisoners. In particular, Alsheikh allegedly ordered some prisoners to Adra Prison’s “Punishment Wing,” where prisoners were beaten while suspended from the ceiling with their arms extended and were subjected to a device known as the “Flying Carpet,” which folded their bodies in half at the waist, causing excruciating pain and sometimes resulting in fractured spines.

“Samir Alsheikh is charged with torturing political dissidents and other prisoners to deter opposition to the regime of then-Syrian President Bashar al-Assad,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Alsheikh later allegedly lied about his crimes to obtain a U.S. green card. The victims of such violent treatment continue to suffer long after the physical acts of torture have ceased. The Justice Department is committed to prosecuting perpetrators of such crimes and will not allow them, through lies and concealment, to hide in the United States.”

“The allegations in this superseding indictment of grave human rights abuses are chilling,” said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada for the Central District of California. “Our country will not be a safe harbor for those accused of committing atrocities abroad.”

Alsheikh allegedly held a variety of positions in the Syrian police and the Syrian state security apparatus, was associated with the Syrian Ba’ath Party that ruled Syria, and was appointed governor of the province of Deir Ez-Zour by then-Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2011. The superseding indictment alleges that Alsheikh immigrated to the United States in 2020 and applied for U.S. citizenship in 2023.

“When it comes to pursuing our criminal investigations, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has a long reach and an even longer memory,” said Special Agent in Charge Eddy Wang of the HSI Los Angeles Field office. “The defendant is accused of torturing prisoners in Syria almost 20 years ago, and today, we are one step closer to holding him accountable for those heinous crimes. The United States will never be a safe haven for those who commit human rights abuses abroad.”

“The allegations in this superseding indictment reveal unconscionable crimes and a clear violation of human rights,” said Assistant Director Chad Yarbrough of the FBI Criminal Investigative Division. “The FBI is committed to working with our partners across the globe to uncover the truth and ensure those who engage in unlawful and inhumane criminal activity face the full consequences of their actions.”

The superseding indictment adds three counts of torture and one count of conspiracy to commit torture to the visa fraud and attempted naturalization fraud charges that were the subject of the initial indictment against Alsheikh in August. If convicted, Alsheikh faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for the conspiracy to commit torture charge, a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each of the three torture charges, and a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for each of the two immigration fraud charges. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

HSI and the FBI are investigating the case, with support from the HSI-led Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center and the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs. The Justice Department thanks the Swedish Police Authority; Royal Canadian Mounted Police – Federal Policing, Pacific Region; and authorities in Belgium for their invaluable assistance.

Trial Attorneys Patrick Jasperse and Alexandra Skinnion of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section (HRSP) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua O. Mausner for the Central District of California are prosecuting the case. HRSP historian Phil Hoffman provided substantial assistance in the investigation and prosecution.

Members of the public who have information about human rights violators in the United States are urged to contact U.S. law enforcement through the FBI tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI or the HSI tip line at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE, or complete the FBI online tip form or the ICE online tip form.

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

A federal jury convicted a Michigan businessman today of wire fraud for fraudulently obtaining a Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loan and loan forgiveness.

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. From approximately February 2021 through September 2021, Thrush defrauded the Small Business Administration (SBA) by falsely representing to a bank and the SBA in an application for a PPP loan that he was not subject to an indictment, when in fact he was, and then by seeking forgiveness of that loan. The PPP was enacted as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, a law designed to provide emergency financial assistance to the millions of Americans feeling the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thrush is scheduled to be sentenced on July 17, 2025. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for wire fraud. 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 Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Dawn Ison for the Eastern District of Michigan made the announcement.

IRS-Criminal Investigation is investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys Mark McDonald and Evan Mulbry of the Justice Department’s Tax Division are prosecuting the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice

An Austin, Texas, man was sentenced today to two years in prison for filing a tax return that falsely underreported the capital gains he earned from selling $3.7 million in bitcoins.

According to court documents and statements made in court, between 2017 and 2019, Frank Richard Ahlgren III, filed false tax returns that underreported or did not report the sale of $4 million worth of bitcoins in which he had substantial gains. All taxpayers are required to report any sale proceeds and gains or losses from the sale of cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin, on a tax return.

Ahlgren was an early investor in bitcoins and purchased bitcoins as early as 2011. In 2015, Ahlgren bought approximately 1,366 bitcoins using his accounts with Coinbase. The highest price bitcoins sold for that year was approximately $495.56. In October 2017, Ahlgren sold approximately 640 bitcoins trading at approximately $5,807.53 per bitcoin for a total of $3.7 million, and used the proceeds to purchase a house in Park City, Utah. Most of the bitcoins used to purchase the house came from bitcoins Ahlgren bought in 2015 using his Coinbase account. When it came time to prepare his 2017 federal income tax return, Ahlgren lied to his accountant by submitting a false summary of his gains and losses from the sale of his bitcoins. To conceal the full extent of his gain, Ahlgren claimed that he bought the bitcoins at prices much higher than he actually did — indeed, his claimed purchase prices were greater than the highest price bitcoins sold for in the market prior to the purchase of the Utah house. Ahlgren then filed a false 2017 federal income tax return that substantially inflated the cost basis of the bitcoins, thereby underreporting  his true capital gain from his sale of bitcoins.

In 2018 and 2019, Ahlgren sold bitcoins for more than $650,000, and did not report these sales at all on his 2018 and 2019 tax returns. For these years, Ahlgren took several sophisticated steps to attempt to conceal his transactions on the bitcoin blockchain by moving his bitcoins through multiple wallets, meeting an individual in person to exchange bitcoins for cash, and using mixers, which are designed to conceal the individual who made the particular transaction. Indeed, in May 2014, Ahlgren had blogged about his knowledge of mixers as ways to add anonymity to bitcoin transactions. In total, the tax loss from Ahlgren’s criminal conduct was over $1 million.

“Frank Ahlgren III earned millions buying and selling bitcoins,” said Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division “But instead of paying the taxes he knew were due, he lied to his accountant about the extent of a large portion of his gains, and sought to conceal another chunk of his profits through sophisticated techniques designed to obscure his transactions on the bitcoin blockchain. That conduct today earned him a two-year sentence.”

“Ahlgren will serve time because he believed his cryptocurrency transactions were untraceable. This case demonstrates that no one is above the law. My team at IRS Criminal Investigation has the expertise and tools to track financial activity, whether it involves dollars, pesos, or cryptocurrency,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Lucy Tan of IRS-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI)’s Houston Field Office. “This case marks the first criminal tax evasion prosecution centered solely on cryptocurrency. As the prices for cryptocurrency are high, so is the temptation to not pay taxes on its sale. Avoid the temptation and avoid federal prison.”

In addition to his prison sentence, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pitman for the Western District of Texas ordered Ahlgren to serve one year of supervised release and to pay $1,095,031 in restitution to the United States.

IRS-CI and the Texas Office of Attorney General are investigating the case.

Assistant Chief Michael C. Boteler and Trial Attorney Mary Frances Richardson of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney William R. Harris for the Western District of Texas are prosecuting the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice

A man was sentenced today in the Southern District of Texas to 30 years in prison for production and possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

According to court documents, Robert Alexander Shouse, 37, of Houston, was identified by law enforcement in 2018 as an administrator for a CSAM website on the dark web that facilitated the sexual exploitation of minors while keeping secret the identities of the perpetrators. In his role, Shouse maintained the website, which allowed users to post links to images and videos of CSAM. These links allowed a user to navigate to other websites, such as file-hosting websites where images or videos were stored and to download images and videos of child sexual abuse and child erotica. Additionally, forum users could discuss the sexual abuse of children. Authorities seized the website and terminated its operation in 2019.

“Robert Shouse engaged in horrific sexual abuse of minors, created child sexual abuse material involving those minors, and facilitated the trafficking of thousands of sexually explicit images and videos of minors through a dark web site that he controlled,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The defendant’s sexual exploitation of vulnerable children is despicable. The Criminal Division is fully committed to using all available tools to investigate and prosecute sexual crimes against children.”

“Robert Shouse is the embodiment of evil,” said U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani for the Southern District of Texas. “He used money and gifts to sexually abuse a nine-year-old child for six years. He used his computer skills to target hundreds of children, stealing their innocence and shattering their lives. In essence, there was nothing he wouldn’t do satisfy his sick fantasies. Today’s sentence helps ensure that Shouse’s fantasies won’t become another child’s nightmare for decades to come.” 

“For more than 10 years, Shouse relentlessly exploited and victimized the most vulnerable members of our community,” said Assistant Director Chad Yarbrough of the FBI Criminal Investigative Division. “In a world where technology allows child exploitation material to be spread across borders with ease, those who exploit children for their own depraved purposes must face the consequences of the harm they inflicted on their victims. Today’s sentencing is more than just a punishment. It’s a message to the community that the FBI will always work with our partners to ensure there is one less predator out there victimizing the most innocent among us — our children.”

In January 2019, authorities executed a search warrant at Shouse’s residence and seized multiple electronic devices. Forensic examination of the devices revealed more than 117,000 images and more than 1,100 videos depicting children engaged in sexually explicit conduct including anal and vaginal penetration, masturbation, sadistic and masochistic conduct and lewd exhibition of genitalia. Over 4,000 images depicted the sexual exploitation of babies and toddlers.

Additionally, law enforcement found images and videos of seven minor victims whom Shouse knew personally. Through the investigation, authorities learned that he sexually abused one minor victim for a period of six years beginning when the victim was nine years old. Shouse had befriended the child and provided money and gifts to the victim’s family. Shouse created over 925 images and 33 videos of child sexual abuse of this minor. In some of these images, Shouse made the victim wear a dog collar.

Law enforcement found that Shouse had also secretly recorded two other minors — one in the bathroom and the other in the bedroom — and solicited two other minors online, asking them to send naked pictures of themselves to him. He also managed to download naked pictures of a couple who had shared the images privately between themselves.

Shouse pleaded guilty on June 6 to two counts of sexual exploitation of a child, one count of attempted sexual exploitation of a child, and one count of possession of child pornography. In addition to his term of imprisonment, Shouse was ordered to serve 10 years of supervised release, pay $153,500 in restitution to the victims, and register as a sex offender. Shouse will remain in custody pending transfer to a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

The FBI Houston Field Office, Texas City Resident Agency investigated the case, with the assistance of the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office, Montgomery County Precinct Three Constable’s Office, and Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office. The Justice Department thanks the Dutch National Police and United Kingdom National Crime Agency for their valuable assistance.

Trial Attorney James E. Burke IV of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly Ann Leo for the Southern District of Texas prosecuted the case.

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