Category: FBI

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News

Headline: FBI Seeking Information from a Bank Robbery in Aventura

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News

Headline: Universal City, Texas Man Pleads Guilty to Threatening a U.S. Official

In San Antonio this afternoon, a federal judge sentenced 59-year-old James Amos Headley of Universal City, TX, to one year confinement after Headley pleaded guilty to federal charges in relation to threatening the lives of a member of Congress and the member’s family, announced United States Attorney John F. Bash and Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs, San Antonio. 

Appearing before U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez, Headley pleaded guilty to two counts of influencing a federal official by threat of murder.  By pleading guilty, Headley admitted that on July 11, 2017, he left a message on the victim’s voicemail system in Washington, D.C. threatening to murder the member of Congress as well as the member’s family.  Following his arrest, Headley told agents that he was upset with the victim’s position on different policies and decided to call and leave a message demonstrating his intent to impede and intimidate the member of Congress.

Following today’s guilty plea, Judge Rodriguez ordered that Headley be confined for one year—six months in federal custody followed by six months of home confinement—with credit for time served.  Judge Rodriguez further ordered that Headley be placed on supervised release for a period of three years after completing his home confinement.  Headley has remained in federal custody since his arrest on July 13, 2017. 

FBI special agents investigated this case together with the U.S. Capitol Police.  Assistant United States Attorney Bettina Richardson is prosecuting this case on behalf of the Government.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News

Headline: FBI Seeking Information on a Bank Robbery in Hollywood, Florida

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News

Headline: Treatment Facility Worker Pleads Guilty to Obstruction of a Health Care Fraud Investigation

An employee of a Coral Springs addiction treatment center pled guilty to his role in obstructing an ongoing healthcare fraud investigation in Federal Court today.

Benjamin G. Greenberg, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; Robert F. Lasky, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office; Kelly R. Jackson, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI); Jimmy Patronis, Florida Chief Financial Officer; Michael J. Waters, Special Agent in Charge, Amtrak Office of Inspector General (Amtrak-OIG); Isabel Colon, Regional Director, United States Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (DOL-EBSA); and Dennis Russo, Director of Operations, National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), made the announcement.

Jeffrey Adedoyin Williams, 30, of North Lauderdale, pled guilty to one count of obstruction of a criminal health care investigation, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1518(a), in connection with his employment at Deerfield Medical Center (DMC).  Williams is the fifth DMC employee to plead guilty.

According to court documents, Williams worked at DMC where he assisted with the collection of urine samples and provided administrative support at the facility. Although owned by a non-physician, DMC operated as a doctors’ group and provided medical services to various substance abuse treatment facilities located in Palm Beach and Broward Counties, including Reflections Treatment Center and New Life Treatment Center. At the direction of the center’s owner, Richard Botero, other employees would visit substance abuse treatment centers and prescribe controlled substances even though none of them were medically licensed to do so.  Licensed and unlicensed medical staff also ordered unnecessary bodily fluid testing, conducted patient visits and conducted patient evaluations.

As part of its federal healthcare fraud investigation, on February 16, 2017, members of the FBI-led Greater Palm Beach Health Care Fraud Task Force, served a grand jury subpoena on DMC seeking DMC records, patient files, and other information. On February 22, 2017, Botero delivered documents and information to the FBI and was questioned, but did not provide complete information or all of the documents sought by the subpoena. The following morning, Williams drove Botero to the Miami International Airport where Botero purchased a plane ticket and fled to Colombia. Another DMC employee, Katherine Gonzalez, also fled from Miami to Colombia later that day.

While in Colombia, Botero and Gonzalez maintained contact with Williams, directing him to remove computers, documents, and other items from DMC’s offices to prevent and delay the FBI from obtaining the items. After learning that Botero and Gonzalez had fled, agents obtained a search warrant for DMC.  Upon executing the warrant, agents found that the clinic had been cleared out. When questioned by the agents, Williams admitted that he had removed documents and equipment from DMC. Williams then took agents to the storage space where he had placed most of the items. During questioning, Williams neglected to inform the agents that he also had sold some of Gonzalez’s computer equipment that contained relevant information.

U.S. District Judge Robin L. Rosenberg accepted Williams’ guilty plea and set the matter for sentencing at 10:30 a.m. on April 17, 2018.  Williams faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.

Williams is the fifteenth defendant convicted in the federal investigation into fraud involving substance abuse treatment in the Southern District of Florida. 

Mr. Greenberg commended the investigative efforts of the Task Force. Agencies of the task force include the FBI, IRS-CI, the Florida Division of Investigative and Forensic Services, Amtrak OIG, DOL-EBSA, and NICB.  The cases are being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney A. Marie Villafaña.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News

Headline: FBI Cautions Public to be Wary of Online Romance Scams

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News

Headline: Louisiana Man Sentenced to Three Years in Prison for Fraud Scheme Targeting Realtors

PITTSBURGH – A resident of the state of Louisiana has been sentenced in federal court to 38 months imprisonment followed by three years supervised release, and restitution in the amount of $1,628,319.04, on his conviction of mail fraud, United States Attorney Scott W. Brady announced today.

United States District Judge Cathy Bissoon imposed the sentence yesterday on Rex Alan Harris, 41 of Covington, Louisiana.

According to the information presented to the court, since 2008, Harris and his company “Agents by City” defrauded hundreds of realtors nationwide who were promised television advertising to generate home sales leads and referrals for real estate agents. Realtors were induced into contracts for television advertising on major television networks based upon the realtors’ zip codes. Real estate agents in the Pittsburgh area were defrauded as well, and promised television advertising that neither occurred nor produced referrals. Harris and others spent the money on personal items.

Assistant United States Attorney Gregory C. Melucci prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

U.S. Attorney Brady commended the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Rex Alan Harris.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News

Headline: FBI Tech Tuesday: Building a Digital Defense Against Ransomware at Home

Welcome to the Oregon FBI’s Tech Tuesday segment. This week, building a digital defense against ransomware attacks at home.

Last week, we talked about the threat ransomware poses to small and medium-sized businesses in Oregon. They are particularly vulnerable because they often don’t have the staff or the experience to prepare for or recover from such attacks.

This week, we talk about the dangers that the average person faces from ransomware at home.

The set-up scenario is the same: the fraudster either gets you to click on a bogus link or attachment in your e-mail to download malware onto your system—or he is “seeding” legitimate websites with the malware. Either way, this malicious software takes over your system and locks it. You risk losing access to precious family photos, financial information, and more.

In a twist to this—there is reporting that some Apple devices are getting hijacked in a similar scheme. In this case, the bad guys are using stolen iCloud passwords obtained in one of the many large-scale data breaches. They can access your iCloud account, change your password, and use the “Find my iPhone” service to lock you out if you don’t pay the ransom. They may even be able to wipe your system remotely.

Whether locked by ransomware or hijacked by hackers—protecting your data requires a good digital defense.

* Make sure that you regularly make offline back-ups of all of your computers, phones, or other devices. Disconnect them backups—both virtually and physically—from your main systems.

* Use high-quality antivirus and anti-malware software appropriate to your devices and make sure to enable automatic updates on them.

* Make sure your devices have the latest operating software updates and set those updates to load automatically if you can.

* Use two-factor authentication when possible. This means the hacker would need more than just your password and user ID to access your system—he would also need something like a one-time code that is sent directly to your phone.

* If you are attacked and don’t have back-ups, look for reputable information being put out by the device manufacturers and industry experts. It is possible that someone has come up with a solution that will help you figure out how to disengage from a particular ransomware strain.

* Finally, the FBI recommends never paying the ransom, as there is no guarantee that the scammer will send you the decryption key. Beyond that, the money you pay may be used to fund organized crime activity or acts of terrorism while encouraging future criminal activity by these cyber thieves.

If you have been victimized by an online scam, be sure to report it to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at IC3.gov or call your local FBI office.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News

Headline: Tulare County Resident Sentenced to Four Years in Prison for Tax and Investment Fraud

FRESNO, Calif. — Marie E. Sherrill, 57, of Porterville, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd to four years in prison for wire fraud and tax fraud, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced. She was also ordered to pay more than $1.3 million in restitution to the fraud victims and $255,900 to the IRS.

According to court documents, Sherrill was a registered tax return preparer operating a bookkeeping and tax preparation business in Porterville under the name Sherrill Financial Services. Between January 2011 and December 2014, Sherrill prepared false tax returns for her clients containing false deductions to maximize their tax refunds, which caused a loss to the IRS of approximately $255,900.

Sherrill also used the intimate financial knowledge she gained from the clients of her bookkeeping and tax preparation business to identify victims she could lure into an investment fraud scheme. She told victims of this scheme that their money would be put into “pooled investments” with the money of other investors to earn a high rate of return. The money was, in fact, never put into any investment, but was used instead to pay Sherrill’s personal expenses or to make lulling payments to earlier investors in order to make them believe their money was earning a profit. As a result of this scheme, the victims were defrauded of at least $1.3 million.

This case was the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark J. McKeon is prosecuting the case.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News

Headline: Leonardtown Man Exiled to Ten Years in Prison for Possession of a Firearm

                                                                    

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                              Contact ELIZABETH MORSE

www.justice.gov/usao/md                                         at (410) 209-4885

 

Greenbelt, Maryland – United States District Judge Deborah J. Chasanow sentenced Jason Andre Armstrong, age 43, of Leonardtown, Maryland to 10 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The sentence was announced by Acting United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Stephen M. Schenning; Special Agent in Charge Gordon Johnson of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; Sheriff Timothy K. Cameron of the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Department; and Richard Fritz of the St. Mary’s County State’s Attorney’s office.

According to his plea agreement, on March 5, 2016, Armstrong entered a residence in Lexington Park, Maryland, demanded money from the occupants and threatened them with a handgun. Armstrong then left the residence, got into the rear driver’s side passenger seat of a vehicle, and the vehicle drove away.  Shortly after receiving a description of the vehicle, St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s officers stopped the vehicle and arrested Armstrong. 

Officers recovered a 9mm caliber semi-automatic pistol from underneath the driver’s seat on the rear passenger side. The pistol was reported stolen in 1995 from a federally licensed firearms store in St. Mary’s County, Maryland. After the officers advised Armstrong of his rights on the scene, Armstrong admitted that he possessed the firearm.

On April 20, 2005, in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, Armstrong was convicted of robbery. As a felon, Armstrong was prohibited from possessing a firearm.           

Acting United States Attorney Stephen M. Schenning commended the FBI, the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Department and the St. Mary’s County State’s Attorney’s Office, for their work in the investigation and prosecution.  Mr. Schenning thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Hayes, who prosecuted the case.