Lower Brule Man Pleads Guilty to Assault

U.S. Attorney Brendan V. Johnson announced that Earl LaRoche, age 53, of Lower Brule, appeared before U.S. District Judge Roberto A. Lange on January 7, 2013, and pled guilty to the indictment that charged him with assault resulting in serious bodily injury. The maximum penalty upon conviction is 10 years of imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, or both.
The charge stems from an incident on October 9, 2011, when LaRoche unlawfully assaulted the victim by biting off a portion of her ear, requiring 25 stitches and resulting in permanent disfigurement.
The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Meghan N. Dilges is prosecuting the case. LaRoche was released on bond pending sentencing. A sentencing date has been set for March 25, 2013.

FCI Danbury Prisoner Admits Assaulting Another Inmate

David B. Fein, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that Patricia A. Brown, 22, a prisoner at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Danbury, pleaded guilty today before United States Magistrate Judge Donna F. Martinez in Hartford to one count of assault with a dangerous weapon.
According to court documents and statements made in court, on May 4, 2012, Brown assaulted another Danbury FCI inmate with two padlocks placed in a white athletic sock. The victim suffered a laceration close to her right ear that required three stitches to close the wound and also suffered from headaches.
Brown is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Judge Robert N. Chatigny on April 4, 2013, at which time Brown faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years and a fine of up to $250,000.
Brown is currently serving a 30-year sentence after having been convicted of murder in 2009 in the District of Minnesota.
This case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Neeraj N. Patel and Special Assistant United States Attorney Anjna R. Kapoor.

Eugene Woman Pleads Guilty to Selling More Than 5,000 Illegally Obtained Sprint Cell Phones Through the Internet

EUGENE, OR—On January 8, 2013, Tamara Diane Brown, 41, of Eugene, Oregon, entered a guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Eugene, admitting her involvement in a scheme to sell illegally obtained cell phones through the Internet.
In court papers, Brown admitted that while working as an employee of The Pape Group Inc. in Eugene, she used her corporate authority to order large quantities of Sprint cell phones, which she then diverted and had delivered to her home and the home of her friend. Brown then sold the devices on eBay. The scheme to defraud The Pape Group Inc. and Sprint took place between February 2010 and October 2011. Brown admitted that during the scheme, she improperly ordered 5,107 cell phones and obtained more than $305,000 from selling them. Brown admitted that she deposited the profits into her personal bank account and spent the proceeds by making a down payment on a residence, for vehicles, and for other expenses. The Pape Group Inc. and Sprint were unaware of the fraud during the time it was occurring.
Brown pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud, which is a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Brown also agreed to pay restitution and forfeit all of the money she made from her scheme.
Chief U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken presided over the case and will sentence Brown on March 20, 2013. The case was investigated by the FBI and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Cardani.

Promoter of Cincinnati Grand Prix Pleads Guilty to Fraud, Money Laundering

CINCINNATI—Curtis Boggs, 54, formerly of Harrison, Ohio, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to wire fraud and money laundering in connection with a scheme he promoted to bring a Grand Prix race to Cincinnati in 2009.
Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Edward J. Hanko, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); and Darryl Williams, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS), announced the pleas entered today before Senior U.S. District Court Judge Susan J. Dlott.
According to court documents, Boggs was employed by an insurance company as a financial advisor in the Southern District of Ohio from 2000 to 2009. Beginning in approximately October 2008 and continuing through approximately August 2009, Boggs solicited his customers and others to invest in silver and gold, or in a grand prix race, through a corporation called Cincinnati Grand Prix (“CGP”). Today, Boggs admitted that, during that period, he fraudulently obtained investments of at least $352,745 for CGP in exchange for shares in the “stock” of CGP.
Boggs devised and intended to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud through fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises. Specifically, he fraudulently obtained investment funds from individuals wherein the funds were not invested as represented and were diverted in part for his personal benefit. On or about October 27, 2008, in furtherance of his scheme, Boggs wired proceeds of a check from an investor to his personal account to pay property taxes on his house and pay down his personal mortgage debt. On or about October 21, 2008, Boggs laundered money derived from the fraud scheme by using $27,232.63 to buy a Lincoln MKX vehicle for his personal use.
A federal grand jury indicted Boggs in June. He was arrested on October 8, 2012, when he was stopped trying to enter the U.S. from Mexico.
The plea agreement calls for Boggs to serve a sentence of 27 months in prison, pay $352,745.21 in restitution, and forfeit any assets that he received as proceeds of the crimes. The court will conduct a presentence investigation before deciding whether or not to accept the terms of the plea agreement and schedule a date for sentencing.
Stewart commended the cooperative investigation by FBI and IRS agents, as well as Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Mangan, who is prosecuting the case.

Former President of International Outdoor Advertising Company Sentenced in Manhattan Federal Court to Four Months in Prison for Orchestrating $19.75 Million Accounting Fraud Scheme

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Todd Hansen, the former president of the United States division of an international outdoor advertising company (the “company”), was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to four months in prison in connection with his participation in a five-year, $19.75 million accounting fraud scheme designed to make it appear that the company was meeting certain performance targets so that he could receive higher salary increases and bonuses. Hansen pled guilty in June 2012 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one substantive count of wire fraud. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff.
According to the complaint and the indictment filed in Manhattan federal court:
From 2004 until 2009, Hansen served as president of the company, a wholly owned subsidiary of a United Kingdom corporation, with its common stock listed on the London Stock Exchange. Hansen, together with Finance Director James Buckley, directed the company’s controller (the “controller”) to make fictitious accounting entries in the company’s books and records in order to give the appearance that the company was meeting its monthly performance targets. To create these inflated income figures, Hansen directed the controller to record higher monthly revenues from either false client billings or rebates on certain goods and services that the company was purportedly receiving from some of its vendors.
The false accounting entries resulted in the preparation of financial statements that reflected artificially inflated monthly income amounts for the company. Hansen was thereby able to create the misimpression that the company was meeting its projected financial performance goals. During this five-year period, the fraudulent entries Hansen requested resulted in a total overstatement of the company’s net income by approximately $19.75 million. As a result of meeting these fictitious performance goals, Hansen was paid approximately $1.1 million in salaries and bonuses over the five-year period.
In addition to the accounting fraud scheme, during this same time period, Hansen misused tens of thousands of dollars of company funds to pay for expenses and fees that directly benefitted him, his family, and friends and that were unrelated to the Company’s legitimate business.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Rakoff sentenced Hansen, 49, of Bakersfield, California, to three years of supervised release. Hansen was also ordered to pay $231,000 in restitution and forfeit $173,450.90.
James Buckley, 49, of Westwood, New Jersey, was sentenced by Judge Rakoff on October 16, 2012, to time served, followed by one year of supervised release, and ordered to pay $26,872.22 in restitution.
Mr. Bharara praised the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
This case is being handled by the Office’s Complex Frauds Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher D. Frey and Nicole Friedlander are in charge of the prosecution.

Russian Citizen Sentenced in Manhattan Federal Court to Three Years in Prison for Sophisticated International Cyber Crimes

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Vladimir Zdorovenin, a Russian national, was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to three years in prison in connection with a series of sophisticated international cyber crimes. Zdorovenin, who was initially charged in January 2012 with his son, Kirill Zdorovenin, pled guilty in February 2012 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud for his involvement in the schemes. He was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said, “From his perch halfway across the globe, Vladimir Zdorovenin engaged in a slew of cyber crimes that left multiple victims in the United States. Cyber crime is particularly insidious because there is no need for geographic proximity between perpetrators and their victims, and Zdorovenin’s sentence today should serve as a reminder to others that law enforcement does not require geographic proximity to prosecute these crimes either.”
According to documents filed in Manhattan federal court and statements made during court proceedings:
While in Russia between 2004 and 2005, Zdorovenin engaged in a series of crimes that victimized citizens of the United States through the use of stolen credit card information, multiple phony websites, and bank accounts in Russia and Latvia. Specifically, he conspired to steal victims’ personal identification information, including credit card numbers, through the use of computer programs that were surreptitiously installed on victims’ computers and that recorded the information as it was entered by the victims. He also conspired to purchase stolen credit card numbers from other individuals and to use the stolen credit card information to make what appeared to be legitimate purchases of goods from various Internet businesses, including Sofeco LLC, Pintado LLC, and Tallit LLC. However, the purchases were fraudulent and were used as a means of deceiving banks, credit card service processors, credit card holders, and others. In fact, Zdorovenin stole the money directed to the websites through the fraudulent and unauthorized charges he and a co-conspirator caused to be made on the stolen credit cards.
Additionally, Zdorovenin conspired to use the Internet to unlawfully access the financial services accounts of victims located in the United States and then transferred or attempted to transfer hundreds of thousands of dollars from those accounts to bank accounts under his and a co-conspirator’s control. Finally, after taking over victims’ online brokerage accounts, Zdorovenin and a co-conspirator bought and sold thousands of shares of certain companies’ stock in an effort to manipulate the prices of those stocks. Zdorovenin and the co-conspirator realized profits through this scheme by simultaneously purchasing or selling shares of the same stocks through an online brokerage account maintained in the name of Rim Investment Management Ltd.

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In addition to his prison term, Zdorovenin, 55, of Moscow, Russia, was ordered to forfeit up to $1 million and pay restitution in an amount to be determined within 90 days.
Mr. Bharara praised the outstanding investigative work of the FBI.
This case is being handled by the Office’s Complex Frauds Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys James J. Pastore, Jr. and Thomas G.A. Brown are in charge of the prosecution.
Kirill Zdorovenin, Zdorovenin’s son and co-conspirator, remains at large. The charges against Kirill Zdorovenin are merely accusations, and he is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Man Indicted for Obstructing and Impeding the IRS by Filing False IRS Forms Claiming $36 Million in Refunds

Richard S. Hartunian, United States Attorney, Northern District of New York, announces that a federal grand jury in Syracuse has returned a seven-count indictment charging Glenn Richard Unger (62, of Ogdensburg, New York) with obstructing and impeding the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by filing numerous false and fraudulent IRS forms seeking refunds. Specifically, the indictment alleges that Glenn Richard Unger obstructed and impeded the IRS between 2007 and 2011 by filing numerous false and fraudulent claims with the IRS for payment of a refund of taxes totaling approximately 36 million dollars. Upon receiving the false IRS forms, the IRS realized that they were fraudulent and did not issue any refund checks to Glenn Richard Unger. The indictment also alleges that the defendant filed false claims for refunds, evaded paying income taxes, and filed a fictitious obligation. If found guilty, the defendant faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years, a term of supervised release of up to three years, and a maximum fine of $250,000. The defendant was arraigned in Albany, New York, on January 2, 2013, before United States Magistrate Judge Randolph F. Treece and is currently detained.
The charges and allegations contained in the indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
This prosecution resulted from an investigation conducted by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, New York Field Office; the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Albany Field Office; the New York State Police; and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ransom P. Reynolds. Further questions may be directed to Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney John Duncan at (315) 448-0672.