Central District of California

SANTA ANA, California – A Hawaii man has pleaded guilty to a federal criminal charge for defrauding a 78-year-old Orange County victim out of nearly $2 million by false promises of brokering the sale of the victim’s yacht, the Justice Department announced today.

John Tamahere McCabe, 42, of Kailua, Hawaii, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of wire fraud.

According to his plea agreement, McCabe offered to help the victim sell his yacht. What the victim didn’t know was McCabe used fabricated documents to change the ownership of the yacht to McCabe’s name. Once in his name, McCabe then diverted the proceeds to his own personal bank account and used most of the proceeds for his own personal purposes.

McCabe further convinced him to transfer his million-dollar Irvine residence into a McCabe-controlled limited liability company (LLC), claiming that it would protect the victim’s most-valuable asset and provide tax benefits. Without the victim’s knowledge or consent, McCabe caused himself to be the sole manager of the LLC and caused $1 million in loans to be taken out and secured by the victim’s residence, draining all its equity.

Once McCabe spent the loan proceeds, he defaulted on the loans and the victim’s residence was sold at a foreclosure sale, leaving the victim homeless. Through this scheme, McCabe defrauded the victim out of approximately $1,814,000.

United States District Judge Fred W. Slaughter scheduled an October 16 sentencing hearing, at which time McCabe will face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

The FBI investigated this case with the help of the Irvine Police Department.   

First Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer Waier is prosecuting this case.

If you or someone you know is age 60 or older and has been a victim of financial fraud, help is available at the National Elder Fraud Hotline: 1-833-FRAUD-11 (1-833-372-8311). This Department of Justice hotline, managed by the Office for Victims of Crime, is staffed by experienced professionals who provide personalized support to callers by assessing the needs of the victim and identifying relevant next steps. Reporting can help authorities identify those who commit fraud and reporting certain financial losses due to fraud as soon as possible can increase the likelihood of recovering losses. English, Spanish and other languages are available. 

LOS ANGELES – A Yemeni national was charged today in a three-count federal grand jury indictment alleging he deployed the so-called “Black Kingdom” ransomware against computer servers owned organizations worldwide, including businesses, schools, and hospitals in the United States, including a medical billing services company in the San Fernando Valley.

Rami Khaled Ahmed, 36, a.k.a. “Black Kingdom,” of Sana’a, Yemen, is charged with one count of conspiracy, one count of intentional damage to a protected computer, and one count of threatening damage to a protected computer. He is believed to be residing in Yemen.

According to the indictment, from March 2021 to June 2023, Ahmed and others infected computer networks of several U.S.-based victims, including a medical billing services company in Encino, a ski resort in Oregon, a school district in Pennsylvania, and a health clinic in Wisconsin. Ahmed developed and deployed Black Kingdom ransomware to exploit a vulnerability in Microsoft Exchange.

The ransomware either encrypted data from victims’ computer networks or claimed to take that data from the networks. When the malware was successful, the ransomware then created a ransom note on the victim’s system that directed the victim to send $10,000 worth of Bitcoin to a cryptocurrency address controlled by a co-conspirator and to send proof of this payment to a Black Kingdom email address.

During the conspiracy, the Black Kingdom conspirators caused the transmission of the Black Kingdom malware to approximately 1,500 computer systems in the United States and elsewhere.

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, Ahmed would face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for each count.

The FBI is investigating this matter with assistance from the New Zealand Police.

Assistant United States Attorneys Angela C. Makabali and Alexander Gorin of the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section are prosecuting this case.

LOS ANGELES – A Wisconsin man was sentenced today to 44 months in federal prison for participating in a one-week nationwide “swatting” spree that gained access to Ring home security door cameras, placed bogus emergency phone calls designed to elicit an armed police response, then livestreamed the events on social media, sometimes while taunting responding police officers in communities such as West Covina and Oxnard.       

Kya Christian Nelson, 23, of Racine, Wisconsin, was sentenced by United States District Judge John A. Kronstadt.

Nelson pleaded guilty on January 23 to one count of conspiracy and two counts of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information. He has been in federal custody since August 2024 and previously was serving a prison sentence in Kentucky after being convicted in state court there in an unrelated case.

From November 7, 2020, to November 13, 2020, Nelson and co-conspirators gained access to home security door cameras sold by Ring LLC, a Santa Monica-based home security technology company. Nelson acquired without authorization the username and password information for Yahoo! email accounts belonging to victims throughout the United States.

The conspirators then determined whether the owner of each compromised Yahoo! account also had a Ring account using the same email address and password that could control associated internet-connected Ring doorbell camera devices. Using that information, they identified and gathered additional information about their victims.

Then, the conspirators placed false emergency reports or telephone calls to local law enforcement in the areas where the victims lived. These reports or calls were intended to elicit an emergency police response to the victim’s residence. The conspirators then accessed without authorization the victims’ Ring devices and transmitted the audio and video from those devices on social media during the police response. They also taunted responding police officers and victims through the Ring devices during several of the incidents.

For example, on November 8, 2020, Nelson and a co-conspirator accessed without authorization Yahoo! and Ring accounts belonging to a victim in West Covina. A hoax telephone call was placed to the West Covina Police Department purporting to originate from the victim’s residence and posing as a minor child reporting her parents drinking and shooting guns inside the residence. The caller claimed that her parents had multiple firearms and had fired approximately seven gunshots inside the house. Based on this hoax call, West Covina Police Department officers made an emergency response to the house and cleared the residents from the home at gunpoint.

During the police response, Nelson accessed the Ring doorbell camera located at the West Covina residence and used it to verbally threaten and taunt the police officers who responded to the reported incident.

In another incident, on November 11, 2020, Nelson illegally possessed the Yahoo! and Ring login credentials of a victim living in Oxnard. Nelson then used those credentials to access the victim’s Ring account. Nelson or a co-conspirator made a hoax call to the Oxnard Police Department purporting to be coming from inside the victim’s home.

The caller told the police that they were a child whose father was wielding a handgun inside the residence. Nelson made a second hoax call to Oxnard Police to report hearing shots fired at the victim’s residence. Based on these hoax calls, Oxnard Police officers made an emergency response to the house and cleared the residents from the home at gunpoint.

Nelson accessed the Ring doorbell camera located at the Oxnard residence and used it to threaten and taunt the police officers who had responded to the reported incident.

“[Nelson] and his co-conspirators went on a digital crime spree, terrorizing innocent people around the country from behind their keyboards,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “While [Nelson] was safe behind his keyboard, he subjected others to real danger.”

One of Nelson’s indicted co-conspirators, James Thomas Andrew McCarty, 22, of Kayenta, Arizona, was sentenced in June 2024 to seven years in federal prison both for his role in this case, and on additional charges in the District of Arizona. In connection with the Ring swatting incidents, McCarty pleaded guilty to the same conspiracy as Nelson.

McCarty further admitted to illegally accessing a victim’s Ring camera in Florida and making a call to the North Port Florida Police Department, in which he purported to be the victim’s husband who had just killed her, was holding a hostage, and had rigged explosives at the residence. McCarty then livestreamed the law enforcement response and posted a message on social media taking credit for the swatting incident and stating that he thought it was amusing.

The FBI investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Khaldoun Shobaki of the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section prosecuted this case.

LOS ANGELES – A Santa Clarita man has agreed to plead guilty to hacking the personal computer of an employee of The Walt Disney Company last year, obtaining login information, and using that information to illegally download confidential data from the Burbank-based mass media and entertainment conglomerate via the employee’s Slack online communications account.

Ryan Mitchell Kramer, 25, has agreed to plead guilty to an information charging him with one count of accessing a computer and obtaining information and one count of threatening to damage a protected computer.

In addition to the information, prosecutors today filed a plea agreement in which Kramer agreed to plead guilty to the two felony charges, which each carry a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.

Kramer is expected to make his initial appearance in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles in the coming weeks.

According to his plea agreement, in early 2024, Kramer posted a computer program on various online platforms, including GitHub, that purported to be computer program that could be used to create A.I.-generated art. In fact, the program contained a malicious file that enabled Kramer to gain access to victims’ computers. 

Sometime in April and May of 2024, a victim downloaded the malicious file Kramer posted online, giving Kramer access to the victim’s personal computer, including an online account where the victim stored login credentials and passwords for the victim’s personal and work accounts. 

After gaining unauthorized access to the victim’s computer and online accounts, Kramer accessed a Slack online communications account that the victim used as a Disney employee, gaining access to non-public Disney Slack channels. In May 2024, Kramer downloaded approximately 1.1 terabytes of confidential data from thousands of Disney Slack channels.

In July 2024, Kramer contacted the victim via email and the online messaging platform Discord, pretending to be a member of a fake Russia-based hacktivist group called “NullBulge.” The emails and Discord message contained threats to leak the victim’s personal information and Disney’s Slack data.

On July 12, 2024, after the victim did not respond to Kramer’s threats, Kramer publicly released the stolen Disney Slack files, as well as the victim’s bank, medical, and personal information on multiple online platforms.

Kramer admitted in his plea agreement that, in addition to the victim, at least two other victims downloaded Kramer’s malicious file, and that Kramer was able to gain unauthorized access to their computers and accounts.

The FBI is investigating this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Lauren Restrepo and Maxwell Coll, both of the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section, are prosecuting this case.

LOS ANGELES – Federal prosecutors in the Central District of California this week criminally charged 45 defendants who allegedly illegally re-entered the United States following removal, bringing the total number of defendants charged with this crime since January 20 of this year to 347, a year-over-year increase of 3,755%, the Justice Department announced today.

The defendants charged were previously convicted of felonies before they were removed from the United States, offenses that include attempted burglary and forgery.

Since the change in administration this year, federal prosecutors in the seven-county Central District, which includes Los Angeles, have aggressively pursued criminal illegal aliens. In comparison, federal prosecutors in 2024 charged a total of nine defendants with Title 8 United States Code § 1326 – illegal re-entry following removal. In 2023, the office charged eight such defendants.

“The government has a duty to protect its citizens,” said United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “During the prior administration, this office abdicated its duty by effectively failing to prosecute any illegal re-entry cases. Those days are over. Criminal illegal aliens will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

“The difference in numbers is staggering,” said United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Todd M. Lyons. “Since January 20, this jurisdiction has prosecuted 347 illegal aliens for reentering the United States after removal — but last year, there were only nine of these prosecutions. That’s a 3,755% increase in just over a quarter of the time. Partnerships between the U.S. Attorney’s Office, ICE, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the FBI play a critical role in ensuring that individuals who pose threats to public safety are removed from our communities.”

The crime of being found in the United States following removal carries a base sentence of up to two years in federal prison. Defendants who were removed after being convicted of a felony face a maximum 10-year sentence and defendants removed after being convicted of an aggravated felony face a maximum of 20 years in federal prison.

The recently filed cases include the following defendants:

• Paulino González-García, 26, of Mexico, was charged via a federal criminal complaint with being an illegal alien found in the United States after removal. González-García was removed in 2018 and has two prior state convictions in Santa Barbara County Superior Court for driving under the influence (DUI). He is in state custody and charged with a third DUI offense. Assistant United States Attorney Christina A. Marquez of the Domestic Security and Immigration Crimes Section is prosecuting this case.
• Ricardo Cruz-García, 31, of Mexico, was charged via a federal criminal complaint with being an illegal alien found in the United States following removal. Cruz-García was removed in 2019. He has a 2018 conviction for attempted burglary and 2019 convictions in Orange County Superior Court for possession of a controlled substance, possession of unlawful paraphernalia, and forgery. Assistant United States Attorney Christina A. Marquez of the Domestic Security and Immigration Crimes Section is prosecuting this case.

Federal prosecutors this week also charged the following defendant:

• José Rosales Ramírez, 27, of Mexico, was charged via a federal criminal complaint with being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm. Ramirez was caught with possession of two firearms because of his involvement in an incident in Compton where it is alleged that he shot at a moving vehicle. Assistant United States Attorney Christina A. Marquez of the Domestic Security and Immigration Crimes Section is prosecuting this case.

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

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations are investigating these matters.

These cases are 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 federal grand jury returned an indictment today charging a San Gabriel Valley man with a federal criminal charge alleging he inappropriately slapped a flight attendant’s buttocks on a Los Angeles-bound flight last month.

Dennis Wally Woodbury, 49, of Azusa, is charged with one count of abusive sexual contact within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, a felony that carries a statutory maximum sentence of two years in federal prison.

Woodbury, who made his initial federal court appearance last month and is free on $50,000 bond, is scheduled to be arraigned on May 12 in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles.

According to court documents previously filed in this case, on April 13, Woodbury – a former California Highway Patrol captain who had been dismissed from state service – was a passenger on a JetBlue Airways flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

Before the flight left the gate, Woodbury engaged in inappropriate conduct with two flight attendants, both of whom were male. For example, Woodbury showed one of the flight attendants a photograph of a dog. The picture contained pornographic imagery in the background. Woodbury later told one of the flight attendants that he should go on a cruise with him then made a crude hand gesture.

Just after meal service and while the plane was still in the air, the second flight attendant collected passengers’ meal trays and walked past Woodbury. Woodbury, who had been drinking heavily, then used his left hand to slap the victim’s buttocks. Woodbury then yelled that he loved him.

Later during the flight, the first flight attendant was in the plane’s front galley when Woodbury entered. Woodbury allegedly then pulled down his trousers and underwear, exposing his genitalia. The first flight attendant told Woodbury that his behavior was inappropriate. Soon afterward, Woodbury asked him for wine, a request that was denied. When Woodbury again pulled down his trousers and underwear, the flight attendant said, “Enough, go back to your seat.”

During later interviews with law enforcement, the flight attendants confirmed that neither of them consented to Woodbury’s behavior.

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

The FBI and the Los Angeles Airport Police are investigating this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney William M. Larsen of the Criminal Appeals Section is prosecuting this case.

SANTA ANA, California – An Orange County man was found guilty by a jury today of federal child sexual exploitation crimes 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, 38, of Anaheim, was found 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.

According to evidence presented at a three-day trial, 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.

United States District Judge David O. Carter scheduled a July 28 sentencing hearing, at which time Gonzalez-Reyes will face a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison. 

Castillo, who also has been in federal custody since June 2024, pleaded guilty on February 5 to one count of production of child pornography. She too will face a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison at her sentencing hearing, which is scheduled for July 28.

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 Attorneys Chelsea Norell of the Violent and Organized Crime Section and Blake Hannah of the General Crimes Section are prosecuting this case.

A California man pleaded guilty today to operating an illegal gambling business, tax evasion, and money laundering.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Christopher Scott King, of Santa Monica, California, operated an illegal bookmaking business. Working out of Los Angeles County, King used a sports betting website based in Costa Rica to facilitate bettors wagering on sporting events in violation of both California state and federal law.

King also evaded his taxes. Between 2019 and 2022, King concealed $13,586,493 of income from the IRS by, among other things, not reporting all of his income on his tax returns. On his 2022 income tax return, for example, King reported $143,258 in taxable income, but, in reality, he earned more than $5 million in income that year.

King laundered his money by channeling it through real estate development projects and gold. King also used money he received from his illegal gambling business to fund his brokerage and financial accounts. As part of his plea agreement, King has agreed to pay $10 million in a personal money judgment of forfeiture at the time of sentencing.

In total, King caused a tax loss to the IRS of $3,804,218.

King is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 9 and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each count of tax evasion, operating an illegal gambling operation, and accepting a financial instrument for unlawful internet gambling, and 10 years in prison for money laundering. 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.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Karen E. Kelly of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Bilal A. Essayli for the Central District of California made the announcement.

IRS Criminal Investigation’s International Tax and Financial Crimes group and Homeland Security Investigations are investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys John C. Gerardi and Charles A. O’Reilly of the Tax Division are prosecuting the case.

RIVERSIDE, California – A San Bernardino County man who once worked as a school bus driver pleaded guilty today to a federal criminal charge for possessing thousands of images of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

Donal James Seaver, 51, of Hesperia, pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography.

Seaver has been in federal custody since March 2024.

According to his plea agreement, federal and local law enforcement executed a search warrant at Seaver’s residence in March 2024. Law enforcement seized four digital devices from Seaver and his bedroom, three of which contained CSAM. One of the devices – a Samsung tablet – contained thousands of images depicting CSAM.

Seaver admitted in his plea agreement that he knew the files contained videos and images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. He further admitted to knowingly downloading CSAM from the internet onto his devices – material that depicted children under the age of 12 years.

United States District Judge Jesus G. Bernal scheduled an August 25 sentencing hearing, at which time Seaver will face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

The FBI and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Sonah Lee of the Riverside Branch Office is prosecuting this case.

Yesterday, Serbian law enforcement authorities arrested two foreign nationals, Cui Guanghai, 43, of China, and John Miller, 63, of the United Kingdom, at the request of the United States. Today, the United States unsealed its criminal complaint alleging that Cui and Miller coordinated and directed a conspiracy to harass, intimidate, and threaten a Los Angeles resident (the Victim) who had been publicly critical of President Xi Jinping.

According to court documents, beginning in October 2023, Cui and Miller enlisted two individuals (Individual 1 and Individual 2) inside the United States to carry out a plot to prevent the Victim from protesting President Xi’s appearance at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in November 2023. The Victim had previously made public statements in opposition to the policies and actions of the PRC government and President Xi.

Unbeknownst to Cui and Miller, Individual 1 and Individual 2 were affiliated with and acting at the direction of the FBI.

In the weeks leading up to the APEC summit, Cui and Miller directed and coordinated an interstate scheme to surveil the Victim, to install a tracking device on the Victim’s car, to slash the tires on the Victim’s car, and to purchase and destroy a pair of artistic statutes created by the Victim depicting President Xi and President Xi’s wife.

A similar scheme took place in the spring of 2025, after the Victim announced that he planned to make public an online video feed depicting two new artistic statutes of President Xi and his wife. In connection with these plots, Cui and Miller paid two other individuals (Individual 3 and Individual 4), approximately $36,500 to convince the Victim to desist from the online display of the statues. Unbeknownst to Cui and Miller, Individual 3 and Individual 4 were also affiliated with and acting at the direction of the FBI.

If convicted, Cui and Miller face the following maximum penalties: five years for conspiracy and five years for interstate stalking.

The FBI is investigating the case. The United States thanks the Ministry of Justice of Serbia, the Ministry of Interior of Serbia, and the Republic Public Prosecutor’s Office of Serbia for the assistance in this matter. The United States will seek extradition of Cui and Miller and looks forward to working in partnership with the Republic of Serbia’s Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of Justice.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Ryan and Amanda B. Elbogen for the Central District of California, and Trial Attorneys Leslie Esbrook and Menno Goedman of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case, with valuable assistance provided by Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin P. Taibleson for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, and Trial Attorney Goran Krnaich of the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs.

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

LOS ANGELES – Serbian law enforcement authorities have arrested two foreign nationals, Cui Guanghai, 43, of China, and John Miller, 63, of the United Kingdom, at the request of the United States, the Justice Department announced today.

The United States today unsealed its criminal complaint alleging that Cui and Miller coordinated and directed a conspiracy to harass, intimidate, and threaten a Los Angeles resident (the victim) who had been publicly critical of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

According to court documents, beginning in October 2023, Cui and Miller enlisted two individuals (Individual 1 and Individual 2) inside the United States to carry out a plot to prevent the victim from protesting President Xi’s appearance at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in November 2023. The victim had previously made public statements in opposition to the policies and actions of the PRC government and President Xi.

Unbeknownst to Cui and Miller, Individual 1 and Individual 2 were affiliated with and acting at the direction of the FBI.

In the weeks leading up to the APEC summit, Cui and Miller directed and coordinated an interstate scheme to surveil the victim, to install a tracking device on the victim’s car, to slash the tires on the victim’s car, and to purchase and destroy a pair of artistic statutes created by the victim depicting President Xi and President Xi’s wife.

A similar scheme took place in the spring of 2025, after the victim announced that he planned to make public an online video feed depicting two new artistic statutes of President Xi and his wife. In connection with these plots, Cui and Miller paid two other individuals (Individual 3 and Individual 4), approximately $36,500 to convince the victim to desist from the online display of the statues. Unbeknownst to Cui and Miller, Individual 3 and Individual 4 were also affiliated with and acting at the direction of the FBI.

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

If convicted, Cui and Miller face the following maximum penalties: five years in federal prison for conspiracy and five years in federal prison for interstate stalking.

The FBI is investigating the case. The United States thanks the Ministry of Justice of Serbia, the Ministry of Interior of Serbia, and the Republic Public Prosecutor’s Office of Serbia for the assistance in this matter. The United States will seek extradition of Cui and Miller and looks forward to working in partnership with the Republic of Serbia’s Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of Justice.          

Assistant United States Attorneys David Ryan, Chief of the National Security Division, and Amanda B. Elbogen of the Terrorism and Export Crimes Section, along with Trial Attorneys Leslie Esbrook and Menno Goedman of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case, with valuable assistance provided by Assistant United States Attorney Benjamin P. Taibleson for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, and Trial Attorney Goran Krnaich of the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs.

SANTA ANA, California – A South Bay man pleaded guilty today to a federal criminal charge for forcing a fentanyl-addicted woman to work for him as a prostitute in Orange County, then raping her and abandoning her in the Angeles National Forest.

Leslie Anthony Bailey, 33, of Wilmington, pleaded guilty to one count of sex trafficking by force and coercion. He has been in custody since March 2024.

According to his plea agreement, in February 2022, Bailey exchanged messages with a victim on a social media platform. The victim told Bailey she was in a treatment facility for fentanyl addiction and was experiencing withdrawal symptoms. Bailey offered to pick her up and provide her with fentanyl.

On February 5, Bailey picked the victim up from the facility, took her to buy fentanyl pills, then brought her to his then-residence in Long Beach, where he provided some of the fentanyl pills.

The next day, Bailey drove the victim from his Long Beach home to an area in Anaheim that is known for prostitution. Bailey told the victim he expected her to engage in sex acts for money and that she would provide him the money she earned from those acts. Bailey also told the victim he would provide more fentanyl to her after she completed the sex transactions. After the victim engaged in approximately four or five sex transactions, Bailey gave her more fentanyl pills and drove her back to his Long Beach residence.

On February 7, Bailey prevented the victim from leaving his home and threatened to beat her up if she attempted to leave again. Later that day, he again drove her to Anaheim to engage in prostitution, after which time he provided her with more fentanyl.

On February 8, the victim asked Bailey to drive her back to the drug treatment facility in Los Angeles. Although he promised her that he would do so, Bailey instead drove the victim to a remote area in the Angeles National Forest, ordered her out of the car, punched and kicked her, then raped her, ultimately driving away and leaving her there.

Bailey further admitted in his plea agreement that in March 2023 he used social media to recruit another victim to work for him as a prostitute. In March and April of 2023, this victim worked for Bailey as a prostitute in Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties. Bailey admitted that at times, he used force and threats of force to exert control over her.

United States District Judge John W. Holcomb scheduled a July 18 sentencing hearing, at which time Bailey will face a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigated this matter. The Task Force includes HSI, the FBI, the Anaheim Police Department, the Irvine Police Department, the Santa Ana Police Department, and the California Highway Patrol.

Assistant United States Attorney Kristin N. Spencer of the Orange County Office is prosecuting this case.

LOS ANGELES – A San Gabriel Valley woman was charged today in a four-count federal grand jury indictment alleging she imported and sold counterfeit luxury goods, including Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and others.

Chaoyan Zhang, 33, of San Gabriel, is charged with four counts of trafficking in counterfeit goods or services.

Her arraignment is scheduled for May 8 in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles.

According to court documents, in February 2025, law enforcement learned that Mitchelle Inc., where defendant worked, was importing and distributing counterfeit luxury goods. The business was located inside a superstore in San Gabriel.

Amongst the counterfeit items allegedly trafficked were luxury-brand clothing, accessories, and other items, including Gucci, Valentino, Chanel, Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, among others. The boxes listed Hong Kong as the sender location. Zhang allegedly sold approximately nine counterfeit luxury brand items to a buyer for approximately $490.

Zhang was arrested on April 9 on a federal criminal complaint. Law enforcement seized all counterfeit items from Mitchelle Inc., which – had they been the genuine article – would have been valued at approximately $1 million.

Indictments contain allegations.  All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

If convicted, Zhang would face a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison for each count.

Homeland Security Investigations’ (HSI) Global Trade Investigations Trade Fraud Group is investigating this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Joshua J. Lee of the General Crimes Section is prosecuting this case.       

LOS ANGELES – Working alongside law enforcement partners at United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, federal prosecutors in the Central District of California this week filed criminal charges against 32 defendants who allegedly illegally re-entered the United States after being removed, the Justice Department announced today.   

Many of the defendants charged were previously convicted of felonies before they were removed from the United States, offenses that include committing lewd and lascivious acts on a child under the age of 14 years.

The crime of being found in the United States following removal carries a base sentence of up to two years in federal prison. Defendants who were removed after being convicted of a felony face a maximum 10-year sentence and defendants removed after being convicted of an aggravated felony face a maximum of 20 years in federal prison.

The recently filed cases include the following:

• Misael Alberto Feliciano, 29, of Mexico, was charged via a federal criminal complaint with being an illegal alien found in the United States after removal. Feliciano, who was removed from the U.S. in 2018, was charged after he was recently arrested by the West Covina Police Department on suspicion of possessing of a controlled substance and unlawful paraphernalia. Feliciano was on parole at time of his arrest. Feliciano was previously convicted in Los Angeles Superior Court in 2016 for lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14, for which he was sentenced to three years in California state prison. The Domestic Security and Immigration Crimes Section is prosecuting this case.

Federal prosecutors also announced their intent to prosecute Oscar Eduardo Ortega, 43, of Mexico, who was federally charged in 2022 in a one-count indictment with being an illegal alien found in the United States after removal. Ortega was removed from the United States in 2016 and 2018. Ortega was charged after he was arrested in Orange County for killing two teenagers in a fatal DUI accident in 2021. His criminal history includes two felony convictions in 2005 in Los Angeles Superior Court for grand theft of personal property, for which he received a sentence of one year in California state prison, and for unlawful driving or taking of a vehicle, for which he was sentenced to 19 days in state custody. Ortega also was convicted in Orange County Superior Court in 2014 of false imprisonment by violence/deceit. For that conviction, he was sentenced to 16 months in state prison. Ortega is set for release after serving 3.5 years of a 10-year sentence in California state prison for the fatal DUI accident. Ortega faces up to an additional 20 years in federal prison if convicted on felony immigration charges.

Criminal complaints and indictments contain allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

These cases are 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 – Five defendants have been arrested on federal criminal complaints alleging they fraudulently obtained federal disaster-relief funds by falsely claiming their properties were damaged in the wildfires that struck Los Angeles County in January 2025, the Justice Department announced today.

The allegedly false claims were made in the wake of the Eaton and Palisades fires that started on January 7. Together, the wildfires burned nearly 60,000 acres, destroyed more than 16,000 structures, and resulted in the deaths of 30 people. As a result, the President approved a Major Disaster Declaration, which prompted the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to develop a program to provide financial assistance to fire victims.

Victims of the Eaton and Palisades fires, including renters who lost their residences, could qualify for a one-time payment of $750 noted as a FEMA relief payment, $43,600 for other needs assistance (personal property, transportation, medical, etc.), and housing assistance for up to 18 months at varying rates. Homeowners are also potentially eligible for additional relief up to $43,600 for home repair.

Each defendant listed below – four of whom were arrested on Thursday; one of whom was in state custody in Arizona on Wednesday – is charged with fraud in connection with major disaster or emergency benefits, which carries a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison.

• United States v. Hogan

Deanniah Hogan, 32, of Compton, on January 26 allegedly submitted a false claim for federal disaster assistance related to the Palisades Fire, listing an address in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles as the purportedly damaged dwelling in which she claimed to live and rent. After approving the application, FEMA sent a total of approximately $17,351 to Hogan, including for personal property damage and displacement assistance.

The actual Pacific Palisades homeowner – and resident who lost the property in the fire – later confirmed to law enforcement that the property was not being rented out at that time.

Hogan was arrested and made her initial appearance Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. A federal magistrate judge ordered her released on $10,000 bond. Her arraignment is scheduled for May 20.

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

• United States v. Johnson

Delvonne Dashon Johnson, 31, of the East Hollywood area of Los Angeles, on February 4 allegedly submitted a fraudulent claim for FEMA benefits related to the Palisades Fire, listing an address in Pacific Palisades as his purported dwelling that he owned. Later in February 2025, FEMA sent Johnson a total of approximately $64,138 in federal disaster relief.

On April 2, law enforcement interviewed the property’s actual owner, who stated she had lived at that residence since 2015, that it was her primary residence, and she was living there at the time of the Palisades Fire. She also said she never rented the property out to anyone and did not know Johnson. She further said when she submitted a disaster assistance application to advise authorities that her house had been destroyed, FEMA notified her that someone already filed such a claim on her property’s behalf.

Johnson was arrested Thursday and is scheduled to make his initial appearance this afternoon in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles.

Assistant United States Attorney Steven M. Arkow of the Major Frauds Section is prosecuting this case.

• United States v. Lowe

Keandre Lowe, 21, of Long Beach, on January 22 allegedly submitted a fraudulent claim for FEMA benefits, claiming that he rented an Altadena property that was destroyed in the Eaton Fire. By February 13, FEMA had submitted approximately $28,286 in disaster relief to Lowe. 

The actual property owner later confirmed to law enforcement that they were residing in the home at the time and since 2007 had not rented the property out to anyone.

Lowe was arrested and made his initial appearance Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. A federal magistrate judge ordered him released on $10,000 bond. Lowe’s arraignment is scheduled for May 27.

Assistant United States Attorney Steven M. Arkow of the Major Frauds Section is prosecuting this case.

• United States v. McIntre

Zenalyn McIntre, 38, of Sherman Oaks, on January 20 allegedly submitted a false claim for federal disaster relief by claiming that she was a renter of a residence in Pacific Palisades that was destroyed in the Palisades Fire. Eight days later, she submitted additional documents online to FEMA, including her California driver’s license – which listed a Sherman Oaks address – and a natural gas utility bill that appeared to be fake.

Based on her false claim, FEMA distributed approximately $25,229 in disaster-relief funds to McIntre.

McIntre was arrested Thursday and is scheduled to make her initial appearance this afternoon in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

Assistant United States Attorney Sarah S. Lee of the Major Frauds Section is prosecuting this case.

• United States v. Woods

Katrina Woods, 33, of Maricopa, Arizona, on January 30 allegedly submitted a fraudulent claim for disaster assistance, listing a nonexistent Altadena address as her primary residence that purportedly was destroyed in the Eaton Fire.

FEMA eventually disbursed approximately $23,441 in disaster relief to Woods, who also made reservations through FEMA to stay at two hotels – one in downtown Los Angeles, the other in Hawthorne – during February and March of 2025 paid for by FEMA. On March 10, FEMA discontinued lodging for Woods at the hotel in downtown Los Angeles where she was staying.

Woods has been in state custody in Arizona since Wednesday on an unrelated matter and is expected to make her initial appearance in federal court in the coming weeks.

Assistant United States Attorney Steven M. Arkow of the Major Frauds Section is prosecuting this case.

Complaints contain allegations of criminal conduct. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. 

One defendant arrested last month, Hedeshia Robertson, 36, of Lakewood, is scheduled to plead guilty on May 2 to one count of fraud in connection with major disaster or emergency benefits. Robertson admitted in her plea agreement that she filed a fraudulent application for FEMA benefits on January 28, seeking disaster relief for a Pacific Palisades property that she neither owned nor rented. As a result of her fraudulent application, Robertson fraudulently obtained approximately $24,899 in FEMA benefits.

Assistant United States Attorneys Scott Paetty and Roger Hsieh of the Major Frauds Section are prosecuting this case.

Another defendant, Jaime Arturo Carrillo, 48, of South Los Angeles, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to one count of fraud in connection with major disaster or emergency benefits. On January 13, Carrillo falsely stated to FEMA on an application for wildfire-relief benefits that he rented property in South Los Angeles – approximately 20 miles from the Palisades and Eaton fires – and had suffered personal property damage and a disruption in his utilities. Carrillo was not renting at the South Los Angeles residence.

As a result of Carrillo’s false statements, FEMA authorized him to receive transitional sheltering assistance. Using these benefits, Carrillo received free lodging for 13 nights at two Los Angeles County hotels, with a total cost of approximately $2,173. Carrillo also charged approximately $107 to the room paid for by FEMA at an El Segundo hotel for food and incidental costs.

Carrillo’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 11.

Assistant United States Attorney Elizabeth S.P. Douglas of the Major Frauds Section is prosecuting this case.

The cases announced today were investigated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General and Homeland Security Investigations’ (HSI) 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, including the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General (SBA-OIG).

To report fraud related to FEMA disaster-relief public assistance, please contact the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (DHS-OIG) hotline at (800) 323-8603. The HSI tip line may be contacted at (866) 347-2423.

LOS ANGELES – A United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer has been arrested on a five-count federal grand jury indictment alleging he fraudulently obtained nearly $150,000 in COVID-19 pandemic business-relief loan funds for two of his sham businesses, the Justice Department announced today.

Amer Aldarawsheh, 45, of Moreno Valley, is charged with five counts of wire fraud.

He was arrested Wednesday morning and pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him at his arraignment Wednesday afternoon in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles. A federal magistrate judge ordered Aldarawsheh released on $30,000 bond and scheduled a June 16 in U.S. District Court in Riverside.

According to the indictment unsealed Wednesday, Aldarawsheh owned and purportedly operated two businesses:  Nahar Enterprises Inc., a San Bernardino based business he described as a trucking and freight company, and Ameral, which he described as an automotive repair company.

From July 2020 to December 2021, Aldarawsheh made false statements to the Small Business Administration (SBA) to fraudulently obtain a loan under the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (EIDL), which provided low-interest financing to small businesses, renters, and homeowners in regions affected by declared disasters.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020 authorized the SBA to provide EIDL loans of up to $2 million to eligible small businesses experiencing substantial financial disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aldarawsheh applied to the SBA for EIDL loans on behalf of his two companies, neither of which had substantial business or employees. EIDL loans were supposed to be used by the recipient to only pay certain authorized business expenses.   Instead, Aldarawsheh knowingly misappropriated and misused the EIDL funds he received from the SBA for his own personal benefit, including in December 2020, causing the transfer of $149,900 in SBA COVID-19 EIDL loan funds to be wired from the SBA to a bank account under his control.

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, Aldarawsheh would face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each count.

The United States Custom and Border Protection Office of Professional Responsibility, Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General, and Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Laura A. Alexander and Michael J. Morse of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section are prosecuting this case.

LOS ANGELES – A former resident of Orange County was sentenced today to 84 months in federal prison for soliciting and receiving nearly $500,000 in illegal kickbacks from corrupt sober living homes in exchange for finding them new patients in a process known as “body brokering” and for firearms trafficking.

Darius Moore, 31, formerly of Santa Ana but most recently of North Carolina, was sentenced by United States District Judge Josephine L. Staton.

Moore pleaded guilty in November 2021 to one count of conspiracy to pay or receive illegal remunerations for referrals to clinical treatment facilities and one count of soliciting or receiving illegal remunerations for referrals to clinical treatment facilities.

From no later than February 2020 to December 2020, Moore conspired with addiction treatment facility owners to broker patients to the facilities for drug addiction treatment services. Moore knew the facilities would bill the referred patients’ private health insurance plans for the treatment services and then pay Moore a share of the resulting insurance proceeds as kickback payments.

Over the course of his time working as a body broker, Moore was paid nearly $500,000 in kickbacks from the facilities.

While free on bond in the “body brokering” criminal case, Moore violated his pretrial release conditions on several occasions, including in May 2023 when he sold two firearms and a drum magazine to buyers. In September 2023, a federal grand jury in the Western District of North Carolina charged him with one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. After the North Carolina federal case was transferred to this district, Moore pleaded guilty in Los Angeles on February 14 to that count.

Moore has been in federal custody since August 2023.

The FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated this matter with assistance from the California Department of Insurance.

Assistant United States Attorney Nandor F.R. Kiss of the Orange County Office and Trial Attorney Siobhan M. Namazi of the Fraud Section of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division prosecuted this case.

LOS ANGELES – A Kern County man and three of his sisters were sentenced today to federal prison terms for participating in a scheme in which they created nonexistent businesses and then claiming more than $1.1 million in unemployment benefits for purported employees of those fake businesses. 

United States District Judge John A. Kronstadt sentenced the following members of the same family:

• Evelyn Taylor, 41, of South Los Angeles, was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison;
• Laron Taylor, 38, of California City, was sentenced to 54 months in federal prison;
• Latrice Taylor, 42, of Buena Park, was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison; and
• Raschell Taylor, 35, of San Bernardino, was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison.

The defendants were ordered to pay $567,334 in restitution.

At the conclusion of a six-day trial in July 2024, a jury found each of the Taylors guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

From February 2013 to July 2016, the Taylor defendants, along with their co-conspirators, stole $1.1 million in unemployment insurance benefits from the California Employment Development Department (EDD). The Taylors created and registered fake companies with EDD – typically using the names of clothes cleaning services – with no real business or real employees – and submitted fraudulent unemployment claims in their own and others’ names, sometimes using stolen identities; and withdrew cash using different EDD-funded debit cards from numerous ATMS across the greater Los Angeles area.

In total, the defendants fraudulently obtained approximately $1,106,282 in unemployment insurance benefits.

The United States Department of Labor Office of Inspector General and the California Employment Development Department Investigation Division investigated this matter, with assistance from the United States Postal Inspection Service and U.S. Marshals Service.

The Taylors are the second set of defendants to be sentenced for participating in this fraud scheme. Catrina Gipson, 49, of Moreno Valley, in February 2023 was sentenced to 54 months in prison; and Vernisha Jolivet, 32, of Ripley, was sentenced in May 2022 to six months in federal prison.

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

LOS ANGELES – A San Fernando Valley man was sentenced today to 61 months in federal prison for fraudulently obtaining at least $1.8 million by stealing Beverly Hills residents’ identities – often by stealing mail and packages from their homes – then using that information to open fraudulent bank accounts to which he unlawfully transferred money from the bank accounts of the victims, of which included elderly people.      

Oren David Sela, 36, of North Hills, was sentenced by United States District Judge Dolly M. Gee, who also ordered him to pay $1,818,369 in restitution.

Sela pleaded guilty in October 2024 to one count of bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. Sela has been in federal custody since October 2023.

From November 2021 to October 2023, Sela stole mail to obtain debit cards, bank account numbers, Social Security numbers, and other personal identifiable information (PII) belonging to victims, especially victims living in and around Beverly Hills. He then used the victims’ PII to gain access to their online bank and financial accounts, at times SIM-swapping – a type of identity theft where a fraudster illegally obtains a victim’s phone number by transferring it to a new Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card – or porting the victims’ phone numbers to gain temporary control over those numbers to defeat two-factor authentication security protocols in place on their accounts.

Sela then opened additional fraudulent accounts in the victims’ names to transfer funds into intermediary accounts he controlled and withdrew money from those accounts or used them to make purchases or transfers. He also caused debit or credit cards linked to victim accounts to be issued to him, so he could spend directly from those cards.

Sela engaged in hundreds of fraudulent withdrawals and transfers from dozens of victim accounts, attempting to steal at least approximately $2,590,836, and stealing at least approximately $1,818,369.

He defrauded numerous banks and at least 62 individual victims, including various elderly victims. Sela often used victim funds to purchase expensive goods for himself, including, for example, a nearly $17,000 watch.

In 2022, Sela was arrested in Beverly Hills and found with nearly $25,000 in cash, various expensive items of jewelry, and numerous fraudulent debit and credit cards belonging to four elderly victims.           

After Sela’s 2022 arrest, he was released, and his conduct persisted. During two subsequent searches of Sela’s properties in 2022 and 2023, law enforcement identified more than $70,000 in cash, many items of expensive jewelry and similar such receipts, stolen mail, extensive PII, means of identification including driver’s licenses, and banking information including debit cards, credit cards, and checks, belonging to dozens of victims. 

The United States Secret Service and the Beverly Hills Police Department investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Aaron B. Frumkin of the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section and Jena A. MacCabe of the Violent and Organized Crime Section prosecuted this case.

LOS ANGELES – The owner of a pawn shop in the Mid-City area of Los Angeles was indicted today for allegedly conspiring to sell a stolen Andy Warhol print trial proof, which was shipped from the Beverly Hills office of an auction house to Dallas, then lying about it to federal agents.

Glenn Steven Bednarsh, 58, of Farmington, Michigan and formerly of Beverly Hills, is charged in a two-count federal grand jury indictment with conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen goods.

He is expected to be arraigned in the coming weeks in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles.

According to the indictment, in February 2021, Bednarsh knowingly purchased for $6,000 a stolen Warhol trial proof depicting Russian revolutionary and Soviet Union leader Vladimir Lenin, which is worth an estimated $175,000. Bednarsh allegedly asked a co-conspirator, Brian Alec Light, 58, of Hudson, Ohio, and formerly a resident of downtown Los Angeles, to help him sell the stolen Warhol Lenin trial proof. Light then contacted the Beverly Hills of an auction house based in Dallas about selling the Warhol trial proof. 

In March 2021, Bednarsh transported the trial proof to the Beverly Hills office of the auction house, which then shipped it to Dallas. Light e-signed an auction house consignment agreement and called the auction house to state he had dropped off the trial proof and to ask about receiving a cash advance for it.

An employee of the auction house in Dallas reached out to the gallery in West Hollywood for its opinion of the piece, according to court documents. The gallery immediately recognized the piece as stolen, then notified the auction house and the FBI.

Later in March 2021, when FBI agents began inquiring about the stolen Warhol trial proof, Light lied to them by saying he bought it at a Culver City garage sale for $18,000 and provided a fake receipt.

In August and September of 2021, Bednarsh lied to FBI agents by telling them Light asked him to store the Warhol Lenin trial proof for him and that he agreed to do so out of friendship and not for financial gain. 

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

Light pleaded guilty in November 2024 to one count of interstate transportation of stolen goods. His sentencing is currently set for May 27, and he faces up to 10 years in federal prison.

The FBI’s Art Crime Team is investigating this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Erik M. Silber of the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section and Matthew W. O’Brien of the Environmental Crime and Consumer Protection Section are prosecuting this case.

LOS ANGELES – Federal prosecutors this week filed criminal charges against 34 defendants who are alleged to have been found in the United States following removal, the Justice Department announced today.

Many of the defendants charged previously were convicted of felony offenses prior to their removal from the United States, including domestic violence, unlawful sex with a minor, and assault with a deadly weapon.

The crime of being found in the United States following removal carries a base sentence of up to two years in federal prison. Defendants who were removed after being convicted of a felony face a maximum 10-year prison sentence and defendants removed after being convicted of an aggravated felony face a maximum of 20 years in federal prison.

Some of the recently filed cases are summarized below:

• Maximo Medrano, 59, of Mexico, was charged via a federal criminal complaint with being an illegal alien found in the United States after removal. Medrano, who was removed from the U.S. in 1998 and 2023, has a criminal history that includes a felony conviction in 1997 in Monterey County Superior Court for transportation of a controlled substance, for which he was sentenced to two years in California state prison. Medrano also was convicted in Orange County Superior Court in 2023 of inflicting corporal injury upon a spouse/cohabitant and four counts of disorderly conduct, video/photo of bedroom/bathroom/etc., for which he was required to register as a sex offender. Medrano is scheduled to make his initial appearance this afternoon in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles. The Domestic Security and Immigration Crimes Section is prosecuting this case.
• Adrian Chopin-Sánchez, 32, of Mexico, was charged via a federal criminal complaint with being an illegal alien found in the United States after removal.  Chopin-Sánchez, who was removed from the U.S. in 2017, has a criminal history that includes a felony conviction in Orange County Superior Court in 2013 for unlawful sex with a minor, for which he was sentenced to one year in California state prison. Assistant United States Attorney Gregory Scally of the Orange County Office is prosecuting this case.
• Daniel Giovanni Rivera-Peralta, 32, of Mexico, was charged via a federal criminal complaint with being an illegal alien found in the United States after removal. Rivera-Peralta, who was removed from the U.S. in 2021, has a felony conviction in Orange County Superior Court in 2020 for assault with a deadly weapon, for which he was sentenced to four years in California state prison. Assistant United States Attorney Gregory Scally of the Orange County Office is prosecuting this case.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations are investigating these matters.

Federal prosecutors today also filed a criminal complaint against four illegal aliens who allegedly stole $10,000 in cash from a victim on Wednesday at a gasoline station in the East Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles. The defendants allegedly loitered outside bank branches in Los Angeles, including in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, before following a victim who appeared to leave with a large sum of money. After stealing the money, law enforcement who surveilled the defendants then pursued them at a high rate of speed. After law enforcement eventually pulled them over, two defendants fled on foot before being arrested. The $10,000 in cash was recovered inside one defendant’s underwear. While searching the defendants’ residence in the Mid-City neighborhood of Los Angeles, law enforcement found several fake passports. 

The defendants in this matter are charged with conspiracy to transport, transmit or transfer at least $5,000 of stolen money in interstate or foreign commerce:

• Javier Jesús Cordoza Araújo, 41, of Venezuela;
• Ingrid Carolina Medina, 40, of Colombia;
• Gladys Gruz Navarro, 62, of Venezuela; and
• Guadalupe Delcristo Martínez, 46, of Mexico.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Orange County Violent Crimes Task Force is investigating this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Jena A. MacCabe and Kevin J. Butler of the Violent and Organized Crime Section are prosecuting this case.

Criminal complaints contain allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

These cases are 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 Ventura County man was arrested today on a 10-count federal grand jury indictment alleging his company and he defrauded customers by misleading them as to the nature of helicopter parts, making the customers believe that the parts had fewer service hours than they in fact had.

Jared Michael Swensen, 48, of Ventura, is expected to make his initial appearance and be arraigned on the indictment this afternoon in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles. 

Also charged in the indictment is Swensen’s Oxnard-based company, J&J Enterprises LLLP, which did business as “Light Helicopter Depot.” Both Swensen and his company are charged with two counts of wire fraud and eight counts of fraud involving aircraft parts.

According to the indictment that a federal grand jury returned on April 10, Swensen and Light Helicopter solicited and accepted work to overhaul and maintain helicopters. In performing the overhaul work, the defendants were expected to remove helicopter parts that had reached or were approaching their life limit and to replace them with new parts, parts that had just been overhauled or parts that had substantially fewer hours in service.

After removing helicopter parts – including main rotor blades and main rotor spindles – that were substantially used or near their life limit, the defendants allegedly installed older, not overhauled parts that in some cases were closer to their life limit than they represented. If these parts failed, a helicopter likely would crash.

Swensen and his company allegedly made materially false entries in the helicopter’s maintenance logbook and fraudulently altered sales orders and packing slips to correspond with the false entries – misrepresenting the age of the helicopter parts as being years newer than their actual age.

The defendants also fraudulently altered Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) release certificates – used to certify that an aircraft part was airworthy – to falsely claim that the certificate was issued more than two years after its actual issuance date.

Swensen and Light Helicopter then sent invoices and received payments in connection with this work. The indictment alleges two such fraudulently induced payments from customers in February and May of 2023.

The indictment further alleges the defendants made a series of fraudulent representations related to helicopter parts that involved false writings, entries, and records from April 2020 to August 2023.

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, Swensen would face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each count of wire fraud and up to 15 years in federal prison for each count of fraud involving aircraft parts. Light Helicopter Depot, if convicted, would be fined up to $10 million for each aircraft parts fraud count and up to $1 million for each wire fraud count.

The United States Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General is investigating this matter. The FAA provided assistance.

Assistant United States Attorneys Dennis Mitchell and Danbee Kim of the Environmental Crimes and Consumer Protection Section are prosecuting this case.

RIVERSIDE, California – A member of the Mongols Motorcycle Club was arrested today, and another Mongols member has been charged, both in connection with the assault and murder of a rival motorcycle gang member at a San Bernardino County bar last month.

Clifford Michael Lavoy, 51, a.k.a. “Buckshot,” of Montclair, was arrested on a federal criminal complaint that charges him with assault resulting in serious bodily injury in aid of racketeering. Julian Pulido, 35, a.k.a. “Juls,” of Upland is charged via the same federal complaint with murder in aid of racketeering.

Lavoy was arrested this morning and made his initial appearance in United States District Court in Riverside this afternoon. A federal magistrate judge ordered him jailed without bond and scheduled a May 6 arraignment in Riverside federal court.

Pulido currently is in state custody, charged in San Bernardino County Superior Court with murder. He is expected to make his initial appearance in Riverside federal court in the coming weeks.

According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, during the early morning hours of March 4, Pulido and Lavoy violently attacked the victim – a member of the Vagos, a rival motorcycle gang and who is identified in court documents as “V.S.” – at an Ontario bar. Inside the bar, the defendants confronted the victim, who was wearing clothing reflecting his Vagos membership, argued with him, and told the victim that he needed to show respect to them as Mongols members.

Later, the defendants assaulted and overpowered the victim, including by punching the victim in the face, choking him, and causing injuries to the victim’s face, head, and neck. 

When the victim tried to run out of the bar, Pulido allegedly pulled out a gun and shot the victim several times in the back, causing the victim to fall through the door of the bar and bleed out on the sidewalk. The defendants then fled the scene. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:45 a.m.

Later that same day, Pulido led law enforcement on a nine-hour chase across five counties in California. He was arrested after crashing a black Dodge vehicle into a ditch during a high-speed chase along Highway 46 near Lost Hills in Kern County. At the time of his arrest, Pulido possessed the same Mongols-branded clothing he had worn on the night of V.S.’s murder. 

Lavoy was arrested in Whittier, was booked then later released.

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

If convicted, Pulido would face a mandatory minimum sentence of life in federal prison and Lavoy would face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is investigating this matter with the Ontario Police Department. The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office provided substantial assistance.

Assistant United States Attorneys Declan T. Conroy and Daniel H. Weiner of the Transnational Organized Crime Section 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).

LOS ANGELES – A New Mexico man was sentenced today to 51 months in federal prison for setting a San Bernardino County church and preschool on fire last year while children and school employees were inside.      

Jonathan A. Barajas Nava, 37, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was sentenced by United States District Judge John F. Walter, who also ordered him to pay $7,008 in restitution.

Nava pleaded guilty on January 17 to one count of damage to a religious property.

On April 24, 2024, Nava set fire to the Retreat Church and Yucaipa Christian Preschool in Yucaipa. Before setting the church on fire, Nava traveled to a nearby gasoline station and purchased a gasoline can and filled it with gasoline. He then traveled to the church with the can and poured the liquid on the church’s front door. Then, he used an open-flame device to set the area on fire.

The resulting fire damaged the church’s interior carpet, the doorframe seal, and an outdoor mat. Staff and children inside evacuated the building.

Nava then traveled to a nearby strip mall and set fire to the exterior wall, which resulted in no damage. He was arrested later that day.

Nava admitted in his plea agreement that he set fire to the church because of its religious character.

“This arson was planned and targeted,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “[Nava] did not commit this crime in the heat of passion.”

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection; and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Peter Dahlquist of the Riverside Branch Office prosecuted this case.

LOS ANGELES – A San Gabriel Valley man was sentenced today to 360 months in federal prison for producing and distributing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) depicting himself sexually abusing a toddler.

David Lisandro Perez Figueroa, 23, of Monrovia, was sentenced by United States District Judge John F. Walter, who also ordered Perez Figueroa to pay $2,799 in restitution and placed him on lifetime supervised release.

Perez Figueroa pleaded guilty in November 2024 to one count of production of child pornography and one count of distribution of child pornography.

From an unknown date until December 2023, Perez Figueroa recorded his sexual abuse of a 2-year-old child for the purpose of making a visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct.

In July 2023, Perez Figueroa distributed the CSAM via the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, in an account linked to Perez Figueroa.

British law enforcement investigating a target in the United Kingdom discovered the X chat logs with CSAM and, soon after, notified federal law enforcement in the United States, according to court documents. Based on this information, federal agents executed a search warrant at Perez Figueroa’s residence on December 5, 2023 and arrested him.

Homeland Security Investigations investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Jenna W. Long of the Terrorism and Export Crimes Section, Mirelle N. Raza of the General Crimes Section, Amy E. Pomerantz of the Criminal Appeals Section, and Sarah E. Spielberger of the Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Section prosecuted this case.

LOS ANGELES – An Antelope Valley man has been found guilty in absentia of producing and receiving sexually explicit images of a teenage girl whom he had enticed to engage in criminal sexual activity, the Justice Department announced today.

Gregory Cole Jr., 30, of Lancaster, was found guilty late Thursday of one count of production of child pornography, one count of enticement of a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity, and one count of receipt of child pornography.

Cole, who removed the location-monitoring unit from his ankle mid-trial and stopped appearing in court, is believed to be a fugitive. United States District Judge Percy Anderson issued a bench warrant and revoked Cole’s bond.

According to evidence presented at a three-day trial, in March and April of 2024, Cole enticed the victim – a 16-year-old girl – to send him sexually explicit images of herself via direct messages on Instagram. 

Law enforcement searched Cole’s Instagram account and discovered he enticed the victim to create and send him CSAM. Cole demanded CSAM from the victim and sent her pornography of adult women in poses he wanted the victim to photograph herself in for him, which the victim did.

Cole deleted his Instagram account after the victim’s mother discovered his messages with her daughter.

Cole faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

The FBI investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys J’me K. Forrest and Derek R. Flores of the Violent and Organized Crime Section are prosecuting this case.

LOS ANGELES – The former longtime head of the accounting department at the now-shuttered downtown Los Angeles plaintiffs’ personal injury law firm Girardi Keese was sentenced today to 121 months in federal prison for enabling the embezzlement of millions of dollars from the firm’s injured clients and for embezzling money from the law firm itself.

Christopher Kazuo Kamon, 51, formerly of Encino and Palos Verdes and who was residing in The Bahamas at the time of his November 2022 arrest, was sentenced by United States District Judge Josephine L. Staton. Judge Staton also ordered Kamon to pay $8,903,324 in restitution. 

At today’s hearing, Judge Staton remarked on Kamon’s assistance with the ongoing fraud against Girardi Keese clients, noting he helped build a “web of deceit and manipulation.”

Kamon pleaded guilty in October 2024 to two counts of wire fraud.

“This defendant played a key role in a long-running scheme led by Tom Girardi,” said United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “For nearly 20 years, Kamon enabled Girardi’s scheme to defraud vulnerable clients of the law firm. Ironically, it was Kamon’s own lies that accelerated the law firm’s demise. We hope the sentence imposed today brings a measure of justice to his victims.”          

“Mr. Kamon was a willful participant in defrauding Girardi Keese clients out of their rightful lawsuit awards,” said Special Agent in Charge Tyler Hatcher, IRS Criminal Investigation, Los Angeles Field Office. “Not only did he participate in a scheme to embezzle from clients, but Mr. Kamon also embezzled from the firm itself for his own personal use, including to purchase a multimillion-dollar home in the Bahamas. Unfortunately for Mr. Kamon, money leaves a trail, and IRS Criminal Investigation is the best in the world at finding and following those trails, and now Mr. Kamon will feel the consequences of his actions.”

“Mr. Kamon ran the law firm’s bank account like a Ponzi scheme and profited handsomely for many years,” said Amir Ehsaei, Acting Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “The FBI will continue to investigate corruption in the legal profession and will seek to make victims whole.”

From 2004 until December 2020, Kamon was the head of the accounting department at Girardi Keese, a plaintiffs’ personal injury law firm based in downtown Los Angeles. In this position, Kamon worked closely with co-defendant Thomas Vincent Girardi, 85, formerly a resident of Pasadena but who now resides in Seal Beach, as well as other senior lawyers at the law firm.

In December 2020, Girardi Keese’s creditors forced the once-prominent law firm into bankruptcy proceedings. The law firm dissolved in January 2021 and the State Bar of California disbarred Girardi in July 2022. On August 27, a federal jury in Los Angeles found Girardi guilty of four counts of wire fraud. Girardi’s sentencing hearing is expected to occur in the coming months.

In addition to supervising the law firm’s accounting department, Kamon oversaw facilitating payment of the law firm’s expenses. Kamon had a duty to keep accurate books and records of Girardi Keese, including accounting of money held in its attorney-client trust accounts. Typically, Girardi determined and directed which clients would be paid, how much they would be paid, when they would be paid, and signed all outgoing checks to clients. Kamon had signatory authority on additional Girardi Keese operating accounts.

From at least 2010 until December 2020, Girardi and Kamon schemed to defraud Girardi Keese clients out of their settlement money, using the misappropriated funds to pay the law firm’s payroll, the law firm’s credit card bills, and to pay Girardi and Kamon’s personal expenses.

Specifically, one Girardi Keese victim-client suffered severe burns all over his body when a natural gas pipeline exploded in San Bruno, California in September 2010. Girardi negotiated a $53 million settlement of the case without the client’s prior approval and told the client the case settled for just over $7 million. Per the terms of the settlement, $25 million was invested into an annuity. The remaining $28 million was wired into a Girardi Keese client trust account in January 2013. Girardi, aided and abetted by Kamon, misappropriated, and embezzled that client’s settlement money and used the funds to pay other Girardi Keese expenses and liabilities unrelated to this client, including payments to other law firm clients whose own settlement funds previously had been misappropriated by Girardi and others.

To prevent the victim from discovering Girardi’s embezzlement, Girardi lied to the client by saying the funds had been transferred into a separate interest-bearing account. In fact, no such transfers had been made and no such interest-bearing account containing these funds existed.

Girardi and Kamon sent lulling payments to the victim as “interest payments” deriving from the purported interest-bearing account. In July 2019, they sent the victim a $2.5 million check, purportedly as disbursement of the victim’s settlement funds. In fact, Girardi and Kamon knew these settlement proceeds belonged to other Girardi Keese clients. Girardi already had spent the victim’s settlement funds through disbursements unrelated to the victim’s case.

In a separate criminal case, Kamon admitted to running a years-long scheme in which he embezzled Girardi Keese funds for his personal enrichment. From at least 2013 to December 2020, Kamon utilized co-schemers to pose as “vendors” who were providing goods and services to the law firm. Kamon caused the supposed vendors to issue fraudulent invoices to Girardi Keese for goods and services that they purportedly provided to the law firm.

Kamon caused Girardi Keese to pay the amounts due on the fraudulent invoices. In fact, the law firm was paying the “vendors” for Kamon’s personal benefit, including for construction projects at his homes in Palos Verdes and Encino.

According to evidence presented at the recent trial of Tom Girardi, part of Kamon’s scheme involved payments to a female companion amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars, including a monthly stipend of $20,000, out of the Girardi Keese operating accounts despite the woman having no employment relationship with Girardi Keese.

Kamon – along with Girardi and David R. Lira, Girardi’s son-in-law and a former Girardi Keese lawyer – also faces federal fraud charges in Chicago. Trial in that case is scheduled for July 14.

IRS Criminal Investigation and the FBI investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Scott Paetty of the Major Frauds Section is prosecuting this case. Assistant United States Attorney Tara Vavere of the Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Section is handling asset forfeiture matters in this effort.

LOS ANGELES – Federal prosecutors working alongside with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal law enforcement partners have filed charges against 21 defendants in the last week who allegedly were found in the U.S. following removal, the Justice Department announced today.   

Many of the defendants charged were previously convicted of felony offenses prior to their removal from the United States, including alien smuggling, burglary, grand theft, and assault with a deadly weapon.

The crime of being found in the United States following removal carries a base sentence of up to two years in federal prison. Defendants who were removed after being convicted of a felony face a maximum 10-year sentence and defendants removed after being convicted of an aggravated felony face a maximum of 20 years in federal prison.

Some of the recently filed cases are summarized below:

• David Casas-Herrera, 45, of Mexico, was charged via a federal criminal complaint with being an illegal alien found in the United States after removal. Casas-Herrera was removed from the U.S. in 1997, 2001, twice in 2003, twice in 2004, 2007, 2009, 2011, and 2022. His criminal history includes convictions in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of California in 2006 and 2022 of alien smuggling, for which he was sentenced to 15 months and 21 months in federal prison, respectively. He also has two prior convictions for being an illegal alien found in the U.S. following removal: in Arizona federal court in 2003 and in San Diego federal court 2010 for which he was sentenced to terms of 60 days in prison each time. Assistant United States Attorney Gregory Scally of the Orange County Office is prosecuting this case.
• Marta Stoican, 40, of Romania, was charged via a federal criminal complaint with being an illegal alien found in the United States after removal. Stoican, who was removed from the U.S. in 2022, was charged after being arrested by the Baldwin Park Police Department on suspicion of burglary on April 5. Stoican has a criminal history that includes convictions in 2017 for grand theft, possession of shoplifting gear, and theft. Special Assistant United States Attorney Elizabeth Bisland of the Domestic Security and Immigration Crimes Section is prosecuting this case.
• Juan Solorzano Reyes, 40, of Mexico, who was charged via a federal criminal complaint with being an illegal alien found in the United States after removal.  Reyes, who was removed from the U.S. in 2003, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2013, and 2020, was charged after being convicted in Orange County Superior Court in 2011 of possession for sale of methamphetamine, for which he was sentenced to four years in California state prison, and in 2022 of assault with a deadly weapon, criminal threats, and vandalism, for which he was sentenced to 180 days in California state prison. Assistant United States Attorney Gregory Staples of the Orange County Office is prosecuting this case.

Criminal complaints contain allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations are investigating these matters.

These cases are 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).      

The United States on Wednesday extradited convicted terrorist Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Canadian citizen and native of Pakistan, to stand trial in India on 10 criminal charges stemming from his alleged role in the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Rana’s extradition is a critical step toward seeking justice for the six Americans and scores of other victims who were killed in the heinous attacks.

Rana, 64, is charged in India with numerous offenses, including conspiracy, murder, commission of a terrorist act, and forgery, related to his alleged involvement in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks committed by Laskhar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), a designated foreign terrorist organization. Between November 26 and 29, 2008, ten LeT terrorists carried out a series of 12 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks in Mumbai. They infiltrated the city by sea and then broke into teams, dispersing to multiple locations. Attackers at a train station fired guns and threw grenades into crowds. Attackers at two restaurants shot indiscriminately at patrons. Attackers at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel gunned people down and detonated explosives. Attackers also shot and killed people at a Jewish community center. When the terror finally subsided, 166 victims, including six Americans, were dead, along with all but one of the LeT terrorists. Hundreds more were injured, and Mumbai sustained more than $1.5 billion in property damage. The attacks were among the most horrific and catastrophic in India’s history.

India alleges that Rana facilitated a fraudulent cover so that his childhood friend David Coleman Headley (Headley), a U.S. citizen born Daood Gilani, could freely travel to Mumbai for the purpose of conducting surveillance of potential attack sites for LeT. As India alleges, Headley had received training from LeT members in Pakistan and was in direct communication with LeT about plans to attack Mumbai. Among other things, Rana allegedly agreed to open a Mumbai branch of his immigration business and appoint Headley as the manager of the office, despite Headley’s having no immigration experience. On two separate occasions, Rana allegedly helped Headley prepare and submit visa applications to Indian authorities that contained information Rana knew to be false. Rana also allegedly supplied, through his unsuspecting business partner, documentation in support of Headley’s attempt to secure formal approval from Indian authorities to open a branch office of Rana’s business. Over the course of more than two years, Headley allegedly repeatedly met with Rana in Chicago and described his surveillance activities on behalf of LeT, LeT’s responses to Headley’s activities, and LeT’s potential plans for attacking Mumbai.

After the attacks were complete, Rana allegedly told Headley that the Indians “deserved it.” In an intercepted conversation with Headley, Rana allegedly commended the nine LeT terrorists who had been killed committing the attacks, saying that “[t]hey should be given Nishan-e-Haider”—Pakistan’s “highest award for gallantry in battle,” which is reserved for fallen soldiers.

India’s pending proceedings against Rana are not the first proceedings in which Rana has been accused of conspiring to commit violent acts of terrorism. In 2013, Rana was sentenced to 14 years in prison following his trial conviction in the Northern District of Illinois for conspiring to provide material support to LeT and to a foiled LeT-sponsored terrorist plot in Copenhagen, Denmark. As part of those same criminal proceedings, Headley pleaded guilty to 12 federal terrorism charges, including aiding and abetting the murders of the six Americans in Mumbai and later planning to attack a Danish newspaper, and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

In June 2020, the United States acted on a request for Rana’s extradition submitted by the Republic of India, which Rana contested for almost five years. On May 16, 2023, a U.S. magistrate judge in the Central District of California certified Rana’s extradition to India. Rana then filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, which the U.S. District Court in the Central District of California denied on August 10, 2023. On August 15, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed that decision. The Supreme Court likewise denied Rana’s petition for certiorari on January 21, 2025. The Secretary of State issued a warrant ordering Rana’s surrender to Indian authorities. Both the district court and the Ninth Circuit denied Rana’s application for a stay of extradition, and on April 7, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Rana’s application for a stay of extradition.

On April 9, the U.S. Marshals Service executed the Secretary’s surrender warrant by surrendering Rana to Indian authorities for transportation to India. Rana’s extradition is now complete.

The extradition litigation was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys John J. Lulejian and David R. Friedman and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Bram M. Alden of the Central District of California and Deputy Director Christopher J. Smith, Associate Director Kerry A. Monaco, and former Associate Director Rebecca A. Haciski of the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs. The U.S. Marshals Service and attorneys and international affairs specialists in the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided support to this extradition. The FBI’s Legal Attaché Office in New Delhi also provided assistance.

LOS ANGELES – Three Glendale men and one San Fernando Valley man have been arrested on federal charges of conspiring to distribute various drugs including cocaine, methamphetamine, methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), and ketamine on darknet marketplaces, the Justice Department announced today.

The Wednesday arrests are the latest in the Justice Department’s ongoing JCODE efforts (Joint Criminal Opioid Darknet Enforcement) to address the growing number of illicit vendors operating on the darknet providing large quantities of harmful substances to thousands of people across the United States.

On April 1, a federal grand jury returned a 12-count indictment which outlines 116 overt acts that were done in furtherance of the alleged conspiracy, and which charges the following defendants for their alleged roles in operating the drug distribution network which operated approximately 10 darknet vendors on 17 different markets:

• Davit Avalyan, 35, of Glendale;
• Hrant Gevorgyan, 35, of Glendale;
• Hayk Grigoryan, 35, a.k.a. “Hayk Greg,” of Glendale; and
• Gurgen Nersesyan, 43, a.k.a. “Guro Tiko,” of Sherman Oaks.

All four defendants are charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine, ketamine, and MDMA (Ecstasy).

Avalyan is charged with one count of distribution of cocaine, one count of distribution of MDMA, and one count of distribution of distribution of methamphetamine. Gevorgyan is charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute MDMA and one count of possession with intent to distribute ketamine. Grigoryan is charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Nersesyan is charged with three counts of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine, and one count of possession with intent to distribute MDMA.

The defendants were arraigned Wednesday in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles. They pleaded not guilty to the charges against them and a June 3 trial date was scheduled in this matter.

According to the indictment, from September 2018 to February 2025, various vendors operating under the names JoyInc, LaFarmacia, WhiteDoc, JanesAddiction, DaShop, WhiteRepublic, Tomorowland, PlanetHollywood, DopeValley, and Major2Minor sold cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA, and ketamine to drug customers on darknet markets in exchange for cryptocurrency. The defendants then allegedly shipped the drugs throughout the United States via the United States Postal Service.

The defendants fulfilled drug orders through the various vendor accounts by packaging the drugs into parcels and by delivering those parcels to post offices and mailboxes in Los Angeles County and elsewhere.

JoyInc is believed to have been operating since at least 2018 and is one of the most prolific methamphetamine and cocaine distributors to ever operate on the darknet.

An example of vendor JoyInc on the Drughub marketplace selling ketamine, MDMA, and bulk options of cocaine on September 4, 2024, is depicted below.

In addition to Wednesday’s arrests, agents served multiple federal search warrants and found evidence to include large amounts of cash, distribution amounts of suspected drugs.

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 of all charges, each defendant would face a statutory maximum sentence of life in federal prison.

The Justice Department established the FBI-led JCODE team to lead and coordinate government efforts to detect, disrupt, and dismantle major criminal enterprises reliant on the darknet for trafficking opioids and other illicit narcotics, along with identifying and dismantling their supply chains.

This case was worked jointly with the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Hawthorne Police Department, the Costa Mesa Police Department, and IRS Criminal Investigation. During yesterday’s arrests and searches, assistance was provided by the Los Angeles 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. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).

This case also is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (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. 

Assistant United States Attorney James Santiago of the Transnational Organized Crime Section is prosecuting this case.

LOS ANGELES – A San Gabriel Valley woman pleaded guilty today to federal criminal charges for stalking a victim then impersonating him and his wife to further stalk government employees at a United States consulate in Vietnam, which she threatened to bomb.

Nathalie Nguyen, 39, of Pasadena, pleaded guilty to one count of stalking and one count of threat by interstate commerce to kill another person and to damage and destroy buildings by fire and explosives.

Nguyen has been in federal custody since February 2024.

According to her plea agreement, Nguyen stalked a victim – identified in court documents as “T.H.” – from April 2023 to February 2024, sending emails threatening to kill him and his wife. One of the emails contained screenshots of a text conversation about paying a hitman $15,000 to kill the victim’s wife.

Nguyen also began stalking five employees at the U.S. consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. At times, she impersonated T.H.’s wife, including in an August 2023 email in which she threatened to “bomb the [expletive] consular in Ho Chi Minh City.”

In October 2023, Nguyen - impersonating T.H. and using T.H.’s email account without permission - sent an email to three government employees at the U.S. consulate stating, “i wil [sic] kill every [expletive] one of you who has been delaying issuing my wife visa.”

In January 2024, Nguyen – impersonating T.H.’s wife – sent a message to U.S. officials through an online portal stating, “Device will be detonated at America consular in Saigon and in San Francisco. All of you will be exploded for causing my separation with my husband for this last year. Everything will be exploded around new year or after.”

The following month, Nguyen impersonated T.H. and sent an inquiry to a U.S. Embassy online portal threatening to explode grenades around the time of the lunar new year at the consulate. Several minutes later, Nguyen, impersonating T.H., sent an email to the Vietnamese consulate stating, “i have a grenade set to be exploded this lunar new year at the consulate. my wife is ready.”

United States District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett scheduled a June 18 sentencing hearing, at which time Nguyen will face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for the stalking count and up to 10 years in federal prison for the threats count.

The FBI investigated this matter with assistance from the Diplomatic Security Service.

Assistant United States Attorney Diane Roldán of the Violent and Organized Crime Section is prosecuting this case.

FRESNO, Calif. — Shawn Saesee, 20, of Visalia, pleaded guilty Monday to selling machine guns in violation of the National Firearms Act and dealing and manufacturing firearms without a license, Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith announced.

According to court documents, Saesee sold an undercover agent eight firearms, including five machine guns on four separate occasions. Saesee sold the undercover agent the firearms despite being told that the buyer could not legally possess firearms.

This case is the product of an investigation by the Fresno Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Veneman-Hughes is prosecuting the case.

Saesee is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Thurston on Aug. 4, 2025. Saesee faces a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

LOS ANGELES – United States Attorney Bill Essayli today announced the formation of the Homelessness Fraud and Corruption Task Force, which will investigate fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption involving funds allocated toward the eradication of homelessness within the seven-county jurisdiction of the Central District of California.

This task force will be comprised of federal prosecutors from the Major Frauds Section, the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section, and the Civil Division’s Civil Fraud Section of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. Assisting the U.S. Attorney’s Office will be the FBI, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General (HUD-OIG), and IRS Criminal Investigation.       

The Central District of California is comprised of approximately 20 million residents within the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura.

Los Angeles County alone contains a homeless population of more than 75,000, of which more than 45,000 are within the city limits of Los Angeles. The total homeless population of the remaining six counties of the district exceeds 20,000.

Despite voter-approved initiatives and billions of dollars spent on tackling this issue, homelessness remains a crisis, especially in Los Angeles County. Last month, a court-ordered audit found that homelessness services provided by the city and county of Los Angeles were “disjointed” and contained “poor data quality and integration” and lacked financial controls to monitor contracts for compliance and performance. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government sent $100 million in emergency aid to Los Angeles County to address homelessness. Last month, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded more than $200 million to address homelessness in Los Angeles.

“California has spent more than $24 billion over the past five years to address homelessness,” said United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “But officials have been unable to account for all the expenditures and outcomes, and the homeless crisis has only gotten worse. Taxpayers deserve answers for where and how their hard-earned money has been spent. If state and local officials cannot provide proper oversight and accountability, we will do it for them. If we discover any federal laws were violated, we will make arrests.”

Partnering with federal law enforcement agencies, the Homelessness Fraud and Corruption Task Force will investigate crimes related to the misappropriation of federal tax dollars intended to alleviate homelessness in the Central District of California. The task force will prioritize a review of federal, state, and local programs receiving federal grants and funding. The task force will also investigate fraud schemes involving the theft of private donations intended to provide support and services for the homeless population.

“Any exploitation of the homelessness crisis via the theft of funds intended to improve conditions cannot and will not be tolerated,” said Akil Davis, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “The FBI is proud to join the newly formed task force and will continue to investigate fraudulent schemes and corrupt officials who misappropriate government funding or private donations intended to aid those in need.”

“The U.S. Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General is proud to join the U.S. Attorney’s Office and our federal law enforcement partners as part of the Homeless Fraud and Corruption Task Force,” said Special Agent in Charge Robert Lawler with HUD-OIG. “This collaboration reflects our shared commitment to protecting vulnerable communities, ensuring accountability, and promoting integrity in programs intended to serve those most in need.”

“IRS Criminal Investigation is uniquely poised to track any funds granted through various federal programs,” said Special Agent in Charge Tyler Hatcher of IRS Criminal Investigation in Los Angeles. “We look forward to working with our federal partners to ensure taxpayer and donor funds are spent in accordance with their original intended purposes.”  

SANTA ANA, California – A former San Gabriel Valley resident pleaded guilty today to selling hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of fake sports and celebrity memorabilia to customers, including a fake “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” photograph containing forged signatures from several of the show’s stars.

Anthony J. Tremayne, 58, formerly of West Covina but who now lives in Rosarito, Mexico, pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud.

According to his plea agreement, from at least 2010 until December 2019, Tremayne was in the business of selling memorabilia containing purportedly genuine signatures of famous athletes, musicians, actors, and other celebrities. Tremayne advertised nationwide the memorabilia with purportedly genuine signatures. 

Relying on Tremayne’s statements that the signatures were genuine, customers sent Tremayne money to purchase the memorabilia and have it mailed to them. When Tremayne mailed the memorabilia to his customers, he sometimes included a “Certificate of Authenticity” form, certifying that the signatures were real.

In fact, Tremayne forged the signatures, and the authenticity certificates were bogus.

Tremayne admitted in his plea agreement to selling more than $250,000 and up to $550,000 of fake memorabilia to his customers.

For example, in November 2019, Tremayne mailed a “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” photograph containing forged signatures of three of the show’s 22 personalities, which he purported to be genuine signatures. Tremayne sold the fake memorabilia to a buyer – who happened to be an undercover FBI agent – in Anaheim in exchange for $200.

United States District Judge James V. Selna scheduled an August 11 sentencing hearing, at which time Tremayne will face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

The FBI investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer L. Waier of the Orange County Office is prosecuting this case.

A California man was arrested on a federal criminal complaint alleging that he targeted children for sexual exploitation online as part of his role in an online violent network that seeks to accelerate social unrest and the downfall of the current world order.

Jose Henry Ayala Casamiro, 28, of San Fernando Valley, was arrested by the FBI on charges of attempting to possess and the possession of child pornography. He made his initial appearance on April 3 in federal court in the Central District of California. A federal magistrate judge ordered him jailed without bond and an April 22 arraignment date was scheduled in Los Angeles federal court.

According to court documents, Ayala allegedly caused minors to produce child sexual abuse material (CSAM) as well as other video content depicting themselves engaging in self-harm as part of his participation in an online network known broadly as “764”, a network of nihilistic violent extremists who engage in criminal conduct, particularly targeting children for sexual exploitation online, to further the network’s goals of accelerating the downfall of the current world order, including the U.S. government. Members of 764 work in concert with one another towards a common purpose of destroying civilized society through the corruption and exploitation of vulnerable populations, including minors.

As part of the 764 network, Alaya was allegedly involved with an online group that blackmailed underage girls into creating child pornography videos depicting themselves engaging in degrading sadistic sexual acts, torture sessions, and carving their abusers’ initials or names on their bodies. The group also encouraged the female minors to commit suicide. As one example, the criminal complaint details a March 2020 photo in which an individual had cut the defendant’s name “Henry” into their right forearm. The complaint also outlines four videos that allegedly depict Ayala directing teen girls to engage in specific sexual acts. In February and March 2025, the complaint also alleges that Ayala participated in a new server created as a “grooming pool” targeting many underage girls, which included two minor students in a public school district in Colorado.

Sue J. Bai, head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division; U.S. Attorney Bilal A. Essayli for the Central District of California; and Assistant Director David J. Scott of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division made the announcement. 

The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is investigating the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Amanda Elbogen and David Ryan for the Central District of California and Trial Attorneys Justin Sher and James Donnelly of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section are prosecuting the case.

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

LOS ANGELES – A Malibu man has been found guilty by a jury of defrauding investors out of more than $20 million by lying to them about his technology company’s financial performance related to a software application designed to help celebrities and social media influencers monetize their brand endorsements, the Justice Department announced today.

Bernhard Eugen Fritsch, 63, was found guilty late Thursday of one count of wire fraud.

According to evidence presented at a nine-day trial, Fritsch was the founder and CEO of StarClub Inc., a Santa Monica-based tech company. From 2014 to 2017, Fritsch raised more than $20 million from investors to build out the company’s app, also known as StarSite, claiming celebrities and influencers would use the technology to post content on social media sites such as Facebook. At the same time, the app would deliver advertising content and share ad revenue with the celebrity poster.

While pitching the StarClub offering to investors, Fritsch made several false and fraudulent claims, including that StarClub was on the verge of entering commercial deals with, or obtaining investments and buyout offers from major media companies such as Disney; that StarClub had earned $15 million in revenue in 2015; and that StarClub’s current investors included major media companies and a global investment banking firm. 

Fritsch also claimed he would use the investors’ money to build out StarClub’s channels and technology and for general corporate purposes. Instead, Fritsch used much of the investor money to enrich himself and support his luxurious lifestyle, including by purchasing luxury cars such as a McLaren and a Rolls-Royce, fixing up his yacht, and renovating his Malibu mansion, located near Carbon Beach. 

Law enforcement seized the yacht, McLaren, and the Rolls-Royce and they are subject to forfeiture proceedings.

One victim invested more than $20 million in StarClub over the course of two years, based on Fritsch’s false statements. This victim also introduced Fritsch to other victims who invested millions of additional funds in the company. Prosecutors estimate that Fritsch caused at least approximately $25 million in victim losses because of his scheme.

The jury found Fritsch not guilty of a second wire fraud count. He remains free on bond.

United States District Judge Dale S. Fischer is expected to schedule a sentencing hearing to occur in the coming months. Fritsch faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

The FBI investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Monica E. Tait, Sarah S. Lee, and Joseph L. De Leon of the Major Frauds Section are prosecuting this case.

LOS ANGELES – Working alongside law enforcement partners at United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, federal prosecutors this week filed criminal charges against 24 defendants who allegedly were found in the U.S. following removal, the Justice Department announced today.

Among these defendants included criminals who previously were convicted of felonies prior to their removal from the United States, including one previously convicted of narcotics crimes involving methamphetamine and cocaine.

The crime of being found in the United States following removal carries a base sentence of up to two years in federal prison. Defendants who were removed after being convicted of a felony face a maximum 10-year sentence and defendants removed after being convicted of an aggravated felony face a maximum of 20 years in federal prison.

Some of the recently filed cases are summarized below:

• Andrés Palacios Duque, 51, of Mexico, was charged via a federal criminal complaint with being an illegal alien found in the United States after removal.  Duque was removed from the U.S. in 2009 and 2015. His criminal history includes a 2014 conviction in Orange County Superior Court for transporting and possessing for sale methamphetamine, cocaine, and cocaine base, for which he was sentenced to five years in California state prison. Assistant United States Attorney Rosalind Wang of the Orange County Office is prosecuting this case.
• Tereso Guadalupe Martínez Reyes, 23, of Mexico, was arraigned this week on a two-count federal grand jury indictment charging him with possession of goods stolen from interstate shipment and being an alien found in the United States following removal. According to a criminal complaint previously filed in this case, U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested Martínez on March 13 on Interstate 15 in San Bernardino County. He had been erratically driving a black 2001 Chevrolet Suburban which contained 478 black Nike Jordan 6 Rings shoe boxes packed from floor to the roof of the vehicle. The shoes were valued at approximately $64,530 and had been stolen from a freight train. Martínez previously was removed from the United States to Mexico in February 2025. On March 18, a federal magistrate judge ordered him jailed without bond. Martínez pleaded not guilty to the charges against him at his April 1 arraignment. He is scheduled to go on trial on May 20 in United States District Court in Los Angeles. Assistant United States Attorney Alexander H. Tran of the International Narcotics, Money Laundering, and Racketeering Section is prosecuting this case.

Criminal complaints and indictments contain allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations are investigating these matters.

These cases are 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 San Fernando Valley man was arrested today on a federal criminal complaint alleging that he targeted children for sexual exploitation online as part of his role in an online violent network that seeks to accelerate social unrest and the downfall of the current world order.

Jose Henry Ayala Casamiro, 28, was arrested by the FBI on a criminal complaint charging him with possession of child pornography. He made his initial appearance this afternoon in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles. A federal magistrate judge ordered him jailed without bond and an April 22 arraignment date was scheduled in Los Angeles federal court.

“The facts alleged in this complaint are disturbing,” said United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “Criminals lurk in the internet’s dark corners to prey on and do lasting damage to children. Let this arrest serve as notice to all online predators. We will find you and arrest you if you hurt children.”

According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, Ayala caused minors to produce child sexual abuse material (CSAM) as well as other video content depicting themselves engaging in self-harm as part of his participation in an online network known broadly as “764”, a network of nihilistic violent extremists who engage in criminal conduct, particularly targeting children for sexual exploitation online, to further the network’s goals of accelerating the downfall of the current world order, including the United States Government. Members of 764 work in concert with one another towards a common purpose of destroying civilized society through the corruption and exploitation of vulnerable populations, including minors.

As part of the 764 network, Ayala allegedly was involved with an online group that blackmailed underage girls into creating child pornography videos depicting themselves engaging in degrading sadistic sexual acts, torture sessions, and carving their abusers’ initials or names on their bodies. The group also encouraged the female minors to commit suicide. As one example, the criminal complaint details a March 2020 photo in which an individual had cut the defendant’s name “Henry” into their right forearm. The complaint also outlines four videos that allegedly depict Ayala directing teen girls to engage in specific sexual acts. In February and March 2025, the complaint also alleges that Ayala participated in a new server created as a “grooming pool” targeting underage girls.

The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Los Angeles Police Department are investigating this case.

Assistant United States Attorneys Amanda Elbogen, of the Terrorism and Export Crimes Section, and David Ryan, Chief of the National Security Division, are prosecuting this case, with assistance from Trial Attorneys Justin Sher and James Donnelly from the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.

LOS ANGELES – Bilal A. “Bill” Essayli was sworn in today as the United States Attorney for the Central District of California following his appointment Tuesday by Attorney General Pamela Bondi.

The appointment of Mr. Essayli, 39, was made pursuant to Title 28 United States Code Section 546, which provides that “the Attorney General may appoint a United States Attorney for the district in which the office of United States Attorney is vacant.”

Mr. Essayli, who was sworn in this morning in a private ceremony by Chief United States District Judge Dolly M. Gee, now oversees the largest United States Attorney’s Office outside of Washington, D.C. The office, which currently employs more than 250 lawyers, serves approximately 20 million residents in the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo.

“It is the honor of a lifetime to lead the United States Attorney’s Office and serve the people of the district that I have called home for so many years,” said United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “As our district’s chief federal prosecutor, I will work diligently and tirelessly with our federal and local law enforcement partners to implement the priorities of the President and the Attorney General and to protect our communities from criminals. Our citizens deserve no less.”

Mr. Essayli returns to the office after serving as a twice-elected member of the California State Assembly, representing California’s 63rd State Assembly District from December 2022 until Tuesday. The 63rd District is comprised of communities including parts of Riverside and Corona, and the cities of Menifee and Norco.

In October 2019, he founded and was a partner at the Newport Beach-based law firm Essayli & Brown LLP.

From October 2014 to February 2018, Mr. Essayli served as an assistant United States attorney in our district, serving in the Los Angeles and Riverside offices. As a federal prosecutor, Mr. Essayli brought justice to victims of violent and organized crime, identity theft, bank fraud, securities fraud and other white-collar crimes.

Notably, Mr. Essayli was part of the team of federal prosecutors that responded to the terrorist attack at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino in December 2015. He also obtained a conviction in August 2015 at the conclusion of a three-week criminal trial of a Santa Barbara doctor charged with unlawfully prescribing opiates, which resulted in the deaths of more than a dozen patients.

For two years prior to first joining the office, Mr. Essayli served as a deputy district attorney in the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.

Before becoming a prosecutor, Mr. Essayli was an associate attorney at the law firm of Paul Hastings LLP, focusing on employment law.

Mr. Essayli is the son of Lebanese immigrants and a graduate of Centennial High School in Corona. He was the first in his family to graduate college, receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree from the Kellogg Honors College of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He received his juris doctorate from Chapman University School of Law. 

LOS ANGELES – A Long Beach man was sentenced today to 84 months in federal prison for his role in a smash-and-grab robbery of a Beverly Hills jewelry store in 2022 in which more than $2.6 million in merchandise was stolen – and the proceeds of which he later displayed on his Instagram account.

Ladell Tharpe, 39, was sentenced by United States District Judge George H. Wu, who also ordered him to pay $2,674,600 in restitution.  

Tharpe pleaded guilty in September 2024 to one count of interference with commerce by robbery (Hobbs Act).

“Brazen criminal action that directly targets our small businesses in Los Angeles County will not be tolerated,” said Acting United States Attorney Joseph McNally. “The consequences for such action are severe and penalized accordingly, and I want to thank our law enforcement partners for their exceptional and dutiful work during this investigation.”

“Mr. Tharpe terrified his victims during this violent robbery carried out in broad daylight, then shamelessly boasted about it online,” said Akil Davis, the Assistant Director of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “The FBI will continue to work with our counterparts at local police departments to address violent crime and pursue justice at the federal level where appropriate.” 

“The Beverly Hills Police Department is committed to protecting our community and ensuring justice,” said Beverly Hills Police Chief Mark G. Stainbrook. “We value our partnership with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office and appreciate the investigators who relentlessly pursued and prosecuted those responsible for this crime. As a reminder, crime will not be tolerated in Beverly Hills.” 

In March 2022, Tharpe and his accomplices, Deshon Bell, 22, Jimmy Lee Vernon III, 33, both from Long Beach, as well as an unnamed minor drove three vehicles to a jewelry store in Beverly Hills and used sledgehammers and crow bars to break the glass surrounding the merchandise while employees and customers were present.

One of the vehicles driven to the jewelry store had been reported stolen four days prior to the robbery and was left in front of the victim store.

The thieves removed from the store’s display cases at least 19 bracelets, seven pairs of earrings, four necklaces, a pair of obelisks, eight rings, and 20 watches, all of which was valued at approximately $2,674,600. The robbers then returned to the car in which Bell was waiting and then fled the scene.

Two days after the heist, Tharpe posted images of large amounts of cash on his Instagram with the text “Robbery Gang.”

Tharpe has been in federal custody since March 2023.

Bell and Vernon each pleaded guilty to one count of Hobbs Act robbery. Judge Wu sentenced Bell to one year and one day in federal prison in February 2024, as well as ordering him to pay $2,674,000 in restitution.

Vernon, whose cellphone fell out of his sweatpants pocket during the conduct of the robbery and was recovered by investigators, was sentenced last month to 80 months in prison and was also ordered to repay $2,674,000 in restitution.

The FBI and the Beverly Hills Police Department investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Kevin J. Butler of the Violent and Organized Crime Section and Kevin B. Reidy of the Major Frauds Section prosecuted the case.

LOS ANGELES – Four Pomona gang members and Mexican Mafia associates were found guilty by a jury today of a series of racketeering-related crimes, including the murder of a federal inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in downtown Los Angeles in June 2020.

At the conclusion of a 20-day trial, the following defendants – all of Pomona – were found guilty of one count of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, one count of violent crimes in aid of racketeering (VICAR) murder, and one count of first-degree murder within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States:

• Michael Lerma, 68, a.k.a. “Pomona Mike” and “Big Mike;”
• Carlos Gonzalez, 41, a.k.a. “Popeye;”
• Juan Sanchez, 33, a.k.a. “Squeaks;” and
• Jose Valencia Gonzalez, 44, a.k.a. “Swifty.”

The jury also found Lerma and Valencia Gonzalez guilty of one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances (methamphetamine and heroin) at MDC and in the Pomona area. Finally, the jury found Gonzalez and Valencia Gonzalez guilty each of one count of being felons in possession of a firearm and ammunition. Sanchez was found not guilty of one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.

All the defendants have been in federal custody since 2018.

“These defendants were key players in a criminal enterprise that committed murder, assault, and drug trafficking,” said Acting United States Attorney Joseph T. McNally. “Today’s verdict will take these offenders off our streets and make our community safer.”

"This case makes it clear that gang violence by Mexican Mafia members and associates has not only been directed from the streets, but also from prisons in California," said Akil Davis, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “This lengthy investigation exemplifies the commitment by agencies at the federal, state and local level who've collaborated for several years on a task force to arrive at justice in this case.”

According to evidence presented at trial, from February 2012 to June 2020, Lerma – a full member of the Mexican Mafia prison gang – controlled and extorted drug proceeds from Latino street gangs in and around Pomona, as well as from incarcerated Latinos in Calipatria State Prison in Imperial County. Members of Lerma’s criminal enterprise also engaged in robberies, identity theft and fraud, drug trafficking, and other acts of violence. 

In June 2020, Carlos Gonzalez, Valencia Gonzalez, and Sanchez – at Lerma’s direction – entered the cell at MDC Los Angeles and killed a victim – identified in court documents as “S.B.” The defendants murdered S.B. in retaliation for S.B. failing to pay drug debts deemed owed to Lerma’s cell of the Mexican Mafia prison gang. 

United States District Judge George H. Wu will schedule sentencing hearings in the coming months, at which time each defendant will face a mandatory sentence of life in federal prison.

Federal prosecutors so far have secured 16 convictions in this case, including that of Cheryl Perez-Castaneda, 62, of Pomona, who is serving a 12-year prison sentence for using her power on the street as a “señora” – a high-level female associate of Lerma’s – to solicit a murder and for participating in a carjacking attempt that resulted in the July 2013 shooting of M.A.

Kelly Deshannon, 43, of La Verne, is serving a prison sentence of more than seven years for serving as a “secretary” to Lerma and for facilitating the July 2013 armed robbery of M.A. and for extortion and distributing narcotics.

The FBI’s San Gabriel Valley Safe Streets Task Force (SGVSSTF), which is comprised of agents and officers with the FBI, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Pomona Police Department, the El Monte Police Department, and the Drug Enforcement Administration, investigated this matter in conjunction with the FBI’s Los Angeles Metropolitan Violent Crime Task Force. The Pomona Police Department is the sponsoring agency of the SGVSSTF and has been the headquarters for the task force since its inception in 2008.          

Assistant United States Attorneys Kyle W. Kahan and Jason A. Gorn of the International Narcotics, Money Laundering, and Racketeering Section, and Assistant United States Attorney Kellye M. Ng of the Violent and Organized Crime Section are prosecuting this case.

RIVERSIDE, California – A former elementary school teacher who worked at a school district in the San Gabriel Valley was sentenced today to 48 months in federal prison for possessing more than 400 videos containing child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

Steven Pilar, 47, of Las Vegas, was sentenced by United States District Judge Sunshine S. Sykes, who also ordered him to pay $115,000 in restitution.

Pilar pleaded guilty in December 2024 to one count of possession of child pornography. He has been in federal custody since August 2024.

In February and April of 2020, Pilar used his computer and a peer-to-peer file-sharing program called BitTorrent to download videos and images containing CSAM via the internet. Specifically, Pilar – at his then-home in Victorville – knowingly received and downloaded approximately 444 videos containing CSAM, and knowingly possessed the videos for a time before deleting them. 

At the time of download and possession, Pilar knew these videos and images contained visual depictions of actual children engaging in sexually explicit conduct. 

Many of the videos and images that Pilar knowingly downloaded involved a pre-pubescent minor and a minor who had not attained 12 years of age, sadistic and masochistic conduct, and sexual abuse and exploitation of an infant and toddler.

Pilar was employed as a fifth-grade teacher working in the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District at the time of the offense. He no longer works at the school.

In April 2020, Pilar was arrested on state charges, which were later dropped so a federal case could be pursued.

“His actions caused direct and significant harm to the victims in this case, and his offense is aggravated by fact that he was teaching young children at the time,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “In fact, when [Pilar] downloaded and viewed the CSAM, he took part of a perpetual re-victimization of the victims.”

The FBI and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Joshua J. Lee of the General Crimes Section prosecuted this case.

LOS ANGELES – A Swedish national was extradited from Spain and was arraigned today on a 115-count federal indictment alleging he licensed the rights of the late Colombian narcoterrorist Pablo Escobar and defrauded investors by marketing and selling products – including flamethrowers and cellphones – that he never delivered.

Olaf Kyros Gustafsson, 31, a.k.a. “El Silencio,” arrived in Los Angeles this morning after Spanish authorities extradited him. Gustafsson is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud, nine counts of wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, one count of conspiracy to engage in money laundering, 41 counts of money laundering, 35 counts of international money laundering, and 25 counts of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity.

Gustafsson was arrested in Spain in December 2023 and was arraigned this afternoon in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles. Gustafsson pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. A May 20 trial date was scheduled. A federal magistrate judge scheduled an April 3 detention hearing. Gustafsson remains in federal custody. 

According to the indictment, Gustafsson was the CEO of Escobar Inc., a corporation registered in Puerto Rico that held successor-in-interest rights to the persona and legacy of Pablo Escobar, the deceased Colombian narcoterrorist and head of the Medellín Cartel. Escobar Inc. used Pablo Escobar’s likeness and persona to market and sell purported consumer products to the public.

From July 2019 to November 2023, Gustafsson identified existing products in the marketplace that were being manufactured and sold to the public. He then used the Escobar persona to market and advertise similar and competing products purportedly being sold by Escobar Inc., advertising them at a price substantially lower than existing counterparts being sold by other companies.

Gustafsson then purportedly sold the products – including an Escobar Flamethrower, an Escobar Fold Phone, an Escobar Gold 11 Pro Phone, and Escobar Cash (marketed as a “physical cryptocurrency”) – to customers, receiving payments via PayPal, Stripe, Coinbase, among other payment processors.

Despite receiving customer payments, Gustafsson did not deliver the Escobar Inc. products to paying customers because the products did not exist.

In furtherance of the scheme, Gustafsson sent crudely made samples of the purported Escobar Inc. products to online technology reviewers and social media influencers to attempt to increase the public’s demand for them. For example, Gustafsson allegedly sent Samsung Galaxy Fold Phones wrapped in gold foil and disguised as Escobar Inc. phones to online technology reviewers to attempt to induce victims who watched the online reviews into buying the products that never would be delivered.

Also, rather than sending paying customers the actual products, Gustafsson mailed them a “Certificate of Ownership,” a book or other Escobar Inc. promotional materials so there was a record of mailing from the company to the customer. When a paying customer attempted to obtain a refund when the product was never delivered, Gustafsson fraudulently referred the payment processor to the proof of mailing for the Certificate of Ownership or other material as proof that the product itself was shipped and that the customer had received it so the refund requests would be denied.

Some of the victims include residents of Los Angeles, Gardena, and Commerce.

Gustafsson allegedly also caused bank accounts to be opened under his name and entities he controlled to be used as funnel accounts – bank accounts into which he deposited and withdrew proceeds derived from his criminal activities. The purpose was to conceal and disguise the nature, location, source, ownership, and control of the proceeds. The bank accounts were located in the United States, Sweden, and the United Arab Emirates.

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

IRS Criminal Investigation, the FBI, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation-Office of Inspector General are investigating this matter, with assistance from the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs, the United States Marshals Service, Eurojust, Spanish authorities, and French judicial authorities.

Assistant United States Attorney Joshua O. Mausner of the Violent and Organized Crime Section is prosecuting this case.

LOS ANGELES – This week, federal prosecutors working with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal law enforcement partners filed criminal charges against 20 defendants who allegedly were found in the U.S. following removal, the Justice Department announced today.

Many of the defendants charged previously were convicted of felony offenses before they were removed from the United States, offenses that include vandalism and firearms crimes.

One of the defendants, Antonio Espinoza Zarate, 55, a.k.a. “El Gato,” of the Mar Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles, was arrested Wednesday on a federal criminal complaint alleging he sold two kilograms of fentanyl pills to a buyer from July 2023 to February 2025 and charging him with illegally re-entering the U.S. following removal and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl. A federal magistrate judge ordered him jailed without bond a scheduled an April 15 arraignment for him in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles. Assistant United States Attorney Diane B. Roldán of the Violent and Organized Crime Section is prosecuting Espinoza.

Espinoza is a citizen of Mexico who has been previously deported in 2010, 2013, 2014, and 2017 and illegally reentered the United States following his removals, according to court documents. His criminal history includes felony convictions in 2008 in Los Angeles Superior Court for possession of narcotics for sale and in 2015 in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona for illegal reentry of a removed alien.

The investigation was conducted by the Homeland Security Investigations (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, with support from special agents with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California – Criminal Investigative Division; and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, with assistance from the Los Angeles Police Department regarding dangers to the community from the sales of narcotics and firearms.

The crime of being found in the United States following removal carries a base sentence of up to two years in federal prison. Defendants who were removed after being convicted of a felony face up to 10 years in federal prison. Defendants removed after being convicted of an aggravated felony face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

Some of the other recently filed cases are summarized below with information contained in court documents.

• Efrén García Jiménez, 24, of Mexico, was charged via a federal criminal complaint with being an illegal alien found in the United States after removal.  García Jiménez, who was removed from the U.S. in 2019, was charged after being convicted in Orange County Superior Court on January 24 of discharging a firearm at an inhabited residence and vandalism, for which he was sentenced to three years in California state prison. Assistant United States Attorney Melissa S. Rabbani of the Orange County Office is prosecuting this case.
• Aristeo González Rosas, 24, of Mexico, was charged via a federal criminal complaint with being an illegal alien found in the United States after removal. González Rosas was federally charged after he was arrested on February 15 in Ventura County. Prior to this arrest, González Rosas was convicted in 2022 in Ventura County Superior Court of carrying a loaded firearm with a large capacity magazine, for which he was sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment, and again in Ventura County Superior Court in 2023 of being a felon/addict in possession of a firearm, for which he was sentenced to 16 months in California state prison. He was removed from the U.S. on August 31, 2024, and was removed again on September 5, 2024. The Domestic Security and Immigration Crimes Section is prosecuting this case.

In another matter, a federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted Kevin Mauricio Ballardo-García, 24, a Mexican national, for allegedly transporting 148.12 kilograms (326.6 pounds) of methamphetamine from Mexico into Southern California. During a traffic stop in Westminster on March 11, law enforcement seized 13 buckets and one water container that held liquid methamphetamine from Ballardo-García’s Jeep Wrangler. He was ordered jailed without bond and his arraignment is scheduled for March 31 in United States District Court in Santa Ana. He is charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Assistant United States Attorney Robert J. Keenan of the Orange County Office is prosecuting this matter.

Criminal complaints and indictments contain allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

ICE and Homeland Security Investigations are investigating these matters. The Drug Enforcement Administration is investigating the Ballardo-García case with assistance from California Highway Patrol and the Irvine Police Department.

These cases are 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 federal grand jury has returned a 43-count indictment charging a music label owner and purported anti-gang activist who is a long-time leader of a South Los Angeles street gang with dozens of felonies, including fraud, robbery, extortion, tax evasion, embezzlement of donations to his charity that receives public money, and running a racketeering conspiracy in which he allegedly murdered an aspiring musician, the Justice Department announced today.

Eugene Henley, Jr., 58, a.k.a. “Big U,” of the Hyde Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, is charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, two counts of conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery and extortion (Hobbs Act), one count of Hobbs Act robbery, nine counts of attempted Hobbs Act extortion, five counts of Hobbs Act extortion, one count of transportation of an individual in interstate commerce with intent that the individual engage in prostitution (Mann Act), 15 counts of wire fraud, five counts of embezzlement, conversion, and intentional misapplication of funds from an organization receiving federal funds, one count of bank fraud, one count of tax evasion, and two counts of willful failure to file a tax return.

Henley – a long-time member of the Rollin’ 60s Neighborhood Crips street gang – has been in federal custody since March 19 after being charged in a federal criminal complaint. His arraignment is scheduled for April 8 in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles. He has a detention hearing scheduled for April 10, also in Los Angeles federal court.

Also charged in today’s indictment are:

• Sylvester Robinson, 59, a.k.a. “Vey,” of Northridge;
• Mark Martin, 50, a.k.a. “Bear Claw,” of the Beverlywood area of Los Angeles;
• Termaine Ashley Williams, 42, a.k.a. “Luce Cannon,” of Las Vegas;
• Armani Aflleje, 38, a.k.a. “Mani,” of Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles;
• Fredrick Blanton Jr., 43, of South Los Angeles; and
• Tiffany Shanrika Hines, 51, of Yorba Linda.

These defendants are in federal custody and are expected to be arraigned in the coming weeks.

“As the indictment alleges, Mr. Henley led a criminal enterprise whose conduct ranged from murder to sophisticated fraud that included stealing from taxpayers and a charity,” said Acting United States Attorney Joseph McNally. “Eradicating gangs and organized crime is the Department of Justice's top priority. Today's charges against the leadership of this criminal outfit will make our neighborhoods in Los Angeles safer.”

According to the indictment returned on Wednesday, from 2010 until March 2025, Henley’s criminal group – identified in court documents as the “Big U Enterprise” – operated as a mafia-like organization that utilized Henley’s stature and long-standing association with the Rollin’ 60s and other street gangs to intimidate businesses and individuals in Los Angeles. Henley is widely regarded as a leader within the Rollin’ 60s and rose to prominence in the street gang during the 1980s.

While the Big U Enterprise at times partnered with the Rollin’ 60s and other criminal elements for mutual benefit, the Big U Enterprise is a distinct and independent criminal enterprise engaged in criminal activity including murder, extortion, robbery, trafficking and exploiting sex workers, fraud, and illegal gambling.

Not only did the enterprise expand its power through violence, fear, and intimidation, but it also used social media platforms, documentaries, podcasts, interviews, and Henley’s reputation and status as an “O.G.” (original gangster) to create fame for – and stoke fear of – the Big U Enterprise, its members, and its associates.

For example, in January 2021, Henley murdered a victim – identified in the indictment as “R.W.” – an aspiring musician signed to Uneek Music, Henley’s music label. Henley shot and killed R.W., who had recorded a defamatory song about Henley. Henley then dragged the victim’s body off Interstate 15 in Las Vegas and left it in a ditch.

Henley also committed other crimes, including fraudulently obtaining a COVID-19 business-relief loan for Uneek Music, which operated at a loss and was ineligible for such relief. He used his anti-gang charity, Developing Options, as a front for fraudulent activities and to insulate other members of the Big U Enterprise from law enforcement suspicion.

Henley further embezzled large donations that celebrities and award-winning companies made to Developing Options, which Henley immediately converted to his personal bank account. According to the indictment, Developing Options is primarily funded through the City of Los Angeles’s Mayor’s Office through the Gang Reduction Youth Development (GRYD) Foundation, portions of which receive federal funding, but also receives donations from prominent sources, including NBA players.

Finally, the indictment alleges that – as part of the racketeering conspiracy charge – that during the early morning hours of March 19, while law enforcement was arresting other members of the enterprise, Henley turned off his cellphones and fled his home. That day, Henley posted to the “Crenshaw Cougars” Instagram account, claiming racial profiling, blaming his co-defendants and opponents for the criminal charges filed against him in a federal criminal complaint, and instructing the public not to associate with his co-defendants and known opponents. Henley eventually surrendered to federal law enforcement without his phones.

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, Henley, Robinson, Martin would face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for the racketeering conspiracy count. The bank fraud count is punishable by up to 30 years in federal prison. The Hobbs Act conspiracy, robbery, and extortion and the wire fraud counts each carry a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. The Mann Act count and the theft concerning programs receiving federal funds count each carry a penalty of up to 10 years in federal prison. The tax evasion count carries a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison while the willful failure to pay file a tax return count is punishable by up to one year’s imprisonment.

The FBI’s Los Angeles Metropolitan Task Force on Violent Gangs; IRS Criminal Investigation; the United States Department of Justice Office of Inspector General; the Los Angeles Police Department; and the North Las Vegas Police Department are investigating this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Kevin J. Butler and Jena A. MacCabe of the Violent and Organized Crime Section are prosecuting this case. 

LOS ANGELES – The CEO of a Latin music conglomerate and his talent agency were found guilty by a jury today of 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, 44, of Huntington Beach, the CEO of Del Records and its related talent agency Del Entertainment Inc., was found 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.

Co-defendant Del Entertainment also was found guilty of all 11 counts of which Del Villar was convicted.

According to evidence presented at a nine-day trial, 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 music concert which 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 in Mexico – including Mexicali and San José Iturbide, Guanajuato.

“The defendants here chose to get into business with an individual they knew had ties to the CJNG and had been designated a narcotics trafficker under the Kingpin Act,” said Acting United States Attorney Joseph McNally. “Cartels and transnational criminal organizations cause immeasurable harm to our country. We are using every tool to eliminate these organizations and will prosecute those that do business with cartels.”

“Doing business with government-sanctioned individuals is illegal and can have very serious consequences,” said Akil Davis, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “Today’s guilty verdict sends a message to music industry associates and others who engage in business with those sanctioned for laundering money for Mexican cartels that such criminal activity will not be tolerated by the FBI and our partners at the IRS and the United States Attorney’s Office.”

United States District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong scheduled an August 15 sentencing hearing, at which time Del Villar will face a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison for each count. Del Entertainment will face a sentence of five years of probation and a fine of $10 million for each count.

Co-defendant Luca Scalisi, 58, of West Hollywood, has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him in this case and is scheduled to be tried separately in July 2025.

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. 

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 and Alexander B. Schwab of the Corporate and Securities Fraud Strike Force, and Kathrynne N. Seiden of the Terrorism and Export Crimes Section, prosecuted this case, with substantial assistance from the International Narcotics, Money Laundering, and Racketeering Section.

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 Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (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 – Seoul Medical Group Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiary Advanced Medical Management Inc., headquartered in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles, have agreed to pay $58.74 million and their former president, Dr. Min Young Cha, has agreed to pay $1.76 million for allegedly violating the False Claims Act by causing the submission of false diagnosis codes for two spinal conditions to increase payments from the Medicare Advantage program.

Renaissance Imaging Medical Associates Inc., a Northridge-based radiology group that worked with Seoul Medical, has also agreed to pay $2.35 million for allegedly conspiring with Seoul Medical Group in connection with the false diagnoses for the two spinal conditions.

“The false claims to Medicare resulted in millions of dollars in losses to the government,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph McNally. “Through this $62.85 million settlement we have recouped those losses and the healthcare providers who made the false claims are paying millions of dollars in additional damages.” 

“Medicare Advantage is a vital program for our seniors and the government expects healthcare providers who participate in the program to provide truthful and accurate information,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Yaakov M. Roth of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “Today’s result sends a clear message to the Medicare Advantage community that the United States will zealously pursue appropriate action against those who knowingly submit false claims for taxpayer funds.”

Under Medicare Advantage, also known as the Medicare Part C program, Medicare beneficiaries have the option of enrolling in managed care insurance plans called Medicare Advantage Plans (MA Plans) and the MA Plans contract with healthcare providers, such as Seoul Medical Group, to provide the Medicare-covered benefits. MA Plans are paid a per-person amount to provide the care to their enrollees and, in turn, the MA Plans pay the providers.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which oversees the Medicare program, adjusts the payments to MA Plans based on demographic information and the health diagnoses of each plan beneficiary. The adjustments are commonly referred to as “risk scores.” In general, a beneficiary with diagnoses that are more expensive to treat will have a higher risk score, and CMS will make a larger risk-adjusted payment to the MA Plan for that beneficiary.

Seoul Medical Group is a healthcare provider that started in 1993 in Los Angeles and has since expanded into at least six states and has contracted at times with a network of 150 independent primary care providers and 1,000 specialists. Dr. Min Young Cha started Seoul Medical Group and until 2023 was its president. 

The United States alleged that, from 2015 to 2021, Seoul Medical Group and Dr. Cha submitted diagnoses for two severe spinal conditions, spinal enthesopathy and sacroiliitis, for patients who did not suffer from either of these conditions. When Seoul Medical Group was questioned by an MA Plan about its use of spinal enthesopathy, Seoul Medical Group enlisted the assistance of Renaissance Imaging Medical Associates to create radiology reports that appeared to support the spinal enthesopathy diagnosis. Both diagnoses resulted in an increase in payment from CMS to the MA Plan, and the MA Plan then passed along a portion of the increased payment to Seoul Medical Group. 

“Providers who game the Medicare program to increase profit undermine the foundation of care and diminish patient trust in the nation’s public health care system,” said Deputy Inspector General for Investigations Christian J. Schrank of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG). “HHS-OIG will continue to collaborate with our law enforcement partners and rigorously probe false claims to the fullest extent possible.”

The civil settlement resolves claims brought under the qui tam or whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act by Paul Pew, the former Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Advanced Medical Management. Under those provisions, a private party can file an action on behalf of the United States and receive a portion of any recovery. The qui tam case is captioned United States of America ex rel. Pew v. Seoul Medical Group, Inc., et al., No. 2:20-cv-05156 (C.D. Cal.). The relator’s share of the settlement has not yet been determined.

The resolution obtained in this matter was the result of a coordinated effort between the Justice Department’s Civil Division, Commercial Litigation Branch, Fraud Section, and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, with assistance from the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General.

The investigation and resolution of this matter 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).

Assistant United Sates Attorney Karen Y. Paik of the Civil Division’s Civil Fraud Section and Trial Attorneys J. Jennifer Koh and Robbin O. Lee of the Justice Department’s Fraud Section investigated this matter.

The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability.

SANTA ANA, California – An Orange County man was sentenced today to 46 months in federal prison for orchestrating a scheme to steal high-value violins and robbing a bank in Irvine.

Mark Meng, 58, of Irvine, was sentenced by United States District Judge David O. Carter, who scheduled a restitution hearing for June 24 in this case.

Meng pleaded guilty in September 2024 to one count of wire fraud and one count of bank robbery. He has been in federal custody since May 2024.

From August 2020 to April 2023, Meng schemed to steal valuable violins and keep or resell them for his personal gain. Meng – posing as a collector of musical instruments – contacted violin shops across the country to express interest in receiving the violins on loan for a trial period to determine if he wished to buy them. In some cases, he purchased violin bows before asking for the violins on a trial-period basis.

After receiving each violin, Meng negotiated a purchase price for it, kept the instrument beyond the trial period, then provided the violin shops with a check or set of checks for the violin, knowing the whole time the checks he wrote to the violin shops would be rejected due to insufficient funds.

When a violin-shop representative contacted Meng to inform him that the shop’s bank had rejected his checks, he sent a new series of checks, which also later were rejected due to insufficient funds. Sometimes, Meng lied to the violin shops by falsely telling them he had mailed the violin back to them, but that they had been lost in the mail. Eventually, Meng stopped communicating with the violin shops.

After fraudulently obtaining the violins, Meng re-sold them to a buyer – often during the trial periods from the violin shops. For example, on February 1, 2023, a victim loaned Meng a Guilio Degani violin – valued at $175,000 – pursuant to a trial-period contract, which required Meng to return or purchase the violin by February 10, 2023. However, Meng attempted to sell this violin to a buyer – who was unaware of the violin’s stolen origin.

According to court documents, Meng also stole the following:

• one Lorenzo Ventapane violin, dated 1823, and valued at $175,000;
• one Guilio Degani violin, dated 1903, and valued at $55,000;
• one Caressa & Francais violin, dated 1913, and valued at $40,000;
• one Francais Lott violin bow, stamped “Lupot,” and valued at $7,500;
• one Gand & Bernardel violin, dated 1870, and valued at $60,000;
• one French, Charles J.B. Colin Mezin violin, valued at $6,500; and
• one German, E.H. Roth Guarneri violin, valued at $6,500.

Despite knowing that he did not own these violins and violin bows, Meng sold three of these stolen violins and a violin bow to a victim for a total of $44,700.

In January 2023, Meng emailed one violin shop in Alexandria, Virginia, to express an interest in obtaining the Ventapane violin and the Degani violin on a trial basis, all the while intending to fraudulently obtain then re-sell them.

On April 2, 2024, Meng entered a bank branch in Irvine, wearing a hat, sunglasses, a bandana covering his face, and blue latex gloves. Meng gave the bank teller a note stating “$18,000. Withdraw. Please. Stay Cool. No harm. Thx.” When the teller told Meng she did not have access to the money he demanded, Meng responded, “Give me whatever you have.” The teller, fearing harm to herself and her co-workers, handed Meng $446.

The FBI’s Art Crime Team investigated this matter, with assistance from the Irvine Police Department and the Glendale Police Department.

Assistant United States Attorneys Laura A. Alexander and Mark A. Williams, both of the Environmental Crimes and Consumer Protection Section, prosecuted this case.

LOS ANGELES – A Westside father and son were arrested today on federal criminal complaints charging them with possessing narcotics – specifically, the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl – with the intent to distribute it to others.

Antonio Espinoza Zarate, 55, a.k.a. “El Gato,” of the Mar Vista area of Los Angeles, and his son, Francisco Javier Espinoza Galindo, 31, of Santa Monica, were arrested this morning and are scheduled to make their initial appearances this afternoon in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles.

Both defendants are charged with possession with the intent to distribute fentanyl. Antonio Espinoza also is charged with illegal reentry of a removed alien.

According to affidavits filed with the complaints, Antonio Espinoza in July 2023 sold a pistol, a rifle, 131 rounds of ammunition, and more than 500 grams of fentanyl pills to a buyer. He is not licensed to engage in the business of dealing in firearms.

In August 2023, Antonio Espinoza allegedly sold an AR-style rifle and approximately 1 kilogram of fentanyl pills to a buyer, supplied by Francisco Espinoza. In January 2025, he allegedly sold a rifle, a pistol, a revolver, and ammunition to a buyer. In February 2025, with his son present, Antonio Espinoza sold more than 500 grams of fentanyl pills to the confidential informant.

Antonio Espinoza is a citizen of Mexico, who has been previously deported in 2010, 2013, 2014, and 2017 and illegally reentered the United States following his removals, according to court documents. His criminal history includes felony convictions in 2008 in Los Angeles Superior Court for possession of narcotics for sale and in 2015 in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona for illegal reentry of a removed alien.

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

If convicted of all charges, the defendants would face a statutory maximum sentence of life in federal prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.

The investigation was conducted by the Homeland Security Investigations (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, with support from special agents with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California – Criminal Investigative Division; and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, with assistance from the Los Angeles Police Department regarding dangers to the community from the sales of narcotics and firearms.

As U.S. DOJ special agents, the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) Criminal Investigators conduct independent and joint-agency investigations to achieve successful prosecutions and adjudications of federal crimes charged in the district.  USAO investigators are positioned to address the prosecution priorities of the U.S. Attorney, as well as unique or project-based matters that may arise in the district and serve to generate or support a variety of federal cases with coordination and continuity among law enforcement partners throughout an investigation and trial.

Assistant United States Attorney Diane B. Roldán of the Violent and Organized Crime Section is prosecuting these cases.

LOS ANGELES – A Beverly Hills man was sentenced today to 300 months in federal prison for obtaining nearly $18 million from investors for sham businesses supposedly operating in hemp related industries – all while he was completing a sentence in a prior criminal case.

Mark Roy Anderson, 70, was sentenced by United States District Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha, who scheduled a restitution hearing for June 4.

At today’s hearing, Judge Aenlle-Rocha said, “The magnitude of the fraud is breathtaking…the [victims’ statements reflect] the depth of the harm. Many have lost their life savings reflecting decades of hard work.” Judge Aenlle-Rocha also described Anderson as “an accomplished and incorrigible con man” and stated that “the public must be protected from him for as long as possible.”

Anderson pleaded guilty in April 2024 to two counts of wire fraud. He has been in federal custody since May 2023.

Anderson engaged in two separate but related schemes that swindled victims, which he committed shortly after his release from federal prison but while serving out the rest of his prison term on home confinement and, later, while on supervised release for a previous fraud conviction.

“The defendant stole more than $18 million from dozens of investors by promising quick returns on their investments into hemp farms and other exotic investments,” said Acting United States Attorney Joseph McNally. “Today’s 25-year sentence takes him off the street so that he cannot harm other victims.”

           Harvest Farm Group

In the first scheme, from June 2020 to April 2021, Anderson tricked investors into providing funding for his company, called Harvest Farm Group, to harvest hemp supposedly being grown on his farm and then process that hemp into medical-grade cannabidiol (CBD) isolate – a chemical found in marijuana – to be sold for a substantial profit.

Anderson convinced investors to invest in Harvest Farm Group by falsely representing that, through the company, he owned and operated a hemp farm in Kern County. He also lied that had already completed successful and profitable harvests of hemp from the farm. He also falsely said he was using his own machinery and equipment to convert the hemp into CBD isolate and Delta 8, a psychoactive substance that, like CBD isolate, could be used in consumer products ranging from olive oil to body cream.

Anderson attempted to maintain a veneer of trustworthiness by taking steps to assure investors Harvest Farm Group was legitimate and he was not the “Mark Roy Anderson” with multiple prior fraud convictions. Anderson concealed that he had been convicted of multiple federal and state felony crimes, including mail fraud, wire fraud, grand theft, forgery, preparing false evidence, and money laundering. He also concealed that he was still serving a criminal sentence and was on supervised release at the time he was soliciting investments.

To stall victim investors from making collection efforts and reporting him to law enforcement, Anderson falsely promised victims he would pay them money from purported sales of products made to Canadian companies, that sales of products had been delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that he would otherwise return their money.

           Bio Pharma and Verta Bottling

In the second scheme, which ran from April 2021 to May 2023, Anderson deceived investors by soliciting money for Bio Pharma and Verta Bottling, two of his sham companies, by claiming that these businesses successfully manufactured, bottled, and packaged commercial products.

Specifically, Anderson falsely told investors Bio Pharma purportedly manufactured and sold products infused with CBD, including products such as CBD-infused avocado oil, olive oil, pain cream, gummies, tequila, and chili oil. Anderson also claimed that Verta Bottling manufactured and sold beverages and a variety of food products.

Anderson falsely stated that his bottling companies owned and possessed millions of dollars’ worth of assets, including – in Bio Pharma’s case – hemp biomass, CBD isolate, CBD oil, and – in Verta Bottling’s case – manufacturing equipment and an assignable lease for a warehouse to manufacture and sell its products.

Anderson’s other lies to investors included false claims that his bottling companies had at least $10 million in purchase-order contracts from suppliers. He drafted fake legal and business documents, which included fabricated purchase order contracts purporting to show agreements with third party companies to purchase tens of millions of dollars’ worth of products manufactured by the Anderson bottling companies. Anderson also provided victims samples of products purportedly manufactured by his purported bottling companies.

Instead of investing victim funds as he promised, Anderson instead used their money on personal expenses. He has agreed to forfeit his ill-gotten gains from these schemes, including 15 cars – one of them a Ferrari – and real estate in Ojai.

In total, Anderson solicited more than $18.8 million from 45 victims for both schemes, causing victims to lose approximately $17,745,150.

The FBI investigated this matter.

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