Skip Navigation
USAO Home Page

Press Releases

Viewing Notice: Portable Document Format (".PDF") files may be viewed with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.

June 2008 News Releases

6/26/08 A federal grand jury in Providence has charged Leonard F. Roupe with failure to register as a sex offender after moving to Rhode Island and working in Rhode Island ...more.

6/23/08 A federal judge has sentenced Timothy Falcon, 44, of Pawtucket, to 157 months in federal prison for cocaine trafficking and firearms offenses ...more.

6/20/08 A federal grand jury in Providence has charged two Woonsocket-based machine shop owners, and the wife of one of them, with a tax fraud conspiracy in which they allegedly used a series of ruses to conceal their income and avoid paying taxes ...more.

6/19/08 A federal judge today sentenced Gustavo Granados, a citizen of Mexico, to 46 months in federal prison for illegally reentering the United States after being deported ...more.

6/12/08 Michael DiTomasso, 35, of Woonsocket, and formerly of Milford, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty today to failing to register as a sex offender after moving from Milford to Woonsocket last year ...more.

May 2008 News Releases

5/21/08 A federal jury has found Edward Perez, of Providence, guilty of trafficking in a kilogram of cocaine that was shipped from Venezuela to Rhode Island, packed inside a toy car ...more.

5/19/08 A federal grand jury has charged Jose Hilario, of Pawtucket, with possessing child pornography ...more. Click here to read the indictment.

5/19/08 A federal grand jury has charged Dolores Rodriguez LaFlamme, a former employee of the Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles, with producing fraudulent drivers’ licenses that were sold to individuals ineligible to legally obtain them ...more. Click here to read the indictment.

5/15/08 A federal judge today sentenced Barry Zurybida, 51, of Middletown, to 220 months in federal prison for producing and possessing child pornography ...more

5/1/08 A federal judge today sentenced Domingo Enrique Lorenzo-Ferrera to 41 months in federal prison for being in the United States illegally after having been deported ...more

April 2008 News Releases

4/30/08 A federal judge today sentenced William Harper, of Pawtucket, to 37 months in federal prison for bank robbery. Harper took about $3,600 in a robbery at the Pawtucket Credit Union on Broadway in March 2007 ...more

4/30/08 Carol M. DiPina, of Providence, has pleaded guilty to federal drug distribution and health care fraud charges ...more

4/29/08 A federal judge today sentenced Larry W. Crites, 37, of Taunton, Massachusetts to 24 months in federal prison for trying to extort money from two men in the Taunton area at the behest of Anthony St. Laurent ...more

4/24/08 A team of heavily armed FBI agents today arrested David R. Cahill at his home in Mendon, Massachusetts, following an investigation by several law enforcement agencies into a series of robberies ...more

4/23/08 Michael R. Robitaille, of Coventry, pleaded guilty today to bank fraud, admitting that he kited fraudulent checks and transfers among seven accounts at three different banks and tried to obtain about $92,000 from two of the banks ...more

4/17/08 A federal criminal complaint filed today charges Tarek Wehbe, a physician with a practice in Providence and North Providence, with health care fraud, money laundering, and illicit distribution of drugs ...more

4/14/08 A federal jury in Providence has convicted two men for their roles in smuggling 29 kilograms of cocaine from California to New England ...more

4/10/08 A federal grand jury has charged a former security guard at Rhode Island Hospital and three former RadioShack employees with a fraud scheme in which hospital patients’ identity information was allegedly used ...more

4/10/08 The federal government has filed a forfeiture complaint against assets traced to Tarek Wehbe, a physician with a practice in Providence and North Providence, alleging that he fraudulently billed Medicare ...more

4/7/08 Ralph A. DiGiacomo, a Warwick-based physician, has paid $50,000 to the United States to settle claims that he failed to adequately account for hydrocodone ...more

4/3/08 A U.S. Marine has been charged with stealing the identity of a fellow Marine who subsequently deployed to Iraq, and then opening accounts in that Marine’s name ...more

March 2008 News Releases

3/14/08 A federal judge has sentenced John P. Perras and David G. Chavez, both of West Warwick, for a fraudulent check scheme in which Chavez obtained account information of Citizens Bank account holders ...more

3/14/08 U.S. Secret Service agents today arrested a former security guard at Rhode Island Hospital and the manager of a RadioShack store in Cranston on identity theft charges ...more

3/11/08 Anthony Mancini, a federally licensed gun dealer, pleaded guilty today to selling firearms at his Cranston shop without proper record keeping ...more

3/7/08 A federal judge today sentenced Stephen Davidow to 156 months in prison for a bank robbery in Pawtucket in December 2006 ...more

3/7/08 Karim Abdullah, who was released from federal prison in 2006 after serving a sentence for street gang racketeering, has pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and trafficking in crack cocaine ...more

3/3/08 A federal judge has fined White Broadman, Inc., a Florida based company, $794,334 for misleading marketing of an unapproved new drug ...more

February 2008 News Releases

2/27/08 Christopher M. Thibodeau and Dennis R. Evans pleaded guilty today to federal bank robbery charges, admitting that they robbed tellers of $37,000 at a Bank Rhode Island branch in Cranston last June ...more

2/22/08 A federal judge today sentenced former Rhode Island House Majority Leader Gerard M. Martineau to 37 months in federal prison ...more

2/15/08 A federal judge has sentenced George Tabora, 45, of Warwick, to eight months in prison, followed by two months home confinement, for posing as a federal officer in an attempt to extort money from a Warwick gas station owner ...more

2/8/08 A federal judge today sentenced Kacey D. Jones, 27, to serve an additional three years in prison for assaulting a guard in May 2006 at the Wyatt Federal Detention Center, Central Falls, where he was detained ...more

2/4/08 Felix Rodriguez, 31, of the Bronx, New York, pleaded guilty today to being a felon in possession of a firearm. Rodriguez admitted that he had a handgun in the waistband of his pants when he was sitting in a parked car in downtown Pawtucket last April ...more

2/1/08 A federal judge today sentenced Richard Hatch, of Newport, to 51 months in prison for evading income taxes ...more

2/1/08 A federal judge today sentenced Neil Stierhoff, 52, of Providence, to 46 months in federal prison for tax evasion. In June 2007, a jury found him guilty of failing to pay taxes on about $1.2 million in income that he earned between 1999 and 2002 ...more

2/1/08 A federal jury in Providence has found Ricardo Mejia, 37, guilty of taking part in the delivery of two kilograms of cocaine outside a fast food restaurant on Broad Street, Providence, in December 2006 ...more

January 2008 News Releases

1/23/08 Cory Johnson, the former president of Mixitforme, a company that sold electronic devices over the Internet and by telephone, pleaded guilty today to fraud and money laundering ...more

1/22/08 United States Attorney Robert Clark Corrente announced today that his office intends to retry the case of U.S. v. Robert Urciuoli and Frances Driscoll, two former hospital officials accused of corruptly employing a state senator to advance the hospital’s agenda ...more

1/2/08 The United States Attorney has charged Byron Parker, of Delray Beach Florida, with selling paraphernalia used to convert anabolic steroids into an injectable form ...more

December 2007 News Releases

12/13/07 The United States Government and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island (BCBSRI) have reached an agreement under which the insurer will pay $20 million to resolve matters related to the government’s ongoing public corruption investigation ...more

12/7/07 ATF agents and Cranston Police today arrested Anthony Mancini, a Cranston gun dealer, charging him with selling firearms without proper record keeping ...more

12/6/07 A federal judge today sentenced Mikael Stepanian to 72 months in prison for stealing supermarket customers’ account data by tampering with PIN-pad terminals ...more

12/6/07 A federal judge today sentenced Tracy Angiolillo, of Pawtucket, to 188 months in federal prison for trading drugs for guns. In February, Angiolillo, considered an armed career criminal, traded crack cocaine and heroin for two guns ...more

12/4/07 A federal judge today sentenced Patrick Clyne to 27 months in months in prison for mail and tax fraud. In August, Clyne admitted that he defrauded the Rhode Island School of Design out of nearly $1,000,000 in a fraudulent billing scheme ...more

November 2007 News Releases

11/30/07 A federal judge today sentenced William Christensen, 61, of Southborough, Massachusetts, to five years in federal prison for soliciting sex with a minor over the Internet and attempting to arrange a meeting with a minor for sex ...more

11/29/07 The U.S. Attorney’s Office and Roger Williams Medical Center have agreed to terminate a Deferred Prosecution Agreement entered into in January 2006 ...more

11/19/07 A federal judge has sentenced Richard Ribeiro, of Cumberland, to eight years in prison for illegally possessing three rifles ...more

11/2/07 Former Rhode Island House Majority Leader Gerard M. Martineau pleaded guilty today to public corruption charges, admitting that he arranged personal business dealings with a pharmacy company and a health insurer, and then steered the outcome of legislation in which those companies were interested ...more

11/2/07 A federal judge today sentenced two New York physicians, one whose license to practice had been revoked, for illegally prescribing anabolic steroids and human Growth Hormone (hGH) ...more

October 2007 News Releases

10/19/07 Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald C. Lockhart was recognized today with an award from the Executive Office of United States Attorneys (EOUSA) for superior performance as an Assistant U.S. Attorney ...more

10/19/07 A federal judge today sentenced Robert Portman, a construction contractor based in North Smithfield, and his wife, Candy Portman, to home confinement and probation for failing to report $266,861 in income over three years ...more

10/18/07 Manuel Coradin, 28, of Providence, has pleaded guilty to federal drug-trafficking charges. Providence Police officers seized about 200 grams of crack cocaine, some powder cocaine, and $25,000 in cash from Coradin’s apartment on Marshall Street in July 2005 ...more

10/16/07 A federal grand jury in Providence has charged the Southern Union Company, the Texas-based former owner of the New England Gas Company, with illegally storing mercury at a Pawtucket site and with failing to report mercury spillage ...more

10/16/07 The United States Attorney's Office is conducting a review of hotels in Rhode Island to determine whether they are in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ...more

10/15/07 Oluwabusayo Ogundare, 21, most recently of Central Falls, pleaded guilty today to being a felon in possession of a firearm and possessing crack cocaine ...more

10/11/07 A federal judge today sentenced John Riccio, 63, of North Kingstown, to three months imprisonment for making a false statement on a security questionnaire that he submitted as part of his employment as baggage screener at T.F. Green Airport ...more

10/11/07 A federal grand jury has charged Michael DiTomasso, 34, with failing to register as a sex offender after moving from Milford, Massachusetts, to Woonsocket, Rhode Island, in March ...more

10/9/07 The United States government has charged former House Majority Leader Gerard M. Martineau with honest services mail fraud for engineering personal business dealings with a pharmacy company and a health insurer ...more

10/1/07 A federal judge has sentenced Ronald Hill, 35, of Providence to 188 months in federal prison for trafficking in crack cocaine. On two occasions last year, Hill sold crack cocaine in Providence ...more

September 2007 News Releases

9/24/07 A federal grand jury in Rhode Island has charged a Chinese corporation, Genescience Pharmaceutical Company, its CEO, Lei Jin, and three other men with international smuggling of Human Growth Hormone ...more. Click here for remarks by U. S. Attorney Robert Corrente

9/11/07 George Tabora, 45, of Warwick, pleaded guilty today to posing as a federal officer in an attempt to extort money from a Warwick gas station owner by falsely linking him to Islamic terrorists ...more

9/7/07 A federal judge today sentenced two men to prison for tampering with supermarket PIN-pad terminals and stealing customers’ charge card and debit card account data ...more

August 2007 News Releases

8/31/07 A federal judge today sentenced Robert Viruet, 38, of Pawtucket, to a total of 181 months in federal prison for trafficking in crack cocaine and having a gun ...more

8/30/07 A federal judge today sentenced Juan Cuthbert, 22, of Providence, to 77 months in federal prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm ...more

8/30/07 William Christensen, 61, of Southborough, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty today to soliciting sex with a minor over the Internet and attempting to arrange a meeting for sex with a minor ...more

8/10/07 A federal judge today sentenced two woman to federal prison for a pair of unrelated bank robberies – one of them a failed attempt to rob a bank at a drive-in window after arriving in a hired limousine ...more

8/7/07 Patrick Clyne, of Providence, pleaded guilty today to mail and tax fraud charges, admitting that he defrauded the Rhode Island School of Design out of nearly $1,000,000 in a fraudulent billing scheme ...more

July 2007 News Releases

7/30/07 A federal judge has sentenced Ricardo Pierre, of Cranston, to 188 months in prison for trafficking in crack and powder cocaine ...more

7/26/07 A federal judge today sentenced Samuel Sacco, of Barrington, to 33 months in federal prison for stealing more than $700,000 from his employer, Spectra Systems Corporation ...more

7/24/07 A federal jury has found Richard Ribeiro, of Cumberland, guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm for having three rifles in his house ...more

7/20/07 A federal judge today sentenced Ricky E. Silva, of North Providence, to five years in federal prison - the statutory maximum - for going to Taunton, Massachusetts, to try to extort money from two men. ...more

7/20/07 Daniel McGlone, of New Jersey, pleaded guilty today to a conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids and human growth hormone (HGH) ...more

7/17/07 Robert Portman, a construction contractor based in North Smithfield, and his wife, Candy Portman, have pleaded guilty to tax evasion, admitting that they failed to report $266,861 in income over three years ...more

7/13/07 Mikael Stepanian, of California, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy and identity theft for stealing credit and debit card account information through altered supermarket PIN-pad terminals ...more

7/2/07 William H. Wynne, a physical therapist who had offices in East Providence and Warwick, has paid $100,000 to the United States to settle potential claims that he over billed and falsely billed Medicare for physical therapy treatments ...more

 

back to top

 

The following press releases were issued by the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Rhode Island.

Copies of indictments and other publicly available court documents can be obtained from the United States District Court in Providence at http://www.rid.uscourts.gov/.

Press releases remain on this site for four months from the time of posting and then are automatically removed. If you are seeking a press release issued longer than four months ago contact the Public Affairs Officer directly.

An indictment or information is an accusation.
A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.


All press inquiries should be made to
Thomas Connell
Public Affairs Officer
(401) 709.5032
thomas.connell@usdoj.gov