Source: United States SOUTHERN COMMAND
Sixteen special operations teams from across Central and South America and the Caribbean will gather in Ilopango, El Salvador, Aug. 18–29, for Fuerzas Comando 2025, the 19th iteration of the premier special operations skills competition and senior leadership seminar.
Source: US FBI
DES MOINES, Iowa – The Federal Bureau of Investigation is seeking to identify any potential victims of former gymnastics coach, Sean Michael Gardner. If you and/or your minor dependent(s) were victimized or you know of someone victimized by Sean Michael Gardner, you may contact the FBI by following the link below:
According to allegations in the criminal complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, between December 2017 and April 2018, Sean Michael Gardner, now 38, placed a hidden camera in a bathroom at a gymnastics studio in Purvis, Mississippi, where he was then working as a gymnastics coach. Gardner created multiple videos depicting numerous minors in stages of undress in that bathroom including close-up views of their anuses and genitals. Gardner moved from Mississippi to Iowa in 2018 to coach at a gym in West Des Moines, Iowa. West Des Moines Police searched Gardner’s apartment in late May 2025. Forensic examination of electronic devices seized from Gardner’s West Des Moines apartment uncovered the hidden camera recordings taken in the Mississippi gym bathroom.
Gardner will remain detained in federal custody pending further proceedings in the Southern District of Mississippi.
United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. The Federal Bureau of Investigation-Child Exploitation Task Force, Federal Bureau of Investigation-Jackson, Mississippi Division, Iowa Department of Public Safety-Division of Criminal Investigation-Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and West Des Moines Police Department are investigating this case.
Source: US FBI
BENTON, Ill. – An Effingham County man appeared in federal court to plead guilty to several charges for exploiting an elder out of an estimated $338,773.
Edward L. Stief, Jr., 42, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, one count of mail fraud and one count of unlawful monetary transactions in criminal derived property. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 2 at the federal courthouse in Benton.
“The defendant posed as a trusted helper, offering lawn care services to gain the victim’s confidence, only to exploit his trust,” said U.S. Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft. “He then deceived this vulnerable victim into leaving a nursing home with false promises of care, just to pocket more money. We will relentlessly pursue such financial predators to protect southern Illinois communities.”
According to court documents, Stief met the victim in May 2023 after becoming acquainted to him while offering lawn care and landscaping services. Shortly thereafter, Stief used several misrepresentations to convince the victim to appoint him as his Financial and Healthcare Power of Attorney.
“After a lifetime of hard work, our seniors deserve to feel safe and secure. Instead, criminals like this defendant shatter that trust, stealing not just their money but their sense of security,” said FBI Springfield Special Agent in Charge Christopher J.S. Johnson. “FBI Springfield and our partners will continue to hold those who commit elder fraud accountable for their callous and reprehensible actions.”
Stief became a signatory on the victim’s bank accounts. In August 2023, he talked the victim into cashing out life insurance policies and deposited most of the victim’s money into Stief’s personal bank accounts. In addition, Stief also took the victim’s gold coin collection, gold necklaces and watches.
In October 2023, Stief persuaded the victim to leave a nursing home facility and move into his full-time care. Under Stief’s care, the victim was not cared for and his medical needs were not met.
Convictions for wire and mail fraud are punishable by up to 20 years’ imprisonment and monetary transaction in criminally derived property is punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment.
The FBI Springfield Field Office and the Effingham Police Department contributed to the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen Howard is prosecuting the case.
The National Elder Fraud Hotline is a service from the U.S. Department of Justice that helps victims over 60 years report crimes and access resources. The hotline is available Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. ET, at (833) 372-8311 or (833) FRAUD-11. Callers can remain anonymous, and translation services are available.
Source: US FBI
PEORIA, Ill. – U.S. District Judge Jonathan E. Hawley sentenced a Peoria, Illinois, man, Michael Dean Dupoy, 53, to 216 months’ imprisonment, to be followed by a lifetime term of supervised release, for possession of child pornography. Judge Hawley also sentenced Dupoy, who was serving a term of supervised release for an earlier conviction for receipt of child pornography, to 24 months’ imprisonment for violating the terms of that supervised release. He further ordered that the 24 months sentence be served consecutively to the 216-month sentence, for a total sentence of 240 months.
At the sentencing hearing on August 20, 2025, Judge Hawley heard arguments relating to Dupoy’s history of arrests, including his 2008 conviction for receipt of child pornography. For that offense, he was sentenced to 220 months’ imprisonment, followed by a lifetime term of supervised release. Dupoy began his supervised release in early October 2024. Later that same month, while visiting Dupoy at his residence, a United States Probation Officer noticed a SanDisk Model 512GB Micro SD card. Although Dupoy claimed it just contained movies, the officer seized the card and submitted it for analysis. While waiting for the analysis, the officer visited Dupoy in December 2024 at his home and found that Dupoy had an unmonitored cellular phone, which was prohibited under the conditions of his supervised release. Analysis of the SD card and the cellular phone revealed that Dupoy had 482 images and 58 videos of child sexual abuse materials. Also on the SD card and the phone were photos of children who came into the store where he worked.
Dupoy was arrested in December 2024 in relation to the supervised release violation. A federal grand jury returned an indictment in a new criminal case in February 2025 charging Dupoy with possession of child pornography. Dupoy pleaded guilty in April 2025. He has remained in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service since his arrest.
At the sentencing hearing, Judge Hawley found that the sentence was necessary to protect the public and deter Dupoy from further criminal conduct, noting that his criminal conduct began almost immediately upon his release from prison. The judge said that he saw “nothing to think [that Dupoy] would not immediately engage in this behavior again” and said that the “the surest way to deter” Dupoy was to have him in custody. The judge concluded that Dupoy needed “to be removed from society to protect the public.”
Because of Dupoy’s prior conviction, the statutory penalties for possession of child pornography are 10 to 20 years’ imprisonment, to be followed by a five-year to life term of supervised release.
The United States Probation Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Springfield Field Office, investigated the case. Criminal Chief Darilynn J. Knauss represented the government in the prosecution.
The case against Dupoy was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative by the Department of Justice to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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.projectsafechildhood.gov
Source: US FBI
CHICAGO — A federal judge has sentenced a Chicago man to 45 years in prison for sexually exploiting and receiving child sexual abuse material from at least 14 children with whom he communicated on social media.
In 2019 and 2020, ARMANDO TORRES used social media to contact and persuade young girls, most of whom were younger than ten years old, to create and send him sexually explicit images and videos of themselves. Torres sought out children on popular applications, including Snapchat and Instagram, and his social media screennames were designed to appeal to them. Torres often pretended he was a child in order to gain his victims’ trust. He provided graphic step-by-step instructions to his victims, including how to pose their bodies, the sexual language to use, and how to film and send the images and videos.
Torres, 35, of Chicago, pleaded guilty earlier this year to exploitation and child pornography charges. On Aug. 11, 2025, U.S. District Judge Steven C. Seeger imposed the 45-year prison sentence.
The sentence was announced by Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Douglas S. DePodesta, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI.
“Children are the most vulnerable members of our community,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Caitlin Walgamuth argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “Their innocence and trust in others make them defenseless to predators like Torres, who easily manipulated them online. Torres’s sexualization of the victims deprived them of their childhood and inflicted significant trauma on them, as well as their families, that will continue to impact them long after the experience is over.”
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse. PSC marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, while also providing critical services to victims.
If you believe you are a victim of sexual exploitation, you are encouraged to contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children by logging on to https://www.missingkids.org/ or calling 1-800-843-5678. The service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Source: US FBI
CHICAGO — A Chicago man has been sentenced to more than 16 years in federal prison for unlawfully dealing more than a dozen firearms.
In 2020 and 2021, JOHNATHAN BURGOS, 33, illegally sold 14 firearms and multiple large-capacity magazines to an individual who was surreptitiously working on behalf of the FBI. The sales involved several stolen handguns, a gun with an obliterated serial number, and a rifle. During most of the transactions, Burgos was on either parole or bond with electronic monitoring from the Illinois Department of Corrections for firearm cases in state court.
Burgos pleaded guilty earlier this year to federal firearm charges. On Aug. 15, 2025, U.S. District Judge Steven C. Seeger sentenced Burgos to 16 years and eight months in federal prison.
The sentence was announced by Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Douglas S. DePodesta, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI, and Larry Snelling, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department.
“Defendant’s gun trafficking posed a severe danger to the community,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Mower argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “He personally coordinated each sale and used coded language in phone calls and text messages to mask the illicit nature of his discussions.”
Source: US FBI
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Jasmine Spencer, 32, of Charleston, was sentenced today to six months of home detention, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $15,625 in restitution for aiding and abetting bank fraud. Spencer admitted that she received $15,625 in proceeds from a criminally derived Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP) loan, guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act).
According to court documents and statements made in court, co-defendant Kisha Sutton conspired with Spencer and others to obtain fraudulent PPP loans. Sutton submitted a PPP loan application on Spencer’s behalf of May 27, 2021, listing Spencer as a sole proprietor hair stylist who received $75,000 in gross income in 2020. The application was filed with an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 1040, Schedule C Profit or Loss from Business, stating that Spencer had earned $75,000 in 2020. As part of her guilty plea, Spencer admitted that she never earned $75,000 as a hair stylist in one year. Sutton further admitted that the IRS Form 1040 submitted with her application was fraudulent and created solely to obtain the PPP loan.
A PPP lender in California approved Spencer’s loan application. The $15,625 in proceeds from the fraudulent loan was deposited in Spencer’s personal bank accounts on June 28, 2021. Between June 30 and July 9, 2021, Spencer transferred $3,000 of the fraudulent loan proceeds to Sutton using a digital wallet application. Spencer admitted that she spent the remainder of the fraudulent loan proceeds on personal expenses.
The CARES Act made forgivable PPP loans available to qualifying sole proprietors, independent contractors and self-employed individuals adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, to replace their normal income and for certain other expenses. Applicants were required to certify that they were in operation on February 15, 2020, and provide documentation showing their prior gross income from either 2019 or 2020.
Spencer and Sutton are among several individuals indicted by a federal grand jury on charges alleging they and others conspired, as well as aided and abetted one another, to obtain fraudulent PPP loans totaling $140,625. On July 15, 2025, Sutton was found guilty of aiding and abetting bank fraud and aiding and abetting laundering of monetary instruments by a federal jury following a two-day trial. Sutton, 44, of Jersey City, New Jersey, is scheduled to be sentenced on November 13, 2025. Powell and the three remaining co-defendants pleaded guilty.
Acting United States Attorney Lisa G. Johnston made the announcement and commended the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the West Virginia State Police – Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI), and the West Virginia State Auditor’s Office (WVSAO) Public Integrity and Fraud Unit (PIFU).
United States District Judge Irene C. Berger imposed the sentence. Assistant United States Attorneys Jonathan T. Storage and Jennifer D. Gordon and former Assistant United States Attorney Holly Wilson prosecuted the case.
Individuals with information about allegations of fraud involving COVID-19 are encouraged to report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline at 866-720-5721, or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.
A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia. Related court documents and information can be found on PACER by searching for Case No. 2:24-cr-192.
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Source: US FBI
BUFFALO, N.Y. — U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced today that a federal grand jury has returned a superseding indictment charging Terrance Michael Ciszek a/k/a DrMonster, 35, of Buffalo, NY, with affecting transactions with access devices issued to other persons and aggravated identity theft, which carry a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Ciszek was previously indicted on charges of possession of unauthorized access devices with intent to defraud and making a false statement to an agency of the United States.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles M. Kruly, who is handling the case, stated that since August 2018, the FBI has been investigating an illicit online marketplace known as Genesis Market, whose operators compile stolen data, such as computer and mobile device identifiers, email addresses, usernames, and passwords, from malware-infected computers around the globe and package it for sale on the market. Purchases made through Genesis Market are conducted using virtual currency, such as bitcoin.
According to the superseding indictment and a previously filed complaint, between March and August 2020, Ciszek, a Buffalo Police Detective, purchased 11 packages on Genesis Market that included 194 stolen account credentials. In March and April 2020, Ciszek is accused of attempting to use the stolen credit cards to make purchases. In addition, on April 15, 2020, Ciszek is accused of possessing and using the identification, including name, address and credit card, of another person.
On April 4, 2023, Ciszek is accused of making false statements to the FBI, claiming that he had not purchased stolen credentials from the internet, and further stating that his nephew may have been responsible for the online purchase of stolen credentials.
The superseding indictment is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Acting Special Agent-in-Charge Mark Grimm.
The fact that a defendant has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
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Source: US Department of Homeland Security
On average, Secretary Noem saves U.S. taxpayers more than $50 million a day
WASHINGTON — Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, in seven months, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem has saved the American people $12 billion through common-sense cost accountability processes across DHS.
By reducing the size of government and eliminating career bureaucrats, Secretary Noem saved U.S. taxpayers $1.3 billion. All of these savings were achieved without cuts to key law enforcement, border security, national security, immigration enforcement and positions with a public safety responsibility.
Secretary Noem personally reviews and approves any contract above $100,000. This process saved U.S. taxpayers an additional $10.7 billion.
For years, unelected bureaucrats rubber-stamped hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts, fueling a culture of waste, fraud, and abuse. Under Secretary Noem, that era is over.
“It is stunning that for years, career bureaucrats were unilaterally signing off on hundred-million-dollar contracts leading to massive waste, fraud, and abuse of U.S. taxpayer dollars,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “While lobbyists and special interests are fighting for government contracts, Secretary Noem is fighting for the American taxpayer. In less than seven months, she’s saved the U.S. taxpayer $12 billion–that’s more than $50 million a DAY since she took office.”
These figures don’t even include the additional savings from DHS’s immigration enforcement efforts under President Trump’s leadership.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) estimates the net cost of illegal immigration at the federal, state, and local levels was at least $150.7 billion annually as of early 2023. This translates to an average cost of $8,776 per illegal immigrant or U.S.-born child of illegal immigrants per year. Removing 1.6 million illegals from the country has resulted in an additional $14 billion in cost savings per year.
Since taking office, Secretary Noem has reviewed more than 5,000 contracts and reviews all contracts within 24 hours.
Secretary Noem’s reforms have exposed years of unchecked spending, including infamous examples such as the federal government paying $1,300 for a single reheatable coffee cup.
Secretary Noem’s leadership has delivered results every American can be proud of including the most secure border in American history, removing the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from our communities, and the $50 million in taxpayer savings every single day since she took office.
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Source: US Department of Homeland Security
WASHINGTON – Today, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a draft Minimum Elements for a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) for public comment. Reflecting the growing maturity of SBOM practices, this guide incorporates lessons learned from increased SBOM generation and usage and provides an updated baseline for how software component information is documented and shared. Members of the public may submit public comment on this guidance starting today.
Software continues to underpin critical systems and services, and transparency into its composition is essential. SBOMs illuminate the software supply chain by providing data about software’s ingredients. Analysis of SBOM data gives organizations insights about their software that can then drive actions to improve software security.
Since the 2021 SBOM Minimum Elements was published by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), SBOM practices have evolved significantly to include expanded tooling and increased stakeholder familiarity and adoption. The advancements of tooling and adoption allow organizations requesting SBOMs to demand more information about their software components and supply chain than they could have in 2021. By incorporating these advancements, the 2025 SBOM Minimum Elements raises expectations for SBOMs to align with current capabilities.
“CISA remains focused on working with industry, interagency, and international partners to develop resources to increase SBOM adoption across the broader software ecosystem, the U.S. government, and the world. SBOM is a valuable tool that helps software manufacturers with addressing supply chain risks and several best practices have evolved significantly in recent years,” said CISA Acting Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity Chris Butera. “This voluntary guidance will empower federal agencies and other organizations to make risk-informed decisions, strengthen their cybersecurity posture, and support scalable, machine-readable solutions. We encourage members of the public to review this guidance and provide comment on how we can improve this list of minimum elements.”
Additions introduced in the draft Minimum Elements for a SBOM include component hash, license, tool name, and generation context. Existing elements, such as SBOM author, software producer, component version, and others, have been updated for improved clarity. The public comment period concludes on October 3, 2025. During the comment period, members of the public can provide comments and feedback via Federal Register: Request for Comment on 2025 Minimum Elements for a Software Bill of Materials. Following the public comment period, CISA will issue a revised version of the minimum elements.
For more information and resources, visit Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) on CISA.gov.
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About CISA
As the nation’s cyber defense agency and national coordinator for critical infrastructure security, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency leads the national effort to understand, manage, and reduce risk to the digital and physical infrastructure Americans rely on every hour of every day.
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