FBI

Government Seeks Forfeiture of Commercial Real Estate, Residences and Expensive Automobiles

May 6, 2009 -- A 23-count indictment unsealed today alleges that a civilian contractor paid more than $2.8 million in bribes to a U.S. Army contracting official stationed at Camp Arifjan, an Army base in Kuwait, and the official’s wife, and that the three individuals committed honest services fraud and money laundering offenses in connection with the same conduct.    » read more »

April 27, 2009 -- WASHINGTON - A federal grand jury has indicted four defendants, and an information has been filed against a fifth defendant, for their participation in a massive mortgage fraud scheme that allegedly promised to pay off homeowners’ mortgages on their "Dream Homes," but left them to fend for themselves, Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division Lanny A. Breuer and U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein announced today.

The indictment was returned on April 22, 2009, and unsealed today.    » read more »

April 16, 2009 -- Today the FBI released bank crime statistics for the fourth quarter of calendar year 2008. Between October 1, 2008 and December 31, 2008, there were 1,617 robberies of financial institutions,* as well as 25 burglaries and three larcenies. This represents 1,645 reported violations of the Federal Bank Robbery and Incidental Crimes Statute, an increase from the third quarter’s total of 1,376.

“Although this quarter showed a 19.5 percent increase in bank crimes from the third quarter of 2008, this brings the total violations for 2008 to 6,105—down from the 2007 (6,182) and 2006 (7,272) calendar year totals,” said Assistant Director Kenneth W. Kaiser, FBI Criminal Investigative Division.

Highlights of the report include the following:    » read more »

Lebanese Contracting Company Also Charged in Conspiracy

April 9, 2009 -- WASHINGTON—Two Department of Defense (DOD) contractors were charged with conspiracy and bribery relating to their roles involving DOD contracts in Afghanistan, the Department of Justice today announced. A Lebanese contracting company is also charged with participating in the same conspiracy.    » read more »

March 24, 2009 -- WASHINGTON - Edward B. Bartoli, a Clearwater, Fla., resident and former attorney, was sentenced to 10 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Charles R. Norgle of Chicago, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today.

Bartoli is the last of six defendants to be sentenced after they were convicted of various tax crimes in May 2008. Prior to his conviction, Bartoli was a founder of Aegis and its legal director. Bartoli and his co-defendants were found to have carried out a nearly decade-long scheme to market and sell sham domestic and foreign trusts through the Aegis Company to some 650 wealthy taxpayer clients.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., March 18, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged the auditors of Bernard Madoff's broker-dealer firm with committing securities fraud by representing that they had conducted legitimate audits, when in fact they had not.

In its complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan, the SEC alleges that from 1991 through 2008, certified public accountant David G. Friehling and his firm, Friehling & Horowitz, CPAs, P.C. (F&H), purported to audit financial statements and disclosures of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BMIS). The SEC previously charged Madoff and BMIS with committing securities fraud through a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme perpetrated on advisory and brokerage customers of his firm.    » read more »

March 19, 2009 -- WASHINGTON – The sister of a U.S. Army officer has pleaded guilty for her participation in a money-laundering scheme related to bribes paid for contracts awarded in support of the Iraq war, Acting Assistant Attorney General Rita M. Glavin of the Criminal Division and Acting Assistant Attorney General Scott D. Hammond of the Antitrust Division announced today.    » read more »

Claimed More Than $1 Billion of Fraudulent Tax Losses

March 17, 2009 -- WASHINGTON – Adrian Dicker, a United Kingdom chartered accountant and former vice chairman and board member at a major international accounting firm, pleaded guilty today to conspiring with certain tax shelter promoters to defraud the United States in connection with tax shelter transactions involving clients of the accounting firm and the law firm Jenkens & Gilchrist (J&G), the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced.    » read more »

March 11, 2009 -- Washington D.C. -- NEIL M. BAROFSKY, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), announced today, in coordination with the Inspector General for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRB-OIG), the formation of a broad, multi-agency task force designed to deter, detect and investigate instances of fraud in the soon-to-be-launched Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) program.    » read more »

Mar. 12, 2009 -- Lev L. Dassin, the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Joseph M. Demarest Jr., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the FBI, and Alan D. Lebowitz, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (DOL-EBSA), today announced that Bernard L. Madoff pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to 11 felony counts related to a massive Ponzi scheme.

Madoff pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Denny Chin to securities fraud, investment adviser fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, false statements, perjury, false filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and theft from an employee benefit plan.    » read more »

March 12, 2009 -- WASHINGTON – Beverly L. Masek, a former elected member of the Alaska House of Representatives, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit bribery, Acting Assistant Attorney General Rita M. Glavin of the Criminal Division announced.

Masek pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Ralph Beistline in Anchorage to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds. In court documents, Masek admitted to conspiring with Bill J. Allen, the former chief executive officer of VECO Corporation (VECO), a now-defunct multinational oil field services company, and Richard L. Smith, a former VECO vice president, to soliciting and accepting bribes.    » read more »

March 11, 2009 -- WASHINGTON – A securities attorney pleaded guilty today to defrauding investors in stock manipulation schemes involving 19 different publicly traded companies, Acting Assistant Attorney General Rita M. Glavin of the Criminal Division and Acting U.S. Attorney Dana J. Boente for the Eastern District of Virginia announced today.

David B. Stocker, 49, of Phoenix pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., for his participation in a stock manipulation conspiracy known as a "pump-and-dump" scheme. Stocker is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 6, 2009, by U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady. The maximum penalties for the conspiracy charge are five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.    » read more »

Approximately 100 Participants from 14 Countries Attending Second IP Crimes Enforcement Network Conference in Bangkok

March 11, 2009 -- BANGKOK, THAILAND – Building upon the successes of earlier efforts, the U.S. Department of Justice today announced the opening in Bangkok of a regional conference of approximately 100 key law enforcement and industry officials from more than a dozen nations with the goal of strengthening international cooperation in fighting large-scale intellectual property crimes.    » read more »

March 6, 2009 -- WASHINGTON – An indictment was unsealed today charging Clark Alan Roberts, 46, and Sean Edward Howley, 38, both engineers with Wyko Tire Technology Inc., located in Greenback, Tenn., with conspiring to steal trade secrets from the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and scheming to defraud Goodyear of confidential and proprietary information, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division Rita M. Glavin and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee James R. Dedrick.

Roberts and Howley were arrested this morning by federal authorities and were arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Judge Clifford Shirley.    » read more »

March 5, 2009 -- The FBI continues to receive reports of individuals victimized while attempting to purchase vehicles via the Internet. Victims find attractively priced vehicles advertised at different Internet classified ad sites. Most of the scams include some type of third-party vehicle protection program to ensure a safe transaction. After receiving convincing e-mails from the phony vehicle protection program, the victims are directed to send either the full payment, or a percentage of the payment, to the third-party agent via a wire payment service. No vehicles are delivered to the victims.    » read more »