Anyone can become a victim of fraudulent activity. Whether you are an individual or a business, staying current with the latest fraud cases from the Department of Justice, the FBI, and various news outlets can help you become more knowledgeable about what fraud looks like, so you can be ready to identify suspicious activities in your environment.
Read on to learn about October 2018 crime investigations and fraud cases from the FBI, the United States Department of Justice, and The Denver Post.
Money Laundering, Wire Fraud
Read Article: Walmart “asset protection manager” from Aurora convicted of fraud and money laundering
Aurora, CO— A 40-year-old Aurora man who worked for Walmart has been sentenced to 22 months in federal prison for wire fraud and money laundering. He also has been ordered to pay $830,000 restitution.
Justin Manning also was ordered by U.S. District Judge Wiley Y. Daniel to three years of supervision after completion of his incarceration, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney’s Colorado office.
Manning was employed as an asset protection manager and assistant store manager at a local Walmart between 2012 and 2015, according to an indictment in the case. Manning had access to blank checks in his job positions. He fraudulently filled out checks and had others fill out checks in the names of third parties to deceive Walmart employees that the checks were legitimate.
Manning used his management position to access the store’s safe and take cash from deposit bundles, the news release stated. Manning created fake loans to one of the store’s cash registers to conceal that cash was missing from the safe. Manning then placed in those cash registers fraudulent Money Network Checks totaling the same amount as the cash taken so the balance would look correct and other employees would not realize cash had been taken from the safe. Read More
Financial Fraud
Miami, FL— The former National Director of Anti-Corruption in Colombia and a foreign attorney pled guilty in federal court in Miami for their participation in a conspiracy to launder money with the intent to promote foreign bribery.
Benjamin G. Greenberg, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida and Adolphus P. Wright, Special Agent in Charge, United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Miami Field Division, made the announcement.
Luis Gustavo Moreno Rivera, 35, the former National Director of Anti-Corruption in Colombia and Leonardo Luis Pinilla Gomez, 31, an attorney practicing in Colombia, pled guilty to conspiracy to launder money in order to promote foreign bribery. The defendants entered their guilty pleas before U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro in Miami. Moreno and Pinilla are scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Ungaro on November 19, 2018 at 11:00 a.m.
According to the court docket, including the agreed upon factual proffer, beginning in November 2016, in Colombia, a cooperating source of information (CS) was approached by Moreno and Pinilla who attempted to entice a bribe from the CS. Specifically, in exchange for 100 million Colombian pesos (the equivalent of approximately $34,500 US), Moreno and Pinilla offered to give the CS copies of sworn statements taken from cooperators who had testified against the CS. In June 2017, Moreno and Pinilla traveled to Miami, Florida and met with the CS who, under the direction of the DEA, provided Moreno and Pinilla with a $10,000 deposit of the bribe money. Recorded conversations revealed that Moreno and Pinilla discussed Moreno’s ability to control the investigation into the CS and that Moreno could inundate his prosecutors with work so that they would be unable to focus on the CS’s investigation. In exchange, Moreno and Pinilla were asking for a 400 million Colombian peso payment (the equivalent of approximately $132,000 US), with an additional $30,000 to be paid prior to Moreno leaving the United States. Read More
Money Laundering
Read Article: Georgia Man Charged With Conspiring To Launder Stolen Drug Proceeds
Harrisburg, PA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania recently announced that John Thomas Oiler, age 49, of Flowery Branch, Georgia, was charged in a criminal information on August 3, 2018, with conspiring to launder stolen drug proceeds.
According to United States Attorney David J. Freed, the criminal information alleges that Oiler was part of a conspiracy that stole more than $800,000 of cash drug proceeds before turning more than $1.7 million of cash drug proceeds over to law enforcement officers. It is alleged that Oiler rented a storage unit in Baltimore and travelled to Pennsylvania at the request of an unindicted coconspirator who had stolen more than $800,000 of cash drug proceeds from a coast-to-coast marijuana trafficking organization. Oiler allegedly took the vast majority of those proceeds and stored them in the rented unit in Baltimore. It is further alleged that Oiler then laundered those funds by conducting numerous financial transactions, including sending cash to the unindicted coconspirator and a now-retired agent of the PA Attorney General’s Office Bureau of Narcotics Investigations Mobile Street Crimes Unit. That agent, Timothy B. Riley, previously pled guilty to participating in the conspiracy and awaits sentencing. Oiler netted about $400,000 of the proceeds.
The investigation began after Riley was notified on June 24, 2015, by an unindicted coconspirator about a large amount of cash from a coast-to-coast marijuana trafficking organization. Riley and other members of the Mobile Street Crimes Unit met the unindicted coconspirator at a truck stop in Carlisle, Pennsylvania to seize cash out of the truck. The amount seized was $1,770,650. The unindicted coconspirator provided information about the marijuana trafficking organization for which he was transporting the cash. An investigation of that drug trafficking organization revealed the amount of cash in that shipment was $2,590,000, and an allegation was made that Agents had stolen more than $800,000 from the shipment when it was seized. To ensure a full investigation was undertaken, the PA Attorney General referred the matter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The FBI, joined by Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigations, conducted a full investigation, revealing more than $800,000 was stolen by the driver of the truck who turned the rest of the money in, aided by Oiler. After the seizure, Timothy B. Riley received three cash payments from the driver, totaling $48,000. Riley then deposited and conducted other financial transactions with that money, knowing it was stolen proceeds of drug trafficking. Oiler conducted financial transactions with more than $240,000 of the proceeds. Read More
Bribery, Wire Fraud, Tax Evasion
Read Article: Former State Legislator Sentenced to 33 Months in Prison for Accepting Bribes
Birmingham, AL— A federal judge sentenced a former Alabama legislator to nearly three years in prison for accepting bribes from a Birmingham lawyer and an Alabama coal company executive to advocate their employers’ opposition to EPA actions in north Birmingham. U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town, FBI Special Agent in Charge Johnnie Sharp Jr. and Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Holloman announced the plea.
U.S. District Judge Abdul K. Kallon sentenced former state representative Oliver L. Robinson, Jr., 58, of Birmingham, to two years and nine months in prison for conspiracy, bribery, honest services wire fraud and tax evasion. Robinson pleaded guilty to the charges late last year. The judge also ordered Robinson to pay $169,151 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service and to forfeit $390,783 as proceeds of illegal activity. Robinson will be on supervised release for three years following completion of his prison term.
The government filed a motion asking the judge to depart downward from the guidelines sentencing recommendation of 51 to 63 months in prison because of Robinson’s substantial assistance, including trial testimony, in the government’s prosecution of his co-defendants. Prosecutors recommended the 33-month sentence.
A federal jury in July convicted Balch & Bingham partner Joel Gilbert and Drummond Company executive David Roberson in the bribery scheme.
“Robinson betrayed his constituents and neighbors in north Birmingham and Tarrant, selling his elected office to special interests for personal profit. An elected official can scarcely commit a more egregious crime,” Town said. “This former state legislator will never again hold elected office and he will spend the next three years of his life in federal prison.” Read More
Financial Fraud
Read Article: Four Florida residents sentenced for fraud charges involving gas
Clarksburg, WV— Four Florida residents were sentenced recently to a combined 297 months incarceration for their involvement with a gas station skimming fraud scheme, United States Attorney Bill Powell announced.
Meylan Montalvo Gomez, of Hialeah, Florida, age 27, was sentenced to 57 months incarceration. Gomez pled guilty to one count each of “Conspiracy to Commit Access Device Fraud” and one count each of “Access Device Fraud-Use of Unauthorized Access Device” in June 2018.
Yosan Pons Sosa, of Miami, Florida, age 29, was sentenced to 46 months incarceration. Sosa pled guilty to one count each of “Conspiracy to Commit Access Device Fraud” and one count each of “Access Device Fraud-Use of Unauthorized Access Device” in June 2018.
Lazaro Serrano Diaz , of Miami, Florida, age 27, was sentenced to 57 months incarceration. Diaz pled guilty to one count each of “Conspiracy to Commit Access Device Fraud” and one count each of “Access Device Fraud-Use of Unauthorized Access Device” in June 2018.
Naudi Reyes Fernandez, of Miami, Florida, age 37, was sentenced to 51 months incarceration. Fernandez pled guilty to one count of “Conspiracy to Commit Access Device Fraud” and one count of “Access Device Fraud-Possession of Device-Making Equipment” in June 2018.
Each admitted to their roles in a conspiracy spanning four states that involved using skimming devices at gas pumps, using technology to upload the account information, and creating fraudulent cards with said accounts to make unauthorized transactions at different businesses in West Virginia and elsewhere.
The court calculated the intended loss as approximately $1,000,000 based upon the fact that when the defendants were arrested, they were found with a laptop containing over 2,000 different debit and credit card numbers. Read More
Financial Fraud
Read Article: Former State Street Executive Sentenced for Scheme to Defraud Clients Through Secret Trading Commissions
Boston, MA – A former executive vice president of State Street Corporation was sentenced in federal court in Boston in connection with engaging in a scheme to defraud at least six of the bank’s clients through secret commissions applied to billions of dollars of securities trades.
Ross McLellan, 47, of Hingham, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin to 18 months in prison and two years of supervised release. In June 2018, McLellan was convicted by a federal jury of one count of conspiring to commit securities fraud and wire fraud, two counts of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud.
In April 2016, McLellan, a former executive vice president of State Street who served as global head of its Portfolio Solutions Group and president of its U.S. broker-dealer unit, and Edward Pennings, 47, of Surrey, England, a former senior managing director of State Street and the head of its Portfolio Solutions Group for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, were indicted. In June 2017, Pennings pleaded guilty. Also in June 2017, Richard Boomgaardt, 44, of Sevenoaks, England, a former managing director of State Street, was charged separately and pleaded guilty in July 2017 to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud. Boomgaardt was sentenced in July 2018 to one year of probation.
Between February 2010 and September 2011, McLellan, Pennings, and Boomgaardt conspired to add secret commissions to fixed income and equity trades performed for at least six clients of the bank’s “transition management” business, which helps institutional clients move their investments between and among asset managers or liquidate large investment portfolios. The commissions were charged on top of fees that the clients had agreed to pay to the bank, and despite written instructions to the bank’s traders that generally reflected that the clients were not to be charged trading commissions. McLellan, Pennings, and Boomgaardt took steps to hide the commissions from the clients and others within the bank, including by directing that the commissions not be broken out in post-trade reports. Read More
Financial Fraud
Read Article: Hialeah Man Pleads Guilty in $8 Million Laundering Scheme Involving Proceeds of Mortgage Fraud and Tax Refund Fraud
Southern District of Florida – Benjamin G. Greenberg, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Robert Lasky, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office and Michael J. De Palma, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) announced that Yant Garcia, 38 of Hialeah, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States.
According to the plea document, beginning around 2012, and continuing through around 2015, Garcia agreed with others to launder the proceeds of an identity theft tax refund scheme and mortgage fraud scheme by cashing checks in names of persons who were not present at check-cashing stores in Miami.
In or around 2013, Garcia’s co-conspirators submitted fraudulent tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) using stolen personal identity information seeking refunds ranging in value from $130,000 to $170,000. In total, the Department of Treasury paid out approximately $4.3 million in fraudulent refund claims by mailing out tax refund checks. The defendant and a co-conspirator met with the owner of a check-cashing store in Hialeah and the true owner of the store agreed to cash these checks for a thirty percent fee.
In or around 2015, Garcia and his co-conspirators engaged in a mortgage fraud scheme on a property in Miami Beach. Garcia and his co-conspirators submitted fraudulent loan applications and received approximately $3.7 million in proceeds from this mortgage fraud via interstate wire to the account of the fake title company in Miami. Garcia then provided checks to co-conspirators who cashed these checks at check-cashing stores in South Florida in the names of payees who were not present. Read More
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