Category: US Department of Justice

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A federal jury convicted a medical doctor yesterday for his participation in conspiracies to commit health care fraud and wire fraud and to unlawfully distribute controlled substances.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Neil K. Anand M.D., 48, of Bensalem, Pennsylvania, conspired to submit false and fraudulent claims to Medicare, health plans provided by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Independence Blue Cross (IBC), and Anthem, for “Goody Bags” of medically unnecessary prescription medications, which were dispensed to patients by in-house pharmacies owned by Anand. As the evidence at trial showed, the conspirators required patients to take the Goody Bags, which they did not need or want, to receive prescriptions for controlled substances. In total, Medicare, OPM, IBC, and Anthem paid over $2.3 million for the Goody Bags. Anand also conspired to distribute oxycodone outside the usual course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose. In furtherance of the conspiracy, unlicensed medical interns wrote prescriptions for controlled substances using blank prescriptions that were pre-signed by Anand. Anand prescribed 20,850 oxycodone tablets for nine different patients, as part of the scheme. After learning that he was under investigation, Anand concealed the proceeds of the fraud by transferring approximately $1.2 million into an account in the name of his father and for the benefit of his minor daughter.

Anand was convicted of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud; three counts of health care fraud; one count of money laundering; four counts of unlawful monetary transactions; and conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 19 and faces a statutory maximum penalty of 130 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Matthew R. Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Special Agent in Charge Maureen Dixon of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG); Special Agent in Charge Kathleen Woodson of the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (U.S. Postal Service OIG); and Special Agent in Charge of Investigative Operations Derek Holt of the OPM-Office of the Inspector General (OPM-OIG) made the announcement.

The HHS-OIG, U.S. Postal Service OIG, and OPM OIG investigated the case.  FBI’s Philadelphia Field Office provided valuable assistance.

Trial Attorneys Paul J. Koob, Patrick J. Campbell, and Arun Bodapati of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case.

The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat health care fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program. Since March 2007, this program, currently comprised of nine strike forces operating in 27 federal districts, has charged more than 5,800 defendants who collectively have billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $30 billion. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with HHS-OIG, are taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement in health care fraud schemes. More information can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.

Source: United States Department of Justice

Aghorn Operating Inc., an oilfield company, Trent Day, an executive of Aghorn, and Kodiak Roustabout Inc., entered guilty pleas and were sentenced yesterday in relation to criminal worker safety and federal clean air and safe drinking water violations. According to court documents, Aghorn owns and operates oil wells in and near Odessa, Texas. Odessa is in the Permian basin where oil reserves are “sour,” meaning they have high hydrogen sulfide content. Hydrogen sulfide gas can be deadly at high concentrations.

The case leading to these pleas is the result of an investigation of the Oct. 26, 2019, death of Aghorn employee Jacob Dean and his wife Natalee Dean. Both were overcome by hydrogen sulfide at an Aghorn facility in Odessa.

Day agreed to plead guilty to a Clean Air Act (CAA) negligent endangerment charge and serve five months in prison. Aghorn pleaded guilty to CAA negligent endangerment and an Occupational Safety and Health Act willful violation count for the death of Jacob Dean. Kodiak pleaded guilty to a felony violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act for falsifying oil well integrity tests. Aghorn will pay a $1 million criminal fine and Kodiak will pay a $400,000 criminal fine. These pleas were made under agreements the defendants entered into with the United States. Under the agreements, other pending charges will be dismissed. Yesterday, the court accepted the defendants’ guilty pleas and sentenced them in accordance with their plea agreements.

“Through these guilty pleas, the defendants accept responsibility for allowing hazards that should have been prevented,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). “If they had done what the law requires, Jacob and Natalee might still be with us today. The Justice Department can’t stand by when employers put workers at such risk.”

“Energy production is vital, but it must be done competently and lawfully,” said Acting Assistant Administrator Jeffrey Hall of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “Operators who gravely endanger and kill others and those who lie to the government will be held accountable for their criminal conduct. EPA’s criminal investigation of these tragic deaths led to today’s plea deal.”

According to a factual statement accepted by Day and Aghorn, Jacob Dean responded to a call to check a pump at an Aghorn facility. There, he encountered deadly hydrogen sulfide gas, was overcome, and died. His wife, Natalee Dean, knew where Jacob had gone and started calling him when he did not return in a timely manner. When those calls went unanswered, Natalee drove to the facility. When Natalee arrived at the facility, she was also overcome while looking for Jacob and died.

Trent Day admitted that he should have controlled hydrogen sulfide emissions as part of his duties and that because he did not, he placed others in imminent danger of death. Aghorn admitted the same criminal negligence and to a separate charge that it willfully violated the Occupational Safety and Health Act regulations requiring companies to implement respiratory protection programs to address hazards like those at the facility. In addition to paying a $1 million fine, the company will maintain a set of improvements it made after the tragedy during its period of probation.

The investigation also uncovered false statements by Kodiak about injection well testing related to Aghorn’s oil operations. The mechanical integrity of an injection well must be evaluated by conducting pressure tests. These tests are part of programs under the Safe Drinking Water Act to prevent leaks from those wells. Such leaks could, under some circumstances, contaminate groundwater. In its plea agreement, Kodiak admitted that it sent forms and charts to the Texas Railroad Commission, claiming they were tests for specific wells when Kodiak knew they were not actual records of tests of those wells. Kodiak, in addition to its $400,000 fine, will guarantee that at least 33 tests conducted for Aghorn wells during its year of probation are witnessed or conducted by a third party.

The EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division investigated the case. The Justice Department and EPA would like to thank the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Texas Railroad Commission, Ector County Environmental, and the Odessa Fire Department for their support of the investigation.

Senior Trial Attorney Christopher Costantini, Trial Attorney Mark Romley, and Assistant Section Chief Thomas T. Ballantine of ENRD’s Environmental Crimes Section are prosecuting the case.  

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

On April 1, seven individuals in Georgia and Mexico were indicted by a federal grand jury seated in the Northern District of Georgia related to a drug trafficking and money laundering ring tied to a Mexico-based trafficker. Five of these defendants, all of Norcross, Georgia — Sandra Beatriz Hernandez Chilel, 49; Karina Beatriz Perez Hernandez, 22; David Miranda Vinalay, 39; Jerome Lewis, 47; and Irving Joel Hernandez, 34 — were arrested earlier today in a coordinated effort by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), and local law enforcement. The defendants were arraigned before a U.S. Magistrate Judge following their arrests.

“Thanks to the great investigative work of our federal partners and local law enforcement, five individuals working on behalf of the violent Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) have been taken off our streets,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “We will not allow these criminal enterprises to continue profiting off of the death and destruction of American lives.”

“The defendants allegedly trafficked high volumes of fentanyl and other deadly drugs into our community and then laundered the illicit proceeds of their activities as directed by a Mexico-based drug trafficker, including more than $1 million during a mere two-month period,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Richard S. Moultrie Jr. for the Northern District of Georgia. “Although these individuals took great measures to conceal their alleged criminal conduct, a determined and coordinated effort by our federal and local law enforcement partners helped to secure the federal charges in this case.”

“The deadly impact of fentanyl on our communities is devastating,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Jae W. Chung of the DEA’s Atlanta Division. “These arrests should be a clear message to the traffickers that keeping our communities safe is our highest priority.”

“Using our expertise in financial investigations, IRS Criminal Investigation is following the money, despite attempts by criminals to cover their tracks,” said Special Agent in Charge Demetrius Hardeman of IRS-CI’s Atlanta Field Office. “IRS Criminal Investigation special agents in partnerships with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and other law enforcement agencies, will continue our work investigating and holding accountable those responsible for bringing dangerous drugs into our communities.”

According to Acting U.S. Attorney Moultrie for the Northern District of Georgia, the indictment, and other information presented in court: In September 2024, the DEA uncovered a scheme involving drug traffickers delivering bulk currency from drug sales to a middleman in Norcross. The middleman then allegedly delivered the drug proceeds to defendants Sandra Beatriz Hernandez Chilel (Chilel) and her daughter Karina Beatriz Perez Hernandez (Perez), who then laundered the proceeds as directed by a Mexico-based drug trafficker. Chilel and Perez allegedly operated a money service business (MSB) in Norcross called “La Pulga Esperenza.”

Between September and November 2024, DEA saw several traffickers deliver hundreds of thousands of dollars of suspected drug proceeds to the middleman in Norcross, who then transferred the cash to Chilel and Perez. Agents with IRS-CI analyzed the MSB’s transactions and determined that the cash was wired to Mexico but was transferred in small increments so as not to raise suspicion by federal regulators. During a period of approximately two months, this ring of individuals allegedly laundered over $1 million in drug proceeds smuggled to Mexico.

During the investigation, the DEA identified several alleged traffickers who transported the drug proceeds to Norcross, including defendants David Miranda Vinalay, Jerome Lewis, and Irving Joel Hernandez. DEA identified one of the primary traffickers as being a member or associate of the CJNG. Additionally, as alleged in the indictment, some of the traffickers also possessed methamphetamine and fentanyl that they intended to distribute on behalf of the drug trafficking ring.

Members of the public are reminded that the indictment only contains charges. The defendants are presumed innocent of the charges, and it will be the government’s burden to prove the defendants’ guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.

This case is being investigated by the DEA and IRS-CI. Valuable assistance was also provided by the Georgia State Patrol, Dekalb County, Georgia, Police Department, Gwinnett County, Georgia, Police Department, and Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bethany L. Rupert and Dwayne A. Brown Jr. for the Northern District of Georgia are prosecuting the case.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Justice Department to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).

This effort is part of an OCDETF operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach.  Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.

An indictment is merely an accusation. All defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Source: United States Department of Justice

Siblings Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga — also known as El Pez, Pescado, and Mojarra — and Jose Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga — also known as El Fresa, El Feyo, and La Fruta — both of Guerrero, Mexico, and co-leaders of the La Nueva Familia Michoacana (LNFM) drug cartel, were charged by a federal grand jury seated in the Northern District of Georgia with conspiracy to manufacture and distribute heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl knowing those controlled substances would be imported into the United States, conspiracy to import those controlled substances into the United States, and conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute those controlled substances.

The indictments were returned in September 2024 and recently unsealed. Prior to his indictment, Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga was designated as a Consolidated Priority Target (CPOT) by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program. Both Hurtado Olascoaga brothers are fugitives believed to be residing in Mexico. In addition, today the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced new sanctions against Johnny and Jose Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga and their siblings, LNFM members Ubaldo Hurtado Olascoaga and Adita Hurtado Olascoaga. On Feb. 20, the U.S. Department of State also announced the designation of LNFM as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). Additionally, the Department of State announced a Narcotics Rewards Program offer of up to $5 million and $3 million, respectively, for information leading to the arrests or convictions of Johnny and Jose Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga.

Franco Tabares Martinez, 51, of Guerrero, Mexico, a high-ranking member of LNFM was charged by a federal grand jury seated in the Northern District of Georgia with conspiracy to possess methamphetamine with the intent to distribute and related substantive counts of drug trafficking. The indictment was unsealed against Franco Tabares Martinez on July 7, 2023, after which he was sanctioned by OFAC. On June 20, 2024, his brother Uriel Tabares-Martinez was also sanctioned by OFAC. Another brother, Pablo Tabares Martinez, pleaded guilty on Jan. 13 to conspiracy to possess methamphetamine with intent to distribute. Their sister, Guadalupe Tabares Martinez — also known as Yosel Medrano Hernandez and Lupe — of Mableton, Georgia, has now been charged by a federal grand jury seated in the Northern District of Georgia with conspiracy to commit international money laundering, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money services business, and related substantive counts. The indictment was returned on April 8 and recently unsealed.                 

“Today’s indictments and OFAC sanctions against high-ranking LNFM cartel members sends a clear message: if you contribute to the death of Americans by peddling poison into our communities, we will work relentlessly to find you and bring you to justice,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi.

“These cartel members are allegedly responsible for importing massive amounts of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and fentanyl from Mexico to the Atlanta area and across the United States, and then wiring hundreds of thousands of dollars in proceeds from distributing those drugs back to Mexico,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Richard S. Moultrie Jr. for the Northern District of Georgia. “These federal indictments, in conjunction with the imposition of OFAC sanctions, send a strong message that we will tirelessly investigate, prosecute, and defund individuals around the globe who choose to import deadly drugs into, and risk the lives of the members of, our communities.”

“Today’s action underscores our commitment to intensify the pressure on violent drug cartels like LNFM, who continue to traffic deadly fentanyl and other drugs, smuggle illegal aliens over our Southwest border, and attack law enforcement,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “The Trump administration will continue to use all available tools to target the cartels and other violent organizations that attempt to exploit our communities and harm Americans.”

“President Trump has promised to crack down on the flow of deadly drugs into our country,” said Senior Bureau Official F. Cartwright Weiland of the Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL). “And today, working with the DEA and Homeland Security Investigations, the Department of State is delivering on that promise by offering rewards totaling up to $8 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of the Hurtado brothers.”

“Cases like this exemplify the value of partnerships,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Jae W. Chung of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Atlanta Division. “The volume of dangerous drugs and violence impacts our communities beyond comprehension. This investigation and subsequent indictments demonstrate DEA’s commitment to protecting our community by destroying these drug trafficking organizations.”

“The indictment of senior leaders of this brutal Mexican cartel and subsequent OFAC sanctions makes one thing clear, we are coming after these criminal networks and utilizing every weapon in our arsenal,” said Special Agent in Charge Steven N. Schrank of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Georgia and Alabama. “Through aggressive interagency coordination, HSI and our law enforcement partners are not only seizing their drugs and arresting their members, but we are also cutting off their money, dismantling their infrastructure, and bringing their leaders to justice. This operation underscores our unwavering commitment to protecting our communities and dismantling the criminal enterprises that profit from violence and addiction.”

According to Acting U.S. Attorney Moultrie for the Northern District of Georgia, the indictments, and other information presented in court: In 2021, agents of the DEA and HSI began an investigation of LNFM cartel members importing methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl into the United States, including into the Northern District of Georgia. As part of the investigation, agents identified Franco Tabares Martinez as a then-high-ranking member of the LNFM cartel who allegedly distributed multi-kilogram quantities of methamphetamine in the metro Atlanta area.

In addition, agents identified Franco Tabares Martinez’s sister, Guadalupe Tabares Martinez, as an Atlanta-based money launderer allegedly helping her brother and other drug traffickers by picking up bulk currency and then using her money service business, Noyola Multiservice, to transmit those drug proceeds to drug trafficking associates in Mexico. Through the investigation, agents also identified Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga and Jose Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga as the cartel’s co-founders and kingpins, who conspired with cartel members in Mexico and throughout the United States to import heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and fentanyl across the U.S.-Mexico border for distribution in various cities and states, including Atlanta.

This case is being investigated by the DEA and HSI.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Laurel Milam and Bethany Rupert for the Northern District of Georgia are prosecuting the case against the Hurtado Olascoaga brothers, Franco Tabares Martinez and Guadalupe Tabares Martinez. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Morrison for the Middle District of Georgia provided valuable contributions to the investigation of Guadalupe Tabares Martinez.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Justice Department to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).

This prosecution is part of an OCDETF Strike Force Initiative, which provides for the establishment of permanent multi-agency task force teams that work side-by-side in the same location. This co-located model enables agents from different agencies to collaborate on intelligence-driven, multi¬ jurisdictional operations to disrupt and dismantle the most significant drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations.

The specific mission of the David G. Wilhelm Atlanta OCDETF Strike Force (the Strike Force) is to degrade and dismantle major drug trafficking and money laundering organizations (DTMLOs) in the Atlanta metropolitan area and the Northern District of Georgia. To accomplish this mission, the Strike Force will target these organizations’ leaders, focusing on targets designated as Consolidated Priority Organization Targets (CPOTs), Regional Priority Organization Targets (RPOTs), and their associates.  The Atlanta Strike Force is comprised of agents and officers from ATF, DEA, FBI, HSI, USMS, USPIS, and IRS; as well as numerous state and local agencies, and the prosecution is being led by the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.

An indictment is merely an accusation. All defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Source: United States Department of Justice

Thank you, Acting United States Attorney Grewell, Special Agent in Charge of HSI’s Denver Field Office, Steve Cagan, and everyone for being here. My name is Matthew Galeotti, and I am the Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

Today, the Justice Department secured the conviction of Michael Sang Correa on multiple counts of torture and one count of conspiracy to commit torture.

This verdict underscores the Justice Department’s determination to protect victims and prevent perpetrators of torture and other heinous human rights abuses abroad from seeking a new life here in America.  You cannot hide here.  We can and will prosecute you if you come to the United States after committing atrocities abroad. This country will not be a safe haven for human rights violators.

At the outset, I want to express my admiration and gratitude for the strength and courage of the victim witnesses who travelled all the way from Africa to a courtroom in Denver, Colorado, to tell the jury what Correa and his co-conspirators did to them. Reliving those horrific crimes and facing their tormenter in person again takes tremendous bravery. It must have been painful and difficult, and we thank them for enduring this ordeal in the interests of justice.

I also want to express my appreciation and commend the prosecutors from the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section, Assistant United States Attorneys from the District of Colorado, and agents from Homeland Security Investigations for relentlessly pursuing this case, and ensuring justice was done.

The evidence presented at trial exposed the depravity of the torture Correa committed in 2006, prior to his arrival in the United States, where he sought to escape accountability for his crimes here in Colorado.

The government’s evidence showed that Correa, along with his co-conspirators, tortured and abused victims accused of plotting a coup against the regime then in power in The Gambia, a West African country which at the time was under the regime of President Yahya Jammeh.

Correa belonged to a special unit of President Jammeh’s security forces, known as the “Junglers,” who brutally cracked down on what the regime claimed was a coup plot.

Trial testimony revealed the direct role Correa played in that torture.

With the intent to cause severe pain and suffering, Correa and his co-conspirators:

Dripped hot, molten plastic onto the bare skin of one of their victims; they put plastic bags over victims’ heads, restricting breathing; one of Correa’s co-conspirators put the barrel of a pistol into the mouth of a victim; they threatened victims with knives and stabbed one of them; they electrocuted their victims, on their hands, and on their genitals; they extinguished cigarettes into their skin; they rubbed sand into their eyes; they hit one victim in the face with a hammer; and they beat their victims ruthlessly, using fists, feet, firearms, sticks, branches, wire, and pipes, to inflict pain and cause injury.

There were virtually no bounds on their cruelty.

But, just as there were no bounds on the defendant’s cruelty, there are no bounds on how far this Justice Department, under the leadership of Attorney General Pamela Bondi, will go to hold people who commit such brutality to account.

People who have committed violent crimes — let alone human rights abuses — should not come to the United States. Period. They are not entitled to live the American Dream. They belong in prison. A core policy objective of the Justice Department is to secure our communities against criminal aliens, and today’s conviction of Correa is one more step taken in that direction.

Wherever we have jurisdiction, the Justice Department will prosecute persons who have committed atrocities abroad under the federal criminal statutes proscribing torture, war crimes, genocide, and the recruitment or use of child soldiers, among other criminal charges. The Department can also use our criminal and civil immigration and naturalization laws to revoke U.S. citizenship or obtain other criminal penalties.

The Department of Justice participates in an interagency effort to deny safe haven in the United States to human rights violators, working closely with the Department of Homeland Security, FBI and other agencies to identify such individuals and prevent them from entering the United States. This verdict today is the outcome of successful collaboration across agencies, and especially with Homeland Security Investigations and its Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center.

My thanks also go to the Department’s prosecutors, paralegal specialists, historian/analysts, and others who have worked on the Correa case with impressive determination and skill. They did so while always putting the victims first, which is one of the Department’s core principles.

Correa’s conviction is the third time in which a defendant has been found guilty of torture in federal court, and it won’t be the last. Today’s verdict is a demonstration of our commitment to leave no stone unturned to prosecute human rights violators.