Category: Legal Issues

Source: Office of United States Attorneys

PORTLAND, Ore.—Manuel Antonio Souza Espinoza, 27, a Mexican national unlawfully residing in Portland, was sentenced today to 157 months in federal prison and three years’ supervised release for distributing fentanyl that resulted in the death of a Portland teen and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

According to court documents, the investigation that ultimately led to Espinoza’s arrest began after the tragic overdose death of a Portland teenager who, on March 7, 2022, ingested a counterfeit “M30” Oxycodone pill manufactured with fentanyl. The investigation revealed that Espinoza—a known, high-volume Portland area drug dealer—was the third-level supplier of the counterfeit pills. On March 31, 2022, using a confidential informant, investigators arranged a controlled purchase of 1,000 pills from Espinoza. When Espinoza arrived at the agreed upon location, he was immediately arrested on federal charges. Investigators located and seized 1,000 pills in Espinoza’s vehicle along with a loaded .40 caliber handgun with extended magazine.

On April 21, 2022, a federal grand jury in Portland returned a two-count indictment charging Souza Espinoza with possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

On March 5, 2025, Souza Espinoza pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute fentanyl and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. In the plea agreement, Souza Espinoza admitted that the counterfeit M30 pills containing fentanyl he sold to the victim resulted in the fatal fentanyl poisoning of the victim.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the Portland Police Bureau’s Narcotics and Organized Crime Unit, the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Interdiction Team (HIT), and the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office with assistance from the Clackamas County Inter-Agency Task Force. It was prosecuted by Scott M. Kerin, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon.

The Oregon-Idaho HIDTA program is an Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) sponsored counterdrug grant program that coordinates with and provides funding resources to multi-agency drug enforcement initiatives.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 80 to 100 times more powerful than morphine and 30 to 50 times more powerful than heroin. A 2-milligram dose of fentanyl—a few grains of the substance—is enough to kill an average adult male. The wide availability of illicit fentanyl in Oregon has caused a dramatic increase in overdose deaths throughout the state.

If you are in immediate danger, please call 911.

If you or someone you know suffers from addiction, please call the Lines for Life substance abuse helpline at 1-800-923-4357 or visit www.linesforlife.org. Phone support is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also text “RecoveryNow” to 839863 between 2pm and 6pm Pacific Time daily.

Source: Office of United States Attorneys

EUGENE, Ore.—A Lynwood, California man was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison Monday for trafficking 11 pounds of methamphetamine from California to Oregon.

Luis Banuelos, 34, was sentenced to 168 months in federal prison and five years’ supervised release.

According to court documents, on February 28, 2021, as part of a drug trafficking investigation, officers from the Central Oregon Drug Enforcement (CODE) team arrested Banuelos after he transported methamphetamine from California to deliver to a customer in Prineville, Oregon. Officers searched Banuelos’s vehicle and seized two boxes containing more than 11 pounds of methamphetamine. When questioned by investigators, Banuelos admitted to transporting drugs from California approximately seven times for distribution in Oregon.

On August 4, 2022, Banuelos was charged by criminal information with possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. On October 31, 2022, Banuelos pleaded guilty to the charge.

The case was investigated by the CODE team and the Drug Enforcement Agency. It was prosecuted by Adam Delph, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon.

Source: Office of United States Attorneys

PORTLAND, Ore.— Ermin Izaguirre-Estrada, 22, a Honduran national unlawfully residing in Oregon, was sentenced Monday to 70 months in federal prison and three years’ supervised release for trafficking fentanyl in downtown Portland and San Francisco, California.

According to court documents, on August 9, 2023, as part of a fentanyl enforcement mission targeting fentanyl dealers in downtown Portland, officers observed Izaguirre-Estrada holding what appeared to be blue fentanyl pills in his hand. The officers arrested Izaguirre-Estrada and seized a loaded firearm, more than 6,000 fentanyl pills, fentanyl powder, and cash.

On August 16, 2023, a federal grand jury in Portland returned a two-count indictment charging Izaguirre-Estrada with possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and alien in possession of a firearm.

On September 26, 2023, a federal grand jury in the Northern District of California returned a two-count indictment charging Izaguirre-Estrada with possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and methamphetamine, based on a prior arrest in April 2023.

On April 30, 2025, Izaguirre-Estrada pleaded guilty to two counts of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, resolving both of his criminal cases.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) Narcotics and Organized Crime Unit, the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HITDA) Interdiction Team (HIT), the PPB Central Precinct Neighborhood Response Team and PPB Bike Squad. It was prosecuted by Scott M. Kerin, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon.

The Oregon-Idaho HIDTA program is an Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) sponsored counterdrug grant program that coordinates with and provides funding resources to multi-agency drug enforcement initiatives.

The case was investigated under the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF). OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. For more information about Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces, please visit Justice.gov/OCDETF.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 80 to 100 times more powerful than morphine and 30 to 50 times more powerful than heroin. A 2-milligram dose of fentanyl—a few grains of the substance—is enough to kill an average adult male. The wide availability of illicit fentanyl in Oregon has caused a dramatic increase in overdose deaths throughout the state.

If you are in immediate danger, please call 911.

If you or someone you know suffers from addiction, please call the Lines for Life substance abuse helpline at 1-800-923-4357 or visit www.linesforlife.org. Phone support is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also text “RecoveryNow” to 839863 between 2pm and 6pm Pacific Time daily.

Source: Office of United States Attorneys

LOS ANGELES – A Guatemalan national and former resident of the West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles was extradited from Guatemala and arraigned today on federal criminal charges alleging that he produced child sexual abuse material of five children.

Miguel Angel Batz Jr., 43, a.k.a. “Mike Batz,” was transported to the United States this morning from Guatemala and arrived at Los Angeles International Airport.

Batz is charged with 12 counts of production of child pornography. At his arraignment this afternoon in United States District Court in Los Angeles, he pleaded not guilty to all counts. A federal magistrate judge ordered him jailed without bond and scheduled a trial to begin October 7.

According to the indictment that a federal grand jury returned in June 2022 and was unsealed today, Batz knowingly enticed and coerced five minor victims – all under the age of 18 years old – to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of that conduct.

The depictions were produced and transmitted using means of interstate and foreign commerce, including by computer, cellphone, and the internet.

Batz originally was charged in Los Angeles Superior Court with contacting a minor to commit a lewd act and later fled to Guatemala. He had legal status in the United States at the time of the alleged offenses.

An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court. 

If convicted, Batz would face a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison for each count.

The FBI is investigating this matter. The U.S. Attorney’s Office thanks the Guatemalan National Civil Police Transnational Anti-Gang Unit and FBI Legal Attaché suboffice in Guatemala City for their assistance in this matter. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs working with Guatemalan law enforcement authorities provided critical assistance in securing the arrest and extradition of Batz to the United States. 

Assistant United States Attorney Brandon E. Martinez-Jones of the Violent and Organized Crime Section is prosecuting this case.

Source: Office of United States Attorneys

LOS ANGELES – A Glendale woman was sentenced today to 108 months in federal prison for participating in a scheme in which hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal kickbacks were paid and received for patient referrals that resulted in the submission of approximately $10.6 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare for purported hospice care.

Nita Almuete Paddit Palma, 75, of Glendale, was sentenced by United States District Judge Dolly M. Gee, who also ordered her to pay $8,270,032 in restitution. 

At a separate hearing today, Judge Gee sentenced Percy Dean Abrams, 75, of Lakewood, to three years of probation, which will include two years of home confinement.

At the conclusion of a six-day trial, a federal jury in December 2024 found Palma guilty of 12 counts of health care fraud and 16 counts of paying illegal kickbacks for health care referrals. The jury also found Abrams guilty of six counts of receiving illegal kickbacks for health care referrals.

Palma was excluded from Medicare, a federal health insurance program for people aged 65 and older, because of prior federal convictions for receiving illegal kickbacks. While she was excluded from Medicare, Palma purchased Magnolia Gardens Hospice through her daughter and bought C@A Hospice through her husband in 2015 and concealed her ownership interest in both hospices from Medicare.

Palma then paid “marketers”, including Abrams, hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal kickbacks for patient referrals that Palma could bill to Medicare for purported hospice care.

Hospice is only for those who are terminally ill and have a life expectancy of six months or less. Hospice provides comfort care to a patient instead of trying to cure the patient’s illness, and a patient forfeits certain benefits under Medicare when electing hospice.

Consistent with instructions provided by Palma, Abrams falsely represented to prospective patients that they did not need to be dying to be on hospice. After collecting personal identifying information from prospective patients that were not dying, Abrams sent the information to Nita Palma so she could bill Medicare for purported hospice care.

Through Magnolia Gardens Hospice and C@A Hospice, Palma caused the submission of approximately $10.6 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare beginning in 2015 for purported hospice care for patients that were not dying. Palma received approximately $6,000 each month a patient was billed to Medicare for hospice. In turn, Palma paid Abrams and other marketers up to $1,000 per month in illegal kickbacks for each patient referred to her that was billed to Medicare for hospice. Many of the patients that were billed to Medicare through Magnolia Gardens Hospice did not know they were signed up for hospice, and some patients only found out after they were denied medical coverage for services they needed.

During the health care fraud scheme, Medicare requested additional documentation from Magnolia Gardens Hospice to support the purported hospice claims. In response, Palma and her husband directed employees to create fake patient charts and had those fake patient charts submitted to Medicare. Court documents allege that while awaiting trial in this matter, Palma took control of three other hospices and caused the submission of approximately $4.8 million in claims for purported hospice care.

The United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General and the FBI investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Roger A. Hsieh of the Major Frauds Section and Matt Coe-Odess of the Domestic Security and Immigration Crimes Section prosecuted this case.

Source: Office of United States Attorneys

SAN JOSE – A federal grand jury has indicted Hank Risan on four counts of wire fraud stemming from alleged misrepresentations to investors about his software company and his purported music streaming service.  Risan was arrested this morning and made his initial appearance today in federal court in San Jose.    

According to the indictment filed on July 31, 2025, and unsealed today, Risan, 70, of Santa Cruz, allegedly offered and sold stock and stock conversion in his software company, Media Rights Technologies, Inc. (MRT), and his music streaming service, BlueBeat, Inc., to investors based on false representations, including: (1) false claims of BlueBeat’s copyright ownership of approximately 2.5 million songs by various well-known artists; (2) false and misleading comparisons and valuations of BlueBeat; (3) false claims of imminent acquisition of BlueBeat by a multi-national media and entertainment conglomerate; and (4) false claims of association and involvement with the companies by a former undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce.  As an example, on Nov. 3, 2020, Risan informed investors that he “received a very favorable comparable regarding the BlueBeat Catalog” and noted, “To put that news in perspective, BlueBeat contains approximately 2.5 million songs and $10K per song brings music to my ears. You can do the math!”

In reality, the indictment alleges, BlueBeat did not own the copyrights to the 2.5 million songs, the valuations of MRT and BlueBeat were fictional, the advertised multi-media conglomerate was not in the process of acquiring BlueBeat or its catalog, and the former Commerce official was not involved with BlueBeat.

Risan allegedly induced investors to purchase approximately $1,959,187 in stock and stock conversions, and to make payments characterized as “loans.”  In total, he obtained approximately $3,165,859 from the charged scheme.  Risan allegedly used the fraudulently obtained funds to pay personal credit cards, purchase collectables, and make mortgage payments on his personal residence.

United States Attorney Craig H. Missakian and FBI Special Agent in Charge Sanjay Virmani made the announcement.

Risan was released on a $100,000 unsecured bond.   He is next scheduled to appear in district court on Oct. 8, 2025, for a status conference before U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts.

An indictment merely alleges that crimes have been committed, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If convicted, the defendant faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for each count of wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343.  Any sentence following conviction would be imposed by the court after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew Chang and Jeff Nedrow are prosecuting the case with the assistance of Natachiana Burney and Susan Kreider.  The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the FBI.