Central District of California

Note: View the motion to dismiss and deferred prosecution agreement.

Roger Ver, an early bitcoin investor known as “Bitcoin Jesus,” entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department to resolve federal tax charges brought against him. Under the agreement, Ver has paid the IRS nearly $50 million in back taxes, penalties, and interest stemming from his willful failure to properly report his bitcoin holdings on tax returns when he expatriated from the United States in 2014. Today, the government has moved to dismiss the indictment against him.

The following is according to the deferred prosecution agreement: Starting in 2011, Ver began acquiring bitcoins. Over the years, he avidly promoted them, even obtaining the moniker “Bitcoin Jesus.” In March 2014, Ver renounced his U.S. citizenship after obtaining citizenship in St. Kitts and Nevis, a process known as expatriation. Due to his net worth, Ver was required to file certain expatriation-related tax returns and to pay taxes on the capital gains on his world-wide assets, including his bitcoins.

In the agreement, Ver admitted that when he filed these returns in May 2016, he did not report all his bitcoins and pay the required capital gains tax on their constructive sale. Ver admitted that his failure to report capital gains from all these bitcoins caused a loss to the United States of $16,864,105. Ver admitted that the understatement of tax caused by his failure to report ownership of all his bitcoins was willful, which is legally defined as the intentional violation of a known legal duty. Accordingly, Ver admitted he owed the maximum penalty available under 26 U.S.C. § 6663 of more than $12 million, as well as interest on the taxes and penalties.

Associate Deputy Attorney General Ketan D. Bhirud of the Justice Department’s Office of the Deputy Attorney General; Acting United States Attorney Bilal A. Essayli for the Central District of California; and Kareem Carter, Executive Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, Washington, D.C. Field Office made the announcement.

“We are pleased that Mr. Ver has taken responsibility for his past misconduct and satisfied his obligations to the American public. This resolution sends a clear message: whether you deal in dollars or digital assets, you must file accurate tax returns and pay what you owe,” said Associate Deputy Attorney General Ketan D. Bhirud.

“Mr. Ver is accepting responsibility for his actions and has agreed to pay a substantial penalty,” said Acting United States Attorney Bill Essayli of the Central District of California. “Every person, whether you’re a millionaire or not, is required by law to pay taxes and we will not hesitate to hold anyone accountable.”

“Today’s resolution demonstrates that there are consequences for those who intentionally conceal their assets and evade their tax obligations,” said Kareem Carter, Executive Special Agent in Charge. “No matter how sophisticated the technology or the asset, IRS-CI will continue to follow the money, ensure compliance, and protect the integrity of our tax system.”

The Cyber Crimes Unit of IRS Criminal Investigation’s Washington, D.C. Field Office investigated the case.

Assistant Chief Matthew J. Kluge and Trial Attorney Peter J. Anthony of the Tax Division, and Assistant U.S. Attorney James. C. Hughes of the Central District of California prosecuted the case.

LOS ANGELES – Roger Ver, an early bitcoin investor known as “Bitcoin Jesus,” entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department to resolve federal tax charges brought against him.

Under the agreement, Ver has paid the IRS nearly $50 million in back taxes, penalties, and interest stemming from his willful failure to properly report his bitcoin holdings on tax returns when he expatriated from the United States in 2014.

Today, the government has moved to dismiss the indictment against him.

The following is according to the deferred prosecution agreement: Starting in 2011, Ver began acquiring bitcoins. Over the years, he avidly promoted them, even obtaining the moniker “Bitcoin Jesus.” In March 2014, Ver renounced his U.S. citizenship after obtaining citizenship in St. Kitts and Nevis, a process known as expatriation. Due to his net worth, Ver was required to file certain expatriation-related tax returns and to pay taxes on the capital gains on his world-wide assets, including his bitcoins.

In the agreement, Ver admitted that when he filed these returns in May 2016, he did not report all his bitcoins and pay the required capital gains tax on their constructive sale. Ver admitted that his failure to report capital gains from all these bitcoins caused a loss to the United States of $16,864,105. Ver admitted that the understatement of tax caused by his failure to report ownership of all his bitcoins was willful, which is legally defined as the intentional violation of a known legal duty. Accordingly, Ver admitted he owed the maximum penalty of more than $12 million, as well as interest on the taxes and penalties.

“Mr. Ver is accepting responsibility for his actions and has agreed to pay a substantial penalty,” said Acting United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “Every person, whether you’re a millionaire or not, is required by law to pay taxes and we will not hesitate to hold anyone accountable.”

“We are pleased that Mr. Ver has taken responsibility for his past misconduct and satisfied his obligations to the American public. This resolution sends a clear message: whether you deal in dollars or digital assets, you must file accurate tax returns and pay what you owe,” said Associate Deputy Attorney General Ketan D. Bhirud.

“Today’s resolution demonstrates that there are consequences for those who intentionally conceal their assets and evade their tax obligations,” said Kareem Carter, Executive Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation. “No matter how sophisticated the technology or the asset, IRS-CI will continue to follow the money, ensure compliance, and protect the integrity of our tax system.”

The Cyber Crimes Unit of IRS Criminal Investigation’s Washington, D.C. Field Office investigated the case.

Assistant United States Attorney James C. Hughes of the Major Frauds Section, and Assistant Chief Matthew J. Kluge and Trial Attorney Peter J. Anthony of the Tax Division prosecuted the case.

LOS ANGELES – A former Pacific Palisades resident now living in Florida has been arrested on a federal criminal complaint charging him with maliciously starting what eventually became the Palisades Fire of January 2025, one of the most destructive wildfires in Los Angeles history, the Justice Department announced today.

Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, a.k.a. “Jonathan Rinder,” and “Jon Rinder,” of Melbourne, Florida, is charged with destruction of property by means of fire. He was arrested Tuesday and is expected to make his initial appearance today in United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

“The complaint alleges that a single person’s recklessness caused one of the worst fires Los Angeles has ever seen, resulting in death and widespread destruction in Pacific Palisades,” said Acting United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “While we cannot bring back what victims lost, we hope this criminal case brings some measure of justice to those affected by this horrific tragedy.”

“At the request of state and local authorities, ATF took the lead in this complex investigation utilizing techniques unique to our agency's capabilities,” said Special Agent in Charge Kenny Cooper of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Los Angeles Field Division. “The horrific loss of life and property was significantly felt by ATF members, and we are honored to utilize our expertise to provide answers to this community. We remain committed to serving with integrity and distinction.”

According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, law enforcement determined that the Palisades Fire was a “holdover” fire – a continuation of the Lachman Fire that began early in the morning on New Year’s Day 2025. Although firefighters quickly suppressed the Lachman Fire, unbeknownst to anyone the fire continued to smolder and burn underground within the root structure of dense vegetation.

On January 7, heavy winds caused the underground fire to surface and spread above ground in what became known as the Palisades Fire, which caused widespread damage in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Law enforcement determined – using witness statements, video surveillance, cellphone data, and analysis of fire dynamics and patterns at the scene, among other things – that Rinderknecht maliciously set the Lachman Fire just after midnight on January 1 on land owned by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA), an organization that received federal funding. A week later, the same fire – then known as the Palisades Fire – burned federal property.

On the evening of December 31, 2024, Rinderknecht was working as an Uber driver. Two passengers that he drove on separate trips between 10:15 p.m. and 11:15 p.m. that night later told law enforcement they remembered that Rinderknecht appeared agitated and angry.

After dropping off a passenger in Pacific Palisades, Rinderknecht – who once lived in that neighborhood – drove towards Skull Rock Trailhead, parked his car, attempted to contact a former friend, and walked up the trail. He then used his iPhone to take videos at a nearby hilltop area and listened to a rap song – to which he had listened repeatedly in previous days – whose music video included things being lit on fire.

At 12:12 a.m. on January 1, 2025, environmental sensing platforms indicated the Lachman Fire had begun. During the next five minutes, Rinderknecht called 911 several times, but didn’t get through because his iPhone was out of cellphone range. When he finally connected with 911, he was at the bottom of the hiking trail and reported the fire. By that point, a nearby resident already had reported the fire to authorities.

Rinderknecht then fled in his car, passing fire engines driving in the opposite direction. He then turned around and followed the fire engines to the scene, driving at a high rate of speed. Rinderknecht walked up the same trail from earlier that night to watch the fire and the firefighters. At approximately 1:02 a.m., he used his iPhone to take more videos of the scene. 

During an interview with law enforcement on January 24, 2025, Rinderknecht lied about where he was when he first saw the Lachman Fire. He claimed he was near the bottom of a hiking trail when he first saw the fire and called 911, but geolocation data from his iPhone carrier showed that he was standing in a clearing 30 feet from the fire as it rapidly grew.

A complaint contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court.

If convicted, Rinderknecht would face a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

ATF is investigating this matter, with substantial assistance from the Los Angeles Police Department and the United States Forest Service.

Assistant United States Attorneys Mark A. Williams, Matthew W. O’Brien, and Danbee C. Kim of the Environmental Crimes and Consumer Protection Section, and Assistant United States Attorney Laura A. Alexander of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section are prosecuting this case.

If you are a victim of the Palisades Fire, updates about this criminal case can be found on this website:

https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/united-states-v-jonathan-rinderknecht

LOS ANGELES – A wholesale clothing importer located in the Fashion District of downtown Los Angeles and two of its executives have been sentenced for avoiding the payment of more than $8 million in customs duties on imported clothing, and for running a scheme in which the company laundered money and failed to report on tax returns more than $17 million derived from cash transactions, the Justice Department announced today.

On late Monday, C’est Toi Jeans Inc. (CTJ), which imported apparel from China and other nations and exported clothing to customers in Mexico, Central America, and South America, was sentenced by United States District Judge Mark C. Scarsi to five years of probation and was ordered to submit to federal monitoring. Judge Scarsi also fined CTJ $11.5 million and ordered it to pay more than $15 million in restitution.

Si Oh Rhew, 71, of La Cañada Flintridge, CTJ’s president and a 75% owner of the company, was sentenced by Judge Scarsi to 103 months in federal prison, fined $8 million, and was ordered to pay more than $19 million in restitution.

Lance Rhew, 38, of downtown Los Angeles, Si Oh Rhew’s son, a CTJ corporate officer, and the owner of another Los Angeles-based company called GLLR Inc. that did business as CTJ, was sentenced to 84 months in federal prison, fined $500,000, and was ordered to pay restitution.

CTJ was a business owned by Si Oh Rhew and his wife that the Rhews operated. CTJ received U.S. currency in bulk cash that was derived from drug trafficking as payment for customer invoices. Those funds were delivered to CTJ by money couriers unrelated to and unknown to CTJ or to the customers whose invoices were being paid.

CTJ and Si Oh Rhew failed to file currency transaction reports, which are required for any transaction involving more than $10,000 in cash, and the defendants concealed the cash receipts from an accountant who prepared their taxes, which led to the fraudulent omission of more than $17 million in gross sales from tax returns filed with the IRS.

The defendants also avoided customs duties and tariffs by purchasing garments from overseas manufacturers, including from China, but then submitting false information to United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that understated the true value of the items being imported into the United States.

As a result, the import duties owed on the shipments were lowered. The indictment alleges that the defendants sent 515 individual wire transfers totaling $137,156,726 to pay overseas suppliers for undervalued garments. Overall, CTJ imported goods that were undervalued by more than $51 million, causing approximately $8.4 million in unpaid tariffs and duties that should have been paid to CBP.

At the conclusion of a six-week trial, CTJ and Si Oh Rhew were found guilty by a jury in October 2024 of two conspiracies and multiple counts of failure to file reports of currency transaction over $10,000 in a trade or business. All three defendants were found guilty of three counts of entry of falsely classified goods, three counts of entry of goods by means of false statements, three counts of passing false and fraudulent papers through a customhouse, and two counts of international promotional money laundering.

CTJ was found guilty of an additional two concealment money laundering counts involving drug proceeds. Si Oh Rhew was found guilty of an additional two counts of aiding, assisting, and procuring the filing of a false tax return. Lance Rhew was found guilty of one additional count of aiding, assisting, and procuring the filing of a false tax return. Lance Rhew was also found guilty of one conspiracy count.

The jury found the defendants not guilty of several additional criminal counts, including – for CTJ – two counts of concealment money laundering and – for Lance Rhew – several counts of failure to file a report of a currency transaction in a nonfinancial trade or business.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and IRS-Criminal Investigation. They were aided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Monterey Park Police Department, the El Segundo Police Department, the Long Beach Police Department, the Los Angeles Police Department, the Gardena Police Department, and the West Covina Police Department.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice 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.

The investigation was conducted by the HSI-led El Camino Real Financial Crimes Task Force, a multi-agency task force that includes federal and state investigators who are focused on financial crimes in Southern California.

Assistant United States Attorneys Lana Morton Owens of the Transnational Organized Crime Section and James E. Dochterman of the Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Section prosecuted this case.

LOS ANGELES – In the first affirmative lawsuit in support of gun owners, the Justice Department today filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) alleging a pattern and practice of infringing the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens seeking concealed carry weapons (CCW) permits.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division on March 27, 2025, initiated the first-of-its-kind Second Amendment investigation because of numerous complaints of unreasonable delays in CCW permitting decisions by LASD. After analysis of data and documents spanning more than 8,000 CCW permits, the Division today filed suit seeking relief on behalf of law-abiding applicants.

“Citizens living in high-crime areas cannot afford to wait to protect themselves with firearms while Los Angeles County dithers,” said Acting United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “The right to bear arms is among the founding principles of our nation. It can and must be upheld.”

“The Second Amendment is not a second-class right,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “This lawsuit seeks to stop Los Angeles County’s egregious pattern and practice of delaying law-abiding citizens from exercising their right to bear arms.”

Shortly after Assistant Attorney Harmeet K. Dhillon was sworn in to lead the Civil Rights Division, numerous complaints received by the Division revealed inexplicable delays well beyond California statutory requirements and in violation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.

Almost two months after receiving notice of the Division’s investigation, LASD provided data and documents that revealed only two approvals from more than 8,000 applications, and that LASD set out interviews to approve licenses as far as two years after receiving the completed application. The lawsuit was filed in United States District Court for the Central District of California.

This investigation was conducted by attorneys at the Civil Rights Division and Assistant U.S. Attorneys within the Central District of California’s U.S. Attorney Office.

If you or someone you know has applied for a concealed carry permit in Los Angeles or any jurisdiction within the United States and have not received a reply or decision within four months after applying, please email Community.2ndAmendmentCA@usdoj.gov. The mailbox is actively monitored by attorneys assigned to protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.

LOS ANGELES – Five members and associates of the San Fernando Valley-based Vanowen Street Locos and Elmwood Rifa 13 gangs were arrested today on federal criminal complaints – four of them charged with taking part in a murder-for-hire plot targeting an Armenian Organized Crime boss but which instead resulted in his significant other getting shot and wounded in front of their two young children earlier this year.

The defendants arrested today are:

• Carlos Armando Ochoa Grimaldi, 47, a.k.a. “Spanky,” of Sylmar;
• Christopher Ayala, 29, a.k.a. “Hits,” of Sylmar;
• Edir De La Cruz, 34, a.k.a. “Temper,” of Van Nuys; and
• Maria de Jesus Mares, 39, a.k.a. “Mary Oceans,” of Van Nuys.

Also arrested on a complaint today was Vanowen Street Locos gang member Jose de Jesus Gonzalez, Jr., 49, a.k.a. “Listo,” of Llano, who is separately charged in connection with the August 2023 shooting of Vahan Harutyunyan, 49, of Hollywood, Florida, who is now in federal custody on kidnapping charges. Approximately five firearms, a silencer, firearm parts, and over 1,000 rounds of ammunition were seized during the search warrant services.

Grimaldi, Ayala, De La Cruz, and Mares are charged with use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire. Gonzalez is charged with conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

The defendants are expected to make their initial appearances this afternoon in United States District Court in Los Angeles.

According to affidavits filed with the complaints, Armenian Organized Crime, a Russian Mafia and Mexican Mafia-affiliated transnational criminal organization, has made Los Angeles County a center of its U.S. operations. Since 2022, two local leaders within the organization, also known as avtoritet, which in Russian means “authority,” allegedly have engaged in a power struggle for control in their territory, resulting in multiple assaults, murder attempts, and a kidnapping.

Robert Amiryan, 47, of Hollywood, an avtoritet, has been the target of an assault and attempted murders ordered by a rival avtoritet, Ara Artuni, 41, of Porter Ranch. Amiryan and Artuni are in federal custody after being charged earlier this year with a series of crimes and are scheduled to go on trial in December 2025 and August 2026, respectively.

Artuni is principally charged with ordering the murder of Amiryan on multiple occasions in 2023. In retaliation, Amiryan conspired with members of his own criminal organization to kidnap and torture one of Artuni’s associates in June 2023.

In early 2025, Grimaldi, Ayala, De La Cruz, and others began stalking Amiryan and renewed efforts to kill him. For example, in February 2025, Ayala informed De La Cruz that he and others were still working “on th[e] job” to kill Amiryan.

On March 14, 2025, Grimaldi and Vahagn Stepanyan, 40, of Burbank, shot and wounded Amiryan’s significant other as she arrived home in her car with their two children. Stepanyan is currently in federal custody and is charged with racketeering, fraud, and firearms offenses.

After the shooting, Mares called De La Cruz and reported that the “job [was] done,” and Stepanyan would pay her $50,000 for her role as the getaway driver, according to court documents. In the days afterward, Mares told De La Cruz, that she believed she would not be getting paid because “it was the wife not him.” Stepanyan ultimately paid Mares a reduced rate because Amiryan was not killed.

A complaint contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court.

If convicted, the defendants would face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

The Los Angeles Police Department Major Crimes Division – Transnational Organized Crime Section; the Burbank Police Department; Homeland Security Investigation’s (HSI) Northridge and Ventura offices; the United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG); IRS Criminal Investigation; and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Lyndsi Allsop and Kenneth R. Carbajal of the Major Crimes Section and Tara B. Vavere of the Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Section are prosecuting this case. The Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Violent Crime and Racketeering Section provided substantial assistance.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice 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. 

LOS ANGELES – A Texas woman pleaded guilty today to fraudulently obtaining more than $28,000 in federal disaster relief money by falsely claiming that she was a Pasadena resident living in a property damaged by the Eaton Fire and to fraudulently obtaining more than $54,000 in jobless benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Joyce Turner, 57, of Rosharon, Texas, pleaded guilty to one count of fraud in connection with major disaster or emergency benefits and one count of mail fraud.

On January 7, 2025, the Eaton Fire ignited and burned through a residential area in Los Angeles County, killing 18 people and destroying more than 10,000 structures. A presidential disaster declaration was issued on January 8, making emergency federal financial assistance and benefits available to individuals and families affected by the Eaton Fire and to other wildfire victims in the Los Angeles area.

Victims who suffered losses because of the Eaton Fire, including renters who lost personal property and/or the use of their rental residences could qualify for benefits from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The benefits included money for home repair, personal property damage, transportation, medical expenses, and housing assistance.

According to her plea agreement, on January 10, Turner submitted a fraudulent disaster benefits application to FEMA, falsely claiming she lived in Pasadena in a rental property that had been damaged by the Eaton Fire. In fact, Turner did not live in California and did not qualify for the benefits.

FEMA, relying on Turner’s false and fraudulent claim, sent her $28,195 in wildfire disaster relief money.

Turner further admitted in her plea agreement that in August 2020 she submitted a fraudulent claim for California unemployment insurance falsely claiming she had been working in California and lost work because of the COVID-19 pandemic and was entitled to unemployment insurance benefits. Following this false and fraudulent claim, California’s Employment Development Department (EDD) provided Turner with $54,360 in jobless benefits to which she was not entitled – providing these benefits through a debit card mailed to Turner at an address in Los Angeles.

United States District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald scheduled a January 26, 2026, sentencing hearing, at which time Turner will face a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison for the disaster benefits fraud count and up to 20 years in federal prison for the mail fraud count. Turner remains free on bond.

The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Kerry L. Quinn of the Major Frauds Section is prosecuting this case.

LOS ANGELES – A former deputy and helicopter pilot with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) pleaded guilty today to federal conspiracy charges for helping a now-jailed, self-styled cryptocurrency businessman extort a rival and arrange the sham illegal drug possession arrest of another adversary in Paramount in 2021.

Michael David Coberg, 44, of Eastvale, pleaded guilty to a two-count information charging him with conspiracy to commit extortion and conspiracy against rights.

According to his plea agreement, Coberg – then employed as an LASD deputy and helicopter pilot – worked on the side with Adam Iza, 25, formerly of Beverly Hills and Newport Coast. Iza, a self-proclaimed “Godfather,” was engaged in fraudulent marketing and cryptocurrency schemes and has been in federal custody since September 2024. He has pleaded guilty to federal charges and awaits a December 15 sentencing date.

Coberg’s contract with Iza allowed him to work as a business partner and advisor, as opposed to simply working security shifts. Coberg and Iza at one point planned to start a business selling anabolic steroids. Iza paid Coberg at least $20,000 per month for his services.

        Participation in Extortion

In October 2021, Coberg accompanied other security guards to pick up a victim whose business partner was having a financial dispute with Iza. After transporting the victim – identified in court documents as “L.A.” – to Iza’s residence, Iza placed a firearm on the desk and displayed an assault rifle, which was placed on the ground near the desk.

Coberg informed the victim that he was an active-duty law enforcement officer and interrogated the victim about the financial dispute Iza had with L.A.’s business partner. While Coberg stood watch over the victim, Iza demanded – and recorded a video of – the victim transferring $127,000 to a bank account Iza controlled. Iza then directed his security guards to take away the victim’s passport and told them to drive the victim back to the victim’s hotel.

The next day, Coberg continued to interrogate the victim about the financial dispute and the location of the victim’s business partner. Later that day, Coberg took Iza and the victim to a shooting range in Iza’s residence and left the two individuals alone. Iza then held the victim at gunpoint and demanded the victim’s business partner transfer money to him, which the victim’s business partner did later that day. 

        False Traffic Stop and Arrest

In September 2021, Coberg conspired with Iza and others to lure another victim – identified in court documents as “R.C.” – from Miami to Los Angeles to set up the victim and cause him to be arrested with illegal narcotics. During the previous month, Coberg learned of a dispute between Iza and the victim and that Iza and two corrupt LASD deputies working for Iza forced the victim at gunpoint to transfer $25,000 from the victim’s bank account to an account Iza controlled.

Coberg and other co-conspirators set up a plan in which the victim’s ex-girlfriend called the victim and pretended to be interested in pursuing a romantic relationship to convince the victim to fly to Los Angeles to meet with her to use drugs together. At Coberg’s advice and counseling, the co-conspirator purchased the airplane ticket for the victim, picked him up at Los Angeles International Airport in a white Tesla, drove the victim to obtain drugs, and later traveled to a location in Paramount where an LASD deputy would make the traffic stop and arrest.

Christopher Michael Cadman, 33, of Fullerton, a corrupt LASD deputy who had participated in the intimidation of the victim in August 2021 resulting in the $25,000 payment to Iza, also helped set up the false arrest. Cadman pleaded guilty on August 7 to federal criminal charges and awaits sentencing in January 2026.

With Cadman’s assistance, Coberg lied to a fellow LASD deputy that a confidential informant was driving a white Tesla with an individual who had an outstanding arrest warrant and possessed illegal drugs. That deputy later conducted the traffic stop, searched the Tesla, found cocaine in the car and psilocybin mushrooms inside the victim’s backpack, and arrested the victim.

During the arrest, Coberg slowly drove past the scene in a black Cadillac Escalade SUV – with the window rolled down – as Iza watched from  the back passenger seat. Iza took videos and photographs of the victim’s arrest.

After the arrest, Coberg texted Cadman to thank him for facilitating the traffic stop and stated, “the kid enjoyed it,” referencing Iza. Iza later taunted the victim by sending him a photograph of the victim’s arrest in progress and the victim’s booking photo, and texting him, “[f]or a drug dealer, you [expletive] with the wrong people.”

United States District Judge Percy Anderson scheduled a February 17, 2026, sentencing hearing, at which time Coberg will face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison on the extortion-related count and up to 10 years in federal prison on the conspiracy against rights count.

The FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation are investigating this matter. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has provided assistance.

Assistant United States Attorney Maxwell K. Coll of the National Security Division is prosecuting this case.

LOS ANGELES – A federal grand jury has returned a two-count indictment charging three women – two from Southern California and one from Colorado – with following a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent home, livestreaming their pursuit and then posting the victim’s home address on Instagram, the Justice Department announced today. 

The grand jury on Tuesday and unsealed today charged following defendants with one count of conspiracy and one count of publicly disclosing the personal information of a federal agent:

• Cynthia Raygoza, 37, of Riverside;
• Ashleigh Brown, 38, of Aurora, Colorado; and
• Sandra Carmona Samane, 25, of Panaroma City.

Brown and Samane have been arrested on federal criminal complaints. Brown, who also is charged in a separate case with assault on a federal officer, is in federal custody without bond. Samane is free on $5,000 bond. Their arraignments are scheduled for September 29 and October 9, respectively. Law enforcement is continuing its search for Raygoza.

“Our brave federal agents put their lives on the line every day to keep our nation safe,” said Acting United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “The conduct of these defendants are deeply offensive to law enforcement officers and their families. If you threaten, dox, or harm in any manner one of our agents or employees, you will face prosecution and prison time.”

According to the indictment, on August 28, 2025, the defendants followed the victim – an ICE agent – from the Civic Center in downtown Los Angeles to his personal residence. The defendants livestreamed on their Instagram accounts their pursuit of the victim and provided directions as they followed the victim home, encouraging their viewers to share the livestream. Their Instagram accounts used to livestream the event were “ice_out_of_la,” “defendmesoamericanculture,” and “corn_maiden_design.”

Upon arriving at the victim’s personal residence, the defendants shouted to bystanders while livestreaming on Instagram that their “neighbor is ICE,” “la migra lives here,” and “ICE lives on your street and you should know.” 

The defendants publicly disclosed on Instagram the victim’s home address and told viewers, “Come on down.” 

An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.

If convicted, the defendants would face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for each count.

Homeland Security Investigations is investigating this matter. 

Assistant United States Attorneys Thi Hoang Ho and Neil P. Thakor of the General Crimes Section are prosecuting this case.

LOS ANGELES – The United States Attorney’s Office along with its federal law enforcement partners today announced the initial results of Operation Guardian Angel, a program that seeks to neutralize California’s sanctuary state policy and protect Americans from criminal illegal aliens incarcerated in county jails by issuing federal arrest warrants for them.

Since Operation Guardian Angel was launched in May 2025, 171 federal arrest warrants have been issued because of this program. A total of 73 criminal illegal aliens have been arrested at local jails. Law enforcement has arrested five criminal illegal aliens at county courthouses for a total of 78 arrests.

“This program’s initial results show that my office no longer stands idly by while criminal illegal aliens are released from city and county jails and onto our streets,” said Acting United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “California’s misguided sanctuary state laws and policies only protect criminal illegal aliens, which can no longer be tolerated.”

The Central District of California – comprised of the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura – is home to an estimated 1.5 million illegal aliens. Among this population are gang members and other dangerous felons.

The goal of Operation Guardian Angel is to neutralize California’s sanctuary state law and policies, which prevent local law enforcement from honoring administrative warrants from federal immigration authorities requesting that criminal illegal aliens be transferred into federal custody. 

The results of that misguided policy have been tragic. In February 2025, José Cristian Saravia-Sánchez, 30, of Mexico, shot and killed an Inglewood man who tried to stop him from stealing a catalytic converter. Despite the fact he was an illegal alien who had been convicted of vehicle theft, was removed from the United States in 2013, and had been arrested 11 times between June 2022 and August 2024, local law enforcement was prevented by state law from complying with an immigration detainer request.

On May 10, 2025, a 6-year-old boy died after his father, Briant Reyes Estrada, 27, an illegal alien from Mexico, left him in a parked car in Paso Robles during a heat wave. Estrada had been arrested two weeks earlier on unrelated state charges but was released from San Luis Obispo County jail and not turned over to United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) pursuant to SB 54, California sanctuary state law. The San Luis Obispo District Attorney’s Office has charged him with murder and willful harm to a child. Estrada also is charged via federal criminal complaint with visa fraud and would face up to 10 years in federal prison if convicted.

Operation Guardian Angel is but one step in the government’s continuing efforts to make America safe again. This program also is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice 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 (OCDETF) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).

LOS ANGELES – A Santa Monica man has been arrested on a federal criminal complaint charging him with doxxing – publishing private or identifying information about an individual on the internet with malicious intent – of a lawyer at United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Justice Department announced today.

Gregory John Curcio, 68, is charged with violating a federal law designed for the protection of individuals performing certain official duties.

Curcio, who was arrested Monday, made his initial appearance today in United States District Court in Los Angeles. A federal magistrate judge ordered Curcio jailed without bond and scheduled his arraignment for October 14.

“Contrary to what some misguided individuals think, doxxing federal agents and employees is not a harmless crime,” said Acting United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “It endangers the agent’s personal safety and that of their family. It’s also a federal crime. If convicted, this defendant will face up to five years in a federal prison cell.”

According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, federal law prohibits making certain personal information about covered persons – including federal employees – public. The restricted personal information includes a victim’s Social Security number, home address, home phone number, mobile phone number, and personal email address.

In February 2025, Curcio created a Facebook post in which he identified the victim – an ICE attorney – as an ICE agent, posted her home address, and directed others to “swat” her at that address. Curio also posted the victim’s home address with instructions to swat the victim on another social media account controlled by Curcio. 

“Swatting” is a term used to describe a form of harassment that often involves placing a false emergency call to law enforcement or emergency responders, often reporting a false ongoing crisis or crime at a specific location to prompt a significant law enforcement response.

The victim told authorities that Curcio is a former resident at her mother’s apartment building in Santa Monica. She said she never met Curcio, but he had harassed and threatened her mother for years. The complaint alleges that Curcio made false allegations and engaged in a campaign to harass the victim and her family beginning from at least January 2024. 

A criminal complaint contains allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

If convicted, Curcio would face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Responsibility is investigating this matter.  

Assistant United States Attorney Lauren E. Restrepo of the National Security Division is prosecuting this case.

The United States has filed a complaint under the False Claims Act in a lawsuit against Local Initiative Health Authority for Inland Empire Health Plan doing business as Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP), a California Local Initiative Health Plan based in Rancho Cucamonga, California. IEHP contracted with California’s Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to arrange for the provision of health care services to Riverside County and San Bernardino County residents under Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program. The government’s complaint alleges that IEHP violated the False Claims Act by making false statements to Medi-Cal and knowingly retaining overpayments.

“The Medicaid program provides critical health care services,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brenna Jenny of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “Today’s complaint demonstrates our continued commitment to protect the integrity of the Medicaid program, and the taxpayer dollars that support it, from health insurers that knowingly seek to divert program funds for their own financial benefit.”

“Today’s lawsuit against IEHP shows our steadfast commitment to hold accountable insurers that brazenly compromise the Medicaid system,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California. “We will take every measure to restore integrity and accountability to the Medicaid system and ensure that patient care – not financial gain – is the primary focus of our health care system.”

Beginning in January 2014, Medi-Cal was expanded to cover the previously uninsured “Medi-Cal Expansion” population: adults between the ages of 19 and 64 without dependent children with annual incomes up to 133% of the federal poverty level. The federal government fully funded the expansion coverage for the first three years of the program. Under its contractual arrangement with DHCS, IEHP received funding to serve the Medi-Cal Expansion population. If IEHP did not spend at least 85% of those funds on “allowed medical expenses,” IEHP was required to pay back to the state the difference between 85% and what it actually spent. California, in turn, was required to return that amount to the federal government.

The United States’ complaint alleges that IEHP developed schemes to misuse surplus Medi-Cal Expansion funding, falling into two broad categories: (1) sham incentive programs and (2) an extra-contractual retroactive rate increase. Through these schemes, IEHP misspent Medi-Cal Expansion funding for impermissible purposes, including spending on administrative expenses, other patient populations, and simply giving away federal funding in exchange for no value in return. The complaint further alleges that IEHP was motivated by a desire to conserve its other funding, thus enriching itself.

The complaint alleges that, to make the spending appear legitimate, IEHP deceived the state by making false statements — which it knew would be relayed to the federal government — about the nature, timing, and purpose of its payments to providers. For example, IEHP internally admitted it was giving providers “free money” but asserted to DHCS that the payments were part of a metric-based incentive program rewarding providers with good performance. IEHP also disguised payments for consultants and technology services as incentive payments by funneling those payments through providers and backdated spending to fall during earlier time periods. According to the United States’ complaint, those payments allegedly were not “allowed medical expenses” permissible under the contract between DHCS and IEHP.

The United States’ pursuit of this lawsuit illustrates the government’s emphasis on combating healthcare fraud. One of the most powerful tools in this effort is the False Claims Act. Tips and complaints from all sources about potential fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement can be reported to the Department of Health and Human Services, at 800‑HHS‑TIPS (800-447-8477). 

This case is being handled by the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch, Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, in coordination with the California Department of Justice and with valuable assistance from HHS-OIG and DHCS.  

The United States is represented in this matter by Fraud Section Trial Attorney Mary Beth Hickcox-Howard and Assistant U.S. Attorneys S. Desmond Jui and Jack D. Ross for the Central District of California.

The claims asserted in the complaint are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability.

LOS ANGELES – The United States has filed a complaint under the False Claims Act in a lawsuit against Local Initiative Health Authority for Inland Empire Health Plan doing business as Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP), a California Local Initiative Health Plan based in Rancho Cucamonga.

IEHP contracted with California’s Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to arrange for the provision of health care services to Riverside County and San Bernardino County residents under Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program.

The government’s complaint alleges that IEHP violated the False Claims Act by making false statements to Medi-Cal and knowingly retaining overpayments.

“Today’s lawsuit against IEHP shows our steadfast commitment to hold accountable insurers that brazenly compromise the Medicaid system,” said Acting United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “We will take every measure to restore integrity and accountability to the Medicaid system and ensure that patient care – not financial gain – is the primary focus of our health care system.”

“The Medicaid program provides critical health care services,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brenna Jenny of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “Today’s complaint demonstrates our continued commitment to protect the integrity of the Medicaid program, and the taxpayer dollars that support it, from health insurers that knowingly seek to divert program funds for their own financial benefit.”

Beginning in January 2014, Medi-Cal was expanded to cover the previously uninsured “Medi-Cal Expansion” population: adults between the ages of 19 and 64 without dependent children with annual incomes up to 133% of the federal poverty level. The federal government fully funded the expansion coverage for the first three years of the program. Under its contractual arrangement with DHCS, IEHP received funding to serve the Medi-Cal Expansion population.  If IEHP did not spend at least 85% of those funds on “allowed medical expenses,” IEHP was required to pay back to the state the difference between 85% and what it actually spent. California, in turn, was required to return that amount to the federal government.

The United States’ complaint alleges that IEHP developed schemes to misuse surplus Medi-Cal Expansion funding, falling into two broad categories: (1) sham incentive programs and (2) an extra-contractual retroactive rate increase. Through these schemes, IEHP misspent Medi-Cal Expansion funding for impermissible purposes, including spending on administrative expenses, other patient populations, and simply giving away federal funding in exchange for no value in return. The complaint further alleges that IEHP was motivated by a desire to conserve its other funding, thus enriching itself.

The complaint alleges that, to make the spending appear legitimate, IEHP deceived the state by making false statements—which it knew would be relayed to the federal government—about the nature, timing, and purpose of its payments to providers. For example, IEHP internally admitted it was giving providers “free money” but asserted to DHCS that the payments were part of a metric-based incentive program rewarding providers with good performance. IEHP also disguised payments for consultants and technology services as incentive payments by funneling those payments through providers and backdated spending to fall during earlier time periods. According to the United States’ complaint, those payments allegedly were not “allowed medical expenses” permissible under the contract between DHCS and IEHP.

The United States’ pursuit of this lawsuit illustrates the government’s emphasis on combating healthcare fraud. One of the most powerful tools in this effort is the False Claims Act. Tips and complaints from all sources about potential fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement can be reported to the Department of Health and Human Services, at 800 HHS TIPS (800-447-8477).

This case is being handled by the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch, Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, in coordination with the California Department of Justice and with valuable assistance from HHS-OIG and DHCS.

The United States is represented in this matter by Assistant United States Attorneys S. Desmond Jui and Jack D. Ross of the Civil Division’s Civil Fraud Section and Justice Department Fraud Section Trial Attorney Mary Beth Hickcox-Howard.

The claims asserted in the complaint are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability.

LOS ANGELES – Two San Fernando Valley men were arrested today on a federal criminal complaint charging them with running a Van Nuys-based company that exported hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of consumer electronics and gift cards, nearly all derived from criminal activities such as identity theft, credit card theft, and fraud.

Saman Delafraz, 32, of Woodland Hills, and Benjamin Daneshgar, 34, of Studio City, are charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering.

They are expected to make their initial appearances tomorrow in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles.

According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, Delafraz and Daneshgar owned and operated Wireless World, a company that operates from warehouses in Van Nuys and New Castle, Delaware. Wireless World uses these locations to aggregate electronics before shipping them out of the United States. Since 2019, Wireless World has exported more than $611 million in electronics from the United States, nearly all of which law enforcement believes to be crime proceeds.

In addition, and pursuant to federal warrants, the Van Nuys and Delaware warehouses and Delafraz’s residence were searched today, and Wireless World’s bank accounts were seized.

Delafraz and Daneshgar procured electronics and gift cards from many illicit sources, including Blade Bai, 37, of El Monte, who is serving a 15-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2023 of federal money laundering charges. Bai sold electronics and gift cards to Wireless World and those items were largely derived from telephone scams in which victims were duped into buying and providing gift cards numbers over the phone. Those gift cards then were used to buy electronics and laundered into new gift cards to conceal the source of the funds.

Juan Carlos Thola-Duran, 58, a.k.a. “Parcero,” of Canyon Country, also sold electronics and gift cards to Wireless World, which he provided the company from December 2018 to August 2024. Thola is in federal custody and charged in a separate federal criminal case with acting as a coordinator and fence for South American crime tourism groups and other individuals who obtained electronics and gift cards using illegal means, including stolen bank cards. Thola and several other defendants are scheduled to go to trial in January 2026.

Delafraz and Daneshgar also acquired electronics directly themselves through fraud. They bought electronics from Best Buy, The Home Depot, and other retailers using gift cards loaded with fraud proceeds – primarily via stolen credit cards. Those electronics often were shipped directly to the Wireless World warehouse or to mailboxes the defendants controlled.

A criminal complaint contains allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.    

If convicted, the defendants would face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI are investigating this matter. The Los Angeles Police Department, the Cobb County Police Department (Georgia) provided significant assistance.

Assistant United States Attorney Khaldoun Shobaki of the Terrorism and Export Crimes Section and Assistant United States Attorney Ryan J. Waters of the Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Section are prosecuting this case.

LOS ANGELES – A brother and sister from Rosarito, Mexico, have been sentenced to federal prison terms for their roles in a kidnapping and ransom scheme in which the brother pretended to act as an intermediary between the victim’s family and the kidnappers while his son and sister crossed the border into the United States to collect the ransom money, the Justice Department announced today.

Mario Alex Medina, 55, a.k.a. “Shyboy,” was sentenced Monday by United States District Judge Stephen V. Wilson to 25 years in federal prison and was ordered to pay $30,000 in restitution.

Judge Wilson on Monday also sentenced María Alejandra Medina, 52, a U.S. citizen living in Mexico, to eight years in federal prison and ordered her to pay $30,000 in restitution.

At the conclusion of a four-day trial in October 2024, a jury found both Medina siblings guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit hostage taking and one count of conspiracy to demand a ransom payment. The jury also found Mario Medina guilty of one count of making a foreign communication with intent to extort.

On November 5, 2022, Mario Medina directed and helped accomplices break into the house of a neighbor, identified in court documents as “R.V.,” kidnapping the victim at gunpoint, pistol whipping him and firing a gun near his head. The next day, one of the co-conspirators placed a ransom call to the victim’s family in Los Angeles County and demanded $70,000 for his release. The kidnappers, through WhatsApp, also sent a video of the victim being beaten.

On November 10, 2022, an accomplice called R.V.’s family and threatened to kill R.V. if his family did not pay $30,000. Later that day, Mario Medina – pretending to be an intermediary between R.V.’s family and the hostage takers – told the victim’s family to meet at a McDonald’s restaurant in San Ysidro, located north of the U.S.-Mexico border, to make the ransom payment.

José Salud Medina, 32, a.k.a. “Gordo,” who is Mario Medina’s son and María Medina’s nephew, and María Medina met the victim’s family the next day at the McDonald’s restaurant, collected the $30,000 ransom payment from the victim’s family, and took the money back to Mexico.

The hostage takers on November 11, 2022, then left R.V. tied up and alone in a small, subterranean trench, where Mexican law enforcement rescued him later that day.

José Salud Medina is in Mexican custody on unrelated charges. He is expected to be tried separately in this case, in which he is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit hostage taking, one count of conspiracy to demand a ransom payment, and one count of making a foreign communication with intent to extort.

The FBI investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Jena A. MacCabe and Derek R. Flores of the Major Crimes Section, and Michael J. Morse of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section prosecuted this case.

LOS ANGELES – Five defendants were arrested today on a 10-count federal superseding indictment alleging their participation in a multimillion-dollar drug trafficking organization (DTO) that used luxury private shipping companies to ship via air more than 20,000 kilograms (22.1 tons) of cocaine and more than $100 million in drug proceeds between Los Angeles and New York City.

Three defendants arrested today are expected to make their initial appearances this afternoon in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York:

• Jamel Donald Levy, 52, of Brooklyn, New York;
• Bruce Adams, 50, of Bronx, New York; and
• Cindy Rachel Imbert, 33, of Englewood, New Jersey.

Two other defendants arrested today are expected to make their initial appearances and be arraigned this afternoon in Los Angeles federal court:

• Nohely Jimenez-Ruiz, 30, of downtown Los Angeles; and
• Lorna Martinez, 42, a.k.a. “Cookie,” also of downtown Los Angeles.

Among the defendants currently in federal custody are the alleged ringleaders, David Rodriguez, 45, a.k.a. “Gotti” and “Fat Boy,” of Dumont, New Jersey, and Raymond O’Connell, 39, a.k.a. “Sal” and “White Boy,” of the Manhattan borough of New York City.  Rodriguez and O’Connell have been in federal custody since last year. Another defendant, Ronell Sweat, 47, of New York City, is serving a 15-year federal prison sentence after pleading guilty last year to a federal firearms charge.

Rodriguez and O’Connell are charged with one count of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine, four counts of distribution and possession with intent to distribute cocaine, one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, and one count of money laundering.  Eight other members of the DTO are charged in a superseding indictment returned on September 3. 

According to the superseding indictment, Rodriguez and O’Connell over several years directed the purchase and storage of bulk quantities of cocaine in Los Angeles, for distribution on the East Coast. From an office fronting as a jewelry store in the California Jewelry Mart in downtown Los Angeles, members of the DTO shipped locked plastic cases concealing cocaine to New York City’s Diamond District using high-value freight forwarding companies. These companies specialize in shipping jewelry, precious metals, and fine art.

The cocaine was then redistributed by co-conspirators along the East Coast. Rodriguez and O’Connell also directed the shipment of drug proceeds from New York to Los Angeles, where co-conspirators laundered the money and sent it to others inside the organization. 

Throughout this investigation, at least 1,300 parcels were shipped between Los Angeles and New York by the defendants’ DTO. More than 800 parcels concealing cocaine were shipped from Los Angeles to New York, with a declared weight of more than 22 tons, which would have an estimated wholesale value in Los Angeles of approximately $315 million. Approximately 500 parcels were shipped from New York to Los Angeles, with a total declared value of more than $105 million. 

During the investigation, law enforcement seized more than $2.8 million in cash drug proceeds and more than 725 kilograms (nearly 1,600 pounds) of cocaine, as well as high-end cars and jewelry that defendants purchased using drug proceeds.

Law enforcement is looking for Daniel Vega, 52, a.k.a. “Nice,” and Gregory Antonio Benitez, 40, a.k.a. “G.,” both of New York City.

An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.

If convicted, Rodriguez and O’Connell would face mandatory sentences of life in federal prison. The cocaine distribution charges carry a 10-year mandatory minimum prison sentence and a statutory maximum sentence of life imprisonment. The money laundering-related counts are punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, IRS Criminal Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI, and the United States Postal Inspection Service are investigating this matter with assistance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the United States Marshals Service, the California Department of Justice, California Highway Patrol, and the Glendale Police Department as well the DEA New York Drug Enforcement Task Force, comprised of special agents from the New York Division, the New York City Police Department, and the New York State Police. 

This investigation was led by the Southern California Drug Task Force (SCDTF), a DEA-led multi-agency task force within the Los Angeles High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Program.

Assistant United States Attorneys Kelly Larocque and Jenna Williams of the Transnational Organized Crime Section and Victor Rodgers of the Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Section are prosecuting this case.

LOS ANGELES – A San Diego man pleaded guilty today to federal criminal charges and admitted that he twice illegally landed a small airplane on a United States Navy airstrip on San Clemente Island, then stole a Navy truck and used it to damage gates on the island, causing thousands of dollars in damage. 

Andrew Kyle White, 37, pleaded guilty to one felony count of theft of government property in excess of $1,000 and one misdemeanor count of illegal entry into a naval installation. White has been in federal custody after he violated the terms of his bond by cutting off his ankle bracelet earlier this year.

San Clemente Island is owned and operated by the U.S. Navy and is part of Naval Base Coronado. According to White’s plea agreement, White knew it was illegal to travel to or access San Clemente Island without first obtaining permission from the Navy or a government official with authority to grant such access.

On October 29, 2023, White flew a Glastar airplane to San Clemente Island and landed the plane on a U.S. Navy airstrip without the Navy’s permission. At the time, White received, acknowledged, and signed a letter that notified him that it was a federal crime to travel to San Clemente Island without the Navy’s permission and instructed him not to return to the island.

On April 6, 2025, White again flew the Glastar airplane to San Clemente Island and landed it on a naval airstrip without permission. While on the island, White stole a white Ford F-150 truck worth approximately $16,000 and which was the property of the U.S. Navy.

After stealing the truck, White drove it to various locations on San Clemente Island, including locations that were blocked by locked gates. To gain access to those locations, White used the truck to damage the gates, causing approximately $8,077 in damages and costs to tow the truck.

Navy officials estimate that White’s intrusion onto the base cost nearly 500 man-hours and resulted in a $500,000 loss to the American taxpayer.

“Whatever [White’s] intentions were, the military did not know them; they responded as one might expect the military to respond to an unknown threat: they assumed the worst,” prosecutors argued in court documents. “The island went on a complete lockdown. Personnel engaged in a highly dangerous mission to locate the unknown intruder(s) notwithstanding the dangers they were exposing themselves too, from the weather, the terrain, and the potential unexploded ordnances that could have been underfoot in that area.”

United States District Judge Otis D. Wright II scheduled a September 29 sentencing hearing, at which time White will face a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison for theft of government property and up to six months in federal prison for illegally entering a naval installation.

United States Attorney’s Office Investigators investigated this matter with assistance from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the FBI, the U.S. Navy Security Forces, and the San Diego Police Department.

Assistant United States Attorneys Frances S. Lewis of the General Crimes Section and Ian V. Yanniello of the Terrorism and Export Crimes Section are prosecuting this case.

LOS ANGELES – Two identical twin brothers and MRI technicians have been arrested on a 10-count federal grand jury indictment charging them with deliberately failing to report to the IRS more than $1.1 million in income, including money they made from running a golf tee-time brokering business on the side, the Justice Department announced today. 

Se Youn “Steve” Kim, 41, of Buena Park, is charged with two counts of tax evasion, one count of making and subscribing to a false tax document, and two counts of willful failure to pay tax.

Hee Youn “Ted” Kim, 41, of Pomona, is charged with two counts of tax evasion, in addition to three counts of willful failure to pay tax.

The Kim brothers were arrested Thursday morning and were arraigned late Thursday afternoon in United States District Court in Los Angeles. Both defendants pleaded not guilty, and a November 4 trial date was scheduled. A federal magistrate ordered both defendants released on $20,000 bond.

According to the indictment that was unsealed Thursday, between 2021 and 2023, the Kim brothers operated a golf tee time brokering business in which they reserved golf tee times online, including at public golf courses, and resold them to members of the public for a fee, frequently in violation of municipal regulations. The brothers marketed, solicited, and communicated with their customers through various social medial platforms, including KakaoTalk, an instant messaging application.

As part of their business, the brothers reserved thousands of tee times for resale at numerous golf courses nationwide, including at least 17 different public courses across Southern California. The brothers created a monopoly of Los Angeles and Orange County area golf course tee times by securing the most sought-after early morning slots, often within seconds of their release to the public. As a result, the brothers made it more difficult and more expensive for members of the public to reserve tee times at these courses without paying them an additional booking fee, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Kim brothers often directed their golf tee time clients to pay these reservation fees to their personal accounts, including Venmo and Zelle accounts, and then transferred those funds into their personal bank accounts.

In June 2022, Steve Kim incorporated Birdie Tour Inc., a Buena Park-based company, and served as its CEO and chief financial officer, while Ted Kim was its secretary. The brothers obtained an employer identification number from the IRS and opened a bank account in the business’s name.

In total, between 2021 and 2023, the Kim brothers earned nearly $700,000 from their tee time brokering business. Despite earning substantial income and owing taxes from this business, and from their job as MRI technicians, the brothers willfully failed to report a combined total of more than $1.1 million in income to the IRS for tax years 2022 and 2023.

The Kim brothers also accumulated substantial tax liabilities by failing to pay taxes assessed. Rather than using their available funds to pay off their outstanding tax balance, the Kim brothers spent their money on a timeshare in Hawaii, luxury vehicles, and high-end retail purchases from brands such as Chanel, Cartier, Louis Vuitton, and Prada, among other things.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

If convicted, Steve Kim and Ted Kim would face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for each tax evasion count, and up to one year in prison for each count of willful failure to pay tax. If convicted, Steve Kim faces a statutory maximum sentence of three years in federal prison for making and subscribing to a false tax document.

IRS Criminal Investigation is investigating this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Solomon Kim of the Major Frauds Section is prosecuting this case.

WASHINGTON – James Styner, 20, of Garden Grove, California, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to 14 years in prison after admitting to the online exploitation of at least a dozen girls, ranging in age from 12- to 17-years-old, in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.

            Styner pleaded guilty before Judge Beryl A. Howell. on March 28, 2025, to one count of coercion and enticement of a minor, to one count of distribution of child pornography, and to three counts of receipt of child pornography. In addition to the 14-year prison term, Judge Howell ordered Styner to serve seven years of supervised release.

            “No man will be allowed to exploit, harm and victimize children under my watch,” said U.S. Attorney Pirro. “They will be hunted down, prosecuted and then face the full weight of justice. Whether you are behind a screen or behind closed doors—we will find you and convict you.”

            According to court documents, beginning at the age of 17 and continuing until the time of his arrest at the age of 19, Styner engaged in a pervasive online campaign to manipulate and exploit vulnerable girls for his own sexual satisfaction. He participated in approximately 45 chat conversations over Discord in which he demanded self-produced sexually explicit material from the individuals on the other end, many of them being underage girls.

            His conduct included in-person sexual relationships with at least two minor girls. He also frequently sent explicit images of his own genitalia to his minor victims and distributed self-produced child pornography to others, including minors.

            As part of his plea agreement, Styner admitted to conduct involving a total of 12 minor victims, all of whom were identified. He also admitted that he had engaged in similar conduct with other unidentified individuals.

            This case was investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department-Federal Bureau of Investigation (MPD-FBI) Child Exploitation Task Force with substantial assistance from the West Covina (California) Police Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Janani Iyengar and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jocelyn Bond for the District of Columbia.

            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.

24cr171

SANTA ANA, California – An Orange County man who was the founder and CEO of a private equity fund has been charged with defrauding hundreds of investors out of approximately $62.5 million via a promissory note scam involving real estate, Broadway shows, and cryptocurrency, the Justice Department announced today.

Marco Giovanni Santarelli, 56, of Laguna Niguel, is charged with one count of wire fraud. He is scheduled to make his initial appearance on October 20 in United States District Court in Santa Ana.

According to an information filed Monday, Santarelli founded and was the CEO of Norada Capital Management (NCM), a Laguna Niguel-based private equity fund. From June 2020 to June 2024, Santarelli solicited hundreds of investors nationwide to invest in unsecured promissory notes ranging from $25,000 to $500,000. He promised via marketing a high-yield monthly interest rate – approximately 12% to 15% – over three to seven years. 

Santarelli told investors they would receive monthly interest payments from income generated from five categories of businesses in which NCM would invest their money, including e-commerce, real estate, Broadway shows, and cryptocurrency.

Via webinars, Santarelli promised that the notes were backed by diversified assets under management and offered steady, predictable monthly returns. He further promised that NCM was to be a “hands-off passive investment,” perfect for retirement funds, according to the information.

Santarelli also provided balance sheets to investors listing the status of the assets, liabilities, and equity of NCM to the note holders, which listed the total asset value between $143.3 million and $224 million. 

In fact, NCM did not pay the promised returns and interest payments. Instead, the fund invested in risky assets that did not provide the promised safety and security, was unprofitable, had very little return on investment, and a large amount of debt. The balance sheets sent to investors hid more than $90 million in debt and included inflated assets. In Ponzi-scheme fashion, Santarelli made interest payments to investors using other investors’ money.

In total, Santarelli caused more than 500 investors to lose approximately $62.5 million.

An information contains allegations. Every defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

If convicted, Santarelli would face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI are investigating this matter with assistance from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Federal law enforcement has seized more than $5 million in proceeds connected to this scheme and continues to look for additional assets.

Chief Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer L. Waier is prosecuting this case.

LOS ANGELES – A San Gabriel Valley man was sentenced today to 51 months in federal prison for his role in laundering more than $36.9 million from victims in an international digital asset investment scam conspiracy that was carried out from scam centers in Cambodia.

Shengsheng He, 39, of La Puente, was sentenced by United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner, who also ordered him to pay $26,867,242 in restitution.

He pleaded guilty on April 10 to one count of conspiracy to operate an illegal money transmitting business.

“This defendant will spend years in federal prison for participating in a conspiracy in which victims lost tens of millions of dollars, starting with the simple step of responding to unsolicited messages on their phones,” said Acting United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “The public should always remember to be vigilant and wary of strangers marketing promising investment opportunities. Your retirement fund or children’s college money may depend on it.”

“The defendant was part of a group of co-conspirators that preyed on American investors by promising them high returns on supposed digital asset investments when, in fact, they stole nearly $37 million from U.S. victims using Cambodian scam centers,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Foreign scam centers, purporting to offer investments in digital assets have, unfortunately, proliferated. The Criminal Division is committed to bringing to justice those that steal from American investors, wherever the fraudsters may be located.”

According to court documents, He was part of an international criminal network that induced U.S. victims to transfer funds to accounts controlled by co-conspirators who then laundered victim money through U.S. shell companies, international bank accounts, and digital asset wallets.

As part of the conspiracy, co-conspirators residing overseas would contact U.S. victims directly through unsolicited social media interactions, telephone calls, text messages, and online dating services to gain the victims’ trust. The co-conspirators then promoted fraudulent digital asset investments to the victims. Scammers would tell victims that their investments were appreciating in value when, in fact, the funds the victims sent to the scammers had been stolen. More than $36.9 million in victim funds were transferred from U.S. bank accounts controlled by the co-conspirators to a single account at Deltec Bank in the Bahamas, opened in the name of Axis Digital Limited. He and other co-conspirators directed Deltec Bank to convert victim funds to the stablecoin Tether (USDT) and to transfer the converted funds to a digital asset wallet controlled by individuals in Cambodia. From there, co-conspirators in Cambodia transferred the USDT to the leaders of scam centers throughout the region including in Sihanoukville, Cambodia.

Eight co-conspirators have pleaded guilty so far, including Daren Li, a national of China and St. Kitts and Nevis who has been in U.S. custody since April 2024, and Lu Zhang, a Chinese national illegally in the United States who managed a network of U.S.-based money launderers. Li and Zhang each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on Nov.12, 2024, and May 13, 2024, respectively.

He co-founded Axis Digital with defendant Jose Somarriba. Chinese national Jingliang Su joined Axis Digital as a director and participated in the digital asset conversions and transfers of victim funds. Somarriba and Su each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business on April 14, and June 9, respectively.

The United States Secret Service’s Global Investigative Operations Center is investigating the case. The Homeland Security Investigations’ El Camino Real Financial Crimes Task Force, Customs and Border Protection’s National Targeting Center, U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, Dominican National Police, and U.S. Marshals Service provided valuable assistance.

Assistant United States Attorneys Maxwell Coll and Alexander Gorin of the Terrorism and Export Crimes Section, Nisha Chandran of the Major Frauds Section, and Trial Attorney Stefanie Schwartz of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) and Tamara Livshiz of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted this case.

CCIPS investigates and prosecutes cybercrime in coordination with domestic and international law enforcement agencies, often with assistance from the private sector. Since 2020, CCIPS has secured the conviction of more than 180 cybercriminals, and court orders for the return of more than $350 million in victim funds.

If you or someone you know is a victim of a digital asset investment fraud, report it to IC3.gov. 

LOS ANGELES – A former United States Postal Service letter carrier from Orange County was sentenced today to 66 months in federal prison for stealing from the mail more than $10 million in Treasury and other checks over a four-year span.

Rashad Deon Stolden, 34, of Huntington Beach, was sentenced by United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner, who also ordered him to pay $1,627,291 in restitution.

Stolden pleaded guilty on April 14 to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Stolden worked at the Bicentennial Post Office, located in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles.

According to his plea agreement and court documents previously filed in this case, from 2020 through August 2024, Stolden stole mail containing large value checks, as well as debit cards from the California Employment Development Department (EDD), which manages the state’s unemployment insurance program.

Stolden worked alongside another letter carrier and friends, Charlie Green, 37, of the Wellington Heights area of East Los Angeles, who is scheduled for sentencing on September 14. Stolden and Green sold the checks they stole to co-conspirators who then used counterfeit identity documents to negotiate them. Stolden and his co-conspirators purchased the identifying information of victims so that they could activate their stolen EDD cards.

In June 2022, Stolden stole a $7.3 million Treasury check. He then sold the check to a co-conspirator, who negotiated it at a bank in Tennessee, writing him, “I need you man,” “I’m trying to retire,” according to court documents. The co-conspirator was able to withdraw more than $1 million from the deposit of this check.

Some of Stolden’s co-conspirators have been prosecuted in separate court proceedings. Both Stolden and Green remain free on $50,000 bond.

“Nowhere in [Stolden’s] voluminous communications throughout this conspiracy did he express any empathy for his victims even as he stole their EDD cards containing their disability and unemployment benefits,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “[Stolden] seemed to think only of his own profits, trying to decide whether he should use his thefts to pay for a $13,000 hotel stay in Bora Bora, or if he should upgrade to a $20,000 stay in the Presidential Villa at the Conrad.”

The United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General; the United States Postal Inspection Service; the U.S. Department of Treasury for Tax Administration; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; and the Coast Guard Investigative Services investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Andrew Brown of the Major Frauds Section prosecuted this case.

A California man was sentenced today to 51 months in federal prison for his role in laundering more than $36.9 million from victims in an international digital asset investment scam conspiracy that was carried out from scam centers in Cambodia. The court also ordered him to pay $26,867,242.44 in restitution to victims.

“The defendant was part of a group of co-conspirators that preyed on American investors by promising them high returns on supposed digital asset investments when, in fact, they stole nearly $37 million from U.S. victims using Cambodian scam centers,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Foreign scam centers, purporting to offer investments in digital assets have, unfortunately, proliferated.  The Criminal Division is committed to bringing to justice those that steal from American investors, wherever the fraudsters may be located.”

“This defendant will spend years in federal prison for participating in a conspiracy in which victims lost tens of millions of dollars, starting with the simple step of responding to unsolicited messages on their phones,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California. “The public should always remember to be vigilant and wary of strangers marketing promising investment opportunities. Your retirement fund or children’s college money may depend on it.”

Shengsheng He, 39, of La Puente, California, a former co-owner of the Bahamas-based Axis Digital Limited, pleaded guilty in the Central District of California to conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business on April 10. 

According to court documents, He was part of an international criminal network that induced U.S. victims to transfer funds to accounts controlled by co-conspirators who then laundered victim money through U.S. shell companies, international bank accounts, and digital asset wallets.

As part of the conspiracy, co-conspirators residing overseas would contact U.S. victims directly through unsolicited social media interactions, telephone calls, text messages, and online dating services to gain the victims’ trust. The co-conspirators then promoted fraudulent digital asset investments to the victims. Scammers would tell victims that their investments were appreciating in value when, in fact, the funds the victims sent to the scammers had been stolen. More than $36.9 million in victim funds were transferred from U.S. bank accounts controlled by the co-conspirators to a single account at Deltec Bank in the Bahamas, opened in the name of Axis Digital Limited. He and other co-conspirators directed Deltec Bank to convert victim funds to the stablecoin Tether (USDT) and to transfer the converted funds to a digital asset wallet controlled by individuals in Cambodia. From there, co-conspirators in Cambodia transferred the USDT to the leaders of scam centers throughout the region including in Sihanoukville, Cambodia.

Eight co-conspirators have pleaded guilty so far, including Daren Li, a national of China and St. Kitts and Nevis who has been in U.S. custody since April 2024, and Lu Zhang, a Chinese national illegally in the United States who managed a network of U.S.-based money launderers. Li and Zhang each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on Nov.12, 2024, and May 13, 2024, respectively.

He co-founded Axis Digital with defendant Jose Somarriba. Chinese national Jingliang Su joined Axis Digital as a director and participated in the digital asset conversions and transfers of victim funds. Somarriba and Su each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business on April 14, and June 9, respectively.

USSS’s Global Investigative Operations Center is investigating the case. The Homeland Security Investigations’ El Camino Real Financial Crimes Task Force, Customs and Border Protection’s National Targeting Center, U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, Dominican National Police, and U.S. Marshals Service provided valuable assistance.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Maxwell Coll and Alexander Gorin of the Terrorism and Export Crimes Section, Nisha Chandran of the Major Frauds Section, and Trial Attorney Stefanie Schwartz of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) and Tamara Livshiz of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted this case.

CCIPS investigates and prosecutes cybercrime in coordination with domestic and international law enforcement agencies, often with assistance from the private sector. Since 2020, CCIPS has secured the conviction of over 180 cybercriminals, and court orders for the return of over $350 million in victim funds.

If you or someone you know is a victim of a digital asset investment fraud, report it to IC3.gov. 

LOS ANGELES – A Maryland man pleaded guilty today to leading a long-running scheme in which dozens of medical doctors’ personal information was stolen and then used to create fraudulent e-prescribing accounts, which his accomplices then used to issue thousands of fraudulent prescriptions of controlled substances. 

Benjamin Jamal Washington, 25, of Hyattsville, Maryland, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft, and one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. Washington remains in federal custody.

According to his plea agreement, from September 2020 to May 2023, Washington and his co-conspirators obtained personal identifying information (PII) belonging to dozens of doctors, including their names, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers, National Provider Identification number, and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Registration Numbers. 

After obtaining this information, the co-conspirators impersonated the victims by obtaining fake drivers’ licenses in their names. They also paid corrupt telephone company employees to perform illegal subscriber identity module (SIM) swaps – fraudulently inducing a phone carrier to reassign a cell phone number from the legitimate subscriber to a phone controlled by the co-conspirators – to gain access to the physicians’ phone numbers.

Washington and his co-conspirators then used the fraudulent drivers’ licenses and the stolen phone numbers to open fraudulent e-prescribing accounts in the physicians’ names. At least one co-conspirator spoke with a pharmacy technician to understand the patterns and practices of physicians submitting e-prescriptions so Washington and his co-conspirators could avoid detection and issue more fraudulent prescriptions.

Once the co-conspirators opened the fraudulent e-prescribing accounts, Washington and others used the accounts to submit at least 5,600 fraudulent prescriptions of controlled substances, including illegal prescriptions of oxycodone and promethazine with codeine.

The co-conspirators then traveled to pharmacies across the United States, including pharmacies within the Los Angeles area, to pick up the illegally prescribed controlled substances, which they sold for a significant profit.

United States District Judge Wesley L. Hsu scheduled a January 13, 2026, sentencing hearing, at which time Washington will face a statutory maximum sentence of 42 years in federal prison, including a mandatory two-year consecutive prison sentence for the aggravated identity theft count.

The FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration investigated this matter. 

Assistant United States Attorneys Ian V. Yanniello of the Terrorism and Export Crimes Section, Elizabeth S.P. Douglas of the Major Frauds Section, and Matthew J. Tako of the Domestic Security and Immigration Crimes Section are prosecuting this case.

LOS ANGELES – An Antelope Valley man was found guilty by a jury today of shooting a victim to death during a marijuana deal in Inglewood in 2021.

Leandrew Raglin, 22, of Lancaster, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery (Hobbs Act), one count of Hobbs Act robbery, and one count of possessing, using, carrying, brandishing, and discharging a firearm in furtherance of, and one count of use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, resulting in death constituting murder.

According to evidence presented at an eight-day trial, Raglin and co-defendants Mateo Paul, 23, of Long Beach, Iysis Elanore Smith, 22, of Inglewood, agreed to rob a marijuana dealer at gunpoint. They devised a plan to lure the dealer via a social media application to a meeting location, where they would ambush him at gunpoint and steal his marijuana.

On March 15, 2021, Smith approached the vehicle occupied by the victim. While Smith distracted the victim, Paul and Raglin parked behind the victim’s vehicle. Raglin then exited the vehicle Paul was driving, approached the passenger side of the victim’s car and opened fire, repeatedly wounding the victim in the passenger seat. Raglin then walked around to the driver’s side of the vehicle and opened fire, fatally wounding the victim in the driver’s seat of the vehicle.

United States District Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha scheduled a March 13, 2026, sentencing hearing, at which time Raglin, who has been in federal custody since October 2023, will face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Paul pleaded guilty on February 18 to one count of interference with commerce by robbery (Hobbs Act) and one count of brandishing and discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. Paul, who has been in custody since November 2023, is scheduled to be sentenced on September 26. Smith also has pleaded guilty to felony robbery charges in this case.

Both Paul and Smith face potential sentences of life in federal prison.

The FBI and the Inglewood Police Department investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Chelsea Norell of the Major Crimes Section and Gregg Marmaro of the Major Frauds Section are prosecuting this case.

LOS ANGELES – The United States filed two lawsuits today seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages against Southern California Edison Co. (SCE), alleging the company’s negligence caused the deadly Eaton and Fairview fires, which burned tens of thousands of acres of National Forest System lands, killed a total of 21 people, and destroyed thousands of buildings.

“The lawsuits filed today allege a troubling pattern of negligence resulting in death, destruction, and tens of millions of federal taxpayer dollars spent to clean up one utility company’s mistakes,” said Acting United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “We hope that today’s filings are the first step in causing the beginnings of a culture change at Southern California Edison, one that will make it a responsible, conscientious company that helps – not harms – our community. Hardworking Californians should not pick up the tab for Edison’s negligence.”

         Eaton Fire

On January 7, 2025, the Eaton Fire ignited on or near National Forest Systems lands within the Angeles National Forest in Los Angeles County. The fire ignited from faulty power infrastructure owned, maintained, and operated by SCE.

The Eaton Fire burned nearly 8,000 acres of land in the Angeles National Forest, destroying or damaging Forest Service roads, trails, campgrounds, and other facilities. Miles of recreational trails visited by hundreds of thousands of people per year were closed because of the fire, which also impacted water quality in the burn area and beyond.

In addition to the national forest, the Eaton Fire killed 18 people and burned more than 10,000 structures. 

SCE stated that it operates transmission towers in the Eaton Canyon area where the fire appears to have ignited. SCE admitted that it detected a “fault” on one of its transmission lines around the time that the Eaton Fire started, according to the lawsuit. SCE negligently failed to properly maintain its power and transmission lines and infrastructure in the area where the Eaton Fire ignited. In a July 31 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, SCE reported that it was “not aware of evidence pointing to another possible source of ignition.”

The United States Forest Service incurred millions of dollars in costs to suppress the Eaton Fire. The United States seeks more than $40 million in damages. Those damages include, but are not limited to fire suppression costs, rehabilitation of burned areas, and other environmental damages.

         Fairview Fire

On September 5, 2022, a sagging power line owned, maintained and operated by SoCal Edison came into contact with a Frontier communications messenger cable, creating sparks that ignited vegetation below the lines in Hemet. 

The Fairview Fire burned nearly 14,000 acres within the San Bernardino National Forest. Forest Service roads were destroyed or damaged by the fire. The roads also were put at risk from falling rocks, debris slides, debris flows, and hyper-concentrated floods. 

The Red Mountain Lookout, a facility used for fire detection in the forest’s remote areas was destroyed. The fire’s effects have been, and will continue to be, detrimental to wildlife and habitats, including federally protected threatened and endangered species.

In addition to the damage caused to the national forest, the fire burned 44 structures, claimed two lives, and injured three people – including two firefighters.

The lawsuit alleges that SCE failed to properly maintain its power and transmission lines in or around the area where the Fairview Fire ignited. It also failed to ensure the minimum clearance between its power lines and the Frontier Communications messenger cable in the area where the fire ignited.

The United States is seeking to recover approximately $37 million in damages incurred by the Forest Service, including approximately $20 million in fire suppression costs.

Assistant United States Attorney Paul Bart Green of the Complex and Defensive Litigation Section is handling the Eaton Fire lawsuit. Assistant United States Attorney Margaret M. Chen, also of the Complex and Defensive Litigation Section, is handling the Fairview Fire lawsuit.

LOS ANGELES – A federal grand jury today indicted a professor at California State University Channel Islands who is charged with throwing a tear gas canister at federal agents executing a search warrant at a marijuana farm in Camarillo this summer. 

Jonathan Caravello, 37, of Ventura, is charged with one count of assault on a federal officer using a deadly or dangerous weapon.

Caravello, who is free on $15,000 bond, is expected to be arraigned in the coming weeks in United States District Court in Los Angeles.

According to the first superseding indictment and court documents previously filed in this case, on July 10, federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and United States Border Patrol executed a high-risk search warrant at a marijuana farm sitting on a 160-acre property in Camarillo. A group of protesters gathered near law enforcement personnel around the farm’s entrance and used their bodies and their vehicles to impede law enforcement from exiting the location.

Later, protesters became violent, throwing rocks at the government vehicles attempting to depart the location because of the danger and to provide security to a detainee who had been hospitalized. The thrown rocks broke windows and side-view mirrors, among other damage to the vehicles.

For agents’ safety, law enforcement deployed tear gas among the protesters to assist with crowd control, ensure officer safety, and to allow law enforcement to depart the location. Border Patrol agents rolled tear gas canisters by protesters’ feet and Caravello ran up to one of the canisters and attempted to kick it. After the canister rolled past him, Caravello turned around, ran towards the canister, picked it up, and threw it overhand back at Border Patrol agents. 

Border Patrol agents eventually arrested Caravello, who continuously kicked his legs and refused to give agents his arms during the arrest.

An indictment contains allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.    

If convicted, Caravello would face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

HSI is investigating this matter.

The Major Frauds Section is prosecuting this case.

LOS ANGELES – Two Chinese nationals living in Riverside County pleaded guilty today to participating in a large-scale, trans-Pacific scheme to defraud Apple Inc. through the fraudulent “returns” of thousands of counterfeit iPhones, iPads, and other Apple goods that caused the Cupertino-based technology company at least $16.2 million in losses. 

Yushan Lin, 31, and Shuyi Xing, 35, both of Corona, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud. Xing also pleaded guilty to an additional count of conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection with a separate money laundering scheme involving the laundering of more than $1 million in funds from various elder fraud schemes. Lin and Xing are the last of the five defendants charged in this case, and six defendants total, to plead guilty to federal criminal charges arising from their massive counterfeit Apple device fraud scheme in Southern California.

The four other defendants who have also pleaded guilty and await sentencing are:

• Wenhui Huang, 40, of Chino Hills, the group’s ringleader, who is an illegal alien;
• Yang Song, 38, of Corona, the group’s second-in-command;
• Junwei Jiang, 38, of East Los Angeles; and
• Zhengxuan Hu, 27, of Alhambra, who is an illegal alien.

According to Lin’s and Xing’s plea agreements, from at least December 2015 to March 2024, Huang, Song, and others coordinated with co-conspirators in China to smuggle counterfeit Apple iPhones, iPads, and other devices to them and other U.S.-based co-conspirators. The counterfeit Apple devices smuggled to Huang, Song, and others in the U.S. were designed to look like genuine Apple devices and included identification numbers matching the numbers on real Apple products that had been sold in North America, were owned by real people, and were under warranty through Apple’s manufacturer warranty and AppleCare+, Apple’s extended warranty program.  The real identification numbers and serial numbers on the counterfeit devices that defendants returned were designed to essentially impersonate the real Apple devices owned by real people throughout the United States – and therefore deceived Apple into replacing the counterfeit devices with real devices under Apple’s warranty programs.

Once the counterfeit devices were smuggled into the U.S., the defendants fraudulently returned the counterfeit iPhones, iPads, and other devices to Apple as if they were genuine and had been legitimately purchased, were eligible for Apple’s warranty programs, and as if they were the lawful possessor of the Apple devices. The defendants knowingly and fraudulently represented that the counterfeit Apple devices they returned were genuine but were broken or non-operational and were covered by the company’s warranty programs. Some of the false reasons given to Apple store employees were because the devices purportedly would not power on, were physically damaged, or had other defects. But the defendants knew that the Apple devices they were returning were counterfeit and fraudulently used the identification numbers and serial numbers of real people’s Apple devices to victimize both Apple and the device owners.

As part of the scheme, the defendants visited multiple Apple stores throughout Southern California, including stores in Beverly Hills, Sherman Oaks, Pasadena, Irvine, Northridge, Manhattan Beach, Brea, Rancho Cucamonga, Cerritos and at shopping malls such as The Grove in Los Angeles, South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Fashion Island in Newport Beach, and The Americana at Brand in Glendale. In many cases, they visited as many as 10 different Apple stores where they would allegedly return counterfeit devices.

Once at the Apple stores, Apple employees either replaced or repaired the counterfeit Apple device with a genuine Apple device in the same visit or, on other occasions, took the defendants’ counterfeit devices and shipped them to a repair center. Apple then shipped to the defendants a genuine replacement Apple device or a repaired device to either an Apple store, where the defendants returned to pick up the new device, or at the dozens of mailboxes at UPS Stores that the defendants rented across Southern California to receive counterfeit devices from China and receive genuine replacement devices from Apple.

After successfully returning the counterfeit Apple devices for genuine ones, the defendants shipped the genuine devices to co-conspirators both in the United States and abroad, primarily in China, where the genuine Apple devices were resold at a substantial profit.

Lin and Xing personally fraudulently returned and attempted to return at least 1,584 counterfeit devices to Apple, causing at least $1,116,544 in actual losses to the company. The larger conspiracy fraudulently returned and attempted to return more than 27,645 counterfeit devices to Apple, causing at least $16,239,254 in actual losses to the company.

United States District Judge André Birotte Jr. scheduled December 10 sentencing hearings for Lin, who faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, and Xing, who faces up to 40 years in federal prison.

Homeland Security Investigations and IRS Criminal Investigation are investigating this matter. The United States Postal Inspection Service and the Los Angeles Police Department provided substantial assistance.

Assistant United States Attorney Andrew M. Roach of the General Crimes Section is prosecuting this case.

LOS ANGELES – Acting United States Attorney Bill Essayli today announced the creation of a federal animal abuse task force aimed at prosecuting violations of the federal Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act signed into law by President Trump in 2019.

Those statutes criminalize engaging in animal abuse in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce and making “animal crush” videos that depict obscene animal abuse.

“Animal abuse is among the most heartbreaking and despicable type of crimes that law enforcement sees,” said Acting United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “Together with our federal and local partners, my office intends to root out and punish those who profit from hurting animals.”

The new task force will be led by federal prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Environmental Crimes and Consumer Protection Section working in partnership with the FBI, the United States Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, the Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles City Animal Control, and other state and local law enforcement officers. The task force will focus on charging serious animal abuse throughout the Central District of California, the most populous federal district in the country.

The seven-county district is home to approximately 20 million residents and is comprised of the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura.

Today, the group conducted a community outreach operation in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles, and conducted welfare checks on a dozen dogs ensuring they had access to clean water and food, looked for evidence of animal neglect and abuse, provided resources, collars, and leashes, and seized one dog who was abandoned by his owner.

To report animal abuse, please go to tips.fbi.gov or call 1-800-CALL-FBI.

LOS ANGELES – A South Los Angeles man and tow truck driver was arrested today on a federal criminal complaint charging him with stealing government property by illegally towing a vehicle used by law enforcement officers to conduct an immigration-related arrest last month.

Bobby Nunez, 33, is charged with theft of government property. Nunez is expected to make his initial appearance this afternoon in United States District Court in Los Angeles.

According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, Nunez on August 15 interfered with federal law enforcement officers in downtown Los Angeles who were arresting Tatiana Mafla-Martinez, 23, an illegal alien from Colombia residing in downtown Los Angeles. The officers used two government law enforcement vehicles to box in Martinez’s vehicle and prevent her from escaping. Both government vehicles had their emergency lights activated during this incident, which occurred at the exit of a luxury apartment complex’s parking structure.

During the officers’ struggle to arrest Martinez, Nunez approached Martinez’s vehicle and began pressing the passenger side door of her vehicle on an officer, who then threatened Nunez with arrest. After being told the officers were conducting a federal investigation, Nunez swore at the officers and told them “Something was going to happen” to them.

A second man then approached Martinez’s vehicle to interfere with the arrests. While officers addressed this man’s interference, Nunez got into his Dodge tow truck and towed one of the government vehicles that was boxing in Martinez’s vehicle. At the time of this interference, the government vehicle had its keys inside and a firearm locked in a safe inside it as well.

Two days later, law enforcement observed Nunez’s tow truck parked in an assigned residential space at the same luxury apartment complex in downtown Los Angeles. 

A criminal complaint contains allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

If convicted, Nunez would face a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.

Homeland Security Investigations is investigating this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Neil P. Thakor of the General Crimes Section is prosecuting this case.

A California man pleaded guilty yesterday to tax and health care related crimes.

The following is according to court documents and statements made in court: from approximately 2015 to 2023, Armen Muradyan, of Burbank, owned and operated Genex Laboratories, a blood testing laboratory. Muradyan paid a nominee to pose as Genex’s owner, even though Muradyan solely controlled all aspects of Genex and the nominee neither owned nor operated Genex. The nominee also held Genex’s bank accounts into which Medicare deposited more than $23 million in reimbursements. Muradyan provided the nominee annual financial summaries purporting to show Genex had little or no income tax liability, and he instructed the nominee to report Genex’s financial activity on the nominee’s personal tax returns. The nominee provided these financial documents to his tax preparer, who prepared the nominee’s tax returns using the false information provided by Muradyan.

During these same years, Muradyan submitted his own federal tax returns that did not report any of  Genex’s financial activity or the millions Muradyan used from Genex to pay for personal expenses.

In total, Muradyan is alleged to have caused a tax loss to the IRS of more than $8.5 million, and approximately $2.7 million to the state of California.

Finally, in 2020, Muradyan submitted a false COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) application. Under the EIDL program — created to aid small businesses struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic — a small business could receive a loan of up to $150,000 to cover six months of working capital. Muradyan filed the loan application on behalf of a fictitious company that Muradyan claimed had employees and generated nearly $1 million in income in 2019. In reality, Muradyan knew that the company did not have employees or income that year. As a result of his false application, Muradyan received nearly $100,000 in loans and used the proceeds for personal expenses, which was not permitted under the loan program.   

Muradyan pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud, wire fraud, and tax evasion.

Muradyan is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 11. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for wire fraud, a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for conspiring to commit health care fraud, and a maximum penalty of five years in prison for tax evasion. He also faces a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

IRS Criminal Investigation, the FBI, and the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General are investigating the case.

Trial Attorney Mahana Weidler of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Aveis for the Central District of California are prosecuting the case

SANTA ANA, California – An Orange County man was sentenced today to 12 months and one day in federal prison for running an illegal gambling business that took in unlawful sports bets, including from then-current and former professional athletes as well as a now-imprisoned former Major League Baseball (MLB) Japanese-language interpreter.

Mathew R. Bowyer, 50, of San Juan Capistrano, was sentenced by United States District Judge John W. Holcomb, who also ordered him to pay $1,613,280 in restitution.

Bowyer pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of operating an unlawful gambling business, one count of money laundering, and one count of subscribing to a false tax return.

Bowyer operated an unlicensed and illegal bookmaking business that focused on sports betting and violated a California law that prohibits bookmaking. Bowyer’s gambling business remained in operation for at least five years until October 2023 and at times had more than 700 bettors.

“[Bowyer’s] crimes were not a single indiscretion, but instead a multi-year operation that raked in millions of dollars for [Bowyer] and his associates to gamble and live an extravagant lifestyle, often through the exploitation of people [Bowyer] recognized were addicted and extending themselves beyond their means, money that was routed through multiple accounts and ultimately not reported to the government on [Bowyer’s] taxes,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. 

Bowyer operated this business out of various locations in Los Angeles and Orange counties as well as in Las Vegas. Bowyer also employed agents and sub-agents – including casino hosts – who worked for his illegal gambling business who were paid a portion of the losses that bettors incurred and paid. His unlawful business used several Costa Rica-based websites and a call center so agents and customers could place and track bets. At times, Bowyer operated his illegal business while gambling at a casino – identified in court documents as “Casino A” – and sometimes paid his agents commission in Casino A chips.

One of Bowyer’s clients was Ippei Mizuhara, who is serving a 57-month federal prison sentence after pleading guilty in June 2024 to one count of bank fraud and one count of subscribing to a false tax return. Mizuhara was the Japanese-language interpreter and de facto manager of MLB superstar Shohei Ohtani. Mizuhara admitted to stealing nearly $17 million from Ohtani to pay off gambling debts and failing to pay tax on his gambling income. 

From September 2021 to January 2024, Mizuhara placed at least 19,000 bets with Bowyer’s illegal gambling business through one of the betting websites Bowyer used for it. During this period, Mizuhara had total winning bets of at least $142,256,769, and total losing bets of at least $182,935,206, leaving Mizuhara owing approximately $40,678,436. On a regular basis during this period, Bowyer would increase Mizuhara’s betting limits.

From February 2022 to January 2024, Bowyer directed Mizuhara to make payments of at least $16.25 million to Bowyer-controlled bank accounts, all of which were proceeds of Bowyer’s illegal gambling business. Of these illegal proceeds, Bowyer transferred or directed the transfer of least $9.3 million to a casino in the form of wire transfers as payment for markers for Bowyer and his associates.

Other Bowyer gambling business customers included “Individual B,” a professional baseball player for a Southern California-based baseball club, and “Individual C,” a former minor-league baseball player.

Bowyer knowingly and willfully falsely reported his taxable income to the IRS on his tax return for the year 2022. On that year’s tax return, Bowyer reported $607,897 in total income. His unreported income for that year was $4,030,938, which was income from his illegal gambling business, including $3.8 million in wire transfers into one of his bank accounts, which he did not declare on his tax return. As a result of the false information Bowyer provided, he owes additional taxes of $1,613,280 for the tax year 2022, not including interest and penalties.

As part of his plea agreement, Bowyer agreed to forfeit $257,923 in U.S. currency and $14,830 in casino chips seized by law enforcement in October 2023.

IRS Criminal Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Kristen A. Williams of the Major Frauds Section and Jonathan S. Galatzan of the Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Section prosecuted this case.

LOS ANGELES – A Downey man suspected to be a member of the nihilistic extremist group known as “764” has been arrested on a federal criminal complaint charging him with possession of child pornography and he is expected to make his initial appearance today.

Dong Hwan Kim, 27, was arrested Wednesday at his residence by members of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) following the execution of a federal search warrant and was charged in a federal criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles yesterday.

According to the complaint, several minor females reported that Kim enticed them and other minor females to produce and send him pictures and videos of themselves engaging in sexual acts between 2022 and the present.  The minor females stated that Kim would then extort his victims, by posting or threatening to post pictures and videos to their family members and others if they did not comply with his demands to send him more pictures and videos.

The complaint alleges that Kim engaged in this conduct as part of his participation in an online network known as “764”, a network of nihilistic violent extremists who engage in criminal conduct, including the targeting children for sexual exploitation online, to further the network’s goals of accelerating social unrest and the downfall of the current world order, including the United States Government.

The complaint details the nature of the 764, which is known to the FBI as a Nihilistic Violent Extremism (NVE) group whose members engage in criminal conduct within the United States and abroad, in furtherance of political, social, or religious goals that derive primarily from a hatred of society at large and a desire to bring about its collapse by sowing indiscriminate chaos, destruction, and social instability.

NVEs oftentimes target vulnerable individuals, including minors, frequently using social media platforms to share CSAM are gore material, or grooming victims toward committing acts of violence.  Victims can be blackmailed into complying with NVE demands, which vary, but may include self-mutilation, online and in-person sexual acts, harm to animals, sexual exploitation of siblings and others, acts of violence, threats of violence, suicide, and murder.

The complaint alleges a series of incidents in which Kim enticed minor females into producing CSAM and threatened to send naked photographs to the victims’ family and others or post them online, among other threats.   

According to a minor victim, Kim ran an online server where he and others openly created, posted, and traded child pornography, and extorted minors to get nude and write names on their skin, cut themselves, and stick objects such as knives and bottles into their genitals. 

During the search, agents found several CSAM videos and photographs in Kim’s possession. Agents also found evidence that Kim shared with others CSAM videos he produced and, when one associate complimented him, Kim touted his behavior by referring to himself as an “og,” according to the complaint. 

Kim has used online monikers including “Ryzen” and “Lobster” and the FBI believes victims not yet identified may exist.  Anyone who has been victimized or is aware of a victim of Kim is urged to contact the FBI at 1 800 CALL-FBI (1 800 225-5324). 

A criminal complaint contains allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

If convicted on the charges alleged in the complaint, Kim faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. 

The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is investigating this case with assistance from the Los Angeles Police Department and the Downey Police Department.

Assistant United States Attorney David T. Ryan, Chief of the National Security Division, is prosecuting this case.

LOS ANGELES – A Burbank man has pleaded guilty to evading the payment of more than $11.2 million in federal taxes by using a shill to illegally collect Medicare reimbursement payments made to his blood-testing company, and to fraudulently obtaining nearly $100,000 in taxpayer-funded COVID-19 business relief, the Justice Department announced today.

Armen Muradyan, 60, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, one count of wire fraud, and one count of tax evasion.

According to his plea agreement, Muradyan owned and operated a Burbank-based blood testing laboratory called Genex Laboratories Inc. Medicare and bank records show that Medicare paid millions of dollars in reimbursements to Genex for blood testing. The reimbursements were wired to bank accounts in the name of an individual identified in court documents as “L.S.” – Muradyan’s long-time friend to whom Muradyan had offered to pay $2,000 per month to pretend to be Genex’s owner.

Muradyan told L.S. that he needed him to submit Medicare enrollment papers to Medicare on Genex’s behalf because Medicare had banned Muradyan from submitting claims.

L.S. and Muradyan opened bank accounts for Genex in L.S.’s name, but which Muradyan controlled. L.S. neither owned nor operated Genex and visited the company’s Burbank office to collect his $2,000 monthly payment and to sometimes sign documents at Muradyan’s direction. Muradyan used the proceeds from the health care fraud conspiracy to pay the mortgage on a property he owned.

For the tax years of 2015 through 2020, Muradyan instructed L.S. to report Genex’s financial activity on L.S.’s personal income tax returns using documents that L.S. provided to his own tax preparer. The documents purportedly showed that Genex had minimal net profit or was operating at a loss, meaning the company had little or no income tax liability.

For the same period, Muradyan submitted income tax returns that reported none of Genex’s financial activity as his own and that he averaged an income of $40,000 per year. In fact, Muradyan personally received and used millions of dollars in Medicare reimbursements to support his own expensive lifestyle.

Muradyan also did not file tax returns for the years 2021 through 2023. 

In total, Muradyan’s unreported federal taxable income was approximately $23,915,762, resulting in a total federal income tax due and owing by him of approximately $11,236,357. 

In July 2020, Muradyan wired a false and fraudulent application for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) that was funded by federal taxpayers. On the application, Muradyan falsely stated that GenMed employed multiple people and generated $800,000 in income for the year 2019. In fact, Muradyan knew GenMed employed no one and generated zero income for that year. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) wired $99,900 to a bank account Muradyan controlled. He then used the money for personal expenses not permitted under the terms of the EIDL. Muradyan admitted he acted with the intent to deceive and cheat the SBA.

United States District Judge John A. Kronstadt scheduled a December 11 sentencing hearing, at which time Muradyan will face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for the wire fraud count, up to 10 years in federal prison for the health care fraud conspiracy count, and up to five years in federal prison for the tax evasion count. Muradyan remains free on $2.6 million bond.

IRS Criminal Investigation, the FBI, and the United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Mark Aveis of the Major Frauds Section and Trial Attorney Mahana K. Weidler of the Department of Justice’s Tax Division are prosecuting this case. 

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline at (866) 720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form. 

LOS ANGELES – A Los Angeles-area lawyer was found guilty by a jury today of receiving a $2.1 million bribe while serving as an officer of Nigeria’s state-owned oil company in connection with negotiating favorable drilling rights for a subsidiary of a Chinese state-owned oil company.

Paulinus Iheanacho Okoronkwo, 58, a.k.a. “Pollie,” of Valencia, who practiced immigration, family, and personal injury law out of an office in Koreatown, was found guilty of three counts of transactional money laundering, one count of tax evasion, and one count of obstruction of justice.

According to evidence presented at a four-day trial, Okoronkwo, who is a dual citizen of the United States and Nigeria, was a foreign official who served as the general manager of the upstream division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC), a state-owned company through which Nigeria’s government developed that nation’s fossil fuel and natural gas reserves, including through partnerships with foreign oil companies. In this role, Okoronkwo owed a fiduciary duty to the Nigerian government and was a public official.

In October 2015, Addax Petroleum, a Switzerland-based subsidiary of Sinopec, a Chinese state-owned petroleum, gas, and petrochemical conglomerate, wired a payment of $2,105,263 to an Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Account (IOLTA) in the name of Okoronkwo’s Los Angeles law firm, purportedly for his work as a consultant who negotiated and completed a settlement agreement with the NNPC with respect to Addax’s drilling rights in Nigeria. According to the indictment, Addax calculated that it stood to lose billions of dollars if its favorable drilling rights were not secured.

The engagement letter that Addax signed that month with Okoronkwo’s law office – with a fake address in Lagos, Nigeria – was a ruse intended to conceal the fact that its payment to Okoronkwo was a bribe in exchange for his influence in securing more favorable financial terms relating to its crude oil drilling in Nigeria.

To conceal the illegal bribery scheme, Addax falsely characterized the $2.1 million payment as a payment for legal services, lied to an auditor about the payment, and fired executives who questioned the payment’s propriety. To create the false impression that the bribe payment constituted client funds, Okoronkwo received the payment in his law firm’s IOLTA.

In November 2017, Okoronkwo used $983,200 of the illegally obtained funds to make a down payment on a house in Valencia.

Okoronkwo omitted the $2.1 million bribe payment from his 2015 federal income tax return. He also obstructed justice in June 2022 when he lied to federal investigators when he told them he did not use any of the $2.1 million to purchase a house and that the money represented client funds rather than income to his law office.

United States District Judge John F. Walter scheduled a December 1 sentencing hearing, at which time Okoronkwo will face a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison for each money laundering count, up to 10 years in federal prison for the obstruction of justice count, and up to five years in federal prison for the tax evasion count. Okoronkwo is free on $50,000 bond.

The FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation investigated this matter. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided assistance.

Assistant United States Attorneys Alexander B. Schwab, Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division, Nisha Chandran of the Major Frauds Section, and Alexander Su of the Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Section are prosecuting this case. 

LOS ANGELES – A former San Fernando Valley resident who worked as a producer and accountant in the movie business was arrested today on a 21-count federal grand jury indictment alleging he defrauded victims, including independent film projects, out of more than $12 million, in part by causing them to pay for COVID-19 testing that never occurred and misappropriating funds from film projects for his own personal use.

David Raymond Brown, 39, formerly known as “David Brown Levy” and “David Addison Brown,” a former Sherman Oaks resident now living in West Columbia, South Carolina, is charged with nine counts of wire fraud, 10 counts of transactional money laundering, and two counts of aggravated identity theft.

Brown made his initial appearance today in United States District Court in Columbia, South Carolina. Brown’s arraignment is expected in the coming weeks in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

According to an indictment that a federal grand jury returned on August 20, Brown worked in the movie industry in various roles, including as a producer, unit production manager, and production accountant. He worked on various independent film projects to which he owed a fiduciary duty to their production companies.

From December 2021 to August 2025, Brown defrauded his victims via several methods, including by misappropriating funds belonging to film production companies by causing money to be transferred from the companies’ financial accounts to accounts that Brown controlled.

To create the false impression that the misappropriated funds were to be used for legitimate production expenses, Brown caused the film production companies to make payments to Hollywood Covid Testing LLC, a Studio City-based company he organized and operated, for services never rendered or already paid for, including by using false or duplicative invoices.

Brown also represented to an individual referred to in the indictment as “Victim 1” that Brown would pool money with him to make real estate investments as part of a house-flipping business. Brown contributed minimal funds and took some of Victim’s 1’s money to maintain his own lifestyle.

Separately, Brown represented to another individual – referred to in the indictment as “Victim 2” – that they would contribute money to a company Brown controlled called Film Holdings Capital. The funds then were supposed to provide loans and other financing to film projects. 

Brown contributed minimal funds to Film Holdings Capital and – without Victim 2’s knowledge or consent – spent a substantial portion of Victim 2’s money on maintaining his lifestyle and repaying prior victims, including Victim 1 and the film production companies, in a Ponzi-like scheme.

To inflate his résumé and credibility in the film industry – and to induce Victim 2 to give him more money – Brown provided Victim 2 a copy of another person’s IMDb (Internet Movie Database) profile, which Brown claimed to be his own.

To ensure Victims 1 and 2 would not be discouraged from doing business with him, Brown concealed from them numerous facts about himself, including a May 2023 article in the Los Angeles Times detailing numerous fraud accusations made against him. He also concealed numerous lawsuits filed against him that alleged fraud.

Instead of using his victims’ money on film productions as he promised, Brown used their funds to purchase vehicles such as a 2025 Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon and three Teslas, including a 2024 Cybertruck. He also made mortgage payments on his personal residence and on home remodeling, including approximately $99,000 for the installation of a pool. 

Brown also used his victims’ money to buy a house for his mother, make payments to members of his family, pay for more than $70,000 on surrogacy and related services, private school tuition payments, and more than $970,000 in payments pertaining to “Untitled SLA,” the working title for a film project relating to the 1974 kidnapping and indoctrination of Patricia Hearst by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a domestic terrorist group.

To create the false impression that he had not misspent Victim 2’s money and that Film Holdings Capital was appropriately operating as a film finance business, Brown – among other things – tricked and fraudulently induced a third party into signing backdated loan documents and withheld purported health insurance payments from employees’ payroll while failing to maintain their health insurance coverage.

In total, the loss to victims exceeds $12 million.

An indictment contains allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

If convicted of all charges, Brown would face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each wire fraud count, up to 10 years in federal prison for each money laundering count, and a mandatory two-year consecutive prison sentence for each aggravated identity theft count.

The FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation are investigating this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Alexander B. Schwab, Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division, Joshua O. Mausner of the Terrorism and Export Crimes Section, and Sarah E. Spielberger of the Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Section are prosecuting this case.

RIVERSIDE, California – A federal grand jury today indicted two staff members at a surgery center in San Bernardino County, charging them with assaulting and interfering with United States immigration officers attempting to lawfully detain an illegal alien fleeing law enforcement last month.

Jose de Jesus Ortega, 38, of Highland, and Danielle Nadine Davila, 33, of Corona, are charged with one felony count of assaulting, resisting, and impeding a federal officer.

An October 6 trial date is scheduled in this case.

According to the superseding indictment and court documents previously filed in this case, on July 8, two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers conducted roving immigration-related operations as part of their duties in Ontario. The officers wore government-issued equipment, including law enforcement vests, and were in an unmarked government-operated vehicle.

The officers were following a truck with three adult men when the truck made a quick turn into the parking lot of a surgery center in Ontario. Officers approached the men after the men had exited the truck, and two of the men ran away. One of the fleeing men – an illegal alien from Honduras – was partially detained near the surgery center’s front entrance before he resisted and pulled away, causing both him and the ICE officer to fall to the ground. Shortly afterward, a medical staffer helped the alien off the ground and helped pull him away from the officer. The alien proceeded inside the surgery center and was pursued by the ICE officer, who eventually stopped him.

Ortega and Davila, both dressed in medical scrubs, impeded and interfered with the arrest – Davila by wedging herself in between the officer and the alien, pushing the officer, and shouting, “Let him go!” and “Get out!”; Ortega by grabbing the officer’s arm and then his vest.

The officer called for assistance and another ICE officer arrived on scene and saw multiple staff members grabbing the first officer. The officers eventually detained and handcuffed the alien, then exited the surgery center with him.

An indictment contains allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

If convicted, the defendants would face a statutory maximum sentence of eight years in federal prison.

Homeland Security Investigations is investigating this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Cory L. Burleson of the Riverside Branch Office is prosecuting this case.

SANTA ANA, California – An illegal alien from Mexico was sentenced today to 276 months in federal prison for befriending a 13-year-old girl, providing her with alcohol, and sexually assaulting her, taking photographs and making videos of the attack. 

Jonathan Gonzalez-Reyes, 39, of Anaheim, was sentenced by United States District Judge David O. Carter, who also ordered Gonzales-Reyes to pay $3,000 in restitution to the victim.

At the conclusion of a three-day trial, a federal jury on April 30 found Gonzalez-Reyes guilty of one count of production of child pornography, two counts of distribution of child pornography, and one count of possession of child pornography. He has been in federal custody since June 2024.

In February 2021, Gonzalez-Reyes and a co-defendant, Nanci Jasmin Castillo, 32, of Anaheim, befriended the victim, a 13-year-old girl identified in court documents as “Minor Victim 1.”

At Castillo’s home, Castillo and Gonzalez-Reyes sexually assaulted the victim – to whom Castillo had given an alcoholic beverage after the victim previously had taken Xanax anti-anxiety medication – while the victim was going in and out of consciousness. Gonzalez-Reyes and Castillo photographed and made videos of the attack.

A search of Gonzalez-Reyes’ phone and Castillo’s iCloud account by law enforcement revealed the existence of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) depicting the victim and the defendants. Additionally, law enforcement found evidence that Gonzalez-Reyes sent copies of the CSAM to Castillo.

In September 2021, Gonzalez-Reyes used a cellphone to knowingly possess and distribute images of the same victim, knowing the images showed a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Castillo, who also has been in federal custody since June 2024, pleaded guilty on February 5 to one count of production of child pornography. On July 28, Judge Carter sentenced her to 20 years in federal prison and ordered her to pay $3,000 in restitution. 

The FBI investigated this matter with assistance from the Anaheim Police Department, the Los Angeles Regional Human Trafficking Task Force, the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, and ZOE International.

Assistant United States Attorney Chelsea Norell of the Major Crimes Section and Special Assistant United States Attorney Blake Hannah of the General Crimes Section prosecuted this case.

LOS ANGELES – An Orange County man who co-founded and served as board member of the financial technology and sustainability services company formerly known as Aspiration Partners Inc., was charged today by criminal information and agreed to plead guilty to defrauding multiple investors and lenders.

Joseph Neal Sanberg, 46, of Orange, is charged with two counts of wire fraud, felonies that each carry a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. He has agreed to plead guilty to both counts.

Sanberg is expected to formally enter a guilty plea in the coming weeks. 

“This so-called ‘anti-poverty’ activist has admitted to being nothing more than a self-serving fraudster, by seeking to enrich himself by defrauding lenders and investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars,” said Acting United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “I commend our law enforcement partners for their efforts in this case, and I urge the investing public to use caution and beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing.”

“For years, Joseph Sanberg used his position at Aspiration to deceive investors and lenders for his own benefit, causing his victims over $248 million in losses,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti of the Justice Department's Criminal Division. “The Criminal Division is committed to pursuing, charging, and convicting fraudsters like Sanberg, who cause significant harm to their victims and undermine our financial institutions.”

“The defendant didn’t just bend the truth, he built a business on a lie to boost the company’s value and line his own pockets,” said Inspector in Charge Eric Shen of the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), Criminal Investigations Group. “The Postal Inspection Service will go after this kind of calculated deception. No matter who you are, you will be brought to justice.”

“This is a case about greed and abuse of trust,” said Assistant Director Jose A. Perez of the FBI Criminal Investigative Division. “Today’s guilty plea is a direct result of the commitment by the FBI and our law enforcement partners to hold those accountable who set out to defraud victims and undermine our financial system. The FBI will continue to work with our partners to ensure this kind of malicious behavior is investigated and stopped.”

According to court documents, beginning in 2020 and continuing into 2025, Sanberg devised a scheme to use his role as a co-founder and board member of Aspiration as well as his shares of company stock to defraud various lenders and investors.

Between 2020 and 2021, Sanberg and Ibrahim AlHusseini, both members of Aspiration’s board of directors, fraudulently obtained $145 million in loans from two lenders by pledging shares of Sanberg’s Aspiration stock. Sanberg and AlHusseini also falsified AlHusseini’s bank and brokerage statements to fraudulently inflate AlHusseini’s assets by tens of millions of dollars to secure the loans. Beginning in 2021, Sanberg also defrauded Aspiration’s investors by concealing that he was the source of certain revenue recognized by the company.

Court documents also state that Sanberg personally recruited companies and individuals to sign letters of intent with Aspiration in which they committed to pay tens of thousands of dollars per month for tree planting services. Sanberg used legal entities under his control to conceal that these payments came from Sanberg rather than from the customers. Sanberg instructed Aspiration employees not to contact the customers that he had recruited to conceal his scheme.

Aspiration booked revenue from these customers between March 2021 and November 2022, but Sanberg did not disclose that he was the source of the payments. As a result, Aspiration’s financial statements were inaccurate and reflected much higher revenue than the company in fact received. Sanberg continued to solicit investors to invest in Aspiration securities into 2025.

According to the documents, Sanberg also defrauded other lenders and investors with fraudulent materials describing Aspiration’s financial condition, including a fabricated letter from Aspiration’s audit committee that falsely stated that Aspiration had $250 million in available cash and equivalents at a time that Aspiration had less than $1 million in available cash. Sanberg used these fraudulent financial materials to obtain millions of dollars in additional loans and investments in Aspiration securities. Sanberg’s victims sustained more than $248 million in losses.

USPIS and the FBI are investigating this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Nisha Chandran of the Major Frauds Section and Jenna Williams of the Transnational Organized Crime Section and Justice Department Trial Attorneys Theodore Kneller and Adam L.D. Stempel of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting this case.

If you believe you are a victim in this case, please contact the Fraud Section’s Victim Witness Unit toll-free at (888) 549-3945 or by email at victimassistance.fraud@usdoj.gov. To learn more about victims’ rights, please visit www.justice.gov/criminal/criminal-vns/victim-rights-derechos-de-las-v-ctimas. 

LOS ANGELES – A federal grand jury today returned a three-count indictment charging a former Culver City government employee who worked in an after-school recreation program with producing sexually explicit photographs of a 7-year-old girl enrolled in the after-school recreation program.

Stephen Michael Martinez, 44, of the Sawtelle neighborhood of Los Angeles, is charged with two counts of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.

Martinez has been in federal custody since July 23 and is being jailed without bond. His arraignment is scheduled for August 29 in United States District Court in Los Angeles.

According to the indictment and court documents previously filed in this case, Martinez was employed by the Culver City Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department as an after-school care employee for the Culver City Afterschool Recreation Program. He was employed by this program as a caretaker of young children from June 2020 to June 2025.

On July 14, law enforcement learned that Martinez, while working at the Culver City Afterschool Recreation Program, coerced a 7-year-old girl in his care into producing photos depicting the girl engaging in sexually explicit conduct. 

Police arrested Martinez on July 16 and booked him on suspicion of committing lewd and lascivious acts on a minor. Martinez was transferred to federal custody one week later.

An indictment contains allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

If convicted on all counts, Martinez would face a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison.

Homeland Security Investigations and the Culver City Police Department are investigating this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Christopher M. Mills of the Domestic Security and Immigration Crimes Section and Kelsey A. Stimson of the Major Crimes Section are prosecuting this case.

A California man who co-founded and served as board member of a company formerly known as Aspiration Partners, Inc. — a financial technology and sustainability services company — was charged today by criminal information and agreed to plead guilty to defrauding multiple investors and lenders.

“For years, Joseph Sanberg used his position at Aspiration to deceive investors and lenders for his own benefit, causing his victims over $248 million in losses,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti of the Justice Department's Criminal Division. “The Criminal Division is committed to pursuing, charging, and convicting fraudsters like Sanberg, who cause significant harm to their victims and undermine our financial institutions.”

“This so-called ‘anti-poverty’ activist has admitted to being nothing more than a self-serving fraudster, by seeking to enrich himself by defrauding lenders and investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California. “I commend our law enforcement partners for their efforts in this case, and I urge the investing public to use caution and beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing.”

“This is a case about greed and abuse of trust,” said Assistant Director Jose A. Perez of the FBI Criminal Investigative Division. “Today’s guilty plea is a direct result of the commitment by the FBI and our law enforcement partners to hold those accountable who set out to defraud victims and undermine our financial system. The FBI will continue to work with our partners to ensure this kind of malicious behavior is investigated and stopped.”

“The defendant didn’t just bend the truth, he built a business on a lie to boost the company’s value and line his own pockets,” said Inspector in Charge Eric Shen of the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) Criminal Investigations Group. “The Postal Inspection Service will go after this kind of calculated deception. No matter who you are, you will be brought to justice.”

According to court documents, beginning in 2020 and continuing into 2025, Joseph Neal Sanberg, 46, of Orange, California, devised a scheme to use his role as a co-founder and board member of Aspiration as well as his shares of company stock to defraud various lenders and investors. Between 2020 and 2021, Sanberg and Ibrahim AlHusseini, both members of Aspiration’s board of directors, fraudulently obtained $145 million in loans from two lenders by pledging shares of Sanberg’s Aspiration stock. Sanberg and AlHusseini also falsified AlHusseini’s bank and brokerage statements to fraudulently inflate AlHusseini’s assets by tens of millions of dollars to secure the loans. Beginning in 2021, Sanberg also defrauded Aspiration’s investors by concealing that he was the source of certain revenue recognized by the company.

Court documents also state that Sanberg personally recruited companies and individuals to sign letters of intent with Aspiration in which they committed to pay tens of thousands of dollars per month for tree planting services. Sanberg used legal entities under his control to conceal that these payments came from Sanberg rather than from the customers. Sanberg instructed Aspiration employees not to contact the customers that he had recruited in order to conceal his scheme.

Aspiration booked revenue from these customers between March 2021 and November 2022, but Sanberg did not disclose that he was the source of the payments. As a result, Aspiration’s financial statements were inaccurate and reflected much higher revenue than the company in fact received. Sanberg continued to solicit investors to invest in Aspiration securities into 2025.

According to the documents, Sanberg also defrauded other lenders and investors with fraudulent materials describing Aspiration’s financial condition, including a fabricated letter from Aspiration’s audit committee that falsely stated that Aspiration had $250 million in available cash and equivalents at a time that Aspiration had less than $1 million in available cash. Sanberg used these fraudulent financial materials to obtain millions of dollars in additional loans and investments in Aspiration securities. Sanberg’s victims sustained more than $248 million in losses.

Sanberg has agreed to plead guilty to two counts of wire fraud and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison per count. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

USPIS and the FBI are investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys Theodore Kneller and Adam L.D. Stempel of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nisha Chandran and Jenna Williams for the Central District of California are prosecuting the case.

If you believe you are a victim in this case, please contact the Fraud Section’s Victim Witness Unit toll-free at (888) 549-3945 or by email at victimassistance.fraud@usdoj.gov. To learn more about victims’ rights, please visit www.justice.gov/criminal/criminal-vns/victim-rights-derechos-de-las-v-ctimas.
 

LOS ANGELES – A Navy veteran has been charged with defrauding the Navy out of more than $9 million through a bid-rigging and contract steering scheme that involved paying kickbacks and other benefits to a co-conspirator, who was a Navy insider at the time, the Justice Department announced today.

Cory Taylor Wright, 49, of Columbus, Georgia, is charged in a single-count information with wire fraud.

In a separate court filing, Wright agreed to plead guilty to the felony charge, which carries a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. Wright has agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors in this matter.

Wright is expected to plead guilty in the coming weeks.

According to his plea agreement, Wright was enlisted in the Navy from February 1997 until his retirement in May 2017. At various points from 2005 to 2017, Wright worked for the Navy’s Mobile Utilities Support Equipment division (Muse), located at the naval base in Port Hueneme in Ventura County. Muse was responsible for providing management, technical, and logistics support for power systems, including large generators, for U.S. Department of Defense operations around the world, including active combat zones.

To accomplish its mission, Muse engaged with prime contractors to procure goods and services, typically by tasking orders to subcontractors.

When Wright neared retirement in late 2016, he and an individual listed in court documents as “Co-Conspirator 1” agreed to create a Georgia-based company, C&C Power Solutions LLC (CCP). Co-Conspirator 1 was a fellow Navy enlistee who ultimately retired from the Navy in 2021 and held various positions at Muse, including supervisory positions that allowed him to exercise considerable influence over naval contracts. The scheme lasted from December 2016 to August 2022.

Wright and Co-Conspirator 1 created the company with the understanding that Co-Conspirator 1 would be a 50% partner in the business once he retired from the Navy. Co-Conspirator 1 told Wright that he would ensure CCP received Navy contracts, including task orders from a prime contractor. In exchange for directing the Navy contracts to CCP, Wright paid Co-Conspirator 1 thousands of dollars in kickback payments and other benefits, including payments to a sporting club operated by Co-Conspirator 1. 

To provide initial funding for CCP’s business operations, Co-Conspirator 1 caused a prime contractor and subcontractors to issue payments to CCP for products and services that CCP did not provide. Once CCP was operational, Wright and Co-Conspirator 1 engaged in a bid-rigging scheme to ensure CCP received subcontracts from a prime contractor. For example, in connection with a 2017 task order worth approximately $790,496, Wright and Co-Conspirator 1 caused the submission of multiple fake contract bids that contained estimated project costs that were significantly higher than the bid that CCP submitted.

Wright also generated false and fraudulent invoices that represented CCP had completed work and delivered products to Muse when, in fact, CCP had not completed its contractual obligations. In turn, this caused the prime contractor to submit invoices containing Wright’s false information, causing the Navy to issue payments on the invoices.

Starting in September 2017, Wright and Co-Conspirator 1 conspired to secure CCP as Muse’s next prime contractor, which they knew would be worth tens of millions of dollars to their company. Wright and Co-Conspirator 1 worked together to generate bogus documents – including a fraudulent past performance questionnaire – to obtain the contract. They also hid from the Navy Co-Conspirator 1’s role and financial interest in CCP, including his direct involvement in the company’s successful bid proposal for the prime contract with the Navy.

From the time the Navy awarded CCP this lucrative contact in July 2019 until it terminated three task orders awarded to the company in late 2022 and early 2023, Wright continued to submit false documents, including invoices, to the Navy for obtaining money that his company and he were not entitled to receive.

In total, Wright and his co-schemers defrauded the Navy out of approximately $9,128,515.

The Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service are investigating this matter. 

Assistant United States Attorneys Ian V. Yanniello of the Terrorism and Export Crimes Section and Thomas F. Rybarczyk of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section are prosecuting this case.

SANTA ANA, California – A federal grand jury returned an indictment today charging a Pico Rivera man with impeding immigration officers from conducting enforcement actions in the parking lot of a Pico Rivera shopping center in June.

Adrian Andrew Martinez, 20, is charged with one count of conspiracy to impede a federal officer, a felony that carries a statutory maximum sentence of six years in federal prison.

Martinez’s arraignment is scheduled for Thursday in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles.

“Today, a federal grand jury returned an indictment against this defendant for conspiracy to impede federal agents,” said Acting United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “He now faces up to six years in prison for his conduct. Make no mistake: There are serious, life-altering consequences for impeding law enforcement.”

According to the indictment and court documents previously filed in this case, on June 17 in Pico Rivera, federal agents were arresting a person believed to be an illegal alien residing in the United States. Martinez, who worked at a nearby Walmart, stopped and exited his vehicle and confronted the United States Border Patrol agents.

A crowd of several other individuals also stopped their vehicles and parked near the agents, partially blocking the lanes in the parking lot as the agents attempted to leave the area with the arrestee.

The hostile crowd collectively honked at the agents from their cars and shouted at them. The crowd – both in vehicles and on foot – surrounded the agents, blocking them from leaving the area. One of these vehicles was the one that Martinez had driven. Martinez positioned his vehicle to block the agents’ vehicle.

Martinez grabbed a large trash can and moved it in front of the agents’ vehicle, blocking it from leaving.

An indictment contains allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Homeland Security Investigations is investigating this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Alexander P. Robbins of the Criminal Appeals Section is prosecuting this case.

An illegal alien from China was sentenced yesterday to 96 months in prison for illegally exporting firearms, ammunition, and other military items to North Korea by concealing them inside shipping containers that departed from the Port of Long Beach, and for committing this crime at the direction of North Korean government officials, who wired him approximately $2 million for his efforts.     

Shenghua Wen, 42, of Ontario, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Stephen V. Wilson for the Central District of California

Wen, who has been in federal custody since December 2024, pleaded guilty on June 9 to one count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government.

Wen is a citizen of the People’s Republic of China who entered the United States in 2012 on a student visa and remained in the U.S. illegally after his student visa expired in December 2013.

Prior to entering the United States, Wen met with officials from North Korea’s government at a North Korean embassy in China. These government officials directed Wen to procure goods on behalf of North Korea.

In 2022, two North Korean government officials contacted Wen through an online messaging platform and instructed him to buy and smuggle firearms and other goods — including sensitive technology — from the United States to North Korea via China.

In 2023, at the direction of North Korean government officials, Wen shipped at least three containers of firearms out of the Port of Long Beach to China en route to their ultimate destination in North Korea. Wen took steps to conceal that he was illegally shipping firearms to North Korea by, among other things, filing false export information regarding the contents of the containers.

In May 2023, Wen purchased a firearms business in Houston, paid for with money sent through intermediaries by one of Wen’s North Korean contacts. Wen purchased many of the firearms he sent to North Korea in Texas and drove the firearms from Texas to California, where he arranged for them to be shipped.

In December 2023, one of Wen’s weapons shipments — which falsely reported to U.S. officials that it contained a refrigerator — left the Port of Long Beach and arrived in Hong Kong in January 2024. This weapons shipment was later transported from Hong Kong to Nampo, North Korea.

In September 2024, Wen — once again acting at the direction of North Korean officials — bought approximately 60,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition that he intended to ship to North Korea.

In furtherance of the conspiracy and at the direction of North Korean officials, Wen also obtained sensitive technology that he intended to send to North Korea. This technology included a chemical threat identification device and a handheld broadband receiver that detects known, unknown, illegal, disruptive or interfering transmissions.

Wen also acquired or offered to acquire a civilian airplane engine and a thermal imaging system that could be mounted on a drone, helicopter, or other aircraft, and could be used for reconnaissance and target identification.

During the scheme, North Korean officials wired approximately $2 million to Wen to procure firearms and other goods for their government.

Wen admitted in his plea agreement that at all relevant times he knew that it was illegal to ship firearms, ammunition, and sensitive technology to North Korea. He also admitted to never having the required licenses to export ammunition, firearms, and the above-described devices to North Korea. He further admitted to acting at the direction of North Korean government officials and that he had not provided notification to the Attorney General of the United States that he was acting in the United States at the direction and control of North Korea as required by law.

The FBI; Homeland Security Investigations; DCIS; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security investigated this matter.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah E. Gerdes for the Central District of California’s Terrorism and Export Crimes Section and Trial Attorney Ahmed Almudallal of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.

LOS ANGELES – A San Fernando Valley woman has agreed to plead guilty to five federal criminal charges, including that she provided the ketamine that ultimately resulted in the overdose death of actor Matthew Perry in October 2023, the Justice Department announced today.  

Jasveen Sangha, 42, a.k.a. “Ketamine Queen,” of North Hollywood, has agreed to plead guilty to one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, three counts of distribution of ketamine, and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury.

Sangha, who is a dual citizen of the United States and the United Kingdom, has been in federal custody since August 2024. She is expected to formally enter a guilty plea in the coming weeks.

Upon entering her guilty plea, Sangha will face at her sentencing hearing – which is expected to occur in the coming months – a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison on the drug-involved premises count, up to 10 years in federal prison for each ketamine distribution count, and up to 15 years in federal prison for the count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury.

According to her plea agreement, Sangha worked with Erik Fleming, 55, of Hawthorne, to knowingly distribute ketamine to Perry, a successful actor and author whose struggles with drug addiction were well documented. In October 2023, Sangha and Fleming sold Perry 51 vials of ketamine, which were provided to Kenneth Iwamasa, 60, of Toluca Lake, Perry’s live-in personal assistant.

Leading up to Perry’s death, Iwamasa repeatedly injected Perry with the ketamine that Sangha supplied to Fleming. Specifically, on October 28, 2023, Iwamasa injected Perry with at least three shots of Sangha’s ketamine, which caused Perry’s death.

After learning from news reports of Perry’s death, Sangha called Fleming on Signal to discuss how to distance themselves from it. That day, Sangha updated the settings on the Signal apps to automatically delete her messages with Fleming. She further instructed Fleming to “Delete all our messages.” 

Two days after Perry’s death, Fleming left Sangha a voicemail on Signal and texted, “Please call . . . Got more info and want to bounce ideas off you. I’m 90% sure everyone is protected. I never dealt with [Perry]. Only his Assistant. So the Assistant was the enabler. Also they are doing a 3 month tox screening . . . Does K stay in your system or is it immediately flushed out[?].”

In her plea agreement, Sangha also admitted to selling four vials ketamine to victim Cody McLaury in August 2019. McLaury died hours later from a drug overdose.

Sangha also admitted in her plea agreement to possessing with intent to distribute various drugs at her North Hollywood residence. In March 2024, law enforcement searched the residence and found 1.7 kilograms of pressed pills containing methamphetamine, 79 vials of liquid ketamine, MDMA (Ecstasy) tablets, counterfeit Xanax pills, baggies containing powdered ketamine and cocaine, and other drug trafficking items such as a gold money counting machine, a scale, a wireless signal and hidden camera detector, drug packaging materials, and $5,723 in cash.

She further admitted to using her North Hollywood residence to store, package, and distribute narcotics, including ketamine and methamphetamine, since at least June 2019.

The other defendants charged in this matter are:

• Mark Chavez, 55, of San Diego, a physician, pleaded guilty in October 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine. He faces up to 10 years in federal prison at his sentencing hearing, which is scheduled for September 17.
• Fleming, who pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for November 12, at which time he will face up to 25 years in federal prison.
• Iwamasa, who pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for November 19, at which time he will face a statutory maximum sentence of 15 years in federal prison.
• Salvador Plasencia, 43, a.k.a. “Dr. P,” of Santa Monica, pleaded guilty on July 23 to four counts of distribution of ketamine. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for December 3, at which time he will face up to 10 years in federal prison for each count.

The Los Angeles Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the United States Postal Inspection Service are investigating this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Ian V. Yanniello of the Terrorism and Export Crimes Section and Haoxiaohan H. Cai of the Major Frauds Section are prosecuting this case.

LOS ANGELES – An illegal alien from China was sentenced today to 96 months in federal prison for illegally exporting firearms, ammunition and other military items to North Korea by concealing them inside shipping containers that departed from the Port of Long Beach, and for committing this crime at the direction of North Korean government officials, who wired him approximately $2 million for his efforts.   

Shenghua Wen, 42, of Ontario, was sentenced by United States District Judge Stephen V. Wilson.

Wen, who has been in federal custody since December 2024, pleaded guilty on June 9 to one count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government.

Wen is a citizen of the People’s Republic of China who entered the United States in 2012 on a student visa and remained in the U.S. illegally after his student visa expired in December 2013.

Prior to entering the United States, Wen met with officials from North Korea’s government at a North Korean embassy in China. These government officials directed Wen to procure goods on behalf of North Korea.

In 2022, two North Korean government officials contacted Wen through an online messaging platform and instructed him to buy and smuggle firearms and other goods – including sensitive technology – from the United States to North Korea via China.

In 2023, at the direction of North Korean government officials, Wen shipped at least three containers of firearms out of the Port of Long Beach to China en route to their ultimate destination in North Korea. Wen took steps to conceal that he was illegally shipping firearms to North Korea by, among other things, filing false export information regarding the contents of the containers.

In May 2023, Wen purchased a firearms business in Houston, paid for with money sent through intermediaries by one of Wen’s North Korean contacts. Wen purchased many of the firearms he sent to North Korea in Texas and drove the firearms from Texas to California, where he arranged for them to be shipped.

In December 2023, one of Wen’s weapons shipments – which falsely reported to U.S. officials that it contained a refrigerator – left the Port of Long Beach and arrived in Hong Kong in January 2024. This weapons shipment was later transported from Hong Kong to Nampo, North Korea.

In September 2024, Wen – once again acting at the direction of North Korean officials – bought approximately 60,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition that he intended to ship to North Korea.

In furtherance of the conspiracy and at the direction of North Korean officials, Wen also obtained sensitive technology that he intended to send to North Korea. This technology included a chemical threat identification device and a handheld broadband receiver that detects known, unknown, illegal, disruptive or interfering transmissions.

Wen also acquired or offered to acquire a civilian airplane engine and a thermal imaging system that could be mounted on a drone, helicopter, or other aircraft, and could be used for reconnaissance and target identification.

During the scheme, North Korean officials wired approximately $2 million to Wen to procure firearms and other goods for their government.

Wen admitted in his plea agreement that at all relevant times he knew that it was illegal to ship firearms, ammunition, and sensitive technology to North Korea. He also admitted to never having the required licenses to export ammunition, firearms, and the above-described devices to North Korea. He further admitted to acting at the direction of North Korean government officials and that he had not provided notification to the Attorney General of the United States that he was acting in the United States at the direction and control of North Korea as required by law.

The FBI; Homeland Security Investigations; DCIS; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Sarah E. Gerdes of the Terrorism and Export Crimes Section and Trial Attorney Ahmed Almudallal of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.

LOS ANGELES – The CEO of a Latin music conglomerate was sentenced today to 48 months in federal prison for conspiring to violate the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act by conducting business with a Guadalajara-based concert promoter with ties to Mexican drug cartels.

José Ángel Del Villar, 45, of Huntington Beach, the CEO of Del Records and its related talent agency Del Entertainment Inc., was sentenced by United States District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, who also fined Del Villar $2 million.

Judge Frimpong today also sentenced co-defendant Del Entertainment to three years of probation and fined the company $1.8 million.

At the conclusion of a nine-day trial, a federal jury on March 27 found Del Villar and Del Entertainment guilty of one count of conspiracy to transact in property of specially designated narcotics traffickers in violation of the Kingpin Act and 10 counts of violating the Kingpin Act.

In April 2018, the defendants did business with Jesús Pérez Alvear, a.k.a. “Chucho,” of Guadalajara, Mexico, a music promoter who controlled Gallistica Diamante, a.k.a. Ticket Premier. Pérez promoted concerts for Del Entertainment in Mexico until March 2019.

The U.S. Treasury Department listed Pérez and his company as “specially designated narcotics traffickers” under the Kingpin Act on April 6, 2018, after concluding he facilitated money laundering for the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) and the Los Cuinis drug trafficking organization. The Kingpin Act prevents people in the United States from conducting business with sanctioned persons and entities.

Even though Del Villar and Del Entertainment were aware that it was illegal to engage in transactions or dealings with Pérez, they willfully did business with him by continuing to have a Del Entertainment musical artist perform at concerts in which Pérez and Del Entertainment had a financial interest.

For example, on April 19, 2018, FBI agents approached a well-known musician and explicitly told him about Pérez’s designation under the Kingpin Act and how that prohibited him from conducting business with Pérez and performing concerts that Pérez promoted.

On April 28, 2018, the musician performed at a concert that Pérez organized. Del Villar’s credit card was used to pay for a private jet that brought the musician from Van Nuys Airport to the performance in Aguascalientes, Mexico.

On multiple other occasions in 2018 and 2019, Pérez and Del Villar continued to do business by arranging for the musician to perform at concerts throughout Mexico – including Mexicali and San José Iturbide, Guanajuato.

“Far from being an unwitting participant in a ‘gotcha’ crime, [Del Villar] orchestrated a sophisticated criminal scheme sustained over a lengthy period of time and involving myriad unlawful transactions,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum.

Co-defendant Luca Scalisi, 59, of West Hollywood, pleaded guilty on May 23 to one count of conspiracy to transact in property of specially designated narcotics traffickers in violation of the Kingpin Act. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for October 22.

Co-defendant Pérez, who previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transact in property of specially designated narcotics traffickers, was murdered in Mexico in December 2024.

Last week, the U.S. Treasury Department listed another recording artist affiliated with Del Villar’s music businesses as a “specially designated narcotics trafficker” under the Kingpin Act. “Narco-rapper” Ricardo Hernández Medrano, known by his stage names “El Makabelico” or “Comando Exclusivo,” was added to the sanctions list based on the Treasury Department’s determination that he used concerts and royalties to launder funds for the Cartel del Noreste, formerly known as Los Zetas.

The FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation investigated this matter. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control provided significant assistance in this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Benedetto L. Balding of the Transnational Organized Crime Section and Alexander B. Schwab, Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division, are prosecuting this case.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice 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 (OCDETF) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).

This case 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. 

LOS ANGELES – A Chinese national was sentenced today to 28 months in federal prison for laundering approximately $3.5 million in money stolen from victims of investment scams as part of so-called “pig butchering” schemes, including opening bank accounts used to launder the money and picking up packages of bulk cash sent by fraud victims.

Li Liu, 27, a.k.a. “Qiunan Li” and “Xiaoying Zhao,” of the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles, was sentenced by United States District Judge Fernando M. Olguin.

She pleaded guilty on June 4 to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. 

“Pig butchering” fraud schemes (a term derived from a foreign-language phrase used to describe these crimes) consist of scammers encountering victims on dating services or social media, or via unsolicited messages or calls, often masquerading as a wrong number. Scammers initiate relationships with victims and slowly gain their trust, eventually introducing the idea of making a business investment.

Victims are then directed to other members of the scheme operating fraudulent investment platforms and applications, where victims are persuaded to transfer money for the purpose of financial investments. Once funds are sent to scammer-controlled accounts, the purported investment platform often falsely shows significant gains on the purported investment, and the victims are thus induced to send more money for additional investments.

Ultimately, the victims are unable recover their money, often resulting in significant losses for the victims. 

In September 2024, Liu – using a fake passport under the alias “Xia Ran” and other documents – opened a bank account for a sham company named Ocean X Trading Ltd Inc. and had access to the account until April 2025. Multiple investment scam victims wired their money to this account. During October 2024 alone, Liu transferred $83,461 out of this bank account to a Hong Kong-based company called Alamo Tech Ltd.

As part of the conspiracy, Liu and her co-conspirators also used fake IDs – including passports and California driver’s licenses – to open accounts at mail receiving facilities and pick up package of bulk currency sent by wire fraud victims.

For example, in March 2025, Liu – using a fake passport with the name “Qiunan Li” along with other documents for a business called Sunny South Trading Inc. – opened an account at a shipping company located in the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles. During two days in April 2025, six packages containing bulk cash – were received at this location. Liu picked up, opened, and photographed the packages’ content then consolidated the money and sent it to co-defendant Shaui Lyu, 28, of Koreatown, and other co-conspirators.

Lyu possessed on his cellphone approximately 46 images of bulk currency, many of which Liu sent to him. Law enforcement estimated that the bulk currency in the images totaled approximately $3.5 million of laundered money.

Finally, the conspiracy used couriers to deliver bulk cash from fraud victims. In March 2025, Liu was involved with someone transporting from Dallas to Los Angeles more than $200,000 in bulk currency of wire fraud victims. The co-conspirators also used an image of a serialized U.S. dollar bill for each courier pick up of currency, with the courier and the victim each showing the same serialized dollar bill to confirm the courier’s identity at pick up. In April 2025, Lyu on his cellphone, possessed more than 100 images of serialized dollar bills, each representing a different pick up of bulk cash.

Liu admitted in her plea agreement that she received payment for laundering the fraudulently obtained money. Law enforcement searching Liu’s residence found $104,000 in cash from fraud victims that had not yet been sent to other co-conspirators. Law enforcement also recovered 27 packages that Liu and Lyu had not picked up from mail receiving facilities, which were found to contain about $285,000 in cash and $87,000 in gold bars.

Lyu – who is an illegal alien from China – also pleaded guilty on June 4 to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and will face up to 20 years in federal prison at his September 4 sentencing hearing.

Homeland Security Investigations investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Erik M. Silber of the Post-Conviction and Special Litigation Section prosecuted this case.

SANTA ANA, California – A shot caller in the Whittier-based Quiet Village (QV) street gang pleaded guilty today to federal charges, including shooting a woman to death while attempting to murder a law enforcement source in Commerce in March 2022 and the attempted murder of a rival gang member in El Monte earlier that year.

Chase Carrillo, 36, a.k.a. “Sicko,” of Santa Fe Springs, the lead defendant in a 16-count superseding indictment targeting the gang, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and one count of using a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, resulting in death. He has been in federal custody since July 2023.

According to his plea agreement, Carrillo participated in Quiet Village gang activities from at least 2014 until June 2023, including his assault of two California corrections officers while he was serving a sentence in state prison in September 2014. The plea agreement further outlines the history of QV and its close alliance with another street gang, Whittier Varrio Locos (WVL).

On January 13, 2022, Carrillo got involved in an argument with a rival gang member in El Monte. That altercation ended with Carrillo and a co-conspirator shooting the rival gangster, who was struck eight to 10 times by bullets and was severely wounded.

In early March 2022, a co-conspirator obtained a police report about the incident that named a victim identified in court documents as “J.P.” as a person who provided authorities information about the El Monte shooting, and asked an accomplice to distribute the report, stating it should go “to all the homies,” which was interpreted as a message to fellow gang members that J.P. should be murdered for cooperating with law enforcement.

On March 5, 2022, two days after the police report began circulating among gang members, Carrillo and a co-conspirator – who were driving a car rented with a stolen credit card – encountered J.P. in Commerce. Carrillo got out of the rental car and fired at least two rounds into the vehicle J.P. was riding in with the intent to kill him. J.P. was not hit, but the driver of the vehicle – a woman identified in court documents as M.F. – was fatally wounded.

Carrillo admitted in his plea agreement that his purpose in committing the murder was to maintain and increase his position in the QV enterprise by killing J.P., a person that he believed was cooperating with law enforcement.

Carrillo further admitted that he caused at least $150,000 in losses and damages to the El Monte shooting victim and at least $150,000 in losses and damages to M.F.’s next of kin and heirs.

United States District Judge Fred W. Slaughter scheduled a February 26, 2026, sentencing hearing, at which time Carrillo will face a statutory maximum sentence of life in federal prison.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI’s San Gabriel Valley Safe Streets Task Force and involved agents and officers assigned to the Task Force from the FBI, the El Monte Police Department, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Pomona Police Department and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Special Service Unit. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also participated in the investigation.

Assistant United States Attorneys Wilson Park and Kellye Ng of the Violent and Organized Crime Section and Assistant United States Attorney Danbee Kim of the Environmental Crimes and Consumer Protection Section are prosecuting this case.

LOS ANGELES – Federal and local law enforcement today arrested six members and associates of the South Los Angeles-based Hoover Criminal Gang charged in a 31-count indictment that charges them with racketeering conspiracy including sex trafficking of children and adults through force, fraud, or coercion – including runaways and children from the foster care system – on the Figueroa Corridor of Los Angeles, recruiting victims through social media and branding them with tattoos.

Today’s takedown is the first major takedown of a sex trafficking operation on the Figueroa Corridor, which is an area notorious for prostitution.

The following defendants are charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act:

• Amaya Armstead, 25, a.k.a. “Lady Duck,” of South Los Angeles, the case’s lead defendant and the de facto leader of the 112 set of the Hoover Criminal Gang and who is accused of sex trafficking a 14-year-old girl;
• Kenyondre Young, 22, a.k.a. “Yunkg Poke,” of South Los Angeles;
• Naziz Harris, 19, a.k.a. “N4,” of South Los Angeles;
• Avery Amoako, 27, a.k.a. “Handz,” of Long Beach;
• Jared Evans, 29, a.k.a. “Jmoney,” of the Mid-City area of Los Angeles;
• Mathew Brooks, 22, a.k.a. “Vermont Star,” of Riverside;
• Derail Robinson, 22, a.k.a. “Popkorn,” of South Los Angeles;
• Jalon Phillips, 22, a.k.a. “Chop Em,” of South Los Angeles;
• Bryan Isrel, 31, a.k.a. “4Loc,” of South Los Angeles;
• Tejohn Gray, 25, a.k.a. “Tiny3,” of South Los Angeles; and
• Tommy Crockham, 30, a.k.a. “Tommy Gunz,” of South Los Angeles.

The defendants are charged with various other crimes, including sex trafficking of minors, sex trafficking through force, fraud, or coercion; transportation of a minor for sex trafficking; sexual exploitation of a child; drug trafficking conspiracy; money laundering to promote specified unlawful activity; and conspiracy to straw purchase firearms.

Amoako, Evans, Brooks, Phillips, and Crockham were arrested this morning and are expected to make their initial appearances and be arraigned this afternoon in federal court in downtown Los Angeles. Armstead was transferred from state custody to federal custody and is expected to make her initial appearance and be arraigned this afternoon in Los Angeles federal court. Law enforcement is looking for Isrel. 

“The U.S. Department of Justice, under the leadership of Attorney General Pamela Bondi, is making Los Angeles safer by arresting prolific gang members who are viciously trafficking young woman and children for sex,” said Acting United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “There are no meaningful consequences for their conduct under state law, so the federal government – aided by its local law enforcement partners – will step in to make sure these criminals face lengthy prison sentences. Today’s operation is the first step in returning the Figueroa Corridor – long known as prostitution haven – back to its residents who have suffered for too long while criminals were allowed to run amok.”

“Human trafficking is among the most heinous crimes perpetuated throughout the world,” said Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Los Angeles Special Agent in Charge Eddy Wang. “No human should be for sale – not here in Los Angeles or anywhere in our society. Today’s operation is a result of our commitment to identify and rescue victims of trafficking and to hold accountable these criminal organizations exploiting them.”

“These violent gang members profited from horrific crimes and used online apps to move their money and further their criminal enterprise,” said Special Agent in Charge Tyler Hatcher of the IRS Criminal Investigation Los Angeles Field Office. “Special Agents at IRS-CI are experts in tracing illegal funds and linking criminals to their illegal acts. IRS-CI is committed to protecting victims and prosecuting criminal offenders involved in money laundering, sex trafficking, and other violent crime.”

“The exploitation of vulnerable women and children through sex trafficking is one of the most heinous crimes our society faces,” said Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell. “The victims in this case – many of them minors, runaways, or from the foster care system – were preyed upon by individuals who sought to profit from their pain. The Los Angeles Police Department remains steadfast in its commitment to working with our federal partners to dismantle these criminal networks, bring their perpetrators to justice, and ensure survivors receive the protection and support they deserve.”     

According to the indictment, from February 2021 to August 2025, the Hoovers largely controlled sex trafficking and prostitution in the Figueroa Corridor of South Los Angeles. Members and associates of the gang acted as pimps to promote and manage sex trafficking. The defendants facilitated each other’s pimping by managing and monitoring their victims, pooling resources to rent several motel rooms for commercial sex dates, disciplining each other’s victims, driving each other’s victims to and from the street where victims solicited commercial sex work, sourcing third parties to create online profiles for sex advertisements, and sending each other money via Cash App and Apple Pay. 

Victims were required to remit all proceeds from commercial sex dates to the pimp. A victim who refused or who otherwise disobeyed a pimp faced discipline, including assaults, berating, public humiliation, and withholding of affection, drugs or food. Victims also were branded with tattoos of a defendant’s moniker. 

The defendants also worked together to recruit new victims via social media or in person, focusing on vulnerable minor girls and young women, particularly those with financial or emotional struggles or who had run away from home. Pimps also plied their victims with drugs ranging from oxycodone to amphetamines. Victims were recruited via false promises of a luxurious lifestyle, intimidation, and actual or threatened violence. 

For example, in April 2022, Gray and two accomplices drove to an area of San Bernardino which is notorious for prostitution activities and attempted to force two female victims into their car, grabbing them. Ultimately, both victims broke free. 

In April 2024, Armstead and Evans utilized rooms at the Stadium Inn, a South Los Angeles motel, to traffic their victims. One victim included a 14-year-old girl. Armstead gave the victim – who was sex trafficked for at least three consecutive days – condoms to use for commercial sex dates with “Johns” or sex buyers.

Some members of the Hoovers criminal enterprise produced rap music and videos, which often glorified the gang, sex trafficking, drug sales, and firearms possession. Members of the gang also posted videos and photographs of their assaults on others to social media, in order to intimidate their victims and ensure their compliance in performing commercial sex work for the enrichment of their pimps and the Hoover gang itself.

An indictment contains allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.    

If convicted, some defendants would face a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison and would face a statutory maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Homeland Security Investigations, IRS Criminal Investigation, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the United States Attorney’s Office are investigating this matter.  The investigation was supported by the Nebraska State Patrol, Keith County Attorney’s Office, Nebraska Department of Justice Office of the Attorney General, California Highway Patrol, the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and Saving Innocence. 

Assistant United States Attorneys Chelsea Norell of the Violent and Organized Crime Section and Mirelle Raza of the General Crimes Section are prosecuting this case.