CEO Of Startup Company Pleads Guilty To Stealing Over $1.5 Million From His Company – July 8, 2020
Jeffrey Fildey, founder and former CEO of San Diego startup GoFormz Inc. pleaded guilty today to stealing more than $1,500,000 from his own company for his personal benefit. According to public records, GoFormz Inc., founded in 2012, is a San Diego company that provides online mobile forms and reporting products.
Beginning on or before September 30, 2015 and continuing through August 12, 2017, Fildey used various methods to defraud GoFormz. His deceptive ways included obtaining loans, supposedly on the company’s behalf, but then taking the funds for himself, putting personal expenditures on the GoFormz credit cards which the company then paid for, obtaining cash advances for himself on GoFormz credit cards, and simply stealing money directly from the company’s bank account.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/ceo-san-diego-startup-bilked-over-1500000-his-company
Former Labor Union President Sentenced For Embezzlement Of $275,000+ Of Union Funds – July 8, 2020
Keith Ludlum served as President of Local 1208, a Bladenboro, NC chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (“UFCW”).
In 2014, the UFCW initiated an audit of Local 1208 after receiving complaints from union members regarding the theft and misuse of union funds by Ludlum and then-Secretary / Treasurer Terry Slaughter. A subsequent criminal investigation revealed that between from January 2012 through March 2015, Ludlum embezzled approximately $136,202.29 from the union by receiving more than 20 unauthorized checks and making 420 unauthorized purchases with his union debit card. The purchases included vacations, hunting supplies, firearms, ATVs, childcare, medical appointments, ATM withdrawals, personal car insurance, restaurants, and rental cars. Ludlum made at least 150 unauthorized check payments totaling $76,998.76 to family, friends and other union members. During the same period, Slaughter embezzled $62,315.38, which included checks for unauthorized salary and travel reimbursement and 161 charges to a Local 1208 debit card.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ednc/pr/former-labor-union-president-sentenced-embezzlement-union-assets
Former NJ Township Business Administrator Charged With Corruption, Fraud, And Tax Charges – July 8, 2020
Willis Edwards was charged with 14 counts of wire fraud, two counts of bribery in connection with the business of a federally funded local government, two counts of theft from a federally funded local government, two counts of mail fraud, two counts of false statements concerning a mortgage, one count of bribery in connection with the business of a federally funded local government and organization, one count of theft from a federally funded local government and organization, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud, one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and the IRS, and one count of filing a false tax return.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/former-orange-acting-business-administrator-indicted-corruption-fraud-and-tax-charges
Former Executive Director & Bookkeeper Of Domestic Violence Shelter Charged With Theft Of Funds – July 8, 2020
The former executive director and bookkeeper of My Sister’s House, a domestic violence shelter were arrested on charges contained in an indictment alleging that the two spent thousands of dollars intended for the operation of the shelter on personal expenses for themselves, including food, a trip to Disney World and Universal Studios for their daughters, and thousands of dollars in purchases from Avon, Thirty-One and iTunes.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdoh/pr/former-execs-washington-court-house-dv-shelter-charged
Former Comptroller Of Catholic Diocese Pleads Guilty To Embezzlement Of $229,000 Over 9 Years – July, 7, 2020
From 2004 through 2016, David Franklin caused payroll taxes to be withheld from employee paychecks for the Diocese of Steubenville and the Office of Social Ministry, but did not pay the withheld funds over to the Internal Revenue Service. From 2013 through 2016, Franklin did the same thing to employee paychecks for the Mount Calvary Cemetery Association. As a result, the Diocesan Entities had to pay and did pay the IRS $2,778,462.68 in withheld payroll taxes and the employer portion of the employment taxes that Franklin had caused not to be paid over.
Franklin also embezzled $299,500 from the Diocesan Entities by preparing fraudulent checks to be issued to himself.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdoh/pr/former-comptroller-catholic-diocese-steubenville-pleads-guilty-tax-crimes-embezzlement
Former Air Force Employee Facing Federal Indictment For Stealing More Than $774,000 in Government Funds – July 7, 2020
From January 2003 to February 2018, Eddie Johnson was a civilian Air Force employee, most recently as a travel coordinator in the Secretary of the Air Force, Office of Legislative Liaison, where he planned congressional travel and reviewed and approved accounting packages submitted by trip escorts. From March 2014 through September 2017, Johnson used his government-issued travel credit card to obtain more than $1.1 million in cash advances, at least $774,000 of which he diverted to his own personal use.
Johnson frequently deposited the stolen funds into a non-interest bearing account opened in his name at a bank branch in the Pentagon. After depositing the stolen funds, Johnson allegedly wrote checks to himself, which he deposited into his personal bank accounts, as well as expended the money for his personal use.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/pr/former-air-force-employee-facing-federal-indictment-stealing-more-774000-government-funds
Former Soldier / Defense Contractor Admit To Retention Of Top Secret Classified Information – July 6, 2020
In July 2019, Elizabeth Jo Shirley took her six-year-old daughter to Mexico with the intent to make contact with representatives of the Government of Russia to request resettlement in a country that would not extradite her to the United States. Shirley took with her to Mexico national defense information, which she had unlawfully retained. While in Mexico, Shirley prepared a written message to Russian Government officials, referencing “an urgent need” to have “items shipped from the USA related to [her] life’s work before they are seized and destroyed.”
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/west-virginia-woman-admits-willful-retention-top-secret-national-defense-information-and
Pharmaceutical Company Executive Sentenced To Prison For Role In $15 Million International Insider Trading Scheme – July 6, 2020
Telemaque Lavidas an entrepreneur and pharmaceutical company executive, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for his role in an international insider trading scheme. Lavidas was convicted after trial in January 2020 of insider trading offenses for stealing inside information that he obtained from his father, a member of the board of directors of a pharmaceutical company, and illegally tipping his close friend and co-defendant Georgios Nikas with that inside information.
Lavidas was the pipeline for material nonpublic information he illegally relayed from his father to his friend, a scheme that earned its participants more than $15 million in illicit profits.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/entrepreneur-and-pharmaceutical-company-executive-sentenced-role-international-insider
American Airlines Mechanic Arraigned On Indictment Charging Cocaine Importation Conspiracy – July 6, 2020
Shortly after an American Airlines (AA) flight arrived at JFK from Montego Bay, Jamaica, a routine search by CBP officers who are members of the JFK Anti-Terrorism Contraband Enforcement Team revealed approximately 25 pounds of cocaine bricks concealed behind an insulation blanket in an external mechanical compartment beneath the aircraft. CBP officers began visual surveillance of the aircraft from a distance. Shortly before the aircraft was scheduled to depart, Paul Belloisi (AA Mechanic) was observed approaching the aircraft and entering the compartment where the cocaine had been hidden. The officers confronted Belloisi after he exited the compartment and observed evidence that Belloisi had handled the area where the cocaine bricks were discovered. Belloisi also had carried an empty tool bag to the aircraft and had cutouts in the lining of his jacket, which together were sufficiently large to hold the bricks of cocaine that had been in the compartment.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/american-airlines-mechanic-arraigned-indictment-charging-cocaine-importation-conspiracy
Former U.S. Postal Employee Sentenced To Prison For $11.7 Bribery Scheme – July 1, 2020
From at least 2012, Juan Caudillo, worked as a bulk mail clerk at a post office. He took bribes in exchange for approving unpaid or underpaid bulk mail shipments as fully paid. In one scheme, the owner of Premier Mailing, Inc., paid Caudillo bribes in return for Caudillo falsely listing certain mailings as prepaid, resulting in no postage being paid for them. In a separate scheme, Caudillo accepted bribes to allow another business mailer to underreport information, resulting in reduced payment to the Postal Service for mailings.
Caudillo, who retired from the U.S. Postal Service last year, also agreed to surrender his pension as restitution, as well as the full balance – approximately $140,000 – of his Thrift Savings Plan, a 401(k)-type account available to federal employees.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/retired-postal-worker-sentenced-over-8-years-prison-bribery-scheme-involving-bulk-mail
Four City Council Members And Attorney Charged In Bribery And Extortion Scheme – June 30, 2020
Four sitting Toledo City Council members and one local attorney were charged in a criminal complaint their participation in a bribery and extortion scheme that encouraged soliciting and/or accepting cash, checks, money orders, or other things of value from local business owners in exchange for their votes on City Council.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndoh/pr/five-charged-toledo-city-council-bribery-and-extortion-scheme
Chinese Citizen Convicted Of Economic Espionage, Theft Of Trade Secrets, And Conspiracy – June 26, 2020
From 2010 to 2015, Hao Zhang of China conspired to and did steal trade secrets from two companies (Avago & Skywork). In 2006, Zhang and his co-conspirators started a business in China to compete with Avago and Skyworks. One of Zhang’s co-conspirators, Wei Pang, started working at Avago at the same time. Zhang and Pang illicitly shared trade secrets with each other and with co-conspirators in China while they worked for the U.S. companies. Zhang and Pang then connected their venture to Tianjin University (TJU) in China, an instrumentality of the Chinese government. By 2009, they left their work in the United States to relocate to China, following a plan laid out by TJU officials to form another company, Novana, in the Cayman Islands. Along the way, Zhang obtained patents in his own name using trade secret information he knew was stolen from Avago. Zhang also worked with stolen trade secrets in a lab he founded at TJU while developing his new FBAR business.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/chinese-citizen-convicted-economic-espionage-theft-trade-secrets-and-conspiracy
Three Service Members Plead Guilty In $65 Million Health Care Fraud Scheme – June 24, 2020
Three former U.S. service members pleaded guilty in federal court, admitting their roles in a fraud scheme that bilked the military healthcare program known as TRICARE out of more than $65 million. Kyle Adams, Daniel Castro and Jeremy Syto are scheduled to be sentenced September 11, 2020. At the same time, the alleged ringleaders of this scheme were charged with additional crimes. Jimmy and Ashley Collins, a civilian married couple living in Cleveland, Tennessee, were originally charged in January 2018. They were charged on June 9, 2020 with additional crimes related to their operation of the scheme that cheated the health care program that covers United States military service members, retirees, and their dependents.
https://www.dodig.mil/Criminal-Investigations/Article/2231684/three-defendants-plead-guilty-in-65-million-health-care-fraud-additional-charge/
U.S. Army Soldier Charged With Terrorism Offenses For Planning Deadly Ambush On Service Members In His Unit – June 22, 2020
Ethan Melzer of Louisville, Kentucky was charged for allegedly planning an attack on his U.S. Army unit by sending sensitive details about the unit – including information about its location, movements, and security – to members of an extremist organization named Order of the Nine Angles (O9A), an occult-based neo-Nazi and white supremacist group. Melzer is charged with conspiring and attempting to murder U.S. nationals, conspiring and attempting to murder military service members, providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists, and conspiring to murder and maim in a foreign country. The FBI and the U.S. Army thwarted Melzer’s plot in late-May 2020, and the FBI arrested Melzer on June 10, 2020.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-army-soldier-charged-terrorism-offenses-planning-deadly-ambush-service-members-his-unit
South African Bank Corruption Scandal Involving Chairman / Senior Executives – June 17, 2020
4 people have been arrested by police investigating one of South Africa’s most notorious corruption scandals, the looting and collapse of VBS Mutual Bank.
VBS, which held the savings of many disadvantaged people and local municipalities, collapsed with more than £100m in debts in 2018. Much of the money had been siphoned into private bank accounts and some spent on property or luxury cars, investigators found.
Those involved in the scandal include the bank’s former chairman, other senior executives and an auditor from the accounting firm KPMG. The former partner implicated in the VBS scandal resigned from KPMG before an internal disciplinary hearing. He has denied wrongdoing.
https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/17/south-african-police-make-arrests-vbs-bank-scandal-notorious-corruption?