Crime

November 10, 2009 -- PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that MICHAEL KOULOUROUDIS, an accomplice of a former UBS investment banker, pleaded guilty before United States District Judge PAUL G. GARDEPHE on charges of conspiracy and securities fraud as a result of trading based on inside information stolen from UBS.

According to the Complaint and Superseding Indictment previously filed in this case, and statements made during KOULOUROUDIS's guilty plea:    » read more »

November 12, 2009 -- Washington, DC – More than three-quarters of older Americans are concerned that financial scams will damage their retirement nest eggs or those of someone they know, AARP and North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) said today.

In a survey released today by AARP, entitled Protecting Older Investors: 2009 Free Lunch Seminar Report, 78 percent of Americans age 55 and over surveyed indicated that they are very or somewhat concerned about financial scams affecting them or someone they know. A common setting for fraudsters to engage with their victims is by offering a free lunch or dinner, by which an older individual near retirement age is solicited to attend and learn more about investing in retirement.    » read more »

November 11, 2009 -- Frederic A. Bourke Jr., of Greenwich, Conn., was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to one year and one day in prison.

Following a six-week trial, Bourke, 63, was found guilty on July 10, 2009, of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and related prohibitions, and of making false statements to the FBI. The FCPA makes it a crime to pay or offer to pay foreign government officials in order to obtain or retain business. In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin ordered Bourke to pay a $1 million fine and serve three years of supervised release following the prison term.    » read more »

November 11, 2009 -- Washington D.C. -- The FBI continues to work closely with the Department of the Army in the joint, ongoing investigation into the tragic events that occurred last Thursday at Fort Hood. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the victims and their families.

With respect to the investigation—the Army Criminal Investigative Division is leading a coordinated criminal investigation with the support of the FBI and other components of the Department of Justice and the Texas Rangers. The investigation is in its early stages, and the information we can provide now is limited.    » read more »

Philadelphia, PA (November 11, 2009) – Results from a large, retrospective analysis of inmates with a serious mental illness (SMI) underscores the financial burden of mental illness on the criminal justice and health and human services (HHS) systems, and may provide useful information to policy makers. The results of the analysis, which evaluated patterns of arrest, utilization of services, and corresponding expenditures among nearly 3,800 inmates in a large urban county of Florida, were presented this week at the 137th American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting & Exposition.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., Nov. 10, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged the former chief financial officer of a New York-based hedge fund with securities fraud for arranging secret sales of securities from his personal trading account to the hedge fund accounts at inflated prices to generate his own illicit profits.    » read more »

November 10, 2009 -- A South Korean businessman was sentenced today in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas to five years in prison for his role in a bribery conspiracy involving a $206 million telecommunications contract and employees of the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES).

In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade also ordered Gi-Hwan Jeong to pay a $50,000 fine. Jeong pleaded guilty on June 11, 2009, to a five-count indictment, charging him with one count of conspiracy, two counts of honest services wire fraud and two counts of bribery.    » read more »

November 10, 2009 -- Washington D.C. -- The following is in response to the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report, “Sentinel Audit V: Status of the FBI’s Case Management System.”

“The FBI appreciates the Inspector General’s review of the FBI’s Sentinel Program progress and recognition of the FBI’s efforts to resolve concerns identified in previous Sentinel audits. As the OIG notes, the FBI estimates that Sentinel is scheduled to deliver full capability within the $451 million budget in the fall of 2010. The FBI already has implemented measures to resolve all six recommendations identified in this report and has successfully closed 30 of the 31 recommendations from the four prior OIG Sentinel audits.    » read more »

WASHINGTON (Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009) – The Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday held a hearing focusing on reauthorizing and improving the landmark Innocence Protection Act, legislation enacted as part of the 2004 Justice For All Act. The Innocence Protection Act was first introduced in 2000 by Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).

Leahy crafted the unprecedented criminal justice reform legislation to ensure that law enforcement officials have the necessary tools to find and convict criminals, while making sure that innocent people have the means to establish and prove their innocence. The Committee is expected to consider the reauthorization of Justice For All Act programs, including the Innocence Protection Act, in the coming months.    » read more »

November 3, 2009 -- PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, JOSEPH M. DEMAREST, JR., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"), and PATRICIA J. HAYNES, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS"), announced today that DAVID G. FRIEHLING, the accountant for Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, LLC ("BLMIS"), pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court before United States District Judge ALVIN K. HELLERSTEIN.    » read more »

November 4, 2009 -- TAMPA -- United States Attorney A. Brian Albritton today announced the results of a nine-month-long Mortgage Fraud Surge investigation that has resulted in charges against more than 100 defendants and involves allegations concerning more than $400 million in loans procured by fraud and more than 700 properties. U.S. Attorney Albritton is holding events throughout the district this week to highlight the announcement.

There are currently mortgage fraud-related charges pending against approximately 500 defendants in federal mortgage fraud cases around the nation. The cases concern both mortgage schemes designed to defraud mortgage lenders and “foreclosure rescue schemes” which prey on distressed homeowners.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., Nov. 5, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a pair of lawyers for tipping inside information in exchange for kickbacks as well as six Wall Street traders and a proprietary trading firm involved in a $20 million insider trading scheme.    » read more »

Hedge Fund Managers, Professional Traders and Senior Corporate Executive Among Newly Charged in $33 Million Scheme

Washington, D.C., Nov. 5, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced additional charges in its insider trading enforcement action against billionaire Raj Rajaratnam and Galleon Management LP by charging 13 additional individuals and entities, including three hedge fund managers, three professional traders at New York-based Schottenfeld Group, and a senior executive at Atheros Communications, a California-based developer of networking technologies.    » read more »

Scheme Involved U.S. Military Contracts Awarded in Kuwait

November 5, 2009 -- A civil lawsuit was filed today against a former U.S. Army officer and three contracting firms related to an alleged bribery scheme in connection with the awarding of contracts for services in Kuwait. Former Army officer John Cockerham Jr., who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, previously pleaded guilty to criminal charges along with another former officer, James Momon Jr.    » read more »

November 3, 2009 -- WASHINGTON – Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), along with Constitution Subcommittee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers [D-MI], Crime Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Scott [D-VA], Rep. Anthony Weiner [D-NY] , Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee [D-TX], and Ways and Means Subcommittee Chairman John Lewis [D-GA] today introduced the Effective Death Penalty Appeals Act (H.R. 3986), which would ensure that death row inmates have the opportunity to present newly discovered evidence of innocence.

Under current law, an inmate on death row can be stranded with no procedural options to appeal a conviction, even if there is compelling new evidence that he or she is innocent.

The Effective Death Penalty Appeals Act would:    » read more »