May 7, 2013
Charges Announced Against Debt Settlement Company and Six Individuals for Multi-Million Dollar Scheme That Targeted Debt-Ridden Consumers
NEW YORK, NY- U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and USPIS Inspector-in-Charge Philip Bartlett announced the unsealing of an Indictment charging Mission Settlement Agency (“MISSION”), its owner Michael Levitis, and three of its employees – DENIS KURLYAND, BORIS SHULMAN, and MANUEL CRUZ – with mail and wire fraud charges in connection with a multi-million dollar scheme that victimized more than 1,200 debt-ridden individuals across the country. As alleged, the defendants fraudulently tricked people into paying MISSION for debt settlement services by lying to prospective customers about its fees, and its purported affiliation with the federal government and one of the three leading credit bureaus in the U.S., as well as the results it supposedly achieved for its customers. In connection with the scheme, MISSION received over $6.6 million in fees. For over 1, 200 of its customers, MISSION took fees totaling nearly $2.2 million and has never paid a penny to the customers’ creditors. Two former employees of the debt settlement company, Felix Lemberskiy and Zakhir Shirinov, previously pled guilty for their participation in the fraudulent scheme. In addition, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced the filing of a civil forfeiture complaint seeking to forfeit the proceeds of the alleged fraud and the assets involved in money laundering related to the scheme. CFPB Director Richard Cordray also announced civil charges against MISSION and LEVITIS, among others.
Press ReleaseRemarks by U.S. Attorney Bharara
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Charging Documents
April 4, 2013
Bribery Charges Announced Against NY State Assemblyman Eric Stevenson and Four Others in Connection with Alleged Scheme to Sell Legislation for Cash
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and Bronx County District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announce the unsealing of a Complaint charging New York State Assemblyman Eric Stevenson with accepting bribes in exchange for official acts. Stevenson is charged with taking more than $22,000 in bribes from Igor Belyansky, Rostislav Belyansky (a/k/a “Slava”), Igor Tsimerman, and David Binman, all of whom are also charged, in exchange for Stevenson’s official acts, which include drafting, proposing, and agreeing to enact legislation. Specifically, Belyansky, Slava, Tsimerman, and Binman, who were interested in operating and constructing adult day care centers in the Bronx, allegedly paid Stevenson to sponsor, and ultimately cause to be enacted, legislation that would declare a three-year moratorium on the construction of adult day care centers in New York City, but from which their current centers would be exempted. In connection with one of the defendants’ adult day care centers on Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, Stevenson is also alleged to have used his office to facilitate the issuance of a certificate of occupancy and the installation of a gas line. In addition, he is alleged to have held events in his official capacity to recruit senior citizens to attend a second center on Westchester Avenue in the Bronx. Four of the defendants were arrested this morning and the fifth, Tsimerman, self-surrendered. A second Assemblyman cooperated in the investigation and has agreed to resign.
Press ReleaseRemarks by U.S. Attorney Bharara
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Charging Documents
April 2, 2013
Federal Corruption Charges Announced Against NY State Senator Malcolm Smith, NYC Council Member Daniel Halloran, and Four Others
NEW YORK, NY – U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge George Venizelos announce the unsealing of a Complaint charging New York State Senator Malcolm Smith, New York City Council Member Daniel Halloran, and four others with bribery, extortion, and fraud charges. The charges against the defendants arise from an undercover investigation of three distinct but related bribery schemes involving public corruption. In the first scheme, SMITH allegedly arranged for cash bribes totaling $40,000 to be paid to Vincent Tabone and Joseph Savino, two New York City Republican county leaders, as part of an effort by Smith, who is a Democrat, to appear on the Republican primary ballot as a mayoral candidate in the 2013 election. Halloran is alleged to have received approximately $20,500 in cash bribes to act as an intermediary with Tabone and Savino on Smith’s behalf. In the second scheme, Halloran allegedly received approximately $18,300 in cash bribes and $6,500 in straw donor campaign contribution checks in exchange for agreeing to steer up to $80,000 of New York City Council discretionary funding to a company he believed was controlled by those who paid him the bribes. The final scheme involved Noramie Jasmin and Joseph Desmaret, the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the Village of Spring Valley in Rockland County, and their alleged receipt of financial benefits, including Jasmin’s receipt of a hidden interest in a real estate project and Desmaret’s receipt of approximately $10,500 in cash bribes, in exchange for official acts.
Press ReleaseRemarks by U.S. Attorney Bharara
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Charging Documents
January 23, 2013
Three Alleged International Cyber Criminals Responsible for Creating and Distributing Virus That Infected Over One Million Computers and Caused Tens of Millions of Dollars in Losses Charged in Manhattan Federal Court
NEW YORK, NY – U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer, and FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge George Venizelos announce charges against three individuals who played critical roles in creating and distributing the Gozi Virus, one of the most financially destructive computer viruses in history. The Gozi Virus infected over one million computers globally and caused tens of millions of dollars in losses. Nikita Kuzmin, a Russian national who created the Gozi Virus, was arrested in the U.S. in November 2010 and pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Leonard B. Sand to various computer intrusion and fraud charges in May 2011. Deniss Calovskis, a/k/a “Miami,” a Latvian national who allegedly wrote some of the computer code that made the Gozi Virus so effective, was arrested in Latvia in November 2012. Mihai Ionut Paunescu, a/k/a “Virus,” a Romanian national who allegedly ran a “bulletproof hosting” service that enabled cyber criminals to distribute the Gozi Virus, the Zeus Trojan and other notorious malware, and conduct other sophisticated cyber crimes, was arrested in Romania in December 2012.
Press ReleaseRemarks by U.S. Attorney Bharara
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