Press Releases

A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned an indictment yesterday charging a Hong Kong man for his role in a conspiracy to file false and deceptive investment adviser forms with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for at least 10 shell business entities that he and co-conspirators created.

Douglas Wayne Cornett of Spotsylvania County, Virginia, was sentenced to life in prison in federal court yesterday after he pleaded guilty to two federal hate crime charges, each involving an attempt to kill, and to discharging a firearm during a federal crime of violence.

Zephyr Aviation LLC, located in Mineral, Virginia, and its owners Frederick Credno Jr. and Frederick W. Credno III have agreed to pay $3,901,000 to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by submitting inflated invoices for aviation contracts to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Isaiah McCoy, 37, of Honolulu, Hawaii, was sentenced yesterday to life in prison after a jury found McCoy guilty in April of four counts of sex trafficking three adults and one minor, two counts of obstructing a sex trafficking investigation, seven counts of interstate and foreign travel or transportation in aid of racketeering enterprises, and one count of interstate travel for prostitution purposes. Additionally, the court ordered McCoy to pay the victims $1,017,241.00 in restitution.

The Justice Department today announced five guilty pleas and more than $15 million in civil forfeiture actions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) remote information technology (IT) work and virtual currency heist schemes. 

A naturalized U.S. citizen from Bosnia and Herzegovina pleaded guilty on Nov. 10 to criminal charges related to her lying about her prior criminal conduct to obtain U.S. citizenship.

An Oklahoma man was sentenced yesterday to 60 months in prison and ordered to pay over $1 million in forfeiture and over $170,000 in restitution for his leading role in a cryptocurrency investment fraud conspiracy.

Alexander Villatoro Moreno, also known as “Quichi,” 53, made his first appearance in federal court today after the Mexican government recently apprehended and extradited him to the United States. Villatoro Moreno faces four charges, including conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, conspiracy to commit forced labor, conspiracy to obstruct proceedings before agencies, and one count of forced labor for conduct alleged to have occurred between September 2015 and December 2017.   

Marek Cherkaoui, 21, of Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, was arrested today on cyberstalking offenses in connection with a Nihilistic Violent Extremist (NVE) network known as 764.

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department announced today that it filed legal action against Governor Gavin Newsom and Secretary of State Shirley Weber for the State of California’s newly adopted redistricting plan enacted with the passage of Proposition 50. The suit alleges that the plan mandates racially gerrymandered congressional districts in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Two men from Texas and Florida were sentenced today to four years and two years in prison, respectively, for their roles as leaders of a marketing company that solicited Medicare beneficiaries for medically unnecessary genetic testing.