Week In Review –hammond

              Hammond, Indiana — The United States Attorney’s Office announced the following activity in Federal Court:

DISPOSITIONS

• Kevin J. Babich, 38, of Valparaiso, Indiana was sentenced to 18 months’ probation, with 8 months of periodic imprisonment after pleading guilty to wire and mail fraud.  This case was the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division.  This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Randall Stewart.

• Dameyon Bean, 37, of Speedway, Indiana was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment in the BOP after pleading guilty to theft of government funds (he obtained fraudulent unemployment funds). He was ordered to pay $53,000 in restitution.  This case was the result of an investigation by the United States Department of Labor and United States Postal Inspection Service.  This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Randall Stewart.

• Jeremy L. Culver, 37, of Lafayette, Indiana was sentenced to 360 months imprisonment followed by 20 years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offenses of production and distribution of child pornography.  According to documents filed in this case, on or about November 8, 2011, Jeremy Culver caused an 11 year-old boy, referred to throughout the proceedings as John Doe, to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct.  Culver was also convicted of distributing child pornography in interstate commerce on or about March 18, 2010.  This case was the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jill R. Koster.

• Michael L. Schnelle, 27, of Lafayette, Indiana was sentenced to 24 months home detention after pleading guilty to the felony offense of knowingly selling firearms to a person who was under felony indictment.  This case was the result of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.  This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jacqueline Jacobs.

• Gopal Shah, 64, of Orland Hills, Illinois was sentenced to 10 months incarceration and 1 year of supervision after pleading guilty to conspiracy to defraud the Medicare and Medicaid programs through the solicitation of physicians to send their Medicare and Medicaid patients to his business in exchange for the payment of kickbacks.  This case was the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Diane Berkowitz.