Northern District of Texas

A fentanyl dealer who sold roughly 6,000 pills laced with fentanyl to an undercover agent has been federally charged, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.

Richard Daniel Gomez, 22, was charged on Thursday via criminal complaint with possession with intent to distribute fentanyl. He made his initial appearance before Magistrate Judge Renee Harris Toliver on Friday.

According to the complaint, an undercover DPS agent negotiated with a drug trafficker to buy 6,000 “blues” for $15,000 cash. (“Blues,” which often resemble oxycodone, are often manufactured illicitly and laced with fentanyl, an opioid 75 - 150 times more potent than oxy.)

The trafficker directed the agent to meet with his courier in a parking lot in Dallas’ Turtle Creek neighborhood. When the agent arrived, the undercover met with Mr. Gomez inside a pickup truck. Mr. Gomez allegedly handed over a vacuum-sealed bag containing a large number of blue pills and was promptly arrested.

A criminal complaint is merely an allegation of wrongdoing, not evidence. All defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

If convicted, Mr. Gomez faces 10 years to life in federal prison.

The Texas Department of Public Safety and the Dallas Police Department are conducting the investigation with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Dallas Field Office. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rick Calvert and George Leal are prosecuting the case.

An MS-13 gang member was sentenced today to more than five years in federal prison for a drug crime, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.

Williams Josue Fuentes-Argueta, a 30-year-old El Salvadorian in the U.S. illegally, was indicted in November 2021 and pleaded guilty in April 2022 to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin. He was sentenced Wednesday to 64 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr, who also ordered him to forfeit two handguns.

At his sentencing hearing, Judge Starr ruled that the defendant belonged to MS-13,  a notoriously violent transnational street gang with the creed, “kill, rob, rape, control.”

In plea papers, Mr. Fuentes-Argueta admitted he and his co-conspirator, girlfriend Angie Marlyn Valencia, dealt heroin out of an apartment on Royal Lane in Dallas.

On Sept. 16, 2021, while Ms. Valencia acted as lookout, Mr. Fuentes-Argueta sold more than 70 grams of heroin to an undercover Texas DPS officer for $2,7000 cash. About two weeks later, the pair teamed up again to sell another 76 grams of heroin to two undercover officers.

On Oct. 12, officers searched the defendants’ residence and found 20 grams of heroin and two handguns, a 9mm M&P and a .380mm Keltec.

Ms. Valencia, who also plead guilty to engaging in the conspiracy, was sentenced in August 2022 to 65 months in federal prison. Judge Starr found that Ms. Valencia also met the criteria to be considered an MS-13 gang member. 

The Texas Department of Public Safety, the Carrolton Police Department, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives’ Dallas Field Division conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney George Leal is prosecuting the case.

The head of a Fort Worth drug trafficking operation and his associate have been federal charged, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.

Leeroy Marquee Jones, aka Aladdin, 32, and Christopher Antwuan George, 21, were charged via criminal complaint with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, a federal crime.

During their arrest, Demarcus Taylor, a federal fugitive previously charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, was also arrested.

According to the complaint, Mr. Jones was identified as the head of a drug trafficking organization that dealt fentanyl, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana in Fort Worth’s “stop six” neighborhood. He was allegedly a multi-kilogram distributor.

On Jan. 19, enforcement executed search warrants at three stash houses allegedly run by Mr. Jones and seized 500 grams of suspected fentanyl, 400 grams of suspected methamphetamine, 16 firearms, and a large amount of U.S. currency.

“Seeking justice and a safe community is a team effort. Through our partnership with the Hood County Sheriff’s Office and the Fort Worth Police Department, guns and drugs, including thousands of potential deadly doses of fentanyl, are off our streets.  Violent criminal drug networks poisoning our neighborhoods will be held accountable.  You cannot hide.”

- DEA Fort Worth Special Agent in Charge Eduardo A. Chávez

A criminal complaint is merely an allegation of criminal conduct, not evidence. Both defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

If convicted, they face up 10 years to life in federal prison.

The Drug Enforcement Administration’s Fort Worth District Office, the Hood County Sherriff’s Office, and the Fort Worth Police Department conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Montes is prosecuting the case.

The drug dealer who sold the fentanyl that killed an Abilene man pleaded guilty this week to a federal drug crime, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton. 

Elijah James Perez, 21, was indicted in September 2022. He pleaded guilty Tuesday to distribution of fentanyl resulting in death.

“Fentanyl has shattered far too many lives. And far too often, users don’t understand that the pills they’re ingesting are laced with this deadly drug. Let this case be a warning to drug dealers throughout Texas: If you sell the fentanyl that causes an overdose death, we will hold you accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

- U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton

According to court documents, Mr. Perez admits that he sold fentanyl to a victim, identified in court documents as J.W., on Feb. 11, 2022.

The following day, J.W. was found nonresponsive on his bed. After 40 minutes of attempted resuscitation, he was pronounced dead on scene.

Witnesses told law enforcement they believed J.W. had ingested Percocet, but an autopsy found that J.W. died from the toxic effects of fentanyl.

According to plea papers, Mr. Perez admits that approximately three days before J.W.’s death, Mr. Perez offered to sell him “5 percs.” Three days later, Mr. Perez met with J.W. outside his home around 10 p.m. to make the sale. The pills were laced with fentanyl.

Six minutes later, J.W. texted his girlfriend that he’d received some “percs” that were “hella strong.” Hours later, he was dead of an overdose.

“The consequences of trafficking drugs is real. The deadly effects of fentanyl have claimed the lives of two people: one who we will never get back and another who will spend years in prison as a result.  Families are forever changed.  The DEA will continue to investigate these crimes with a relentless pursuit of justice and accountability for the criminal organizations that distribute these deadly drugs.”

- DEA Dallas Field Division Special Agent in Charge, Eduardo A. Chávez 

If the federal district judge accepts his plea of guilty, Mr. Perez faces a mandatory minimum sentence that includes 20 years in federal prison.  A sentencing date has not yet  been set.

The Drug Enforcement Administration’s Dallas Field Office and the Abilene Police Department conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Tusing is prosecuting the case.

An Amarillo man was sentenced Thursday to two years in federal prison for threatening to execute three prominent Jewish rabbis, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.

Christopher Stephen Brown was charged via criminal complaint on Dec. 6, 2021 and indicted later that month. He plead guilty in September 2022 to making interstate threatening communications and was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk.

“Mr. Brown expressed vile anti-Semitism and threatened to commit despicable, violent acts against specific Jewish authorities.  We will never stop protecting the Jewish community and other religious groups from such disturbing, hateful conduct.  We hope the sentence handed down today serves as reassurance of that to the victims, their loved ones, and the greater Jewish community”

- U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton

“Making threatening statements intended to instill fear and cause potential physical harm is a serious criminal action with consequences. Our hope is that today’s sentence brings some relief to the affected private citizens, law enforcement and members of the Jewish community at large. This behavior will not be tolerated, and we will continue working with our law enforcement partners to pursue individuals who espouse violent, antisemitic beliefs and pose a threat to public safety, holding them accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

- FBI Dallas Acting Special Agent in Charge James J. Dwyer 

According to plea papers, Mr. Brown admitted to placing threatening calls to Chabad Lubavitch, a Jewish organization that has provided spiritual guidance and assistance to Jewish people since before the Holocaust.  Chabad is headquartered in New York City and maintains more than 3,500 institutions worldwide. 

In those calls, the defendant sated his name was “Madrikh Obadiah” and threatened to “execute” several rabbinical leaders, identified in court documents as L.S., Y.K., and M.K.  Over the course of multiple calls, he vowed he would tear their eyes and tongues out, blow their heads of, and kill every rabbi he could find.

According to court documents, he also sent messages to the organization via their website, calling for death to all Jews and linking to his YouTube channel, which also contained threatening content.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office, Amarillo Resident Agency and the Randall County Sheriff’s Office conducted the investigation in partnership with the FBI’s New York Field Office and the New York Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Frausto prosecuted the case.

A Lancaster man who sold more than 50 guns without a license pleaded guilty yesterday to a federal firearm crime, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.

Armani Morris, 22, was arrested following an undercover gun buy in July 2022 and indicted in August. He pleaded guilty Tuesday to engaging in the business of selling firearms without a license before U.S. Magistrate Judge Rebecca Rutherford.

“Federal law requires firearms dealers to be licensed – and, crucially, to run background checks on their buyers. Subverting these laws allows guns to fall into the wrong hands, endangering the public,” said U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton. “Despite being warned that his conduct was unlawful, this defendant brazenly continued selling to anyone who would buy. Let there be no mistake: The Justice Department will aggressively pursue anyone who flouts federal firearm laws.”   

“Today was a victory for law enforcement and the citizens of North Texas. Mr. Morris knew the law. Mr. Morris knew the procedures to become a licensed firearms dealer. Mr. Morris chose to ignore them all and continue to deal firearms illegally. I hope this serves as an example for all those who choose to sell firearms around the laws. ATF and its partners will investigate you and you will be prosecuted,” stated ATF Dallas Field Division Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey C. Boshek II. 

According to plea papers, Mr. Morris admits that between 2021 and 2022, he sold at least 52 firearms despite the fact that he did not have a license to engage in the business of dealing in firearms.  

(Federal law requires that people engaged in the business of dealing in firearms – defined as repeatedly devoting time and attention to purchasing and reselling guns for monetary gain – obtain Federal Firearms Licenses, or FFLs, and run background checks on potential buyers.)

On Dec. 16, 2021, ATF agents served Mr. Morris with an administrative cease-and-desist letter that explained firearms licensing laws so that Morris would know that his conduct was illegal.  However, Morris continued to purchase and sell firearms. 

On April 7, 2022,  ATF Special Agents met with Morris at his residence, where he acknowledged that he read the cease-and-desist letter but asserted he did not want to sign it.  When agents confronted Morris with evidence of 54 firearm purchases, Morris could fully account for only two of the guns.  Morris also admitted to agents that he had spent all his income on firearms while he sought to sell them for a profit. However,  Morris admitted that dealing in firearms was turning out to be a bad investment.

Despite continued warnings from law enforcement, Morris continued to deal firearms without a license. ATF then proceeded with an undercover investigation.  On four separate occasions in the summer of 2022, undercover agents purchased from Morris a total of seven firearms, including two AR-type pistols, a Smith & Wesson 9mm pistol, and a Glock 9mm pistol and with a Glock switch that made the Glock fire fully automatic as a machinegun.

Mr. Morris now faces up to five years in federal prison.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives’ Dallas Field Division and the Dallas Police Department conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Walt Junker is prosecuting the case.

 

A Florida man tied to at least five bank robberies in North Texas was sentenced today to more than 11 years in federal prison, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.

Thomas Joseph Banno, 54, pleaded guilty in August 2022 to bank robbery. He was sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr to 140 months’ imprisonment.

According to plea papers, Mr. Banno admitted he was involved in at least five bank robberies and attempted bank robberies in the DFW metroplex between June and August 2021 – while he was on probation for a bank robbery in Florida.

Each time, Mr. Banno donned a mask, entered the bank, and demanded “all the $50s and $100s” from the teller. On at least one occasion, he gestured as if he had a gun concealed under his shirt; on another, he told the teller he had a gun; and on two others, he brandished what appeared to be a silver pistol.

After each robbery, Mr. Banno fled the scene in a Dodge Caravan driven by his codefendant, Sade Miranda Salters, 36, who later pleaded guilty to bank robbery; aiding and abetting.

Both Mr. Banno and Ms. Salters admitted in plea papers that they knowingly traveled from Florida to Texas with the intent to commit the robberies.

Shortly after two of the robberies, Ms. Salters posted a Facebook Live video of herself flashing a stack of banded cash. The video later pans to Mr. Banno asleep in the backseat of the van.

Ms. Salters is currently awaiting sentencing.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Dallas Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Briggs is prosecuting the case.

A drug trafficking cartel member was sentenced Tuesday to more than 15 years in federal prison, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.

Ruben Salazar Vasquez, 51, pleaded guilty in August 2022 to possession with intent to distribute cocaine. He was sentenced Tuesday to 188 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Ada Brown, who ordered him to forfeit $28,481 along with four firearms.

At the sentencing hearing, prosecutors said, based on information provided by the DEA, Mr. Vasquez was a member of the Gulf Cartel and distributed cocaine to Tennessee and Illinois as well as Texas.

In plea papers, Mr. Vasquez admitted that on April 22, 2021, he delivered drugs to the residence of a known drug dealer in Grand Prairie and then fled the scene.

Shortly thereafter, law enforcement found 3,862 grams of cocaine in a vehicle that departed the home and 1,937 grams of cocaine stashed inside a grill on the premises.

The dealer, Jorge Adalberto Cavazos, and his associate, Darwin Lamont Conwright, were also charged. Both pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute cocaine. Mr. Cavazos was sentenced to 108 months in prison and Mr. Conwright is slated to be sentenced later this month.

The investigation was led by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Dallas Division along with the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Grand Prairie Police Department, the Garland Police Department, IRS – Criminal Investigations, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney George Leal is prosecuting the case.

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

The former CEO of a Texas beverage company was sentenced today to ten years in prison for his role in a high-yield investment scheme in which he and his co-conspirators fraudulently sold more than $12 million of stock in Dallas-based EarthWater Limited to elderly and other vulnerable victims.  Four other individuals have also been sentenced to prison for their roles in the scheme.

According to court documents, Cengiz Jan “CJ” Comu, 62, of Dallas, formerly EarthWater’s Chief Executive Officer; John Mervyn Price, 67, of Dallas, formerly EarthWater’s Chief Operating Officer; Richard Laurence Kadish, 61, of Del Ray Beach, Florida; Richard Lawrence Green, 71, of Deerfield Beach, Florida; and Suzanne Aileen Gagnier, 68, of Huntington Beach, California, and others conspired to defraud victims and made false representations about how EarthWater would use investors’ money. Comu, Price, Kadish, Green, Gagnier, and their co-conspirators falsely represented that more than 90% of money raised from investors would be re-invested in the company, when in fact a substantial majority of the funds were used for the conspirators’ personal benefit. 

Comu pleaded guilty to 23 counts including conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. Price pleaded guilty to 22 counts including conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering, and was sentenced to six years in prison. Kadish and Green each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud and one count of mail fraud and were each sentenced to six years in prison. Gagnier pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and was sentenced to two years in prison.

Six other defendants charged in the scheme have also pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing: Harley E. “Buddy” Barnes, III, 64, formerly of Plano, Texas, formerly EarthWater’s Chief Financial Officer; Russell Filippo, 72, of Oklahoma City; Daniel Thomas Broyles Sr., 65, formerly of Malibu, California; Joe Edward Duchinsky, 67, of Norwalk, California; Joseph Lucien Duplain, 81, of Murrieta, California; and Donald Andrew Rothman, 75, of Coral Springs, Florida. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton for the Northern District of Texas; and Inspector in Charge Eric Shen of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Criminal Investigations Group made the announcement.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case.

Trial Attorneys Christopher Fenton and Theodore M. Kneller of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mary F. Walters and Beverly Chapman of the Northern District of Texas are prosecuting the case.

The department’s extensive and broad-based efforts to combat elder fraud seek to halt the widespread losses seniors suffer from fraud schemes. The best method for prevention, however, is by sharing information about the various types of elder fraud schemes with relatives, friends, neighbors, and other seniors who can use that information to protect themselves.

If you or someone you know is age 60 or older and has been a victim of financial fraud, help is available at the National Elder Fraud Hotline: 1-833-FRAUD-11 (1-833-372-8311). This Department of Justice hotline, managed by the Office for Victims of Crime, is staffed by experienced professionals who provide personalized support to callers by assessing the needs of the victim and identifying relevant next steps. Case managers will identify appropriate reporting agencies, provide information to callers to assist them in reporting, connect callers directly with appropriate agencies, and provide resources and referrals, on a case-by-case basis. Reporting is the first step. Reporting can help authorities identify those who commit fraud and reporting certain financial losses due to fraud as soon as possible can increase the likelihood of recovering losses. The hotline is staffed seven days a week from 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. ET. English, Spanish, and other languages are available.

A Dallas trafficker was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in federal prison for spending nearly two decades running a brutal sex trafficking ring, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.

Anthony Johnson, 45, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking through force, fraud, and coercion, and sex trafficking on May 10, narrowly avoiding his trial, which was scheduled to begin the same day. He was sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Ada Brown, who also ordered a lifetime of supervised release following the completion of his sentence.  

“Human trafficking is happening under our noses  – and the heartbreaking 911 call in this case illustrates just how brutal these situations can be for victims. We hope that during Mr. Johnson’s time behind bars, his victims can begin to heal from the pain – both mental and physical – he inflicted on them,” said U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton. “Please, if you even suspect someone you know is being trafficked, reach out to the National Human Trafficking Hotline. Your call could save a life.”

“This defendant coerced, manipulated and brutalized numerous human trafficking victims, for financial gain and self-gratification,” said Lester R. Hayes Jr., Special Agent in Charge of HSI Dallas. “While a lengthy prison sentence can never erase the physical and psychological abuse his victims endured, it does remove the reason for their fear, allowing the healing process to begin. HSI will never relent in pursuing those who commit these inhumane crimes.”

In plea papers, Mr. Johnson, aka “Macc Bucc,” admitted he forced numerous women to engage in commercial sex acts and turn the proceeds over to him. He set “quotas,” compelled the women to work for hours on end, and brutally beat them with an extension cord when they came up short, “disrespected” him, or did not follow his rules. He also required the women to steal from commercial sex customers, instructing them to rifle through customers’ pockets for cash or jewelry and check their cars for valuables.

One woman, identified in court documents as “Adult Victim 7,” endured his abuse for several years. The night he recruited AV7, Mr. Johnson directed his second-in-command, Demetrice Deckard, to take her to Harry Hines and teach her how to solicit commercial sex customers. She engaged in commercial sex with her first customer just a few days later. Throughout her time in his trafficking organization, AV7 was forced to travel cross-country to engage in commercial sex and was routinely beaten when she tried to leave the organization.

In a pretrial filing, prosecutors indicated they were prepared to introduce into evidence a 911 call placed by a different victim’s mother after her daughter called her in tears from a passerby’s phone. 

“She said, ‘mamma, I wanna come home, they won’t let me come home,’ she said, ‘they got everything I got,’” the woman told the dispatcher. “‘Mamma, he got me by gunpoint, he’s got these girls following me, he beat me up real bad.’”

In another pretrial filing, prosecutors indicated that they were also prepared to introduce evidence that Mr. Johnson obtained a contraband cell phone while in jail awaiting trial and used the phone to continue running his organization.  According to prosecutors, text messages obtained from the cell phone showed that Mr. Johnson continued to instruct women where to work, which hotels to use, how to steal from customers, and when they could finish work for the night.  Mr. Johnson also directed women to send him videos of themselves having sex with commercial sex customers.   In plea papers, Mr. Johnson admitted that he also ran his trafficking organization from behind bars from 2014 to 2019, following a conviction for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Ms. Deckard pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to engage in trafficking through force, fraud, and coercion and is set to be sentenced in April.  Another co-defendant, Ashley Neice, pled guilty to conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and admitted to conspiring with Mr. Johnson to contact a victim in the criminal case in order to tell her not to cooperate with law enforcement. 

Homeland Security Investigations’ Dallas Field Division conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Dallas Police Department, Miami Police Department, and the Miami Office of Attorney General. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Renee Hunter and Melanie Smith (fmr.) prosecuted the case with the help of appellate liaison Brian McKay.

If you believe you or someone you know is a victim of human trafficking, call local law enforcement or the 24/7 confidential National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.

A San Diego man who killed his boyfriend by stabbing him 93 times was sentenced today to life in federal prison, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.

Alexander Yoichi Duberek, 25, was indicted in September 2021. He pleaded guilty in July 2022 to one count of interstate domestic violence resulting in death and was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix.

“This defendant looked his boyfriend’s family in the eyes and described the date night he had planned for the two of them. But instead of providing a romantic evening, he carried out a sadistic, premeditated plan to take the life of a 30-year-old man and callously dispose of his body,” said U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton. “I cannot imagine the horror for this victim and his family. We are proud to bring this killer to justice.”

According to plea papers, Mr. Duberek admitted that on Oct. 31, 2020, he traveled from his home in San Diego to his boyfriend’s home in Plainview, Texas, where he committed the fatal stabbing on the side of a rural farm road.

Mr. Duberek admitted that after arriving at the Lubbock airport that evening, he took a cab to a Sam’s Club parking lot, where he purchased a Toyota Camry for $3,000 cash. He then drove to a Walmart, where he purchased a knife, a hatchet, a gas can, a collapsible shovel, a head lamp, a change of clothing, boots, personal hygiene items, and a first aid kit.

At Thursday’s sentencing hearing, prosecutors said that when Mr. Duberek arrived at his boyfriend’s house, he told his boyfriend’s family that he planned to take him out to eat and then to a local hotel room to spend the night.

Instead, he killed the 30-year-old and dumped the body.  

Following the murder, Mr. Duberek fled to Houston, where he sold the vehicle used in the murder to an individual outside an auto auction. Investigators later searched the vehicle and found blood in the back seat that matched the victim.

The defendant remained at large for roughly five months before turning himself in to San Diego law enforcement on March 18, 2021. While being booked into jail, he was asked about a tattoo of his boyfriend’s first name on his ring finger; he answered that it was the name of the person he had killed.

“After viciously attacking him, the defendant left this wonderful human life, who he reportedly loved and wanted to marry, on the side of the road, like yesterday’s trash, like his life didn’t matter, to bleed to death,” the victim’s aunt said at the sentencing. “Why would he extinguish a light that shone so brightly for so many? Why didn’t he just stay in California, move on with his life?”

The Hale County Sheriff’s Office, the Texas Rangers, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas and San Diego Field Offices conducted the investigation with the assistance of the U.S. Secret Service’s Dallas Field Office and the Texas Highway Patrol’s Houston Division.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Callie Woolam prosecuted the case.

A Dallas man who allegedly dealt Glock switches via Instagram has been charged with firearm crimes, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.

Jeremiah Dwyen Ashley, 22, was indicted on two counts of possession of an unregistered firearm on December 28.

“Switches transform regular pistols into weapons of war, only suitable for use by soldiers on the battlefield,” said U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton. “We cannot and will not allow switches to proliferate on the streets of north Texas.”

“Nothing keeps me up at night more than the thought of a machinegun in the wrong hands. If not promptly investigated and arrested, Mr. Ashley would have continued to put these tools of violence on our streets.  Citizens of North Texas need to know that ATF and all our law enforcement partners are doing everything we can to prevent machinegun conversion devices from being used and sold unlawfully. These are not toys or souvenirs; these are terrifying,” stated ATF Dallas Field Division Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey C. Boshek II.

According to court documents, after spotting an advertisement for Glock switches – devices that convert ordinary semiautomatic pistols into fully automatic machineguns – on Instagram, law enforcement reached out to the owner of the account to arrange an undercover purchase.

On May 24, an undercover officer met an unidentified male, later identified as Mr. Ashley, at a gas station in Garland and purchased three Glock switches for $1,200. When the officer asked how the devices worked, Mr. Ashley allegedly showed him how to install a switch on a pistol.

After confirming Mr. Ashley’s identity, the officer reached out to the Instagram account to arrange a second undercover purchase. In response, the officer received a screenshot of UPS tracking information. UPS security personnel told law enforcement that the package, which was addressed to another individual, was a part of a three-parcel shipment that originated from a company in Taiwan.

Law enforcement seized all three packages from a UPS distribution center on June 10. Inside the packages, they found 30 Glock switches, all surrounded by metal screws, likely included to obscure the packages’ contents. An undercover agent, posing as a package delivery person, delivered the packages to Mr. Ashley on June 14. After giving him a few moments to open the packages, law enforcement executed a search warrant on his apartment.

During the search, Mr. Ashley allegedly admitted that he knew the packages contained Glock switches and confirmed that he understood the purpose of a switch. He claimed that someone else ordered the packages but said they were intended for him. He allegedly admitted that he was known around the neighborhood for selling switches on Instagram.

Glock switches are classified as machineguns under federal law. Unlike semiautomatic firearms, machineguns – weapons that can fire more than one round, without manual reloading, by single function of the trigger – are generally unlawful for non-licensed civilians under the National Firearms Act.

An indictment is merely an allegation of wrongdoing, not evidence. Like all defendants, Mr. Ashley is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison, 10 years per count.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives’ Dallas Field Office and the Garland Police Department conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Texas Department of Public Safety. Assistant U.S. Attorney Blake Ellison is prosecuting the case.

A violent drug dealer was sentenced today to 50 years in federal prison, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.

A jury convicted Gilbert Joseph Carrasco, 44, of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon after just seven minutes of deliberation in August 2022. He was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, who noted that the defendant’s violent past – including multiple physical assaults with his fists, a screwdriver, and even a brick – warranted the sentence.

According to evidence presented at trial, undercover agents arranged to purchase methamphetamine from 25-year-old Catrina Palmer on April 28, 2020. Mr. Carrasco drove Ms. Palmer to the undercover buy. Agents located a trap in the dashboard of his truck that contained methamphetamine. Investigation later revealed that Mr. Carrasco was Ms. Palmer’s methamphetamine supplier.

In an interview, Mr. Carrasco admitted to receiving and distributing methamphetamine. He also admitted to being a convicted felon and knowingly possession a .22 bolt action rifle he said he obtained on the “streets.”

Ms. Palmer pled guilty in April 2021 to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and was sentenced to five years in federal prison.

The Amarillo Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Dallas Field Division, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives’ Dallas Field Division conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matt Tusing and Joshua Frausto prosecuted the case with the help of Assistant U.S. Attorney Anna Marie Bell.

A romance scammer with ties to a Nigerian organized crime syndicate was sentenced today to more than three years in federal prison, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.

Frederick Orji, a 38-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen born in Nigeria, was charged alongside 10 co-conspirators in a large-scale operation led by the FBI in in September 2021. He pleaded guilty in June 2022 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and was sentenced Monday to 37 months in federal prison by Chief U.S. District Judge David Godbey, who also ordered him to pay $418,030 in restitution to his victims.

According to court documents, Mr. Orji and his co-defendants preyed on elderly victims, many of whom were widowed or divorced. They assumed fake names and trolled dating sites like Match.com and Bumbledate.com, searching for targets.

Once they had ingratiated themselves with their victims, they concocted sob-stories about why they needed money – i.e., taxes to release an inheritance, essential overseas travel, crippling debt, etc. – and then siphoned money from victim’s accounts, tens of thousands of dollars at a time.

In plea papers, Mr. Orji admitted that once he and his conspirators had depleted the victims’ accounts of all the funds they were willing and able to send, often emptying their entire savings, the defendants stopped  communicating with the victims.  

His brother, co-defendant Emanuel Orji, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in September 2022 and is set to be sentenced on Jan. 9, 2023.  Five additional defendants are awaiting trial, which is set for March 20, 2023. They are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office, Homeland Security Investigations’ Dallas Field Office, and IRS – Criminal Investigation led the investigation with assistance from the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services, and the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS). Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mary Walters and Jenna Rudoff are prosecuting the case.

The FBI estimates that more than 20,000 people lost more than $600 million in romance scams in 2020 alone. For tips on how to protect yourselves and your loved ones, visit the Federal Trade Commission’s romance scam webpage. To report a suspected romance fraud, file a report via the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.

Two individuals were charged with submitting fraudulent COVID-19 testing claims to multiple insurance agencies, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.

Terrance Barnard, 39, and Connie Jo Clampitt, 51, the owners of several alleged fake diagnostic laboratories, were indicted on Dec. 5 on one count each of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, ten counts each of healthcare fraud,  seven counts each of aggravated identity theft, and one count each of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The defendants were arrested Thursday and made their initial appearances Friday morning.  

“The COVID-19 pandemic has presented the most challenging circumstances our healthcare providers and insurers have faced in generations. Schemes to financially exploit the system when providers and insurers are facing these monumental challenges must be dismantled, and those responsible must be held to account,” said U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton.

According to court documents, the pair allegedly received more than $7 million for fraudulent COVID-19 testing claims from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, Cigna, United Healthcare, Aetna, Humana, and Molina Health Care.

Mr. Barnard allegedly used his position as a contract lab technician at various medical clinics to surreptitiously obtain patient names, addresses, dates of birth, and insurance subscriber information.

He and Ms. Clampitt then allegedly represented to the patients’ insurers that they had COVID-19 testing performed at sophisticated diagnostic laboratories, when no such testing was performed and no such labs existed.

They also allegedly opened bank accounts for their purported labs (TC Diagnostics, ME Diagnostics, and Rhine Enterprises dba PHR Diagnostics), deposited fraudulently-obtained reimbursement checks into those accounts, and then transferred the proceeds into personal bank accounts.  They allegedly used the fraudulently-obtained funds to purchase real estate and luxury vehicles. 

During the course of the investigation, law enforcement seized more than $1.5 million.

An indictment is merely an allegation of criminal conduct, not evidence. Mr. Barnard and Ms. Clampitt are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

If convicted, they face up to up to ten years in federal prison for each count of health care fraud, conspiracy to commit health care fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, and up to two years in federal prison for each count of aggravated identity theft. They will also be required to forfeit any proceeds or property traceable to the commission of the offenses of which they’re convicted.

The Dallas Regional Office of the United States Department of Labor – Employee Benefits Security Administration,  the Dallas office of the Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General, the Texas Department of Insurance Fraud Unit's Fort Worth Field Office, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Dallas Field Office conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Renee Hunter is prosecuting the case; Assistant U.S. Attorney Dimitri Rocha is helping handle the forfeiture.

A federal jury in Dallas convicted a Texas man today for receiving and possessing images of child sexual abuse.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Andrew Kasnetz, 59, of Dallas, used a peer-to-peer network to download images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of prepubescent children. Law enforcement in Dallas obtained a warrant to search Kasnetz’s residence and discovered Kasnetz actively downloading child sexual abuse material when they entered the home. A search of Kasnetz’s digital devices revealed tens of thousands of images and videos of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

Kasnetz was convicted of one count of receipt of child pornography and two counts of possession of prepubescent child pornography. He faces a mandatory minimum penalty of five years in prison. A sentencing date has not yet been set. The court will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton for the Northern District of Texas, Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, and Acting Special Agent in Charge James J. Dwyer of the FBI Dallas Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI Dallas Field Office, Dallas Police Department, and Garland Police Department investigated the case.

Trial Attorney Eduardo Palomo of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Abe McGlothin and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Shane Read for the Northern District of Texas are prosecuting 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 Department of Justice. 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.

On Saturday, December 10, 2022, Leigha Simonton took the oath of office to become the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas.  Ms. Simonton was nominated by President Joseph R. Biden on November 14, 2022 and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on December 6, 2022. 

She took the oath of office from U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn, for whom Ms. Simonton clerked during her first year as an attorney.  She succeeds Chad E. Meacham, who had served as the U.S. Attorney since October 2021.

“For nearly 18 years, I’ve had the privilege of litigating, supporting, and observing the most important cases our office has pursued, from public corruption to violent crime to counterterrorism,” said U.S. Attorney Simonton. “The Northern District of Texas is incredibly fortunate to have some of the most dedicated, innovative, and tenacious prosecutors and civil attorneys in the nation – and our law enforcement partners are equally impressive. I am honored to have been selected for this critical role, and I look forward to leading the office as we continue to pursue justice for the people of our district.”

As U.S. Attorney, Ms. Simonton is the top-ranking federal law enforcement official in the Northern District of Texas, which includes Dallas, Fort Worth, Lubbock, and Amarillo.  She oversees a staff more than 200, including 100 attorneys and more than 100 support personnel.  The office is responsible for prosecuting federal crimes in the district, including crimes related to terrorism, public corruption, child exploitation, firearms, and narcotics.  The office also defends the United States in civil cases and collects debts owed to the United States.

Ms. Simonton is a career federal prosecutor who has worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for almost 18 years.  She is a 1994 graduate of L.V. Berkner High School in Richardson, Texas.  In 1997, she graduated early from the University of Texas at Austin with highest honors.  After briefly working in the Chicago Public Schools system, she attended Yale Law School, where she served as Managing Editor of the Yale Law Journal and received the John Fletcher Caskey Prize for best advocate in the law school’s mock trial finals.

Ms. Simonton graduated law school in 2001 and returned to the Northern District of Texas, where she served as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn and, later, for Judge Patrick E. Higginbotham on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

From 2003 to 2005, Ms. Simonton practiced in the Specialized Litigation and Appellate Sections at the Dallas office of Haynes & Boone, LLP, working on complex commercial litigation, white-collar, appellate, and antitrust matters.

In 2005, Ms. Simonton began her career as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas, practicing in the office’s Appellate Division.  As an appellate prosecutor, she primarily defended convictions and sentences against defendants’ appeals in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, arguing more than 20 times before that court and acting as sole counsel in almost 400 criminal appeals.  She also prosecuted cases at the trial-court level and provided extensive appellate advisory support to numerous trial teams throughout the district. 

In 2014, Ms. Simonton won the Director’s Award from the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys for her multi-year trial and appellate work on the Dallas City Hall corruption case involving former Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill, his wife Sheila Farrington, former City Plan & Zoning Commissioner D’Angelo Lee, and several other defendants.  Most recently, she led her office in successfully overturning a three-judge panel decision in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that had suppressed key evidence in a child exploitation case.  After successfully petitioning for the full Court of Appeals to review the three-judge decision, the full Court disagreed with the three-judge ruling and allowed the government use of that evidence.  

In addition to her substantive legal work, Ms. Simonton has served in several leadership roles within the office.  Most recently, Ms. Simonton served as the Chief of the Appellate Division and, before that, Deputy Chief of that Division.  As Chief, she served as the office’s lead appellate attorney and as a member of the office’s senior management team, advising the U.S. Attorney on legal, strategic, and administrative matters.  She also managed a team of several Assistant U.S. Attorneys and support staff and coordinated with various Main Justice components including the Appellate Section of the Criminal Division and the Office of the U.S. Solicitor General. 

As she took on her new responsibilities, U.S. Attorney Simonton thanked Mr. Meacham for his many years of public service with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and his commitment to justice over the last year as he served as the United States Attorney. Mr. Meacham looks forward to returning to the courtroom to prosecute cases.

A Comerica employee pleaded guilty Wednesday to embezzling more than $120,000 from the bank, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham announced today.

Sallie Lazzaro, aka Sallie Marie Perry, 33, plead guilty to theft by a bank employee before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey L. Cureton.

According to plea papers, Ms. Lazzaro, who began as a teller and was later promoted to vault manager, admitted she repeatedly stole cash from the FDIC-insured bank.

She purloined cash from her teller drawer, hid it in her pocket or purse, and input false information into the bank’s computer system in order to manipulate teller and vault balances.

On May 20, 2021, when Ms. Lazzaro was on duty as vault manager, a cash count revealed that the bank was missing more than $100,000.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nashonme Johnson prosecuted the case.

Three men who sold a machine gun and silencer to an undercover ATF agent have been sentenced to more than 23 years in federal prison, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

Guy Mena, 34, and Stephen Kadlec, 39, were arrested and charged in November 2021. Mr. Kadlec plead guilty in January 2022 to transferring a firearm in violation of the National Firearms Act and was sentenced in June to two years in federal prison. Mr. Mena pleaded guilty to transferring a firearm in violation of the NFA December 2021 and, in a separate case in July 2022, to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine; he was sentenced last Thursday to a total of 14 ½ years in federal prison.

Their coconspirator Sergio Salgado, 37, was charged in May 2022. He also pleaded guilty to transferring a firearm in violation of the NFA and was sentenced in October to more than seven years in federal prison.

According to court documents, Mr. Mena offered to sell a confidential informant a firearm frame, two receivers – one semi-automatic and one fully-automatic – a silencer, and some firearm magazines for $6,000.

Accompanied by an undercover ATF agent, the confidential informant met Mr. Mena, Mr. Kadlec, and Mr. Salgado at a motel in Arlington on Nov. 18 2021. Mr. Kadlec showed the undercover agent the full-auto receiver, demonstrated how to swap the semi-auto receiver for the full-auto receiver on the firearm frame,  outlined the functionality of the silencer, and explained how to toggle the selector switch to full-auto to turn the firearm into a machinegun.

(Unlike semiautomatic firearms, machineguns – weapons that can shoot more than one shot, without manual reloading, by single function of the trigger – are generally unlawful for civilians under the National Firearms Act.)

The undercover agent handed over $6,000 and departed with the firearm, receivers, silencer, and magazines. Shortly after the ATF agent left the room, Texas DPS officers observed Mr. Mena, Mr. Kadlec, and Mr. Salgado exit the hotel room and get into a vehicle; when they pulled the vehicle over, they detained the three men and recovered the government funds.

Prior to the firearm transaction, Mr. Mena had sold more than 50 grams of methamphetamine to another confidential informant out of his apartment in Abilene.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, & Explosives’ Dallas Field Division and the Texas Department of Public Safety conducted the investigation in cooperation with the Arlington Police Department, the Abilene Police Department, and the Drug Enforcement Administration’s South Central Laboratory. Assistant U.S. Attorney Levi Thomas prosecuted the firearms cases against all three defendants while Assistant U.S. Attorney Juanita Fielden prosecuted the drug case against Mr. Mena.

An Amarillo man who set off a bomb in his backyard, stashed a suicide vest in his alleyway, and privately plotted to blow up a local high school pleaded guilty today to a weapons of mass destruction (WMD) charge, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

Erfan Salmanzadeh, a 33-year-old naturalized citizen of the U.S. born in Iran, pleaded guilty on Monday to use and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.

According to plea papers, Mr. Salmanzadeh admitted to law enforcement that he used homemade triacetone triperoxide (TATP) to blow up an Xbox in his back yard on July 26, 2021. At the time, he claimed he wanted to see how much damage such an explosion would cause.

He further admitted that after law enforcement arrived at the home to investigate the explosion – which was reported by neighbors who heard the blast – he flushed a gallon-sized jar of TATP powder down the toilet and concealed a suicide vest and a nail bomb in a dumpster in his alleyway:

According to plea papers, bomb technicians collected residual TATP – an extremely unstable explosive that reacts violently to friction and shock – from the defendant’s porcelain toilet bowl. They also discovered TATP residue on a white PVC pipe hidden in his bedroom closet. Officers recovered the suicide vest,  which contained several sewn pockets filled with red cylindrical taped tubes labeled “dynamite,” and nail bomb from the dumpster. 

Law enforcement later reviewed his electronic devices, including a video Mr. Salmanzadeh recorded on July 22, 2021, threatening to blow up a local high school.

“We are going to blast the school,” he said in Farsi, before displaying the nail bomb filled with shrapnel, the suicide vest filled with pipes labeled dynamite, a suitcase filled with container labeled explosives, and a backpack filled with bottles labeled explosives to the camera.

Officers uncovered several other videos showing Mr. Salmanzadeh conducting test explosions and several journals that contained notes and formulas related to the production of explosives.

In plea papers, Mr. Salmanzadeh admits he used the internet to conduct all the research he needed to construct TATP and WMD. He also admitted he used the internet to purchase a plane ticket to California on July 28, 2021, to avoid detection by law enforcement after a bombing.

“Armed with internet research, this defendant was able to create homemade explosives capable of wreaking mass casualties – casualties he dreamed of inflicting on innocent high schoolers,” said U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham. “Without vigilant neighbors who reported the sound of the explosion to authorities and immediate law enforcement intervention, this may have ended in tragedy.  Instead, the community is a little bit safer today as this defendant is being held accountable for his criminal activity.”

“The FBI’s top priority continues to be preventing a terrorist attack in the United States. The defendant had a device with the potential to cause significant damage and harm innocent people, and we would like to thank our partners at the Amarillo Police Department, Texas Department of Public Safety, Randall County Sheriff’s Office, and Homeland Security Investigations for their collaboration on this investigation," said FBI Dallas Acting Special Agent in Charge James Dwyer.

Mr. Salmanzadeh now faces up to life in federal prison.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office and the Amarillo Police Department conducted the investigation with the assistance of the North Texas Joint Terrorism Taskforce, Homeland Security Investigations, the Texas Department of Public Safety, Randall County Sheriff’s Office, and the Amarillo Fire Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeffrey Haag and Josh Frausto are prosecuting the case with assistance provided by the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.

A drug trafficker who retrieved methamphetamine from a stash house in Dallas was convicted at trial this week, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

Omar Jorge Valle Estrada and his coconspirators were first charged in August 2021. On Thursday, a federal jury found Mr. Estrada guilty of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

According to evidence presented at trial, law enforcement conducting surveillance at a stash house on Holcomb Road in Dallas observed Mr. Estrada drive up to the residence in a white Chevy Malibu.

Two men emerged from inside the home carrying duffel bags, which they placed in Mr. Estrada’s passenger seat.

After he departed the home, law enforcement pulled him over for operating with an expired registration and discovered 120 pounds of crystal methamphetamine inside the duffel bags.

Codefendants Angel Cabrera and Joaquin Salinas – who admitted they were concealing millions of dollars of methamphetamine inside boxes of cauliflower – pleaded guilty prior to trial.

Mr. Estrada now faces up to life in federal prison. Mr. Salinas received a life sentence; Mr. Cabrera received a sentence of more than 21 years.

The Drug Enforcement Administration’s Dallas Field Division conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Dallas Police Department, the Hickory Creek Police Department, the Fort Worth Police Department, and the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorneys George Leal and John Kull prosecuted the case.

This prosecution 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.

 

A meth trafficker was sentenced this week to 20 years in federal prison, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham. 

Robert Aristotle Pandolfi, a 51-year-old California man living in Texas, pleaded guilty in July to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. He was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk. 
 
According to plea papers, on March 11, 2021, a sheriff’s deputy in Amarillo stopped a vehicle in which Mr. Pandolfi was a passenger. A drug detection canine alerted to the presence of narcotics in the vehicle after a free air sniff. Deputies searched the car and located ten bundles of methamphetamine in the car’s spare tire compartment. 
 
In an interview, Mr. Pandolfi – a confirmed member of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang – admitted to buying drugs in California and trafficking them across state lines. He told officers that he had made at least five prior trips to transport methamphetamine.  

“One of our major investigative efforts is to target individuals and criminal enterprises that peddle illicit narcotics that propel violence and threaten the vitality of the communities in which we live,” said HSI Dallas Assistant Special Agent in Charge Robert Melton of the Oklahoma/Texas Panhandle Division. “Through our trusted partnerships with local, state and federal law enforcement, we will deploy every available resource to dismantle these organizations, ensuring those involved in pushing these addicting drugs are brought to justice. The conclusion of this case and subsequent sentencing is a direct correlation of the impact of our strength when our law enforcement partners work together.”

The defendant has also been charged by the state of Kentucky with possession of a controlled substance, tampering with physical evidence, drug paraphernalia, speeding, and reckless driving. At Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, Judge Kacsmaryk ruled that Mr. Pandolfi’s federal sentence would run consecutive to any sentence imposed in that case. (In the state case, Mr. Pandolfi is presumed innocent until proven guilty.)
 
Homeland Security Investigations and the Potter County Sheriff’s Office conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Meredith Pinkham prosecuted the Northern District of Texas case.

A Grand Prairie man pleaded guilty Wednesday to lying to the federal government about where his company’s products were manufactured, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

Suhaib Allababidi, 45, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. His company, 2M Solutions Inc., pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of filing false or misleading export information.

According to court documents, Mr. Allababidi, the owner and president of 2M, admitted that the company – which provided security cameras, solar-powered light towers, digital video recorders, and other electronics to various U.S. government agencies – claimed that its products were manufactured in the United States, when in actuality they were manufactured in the People’s Republic of China by Chinese companies.

In order to secure contracts with U.S. government agencies, including the Department of Defense, Department of Justice, and Department of Homeland Security, Mr. Allababidi represented that 2M was “a USA Manufacturing Company.”  In actuality, 2M did little to no manufacturing but instead regularly purchased products from Chinese companies, removed labels indicating the true country of origin, and replaced them with labels indicating they were manufactured in 2M’s Grand Prairie facility.  On its packaging, 2M included logos including the American flag in the shape of a map of the U.S. and the words “Made in the USA.”

By falsely representing that its products were manufactured in the United States, 2M was able to secure contracts subject to the Buy America Act (BAA), a law which generally prohibits United States Government agencies from purchasing products made outside the United States with some limited exceptions.

2M repeatedly certified to the government that its products were BAA-compliant and took various steps to conceal their Chinese origin.  On one occasion, when products were to be shipped directly from a Chinese company to the government agency, a 2M employee sent the Chinese company an email reminding them, “we do not want any Chinese characters or stickers on the shipment” and adding that such stickers “will cause many problems for us.”

2M also pled guilty to submitting false information in relation to products exported to foreign customers.  In contravention of export laws, the company submitted false information to the Automated Export System, a government-run platform that collects export information and distributes it to multiple federal agencies to assure compliance. The company falsified the description of items exported, misrepresented the ultimate recipient of the items, and falsely stated that no export license was needed for shipments that required a license.

“The federal government takes pride in purchasing products made in the United States,” said U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham. “This defendant’s lies undermined the Buy America Act and with it, American manufacturing.”

“Today's outcome demonstrates the commitment of the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) and our law enforcement partners to protect the integrity of the DoD procurement process,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Gregory P. Shilling, DCIS Southwest Field Office.  “We will continue to aggressively investigate and hold accountable those who put the DoD supply chain at risk.”

Mr. Allababidi now faces up to five years in federal prison. 2M faces fines of up to $1 million or twice the amount of criminally-derived property, whichever is greater.

The Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office, the U.S. Department of Commerce - Bureau of Industry and Security, Office of Export Enforcement, the General Services Administration’s Office of Inspector General,  Homeland Security Investigations, and the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Weimer prosecuted the case with the assistance of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

A San Angelo tax preparer whose fraudulent tax returns cost the IRS millions of dollars was sentenced today to 14 years in federal prison, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham. His adult son and daughter were sentenced to 66 and 80 months, respectively.  

Hugo Cesar Granados, manager of Columbia Tax Service, his daughter, Blanca L. Granados, and his son, Hugo Alberto Granados, were convicted at trial in August of conspiracy to defraud the United States and multiple counts of aiding in the preparation and presentation of false documents. They were sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix

“Columbia Tax Service doctored clients’ tax returns to inflate clients’ refunds and line the Granados’s pockets. Such blatant fraud is an affront to all conscientious taxpayers,” U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham said following the verdict.  “As is their right, the Granadoses opted for a trial by jury. We are proud to have obtained a guilty verdict. I’m thankful to the IRS Criminal Investigation agents who ran this case to ground and to the members of the jury, who gave three days of their lives to bring these defendants to justice.”  

“Today, justice is served - a victory for all honest tax return preparers and taxpayers. Hugo Cesar Granados, along with his daughter and son, are being held accountable for their criminal actions,” Special Agent in Charge Christopher J. Altemus, Jr., IRS Criminal Investigation of the Dallas Field Office said today. “I am extremely proud of the women and men of IRS-CI who work tirelessly each and every day to bring criminals like these individuals to justice. I also want to extend my gratitude to the US Attorney’s office and specifically the prosecution team for their relentless pursuit of justice in this case.”  

At trial, prosecutors introduced evidence that the elder Mr. Granados and his co-conspirators falsified their clients’ individual income tax returns (Forms 1040) in order to inflate the clients’ tax refunds.

They routinely fabricated clients’ Schedule A, itemized deductions, and Schedule C, sole proprietorship profit and loss statements, claiming the taxpayer owned a business when no such business existed, claiming unreimbursed employee expenses such as travel and per diem, and claiming business expenses related to maintenance, utilities, supplies, insurance, and professional services that were never incurred or grossly inflated. 

Testimony adduced at trial showed that Columbia Tax Service claimed more than $900,000 in income in 2015 and more than $1.3 million in income in 2016.

An employee who plead guilty prior to trial, Saul Garcia-Soto testified that in 2016, Columbia Tax employees met with Hugo C. Granados because taxpayers were not receiving their refunds from the IRS. When questioned, the elder Mr. Granados asked the employees if they thought the company was doing something illegal. Mr. Garcia-Soto said that he, Blanca Granados, and Hugo A. Granados all replied that they thought Columbia Tax was doing something illegal. In response, Hugo C. Granados just smiled and turned back to his computer.

In a Skype chat introduced at trial, Blanca Granados wrote to a co-worker: “Fraud is ridiculous here yo . . . I swear.”

Prosecutors also introduced into evidence the company’s “tax preparation manual,” a handbook that outlined exactly how to commit fraud.

In discussing preparation of Schedule C of the tax return, the manual stated: “This is where your training and knowledge of income and deductions will make a big difference in the amount of refund the taxpayer will be obtaining. A determination has to be made if the return needs additional income to generate the maximum earned income and other credits or if the return has a substantial amount of income (Adjusted Gross Income) and needs to come down to maximize the earned income and other credits.” In other words, the manual advised tax preparers to manipulate income to maximize refunds rather than referring to the law to determine whether an activity was a business for income tax purposes and whether expenses properly qualified as a business deduction.

At sentencing, experts put the estimated tax loss in excess of $11.7 million.

The Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigations conducted the investigation. The San Angelo Division of the Northern District of Texas, including Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeffrey Haag, Ann Haag, Amy Burch, and Paulina Jacobo (fmr), prosecuted the case.

An Albuquerque mother who allegedly concealed a deadly dose of fentanyl inside her children’s luggage has been charged with a federal drug crime, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

Magdalena Silva Banuelos, 46, was indicted on distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death.

According to court documents, she allegedly gave her boyfriend the fentanyl that killed him.

At a detention hearing in New Mexico on Nov. 17, prosecutors revealed that Ms. Banuelos and her boyfriend, who was also her sons’ father, were in an on-again, off-again relationship.

On May 31, she allegedly put the boys, ages 8 and 10, onto a flight from Albuquerque to Texas's Dallas Love Field Airport to visit their dad.

Surveillance video shows that the father picked up the boys from the gate, rifled through their luggage, and then entered the airport restroom at around 10:26 p.m.  A few minutes later, he overdosed and died in a restroom stall, just steps away from his sons.  

From inside the stall, investigators recovered a Clinique brand makeup container containing more than a gram of fentanyl.  

They  also recovered text messages between the victim and defendant, suggesting that the defendant knew the victim planned on ingesting the fentanyl and was aware of the risk it posed.

“Hey you need to be careful,” she wrote a few hours before he died.
“Yes ma’am. Very slow and easy,” he replied.
“Just one and then wait you’ll see,” she said. “Just one.”
“Ok cool. Thank you. Will do,” he said.

“No passing out on the kitchen floor,” she responded. “Seriously you could od. No dying on the kitchen floor… It’s going to f**k you up!!!

At the hearing, the prosecutor argued the defendant allegedly “used her minor children to mule drugs.” Ms. Banuelos was ordered detained pending trial.

“I feel for these children. To lose one parent due to the actions of the other is a calamity for a child,” said U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham. “This defendant allegedly concealed fentanyl – a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin – in her own minor sons’ luggage. This drug has stolen too many futures and ruined too many lives. The Justice Department remains determined to hold accountable those who spread it.”

“This arrest and detention is yet another example of the devastation that fentanyl continues to reap on families throughout the country.  The actions of Ms. Banuelos risked the lives of her minor children by concealing a highly potent drug in their luggage during a flight from Albuquerque to Dallas”, said Acting Special Agent in Charge W. Guy Baker of the DEA Dallas Field Division.  “The DEA will continue to work side-by-side with our state and local partners in investigating drug related poisonings and overdose deaths to hold those accountable for their actions.”

An indictment is merely an allegation of criminal conduct, not evidence. The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

If convicted, she faces up a mandatory minimum of 20 years and up to life in federal prison.

The Drug Enforcement Administration’s Dallas Field Division and the Dallas Police Department conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Courtney Coker is prosecuting the case with the assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico.

A North Texas couple has been charged with defrauding the Paycheck Protection Program out of more than $684,000, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham. 

Patrick Kasong Muyej, 48,  and Chisanga Mable Scot, 43, were indicted on one count each of conspiracy to commit conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Mr. Muyej was also charged with eight counts of money laundering and one count of theft of government funds while Ms. Scott was charged with one count of false use of a passport.

According to the indictment, the pair allegedly submitted fraudulent applications for $1.85 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans on behalf of businesses that did not qualify for the loans.  

In application paperwork, they allegedly falsified the business’s number of employees – listing individuals who they did not employ – and manufacturing the businesses’ monthly payroll.

They allegedly used the same bank statement in support of multiple loan applications but doctored the name of the account holder on each one to match the name of the PPP loan applicant.

In total, they received two PPP loans totaling $684,158.33. Mr. Muyej is also alleged to have laundered that money.

In addition, Mr. Muyej also took advantage of Covid relief by fraudulently obtaining unemployment insurance benefits from the State of Nevada in August 2020.

An indictment is merely an allegation of criminal conduct, not evidence. Both defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

If convicted, Mr. Muyej and Ms. Scott face up to 20 years in federal prison on the count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Mr. Muyej also faces up to 20 years in prison on each count of money laundering and up to ten years for the count of theft of government funds.  Ms. Scott faces up to 10 additional years on the count of false use of a passport.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office and the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Marty Basu is prosecuting the case.

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was authorized under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, a federal law enacted on March 29, 2020, to provide emergency financial assistance to Americans suffering economic hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The PPP provided forgivable loans to small businesses to cover payroll, rent, and certain other expenses.

A Fort Worth man who allegedly manufactured and sold thousands of machinegun conversion devices – small, 3D-printed gadgets that convert ordinary firearms into fully automatic machineguns – has been federally charged, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

Xavier Desean Watson, was charged via criminal complaint with possession and transfer of machine guns. He was arrested without incident in the parking lot of his apartment complex on Thursday night and made his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Cureton in Fort Worth on Friday. Three additional conversion device sellers, Ayoob Wali, 23, Jose Corral Santillan, 19, and Montavion Jones, 20, were charged earlier this year.

Over the course of the investigation, ATF agents seized more than 650 conversion devices, colloquially known as “switches” (installed in Glock-style pistols) or “sears” (installed in semi-automatic rifles).

“As simple to manufacture as they are quick to install, conversion devices turn regular firearms into machineguns capable of inflicting tremendous harm in a few split seconds,“ said U.S. Attorney Chad E. Meacham. “Imagine hardened criminals armed not only with pistols, potentially lethal in their own right, but also with automatic firearms rivaling those carried by the U.S. military. These half-inch pieces of plastic are putting our people at risk. We cannot let these devices proliferate on our streets.”

“Machinegun conversion devices pose a serious threat to public safety and have been increasingly used in violent gun crime.  This investigation is a clear example of the relentless pursuit by ATF along with our partners to disrupt not only those possessing and using these weapons but also their suppliers,” said James VanVliet Acting Special Agent in Charge of the ATF’s Dallas Field Division.

According to court documents, in early 2022, Fort Worth law enforcement noted a surge in shootings involving conversion devices, which allow gunmen to fire multiple rounds of ammunition in quick succession with a single depression of the trigger.

(Conversion devices turn legal firearms into machineguns, which are generally unlawful for non-licensed civilians. A pistol equipped with a conversion device can fire up to 1200 rounds per minute – a faster rate of fire than the standard M-4 machinegun issued to U.S. military servicemembers. A standard 3D printer can produce about 100 plastic switches every 72 hours.)

Multiple criminal defendants identified Mr. Corral, a gang member, as a source of supply. Mr. Corral and his associate, Mr. Jones, led agents to Mr. Wali, who eventually identified Mr. Watson as the printer. 

According to court documents, in March 2022, an undercover agent, accompanied by a confidential informant who connected with Mr. Jones via Instagram, purchased 10 machinegun conversion devices from Mr. Jones. The defendant used a juvenile dubbed “little buddy” to deliver the devices to the agent. The following month, the agent purchased eight switches from Mr. Corral.

The agent asked Mr. Corral if he printed the switches himself; he allegedly replied that he did not, but “I got the guy that got the printer.”  The undercover agent then overheard Mr. Corrall place a call to a man he referred to as “Whale,” later identified as Mr. Wali. The agent later asked if he could meet Mr. Wali, but Mr. Corral said the man was “paranoid.” Shortly thereafter, agents observed Mr. Corral meet up with Mr. Wali inside his car, then emerge with a bulging backpack under his sweatshirt.

Mr. Wali and Mr. Corral were arrested on May 3; Mr. Jones was arrested on June 6.

Mr. Wali initially claimed he found the machine gun devices in a vehicle he purchased, but later admitted his supplier was a man named “Xavier,” later identified as Mr. Watson. 

According to the complaint, an undercover ATF agent went on to purchase a total of 33 conversion devices and a 3D-printed AR-15 style pistol from Mr. Watson, who bragged that he could produce roughly 400 switches a day on two 3D printers set up in his living room. He used a tablet to load conversion device printing directions onto the printer. 

The agent met Mr. Watson at his home on Oct. 18 and Oct. 26. On both occasions, Mr. Watson assembled the conversion devices and showed the agent how to insert a conversion device into an AR-style firearm. On the second occasion, he showed the undercover agent the 3D printers and printed the switches while he waited. Mr. Watson acknowledged that he knew some of his buyers were selling the switches, and said that he had previously mailed devices to recipients by concealing them inside a children’s toy.

A criminal complaint is merely allegation of criminal conduct, not evidence. Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

If convicted, Mr. Watson faces up to a decade in federal prison.

Mr. Corral pleaded guilty on June 22 to unlawful possession of machine guns and was sentenced on Oct. 7 to 57 months in federal prison. Mr. Jones pleaded guilty to the same charge on Aug. 24 and is set to be sentenced on Dec. 13. Mr. Wali pleaded guilty on Nov. 16 and is set to be sentenced on Jan. 18, 2023.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives’ Dallas Field Division conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Fort Worth Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Gatto is prosecuting the case

Eighteen alleged methamphetamine traffickers have been federally charged with drug and gun crimes, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

Twelve of the eighteen individuals were arrested during a large-scale operation in Levelland, Texas and surrounding counties Wednesday. The operation, led by the FBI’s Lubbock Resident Agency, involved around 150 law enforcement personnel. The remaining six individuals, who were already in state custody, are being brought into federal court on writs.

Those charged include:

• Bobby Joe Gonzales – conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, distribution of methamphetamine
• Rance Devin Jordan – conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, distribution of methamphetamine
• Michael Salazar – conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, distribution of methamphetamine
• Timothy John Perez –  conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine
• Judy Cirillo Qualls – conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, felon in possession of a firearm
• Anthony Raven Ruiz, aka Acid – conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, distribution of methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine,
• Jose Angel Marquez – conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, distribution of methamphetamine
• Juan Luis Quezada – conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, distribution of methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime
• Ernest Michael Chavez – conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine
• Jennifer Dianne Clem – conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, distribution of methamphetamine
• Jason Wade Grant – conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, distribution of methamphetamine
• Ruben Soliz Guajardo – conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, distribution of methamphetamine  
• Gilberto Guajardo – conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, distribution of methamphetamine
• Santiago Vizcarra, Jr., aka Quick – distribution of methamphetamine
• Gerry Wayne Varner – possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, convicted felon in possession of firearms, possession of unregistered firearms.

Indictments are merely allegations of criminal conduct, not evidence.

If convicted, some of the defendants face up to life in federal prison.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office – Lubbock Resident Agency conducted the investigation with the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives’ Dallas Field Division, the Hockley County Sheriff’s Office, the Levelland Police Department, and the Cochran County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Redd is prosecuting the case.

Two former employees of the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs entered guilty pleas in a $2.9 million embezzlement scheme, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

Randius McGlown, 56, and Charles Gates, 54, both pleaded guilty to theft of government funds. Mr. McGlown entered his plea in October and Mr. Gates entered his on Thursday.

According to plea papers, Mr. McGlown, an inventory manager and acquisition utilization specialist at the Dallas VA Medical Center, entered a company he created, G4 Logistics, into the medical center’s vendor system in 2014.

He and Mr. Gates then generated phony purchase orders for G4 equipment and materials and used a medical center-issued purchase card to pay the bill using the payment processing platform Stripe. G4 never delivered any items.

The VA money paid to G4 was deposited into an account controlled by an individual identified in court documents as J.R. When he was notified of a fake purchase, J.R. would withdraw the money from the account, deliver most of it to Mr. McGlown or Mr. Gates, and keep the remaining amount for himself.

In 2018, Mr. McGlown switched from G4 to another fictious company he named Caprice.

To conceal the scheme, Mr. McGlown created fake invoices and used existing items in the medical center’s inventory to cover up the fact that G4 and Caprice never delivered any materials. 

“Using their official government positions to steal millions of taxpayer dollars is an egregious crime that diverts resources from deserving veterans and erodes public trust. These guilty pleas should send a clear message that the VA Office of Inspector General will diligently investigate those who would misuse their positions to commit fraud,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Patrick Roche of the VA Office of Inspector General’s South Central Field Office. “The VA OIG thanks the US Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners for their efforts in this joint investigation.”

Mr. McGlown and Mr. Gates now face up to 10 years in federal prison.

The Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General, conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Fort Worth Field Office, and the General Services Administrations, Office of Inspector General. Assistant U.S. Attorney Renee Hunter is prosecuting the case.

A second attorney and two tax professionals have been indicted in the $1 billion Garza tax shelter scheme, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham and Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Tax Division Stuart Goldberg.

Attorney and CPA Kevin McDonnell and CPA James Richardson, co-owners of tax preparation and accounting firm McDonnell Richardson, P.C., were added to the case in a superseding indictment filed Tuesday. The pair are charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and five counts of assisting in the preparations of fraudulent tax returns.  Craig Fenton, a tax manager at McDonnell Richardson, was indicted on the same charges.

The alleged mastermind of the scheme, attorney Joseph Garza, was previously indicted on 18 counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and 22 counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of fraudulent income tax returns. The superseding indictment added a charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

According to the court documents, Mr. Garza allegedly directed his clientele to use hand-picked tax professionals – including Mr. McDonnell, Mr. Richardson, and Mr. Fenton – who helped him illegally shelter their otherwise taxable income.  Mr. Garza allegedly charged  clients a percentage of the predetermined amount of money they had chosen to shelter from taxes; Mr. McDonnell, Mr. Richardson, and Mr. Fenton were compensated for their roles in the scheme as well.  

The defendants allegedly created multiple shell companies – including shell “services” companies and shell “investments” companies – to create a circular flow of funds to help clients avoid paying taxes.

These shell companies purported to provide services to the clients’ businesses or to serve as family investment vehicles, but actually had no legitimate purpose other than to move money. The defendants allegedly created sham operating agreements and service agreements, fictious invoices, and false private annuity agreements designed to give the companies the appearance of legitimacy and conceal the scheme from the IRS.  

The defendants then allegedly assisted clients in the preparation and filing of fraudulent tax returns, falsely deducting businesses expenses for services that were never performed, falsely reporting gross receipts for payments that were not earned, falsely deducting payments from the investment company to the taxpayer for annuities that didn’t exist, and underreporting the individual taxpayers’ incomes.

The scheme allegedly resulted in more than $1 billion in unreported income and more than $200 million in unpaid taxes.

“Kevin McDonnell, James Richardson, and Craig Fenton participated in a tax scheme that resulted in $1 billion in unreported income and more than $200 million in unpaid taxes. Now they face severe consequences, including jail time and substantial fines,” said Special Agent in Charge Christopher J. Altemus, Jr, IRS - Criminal Investigation, Dallas Field Office. “Today's indictments reinforce our commitment to every American taxpayer that the dedicated women and men of IRS Criminal Investigation will continue to work tirelessly to identify and prosecute tax professionals who devise illegal tax shelters to evade the tax obligations of their wealthy clients."

An indictment is merely an allegation of criminal conduct, not evidence. All four defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

If convicted, the defendants face up to 5 years in federal prison for conspiracy to defraud the United States, 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and up to three years in prison for each count of aiding and assisting in the filing of false federal income tax returns. Mr. Garza also faces up to 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud.

IRS – Criminal Investigations’ Dallas Field Division conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Renee Hunter, Katherine Miller, and Marty Basu of the Northern District of Texas are prosecuting the case with Trial Attorney Robert Kemins of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

The owner of CityXGuide.com – a leading source of online ads for sex trafficking victims – was sentenced today to more than eight years in federal prison and ordered to forfeit more than $15 million in assets, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

Wilhan Martono, 48, was arrested on June 19, 2020, the same day CityXGuide and its sister websites were seized by Homeland Security Investigations.

He pleaded guilty on Aug. 24, 2021 to one count of promotion of prostitution and reckless disregard of sex trafficking and one count of conspiracy to engage in interstate transportation in aid of racketeering enterprises - facilitating prostitution.  The plea was the first ever entered under the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), the 2018 law that allows the federal government to prosecute websites that facilitate sex trafficking.

He was sentenced Monday to 97 months in federal prison by Chief U.S. District Judge David Godbey, who also ordered him to forfeit more than $15 million in assets, including more than $2 million in silver bullion and almost $1 million in cryptocurrency.

“The owner of CityXGuide intentionally disregarded the blatant sexual abuse occurring on his platform. He profited off of the exploitation of vulnerable women and children, just like the traffickers advertising them on his website did,” said U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham. “Human trafficking is one of the most despicable crimes we prosecute. The Justice Department and its partners will not rest until sites like this are eliminated and their creators brought to justice.”

“Thanks to the investigative efforts of our law enforcement partners on the HSI Dallas led North Texas Trafficking Task Force, the largest digital market place for sex trafficking and prostitution no longer exists,” said Lester R. Hayes Jr., Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations Dallas. “This defendant’s greed and trafficking of those who were exploited through the commercial sex websites he created has cost him his freedom and the forfeiture of the criminal proceeds he obtained while committing these crimes.  HSI will not relent until those who conspire in these illegal activities are brought to justice.”

“Today’s sentencing illustrates the Secret Service’s steadfast commitment to investigating financial crimes that take place in the ever-evolving cyber domain,” said Secret Service Special Agent in Charge of the Dallas Field Office William Smarr. “We are thankful for the tireless work of our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners as we worked together to bring this case to justice.”

According to court documents, Mr. Martono admitted that he created, owned, and operated CityXGuide and a suite of related websites, including Backpage.co, CAPleasures.com, and BodyRubShop.com, among others. 

He registered the domain names for several of the sites on April 8, 2018 — just one day after the feds shut down Backpage.com, then the internet’s leading source of commercial sex advertisements. Like Backpage, Mr. Martono’s sites allowed users, including traffickers, to post hundreds of thousands of commercial sex advertisements worldwide.

In plea papers, Mr. Martono admitted that he turned a blind eye to the illegal sex trafficking occurring on CityXGuide. 

Despite terms of use purportedly forbidding the advertisement of illegal sexual services, CityXGuide and its affiliated websites allowed brothels, pimps, and prostitutes to post hundreds of thousands of advertisements for sexual services, which users could then filter by geography and preference.  The sites allowed advertisers to select from a pre-populated list of “intimate activities,” then add nude photographs, descriptions, work hours, methods of payment, and contact information for the women being advertised.  In order to secure premium placement, the websites offered paid “upgrades,” which could be purchased in Bitcoin or in exchange for gift cards from Walmart, Best Buy, Amazon, and other retailers. 

Mr. Martono then used CardCash, a third party gift card reseller, to exchange these gift cards for U.S. currency. He used a VPN to mask his IP address while conducting these CardCash transactions, then funneled proceeds though a network of business and personal bank accounts.

Despite receiving numerous emails from federal, state, and local law enforcement informing him that CityXGuide and its companion websites were being used to facilitate sex trafficking and child exploitation, he continued to operate those sites in the United States and around the world. 

In court documents, prosecutors estimated that Mr. Martono netted more than $21 million off his websites, which users described as “taking over from where Backpage left off.”

The North Texas Trafficking Task Force conducted the investigation, led by Homeland Security Investigations’ Dallas Field Office, the United States Secret Service’s Dallas Field Office, and the Colleyville Police Department, with assistance from HSI’s El Paso and San Jose Field Offices as well as the Texas Department of Public Safety.  Assistant United States Attorneys John de la Garza, Sid Mody (fmr), and Rebekah Ricketts (fmr) prosecuted the case.

A Waxahachie woman who allegedly defrauded pandemic-era financial programs out of more than $1.2 million has been federally charged, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

Annette Bryant, 63, was indicted last Tuesday on one count of wire fraud, eight counts of making false statements to a bank, and one count of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from unlawful activity. She made her initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Toliver on Monday.

According to the indictment, Ms. Bryant – the sole owner and operator of a number of limited liability companies, including Processing Services, Inspirational Tax Services LLC, Neighborhood TX Inspections LLC, JJ&JJ Remodeling and Roofing LLC, and JAM Business and Tax Services – fraudulently applied for and obtained six Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans totaling $848,586 and four Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EDIL) Program loans totaling $359,500. She also allegedly attempted to obtain two additional PPP loans worth $411,160 that were never funded.

The indictment alleges that Ms. Bryant included false statements in PPP loan applications submitted to financial institutions administering PPP, including InterBank, Comerica, Regions Bank, and others. She allegedly inflated her businesses’ employee counts, inflated their payroll, and even lied about the number of businesses she owned.  She also allegedly included false statements in EIDL loan applications submitted to the Small Business Administration, misrepresenting her businesses’ gross revenues.

Ms. Bryant allegedly went so far as to send the financial institutions tax documents she claimed were submitted to the IRS but which were never actually filed. These sham forms, including IRS Form 1040 (Individual Income Tax Return), IRS Form 940 (Employer’s Annual Federal Unemployment Tax Return), and IRS Form 941 (Employer’s Quarterly Federal  Tax Return) allegedly contained false information about her businesses and about her personal income.

An indictment is merely an allegation of criminal conduct, not evidence. Like all defendants, Ms. Bryant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

If convicted, she faces up to 30 years in federal prison on each count of making a false statement to a bank, 20 years on the count of wire fraud, and 10 years on count of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from unlawful activity. Upon conviction, she will be required to forfeit the financial proceeds of the scheme or property traceable to it.

The U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the Dallas Field Office of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s Office of Inspector General (FDIC-OIG), and the Small Business Administration’s Office of Inspector General (SBA-OIG) conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Marty Basu and Fabio Leonardi are prosecuting the case.

Both the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the expanded Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program were authorized under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, a federal law enacted on March 29, 2020, to provide emergency financial assistance to Americans suffering economic hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The PPP provided forgivable loans to small businesses to cover payroll, rent, and other certain expenses; EIDL provided quickly-issued, partially-forgivable loans to small business to cover operational expenses, including accounts payable, as well as payroll, mortgages, and other bills.

A Wichita Falls drug dealer and his ex-girlfriend who sold fentanyl to 27-year-old man who overdosed and died in June 2020 have plead guilty to drug crimes, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

Lionel DeSaun Henderson, 33, and his former girlfriend, Shameka Tanee Mason, 29, were first charged in July. Ms. Mason pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance, and Mr. Henderson pleaded guilty Wednesday to possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance.  

“Few drug traffickers dealing fentanyl-laced pills intend to take a life —but inevitably, some do. Just two milligrams of fentanyl can be deadly,” said U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham. “Nothing will ever make up for the loss of this young man’s future. We hope, however, that his family and friends will take comfort in the knowledge that these two dealers have been brought to justice.”

“The guilty pleas are yet another example of consequences of actions like those of Mr. Henderson and Ms. Mason,” said Eduardo A. Chavez, Special Agent in Charge of DEA’s Dallas Field Division. “They will now spend years in jail because of the excellent work by law enforcement throughout the region.  Nothing can bring back the lives lost but we can work together to avoid future ones.”

In court documents, the pair admits they knowingly sold counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl to an individual who later sold them to his 27-year-old cousin, J.D.K.  J.D.K. split the drugs with his coworker.  On June 12, 2020, both J.D.K. and his coworker overdosed; the coworker received medical attention and recovered, but J.D.K. died of drug toxicity.  

During an interview at a Denton hospital, the coworker told investigators that he and J.D.K. split what appeared to be a 30mg oxycodone tablet. He said some of the remaining pills were stored at J.DK.’s home in Graham, Oklahoma. Agents searched the bedroom and recovered one round blue tablet marked M/30, three green rectangle tablets marked S/90/3, and one pink capsule with illegible markings.  The blue M/30 – which appeared identical to brand name oxycodone – instead tested positive for butyryl fentanyl.

Agents then cultivated a confidential source who identified Lionel Henderson as the source of the blue M/30s. He went through Mr. Henderson’s girlfriend, Shameka Mason, to arrange a meeting with an undercover agent at Ms. Mason’s residence in Wichita Falls. On June 25, agents met with Mr. Henderson and Ms. Mason and purchased five M/30 tablets, which later tested positive for fentanyl and acetaminophen.

They then executed a search warrant of Mr. Henderson’s home, where they recovered 497 blue m/30s that later tested positive for fentanyl and acetaminophen, 1,035 multicolored tablets that later tested positive for ecstasy, and multiple firearms, including one that was stolen. 

A month later, agents interviewed Ms. Mason, who admitted that she and Mr. Henderson had been dealing illicit substances in December 2018. They began with alprazolam, or “bars,” then escalated to ecstasy, and later to M/30s, which she called “percs,” in December 2019. She claimed she did not know where Mr. Henderson obtained the pills, but admitted they sold the pills for $25 apiece.

In plea papers, Mr. Henderson admitted that he had been selling fentanyl-laced counterfeit pills since March 2020.

The Drug Enforcement Administration’s Dallas Field Division, the Carter County Sheriff’s Office, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, and the Oklahoma City Medical Examiner’s Office conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney P.J. Meitl is prosecuting the case.

A Dallas man who allegedly devised a scheme to defraud a pandemic-era financial program out of hundreds of thousands of dollars has been federally charged, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

John Corbin Corona, 35, was indicted on October 5, 2022, on one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. He was arrested on Monday and made his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Toliver today.

“As millions of small business owners grappled with the fallout from the pandemic, this defendant raked in a couple hundred thousand bucks at his fellow citizens’ expense,” said U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham. “The Paycheck Protection Program, funded by taxpayers, was designed to help small businesses stay afloat during the pandemic. The Justice Department will relentlessly pursue those who defrauded the PPP.” 

According to the indictment, Mr. Corona – the owner of HODL LLC, a cryptocurrency company operating a purported bitcoin pooled investment fund known as Bitcoin Bank America – fraudulently applied for two Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans totaling over $413,000 through BlueVine Inc. and FundBox, Inc., financial technology companies that partnered with third-party PPP lenders, including Celtic Bank.\

According to the indictment, Mr. Corona inflated HODL LLC’s payroll and misrepresented his business’s number of employees in the PPP loan applications that he submitted to BlueVine and Fundbox. In support of the PPP loan applications, he also submitted IRS Form 941s (Employer’s Quarterly Federal  Tax Return) that allegedly contained false information about his business.

The indictment also alleges that after Celtic Bank deposited $206,902 in PPP loan proceeds into Mr. Corona’s bank account, Mr. Corona transferred over $155,000 in PPP loan funds to Coinbase Inc., a cryptocurrency exchange platform.

An indictment is merely an allegation of criminal conduct, not evidence. Like all defendants, Mr. Corona is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison on the count of wire fraud, and 10 years on the money laundering count. Upon conviction, he will be required to forfeit the financial proceeds of the scheme or property traceable to it.

The FBI’s Wichita Falls and Dallas field offices conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Fabio Leonardi is prosecuting the case.

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was authorized under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, a federal law enacted on March 29, 2020, to provide emergency financial assistance to Americans suffering economic hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The PPP provided forgivable loans to small businesses to cover payroll, rent, and certain -other expenses.

 

When 23-year-old J. Nicholas Bryant realized couldn’t afford the lavish lifestyle he wanted – complete with luxury limo rides, fully-stocked charter flights, and a private outing on a 90-foot yacht – he turned to fraud, he admitted in court today, according to U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

Mr. Bryant, now 26, pleaded guilty to wire fraud before U.S. Magistrate Judge D. Gordon Bryant, Jr.  on Wednesday, November 9, 2022.

“Like many of his peers, Nicholas Bryant apparently coveted the life of the rich and famous. Unlike his peers, he wasn’t about to let a lack of funds get in the way of his fantasy,” said U.S. Attorney Chad E. Meacham.

According to plea papers, Mr. Bryant admitted that from 2020 through 2021, he defrauded at least 50 unsuspecting victims by booking luxury goods and services and then manipulating online payment platforms like QuickBooks and Veem to make it appear that payments were forthcoming.  On at least one occasion, he convinced a victim company that his “secretary” – a woman who did not exist – would make payments on his behalf.  Knowing that the software would generate payment confirmations immediately, but would take several days to notify victims of cancelled payments, Mr. Bryant satisfied vendors and business owners that payments were forthcoming when due.

In this manner, he obtained more than a dozen private jet flights, a half-day sail on a 90-foot yacht, numerous high-end hotel rooms, extravagant steak and champagne dinners, and five luxury vehicles worth more than $500,000. He also racked up a bill for substantial materials and labor on a $980,000 home and pool.

To lend an air of legitimacy to his schemes, Mr. Bryant convinced victims that his parents were wealthy oil and gas investors and that he himself was employed by a number of fictious companies. He assumed identities of fictious persons, communicated with victims under assumed names, and even created sham websites to further his scheme. In at least once instance, he convinced the owner of an oil and gas company, who had previously worked with and trusted him, to front roughly $150,000 to open a fictitious oil well.

Mr. Bryant now faces up to 20 years in federal prison. His sentencing has not yet been set.

The U.S. Secret Service’s Lubbock Resident Office, the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Criminal Investigations Division, the Lubbock Police Department, the Brazos County Sheriff’s Office, the Brownwood Police Department, Texas Parks & Wildlife of Coleman County, the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana, and the Cody Police Department in Wyoming conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ann Howey is prosecuting the case.

 

The man accused by the state of murdering rapper Mo3 was sentenced today to 105 months in federal prison for a firearm crime, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

Kewon Dontrell White, 23, pleaded guilty in May to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Karen Gren Scholer.

In to plea papers, Mr. White, who had been previously convicted of felony offenses involving unauthorized use of motor vehicles and evading arrest and detention, possessed a 9mm semi-automatic pistol.

Law enforcement discovered the pistol in his pants pocket on Aug. 16, 2020.

When they observed Mr. White commit a traffic violation on his dirt bike while driving down West Pleasant Run Road in Lancaster, Texas, officers attempted to pull him over. The defendant ignored their lights and sirens and fled the scene. Officers gave chase. Mr. White then crashed his dirt bike and fled on foot. Officers pursued and detained him a short time later.

Mr. White has also been charged by Dallas County with the murder of 28-year-old rapper Melvin Nobel, also known as M03. That case remains pending. Mr. White is presumed innocent on the state charges until proven guilty in a court of  law.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives and the Dallas Police Department conducted the investigation with assistance from the Duncanville and Lancaster Police Departments. The U.S. Marshal’s Service assisted in the arrest. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Myria Boehm and Abe McGlothin prosecuted the case.

A Dallas attorney who allegedly created tax shelters to help high-net-worth clients conceal more than one billion dollars in income from the IRS has been federally charged, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

Joseph Garza was indicted Tuesday on 18 counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and 22 counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of fraudulent income tax returns. He was arrested on October 25, 2022, at his home and made his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ramirez the following day.   

“This attorney allegedly hid more than a billion dollars of client income from the IRS, conning the U.S. Treasury out of roughly $200 million and lining his own pockets in the process,” said U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham. “Our country functions best when every citizen pays his or her fair share. We will aggressively pursue anyone who subverts our tax laws.”  

"IRS Criminal Investigation and the Department of Justice are working vigorously to stop abusive tax schemes like the ones created by Mr. Garza," said Christopher J. Altemus, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation Dallas Field Office. " Mr. Garza exploited his position as an attorney and purported tax expert to try and legitimize his illegal tax scheme. His arrest should serve as a warning that individuals who create elaborate schemes that have no purpose other than to defraud the IRS and shift the tax burden to honest American taxpayers will be prosecuted.”

According to the indictment, Mr. Garza, 79, allegedly created multiple shell companies – including shell “services” companies and shell “investments” companies – to create a circular flow of funds to help clients avoid paying taxes.

These shell companies purported to provide services to the clients’ businesses or to serve as family investment vehicles, but actually had no legitimate purpose other than to move money. Mr. Garza and others allegedly created sham operating agreements, sham service agreements, phony invoices, and false private annuity agreements designed to give the companies the appearance of legitimacy and conceal the scheme from the IRS.  

Mr. Garza and others then allegedly assisted clients in the preparation and filing of fraudulent tax returns, including IRS Forms 1120 and 1120-S, falsely deducting businesses expenses for services that were never performed; IRS Forms 1065 for the service companies, falsely reporting gross receipts for payments that were not earned; IRS Forms 1065 for the investment companies, falsely deducting payments from the investment company to the taxpayer for annuities that didn’t exist; and IRS Forms 1040 and 1040X, underreporting the individual taxpayers’ incomes.

He allegedly charged clients a percentage of the predetermined amount of money they had chosen to shelter from taxes.

The scheme allegedly resulted in more than $1 billion in unreported income and more than $200 million in unpaid taxes.

An indictment is merely an allegation of criminal conduct, not evidence. Like all defendants, Mr. Garza is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

If convicted, he faces up to faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each of the 18 counts of wire fraud, 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and three years in prison for each of 22 counts of aiding and assisting in the filing of false federal income tax returns.

Meanwhile, the investigation is ongoing.

IRS – Criminal Investigations’ Dallas Field Division conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Renee Hunter, Katherine Miller, and Marty Basu of the Northern District of Texas are prosecuting the case with Trial Attorney Robert Kemins of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

A man who robbed a United States Postal Service (USPS) employee at gunpoint was sentenced Tuesday to more than five years in federal prison, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

Abdirashid Omar, 22, was charged via criminal complaint in May 2022. He pleaded guilty the following month to robbery of property of the United States and was sentenced Tuesday by Senior U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means  to 71 months in federal prison.

In plea papers, Mr. Omar admitted he robbed a USPS letter carrier during her rounds in Fort Worth on April 11, 2022.

The postal worker told law enforcement she was walking down the driveway of a residence when the defendant, dressed in a black hoodie and blue surgical mask, grabbed her, pushed her into a fence, pressed a handgun into her abdomen, and took USPS equipment from her.

Law enforcement located surveillance video that captured the defendant’s vehicle following the carrier to various residences and then fleeing the area at a high rate of speed. Postal Inspectors located the vehicle and established  surveillance that identified the vehicle visiting multiple Post Offices in the days following the robbery.

About a week later, law enforcement searched Mr. Omar’s vehicle and residence and located stolen U.S. Mail, stolen checks, and a setup in which checks were being “washed” – placed into a liquid substance to have the ink removed.

In court, Mr. Omar later admitted to robbing the carrier to obtain USPS property and to stealing U.S. Mail.

“The day of the robbery was my 30th day at that job, it was going to be my first full week being out on the street by myself. Instead I got a gun shoved into my abdomen,” the victim said at sentencing. "It may just be a robbery to some people, but it was my life that was put in direct danger and it is I who has to put the pieces back.”

“A top priority for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service has always been a focus on the safety of USPS employees,” said Thomas Noyes, Inspector in Charge of the Fort Worth Division.  “This sentencing exemplifies that commitment.  Through a rapid response by Postal Inspectors, collaboration with local law enforcement, and the use of investigative tools and techniques, a dangerous individual was successfully apprehended.  We thank the Fort Worth Police Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Texas for their support on this case.” 

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Fort Worth Police Department conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Levi Thomas prosecuted the case.

A Texas doctor pleaded guilty today for his role in a $54 million scheme to defraud Medicare by prescribing durable medical equipment and cancer genetic testing without ever seeing, speaking to, or otherwise treating patients.

According to court documents, Daniel R. Canchola, 49, of Flower Mound, agreed to electronically sign orders for durable medical equipment (DME) and cancer genetic testing that he knew were used to submit more than $54 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare. From August 2018 through April 2019, Canchola received approximately $30 in exchange for each doctor’s order he signed authorizing DME and cancer genetic test orders that were not legitimately prescribed, not needed, or not used—totaling more than $466,000 in kickbacks. The Medicare beneficiaries for whom Canchola prescribed DME and cancer genetic testing were targeted by telemarketing campaigns and at health fairs and were induced to submit to the cancer genetic testing and to receive the DME regardless of medical necessity.

Canchola pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 15, 2023, and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Chad E. Meacham for the Northern District of Texas; Acting Special Agent in Charge Jason E. Meadows of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) Dallas Region; and Chief William Marlowe of the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) made the announcement.

The HHS-OIG and MFCU investigated the case.

Acting Assistant Chief Brynn Schiess of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section is prosecuting the case.

The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat health care fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program. Since March 2007, this program, comprised of 15 strike forces operating in 24 federal districts, has charged more than 4,200 defendants who collectively have billed the Medicare program for more than $19 billion. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services, are taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement in health care fraud schemes. More information can be found at https://www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.

The man who sold Malik Faisal Akram the gun he used to kidnap hostages in a Texas synagogue was sentenced today to nearly eight years in prison for a firearm crime, announced United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

Henry “Michael” Dwight Williams, 33, was charged via criminal complaint in January and indicted the following month. He pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm in June and was sentenced today by Chief U.S. District Judge David Godbey to 95 months in federal prison.

“This defendant, a convicted felon, had no business carrying – much less buying and selling – firearms. Whether he suspected his buyer would use the gun to menace a community of faith is legally irrelevant: In the U.S., convicted felons cannot possess firearms,” said U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham. “The Justice Department is committed to prosecuting those who violate our nation’s federal firearm laws, which are designed to keep guns from falling into the hands of dangerous offenders. We are grateful to the FBI, which sprang into action as soon as the synagogue hostage crisis began, and to the agents who worked tirelessly to track the weapon from Mr. Akram to the defendant.”

“Tireless days of nonstop investigation revealed the connection of Mr. Akram to Mr. Williams, we are grateful to the many law enforcement agencies and personnel that traced the weapon’s nefarious source,” said Dallas FBI Special Agent in Charge Matthew DeSarno. “We are fortunate to be able to celebrate the brave actions of the hostages and will continue to support Congregation Beth Israel and the Jewish community in their process of healing.”

According to the complaint, Mr. Williams – a felon previously convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and attempted possession of a controlled substance – sold Mr. Akram a semiautomatic Taurus G2C pistol on Jan. 13. In plea papers, Mr. Williams admitted to possession of that firearm despite his prior conviction.

According to the complaint, on Jan. 15, agents recovered the pistol from Colleyville’s Congregation Beth Israel synagogue, where Mr. Akram had held four individuals hostage for several hours before he was fatally shot by federal law enforcement.

As part of its intensive investigation into the hostage taking, the FBI tied Mr. Williams to Mr. Akram through an analysis of Mr. Akram’s cellphone records, which showed the pair exchanged a series of calls from Jan. 11 through Jan. 13.

When agents first interviewed Mr. Williams on Jan. 16, Mr. Williams stated that he recalled meeting a man with a British accent, but that he could not recall the man’s name. (Mr. Akram was a British citizen.) Agents interviewed the defendant again on Jan. 24, after he was arrested on an outstanding state warrant. After viewing a photo of Mr. Akram, Mr. Williams confirmed he sold Mr. Akram the handgun at an intersection in South Dallas. Analysis of both men’s cellphone records showed that the two phones were in close proximity on Jan. 13.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Dallas Police Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives’ Dallas Field Division, Homeland Security Investigations’ Dallas Field Division, and the Colleyville Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Magliolo is prosecuting the case with the support of Assistant U.S. Attorneys Errin Martin, Jay Weimer, Alex Lewis, Nicole Dana, P.J. Meitl, and Lindsey Beran (fmr), along with Trial Attorneys David Smith and Michael Dittoe of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

A Michigan man who stalked and sexually assaulted a 14-year-old Lubbock girl was sentenced today to life in federal prison, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

In June, a jury convicted Thomas John Boukamp, 22, on 16 counts: one count of transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual conduct, one count of travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, one count of enticement of a minor, two counts of receipt of child pornography, ten counts of production and attempted production of child pornography, and one count of cyber stalking. He was sentenced today to U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix.

“This man stalked and sexually assaulted a 14-year-old, then had the gall to claim in federal court that their so-called ‘relationship’ was consensual. The child, who bravely faced her abuser in court, asserted in no uncertain terms that his advances were unwelcome. By law, 14-year-olds simply cannot consent to sexual contact with adults. We are immensely proud of this child and hope this sentence brings some solace to her and her family,” U.S. Attorney Chad E. Meacham said.

"This defendant displayed reprehensible behavior, which was countered by the bravery of the victim that so courageously testified against him," said FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge Matthew J. DeSarno. “The FBI and our law enforcement partners will continue to do everything in our power to seek justice for victims and their families, hold perpetrators accountable and protect others from harm."

According to evidence presented at trial, Mr. Boukamp met the child, identified in court as Jane Doe, on the instant messaging platform Discord when she was just 13 years old.

The pair exchanged a series of messages, in which he threatened to hurt her family if she disclosed their budding “relationship.”

Mr. Boukamp later transported Jane Doe, then 14 years of age, to his home in Michigan, where he sexually assaulted her, forcibly removed her braces with pliers, strangled, and hit her.

The victim’s father testified at trial that when she ran away to Michigan, his terrified daughter brought her baby blanket with her.

The victim herself also testified at trial and described the abuse she suffered at Boukamp’s hands.

At Thursday’s sentencing hearing, prosecutors introduced into evidence a recorded jailhouse phone call in which  Mr. Boukamp insisted he would not apologize for “quote unquote ‘raping a 14-year-old.’”

“I like teenage girls! They don’t like that I like that,” he said of federal agents and prosecutors. “I frankly don’t care what the morality of this current time and place says. It’s not wrong. There’s nothing wrong about it. And they’re not going to ever convince me of its wrongness. So up theirs. I hate this nation.”

Reminded that authorities were monitoring his jailhouse calls, he threatened, “if you’re listening to this, yeah, your family is going to die.”

“Play this at my [expletive] sentencing! Do it! I hate you!” he said, before hurling specific invectives at a federal judge and two federal prosecutors.  

At the hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorneys also introduced into evidence a letter Mr. Boukamp wrote to a family member noting his victim’s supposed “betrayal” and asking for help to escape prison.

The victim’s father submitted a statement to the court describing the trauma his daughter continues to endure:  

“Her childhood was ended too soon. He took that from her,” he said. “She struggles with her self-esteem. I don’t know if she’ll ever be able to truly love herself again… We hope that she can be okay. We hope that she can make it through this. We know that she will never be the same. We know that she will never get her innocence back.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas and Detroit Field Offices, the Lubbock Police Department, the Michigan State Police, and the Antrim County Sheriff’s Office conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Child Advocacy Center of the South Plains. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Callie Woolam and Jeff Haag prosecuted the case.

An Albuquerque man thought to have committed a string of bank robberies across Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Mississippi, and California was sentenced today to 10 years in federal prison for an armed bank robbery in Abilene, Texas, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

Fernando Enriquez, 35, pleaded guilty in July to one count of aggravated bank robbery and one count of brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. He was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix. 

According to plea papers, Mr. Enriquez admitted that on March 29, 2022, he entered a Chase Bank in Abilene, Texas, brandished a firearm, demanded cash from the teller, and then fled the scene.

Both the teller and another employee activated their silent alarms during the robbery. When law enforcement arrived, a witness turned over cell phone video he’d recorded of the suspect exiting the bank and entering a white Chevrolet suburban bearing Mississippi license plates.

Shortly thereafter, Texas DPS and Abilene Police Department officers pulled over the suburban in Merkel, Texas and detained Mr. Enriquez and his girlfriend. Inside the vehicle, officers found a firearm, a gray hoodie that matched the descriptions of the one worn by the robber, and a significant sum of U.S. currency.

Law enforcement transported Mr. Enriquez and his girlfriend to the Abilene Police Department, where the woman told FBI agents that over the past 14 months, she and Mr. Enriquez have lived in Arizona, Mississippi, New Mexico, and California. She stated that though Mr. Enriquez was not employed most of that time, he always seemed to have cash on hand.

She told officers that prior to the robbery, Mr. Enriquez left her and his children at a motel, stating he had to fill the car with gas. When he returned, she said, he rushed to get the vehicle loaded and leave. She described Mr. Enriquez’s driving during their departure from Abilene as faster and more erratic than usual.

Based on physical description and the modus operandi, investigators believed that the suspect who committed the Abilene robbery may have committed similar robberies in Arizona, Mississippi, New Mexico, and California. They showed the girlfriend two photographs from the other bank robberies, both provided by FBI Phoenix. She identified the man in the photographs as Mr. Enriquez.

On April 19, 2022, Mr. Enriquez was indicted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Arizona with four counts of bank robbery and four counts of brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence.  Following today’s sentencing, Mr. Enriquez will be transported to the District of Arizona to face those charges.  (An indictment is merely an allegation of criminal conduct, not evidence. Like all defendants, Mr. Enriquez is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.)

The Federal Bureau of Investigations’ Phoenix and Dallas Field Offices conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Abilene Police Department, and the Taylor County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew Tusing and Jeff Haag of the Northern District of Texas prosecuted the case with significant support from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Arizona.

A man who fled to Taiwan to escape a 33-month prison sentence has been returned to the U.S. after 30 years as a fugitive, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

In February 1992, Jack Hsu, 74, was convicted at trial in Dallas of five counts of bank fraud and five counts of embezzlement from a bank. He was sentenced in April 1992 to 33 months in federal prison, but allowed to remain free on bond pending his prison designation.

On May 21, 1992, Mr. Hsu allegedly failed to report to his designated prison facility in Boron, California, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.  U.S. authorities later determined Mr. Hsu allegedly fled to Taiwan.

At the request of the United States, the Singapore Police Force arrested Mr. Hsu on Tuesday, July 12, 2022.

Following court proceedings in Singapore, Mr. Hsu consented to his extradition, and the Singaporean Minister for Law ordered his surrender on October 11.  He was returned to Texas by plane on Friday, October 14, and appeared in court on Monday, October 17.

He will immediately begin serving his 33-month bank fraud and embezzlement sentence.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office conducted the investigation. The extradition from Singapore was secured by the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs.  The FBI and the Justice Department expressed appreciation to Singaporean authorities for their cooperation.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua D. Detzky is prosecuting the case.

A man who packed a stolen car with fake explosives and fake law enforcement credentials was sentenced today to seven years in federal prison for carjacking, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

Aaron Lee Oehlschlager, 55, pleaded guilty in June to carjacking and possession of a forged seal of an agency of the United States.  He was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle. 

According to plea papers, Mr. Oehlschlager admits he carjacked a woman at gunpoint outside a Dallas hotel around 5:00 p.m. on September 27, 2019.  The defendant produced a Sig Sauer 9mm handgun with a fake silencer attached to it and demanded the victim’s car keys.  The victim complied.

According to court documents, law enforcement located the vehicle, a Kia Soul owned by Hertz, in a parking garage in Grapevine six months later.  The car was later towed to a Hertz maintenance lot near DFW Airport where it sat until June 2020, when a rental car employee entered the vehicle to clean it.  Inside, he observed what appeared to be an improvised explosive device (IED). 

DFW Airport police responded and evacuated the area.  FBI Dallas Bomb Squad later discovered the bomb was inert.

A further search of the vehicle revealed a second inert IED, fake FBI credentials, a fake search warrant, a black backpack bearing the defendant’s son’s name, and various other items.

At Thursday’s sentencing hearing, prosecutors stated that the carjacking appeared to be the first step in a larger plot by Mr. Oehlschlager that involved the use of fake explosive devices, masks, bolt cutters, handcuffs, zip-ties, stun guns, and tasers.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office conducted the investigation with the assistance of the DFW International Airport Police and the Dallas Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joshua D. Detzky and George Leal prosecuted the case.

Ex- Los Angeles Angels employee Eric Kay was sentenced today to 22 years in federal prison in connection with the 2019 overdose death of Angles pitcher Tyler Skaggs, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad Meacham.

In February, a federal jury found former Angels Communications Director Eric Prescott Kay guilty of distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances. He was sentenced today by Senior U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means.

According to evidence presented at trial, Mr. Kay distributed the pills that killed Mr. Skaggs.

The investigation began on July 1, 2019, when the Southlake Police Department received a 911 call stating that Mr. Skaggs, then just 27 years old, had been found dead in his hotel room at the Southlake Town Square Hilton. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s office later determined that Mr. Skaggs had a mixture of ethanol, fentanyl, and oxycodone in his system at the time of his death..

Inside Mr. Skaggs’s hotel room, investigators discovered a number of pills, including a single blue pill with the markings M/30.  An analysis of the pill  – which closely resembled a 30-milligram oxycodone tablet – revealed it had been laced with fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opiate.

In an initial interview with law enforcement, Mr. Kay denied knowing whether Mr. Skaggs was a drug user. He claimed the last time he’d seen Mr. Skaggs was at hotel check-in on June 30. However, a search of Mr. Skaggs’s phone revealed text messages from June 30 suggesting that he had asked Mr. Kay to stop by his room with pills late that evening. Investigators later learned that, contrary to what he’d told law enforcement the day Mr. Skaggs’s body was discovered, Mr. Kay had admitted to a colleague that he had, in fact, visited Mr. Skaggs’s room the night of his death.

In the course of their investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration determined that Mr. Kay allegedly regularly dealt the blue M/30 pills – dubbed “blue boys” – to Mr. Skaggs and to others, dolling out the pills at the stadium where they worked.

Several former Angels players, including Matt Harvey, C.J. Cron, Mike Morin, and Cameron Bedrosian testified at trial that Eric Kay distributed blue 30 milligram oxycodone pills to them as well.  They further testified that he was the only source of these pills and would conduct transactions in the Angels Stadium.

At Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, prosecutors introduced into evidence jailhouse calls and emails demonstrating the nature of Mr. Kay’s crime and his lack of remorse.

Mr. Kay repeatedly insulted Tyler Skaggs, his deceased victim:

“I hope people realize what a piece of sh*t he is,” he told his mother in a recorded jailhouse call. “Well, he’s dead, so f*ck ‘em.” 

He also mocked the Skaggs family, calling them “dumb” and “white trash” and suggesting his mother plant negative stories about them in the media.

“All they see are dollar signs,” he said of the Skaggs family. “They may get more money with him dead than he was playing because he sucked.”

He even demeaned the jurors that convicted him, calling them “fat, sloppy, toothless, and unemployed.”

“The Skaggs family learned the hard way: One fentanyl pill can kill. That’s why our office is committed to holding to account anyone who deals in illicit opioids, whether they operate in back alleyways or world class stadiums,” U.S. Attorney Chad E. Meacham said following today’s hearing. “Mr. Skaggs did not deserve to die this way. No one does. We hope this sentence will bring some comfort to his grieving family.”

“Today’s sentencing of Eric Kay will not ease the suffering that the Skaggs’ family have experienced since 2019,” said Eduardo A. Chavez, Special Agent in Charge of DEA Dallas. “What the guilty verdict and sentencing proves is even if you sell only a small number of pills and one of those pills causes the death of an individual, you will be held responsible and sentenced to the fullest extent allowed by our judicial system.”

The Drug Enforcement Administration’s Fort Worth Field Division and the Southlake Police Department conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Secret Service, and the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Errin Martin, Lindsey Beran (fmr), and Joe Lo Galbo are prosecuting the case with the help of Assistant U.S. Attorney Jon Bradshaw.

A Smithville man plead guilty Wednesday to flying a drone loaded with drugs and other contraband into prison, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

Bryant LeRay Henderson, 42, was charged via criminal complaint in August. Yesterday, he pleaded guilty to a criminal information charging one count of attempt to provide contraband to a prisoner before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey L. Cureton.

“Contraband drone deliveries are quickly becoming the bane of prison officials’ existence. Illicit goods pose a threat to guards and inmates alike – and when it comes to cell phones, the threat often extends outside prison walls. We are determined to stop this trend in its tracks,” said U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham.

“The criminal element will always take advantage of new opportunities for illegal activity as technology progresses,” said FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge Matthew J. DeSarno. “In this instance, excellent collaborative investigation among federal and local agencies led to federal charges and prevented contraband from entering the federal prison system.”

In plea papers, Mr. Henderson admitted to flying a drone loaded with contraband – including methamphetamine, THC, tobacco, cell phones, and mp3 players – into the airspace of FMC Fort Worth, a federal correctional center in the south part of the city. He admitted he knew the drone was carrying prohibited items and that he piloted it.

According to court documents, the drone, DJI inspire, crashed inside a secure, fenced-in yard near the prison’s HVAC shop, where staff recovered it.

Law enforcement pulled surveillance video from a nearby high school and observed a Mr. Henderson drive up in a red Chevy Taho, remove a drone and a package from the vehicle, launch the drone towards the prison, and then drive off.

Shortly thereafter, they recovered the Chevy, where they found a DJI drone controller, various drone accessories (rechargeable batteries, a propeller box, and dropping mechanisms), and 18 smartphones.

They powered on the controller recovered from the car next to the drone recovered from the prison yard. The devices immediately paired.

From the drone, investigators recovered 70 usable flight logs, which included date/time stamps as well as speed, height, and location data. They identified four flights that intruded into FMC Fort Worth’s airspace, and another two that intruded into airspace over FCI Seagoville, another federal correctional center southeast of Dallas.

Law enforcement then queried Mr. Henderson’s cell records and found that the phone was near FMC Fort Worth around the time of the drone cash, and near FCI Seagoville near the time of the drone’s flight into the prison’s airspace. 

The Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General queried the FAA’s database and reported that Mr. Henderson did not possess an airman’s certification, and that the drone in question was registered to another owner who cancelled his registration in August 2018. FAA records confirmed that the federal correctional institutions were restricted flight areas.

Mr. Henderson now faces up to 20 years in federal prison.

Drone delivery of contraband is an increasingly vexing problem for the Federal Bureau of Prisons and state corrections officials. Just last month, a 44-year-old Houston man was charged in the Eastern District of Texas for allegedly operating a drone over FCI Beaumont in east Texas. In April, a 30-year-old former inmate pleaded guilty to conspiring to smuggle phones and tobacco into FCI Fort Dix in New Jersey. And last fall, three Atlanta men were sentenced to a year each in federal prison for using drones to smuggle contraband into Telfair State Prison in Georgia.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office – Fort Worth Resident Agency, the Bureau of Prisons Special Investigative Staff, and the Fort Worth Police Department conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Dallas Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Levi Thomas is prosecuting the case.

 

A Dallas man who called himself “Macknificent” was sentenced today to 20 years in federal prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release for human trafficking, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

Tremont Blakemore, 43, was first charged in September 2019. He pleaded guilty in April to sex trafficking through force, fraud, and coercion. He was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Ada Brown, who ordered him to turn over several trophies – including one engraved “Playa of the Year” – to the federal government. She also ordered him to forfeit several Rolex watches and diamond and gold jewelry.

“This defendant systematically brutalized his victims, convincing them that they had no choice but to live life according to his dictates,” said U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham. “We formed the North Texas Trafficking Task Force – a coalition of federal, state, and local law enforcement dedicated to ending the scourge of human trafficking – to pursue cases just like this one. We hope that today’s sentence will be a balm to survivors as they work to rebuild their lives.”

"Tremont Blakemore can no longer flaunt a life of luxury through the proceeds he illegally garnered by forcing women into the commercial sex trade industry thanks to the work of our special agents and law enforcement partners of the North Texas Trafficking Task Force who investigated and arrested this violent criminal," said HSI Dallas Special Agent in Charge Lester R. Hayes Jr. "For the next twenty years, Mr. Blakemore will have time to reflect on the pain he caused those he subjugated for his own selfish gains. Our hope is that the victims he forcefully manipulated will begin the healing process now that he is no longer a threat to society."   

In plea papers, Mr. Blakemore admitted to running a large-scale human trafficking organization, using the threat of grotesque violence to force women to engage in commercial sex acts for his financial benefit.

He compelled the women to travel cross-country to engage in commercial sex and posted ads for them on sites like Backpage.com. He demanded that the women to turn all proceeds over to him and required them to seek permission for personal expenditures.

Mr. Blakemore further admitted that when his victims disobeyed his “rules” – leaving the house without his permission, keeping money for themselves, etc. – he used violence to quell them into submission. According to court documents, victims told law enforcement that he slapped, punched, choked, kicked, and burned them with cigarettes.

“I’m going to make an example out of someone soon,” he wrote in a group text message to victims. “I will not continue to tolerate disrespect that’s one of my biggest pet peeves.” 

In an effort to appear successful in order to recruit additional victims to his trafficking organization, Mr. Blakemore admitted, he used proceeds of his victim’s sexual encounters to purchase luxury goods, including multiple pieces of diamond and gold jewelry and multiple Rolex watches.  He flouted his lifestyle to impress other traffickers, and even sported multiple trophies touting his success as a “pimp.”

Homeland Security Investigations’ Dallas Field Office conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Oakridge Police Department, the Dallas Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office, and the North Texas Trafficking Task Force’s law enforcement partners. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nicole Dana and Melanie Smith (fmr.) prosecuted the case.

The Justice Department has announced that as part of its continuing efforts to protect older adults and to bring perpetrators of fraud schemes to justice, it is expanding its Transnational Elder Fraud Strike Force, adding 14 additional U.S. Attorney’s Offices, including the Northern District of Texas.

Since 2019, current Strike Force members — including the Department’s Consumer Protection Branch, six U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, the FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and Homeland Security Investigations — have brought successful cases against the largest and most harmful global elder fraud schemes and worked with foreign law enforcement to disrupt criminal enterprises, disable their infrastructure, and bring perpetrators to justice. Expansion of the Strike Force will help to coordinate the Department’s ongoing efforts to combat sophisticated fraud schemes that target or disproportionately impact older adults. The expansion will increase the total number of U.S. Attorneys’ Offices comprising the Strike Force from six to 20, including all of the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices in the states of California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, and New York.

“We are intensifying our efforts nationwide to protect older adults, including by more than tripling the number of U.S. Attorneys’ offices participating in our Transnational Elder Fraud Strike Force dedicated to disrupting, dismantling and prosecuting foreign-based fraud schemes that target American seniors,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “This expansion builds on the Justice Department’s existing work to hold accountable those who steal funds from older adults, including by returning those funds to the victims where possible.”

The strike force expansion will further enhance the Department’s existing efforts to protect older adults from fraud and exploitation. During the period from September 2021 to September 2022, Department personnel and its law enforcement partners pursued approximately 260 cases involving more than 600 defendants, both bringing new cases and advancing those previously charged. The matters tackled by the Department and its partners ranged from mass-marketing scams that impacted thousands of victims to bad actors scamming their neighbors. Substantial efforts were also made over the last year to return money to fraud victims.

Over the past year, the Northern District of Texas has convicted five defendants of conspiracy to commit wire fraud stemming from various romance scams targeting elderly individuals. Five additional defendants are awaiting trial. Agents put the loss amount at roughly $9.3 million to date.

Northern District of Texas Assistant U.S. Attorneys have also participated in numerous outreach efforts. Assistant U.S. Attorney Donna Max provided elder abuse training to first responders and victim advocates at the 17th Annual National Conference on Crimes Against Women in May. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Walters provided training on building elder fraud cases against domestic and international defendants to other federal prosecutors at the Justice Department’s Elder Justice Coordinator Training in October. 

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: 1-866 FRAUD-11 (1-833-372-8311). This Department of Justice Hotline, managed by the Office for Victims of Crime, is staffed by experienced professional who provide personalized support to callers by assessing the needs of the victim and identifying next steps. Case managers will identify appropriate reporting agencies, provide information to callers to assist them in reporting or connect them with agencies, and provide resources and referrals on a case-by-case basis. The hotline is staffed seven days a week from 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.[ET]. 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.

An Amarillo man who allegedly threatened law enforcement, government officials, and a number of racial and ethnic groups on social media has been charged in federal court, announced U.S Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

Everett Wayne “Rhett” Copelin III, 40, was charged via criminal complaint with interstate threats and threatening a federal officer. He was arrested without incident in Amarillo on Sept. 29 and made his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lee Ann Reno this afternoon. Agents recovered a 9mm pistol and three loaded magazines in his vehicle. 

According to the complaint, Mr. Copelin posted numerous threats on Gab, a social media platform. 

On Aug. 31, under the display name “Alpha Top Dog Pure Blood,” Mr. Copelin allegedly threatened to go “kamikaze” against “white law enforcement.” The post was flagged to the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center on Sept. 4.

A review of his Gab account revealed a history of posts threatening various targets, including police officers, government officials, Black people, immigrants, Jews, and others:

• On Aug. 21, he allegedly threatened to kill young black men in relationships with white women.
• On Aug. 22, he allegedly threatened to “blow up” IRS agents. 
• On Sept. 5, he allegedly threatened to shoot police officers.
• On Sept. 8, he allegedly claimed he would “go down to the border … and start shooting invaders,” and allegedly added that he would “blow the FEDS away too.”
• Later the same day, he allegedly threatened to kill Jews in the government and law enforcement.
• On Sept. 14, he allegedly threatened to shoot Mexicans, who he felt “shouldn’t even be here.”
• On Sept. 25, he allegedly threatened to hang supporters of a Texas gubernatorial candidate.
   

According to the complaint, Mr. Copelin posted online a call for “all strong abled white alpha men with sniper rifles” to enforce the law, “because the government is corrupt.”  Agents observed photos of guns and bladed weapons on the “Alpha Top Dog Pure Blood” account.

A criminal complaint is merely an allegation of criminal conduct, not evidence. Like all defendants, Mr. Copelin is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in federal prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and any other statutory factors.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Amarillo Police Department, and the Randall County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeff Haag and Josh Frausto are prosecuting the case with Trial Attorney Jacob Warren of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

A Dallas man who accepted a delivery of $3.7 million worth of methamphetamine concealed in boxes of cauliflower was sentenced Tuesday to life in federal prison, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

Joaquin Salinas, 48, pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine. He was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn.

“Methamphetamine is a dangerous drug that affects tens of thousands of lives every year,” said Eduardo A. Chavez, Special Agent in Charge of DEA Dallas.  “Mr. Salinas chose to engage in this illicit activity and now can spend the rest of his life with the consequences of those actions.  Lives were saved by keeping these drugs off the street and DEA Dallas will continue to put the health and safety of our North Texas communities first.”According to plea papers, on Aug. 29, 2021, Mr. Salinas received a shipment of approximately 247 kilograms of methamphetamine concealed inside boxes of cauliflower. Agents put the street value of the methamphetamine at approximately $3.7 million.

At Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, agents testified that their investigation revealed the methamphetamine was imported from Mexico. Further testimony revealed that the defendant had ties to the Sureños XIII criminal street gang and the Puro Tango Blast street and prison gang, both of which have ties to Mexican drug cartels.

Agents also testified that Mr. Salinas had four firearms in his home to protect the drugs and any illegal proceeds.

One of Mr. Salinas’ codefendants, Angel Cabrera, pleaded guilty in June to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and is currently awaiting sentencing. His other codefendant, Omar Jorge Valle Estrada, has entered a plea of not guilty and is currently awaiting trial.  (Mr. Estrada is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.)

The Drug Enforcement Administration’s Dallas Field Division conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Dallas Police Department, the Hickory Creek Police Department, the Fort Worth Police Department, and the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney George Leal prosecuted the case.

This prosecution 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.