District of Maryland

The Justice Department announced today that it filed a complaint and proposed consent decree in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland resolving allegations that the Johns Hopkins Health System Corporation (Johns Hopkins) violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by denying people with disabilities equal access to medical care by excluding their necessary support persons.

“Patients with disabilities may need the assistance of a support person, like a family member or aide, to have equal access to health care, especially during emergencies,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Policies and training go hand in hand when it comes to ensuring that health care providers and their employees are protecting patient rights and not excluding support persons improperly. Ensuring equal access to medical care is a priority for the Justice Department.”

“Patients with disabilities deserve equal access to healthcare,” said U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron for the District of Maryland. “Appropriate medical care often requires them to be accompanied by essential support persons. Johns Hopkins’ recommitment to meeting the needs of its patients with disabilities and ensuring that they are treated with dignity and respect is a welcome outcome of this agreement.”

Some individuals with dementia, intellectual disabilities, autism spectrum disorder and other disabilities may require the assistance of a support person (such as a family member, personal assistant or other individual knowledgeable about them) when accessing medical care. Support persons can help individuals with disabilities to communicate, such as providing their medical history and answering questions, and to understand what is happening, such as medical instructions they are given during their care and discharge.

The complaint alleges that Johns Hopkins failed on numerous occasions to follow its own policies on visitors and support persons and did not permit patients with disabilities to be accompanied by their support persons. As a result, these patients were unable to receive equal care. Title III of the ADA requires private hospitals and other health care providers to provide individuals with disabilities with full and equal enjoyment of their goods and services.

Under the proposed consent decree, which the court must approve, Johns Hopkins has agreed to pay $150,000 to compensate multiple affected individuals. Johns Hopkins will also update its support person policies to ensure ADA compliance, train its employees on its support person policies and the ADA and report to the department on any future complaints regarding support persons.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland handled the matter.

For more information on the Civil Rights Division, please visit www.justice.gov/crt. For more information on the ADA, please call the department’s toll-free ADA Information Line at 800-514-0301 (TTY 1-833-610-1264) or visit www.ada.gov. If you believe you’ve been discriminated against, you may file a complaint online at www.civilrights.justice.gov/. Anyone in the District of Maryland may also report civil rights violations by emailing USAMD.Civilrightscomplaint@usdoj.gov.

Baltimore, Maryland – Gary Hammond Jackson III, age 32, of Pasadena, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to federal charges of sexual exploitation of a minor and the commission of a felony involving a minor by a registered sex offender.

The guilty plea was announced by Erek L. Barron, United States Attorney for the District of Maryland; Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) Baltimore Field Office, Roland L. Butler, Jr. Superintendent of the Maryland State Police, and Anne Colt Leitess of the Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney’s Office.

According to his guilty plea, in 2020 and 2022, Jackson sexually abused two minor females, then ages 6 and 3, and produced images of the abuse.  Specifically, in November 2020, Jackson sexually abused the first victim, then 6 years old, and used his cell phone to produce three images of the abuse.  In addition to the sexual exploitation that occurred in November 2020, Jackson sexually assaulted the victim at various times between January 2020 and December 2020.  On the basis of that separate conduct, Jackson was convicted of a Fourth Degree Sex Offense and Second Degree Assault in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County, Maryland.  Following his release, Jackson was required to register as a sex offender. 

After being required to register as a sex offender, Jackson used his cell phone in November 2022 to produce thirteen images of a second victim’s genitals when the victim was 3 years old.  In November 2022, investigators searched Jackson’s residence and located various digital devices, which contained over 1,500 files of child pornography.   

Jackson faces a minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years in federal prison for the sexual exploitation of a minor and a mandatory sentence of 10 years in federal prison for commission of a felony involving a minor by a registered sex offender.  Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.  For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the “Resources” tab on the left of the page.  

U.S. Attorney Barron commended the FBI, the Maryland State Police, and the Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney’s Office for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron also thanked Assistant United States Attorneys Spencer L. Todd and Paul E. Budlow, who are prosecuting the case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md/project-safe-childhood and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #

Washington – A Maryland man pleaded guilty to accepting cash bribes in exchange for helping acquaintances and their businesses procure and continue work on subcontracts with the IRS.

The guilty plea was announced by Erek L. Barron, United States Attorney for the District of Maryland; and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. 

According to court documents, Satbir Thukral, 62, of Germantown, worked for the IRS as a computer engineer and served in a position supervising various information technology contracts. In September 2018, Individual 1’s company (Company 1) began working on a subcontract for the IRS that Thukral supervised. Starting in October 2018, Thukral sought portions of Individual 1’s earnings and of the earnings of two employees of Company 1 from Company 1’s work on the IRS subcontract. Individual 1 made such payments between 2018 and 2020, but in early February 2021, told Thukral that Individual 1 would not make any more payments.  Thukral then told Individual 1 that Individual 1 would suffer economic consequences if Individual 1 did not continue to pay.  In early February 2023, Individual 1 — at the direction of law enforcement — recorded an in-person meeting with Thukral. During the meeting, Individual 1 told Thukral that the FBI had asked Individual 1 about Individual 1’s subcontracting work with the IRS and bank withdrawals Individual 1 had made. To conceal that Individual 1 had made the payments to Thukral, Thukral instructed Individual 1 to tell lies to the FBI about the nature of the cash withdrawals. Later that same day, to assist and induce Individual 1 to lie to the FBI and to further conceal payments that Thukral demanded and received from Individual 1, Thukral returned a portion of the proceeds received from Individual 1. In total, however, Individual 1 paid Thukral more than $120,000.

In July 2022, Thukral was also involved in a scheme in which he and Co-conspirator 1 (CC-1), who was previously a manager at a prime contractor (Company 2) with the IRS, began secretly communicating via a “burner phone” related to IRS contracting and potential payments to Thukral. The next month, CC‑1 provided Thukral with approximately $2,800 that CC-1 had received from another individual to pay Thukral. CC-1 made the payment, in part, in return for Thukral facilitating the continued employment of individuals at Company 3 and Company 4 — both companies being IRS subcontractors with whom CC-1 had an affiliation, and both employees being underqualified for their positions — to work on existing IRS matters. In addition, at the time of the payment, Thukral had been selected to serve on a three-person panel that would have evaluated the technical feasibility of bids for an upcoming IRS contract valued at approximately $200 million.

Thukral pleaded guilty to Acceptance of Bribes by a Public Official. At sentencing, not yet scheduled by the court, Thukral faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

U. S. Attorney Barron commended the FBI and TIGTA for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elizabeth Wright, Christopher Sarma and Trial Attorney Matt Kahn of the Justice Department’s Fraud Section, who are prosecuting the federal case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #

A Maryland man pleaded guilty yesterday to accepting cash bribes in exchange for helping acquaintances and their businesses procure and continue work on subcontracts with the IRS.

According to court documents, Satbir Thukral, 62, of Germantown, worked for the IRS as a computer engineer and supervised various information technology contracts. In September 2018, Company 1 began working on a subcontract for the IRS that Thukral supervised. Starting in October 2018, Thukral sought cash payments from Company 1’s owner, Individual 1, constituting a portion of the earnings from Company 1’s work on the IRS subcontract. Between 2018 and 2020, Individual 1 made multiple cash payments to Thukral totaling more than $120,000. In February 2021, when Individual 1 told Thukral that Individual 1 would not pay any more money, Thukral attempted to extort Individual 1 by threatening that Individual 1 would suffer economic consequences if the payments did not continue. In early February 2023, Individual 1 recorded an in-person meeting with Thukral at the direction of law enforcement. During the meeting, Individual 1 told Thukral that the FBI had asked about bank withdrawals that Individual 1 had made. Thukral instructed Individual 1 to lie to the FBI about the nature of the cash withdrawals. Later that same day, to assist and induce Individual 1 to lie to the FBI and to further the concealment of the payments, Thukral returned a portion of the proceeds that Thukral had received from Individual 1.

In a separate scheme, in July 2022, Thukral received approximately $2,800 in cash from a former manager at a prime contractor with the IRS. The manager made the payment, in part, in return for Thukral’s facilitating the continued employment of two underqualified individuals at two other IRS subcontractors with whom the manager had an affiliation. In addition, at the time of the payment, the manager believed that Thukral, who had been selected to serve on a three-person panel that would have evaluated the technical feasibility of bids for an upcoming IRS contract valued at approximately $200 million, could influence the valuations to benefit companies with which the manager had an affiliation.

Thukral pleaded guilty to acceptance of bribes by a public official. Thukral faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron for the District of Maryland, Assistant Director in Charge David Sundberg of the FBI Washington Field Office, and Special Agent in Charge Andrew McKay of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) made the announcement.

The FBI and TIGTA are investigating the case.

Trial Attorney Matt Kahn of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elizabeth Wright and Christopher Sarma for the District of Maryland are prosecuting the case.

Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Brendan A. Hurson sentenced Franklin Jay Smith, age 34, of Catonsville, Maryland, to 9 years (48 months for carjacking and 60 months consecutive for use of a firearm in connection with a crime of violence) and 4 years supervised release, and Davon Tramont Dorsey, age 30, of Gwynn Oak, Maryland, to15 years and 3 years supervised release.

            The sentence was announced by Erek L. Barron, United States Attorney for the District of Maryland; Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; Commissioner Richard Worley of the Baltimore Police Department; Chief Robert McCullough of the Baltimore County Police Department; Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey R. Gahler; and Harford County State’s Attorney Alison M. Healey.

            According to Smith’s and Dorsey’s guilty pleas and evidence introduced at the trial of two codefendants earlier this year, between May and August 2021, the conspirators planned and organized the kidnapping of three victims, J.H. and two employees of check cashing businesses, victims A.T. and A.K.  The conspirators carjacked and abducted the victims and used force and threats of force to steal cash. Posing as police officers, using police vests, badges, and a law enforcement-type light bar, the conspirators stopped the victims and/or their vehicles, and brandished firearms and a blow torch during the kidnappings.  The three incidents occurred on May 5, 2021, May 15, 2021, and August 2, 2021.  Smith admitted that he participated in the two incidents in May, and Dorsey admitted that he participated in the May 15, 2021, incident and the August 2, 2021, incident.   

As detailed in Smith’s plea agreement and evidence introduced at the trial of two codefendants earlier this year, on May 5, 2021, two of the conspirators followed victim A.T. from the check cashing business where she worked, driving a Ford Fusion supplied by Smith.  Smith set up a detour along the route to cause A.T. to turn down a side street where the two conspirators driving the Ford Fusion posed as police and used a law enforcement-type light bar to pull over A.T.’s vehicle.  Wearing police vests and badges, the conspirators brandished firearms to remove A.T. from her vehicle, handcuffed her, placed her into the rear of one of their vehicles, blindfolded her, and stole her vehicle.  While driving with victim A.T., the conspirators burned victim A.T. with the blow torch in an attempt to get information from A.T. in order to access the check cashing business where she worked, with the intent to remove all the cash from the business.  Smith and the other conspirators later placed A.T. back in the rear of her vehicle, still bound, covered the vehicle with a tarp, and left A.T. to make her way out and call for help.

Smith and Dorsey both admitted that on May 15, 2021, while driving a Ford Fusion with police-style lights, Dorsey and other members of the conspiracy drove to Edgewood, Maryland to abduct and rob J.H.  Dorsey and the others were wearing police-style vests with “police” written on them, masks, and gloves.  Around midnight on May 15-16, 2021, J.H. left Edgewood, driving a 2022 Toyota Camry.  The members of the conspiracy used the police-style lights to stop J.H.’s vehicle.  Dorsey and the conspirators, armed with firearms, approached J.H.’s car and identified themselves as police.  The conspirators told J.H. that he had an outstanding warrant, and that he was under arrest.  The conspirators put J.H. in handcuffs, put duct tape over his eyes and mouth, bound his feet, and put him in the back of their vehicle.  J.H. was then driven away in the Ford Fusion with two of the conspirators while two other members of the conspiracy followed in J.H.’s Camry.  While J.H. was in the Ford Fusion, the conspirators demanded $10,000, told J.H. that they knew where he lived and that they would kill his parents if he did not cooperate. 

At the time J.H. was abducted, Smith was in the White Marsh area of Baltimore County, within minutes of an onramp to Interstate 95, awaiting a call from a conspirator notifying him that J.H. had been abducted.  As the Ford Fusion traveled south on Interstate 95, Smith received a call from a coconspirator, and then drove in a separate vehicle and met up with the Ford Fusion, J.H. and other conspirators in Baltimore City.  While in the Ford Fusion, one of the conspirators questioned J.H. about money, and used a blow torch to burn his chest when he did not answer questions.  The conspirators took J.H.’s necklace, wallet, phone, and car keys.  After more than 5 hours of driving and demanding money, the conspirators released J.H. in Baltimore City at approximately 5:20 a.m.

Dorsey also admitted that on August 2, 2021, he and two co-conspirators approached victim A.K. as she left the check cashing business where she worked.  The conspirators, wearing police vests and badges, brandished firearms to kidnap victim A.K. and placed her into the rear of one of their vehicles equipped with law enforcement-type lights.  The driver was holding a blowtorch with a blue fuel canister, and A.K. observed a bottle of bleach on the floor in the back of the car.  After A.K. entered the vehicle, the men bound A.K.’s wrists behind her back with zip-ties and used black duct tape to affix a blindfold over her eyes.  One of the men stated to A.K., “We don’t burn sisters.”

According to Dorsey’s guilty plea, while in the vehicle, the men took A.K.’s wallet, phone, and keys, which included the keys to the check cashing business.  The men demanded that A.K. provide access to the check cashing business, including demanding the A.K. provide the men with access codes, safe codes, and the amount of money in the safe at the business.  The men demanded information from A.K. for nearly 6 hours, then released A.K. in Edmonson Village in Baltimore City at approximately 1:00 a.m.   Before they drove away, the men instructed A.K. not to remove her face covering until they had driven away. 

In June, a federal jury convicted two codefendants of their roles in the abductions.  Dennis Allen Hairston, age 34, of Windsor Mill, Maryland, and Donte Davon Stanley, age 33, of Rosedale, Maryland, were convicted on federal charges of kidnapping and robbery conspiracies; kidnapping; carjacking; robbery affecting commerce.  Hairston was also convicted of using, carrying, and brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.  District Judge Brendan A. Hurson has scheduled sentencing for Stanley for November 4, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. and Hairston for November 7, 2024, at 10:00 a.m.

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 Department 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.

U.S. Attorney Barron commended the FBI, the Baltimore Police Department, the Baltimore County Police Department, the Harford County Sheriff’s Office, and the Harford County State’s Attorney’s Office for their work in the investigation and prosecution.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Paul E. Budlow and Spencer Todd of the Civil Rights and Special Victims Section are prosecuting this case.

            For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/project-safe-neighborhoods-psnexile and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

Baltimore, Maryland –Senior United States District Judge James K. Bredar sentenced Ayaz Qureshi, age 55, of Severna Park, Maryland to a year and a day in federal prison, followed by two years of supervised release, in connection with a conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting financial institutions, relating to more than $250,000 in fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) benefits.  PPP benefits were a program created by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act, which was a federal law enacted in March 2020 to provide emergency financial assistance to Americans suffering from the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The sentence was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland; Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office (‘FBI’), Special Agent in Charge Amaleka McCall-Brathwaite of the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General (“SBA-OIG”), Eastern Region, and Chief Robert McCullough of the Baltimore County Police Department (“BCPD”).

Financial assistance through PPP benefits included forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and certain other expenses, administered through the Small Business Administration (“SBA”), and SBA-approved lenders.  According to the guilty plea, in March 2021, the Defendant and co-conspirator Ahmed (“Adam”) Sary submitted a fraudulent PPP loan application to Cross River Bank to obtain a PPP loan for Yazee, Inc. (“Yazee”), a company the Defendant owned.  The PPP loan application contained numerous material misrepresentations, including that Yazee in 2019 had 16 employees and an average monthly payroll of more than $100,000.  In support of the loan application, a fabricated 2019 Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) form was submitted, which falsely stated that Yazee’s total payments to employees in 2019 were more than $1,200,000. 

Based on the false representations and fraudulent submissions made on behalf of the Defendant as the owner of Yazee, the PPP loan was funded on March 22, 2021 and approximately $250,000 was distributed to a bank account controlled by the Defendant.  The Defendant agreed to pay Sary kickbacks totaling $75,000 for his work in submitting the false application and obtaining the fraudulent PPP loan.  After receipt of the PPP loan, the Defendant established payroll services for Yazee to facilitate documentation that would later be used to substantiate a request for the PPP loan to be forgiven.

The District of Maryland Strike Force is one of five strike forces established throughout the United States by the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute COVID-19 fraud, including fraud relating to the CARES Act.  The CARES Act was designed to provide emergency financial assistance to Americans suffering the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.  The strike forces focus on large-scale, multi-state pandemic relief fraud perpetrated by criminal organizations and transnational actors.  The strike forces are interagency law enforcement efforts, using prosecutor-led and data analyst-driven teams designed to identify and bring to justice those who stole pandemic relief funds. 

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

United States Attorney Erek L. Barron commended the FBI for their work in the investigation, and thanked the Small Business Administration’s Office of Inspector General, and the Baltimore County Police Department.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Paul A. Riley, Jared M. Beim, and Bijon A. Mostoufi, who are prosecuting the federal case. 

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao/md.

# # #

Baltimore, Maryland – A federal grand jury returned a sealed indictment on August 21, 2024, charging Hunter Haithcock, a/k/a Hunter Elliott, age 23, of Matthews, North Carolina with three counts of wire fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft, and one count of investment adviser fraud relating to his theft of at least $600,000 in funds from at least 50 investors. The indictment was unsealed upon the arrest of the defendant.  The defendant had an initial appearance yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.

The indictment was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland and Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office. 

According to documents filed in this case, from September 2019 to October 2022, Haithcock posed as an investment advisor employed by a large brokerage firm and misappropriated at least $600,000 from at least 50 investors. Haithcock, who had been entrusted to invest those funds through the creation of investment accounts for the investors, instead perpetrated a scheme to defraud the investors by causing them to distribute monies intended to fund their investments to accounts he controlled.  Instead of investing the investors’ funds for their benefit as he had promised, Haithcock spent the money for his own personal use, including paying expenses such as car payments, airplane tickets, restaurant purchases and entertainment.  He also invested some of the monies in funds for his own benefit.  Further, Haithcock falsely represented to investors that he worked with, and for, an alleged identity theft victim at a large brokerage firm and used the victim’s name and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Central Registration Depository (“CRD”) number in connection with the scheme.   

If convicted, Haithcock faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each wire fraud count; a minimum mandatory sentence of two years in prison for the aggravated identity theft count, which will run consecutive to any other sentence; and a maximum of 5 years in federal prison for investment adviser fraud.  Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. 

An indictment is not a finding of guilt.  An individual charged by indictment is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings. 

U.S. Attorney Barron commended the FBI for its work in the investigation and also thanked the Cecil County Sherriff’s Office and the Office of the Attorney General for the State of Maryland for their assistance.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Paul Riley and LaShanta Harris, who are prosecuting the federal case. 

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

Medical device manufacturer THD America Inc., located in Natick, Massachusetts, and its corporate parent, THD SpA of Italy (collectively, THD), have agreed to pay $700,000 to resolve allegations that THD violated the False Claims Act by knowingly causing physicians to use incorrect codes to obtain inflated reimbursement from Medicare and State Medicaid programs for the use of THD’s hemorrhoid removal system called the Slide One Kit (the Kit).

The Kit was sold to physicians for use in transanal hemorrhoidal dearterialization, a surgical procedure that involves cauterizing certain blood vessels. The United States alleged that, between 2014 and 2017, physicians performing procedures using the Kit were required to bill for the procedure using a temporary code, also known as a “T-Code,” assigned for new and emerging services. Because a procedure that is assigned such a code is considered experimental, reimbursement for the use of the Kit was often denied. To avoid such denials and increase potential reimbursement, THD allegedly encouraged colorectal and general surgeons improperly to bill Medicare and Medicaid programs using the T-Code plus an additional Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code or to bill for CPT codes other than the T-code.

The federal share of the civil settlement is $598,121.23, and the state Medicaid share of the civil settlement is $101,877.77. State Medicaid programs are jointly funded by the federal and state governments.

“The integrity of federal healthcare programs depends upon compliance with coding and billing rules that are used to make coverage and reimbursement decisions,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “We will hold accountable health care providers that knowingly submit false claims to federal health care programs that do not accurately reflect and bill for the work they perform.”

“This case is emblematic of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s commitment to pursuing and holding accountable those who seek to defraud federal health care programs and to recouping taxpayer dollars obtained falsely,” said U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron for the District of Maryland. “We will continue our efforts tirelessly in prioritizing rooting out fraud and protecting the public fisc.”

“Accurately billing for services provided to Medicare and Medicaid enrollees is required of all health care companies,” said Special Agent in Charge Maureen Dixon of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG). “HHS-OIG will continue to work with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners to investigate allegations of companies violating the federal False Claims Act.”

The civil settlement includes the resolution of claims brought under the qui tam or whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act by Amber Arthur, a former employee of THD America. Under those provisions, a private party can file an action on behalf of the United States and receive a portion of any recovery. The relator’s share from the proceeds of the settlement will be $115,500. The qui tam action is captioned U.S. ex rel. Arthur v. THD America, et al., No. 16-cv-2571 (DMD). 

The resolution obtained in this matter was the result of a coordinated effort between the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland and the Civil Division's Commercial Litigation Branch, Fraud Section, with assistance from HHS-OIG.

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 HHS at 800-HHS-TIPS (800-447-8477).

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tarra DeShields for the District of Maryland and Senior Trial Counsel Jay D. Majors of the Justice Department’s Civil Division handled the matter.

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

WASHINGTON – Medical device manufacturer THD America, Inc., located in Natick, Massachusetts, and its corporate parent, THD SpA of Italy (collectively, THD), have agreed to pay $700,000 to resolve allegations that THD violated the False Claims Act by knowingly causing physicians to use incorrect codes to obtain inflated reimbursement from Medicare and State Medicaid programs for the use of THD’s hemorrhoid removal system called the Slide One Kit (the Kit).

The Kit was sold to physicians for use in transanal hemorrhoidal dearterialization, a surgical procedure that involves cauterizing certain blood vessels.  The United States alleged that, between 2014 and 2017, physicians performing procedures using the Kit were required to bill for the procedure using a temporary code, also known as a “T-Code,” assigned for new and emerging services. Because a procedure that is assigned such a code is considered experimental, reimbursement for the use of the Kit was often denied. To avoid such denials, and increase potential reimbursement, THD allegedly encouraged colorectal and general surgeons improperly to bill Medicare and Medicaid programs using the T-Code plus an additional CPT code or to bill for CPT codes other than the T-code. 

The federal share of the civil settlement is $598,121.23, and the state Medicaid share of the civil settlement is $101,877.77.  State Medicaid programs are jointly funded by the federal and state governments. 

“This case is emblematic of the United States Attorney’s Office’s commitment to pursuing and holding accountable those who seek to defraud federal health care programs and to recouping taxpayer dollars obtained falsely,” said Erek L. Barron, United States Attorney for the District of Maryland.  “We will continue our efforts tirelessly in prioritizing rooting out fraud and protecting the public fisc.”

“The integrity of federal healthcare programs depends upon compliance with coding and billing rules that are used to make coverage and reimbursement decisions,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “We will hold accountable health care providers that knowingly submit false claims to federal health care programs that do not accurately reflect and bill for the work they perform.”

“Accurately billing for services provided to Medicare and Medicaid enrollees is required of all health care companies,” said Maureen Dixon, Special Agent in Charge for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General.  “DHHS-OIG will continue to work with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners, to investigate allegations of companies violating the federal False Claims Act.”

The civil settlement includes the resolution of claims brought under the qui tam or whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act by Amber Arthur, a former employee of THD America.  Under those provisions, a private party can file an action on behalf of the United States and receive a portion of any recovery.  The relator’s share from the proceeds of the settlement will be $115,500. The qui tam action is captioned U.S. ex rel. Arthur v. THD America, et al., No. 16-cv-2571 (D. Md.). 

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

United States Attorney Erek L. Barron commended the DHHS-OIG for its work in this investigation.  Mr. Barron also thanked Assistant United States Attorney Tarra DeShields and Senior Trial Counsel Jay D. Majors of the Civil Division of the Department of Justice who handled the case. 

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

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Julie R. Rubin sentenced Troy Spencer, age 49, of Baltimore, Maryland, to a total of 96 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for possession of a firearm in a school zone and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

The sentence was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland; Special Agent in Charge Toni M. Crosby of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (“ATF”); and Commissioner Richard Worley of the Baltimore Police Department (“BPD”).

On March 6, 2023, Spencer attended an elementary school basketball game at Leith Walk Elementary Middle School in the Northeastern District of Baltimore. Toward the end of the game, Spencer confronted the coaches of his son’s team over what he believed to be a lack of playing time. An argument escalated into a physical altercation, during which Spencer withdrew a firearm from his waistband and pointed it one of the coaches. The firearm was wrestled from Spencer, who then fled the scene in his car. Spencer was arrested on March 15, 2023 by the Baltimore Police Department’s Warrant Apprehension Task Force.

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 Department 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.

U.S. Attorney Barron commended the ATF and the Baltimore Police Department for their help in the investigation as well as the Leith Walk Elementary Middle School community for their support.  Mr. Barron also thanked Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob Gordin, who prosecuted the case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

Note: View the indictment here. 

In an indictment unsealed today, a grand jury in Maryland charged six computer hackers, all of whom were residents and nationals of the Russian Federation (Russia), with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion and wire fraud conspiracy. Five of the defendants were officers in Unit 29155 of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), a military intelligence agency of the General Staff of the Armed Forces. The sixth individual was a civilian already under indictment for conspiracy to commit computer intrusion and is now also charged with wire fraud conspiracy.

Note: Concurrent with the return of the indictment, the U.S. Department of State’s Rewards for Justice program is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information on any of the defendants’ locations or their malicious cyberactivity. Anyone possessing such information should contact Rewards for Justice here. 

The indictment alleges that these GRU hackers and their co-conspirator engaged in a conspiracy to hack into, exfiltrate data from, leak information obtained from and destroy computer systems associated with the Ukrainian Government in advance of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The defendants did so in order to sow concern among Ukrainian citizens regarding the safety of their government systems and personal data. The defendants’ targets included Ukrainian Government systems and data with no military or defense-related roles. Later targets included computer systems in countries around the world that were providing support to Ukraine, including the United States and 25 other North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries.

“The GRU’s WhisperGate campaign, including targeting Ukrainian critical infrastructure and government systems of no military value, is emblematic of Russia’s abhorrent disregard for innocent civilians as it wages its unjust invasion,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the National Security Division. “Today’s indictment underscores that the Justice Department will use every available tool to disrupt this kind of malicious cyber activity and hold perpetrators accountable for indiscriminate and destructive targeting of the United States and our allies.”

“The FBI and its international partners are relentless in our commitment to thwarting GRU attacks across the globe and bringing to justice those responsible for these criminal acts,” said FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate. “Our work protecting against cyber threats in a rapidly evolving landscape continues, including deployment of all tools in our arsenal to defend our infrastructure and impose costs on those who target it.”

“Since July 2021, the U.S. Department of State’s Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program,  administered by the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), has offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of any person who, while acting at the direction or under the control of a foreign government, participates in certain malicious cyber activities against U.S. critical infrastructure in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act,” said DSS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Threat Investigations and Analysis Paul Houston. “Under this reward offer, the RFJ program is seeking information leading to the location of these individuals, GRU’s malicious cyber activity or associated individuals and entities.”

“Today’s superseding indictment underscores our commitment to using all the tools at our disposal to pursue those who would do us and our allies around the world harm,” said U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron for the District of Maryland. “Cyber intrusion schemes such as the one alleged threaten our national security, and we will use all the technologies and investigative measures at our disposal to disrupt and track down these cybercriminals.”

“Through strokes on a keyboard, the accused criminals used computers to cross into countries, hunting for weaknesses and seeking to harm. The FBI and our law enforcement partners, both national and international, will collectively defend against Russia’s aggressive and illegal actions,” said Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno of the FBI Baltimore Field Office. “We are united in identifying, prosecuting and protecting against future crimes and vow to relentlessly hunt down and counter these threats.”

The defendants charged in the indictment are: Yuriy Denisov [Юрий Денисов], a colonel in the Russian military and a commanding officer of Cyber Operations for Unit 29155; four lieutenants in the Russian military assigned to Unit 29155 who worked on cyber operations: Vladislav Borovkov [Владислав Боровков], Denis Denisenko [Денис Денисенко], Dmitriy Goloshubov [Дима Голошубов] and Nikolay Korchagin [Николай Корчагин]; and a civilian co-conspirator, Amin Sitgal [Амин Стигал].

According to court documents, on Jan. 13, 2022, the defendants conspired to use a U.S.-based company’s services to distribute malware known in the cybersecurity community as “WhisperGate,” which was designed to look like ransomware, to dozens of Ukrainian government entities’ computer systems. However, as the indictment alleges, WhisperGate was actually a cyberweapon designed to completely destroy the target computer and related data in advance of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian government networks subjected to this attack included the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, State Treasury, Judiciary Administration, State Portal for Digital Services, Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Agriculture, State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection, Ministry of Energy, Accounting Chamber for Ukraine, State Emergency Service, State Forestry Agency and Motor Insurance Bureau.

In conjunction with these attacks, the defendants compromised several of the targeted Ukrainian computer systems, exfiltrated sensitive data, including patient health records and defaced the websites to read: “Ukrainians! All information about you has become public, be afraid and expect the worst. This is for your past, present and future.” That same day, the defendants offered the hacked data for sale on the internet.

The U.S. government previously joined with allies and partners in May 2022 to attribute this cyber-attack to the Russian military and to condemn the attack and similar destructive cyber activities against Ukraine.

In October 2022, the defendants also hacked the transportation infrastructure of a Central European country that was supporting Ukraine. Beginning in August 2021, the defendants also probed a variety of protected computer systems including those associated with 26 NATO member countries, searching for potential vulnerabilities. The indictment further alleges that from Aug. 5, 2021, to Feb. 3, 2022, the defendants leveraged the same computer infrastructure they used in the Ukraine-related attacks to probe computers belonging to a federal government agency in Maryland in the same manner as they had initially probed the Ukrainian Government networks.

This indictment is part of an international effort, Operation Toy Soldier, to combat the malicious cyber activity by Unit 29155 of the GRU. Accompanying today’s announcement, the FBI and 12 other partners, representing governments of nine countries, released a Joint Cybersecurity Advisory to enhance network defense efforts against Unit 29155’s malicious cyber activities.

The FBI Baltimore Field Office is investigating the case with assistance from FBI Milwaukee and Boston Field Offices.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Aaron S.J. Zelinsky and Robert I. Goldaris for the District of Maryland are prosecuting the case with valuable assistance from the National Security Division’s National Security Cyber Section. 

Note: Concurrent with the return of the indictment, the U.S. Department of State’s Rewards for Justice program is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information on any of the defendants’ locations or their malicious cyberactivity. Anyone possessing such information should contact Rewards for Justice here.

Greenbelt, Maryland – In an indictment unsealed today, a grand jury in Maryland charged six computer hackers, all of whom were residents and nationals of the Russian Federation (Russia), with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion and wire fraud conspiracy. Five of the defendants were officers in Unit 29155 of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), a military intelligence agency of the General Staff of the Armed Forces. The sixth individual was a civilian already under indictment for conspiracy to commit computer intrusion who is now also charged with wire fraud conspiracy.

The indictment alleges that these GRU hackers and their co-conspirators engaged in a conspiracy to hack into, exfiltrate data from, leak information obtained from, and destroy computer systems associated with, the Ukrainian Government in advance of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Defendants did so in order to sow concern among Ukrainian citizens regarding the safety of their government systems and personal data in advance of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Defendants’ targets included Ukrainian Government systems and data with no military or defense-related roles. Later targets included computer systems in countries around the world that were providing support to Ukraine, including twenty-six NATO countries.

“Today’s superseding indictment underscores our commitment to using all the tools at our disposal to pursue those who would do us and our allies around the world harm,” said United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron. “Cyber intrusion schemes such as the one alleged threaten our national security, and we will use all the technologies and investigative measures at our disposal to disrupt and track down these cybercriminals.”

“The GRU’s WhisperGate campaign, including targeting Ukrainian critical infrastructure and government systems of no military value, is emblematic of Russia’s abhorrent disregard for innocent civilians as it wages its unjust invasion,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the National Security Division. “Today’s indictment underscores that the Justice Department will use every available tool to disrupt this kind of malicious cyber activity and hold perpetrators accountable for indiscriminate and destructive targeting of the United States and our allies.”

“Through strokes on a keyboard, the accused criminals used computers to cross into countries, hunting for weaknesses and seeking to harm. The FBI and our law enforcement partners, both national and international, will collectively defend against Russia’s aggressive and illegal actions,” said Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno of the FBI Baltimore Field Office. “We are united in identifying, prosecuting, and protecting against future crimes and vow to relentlessly hunt down and counter these threats.”

“The FBI and its international partners are relentless in our commitment to thwarting GRU attacks across the globe and bringing to justice those responsible for these criminal acts,” said FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate. “Our work protecting against cyber threats in a rapidly evolving landscape continues, including deployment of all tools in our arsenal to defend our infrastructure and impose costs on those who target it.”

“Since July 2021, the U.S. Department of State’s Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program, administered by the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), has offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of any person who, while acting at the direction or under the control of a foreign government, participates in certain malicious cyber activities against U.S. critical infrastructure in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act,” said DSS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Threat Investigations and Analysis Paul Houston.  “Under this reward offer, the RFJ program is seeking information leading to the location of these individuals, GRU’s malicious cyber activity, or associated individuals and entities.”

The defendants charged in the indictment are: Yuriy Denisov [Юрий Денисов], a colonel in the Russian military and a commanding officer of Cyber Operations for Unit 29155; four lieutenants in the Russian military assigned to Unit 29155 who worked on cyber operations: Vladislav Borovkov [Владислав Боровков], Denis Denisenko [Денис Денисенко], Dmitriy Goloshubov [Дима Голошубов], and Nikolay Korchagin [Николай Корчагин]; and a civilian co-conspirator, Amin Sitgal [Амин Стигал].

According to court documents, in January 2022, the Defendants conspired to use a U.S.-based company’s services to distribute malware known in the cybersecurity community as “WhisperGate” to dozens of Ukrainian government entities’ computer systems and destroy those systems and related data in advance of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The United States government previously joined with allies and partners in May 2022 to attribute this cyber-attack to the Russian military and to condemn the attack and similar destructive cyber activities against Ukraine.

On January 13, 2022, the Defendants attacked multiple Ukrainian government networks, including the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, the State Treasury, the Judiciary Administration, the State Portal for Digital Services, the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Agriculture, the State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection, the Ministry of Energy, the Accounting Chamber for Ukraine, the State Emergency Service, the State Forestry Agency, and the Motor Insurance Bureau. The Defendants infected computers on these and other networks with the WhisperGate malware, which was designed to look like ransomware. However, as the indictment alleges, WhisperGate was actually a cyberweapon designed to completely destroy the target computer and related data.

In conjunction with these attacks, the Defendants compromised several of the targeted Ukrainian computer systems, exfiltrated sensitive data, including patient health records, and defaced the websites to read: “Ukrainians! All information about you has become public, be afraid and expect the worst. This is for your past, present and future.” That same day, the Defendants offered the hacked data for sale on the internet.

In August 2022, the Defendants also hacked the transportation infrastructure of a Central European country that was supporting Ukraine. Beginning in August 2021, the Defendants also probed a variety of protected computer systems including those associated with twenty-six NATO member countries, searching for potential vulnerabilities. The indictment further alleges that from August 5, 2021 to February 3, 2022, the Defendants leveraged the same computer infrastructure they used in the Ukraine-related attacks to probe computers belonging to a federal government agency in Maryland in the same manner as they had initially probed the Ukrainian Government networks.

This indictment is part of an international effort, OPERATION TOY SOLDIER, to combat the malicious cyber activity by Unit 29155 of the GRU. 

The indictment was announced by U.S. Attorney Barron, Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, and Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office.

U.S. Attorney Barron and Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen commended the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office for its outstanding work and thanked the FBI’s Milwaukee and Boston Field Offices for their support in the case.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Aaron S.J. Zelinsky and Robert I. Goldaris, who are prosecuting the case, with valuable assistance from the National Security Division’s National Security Cyber Section. 

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #

Greenbelt, Maryland – Olusegun Samson Adejorin, a Nigerian national, was extradited from Ghana and arrived in the United States on August 30, 2024 to face federal charges for wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and unauthorized access to a protected computer related to a $7.5 million scheme to defraud two charitable organizations.  Adejorin had his initial appearance on August 30, 2024, and is currently detained pending trial.

The extradition was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, and Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), Baltimore Field Office.

According to the eight-count indictment, between June and August 2020, Adejorin perpetrated a scheme to defraud Victim 1, a charitable organization located in Maryland providing investment services to other organizations, and Victim 2, a charitable organization located in New York, by gaining access to employee email accounts and impersonating employees to induce financial transactions.  The indictment alleges that Adejorin posed as an employee of Victim 2 to request withdrawals of Victim 2’s funds from Victim 1.  Withdrawals over $10,000 required approval from at least one of several individuals authorized by Victim 1.  According to the indictment, Adejorin fraudulently obtained the credentials of employees at Victim 1 and Victim 2 and posed as those employees to send emails from their accounts, including emails making fraudulent requests for the withdrawal of investment funds.  As part of the scheme, Adejorin also allegedly purchased a credential harvesting tool designed to steal email login credentials, registered spoofed domain names, and concealed the fraudulent emails from a legitimate employee by causing the fraudulent emails to be moved to an inconspicuous location within Employee 1’s mailbox.

As further detailed in the indictment, Adejorin caused more than $7.5 million of Victim 2’s funds to be sent, pursuant to fraudulent withdrawal requests, from Victim 1 to bank accounts that were not Victim 2’s bank accounts.

If convicted, Adejorin faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each of five counts of wire fraud; a maximum of five years in federal prison for unauthorized access to a protected computer; and a mandatory sentence of two years in federal prison, consecutive to any other sentence imposed, for each of the two counts of aggravated identity theft.  The maximum penalty for two of the wire fraud counts could be increased by seven years for knowingly falsely registering and using a domain name.  Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties.  A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

An indictment is not a finding of guilt.  An individual charged by indictment is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceeding.

U.S. Attorney Barron commended the FBI, Baltimore Field Office, for its work in the investigation and thanked the FBI Legal Attaché in Accra, Ghana, the Office of Attorney General and Ministry of Justice, the Republic of Ghana’s Economic and Organized Crime Office, the Ghana Immigration Service, Ghana Police Services - INTERPOL, and National Intelligence Bureau for their valuable assistance in this case.   The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs worked with the International Cooperation Unit of the Office of the Attorney-General of Ghana to secure the extradition of Adejorin to the United States.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Coreen Mao, who is prosecuting the federal case. 

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #

Baltimore, Maryland – Joseph Gillespie, age 35, of Baltimore City, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit wire fraud involving a scheme to defraud a financial institution and the United States Small Business Administration in order to obtain fraudulent loans under the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan program for various purported businesses.  The Defendant also admitted to engaging in a bribery scheme for over eight years, whereby, in exchange for bribes from various property owners in Baltimore City (the “City”), the Defendant would use his official position as an employee of the City to extinguish various financial obligations owed to the City, including for water bills and property taxes. 

The guilty plea was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland and Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office.

Financial assistance offered through the CARES Act included forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and certain other expenses, through the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”), administered through the Small Business Administration (“SBA”).  According to the guilty plea, on March 4, 2021, the Defendant and co-defendant Ahmed (“Adam”) Sary submitted a fraudulent PPP loan application to Cross River Bank to obtain a PPP loan for JAG Investments (“JAG”), a company the Defendant owned.  The PPP loan application contained numerous material misrepresentations, including that JAG in 2019 had 19 employees and an average monthly payroll of more than $55,000.  In support of the loan application, fabricated 2019 Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) forms were submitted, which falsely stated that JAG’s total payments to employees in 2019 were more than $275,000. 

Based on the false representations and fraudulent submissions made on behalf of the Defendant as the owner of JAG, the PPP loan was funded on March 6, 2021 and approximately $138,000 was distributed to a bank account controlled by the Defendant.  The Defendant agreed to pay Sary kickbacks totaling $38,000 for his work in submitting the false application and obtaining the fraudulent PPP loan.  After receipt of the PPP loan, the Defendant established payroll services for JAG to facilitate documentation that would later be used to substantiate a request for the PPP loan to be forgiven.

Further, according to the plea agreement, beginning in or about early 2016 and continuing until on or about September 20, 2023, the Defendant engaged in a bribery scheme in which he abused his position of trust as a public official for his own personal gain. 

As an employee of the Baltimore City Department of Finance, Revenue Collections Department, the Defendant routinely accepted bribes from various property owners in the City whose property was subject to certain financial obligations and, if the obligations remained unpaid, to tax sale.  The Defendant accepted these bribes -- typically 10% to 15% of the amount owed to the City -- in exchange for removing or extinguishing these financial obligations, including for citations, tax, and water obligations—thereby causing losses to the City.  The Defendant also accepted bribes in exchange for delaying or postponing—without approval or permission from other City officials—due dates for the payment of outstanding financial obligations, thus forestalling the placement of a lien on the property by the City.

Once the Defendant received the bribe payment, he would extinguish the financial obligation owed to the City by marking the obligations as “paid” in the City’s record-keeping system.  After removing the obligation, the Defendant would, at times, send a photograph of supporting documentation to the property owner reflecting that a payment was made towards a financial obligation owed to the City when, in fact, no such payment was made by the property owner.

As part of an FBI investigation, the Defendant engaged in multiple recorded conversations in which he discussed the specifics of the bribery scheme outlined above.  For example, in response to the question “[S]o you want 100 for each property?” talking about the size of the bribe payment, the Defendant replied, “yeah that’s basically how I do.” During another recording, the Defendant stated that he had the ability to “wipe a bill off” the City’s record of outstanding obligations tied to a particular property or to “put paid next to ‘em,” even though the financial obligation had not in fact been paid.  Defendant further stated that he removed additional financial obligations for this property owner, saying “There was a couple, extra miscellaneous bills that y’all had that I wiped off …. That shit gone now.” 

During another recorded interaction, the Defendant stated, “Going forward, I’m just your inside man ... That’s what I do for a lot of different people around the City.  You know what I mean – manage their shit for them a little bit …. I’m gonna go look at your shit.”

The Defendant’s bribery scheme continued for years thereafter, and he admitted that he enlisted the help of multiple co-conspirators in connection with his scheme.  According to the plea agreement, the Defendant received more than $250,000 in connection with the bribery scheme and caused losses to the City in excess of $1,250,000. 

Gillespie and the government have agreed that, if the Court accepts the plea agreement, Gillespie will be sentenced to between two years’ and five years’ imprisonment.  United States District Judge Richard D. Bennett has scheduled sentencing for December 9, 2024 at 2:30 p.m.

The District of Maryland Strike Force is one of five strike forces established throughout the United States by the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute COVID-19 fraud, including fraud relating to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act.  The CARES Act was designed to provide emergency financial assistance to Americans suffering the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.  The strike forces focus on large-scale, multi-state pandemic relief fraud perpetrated by criminal organizations and transnational actors.  The strike forces are interagency law enforcement efforts, using prosecutor-led and data analyst-driven teams designed to identify and bring to justice those who stole pandemic relief funds.

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

U.S. Attorney Barron commended the FBI for their work in the investigation, and thanked the Small Business Administration’s Office of Inspector General, Baltimore County Police Department, and the Baltimore City Inspector General for assistance as well.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Paul A. Riley and Evelyn L. Cusson, who are prosecuting the federal case. 

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #

Baltimore, Maryland – After a three-day trial, a federal jury returned a verdict of guilty against Christopher Kenji Bendann, age 40 of Baltimore, on five counts of sexual exploitation of a minor to produce child pornography, one count of cyberstalking, and three counts possession of child pornography, all relating to his sexual exploitation of a minor male victim.

The guilty verdict was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland; Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; Chief Robert McCullough of the Baltimore County Police Department; and Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger.          

 According to the evidence presented at trial, from approximately September 16, 2017 to February 9, 2019, the Defendant produced multiple videos of a minor male engaged in sexually-explicit conduct.  The victim was 16 and 17 years old during this time. These same videos were stored on the Defendant’s iCloud and comprised a possession of child pornography charge.  Additionally, as detailed at trial, between May and December 2022, the Defendant cyberstalked the same victim by sending electronic cellphone messages to the victim, demanding contact and explicit images of him, and threatening to make public sexually-explicit images of the victim if he did not comply.  The evidence at trial likewise established that on February 3, 2023, the date of the Defendant’s arrest, the Defendant possessed multiple depictions of child pornography on the Defendant’s multiple electronic devices.

The Defendant faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison for each count of sexual exploitation of a child to produce child pornography; a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison for each count of possession of child pornography; and, a maximum sentence of 5 years in federal prison for cyberstalking.  U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar has scheduled sentencing for January 21, 2025 at 1:30 p.m. 

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.  For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the “Resources” tab on the left of the page.

U.S. Attorney Barron commended the FBI, the Baltimore County Police Department and the Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Office for their work in the investigation and prosecution.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Colleen Elizabeth McGuinn and Kim Y. Hagan, who are prosecuting the federal case.  He also recognized the assistance of Paralegal Specialist Julie Jarman. 

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #

Greenbelt, Maryland – On Tuesday, August 27, 2024, the Honorable Deborah L. Boardman sentenced Rudolph Brooks, age 48, of Cheltenham, Maryland, to 18 months in federal prison followed by 2 years of supervised release for fraudulently obtaining over $3.5 million in COVID-19 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loans. The Court also ordered Brooks to forfeit all property and assets derived from or obtained as a result of his criminal activity, including a 2018 Tesla Model 3, property located in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, and at least $2,231,141.49 from 17 bank accounts controlled by Brooks.

The sentence was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron; Special Agent in Charge, Jeffrey D. Pittano, of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General, Mid-Atlantic Region; Special Agent in Charge Kareem A. Carter of the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Washington, D.C. Field Office; Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; and Special Agent in Charge Amaleka McCall-Brathwaite, Eastern Region Investigations Division of the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General (SBA OIG).

The CARES Act was enacted in March 2020 to provide emergency financial assistance to Americans suffering from the economic consequences of COVID-19.  The CARES Act authorized forgivable loans to small businesses for employee retention and certain business expenses through the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”).

According to court documents, between April 2020 and September 2021, Brooks, who at times served as pastor at Kingdom Tabernacle of Restoration Ministries, participated in a scheme to fraudulently obtain PPP loans, used the loan proceeds for his personal enrichment, and concealed his misappropriation of the funds by laundering the loan proceeds. As stated in the plea agreement, Brooks used several entities to apply for PPP loans, including Cars Direct by Gavawn HWD Bob’s Motors (Cars Direct), Kingdom Tabernacle of Restoration Ministries, and Madaro, LLC.  In each case, Brooks grossly inflated the number of employees and average monthly payroll, and submitted fraudulent IRS Forms 940, Employer’s Annual Federal Unemployment Tax Return, and other fraudulent IRS forms to support the loan applications.

For example, on May 12, 2020, Brooks received $1,556,589 in fraudulently-obtained PPP loan proceeds, deposited directly into a Cars Direct bank account on which Brooks was the sole signator.  He also received $1.8 million in fraudulently obtained PPP loan proceeds, deposited directly into a Kingdom Tabernacle bank account on which Brooks was the sole signator.  Similarly, on May 13, 2020, Brooks received $204,266 in such proceeds, deposited directly into a Madaro bank account in which Brooks was the sole signator.

Brooks admitted that he used the loan proceeds for his personal benefit and on payments and purchases not permissible under PPP, such as for a residence; for a luxury vehicle; and, for restaurant, retail store and grocery purchases.  Brooks also made cash withdrawals and transfers to other accounts under his control.  For example, Brooks opened a bank account in the name of Payroll by BJM, into which he transferred $500,000 of the Cars Direct PPP loan proceeds.  Brooks also registered Payroll by BJM with the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation, listing himself as “member” and sole signator.  Although the name Payroll by BJM created the appearance that the account was associated with a payroll company, there were no payroll or payroll-related expenses paid from this account.  

In addition, Brooks initiated numerous transfers of PPP loan funds, totaling approximately $196,000, from the Cars Direct account to his personal bank accounts.  Of this amount, Brooks wired $60,407 to Tesla Motors Inc. on July 30, 2020, to purchase a 2018 Tesla Model 3 in the name of Brooks’ son, which was ultimately registered in Maryland in Brooks’ own name.

On February 5, 2021, Brooks transferred $750,000 in proceeds from the Kingdom Tabernacle PPP loan to a bank account in the name of Madaro, for which Brooks was the sole signator.  On May 17, 2021, Brooks initiated a wire transfer of $507,010 to a title company to purchase property in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, in the name of “Rudolph Brooks.”

The District of Maryland Strike Force is one of three strike forces established throughout the United States by the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute COVID-19 fraud, including fraud relating to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act.  The CARES Act was designed to provide emergency financial assistance to Americans suffering the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.  The strike forces focus on large-scale, multi-state pandemic relief fraud perpetrated by criminal organizations and transnational actors.  The strike forces are interagency law enforcement efforts, using prosecutor-led and data analyst-driven teams designed to identify and bring to justice those who stole pandemic relief funds. 

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

U.S. Attorney Barron commended the FDIC OIG, the IRS-CI, the FBI, and the SBA OIG for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean R. Delaney, who is prosecuting the case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

A California man pleaded guilty today in the Eastern District of Virginia to wire fraud for defrauding Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act programs, including the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Main Street Lending Program (MSLP), of more than $10 million.

Craig David Davis, 49, of Venice, was the owner of Bright Vanguard LLC., which he held out as a computer hardware retailer and storage space provider. According to court documents, in 2020, Davis submitted at least two PPP loan applications and one MSLP loan application on behalf of Bright Vanguard. In those applications, Davis falsely claimed Bright Vanguard had substantial sales and as many as 17 employees. In reality, Bright Vanguard had no employees and no legitimate revenue. To substantiate his claims, Davis presented fraudulent tax returns, payroll documents, and financial statements to at least three different banks.

Davis also admitted to participating in a years-long scheme to defraud commercial equipment lenders using fraudulent invoices. Davis directed business owners to submit loan applications to banks to purchase computer equipment evidenced on invoices they received from companies such as Bright Vanguard. The lenders approved the loans and submitted the proceeds to accounts controlled by Davis or his co-conspirators. Davis and his co-conspirators then remitted the majority of the proceeds to applicant borrowers, keeping a portion for themselves, without providing the equipment shown on the invoices. This scheme caused more than $60 million of fraudulently induced lending across more than 350 separate loans.

Davis is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 12. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Jessica D. Aber for the Eastern District of Virginia, Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey D. Pittano of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General (FDIC OIG) Mid-Atlantic Region and Chief Guy Ficco of IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) made the announcement.

The Department of the Treasury’s Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery, IRS-CI and FDIC OIG investigated the case, with significant assistance from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Office of Inspector General.

Trial Attorney David A. Peters of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Drew Bradylyons and Katherine Robeson for the Eastern District of Virginia are prosecuting the case, with substantial assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland.

If you believe you are a victim in this case, please contact the Fraud Section’s Victim Witness Unit toll-free at (888) 549-3945 or by email at victimassistance.fraud@usdoj.gov.

Baltimore, Maryland – Michael Vance Culpepper, age 56, of Walkersville, Maryland, pleaded guilty on August 21 to federal charges of coercion and enticement of a minor.

The guilty plea was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland; Inspector General Teri L. Donaldson of United States Department of Energy’s Office of the Inspector General (DOE-OIG); Special Agent in Charge Michael S. McCarthy of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Baltimore Field Office; Colonel Roland L. Butler, Jr., Superintendent of the Maryland State Police (MSP); Paul Joey Kifer, Chief of the Hagerstown Police Department (HPD), and State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess of the Office of the State’s Attorney for Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

According to his guilty plea, in April and May 2023, Culpepper used mobile phones and online applications to persuade, induce, entice and coerce two victims whom he believed to be 13- and 14-year-old females to engage in sexual activity. 

As to the first victim -- an undercover law enforcement officer posing as a 13-year-old girl -- Culpepper used the internet and his phones to exchange sexually explicit messages and request sexually explicit images.  Culpepper encouraged the victim to hide her conversations from her parents, writing, “you DEFINITELY need to delete these texts when we are done.”  On May 8, 2023, Culpepper drove approximately 50 miles to meet the victim at a restaurant in Hanover, Maryland. When he arrived, he was arrested.

After Culpepper was released on May 9, 2023 with the condition that he have no further contact with minors, Culpepper initiated online contact with Jane Doe 1, a 14-year-old female.  Culpepper used the internet to entice Jane Doe 1 to engage in sexually explicit conversations.  Culpepper also sent Jane Doe 1 sexually explicit photos of himself and requested that Jane Doe 1 produce nude images of herself and send them to him.  Culpepper arranged a meeting with Jane Doe 1 for the purpose of engaging in unlawful sexual activity.  On May 28, 2023, Culpepper picked up Jane Doe 1 near her home, and then drove her around for approximately one hour before stopping at a park.  Culpepper used ice cream, money, a hotel room and vaping devices to entice Jane Doe 1 to engage in sexual contact.  Jane Doe refused, but following the meeting, Culpepper continued to use the internet to entice Jane Doe 4 to meet with him and engage in sex acts. 

Culpepper faces a maximum of life in federal prison and lifetime supervised release for coercion and enticement of a minor.  Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.  For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the “Resources” tab on the left of the page.  

U.S. Attorney Barron commended the DOE-OIG, HSI, ARMY CID, MSP, HPD and the Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney’s Office for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron also thanked Assistant United States Attorneys Paul E. Budlow and Reema Sood, who are prosecuting the case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md/project-safe-childhood and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #

Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Brendan A. Hurson sentenced Kevin Maurice Lawson, age 55, of Baltimore Maryland, to 14 years in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for committing three-armed bank robberies. Lawson committed all three robberies while he was in a residential reentry program serving the remainder of his federal sentence for a 2004 conviction for armed bank robbery.  

The sentence was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland; Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), Baltimore Field Office; and Commissioner Richard Worley of the Baltimore Police Department (“BPD”).

According to his plea agreement, Lawson committed three-armed bank robberies in Baltimore between June 6 and July 18, 2022, utilizing a black air gun in each robbery.  In the first robbery on June 6, 2022, Lawson robbed a bank in the 100 block of East Baltimore Street in Baltimore.  As he did in each of the robberies, Lawson entered the bank wearing a surgical mask and gloves.  He approached a bank employee seated at a desk on the banking floor, displayed what appeared to be a dark semiautomatic handgun in his waistband, and ordered the employee to the teller line.  Lawson held the employee against the teller glass and demanded money from the victim teller, who passed cash to Lawson.  Lawson took the money and fled the bank on foot.

As further detailed in his plea agreement, on June 27, 2022, Lawson robbed a bank in the 5400 block of Harford Road in Baltimore.  Lawson approached two bank employees seated at desks on the banking floor, displayed the handgun in his waistband, and ordered the employees to the teller line.  Lawson ordered the first bank employee to demand cash from the victim teller who then passed cash to the first employee.  Lawson again took the money and fled on foot. 

In the third instance, on July 18, 2022, Lawson robbed a bank in the 3200 block of West North Avenue in Baltimore.  Lawson ambushed a security guard, and repeatedly struck her on her head with his weapon as he ordered bank employees to provide him with cash.  Throughout the course of the assault of the security guard, Lawson attempted to disarm her. Bank employees behind the teller line, fearing for the safety of the security guard and their own safety, passed cash through the teller line barrier glass to Lawson.  When Lawson went to the counter to get the money, the security guard fired rounds from her duty weapon at Lawson before the weapon jammed.  Lawson was not hit and fled the scene in a gray Kia.  BPD patrol units eventually located the vehicle after it crashed into the exterior wall of a vacant rowhome.

A search of the Kia yielded clothing and gloves identical to that worn in the bank robberies, as well as documents linked to Lawson, including a Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate identification card.  Lawson was arrested on July 22, 2022.  Further investigation revealed that in 2003, Lawson had robbed banks on West North Avenue and Harford Road.

U.S. Attorney Barron commended the FBI and BPD for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron also thanked Assistant United States Attorney Michael Aubin, who is prosecuting the case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

A Maryland woman was sentenced today to one year and one day in prison for not paying employment taxes to the IRS and embezzling from an employee benefit plan.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Michelle Leach-Bard, of Lutherville-Timonium, was the owner and sole corporate officer of iProcess Online Inc., a third-party accounting company that specialized in payroll, human resources and bookkeeping. From at least October 2016 through the end of 2021, she was, as iProcess’ sole corporate officer, responsible for withholding Social Security, Medicare and income taxes from employees’ wages and paying those taxes to the IRS. Though the taxes were withheld, Leach-Bard did not pay them to the IRS, as she was required to do.

In total, Leach-Bard caused a tax loss to the IRS of $2,663,264.12.

In addition, iProcess had a Section 401(k) Profit Sharing and Retirement Plan for the benefit of some of its employees. Contributions to the 401(k) Plan were deducted from participating employees’ wages. Beginning in or around 2007, Leach-Bard did not pay those employee contributions to the 401(k) Plan. In total, Leach-Bard did not pay to the 401(k) plan approximately $207,180.41 in employee withholdings. Additionally, Leach-Bard did not make approximately $18,740.37 in employer matching contributions for certain employees.

In addition to the term in prison, U.S. District Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher ordered Leach-Bard to serve two years of supervised release and to pay $2,663,264.12 in restitution to the United States and approximately $207,180.41 in restitution to her former employees.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron for the District of Maryland made the announcement.

IRS Criminal Investigation and the U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration investigated the case.

Trial Attorneys Catriona Coppler and Jeffrey McLellan of the Tax Division prosecuted the case.

Baltimore, Maryland - U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar today sentenced Ashley Marie Tibbs, age 34, of Hagerstown, Maryland, to 20 years in federal prison, followed by lifetime supervised release, for sexual exploitation of a child.  Judge Bredar also ordered that, upon her release from prison, Tibbs will be required to register as a sex offender in the places where she resides, where she is an employee, and where she is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”). 

The sentence was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland; Special Agent in Charge Michael S. McCarthy of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore; Chief Paul Joey Kifer, Chief of the Hagerstown Police Department; and Frederick County State’s Attorney J. Charles Smith, III.

According to Tibbs’ guilty plea and other court documents, Tibbs sexually abused two minor victims, who were then between the ages of 2 and 5.  On each occasion, Tibbs sexually abused the victims, produced videos of the abuse, and sent the videos to co-defendant John Balch in exchange for money.  Balch paid Tibbs $38,325 via Cash App. 

Balch was previously sentenced to 60 years in federal prison for his exploitation of six minors.  Co-defendants Jane Campbell and Amber Ricketts were also sentenced to more than 17 years and 10 years in federal prison, respectively, for distribution of child pornography.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.  For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the “Resources” tab on the left of the page.         

U.S. Attorney Barron commended HSI, the Hagerstown Police Department, and the Frederick County State’s Attorney’s Office for their work in this investigation.  U.S. Attorney Barron also recognized the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Northern District of West Virginia and the Middle District of Florida, and the FBI’s Pittsburgh Field Office for their assistance.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul E. Budlow and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Joyce King, who are prosecuting the case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md/project-safe-childhood and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #

Baltimore, Maryland – On Monday, August 19, United States District Judge Matthew J. Maddox sentenced Donte Antwaun Herring, of Washington, D.C. to 20 years’ imprisonment, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release, as a result of his convictions for the armed robberies of two phone stores in December 2020.  On March 1, 2024, a federal jury convicted Herring of the robberies after less than an hour of deliberation. 

The sentence was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland; Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; and Chief Robert McCullough of the Baltimore County Police Department.

According to the evidence presented at his five-day 2024 trial, on December 17 and 23, 2020, Herring and his co-conspirators robbed phone stores in Halethorpe and Owings Mills, Maryland, respectively.  In each robbery, Herring and his co-conspirators used firearms.

Specifically, according to trial testimony, on December 17, 2020, at shortly after 7:15 p.m., Herring and a co-conspirator entered a phone store in the 3900 block of Washington Boulevard, in Halethorpe, Maryland.  After initially posing as customers browsing for cell phones, the co-conspirator and Herring announced a robbery and brandished firearms—pointing them in the direction of the victim employee.  Trial evidence proved that Herring ordered the victim employee to take him and the co-conspirator to the store’s safe, then ordered the victim to open the safe.  Herring and the co-conspirator then removed various electronic devices from the safe, including multiple boxes of Apple cellular telephones, watches and iPads, along with cash from the store’s register.  They then fled in a maroon minivan.

Witnesses testified that in the robbery on December 23, 2020, co-defendant Rico Dashiell entered a telephone store in the 10000 block of Reisterstown Road in Owings Mills, Maryland and acted like a customer.  Herring and another co-conspirator then entered the store brandishing firearms and Dashiell pointed a gun at a victim employee.  Witnesses testified that Herring and the co-conspirator pointed their guns at a victim customer and other employees and ordered them to get down on the floor. The victim customer was also ordered to empty his pockets and Herring and the co-conspirator took the victim’s wallet (containing his driver’s license and credit cards), along with his car keys and an Apple iPhone 8S plus, valued at approximately $350.  Herring and the co-conspirator went to the back room and Dashiell escorted a victim employee to the back room at gunpoint and ordered the victim to open the store safe.  Once the victim complied, Herring and the co-conspirator removed nearly all of the electronic devices from the safe—including Apple and Samsung Galaxy devices (76 devices total)—and placed them in large garbage bags they had brought with them.  When Herring and the co-conspirator finished emptying the safe, they ordered the three victims from the main floor of the store to the room in the back of the store where the safe was kept.  According to trial testimony, as Herring and the co-conspirator left the room, the co-conspirator pepper sprayed the victims’ faces.  In the meantime, Dashiell directed a victim employee to open the store’s cash register and stole $322. 

Herring and his co-conspirators then fled in a vehicle that had been stolen earlier in the day and that had tags stolen from another vehicle.  According to trial evidence, law enforcement was able to track the vehicle to a home in Catonsville, Maryland, where aviation units were able to film Herring, Dashiell and the co-conspirator unloading the stolen merchandise from the car and taking it into the residence.

As detailed in trial testimony, law enforcement officers arrived at the residence and attempted for hours to make contact with the suspects and other occupants of the residence.  After two young children who lived at the residence (who had no relation to the robbers) came out of the house, law enforcement executed a search warrant of the residence and arrested the robbers, who had been hiding in the attic.  During a search incident to arrest, law enforcement seized, among other things, $622.16 from the co-conspirator ($322 of which was proceeds from the robbery), along with a round of ammunition.

According to trial evidence, during their search of the residence, law enforcement also recovered, among other things, the clothing, gloves, and headwear worn by the robbers during the robberies; the 76 stolen devices; the canister of pepper spray used to spray the victims; the stolen wallet belonging to one of the victims; and, the three firearms used by Herring, Dashiell and the co-conspirator, as well as a Polymer 80 Gray Grip with a black slide 9mm semi-automatic pistol, with no serial number, commonly known as a “ghost gun,” which was also loaded.

Electronic evidence presented at trial included multiple text messages in which Herring discussed his planning of the December 23, 2020 robbery.  It likewise included photographs from a co-conspirator’s iCloud account that showed Herring holding large amounts of cash within hours of the robbery on December 17, 2020.

Co-defendant Rico Dashiell, age 25, of Fort Washington, Maryland, previously pleaded guilty to his role in the robbery and was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison. Co-Defendant Jones’s trial is set to commence on September 23, 2024. 

U.S. Attorney Barron commended the FBI and Baltimore County Police Department for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron also thanked Assistant United States Attorneys Paul A. Riley and Michael F. Aubin, who are prosecuting the case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #

Baltimore, Maryland – Yesterday, Chad Christopher Langgle, age 30, of Hagerstown, Maryland, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography.   

U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron of the District of Maryland and Special Agent in Charge Michael S. McCarthy of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) announced Langgle’s guilty plea.

According to his guilty plea, in December 2022, Langgle emailed more than 50 videos containing child pornography.  He also possessed images of child pornography on his cell phone and had additional videos stored in his email account.
Langgle was previously convicted of sex abuse of a minor and second-degree assault on a minor in the Circuit Court for Calvert County, Maryland.  Additionally, he was previously convicted of second-degree sex offense in the Circuit Court for St. Mary’s County, Maryland.    

At sentencing, Langgle faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum of 20 years in prison followed by up to lifetime of supervised release.  U.S. District Judge Julie R. Rubin has scheduled sentencing for October 10, 2024 at 10 a.m. 

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.  For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the “Resources” tab on the left of the page.

U.S. Attorney Barron commended HSI, the Maryland State Police, and the United States Marshals Service for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Reema Sood, who is prosecuting the case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

A Maryland man was sentenced today to 30 months in prison in Baltimore federal court for conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

According to court documents, Theodore Sapperstein, age 67, formerly of Pikesville, and his coconspirators unlawfully debited money from the bank accounts of unknowing victims throughout the United States without their authorization by creating shell companies and falsely representing to banks that debits against consumer-victims’ bank accounts were authorized as payment for services allegedly provided by those shell companies. To both conceal and continue conducting unauthorized debits, the scheme’s shell companies generated “micro debits” against other bank accounts controlled and funded by the scheme. The micro debits artificially lowered shell companies’ return rates to levels that conspirators believed would reduce bank scrutiny and lessen potential negative impact on the scheme’s banking relations. Sapperstein facilitated the scheme’s use of fraudulent micro debits and helped broker payment processing services for the scheme, securing a payment processor whose company processed the unauthorized debits. The scheme caused more than $1.5 million in loss to victims throughout the United States.

“Those who knowingly participate in schemes to use personal financial information about American consumers to steal money from their accounts will be held accountable,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “We are committed to investigating and prosecuting individuals who facilitate such schemes.”

“For those who think they can take the easy road to financial gains by stealing money people have worked hard for, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service wants you to know we will hold you accountable for the pain and losses you cause,” said Inspector in Charge Eric Shen of U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) Criminal Investigations Group. “Today’s sentencing of Mr. Sapperstein along with others who knowingly participated in these schemes is the culmination of relentless teamwork by law enforcement to bring these criminals to justice and continue to vigilantly protect the American public.”

“My office is committed to ferreting out and punishing the predatory conduct of white collar fraudsters who utilize, and often hide behind, shell companies and phony accounting and bookkeeping practices to steal money from unsuspecting victims,” said U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron for the District of Maryland.

In July, Shoaib Ahmad of Canada was charged in the Central District of California with conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud for his role in the scheme. That matter remains ongoing.

According to court documents, the scheme is related to a longer-running scheme that has been the subject of multiple cases filed in Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas. In May 2023, a grand jury in Los Angeles returned an indictment in United States v. Courdy, et al. charging 14 defendants with RICO conspiracy and other charges in the Central District of California. On July 30, a grand jury in Los Angeles returned an indictment in United States v. LoConti, et al. charging six additional scheme participants with RICO conspiracy and other charges. These indictments allege that the defendants and associates debited consumer-victims’ bank accounts without authorization and used shell entities and “micro debits” to conceal the activity from banks. The “Information for Victims in Large Cases” section on the Consumer Protection Branch’s website contains additional information on United States v. Courdy, et al. In December 2023, scheme participant Luis Ramirez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit access device fraud in federal court in San Diego. On May 22, Ramirez was sentenced to 51 months in prison for the access device conspiracy, with 24 months to run concurrently to his sentence in a separate case. A related scheme participant, Harold Sobel, pleaded guilty to bank fraud conspiracy in federal court in Las Vegas. In December 2022, Sobel was sentenced to 42 months in prison.

USPIS is investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys Wei Xiang, Meredith Healy and Amy Kaplan of the Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch and Assistant U.S. Attorney Darryl Tarver for the District of Maryland are prosecuting the case against Sapperstein, with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.

For more information about the Consumer Protection Branch and its enforcement efforts, visit www.justice.gov/civil/consumer-protection-branch. Consumer complaints can be filed with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at www.reportfraud.ftc.gov/ or at 877-FTC-HELP. The Justice Department provides a variety of resources relating to fraud victimization through its Office for Victims of Crime, which can be reached at www.ovc.gov.

Baltimore, Maryland – A Maryland man was sentenced today to thirty months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release in Baltimore federal court for conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

 The sentence was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland; Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, and Postal Inspector in Charge Damon E. Wood of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (“USPIS”) Washington Division. 

According to court documents, Theodore Sapperstein, age 67, formerly of Pikesville, and his coconspirators unlawfully debited money from the bank accounts of unsuspecting victims throughout the United States by creating shell companies and falsely representing to banks that debits against the consumer-victims’ bank accounts were authorized as payment for services allegedly provided by those shell companies. To both conceal and continue conducting unauthorized debits, the scheme’s shell companies also generated “micro debits” against other bank accounts controlled and funded by or for the scheme. The micro debits artificially lowered shell companies’ return rates to levels that conspirators believed would reduce bank scrutiny and lessen potential negative impact on the scheme’s banking relations. Sapperstein facilitated the scheme’s use of fraudulent micro debits, and helped broker payment processing for the scheme, securing a payment processor whose company processed the unauthorized debits.

“My Office is committed to ferreting out and punishing the predatory conduct of white-collar fraudsters who utilize, and often hide behind, shell companies and phony accounting and bookkeeping practices to steal money from unsuspecting victims,“ said U.S. Attorney Barron.

“Those who knowingly participate in schemes to use personal and financial information about American consumers to steal money from their accounts will be held accountable,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “We are committed to investigating and prosecuting individuals who facilitate such schemes.”

In July 2024, Shoaib Ahmad of Canada, was charged in the Central District of California with conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud for his role in the scheme.

U.S. Attorney Barron and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton commended the U.S. Postal Inspection Service for its work in the investigation and thanked the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California for its assistance in the prosecution of the case. Mr. Barron also thanked Assistant United States Attorney Darryl Tarver and Trial Attorneys Wei Xiang, Meredith Healy, and Amy Kaplan of the Justice Department’s Consumer Protection Branch, who are prosecuting the case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #

Greenbelt, Maryland – Today, Damante Christian Dozier, age 26, of Temple Hills, Maryland pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.

The guilty plea was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland; Special Agent in Charge Toni M. Crosby of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); Chief Demetrious Harris of the City of Seat Pleasant Police Department, and Chief Malik Aziz of the Prince George’s County Police Department.

According to his guilty plea, on June 6, 2023, an officer with the Seat Pleasant Police Department who suspected that Dozier had shoplifted from a retail store in Oxon Hill, Maryland, approached Dozier and observed the shape of a firearm in Dozier’s pants.  The officer frisked Dozier’s waistband area and felt a solid rectangular mass consistent with the shape of a firearm.  Following the frisk, and after requesting backup, the officer asked Dozier to turn around to be handcuffed, and Dozier attempted to flee.  A few seconds later, law enforcement officers from the Seat Pleasant Police Department and the Prince George’s County Police Department gained control of Dozier and retrieved a firearm with an extended magazine from his pants.  The recovered firearm was a black Glock 45 .9mm semi-automatic pistol loaded with one round of ammunition in the chamber and 33 rounds in an extended magazine.  Dozier knew that he had a previous felony conviction which prohibited him from possessing a firearm and ammunition. 

U.S. Attorney Barron commended the ATF, the City of Seat Pleasant Police Department, and the Prince George’s County Police Department for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron also thanked Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Gustavo Ruiz and Assistant United States Attorney Kelly O. Hayes, who are prosecuting the case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #

Baltimore, Maryland – Today Nickoy Campbell, age 29, of Jamaica, had an initial appearance on a superseding indictment for conspiracy to commit mail fraud in connection with a lottery scheme.

The second superseding indictment was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland; Postal Inspector in Charge Damon E. Wood of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service - Washington Division; Special Agent in Charge Michael McCarthy of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore; and Chief Malik Aziz of the Prince George’s County Police Department.

According to the indictment, from October 2020 until February 2024, the defendants and their co-conspirators contacted the victims by mail or over the phone and convinced them that they had won millions of dollars in a lottery or sweepstakes but were required to send payment in advance for taxes and other fees before they could receive their winnings.  The defendants and other conspirators caused the victims to send payments for the purported taxes and other fees through wire transfer, by gift card, by sending cash and by other payment methods.  According to the indictment, as a result of the scheme, the victims sent at least $9.5 million to the defendants and other conspirators.

Wayne Henry and Dwayne Henry of Landover Hills, Maryland were charged previously with conspiracy to commit mail fraud as part of the same lottery scheme. 

If convicted, Campbell faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for the mail fraud conspiracy.  Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties.  A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.  At today’s initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles D. Austin ordered that Campbell be detained. 

An indictment is not a finding of guilt.  An individual charged by indictment is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings. 

This case is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation.  OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.

Reporting from consumers about fraud and fraud attempts is critical to law enforcements efforts to investigate and prosecute schemes targeting older adults.  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 next steps, including identifying appropriate reporting agencies, providing information to callers to assist them in reporting or connecting them with agencies, and providing resources and referrals on a case-by-case basis.  The hotline is staffed from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.  English, Spanish, and other languages are available.  More information about the Department’s elder justice efforts can be found on the Department’s Elder Justice website, www.elderjustice.gov.  Victims are encouraged to file a complaint online with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at this website or by calling 1-800-225-5324. 

U.S. Attorney Barron commended the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, HSI, United States Department of the Treasury, Office of Inspector General and the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General for their work in the investigation and thanked the Maryland State Police, Baltimore County Police, and Anne Arundel County Police for their assistance.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Evelyn Lombardo Cusson and Christine Goo, who are prosecuting the federal case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help seniors, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/elder-justice-initiative.

# # #

Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge George L. Russell. III, sentenced defendant Jacob Joseph Muir, 26, of Pasadena, Maryland, to seven years in federal prison, followed by 30 years of supervised release for one count of receipt of child pornography. Judge Russell also ordered Muir after his release from prison, to register as a sex offender, have no contact with children under 18, without permission, and undergo computer monitoring.

The sentence was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland and Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office.

According to the plea agreement, from July to August 2019, Muir pretended to be a teenage boy to entice minors to produce and send him sexually explicit photographs on social media site Instagram.  A subsequent investigation revealed that Muir used aliases to communicate with minors, directing and enticing them to send him sexually graphic images of themselves.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.  For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the “Resources” tab on the left of the page.
 

U.S. Attorney Barron commended the FBI Baltimore Field Office, and the Anne Arundel County Police Department for their work in the investigation and prosecution.  Mr. Barron thanked Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Kertisha Dixon and Assistant United States Attorney Michael F. Aubin, who prosecuted this case.  For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Julie R. Rubin today sentenced Damilola Ojo, age 31, of Windsor Mill, Maryland, to 48 months in federal prison, followed by 2 years of supervised release, for charges related to a bank fraud scheme totaling more than $1.8 million.  As part of his plea, Ojo also admitted to obtaining a fraudulent $475,000 COVID-19 CARES Act loan.  Judge Rubin ordered Ojo to forfeit $20,000 and to pay restitution of $546,000.

The sentence was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland and Special Agent in Charge Andrew McKay of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (“TIGTA”).

According to his guilty plea, from April 2016 through August 2019, Damilola Ojo conspired with Jamelia Thompson, Victor Ojo, Raissa Kaossele, and others to commit Bank Fraud using the Internal Revenue Service’s (“IRS”) Modernized Internet Employer Identification Number (“Mod IEIN”) system.  Mod IEIN is the IRS system that allows users to register for a unique Employer Identification Number (“EIN”).  It requires users to enter the valid name and Social Security number of a real living person in order to obtain an EIN for a business.

The co-conspirators, including Damilola Ojo, created and used various EINs (or caused various EINs to be created and used) in furtherance of a scheme to defraud.  Many of these EINs were obtained from the IRS using stolen Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”).  These EINs, in conjunction with fraudulently obtained state business certificates, allowed the co-conspirators to open bank accounts at various financial institutions for the purpose of depositing stolen and/or altered checks or for receiving fraudulently obtained wire transfers.

Once obtained, the proceeds of this fraudulent activity were rapidly withdrawn and/or transferred to other bank accounts controlled by the co-conspirators.  A co-conspirator’s Google account was the source of many of the fraudulent identification and business documents – packaged together as “work kits” – utilized throughout the conspiracy. M any of these emails were sent to electronic accounts linked to Damilola Ojo, who would then forward them to Thompson, Victor Ojo, Kaossele, and other co-conspirators – in addition to utilizing work kits himself.  These co-conspirators would then open bank accounts using these work kits, they would send Damilola Ojo evidence of the fraudulent transactions that occurred using these bank accounts.  Damilola Ojo would often receive portions of these transactions’ proceeds as they were rapidly dispersed.  From the point Damilola Ojo joined the conspiracy, it had an intended loss of at least $1.8 million.

Upon his arrest, Damilola Ojo shared a residence with co-conspirator Thompson.  In this shared residence, the Government located evidence of ongoing fraud: numerous ETN documents, business documents in other people’s names, numerous IDs in the names of individuals other than those who lived in the home, identification documents with authentication features, and bank cards in the name of other individuals.

In the plea agreement, Damilola Ojo also admitted to additional fraudulent activity involving a pandemic relief program under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act. Financial assistance offered through the CARES Act included forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and certain other expenses, in this case through Economic Injury Disaster Loans (“EIDL”) administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration (“SBA”).  On November 21, 2021, Thompson opened a bank account at Woodforest National Bank in Maryland in the name of her business “Jamaria Empire LLC.” On February 14, 2022, a $475,000 EIDL from the SBA was deposited into bank account xxxxxx2866.  The intended recipient of this EIDL was the Idaho Women’s Charitable Foundation. Once deposited into bank account xxxxxx2866, these funds were depleted through checks to Damilola Ojo, Thompson, and Certified Promotions Ent LLC (a business registered in Maryland to Damilola Ojo).  Upon Thompson’s and Damilola Ojo’s arrest, the EIN application and EIN documents for Jamaria Empire LLC were recovered from their shared residence. Images of a Woodforest Bank Card for Jamaria Empire LLC and a screenshot of the Jamaria Empire LLC bank account transaction history were recovered from Damilola Ojo’s phone, along with an image of the approved $475,000 EIDL.  This fraudulent transaction caused $475,000 in actual loss that was reasonably foreseeable to Damilola Ojo.

Co-conspirator Jamelia Thompson, age 30, of Jamaica, previously pled guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison.  Another co-conspirator, Raissa Kaossele, age 23, of Baltimore, Maryland, pled guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft and was sentenced to 8 months in home confinement.  Co-conspirator Victor Ojo has pled guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft and remains to be sentenced.

The District of Maryland Strike Force is one of five strike forces established throughout the United States by the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute COVID-19 fraud, including fraud relating to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act.  The CARES Act was designed to provide emergency financial assistance to Americans suffering the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.  The strike forces focus on large-scale, multi-state pandemic relief fraud perpetrated by criminal organizations and transnational actors.  The strike forces are interagency law enforcement efforts, using prosecutor-led and data analyst-driven teams designed to identify and bring to justice those who stole pandemic relief funds.

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

U.S. Attorney Barron commended the TIGTA for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph L. Wenner and Paul Riley who prosecuted the federal case.  He also recognized the assistance of the Maryland COVID-19 Strike Force Paralegal Specialist Joanna B.N. Huber.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #

A Maryland man was sentenced yesterday to 17 years in prison for coercion and enticement of a minor.

According to court documents, beginning as early as 2011, Paul Francis Blaisse, 65, of Walkersville, engaged in live video chats on the internet with minor children who were engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Blaisse sent nearly 100,000 messages to hundreds of individuals on video chat sites who offered access to minor children via webcam. During these chats, Blaisse discussed his sexual interest in children and distributed child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The Frederick County, Maryland, Sheriff’s Office identified Blaisse after receiving a CyberTip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that an individual using an IP address associated with Blaisse’s residence uploaded CSAM to a video chat account.

In October 2018, Blaisse used Skype, an online video chat application, to entice a minor child in the Philippines to engage in sexually explicit conduct. Blaisse used screen recording software to create CSAM. Records of Blaisse’s Skype activity show that he communicated with an adult in the Philippines who arranged for the minor child to participate in a video chat with Blaisse. FBI agents interviewed the minor child, who stated that the person paid them to do a sexually explicit show on Skype for a “foreigner.” In addition to these chats, Blaisse’s electronic devices contained hundreds of images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of children, including prepubescent minors.

Blaisse was also ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release and to pay over $83,000 in restitution to his victims. After his release from prison, Blaisse will be required to register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron for the District of Maryland; State’s Attorney J. Charles Smith III of Frederick County; and Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno of the FBI Baltimore Field Office made the announcement.

The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office, FBI, and Justice Department’s High Technology Investigative Unit investigated the case.

Trial Attorney Eduardo Palomo of the Justice Department’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Aubin for the District of Maryland, and Chief Counsel Joyce King of the Frederick County State’s Attorney’s Office prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Justice Department. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Brendan A. Hurson sentenced Nicholas Paul Bryson, age 41, of Aberdeen, Maryland, to forty years in federal prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release for two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.  Bryson was also ordered to pay $16,000 in restitution to his victims.  After his release from prison, Bryson will be required register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).

The sentence was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, Special Agent in Charge Michael McCarthy of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore; Colonel Roland L. Butler, Jr., Superintendent of Maryland State Police (MSP); Jeffrey R. Gahler, Harford County Sheriff; and Henry Trabert, Chief of Aberdeen Police Department.

According to his plea agreement, beginning in 2011 to 2013, Bryson and his wife and codefendant, Heather Clark, repeatedly sexually abused a prepubescent minor in their care and produced numerous sexually explicit videos and images of the abuse.  In addition, a federal search warrant identified approximately 1,000 depictions of child pornography from various seized devices.

Codefendant Clark, age 37, previously pled guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and is currently awaiting sentencing on September 4, 2024.  She faces 60 years in federal prison.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.  For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the “Resources” tab on the left of the page.   

U.S. Attorney Barron commended HSI Baltimore, MSP, the Harford County Sheriff’s Office, and the Aberdeen Police Department for their work in the investigation and prosecution. Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael F. Aubin and Paul A. Riley, who are prosecuting the federal case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

Baltimore, Maryland – A federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging Amit Ahuja, age 40, of Westminster, Maryland, Kapil Gulati, age 50, of Glen Burnie, Maryland, and Priyanshu Walia, age 39, of Cleveland, Ohio, with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud in connection with a technical support scheme where victims were made to believe that their computers had been compromised by a virus, or were susceptible to hacking, and payments were needed for computer repair services or software. 

The indictment was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. for the District of Maryland; Postal Inspector in Charge Eric Shen of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Criminal Investigations Group; and Special Agent in Charge Michael McCarthy of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore. 

As detailed in the indictment, victims received a pop-up window urging them to call a phone number, or an unsolicited phone call, or victims contacted what they believed was a legitimate technical support company found through an online search.  As further alleged, the victims were made to believe that their computers had major issues that they needed to pay money immediately to fix, and that they were working with legitimate computer companies or computer security companies.

According to the indictment, as a result of the scheme, more than 1,000 victims, many of whom were older adults, sent at least $3.5 million to the defendants and other conspirators based on false pretenses, representations, and promises involving the condition of the victims’ computers and the services and software allegedly required to fix the issues. 

If convicted, the defendants face a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for the wire fraud conspiracy and each count of wire fraud.  Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties.  A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. 

An indictment is not a finding of guilt.  An individual charged by indictment is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings.

Reporting from consumers about fraud and fraud attempts is critical to law enforcements efforts to investigate and prosecute schemes targeting older adults.  If you or someone you know is age 60 or older and has been a victim of financial fraud, help is available 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 next steps, including identifying appropriate reporting agencies, providing information to callers to assist them in reporting or connecting them with agencies, and providing resources and referrals on a case-by-case basis.  The hotline is staffed from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.  English, Spanish, and other languages are available.  More information about the Department’s elder justice efforts can be found on the Department’s Elder Justice website, www.elderjustice.gov.  Victims are encouraged to file a complaint online with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at this website or by calling 1-800-225-5324. 

U.S. Attorney Barron commended the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and HSI-Baltimore, for their work in the investigation.  And also thanked HSI-Cleveland for their assistance.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Evelyn Lombardo Cusson and Matthew Phelps, who are prosecuting the federal case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #

Baltimore, Maryland – Today U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Maddox sentenced defendant Paul Francis Blaisse, 65, of Walkersville, Maryland, to seventeen years in federal prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release for one count of coercion and enticement of a minor. Judge Maddox also ordered Blaisse to pay $83,694 in restitution to his victims and, after his release from prison, to register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student.

The sentence was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland; Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Nicole M. Argentieri; Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; and J. Charles Smith III, State’s Attorney for Frederick County, Maryland.

 According to court documents, beginning as early as 2011, Blaisse engaged in live video chats with minor children who were engaged in sexually explicit conduct.  Mr. Blaisse exchanged messages with hundreds of individuals on video chat sites who offered access to minor children via webcam.  During these chats, Blaisse discussed his sexual interest in children and distributed child sexual abuse material (CSAM).  The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office identified Blaisse after receiving a CyberTip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that an individual using an IP address associated with Blaisse’s residence uploaded CSAM to a video chat account.

In October 2018, Blaisse used an online video chat application, to entice a minor child in the Philippines to engage in sexually explicit conduct.  Records of Blaisse’s activity show that he communicated with an adult in the Philippines who arranged for the minor child to participate in a video chat with Blaisse.  In addition to these chats, Blaisse’s electronic devices contained hundreds of images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of children, including prepubescent minors.

U.S. Attorney Barron commended the FBI Baltimore Field Office, the Justice Department’s High Technology Investigative Unit, and the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office for their work in the investigation and prosecution. Leading the prosecution of this case are Department of Justice Trial Attorney Eduardo Palomo, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael F. Aubin, and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Joyce King.  For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

###

Greenbelt, Maryland – Today, U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang sentenced Matthew Molnar, age 47, of Hagerstown, Maryland to thirty years in federal prison, followed by fifteen years of supervised release, for sexual exploitation of a child.  He is ordered to pay $18,000 in restitution.  Judge Chuang also ordered that, upon his release from prison, Molnar must continue to register as a sex offender in the places where he resides and where he is an employee pursuant to the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”).

The sentence was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, Michael McCarthy of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore, and Chief Malik Aziz of the Prince George’s County Police Department.

According to the guilty plea, in 2015, Molnar was convicted of possession of child pornography.  In 2020 and 2021, Molnar communicated with a Florida-based minor victim and coerced the minor victim to produce sexually explicit videos.  In May 2021, Molnar traveled to visit the minor victim, telling the victim, falsely, that he was 17-years-old and was studying pre-law.  In February 2022, Molnar started communicating with a Maryland-based minor victim, exchanging sexually explicit messages with her.  Also, in February 2022, Molnar had sexual intercourse with the minor on multiple occasions. During a subsequent search warrant at Molnar’s house, law enforcement found multiple sexually explicit files that included the minor victim.  In reviewing Molnar’s electronic devices seized during the search warrant, law enforcement also determined that Molnar had distributed numerous files containing child pornography.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative established by the Department of Justice to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about PSC, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.  For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the “Resources” tab on the left of the page.

U.S. Attorney Barron commended the FBI, HSI and Prince George’s County Police Department for their work in the investigation.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Sarma is leading the prosecution of this federal case.  For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #

On July 18, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland entered default judgments for the United States totaling $26,341,951.38 against Patrick Britton-Harr and multiple laboratory companies owned by him for violations of the False Claims Act. The court entered these judgments after Britton-Harr and his companies failed to defend against the United States’ allegations.

In its complaint, filed on July 18, 2023, the United States alleged that Patrick Britton-Harr owned and operated Provista Health, LLC as well as multiple other corporate entities that sought to profit from the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic by offering COVID-19 tests to nursing homes as a way to bill Medicare for a wide array of medically unnecessary respiratory pathogen panel (RPP) tests. The complaint alleged that these RPP tests were not medically necessary because the beneficiaries had no symptoms of a respiratory illness and because the tests were for uncommon respiratory pathogens.

The complaint also alleged that Britton-Harr and Provista Health submitted claims for RPP tests that were never ordered by physicians and sometimes for RPP tests that were never performed, including over 300 claims that stated that the nasal swab test sample was supposedly collected from the beneficiary on a date after the beneficiary had died. 

Also on July 18, 2023, the United States filed an application for prejudgment remedies under the Federal Debt Collection Procedures Act seeking to attach and garnish certain financial assets of Britton-Harr and to obtain financial discovery from him to help ensure funds would be available to satisfy a judgment in favor of the United States. Despite a court order prohibiting Britton-Harr from selling his house in Annapolis without approval from the court, he sold the house on Sept. 23, 2023, for $575,000 and dissipated the financial proceeds from the sale. On March 4, the court granted the United States’ motion to hold Britton-Harr in civil contempt for violating this order and ordered him to deposit $575,000 with the court’s registry.

“The Justice Department remains committed to holding accountable individuals and entities who took advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to defraud the American taxpayers,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “We will continue to pursue those who attempt to thwart justice by ignoring lawsuits, dissipating assets and violating court orders.”

“The exploitation of federal health care programs designed to help the elderly and disabled during a national crisis is absolutely inexcusable,” said U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron for the District of Maryland. “Regardless of their methods, we will hold accountable those who defraud such programs for personal gain.” 

“It's clear that Patrick Britton-Harr thought he could defraud the government by taking advantage of a global pandemic and never face the consequences. The extent of his fraud and abuse is astounding. He took critical resources away from our healthcare system and cost taxpayers their hard-earned money,” said Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno of the FBI Baltimore Field Office. “This investigation proves the FBI and our federal partners will continue to investigate and bring fraudsters like Britton-Harr to justice no matter how long it takes.”

“Taking advantage of Medicare beneficiaries and the COVID-19 pandemic to line companies’ pockets is unacceptable,” said Special Agent in Charge Maureen Dixon of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG). “HHS-OIG, the Justice Department and our other law enforcement partners work tirelessly to ensure that only legitimate products and services actually provided will be paid for by federal health insurance programs.”

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

The Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch, Fraud Section, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland handled the matter.

HHS-OIG and the FBI are providing investigative support.

Trial Attorneys Jonathan Hoerner and Vincent Vaccarella of the Civil Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney/Deputy Civil Chief Tarra DeShields for the District of Maryland are handling the case.

Baltimore, Maryland – On July 18th, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland entered default judgments for the United States totaling $26,341,951.38 against Patrick Britton-Harr and multiple laboratory companies owned by him for violations of the False Claims Act.  The court entered these judgments after Britton-Harr and his companies failed to defend against the United States’ allegations.

In its complaint, filed on July 18, 2023, the United States alleged that Patrick Britton-Harr owned and operated Provista Health, LLC as well as multiple other corporate entities that sought to profit from the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic by offering COVID-19 tests to nursing homes as a way to bill Medicare for a wide array of medically unnecessary respiratory pathogen panel (RPP) tests. The complaint alleged that these RPP tests were not medically necessary because the beneficiaries had no symptoms of a respiratory illness and because the tests were for uncommon respiratory pathogens.

The complaint also alleged that Britton-Harr and Provista Health submitted claims for RPP tests that were never ordered by physicians and sometimes for RPP tests that were never performed, including over 300 claims that stated that the nasal swab test sample was supposedly collected from the beneficiary on a date after the beneficiary had died.   

Also on July 18, 2023, the United States filed an application for prejudgment remedies under the Federal Debt Collection Procedures Act seeking to attach and garnish certain financial assets of Britton-Harr and to obtain financial discovery from him to help ensure funds would be available to satisfy a judgment in favor of the United States. Despite a court order prohibiting Britton-Harr from selling his house in Annapolis without approval from the court, he sold the house on September 23, 2023, for $575,000 and dissipated the financial proceeds from the sale. On March 4, 2024, the court granted the United States’ motion to hold Britton-Harr in civil contempt for violating this order and ordered him to deposit $575,000 with the court’s registry.

“The exploitation of federal health care programs designed to help the elderly and disabled during a national crisis is absolutely inexcusable.  Regardless of their methods, we will hold accountable those who defraud such programs for personal gain,” said Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland.   

“The Department of Justice remains committed to holding accountable individuals and entities who took advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to defraud the American taxpayers,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “We will continue to pursue those who attempt to thwart justice by ignoring lawsuits, dissipating assets, and violating court orders.”

“Taking advantage of Medicare beneficiaries and the COVID-19 pandemic to line companies’ pockets is unacceptable,” said Maureen Dixon, Special Agent in Charge for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG). “HHS-OIG, the Department of Justice, and our other law enforcement partners work tirelessly to ensure that only legitimate products and services actually provided will be paid for by federal health insurance programs.”

“It's clear that Patrick Britton-Harr thought he could defraud the government by taking advantage of a global pandemic and never face the consequences. The extent of his fraud and abuse is astounding. He took critical resources away from our healthcare system and cost taxpayers their hard-earned money," said Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno of the FBI's Baltimore Field Office. "This investigation proves the FBI and our federal partners will continue to investigate and bring fraudsters like Britton-Harr to justice no matter how long it takes.”

The United States’ pursuit of this lawsuit illustrates the government’s emphasis on combatting 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).  

United States Attorney Erek L. Barron commended the DHHS-OIG and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their work in this investigation.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Tarra DeShields and Trial Attorneys Jonathan Hoerner and Vincent Vaccarella of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch, Fraud Section, who are handling this case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to report fraud, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/report-fraud.

####

Greenbelt, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang sentenced Charmaine Miesha Brown, age 45, of Lusby, Maryland, to 30 months in federal prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release for conspiracies to commit passport fraud and wire fraud, as well as bankruptcy fraud, and making a false statement in bankruptcy proceeding.  Brown was also ordered to pay $128,201.22 in restitution.

The sentence was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland; Special Agent in Charge Karen L. Brown Cleveland of the U.S. Department of the State’s Diplomatic Security Service, Washington Field Office; Special Agent in Charge Colleen Lawlor of the Social Security Administration - Office of Inspector General, Philadelphia Field Division; and Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari of the Department of Homeland Security.

As detailed in trial testimony, in January 2014, Charmaine Miesha Brown, a United States citizen, married Andrews Oduro Brown, a/k/a “Andrews Oduro,” a Ghanaian national who entered the United States in May 2013.  In 2021, Oduro obtained legal permanent resident status in the United States through his marriage to Brown. 

According to trial testimony, including testimony from Brown, and court documents, from December 2014 through April 2021, Brown and Oduro conspired to obtain United States passports for Oduro’s children, who were non-United States citizens, through false statements and fraudulent identity documents.

For example, the evidence established that on December 1, 2014, Brown submitted an application for a passport in the name of Brown’s child, Child C, who is a U.S. citizen, but bearing the photograph of Oduro’s child, Child A, who was born in Ghana and is not a U.S. citizen.  After the application was approved, Child A traveled from Ghana into the United States using the fraudulently obtained U.S. passport.  On March 16, 2015, Brown and Oduro applied for a passport in Child A’s own name and submitted a fraudulent Ghanaian birth certificate in support of the application, falsely stating that Brown was Child A’s birth mother.  As detailed at trial, on March 17, 2020, Brown and Oduro applied for a passport in the name of Child B, Oduro’s non-U.S. citizen child, and again submitted a fraudulent Ghanaian birth certificate in support of the application, falsely stating that Brown was Child B’s birth mother.  After the application was approved, Child B used the fraudulently obtained U.S. passport to travel into the United States.

Further, the evidence proved that from August 2016 through April 2021, Brown and Oduro conspired to receive payments from the state of Maryland’s Child Care Scholarship Program to which they were not entitled.  The Child Care Scholarship Program, formerly known as the Child Care Subsidy Program, provides direct payments for childcare services to providers of childcare to low-income families.  Brown falsely reported to the state of Maryland that a friend, Individual 1, was watching her children.  Brown also falsely represented that Oduro was an “absent parent,” when in fact Oduro lived in the same home.  The trial evidence, however, established that Individual 1 visited the United States in 2011 to 2012 before returning to Ghana and could not have provided the childcare services.  Instead, Oduro posed as Individual 1 and obtained payments from the state of Maryland between 2016 and 2021 to provide childcare to his and Brown’s own children.

Finally, according to trial testimony and court documents, in 2018, Brown and Oduro defrauded creditors and the bankruptcy trustee by filing a fraudulent Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland.  Brown and Oduro filed the petition using the name and partial social security number of Individual 1, seeking the discharge of tens of thousands of dollars in debts and tax obligations to the state of Maryland that Oduro incurred using the name and PII of Individual 1.  Court records show that Brown filled out the petition documents.  In addition, Oduro appeared at the discharge hearing in the bankruptcy court and identified himself as Individual 1, presenting a Pennsylvania identification that Brown and Oduro had fraudulently obtained in the name of Individual 1.  According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, as a result of the fraudulent bankruptcy petition in the name of Individual 1, Brown and Oduro caused the entry of an order in June 2018 discharging debt that Oduro incurred in the name of Individual 1.

Andrews Oduro Brown previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit passport fraud, aggravated identity theft, and bankruptcy fraud.  Judge Chuang sentenced Oduro to 28 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and further ordered Oduro to pay restitution of $127,951.22.

U.S. Attorney Barron commended the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General, and the Department of Homeland Security - Office of Inspector General for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron thanked the Office of the U.S. Trustee for the District of Maryland, the Maryland State Department of Education, the Maryland Office of the Attorney General, the Office of the Comptroller of Maryland, the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, and the Dauphin County Staff for their significant assistance.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Coreen Mao and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Gustavo Ruiz, who prosecuted the federal case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #

Baltimore, Maryland – Mario Flythe, age 50, of Glen Burnie, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to federal charges of conspiracy to engage in animal fighting, specifically the fighting of dogs, and interstate travel in aid of racketeering.

The guilty plea was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, Special Agent in Charge David J. Scott of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington Field Office, Special Agent in Charge Christopher Dillard of the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service – Mid-Atlantic Field Office; U.S. Marshal for Maryland Clinton Fuchs; and Anne Arundel County Police Chief Amal E. Awad.

According to the guilty plea, Flythe was affiliated with the same dogfighting enterprise as his co-defendant, Frederick Douglass Moorfield, Jr.  Flythe operated a kennel under the name “Razor Sharp Kennels,” and he used his home to keep, train and breed dogs for dogfighting for several years.

A review of Flythe’s cellphone showed numerous message exchanges regarding dogfighting—primarily over the instant messaging applications WhatsApp and Telegram—with members of a group known as the “DMV Board.”  In addition to arranging dog fights and wagers, Flythe and the DMV Board discussed the breeding and training of fighting dogs, procuring supplies for the maintenance and feeding of fighting dogs and criminal prosecutions of dogfighters.  In some exchanges, Flythe and others discussed indictments of other members of the DMV Board and speculated about the identity of a potential “snitch.”

Flythe’s instant messages also revealed several exchanges arranging—or “hooking”—dogfights.  In those conversations, Flythe identified the weight and sex of the dog he wanted to sponsor in a fight.  Other dogfighters then proposed a fight against their own dog or matched Flythe with another of their contacts who had a dog in the same weight class.  The dogfighters would then agree on wagers and set a date for the fight, usually six to eight weeks after the match was made.  In addition to stating the amount to be paid to the winner of the fight, dogfighters agreed on forfeit—or “fit”—payments to be made if a dogfighter backed out of the fight before it was scheduled to take place.

After hooking a fight, Flythe trained his dogs in a process known as a “keep.”  Flythe’s typical keep schedule for a dog involved physical training (using treadmills, weighted collars, and other accessories), a diet plan, and the use of steroids.  Flythe obtained steroids and other veterinary drugs through various contacts in his dogfighting network, not through legitimate veterinary prescriptions.

When Flythe sponsored a dog in a fight, the fight ended only when a dog died or when the owner forfeited the match—either through the dog “quitting” the fight or the owner “picking up” the dog. 

On several occasions between 2019 and 2023, Flythe received monetary payments through CashApp related to his participation in dogfighting conduct.  Flythe also sent money to dogfighting contacts in connection with the dogfighting enterprise.

On September 6, 2023, during a search of Flythe’s home, investigators recovered a total of seven pit bull-type dogs from the premises.  Four dogs were found chained to posts or poles in fenced-in cages in the property’s back yard, and three dogs were found in large metal cages in the basement.  In each of the cages in the back yard, investigators observed water bowls that contained either only dirt or water that appeared contaminated.  Canine feces was found in both the cages in the back yard and basement.  The back yard and four of the seven dogs were infested with fleas.  Flythe agrees that he bred and/or trained dogs for the purposes of sponsoring them in dogfights.

Flythe faces a maximum of five years in federal prison for conspiring to engage in an animal fighting conspiracy.  U.S. District Court Judge Richard D. Bennett has scheduled sentencing for October 24, 2024 at 2:30 p.m.  

Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties.  U.S. District Court Judge Richard D. Bennett will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.  

U.S. Attorney Barron commended the FBI, the DCIS, and the USDA-OIG for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alexander Levin and Darryl Tarver, who are prosecuting the case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #

Baltimore, Maryland – Jon Briceno, age 42, of Katy, Texas, pleaded guilty Friday, July 19, 2024, to conspiracy to commit money laundering, relating to his laundering of more than $8,751,523.07 in proceeds of various frauds, such as romance schemes and business email compromise schemes.  

The guilty plea was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland; Special Agent in Charge Christina Bentham of the United States Secret Service (USSS), Baltimore Field Office; and Sheriff Matt Crisafulli of the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office.

According to the plea agreement, beginning around June 2020, at the latest, and continuing through the date of his arrest by federal law enforcement on February 20, 2024, Briceno entered into an illegal agreement with the individuals referred to as Person A and Person B in the Indictment and numerous other co-conspirators to conduct and attempt to conduct financial transactions affecting interstate and foreign commerce that constituted the fraud schemes. 

The conspiracy involved the use of numerous shell companies formed by Briceno and his co-conspirators, as well as the opening of multiple bank accounts in the name of the shell companies that concealed his receipt and transfer of fraud proceeds.  These shell companies assisted the conspiracy by allowing Briceno to receive and transfer fraud proceeds while concealing Briceno’s identity and that of his co-conspirators. 

In connection with the scheme, Briceno and his co-conspirators each took a percentage of the proceeds from schemes, with the Briceno often taking 10-25% of the fraud proceeds.

Briceno was an organizer or leader of the money laundering conspiracy, which involved multiple participants around the nation.  Indeed, the Briceno routinely directed co-conspirators across the county in connection with the scheme, including by (1) recruiting them to open bank accounts in their names or in the names of various purported businesses (shell companies) to launder the fraud proceeds; (2) informing them when proceeds of schemes of defraud were deposited into bank accounts they controlled; (3) directing the co-conspirators regarding the intermediate accounts to which the proceeds were to be transferred; and (4) directing the co-conspirators to provide confirmation to him that the co-conspirators had in fact received and then transferred the proceeds as requested, including (a) photographs of online bank statements and online wire transfer confirmations; (b) mobile device screenshots of confirmations of transfers of funds via Zelle; and (c) mobile device screenshots of online bank statements.  

Among the financial transactions Briceno directed with his co-conspirators was their receipt of funds from a victim, the Worcester County Treasurer’s Office in Worcester County, Maryland—referred to as Victim 1 in the Indictment—on 12 separate instances beginning on November 20, 2020 and ending on January 21, 2021 in amounts ranging in size from $16.60 to $41,471.94.  In total, Worcester County was fraudulently convinced to provide $167,745.18 in funds to a bank account controlled by Briceno as a result of a business email compromise scheme in which an accounting manager employed by Worcester County received fraudulent emails directing that payments be made in response to a bill be made to the account controlled by Briceno. 

Moreover, during the broader timeframe of June 2020 to February 20, 2024, Briceno and his co-conspirators, used numerous accounts opened by Briceno and co-conspirators throughout the United States) to launder fraud proceeds obtained by numerous victims across the United States (including victims from California, Illinois, Virginia, Iowa, North Carolina, Texas, Missouri, Florida, New Jersey, New York, Indiana, South Carolina, Ohio, Alabama), as well as international victims Australia, Singapore, Luxembourg, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Thailand.

In total, Briceno laundered at least $8,751,523.07 in funds that were proceeds of wire fraud, and he personally received in excess of $1,250,000 as his share of the fraudulently obtained funds.

Mr. Briceno used the fraudulently obtained funds he received to purchase, among other things, numerous pieces of jewelry from Tiffany & Co., Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and others, numerous luxury items from designers such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Dior, and Christian Louboutin, and at least nine Rolex watches (valued at more than $10,000 each).  He invested in crypto-currency using the funds and likewise frequently gambled with large amounts of it.  Moreover, Briceno use the funds to lease office space, which he used as a space for running a poker room in Texas.

On June 15, 2022, Briceno’s residence, at the time located in Katy, Texas, was searched pursuant to a federal search warrant.  During the search, law enforcement identified and seized numerous bank records, money order receipts, pawn shop receipts, several bankcards and articles of incorporation documents for various shell businesses used in connection with money laundering conspiracy, along with various electronic devices.  One of these devices contained numerous WhatsApp messages and audio recordings of evidentiary value, including messages with co-conspirators concerning the money laundering conspiracy and numerous bank accounts used by Briceno, Person A, Person B, and others to launder fraud scheme funds, and numerous shell entities that were founded and used in connection with the conspiracy. 

On February 20, 2024, law enforcement executed another search warrant at Briceno’s new home, also located in Katy, Texas, and Briceno was arrested.  Numerous items of evidentiary value were seized during the search, including electronic devices with content reflecting the money laundering conspiracy with Person A, Person B, and others. 

Briceno faces a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison followed by up to three years of supervised release.  U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Maddox has scheduled sentencing for October 24, 2024 at 10:00 a.m.

United States Attorney Erek L. Barron commended the USSS and the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office for their work in the investigation.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul A. Riley leads the prosecution of this federal case.  For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #

Baltimore, Maryland – On July 18, 2024, U.S. District Judge Brendan A. Hurson sentenced Stephawn Watson, also known as “O Dawg,” age 28, of Capitol Heights, Maryland to 53 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for charges related to a Maryland and California unemployment insurance (UI) fraud scheme totaling more than $1.5 million, as well as Illegal Possession of a Firearm.  Judge Hurson also ordered Wason to forfeit over $90,000 and to pay restitution of $2,094,319.

The sentence was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland; Acting Postal Inspector in Charge Ajay Lall of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service – Washington Division; Special Agent in Charge Michael McCarthy of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore; and Special Agent in Charge Troy W. Springer of the National Capital Region, U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General (“DOL-OIG”); Chief Amal E. Awad of the Anne Arundel County Police Department, Colonel Roland L. Butler, Jr., Superintendent of the Maryland State Police (MSP); Chief Charles H. Hinnant of the Cumberland Police Department, and Special Agent in Charge Toni M. Crosby of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) Baltimore Field Division.

Financial assistance offered through the CARES Act included expanded eligibility for Unemployment Insurance (“UI”) benefits and increased UI benefits through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program (“PUA”), Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (“FPUC”), and the Lost Wages Assistance Program (“LWAP”).

According to his plea agreement, from March 2020 to October 2021, Watson and his co-conspirators impersonated victims to submit fraudulent claims for pandemic-related UI benefits in Maryland and in California.  As part of the scheme, Watson and his co-conspirators obtained the birthdates, social security numbers, and other personal identifying information (“PII”) of numerous victims which they used to prepare and submit fraudulent applications for UI benefits.  The applications contained false information, including the victims’ contact information, states of residence, and availability for work.  These fraudulent applications caused financial institutions to load UI benefits onto debit cards and mail the cars to physical addresses provided and monitored by co-conspirators.  Once Watson and his co-conspirators received fraudulently obtained benefits on the debit cards, they used them for cash withdrawals and other transactions for their own benefits. 

A search of Watson’s residence in February, 2021, recovered 11 UI debit cards in the names of 9 victims as well as a fraudulent account created in Watson’s name.  The investigation also revealed numerous text messages between Watson and his co-conspirators exchanging PII of victims and discussing the execution of the UI fraud scheme.  In all, Watson and his co-conspirators submitted more than 200 fraudulent UI claims using the names and PII of victims, resulting in more than $1.6 million in losses.

Watson was also sentenced for his Illegal Possession of a Firearm based on his arrest in January 2022 by the Cumberland Police Department.  At the time of his arrest, Watson was wanted for three different warrants in three different jurisdictions for firearms related offenses.  The firearm was later determined to be stolen.

The District of Maryland Strike Force is one of five strike forces established throughout the United States by the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute COVID-19 fraud, including fraud relating to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act.  The CARES Act was designed to provide emergency financial assistance to Americans suffering the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.  The strike forces focus on large-scale, multi-state pandemic relief fraud perpetrated by criminal organizations and transnational actors.  The strike forces are interagency law enforcement efforts, using prosecutor-led and data analyst-driven teams designed to identify and bring to justice those who stole pandemic relief funds.

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

U.S. Attorney Barron commended the USPIS, HSI, DOL-OIG, the Anne Arundel County Police Department, MSP, the Cumberland Police Department, and the ATF for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Colleen Elizabeth McGuinn who prosecuted the federal case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #

Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Julie R. Rubin today sentenced Tyrik Braxton, a/k/a “Son-Son,” age 28, of Baltimore, Maryland, to 25 years in federal prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release, for the use and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence resulting in death, in connection with a murder-for-hire conspiracy.  A co-defendant solicited Braxton and others to murder victim Juan Ross in exchange for money and in the course of the murder-for-hire Braxton aided and abetted his co-conspirators who discharged firearms, resulting in the death of Ross.

The sentence was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland; Special Agent in Charge Toni M. Crosby of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Baltimore Field Division; Chief Gregory Der of the Howard County Police Department; and Howard County State’s Attorney Rich Gibson.

According to the plea agreement, on October 4, 2020, Howard County Police responded to a shooting in the area of Basket Ring Road in Columbia.  Victim Juan Ross was found shot and killed at the scene, sustaining multiple gunshot wounds to the head.  Braxton admitted that he accepted money and assisted the co-conspirators who shot the victim, knowing that the victim was going to be killed. A co-conspirator accused the victim Juan Rossof cooperating with law enforcement, including on a live social media conversation on September 9, 2020, and in text messages.  The victim was arrested on drug and weapon charges on September 5, 2020, but was released on bail after being interviewed by police.

Braxton admitted that a co-conspirator solicited him to kill the victim and that he accepted payment from the co-conspirator to commit the murder.  As detailed in the plea agreement, the defendant used interstate commerce facilities, specifically cellular telephones and a vehicle, in the commission of the murder-for-hire.

On November 20, 2020, HCPD executed a series of search warrants, including at Braxton’s residence.  Braxton was in his bedroom when law enforcement arrived to execute the warrant and he was placed under arrest.  Law enforcement recovered a .45-caliber handgun with magazine and ammunition under the mattress in Braxton’s bedroom; a blue backpack containing $2,134 in cash, located under the bed and Braxton’s iPhone, located next to the bed.  The phone contained photos of Braxton and his co-conspirators and Braxton admitted that they were his co-conspirators in the murder-for-hire of the victim.

On January 11, 2023, Judge Rubin sentenced co-defendant Daquante Thomas, age 22, of Baltimore, to 35 years in federal prison for discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence resulting in death.  Thomas admitted that he was one of the shooters.  On February 27, 2024, Judge Rubin sentenced co-defendant Jourdain Larose, a/k/a “JBlacc,” age 29, of Ellicott City to 40 years in federal prison his role in the murder for hire conspiracy.  Larose admitted that he solicited others to kill the victim in exchange for payment.

This case was made possible by investigative leads generated from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives’ (ATF) National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN).  NIBIN is the only national network that allows for the capture and comparison of ballistic evidence to aid in solving and preventing violent crimes involving firearms.  NIBIN is a proven investigative and intelligence tool that can link firearms from multiple crime scenes, allowing law enforcement to quickly disrupt shooting cycles.  For more information on NIBIN, visit https://www.atf.gov/firearms/national-integrated-ballistic-information-network-nibin.

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 make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.  Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) is the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts.  PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.

U.S. Attorney Barron commended the ATF, the Howard County Police Department, and the Howard County State’s Attorney’s Office for their work in the investigation and prosecution and thanked the FBI, the Maryland State Police, the Anne Arundel County Police Department, the Baltimore County Police Department, and the Baltimore Police Department for their assistance.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim Y. Hagan, who is prosecuting the case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/project-safe-neighborhoods-psnexile and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #

Baltimore, Maryland – Jermaine Washington, age 36, of Baltimore, Maryland, pleaded guilty on July 19, 2024 to a federal charge for being a felon in possession of a firearm, and was sentenced to serve a term of four years of incarceration.  

The guilty plea was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland; Special Agent in Charge Toni M. Crosby of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Baltimore Field Division; and Commissioner Michael Harrison of the Baltimore Police Department.

Washington has previously been convicted of armed robbery in Maryland state court in 2006 and again in 2013.  According to his guilty plea, on May 6, 2022, Baltimore Police Department officers performed a traffic stop near the 1700 block of Ramsay Street after noticing that a vehicle – later found to be driven by Washington – had an inoperable brake light and tag light, and expired registration.  After stopping the car and identifying Washington, officers determined Washington had an outstanding state arrest warrant for domestic assault.  Officers also examined the interior of Washington’s vehicle using a flashlight and observed a handgun in plain view on the driver’s-side floorboard.  The officers then entered the vehicle and recovered a Sig-Sauer .40 caliber handgun loaded with 12 rounds of ammunition.  As a part of his plea agreement, Washington admitted that he knew he was prohibited from possessing a firearm and ammunition as a result of the two previous armed robbery convictions.

As a part of his plea agreement, Washington and the government agreed that Washington would be sentenced to a term of 48 months (four years) in federal prison.  U.S. District Judge Brendan A. Hurson accepted this plea agreement today and, upon Washington’s request, held a contemporaneous sentencing hearing, imposing the agreed-upon term of 48 months incarceration, and sentencing Washington to a subsequent term of three years supervised release. 

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 Department 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.

U.S. Attorney Barron commended the ATF and the Baltimore Police Department for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven T. Brantley, who prosecuted the case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/project-safe-neighborhoods-psn and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #

Baltimore, Maryland – Potomac Floral Wholesale, Inc. and Tsur “Jacob” Reiss have agreed to pay the United States and State of Maryland $1,250,000.00 to resolve allegations that they caused the submission of false unemployment insurance (UI) claims at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The settlement agreement was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland; Troy W. Springer, Special Agent in Charge of the National Capital Region, U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General (DOL-OIG); and Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown.

“Attempting to unjustly profit from a global pandemic is absolutely wrong,” said United States Attorney Erek Barron. “Unemployment insurance is meant for employees who need it when they are laid off from their jobs. During the early stages of COVID-19, the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program was designed to supplement traditional unemployment insurance for employees laid off during an unprecedented global emergency. Employers should not use tax dollars to shirk their responsibility to pay employees for their work.”

“The unemployment insurance (UI) program offered critical financial support to American workers who were unable to work due to the immense challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Troy W. Springer, Special Agent in Charge of the National Capital Region, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General (DOL-OIG). “This civil settlement demonstrates the strong commitment, resolve, and partnership of the DOL-OIG and U.S. Attorney’s Office to hold accountable those who seek to unlawfully exploit the UI program at the expense of those who actually need it.”

“All workers deserve to be paid fairly for their time and effort.  The unemployment insurance program exists as a critical lifeline to keep individuals and families afloat when someone is laid off or out of work through no fault of their own,” said Attorney General Anthony Brown. “Exploiting the program to try to avoid paying employees their fair wages is unacceptable. My office is committed to standing up for workers and stopping abusive conduct wherever it is found. We thank our federal partners for their invaluable work and cooperation in bringing this matter to a successful resolution.”

Potomac Floral is a wholesale floral company run by Owner and CEO Tsur “Jacob” Reiss. According to the settlement agreement, from March 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020, starting immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the suspension or modification of American business activity, Potomac Floral and Reiss instructed a group of their employees to apply for UI benefits. Yet, they also instructed these same employees to continue working for Potomac Floral without pay. Because individuals collecting UI must be unemployed, not completing work for an employer, Potomac Floral’s and Mr. Reiss’s conduct caused the submission of false UI claims in violation of the False Claims Act.

The civil settlement also resolves claims filed under the whistleblower provision of the False Claims Act by Travis Gabriel in United States & State of Maryland ex rel. Travis Gabriel v. Potomac Floral Wholesale, Inc. & Tsur “Jacob” Reiss, Civ. No. TDC-21-0207 (D. Md).  The False Claims Act permits private parties to file suit on behalf of the United States for false claims and obtain a portion of the recovery.  As part of the civil resolution, Mr. Gabriel will receive $243,750.00. 

The claims resolved by this settlement are allegations. The settlement is not an admission of liability by Potomac Floral or Tsur Reiss, nor a concession by the United States that its claims are not well founded.

U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron praised the DOL-OIG for its work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Haven who handled the case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to report fraud, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/report-fraud.

###

Baltimore, Maryland – The FBI and our local law enforcement partners are investigating a surge of armed robberies, known as “jugging” crimes, at financial institutions in Maryland. At least 21 bank and ATM customers have been victimized by these crimes just in the first week of July.

A majority of the crimes have taken place in Anne Arundel and Prince George’s Counties.

“Jugging” refers to a crime in which a suspect, or group of suspects, targets customers believed to have large amounts of cash. The perpetrators either rob customers while in the parking lot of a bank, credit union or ATM or follow them to their next location.

So far in 2024, the FBI Baltimore Field Office has received reports of around seven dozen jugging offenses with more than half of those incidents reported in June and July.

“These assailants are brazenly targeting bank and ATM customers, posing a significant risk to the public of both physical and financial harm. FBI Baltimore’s Violent Crime Task Forces and our partners are working together to combat the alarming rise of these dangerous incidents,” said FBI Baltimore Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno. "We will continue to pursue criminals with all our available resources and remain determined to eradicate violent crime from our streets."

“The Anne Arundel County Police Department is grateful for the assistance of our federal, state and local partnerships as we focus intently on the violent criminals involved in the wave of armed robberies being committed against our innocent, hardworking community members throughout the region,” said Anne Arundel County Chief of Police Amal E. Awad. “The perpetrators of these violent robberies, known as “juggings”, prey on people who are trying to live out their daily lives peacefully.  We will continue to dedicate the necessary resources to prevent these criminals from attacking innocent people and when they do, diligently and relentlessly use our investigative techniques to identify, arrest and bring them to justice.  We share in the outrage of the many people and their families who have survived these terrifying encounters left feeling victimized, broken and traumatized at the hands of these heartless, lawbreaking criminals."

“The Prince George’s County Police Department truly values our partnership with both the FBI Baltimore Field Office and local agencies on this regional issue. Our detectives regularly communicate with these law enforcement partners to share real-time information on these investigations which often cross jurisdictional borders,” said Deputy Chief Zachary O’Lare, Bureau of Investigation Prince George’s County Police Department. “Together, we intend to identify and arrest all criminals targeting victims who are simply stopping at a bank. This issue is a top priority.”

“The Bowie Police Department is committed to collaborating with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to identify and apprehend those responsible for these criminal acts,” said Bowie Police Chief Dwayne A. Preston.

The FBI urges the public to remain vigilant and keep the following safety tips in mind.

• Be Aware of Your Surroundings: Always be vigilant when withdrawing or depositing money from a bank or ATM.

• Look around for anyone who appears suspicious or is loitering in the area.
• Pay attention to individuals backed into parking spaces who do not exit their vehicles to conduct business.
• Don’t leave your car or the building if you observe suspicious vehicles in the parking lot or parked nearby.

• Report any suspicious activities immediately.
• Conceal Your Cash: When leaving the bank, ensure your cash is not visible. Place it in a secure, inconspicuous location such as a pocket or a bag.
• Vary Your Routine: Avoid regular patterns in your banking habits. Change the times and locations you visit the bank.
• Drive Directly to Your Next Destination: If you suspect you are being followed, drive to the nearest police station or a crowded, well-lit area, and call 911.
• Avoid Distractions: Do not engage in activities that might distract you, such as using your phone, until you are in a safe place.

If you have any information related to recent bank jugging incidents, please contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL FBI or submit an anonymous tip through tips.FBI.gov.
 

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #

Baltimore, Maryland – The University of Maryland, College Park (UMD) has agreed to pay $500,000 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by failing to disclose current and pending support from foreign sources for faculty members who were principal investigators (PI) or co-PIs of federal research grant proposals.

            The settlement relates to research grant support UMD received from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of the Army between 2015 and 2020. These agencies require grant applicants to disclose all current and pending support received by the institution, its PIs, and co-PIs.  Current and pending support is defined as all resources from whatever source — including foreign government sources — that are made available to researchers in support of and/or related to their research endeavors. The agencies rely on the accuracy of these disclosures, in part, to avoid funding duplicative research projects and to ensure their highly competitive grants are awarded only to PIs who demonstrate they have the time and ability to perform the planned work. Non-disclosure of required information can result in missed opportunities for other applicants to receive funding for their own research.

            This investigation began as a proactive initiative spearheaded by the NSF Office of Inspector General (OIG) to determine if foreign gifts and contracts subject to Section 117 of the Department of Education’s Higher Education Act of 1965 were also being disclosed in federal grant proposals, as required.

            The United States alleged UMD knowingly failed to disclose current and pending foreign funding that three UMD researchers had sought and received, in five research grant proposals submitted to the NSF and Army. Specifically, the United States alleged UMD failed to disclose to NSF gift funding from Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. to a PI for research in “high energy density FeF3 conversion cathode materials and Li metal anodes.” Additionally, the United States alleged UMD failed to disclose to the NSF and Army grant funding to two other PIs from Taobao (China) Software Co., Ltd. (Alibaba), titled, “Large-Scale Behavior Learning for Dense Crowds”, and “Cyber-Manufacturing of Customized Apparel.”

            “Complete and accurate disclosures are essential to federal agencies that make decisions on awarding federal grants,” said Erek L. Barron, United States Attorney for the District of Maryland.  “Those individuals and universities that knowingly fail to do so skew the grant awarding process in their favor and will be held accountable.”

            “NSF plays a major role in the U.S. research enterprise, providing about 25% of all Federal support to America’s colleges and universities for basic research. Lack of institutional oversight of individuals receiving Federal funds poses a serious risk to the success of that enterprise. This investigation was one of NSF OIG’s proactive efforts focused on determining compliance with critical grant terms and conditions, including mandatory disclosures. As this case demonstrated, the failure of institutional oversight can foster noncompliance and present significant challenges to the integrity of the Federal research funding process,” said NSF Inspector General Allison Lerner. “We thank the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland and our investigative partners for their work in protecting federally funded research.”

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

            The resolution obtained in this matter was the result of a coordinated effort between the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, with assistance from the NSF OIG and the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division.

            The matter was investigated by Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas F. Corcoran for the District of Maryland.

##

Greenbelt, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte sentenced Karim Abdul Turay, age 31, a resident of Prince George’s County, Maryland, to 51 months in federal prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release, for conspiracy to commit transportation of stolen motor vehicles and receipt and possession of stolen motor vehicles. 

The sentence was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland; Special Agent in Charge Michael McCarthy of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore; Port of Baltimore Director Adam Rottman of U.S. Customs and Border Protection; and Chief of the Maryland Transportation Authority Police Colonel Joseph F. Scott.

According to his plea agreement, between approximately September 2019 and June 2022, Turay worked with others to fraudulently rent vehicles from Hertz, Avis, and other car rental companies at locations in Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere.  Turay and others were able to rent these cars using false identifications and credit cards.

The vehicles would then be transported to Maryland where they would be loaded onto large cargo shipping containers and taken to the Port of Baltimore.  Then, using false declaration forms and other paperwork to conceal the containers’ contents, the containers with rental vehicles inside would be exported to West Africa via cargo ship where the vehicles could be sold.  Law enforcement is aware of more than 40 vehicles that Turay and his co-conspirators either exported or attempted to export to West Africa.

Co-conspirator Jonathan Davis, age 39, of Laurel, Maryland, previously pled guilty to receipt and possession of stolen vehicles and was sentenced to 13 months in federal prison.  Another Co-conspirator, Rodley Balthazar, age 30, also of Laurel, Maryland, pled guilty to the same charges as Turay and was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison.

U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron praised the HSI Border Enforcement Security Task Force and the Maryland Transportation Authority Police for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Darren S. Gardner and Timothy F. Hagan who prosecuted the case.

            For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #

Greenbelt, Maryland – A federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging Jemel Lyles, age 42, of Washington, D.C., with three counts of wire fraud, two counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of money laundering relating to the submission of alleged fraudulent COVID-19 CARES Act loan applications.  The indictment was returned on June 27, 2024, and unsealed today upon the arrest of the defendant.

The defendant had an initial appearance today, in the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gina L. Simms.

The indictment was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland and Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office.

Financial assistance offered through the CARES Act included forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and certain other expenses, through the Paycheck Protection Program, administered through the Small Business Administration (SBA). According to the indictment, the defendant fraudulently obtained three PPP loans and spent the funds for purposes not permitted under the PPP loan program. The first PPP loan was for a construction and landscaping business that in support of that application, Lyles submitted a false payroll document, which misrepresented the size of the business’ payroll. Lyles also disguised his ownership of the business.  As a result of this application, PPP funds were deposited into a bank account under Lyles’s control and later used for personal and unauthorized expenses. The indictment also alleges that Lyles obtained two PPP loans impermissibly using the identity of a Maryland resident. In support of these applications, Lyles submitted false tax documents and listed the Maryland resident’s Social Security Number as the relevant taxpayer identification number. As a result of these applications, Lyles received PPP funds, which he proceeded to use for unauthorized expenses.

If convicted, Lyles faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each wire fraud count; a minimum mandatory sentence of two years in prison for each aggravated identity theft count, which will run consecutive to the wire fraud sentence; and a maximum of 10 years in federal prison for money laundering.  Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. 

An indictment is not a finding of guilt.  An individual charged by indictment is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings. 

The District of Maryland Strike Force is one of five strike forces established throughout the United States by the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute COVID-19 fraud, including fraud relating to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act.  The CARES Act was designed to provide emergency financial assistance to Americans suffering the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.  The strike forces focus on large-scale, multi-state pandemic relief fraud perpetrated by criminal organizations and transnational actors.  The strike forces are interagency law enforcement efforts, using prosecutor-led and data analyst-driven teams designed to identify and bring to justice those who stole pandemic relief funds.

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

U.S. Attorney Barron commended the FBI for its work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph L. Wenner, who is prosecuting the federal case.  He also recognized the assistance of the Maryland COVID-19 Strike Force Paralegal Specialist Joanna B.N. Huber.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #

Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Court Judge Ellen L. Hollander sentenced Jacky Lynn McComber, of Elkridge, Maryland, to thirteen months in federal prison and ordered her to pay $176,913 in restitution for submitting false invoices to the National Security Agency (“NSA”) for overstating her hours worked on a contract and for making false statements to investigators from the NSA’s Office of the Inspector General (“NSA-OIG”). 

The sentence was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, Kevin Garrity, Deputy Inspector General for NSA’s Office of Inspector General and Robert P. Storch, Inspector General of the Department of Defense.

According to evidence presented at her four-week jury trial, McComber was the Chief Executive Officer of an information technology company that had contracts with the NSA. Because the subject matter of these contracts involved classified information, most of the work had to be performed at a secure location, and there were significant limitations to the amount of work that could be performed off-site. According to the testimony, during approximately 19 months, McComber billed for her supposed work physically at the NSA, when in reality approximately 90% of the work she billed for was not when she physically was at the NSA. The evidence further showed that McComber at times did not work the number of hours on the contract that she recorded on her timesheets. For example, on occasions when McComber billed a full day to the contract, she participated in charity events, attended a reunion, and was on vacation. As further detailed in trial testimony, McComber participated in a voluntary interview with NSA-OIG investigators as a result of information received from a whistleblower indicating that McComber was billing the government for hours that she was not actually working. 

U.S. Attorney Barron commended the NSA-OIG and the DOD Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, for their work in the investigation. Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Jefferson M. Gray and Department of Justice Fraud Section Trial Attorney Peter L. Cooch, who prosecuted the case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #

Baltimore, Maryland – On June 28, 2024, U.S. District Court Judge Ellen L. Hollander sentenced Steven Umberto Angelini, of Baltimore, Maryland, to two and a half years in federal prison and other conditions, including drug treatment, for conspiracy to distribute cocaine and oxycodone and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. 

The sentence was announced by Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, Special Agent in Charge William DelBagno of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office, Special Agent in Charge Michael McCarthy of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore, and Chief Robert McCullough of the Baltimore County Police Department.

According to his plea agreement, Angelini was a member of the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) and from January 2022 through May 2022, Angelini and Co-Conspirator 1 conspired to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine and oxycodone.  During the conspiracy Angelini twice also offered to go to the Baltimore City Police Department (“BPD”) Homicide Unit to obtain information about an investigation involving Co-Conspirator 1’s supplier who had been murdered. 

Angelini also provided Co-Conspirator 1 with law enforcement sensitive information on the case and some pictures, which were available to BPD employees through mass email dissemination. 

 According to his plea agreement, Angelini’s offer to obtain the video for Co-Conspirator 1 was made with the sole objective to persuade Co-Conspirator 1 to provide him with cocaine.

Angelini also offered to sell Co-Conspirator 1 a privately made firearm, also known as a “ghost gun,” in exchange for cash and narcotics. 

In April 2022, Angelini provided 20 oxycodone pills to Co-Conspirator 1.  Later in April 2022, Angelini texted Co-Conspirator 1 that he was at a gun shop and stated that he wanted to purchase cocaine from Co-Conspirator 1.  Angelini then offered to purchase ammunition and firearms accessories for Co-Conspirator 1 in exchange for cocaine.  Angelini purchased a magazine for the privately made firearm he sold to Co-Conspirator 1, as well as ammunition, including hollow-point ammunition, which he provided to Co-Conspirator 1 later that night in exchange for cocaine.

Further, Angelini admitted that in May 2022, after visiting a Rosedale, Maryland pain clinic and filling a prescription for oxycodone pills, he called Co-Conspirator 1 and notified him that he had the pills available for sale.  They negotiated that Co-Conspirator 1 would give Angelini cash and cocaine in exchange for the oxycodone. 

United States Attorney Erek L. Barron commended the FBI, HSI and the Baltimore County Police Department for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Goo, who prosecuted the case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/project-safe-neighborhoods-psnexile and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #

Baltimore, Maryland – Jason Edmonds, age 45 of North East, Maryland pleaded guilty today to a federal charge of bribery relating to a bribery scheme at the Aberdeen Proving Ground.

The guilty plea was announced by Erek L. Barron U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, Special Agent in Charge William DelBagno of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office, Special Agent in Charge Christopher Dillard of the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, and Special Agent in Charge L. Scott Moreland of the Army Criminal Investigation Division. 

According to the guilty plea, Edmonds was employed by the United States Army as a Research Biologist at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (“CCDC”) Chemical Biological Center (“CB Center”) located at the Aberdeen Proving Ground (“APG”).  The CCDC CB Center was the nation’s principal research and development center for non-medical chemical and biological weapons defense.  The CB Center developed technology in the areas of detection, protection, and decontamination. 

From 2012 to 2019, Edmonds accepted cash and other financial benefits from John Conigliaro, the owner and CEO of EISCO, Inc. in exchange for favorable action on CB Center contracts.  For example, in July 2013, Edmonds directed a $300,000 CB Center project to EISCO.  Three months later, in October 2013, Conigliaro gave Edmonds $40,000 in cash so that Edmonds could purchase two rental real estate properties.  Once Edmonds purchased the rental properties, Conigliaro paid for thousands of dollars of renovations to the rental properties.

Relative to the cash exchange, Edmonds and Conigliaro executed a “Promissory Note,” which was subsequently amended by Edmonds on June 14, 2014.  In the amended “Promissory Note,” Edmonds credited himself $18,100 against the $40,000 in cash for past projects that Edmonds had directed to EISCO at the CB Center.  Edmonds also wrote that Conigliaro would provide him an additional $25,000 in exchange for future projects that Edmonds would direct to EISCO.

Between December 2016 and August 2017, Edmonds directed a series of government projects to EISCO in exchange for a stream of benefits from Conigliaro, including a kitchen remodel at Edmonds’s personal residence, the purchase of a granite countertop, a kitchen sink, and new siding to his home.

In June 2020, after federal agents attempted to interview Edmonds and Conigliaro, the co-conspirators met approximately three times to discuss the investigation.  During those meetings, Edmonds proposed that he and Conigliaro inform federal investigators that Edmonds had repaid Conigliaro with gold and baseball cards, knowing that it was false.

Edmonds faces a maximum of five years in federal prison for conspiring to commit bribery.  Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties.  A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.  

U.S. Attorney Barron commended the FBI, the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, and the Army Criminal Investigation Division for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bijon A. Mostoufi and Michael Cunningham, who are prosecuting the federal case, and Paralegal Specialist Joanna Huber.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #