Russian National Pleads Guilty For Conspiracy To Introduce Malware Into A Company’s Computer Network With Help Of Employee – March 18, 2021
Egor Kriuchkov, a citizen of Russia, was charged in a complaint with one count of conspiracy to intentionally cause damage to a protected computer. He was arrested on Aug. 22, 2020, in Los Angeles.
According to the complaint and statements made in court, from about July 15, 2020 to about Aug. 22, 2020, Kriuchkov conspired with associates to recruit an employee of a company to introduce malware designed to damage or do other unwanted actions on a computer system / network. The malware would supposedly provide Kriuchkov and his co-conspirators with access to the company’s system. After the malware was introduced, Kriuchkov and his co-conspirators would extract data from the network and then threaten to make the information public, unless the company paid their ransom demand.
Kriuchkov entered the United States using his Russian passport and a tourist visa. He contacted and met with the employee numerous times to discuss the conspiracy. Kriuchkov promised to pay the employee $1 million after the malware was introduced. In furtherance of the conspiracy, Kriuchkov provided the employee with a burner phone, and instructed him to leave the burner phone in airplane mode until after the money was transferred.
IT Contractor Sentenced To Prison For Deleting 1,200 Of The Company’s Microsoft User Accounts – March 22, 2021
According to court documents, Deepanshu Kher was employed by an information technology consulting firm from 2017 through May 2018. In 2017, the consulting firm was hired by the Carlsbad Company to assist with its migration to a Microsoft Office 365 (MS O365) environment. In response, the consulting firm sent its employee, Kher, to the company’s Carlsbad headquarters to assist with the migration.
The company was dissatisfied with Kher’s work and relayed their dissatisfaction to the consulting firm soon after Kher’s arrival. In January 2018, the consulting firm pulled Kher from the company’s headquarters. A few months later, on May 4, 2018, the firm fired Kher, and a month after that, in June 2018, Kher returned to Delhi, India.
On August 8, 2018, two months after his return to India, Kher hacked into the Carlsbad Company’s server and deleted over 1,200 of its 1,500 MS O365 user accounts. The attack affected the bulk of the company’s employees and completely shut down the company for two days.
As the company’s Vice President of Information Technology (IT) explained, the impact was felt inside and outside the company. Employees’ accounts were deleted – they could not access their email, their contacts lists, their meeting calendars, their documents, corporate directories, video and audio conferences, and Virtual Teams environment necessary for them to perform their jobs. Outside the company, customers, vendors and consumers were unable to reach company employees (and the employees were unable to reach them). No one could inform these buyers what was going on or when the company would be operational again.
Unfortunately, even after those two days, the problems remained. Employees were not receiving meeting invites or cancellations, employees’ contacts lists could not be completely rebuilt, and affected employees could no longer access folders to which they previously had access. The Carlsbad Company repeatedly handled multitudes of IT problems for three months. The Vice President of IT closed by saying, “in my 30-plus years as an IT professional, I have never been a part of a more difficult and trying work situation.”
Former Casino Employee Sentenced To Prison For Embezzling $18,000+ – March 19, 2021
From March 2016 through May 2016, on three separate occasions, Darren Nickey embezzled over $1,000 at a time from cash recyclers in the Mississippi Silver Star Casino. Because he worked as a cashier in the retail store on the premises, Nickey had access to the cash recycler to stock his cash register. He also made use of colleagues’ log-in passwords to hide the cash thefts. Further investigation revealed that Nickey had repeated the thefts to total $18,340 in over 40 withdrawals.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdms/pr/former-casino-employee-sentenced-three-years-federal-prison
Former Employee Of Federal Reserve Board Pleads Guilty To Theft Of Government Property Prior To Quitting Job – March 19, 2021
According to his guilty plea, in 2019, the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) notified Venkatesh Rao that it considered his work performance to be unsatisfactory and Rao made a decision to voluntarily separate from the Board.
Over the course of five weekend days in November 2019, Rao entered the FRB building in Washington, D.C. approximately 16 times and printed more than 50 restricted government documents from his workstation and avoided FRB restrictions on the emailing and electronic copying of restricted materials. Rao removed the restricted documents, which contained proprietary information used by the FRB to conduct bank stress tests, from the FRB building and stored the materials at his home.
CareCentrix (CC) Files Corporate Trade Secrets Suit Against Signify Health For Hiring CC Executive While He Was Still Employed At CC – March 17, 2021
CareCentrix claims that Signify’s leadership team “targeted, recruited, and hired former CareCentrix executive Marcus Lanznar in a covert scheme that succeeded in providing access to CareCentrix’s confidential information and trade secrets” and that Lanznar fed information to Signify by working covertly with them while still employed at CareCentrix.
Lanznar, an executive working on CareCentrix’s post-acute care program, funneled trade secrets on a number of the company’s business lines while failing to disclose his dual employment, CareCentrix alleges.
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/carecentrix-files-corporate-espionage-suit-against-signify-health-former-exec
Former State Department Employee And Wife Sentenced To Prison For Trafficking In Counterfeit Goods From U.S. Embassy – March 18, 2021
Gene Thompson (Former U.S. Department of State Employee) and his spouse Becky Zhang, were sentenced for their roles in a conspiracy to traffic hundreds of thousands of dollars in counterfeit goods through e-commerce accounts operated from State Department computers at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Thompson was an Information Programs Officer employed by the Department of State at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, Republic of Korea, a position that required him to maintain a security clearance.
Zhang resided with him in Seoul. Between September 2017 and December 2019, Thompson Jr. and Zhang sold counterfeit goods on a variety of e-commerce platforms. Thompson Jr. used his State Department computer at the embassy to create numerous e-commerce accounts, including additional accounts under aliases to continue the conspiracy and avoid detection after several e-commerce platforms suspended the couple’s other accounts for fraudulent activity. Zhang took primary responsibility for operating the accounts, communicating with customers, and procuring merchandise to be stored in the District of Oregon. Thompson Jr. and Zhang also directed a co-conspirator in the District of Oregon to ship items to purchasers across the United States.
Two Former Bank Employees Plead Guilty To $1 Million+ Fraudulent Loan Scheme And Bank Bribery – March 18, 2021
Herode Chancy and Michael Albarella were employed as a managers at a Manhattan branch of a national bank.
From about March 2019 up to March 2020, Chancy and Adedayo Ilori conspired to fraudulently obtain business loans from a third-party commercial lender with the intent not to repay the loans. Chancy and Ilori together submitted eight fraudulent business loan applications for a total of $1,025,000 in business loans.
The business loan applications submitted by Chancy and Ilori included doctored bank statements and listed the identities of other persons as the loan applicants, including stolen identities. Chancy and Ilori also opened bank accounts using the identities of those other persons in order to receive the loan payments from the third-party commercial lender. Chancy and Ilori subsequently conspired with Albarella, another bank manager to open a bank account using a stolen identity to launder approximately $200,000 of the expected proceeds of the loan scheme. Albarella opened the bank account using the stolen identity provided by Chancy and Ilori, and Albarella accepted a $10,000 bribe to open the bank account.
Former Rental Car Company Manager Sentenced To Prison For Stealing $1.4 Million+ From Employer – March 17, 2021
In his role as a Risk Manager with a Florida-based branch of Enterprise Holdings (EHI), Inc., David Kramer would request checks from the accounts payable team for various expenditures related to EHI’s business functions.
Beginning in 2009, Kramer began requesting checks for fictitious and fraudulent expenses. Kramer, to support his check requests, would create false and fraudulent requests for payment from various entities in the south Florida area including the sheriff’s offices, the Florida Department of Transportation and judicial courts among others.
Once Kramer received the check, he would deposit the money into his personal bank accounts. Kramer then used the fraudulently obtained funds for personal purchases and expenses including luxury vacations, expensive watches and jewelry, and designer clothing. Kramer submitted at least 694 false and fraudulent check requests resulting in an actual loss to EHI. of $1,457,247.82.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edmo/pr/judge-sentences-rental-car-company-manager-scheming-defraud-his-employer
Former Bank Teller Sentenced To Prison For Stealing $124,000 From Wells Fargo Bank Customers – March 16, 2021
Tiara Langston admitted to participating in a scheme to steal from Wells Fargo’s customers while she was employed at the bank as a teller during 2017.
Langston used Wells Fargo’s systems to check the account balances of customers without customers’ knowledge. Langston would then share with a confederate the customer’s name and account balance. The confederate then entered the bank and withdrew funds from the customer’s account by presenting a forged signature for the customer. The conspirators used this scheme to steal $124,000 in cash and an $80,000 cashier’s check from two of the bank’s customers. Wells Fargo was able to detect the theft and stop payment of the $80,000 cashier’s check, thus incurring total losses on behalf of its customers in the amount of the $124,000 in cash that Langston and others stole.
Former Australian Government Contractor Accessed Government IT System 260 Times In A Year After Separating From Organization – March 12, 2021
An ex-contractor was able to access a key Victorian government IT system 260 times in the year after leaving the service provider for which they worked, exposing failings in employee off-boarding and access management, the state’s information commissioner has found.
Former Employee Of Bank Anti Fraud Team Sentenced To Prison For Fraud Scheme – February 17, 2021
A member of a bank’s anti-fraud team has been jailed for selling customers’ details in a £90,000 scam. Bilal Abbas, who worked for Santander, helped con-men buy luxury goods using stolen account details. The transactions would be flagged as fraudulent and cancelled several days later leaving businesses “out of pocket”. Abbas and two others, were jailed for at least two years. The court heard the bank employee used his position to secure the card details of customers while verifying their accounts. He then sold that information to Umair Memon, who used it to purchase high value goods by telephone under a fake name. Jordan Hamilton-Thomas would then attend the stores in person, posing as Memon’s son to collect the goods
https://www-bbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-england-tyne-56096251
Apple Sues Former MacBook Employee For Leaking To The Press – March 11, 2021
Apple says a former product design employee stole information about hardware products, unannounced features and future plans and leaked them to a journalist, breaking the company’s nondisclosure policies and trade secrets laws.
In the the lawsuit, Apple outlined a working relationship between a former employee, Simon Lancaster, and an unnamed journalist. Apple alleges Lancaster used his access at the company to download confidential information and attend meetings specifically to forward to this media contact. Apple said Lancaster attended one of his last meetings at the company, about “Project X” as it’s called in the filing, after submitting his resignation despite being instructed by others not to attend.
3 Former County Sheriff’s Office Deputies Sentenced To Prison For Their Roles Inn Narcotics Conspiracies And Visa Fraud – March 15, 2021
3 former deputies with the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office: Carolyn Franklin, Allan Hunter, and Nathaniel Shazier were sentenced to multi-year sentences in federal prison for using their positions as law enforcement officers to conspire with who they believed to be members of a Mexican drug cartel. In addition, Franklin and Hunter were sentenced on federal charges of conspiring to obtain fraudulent U-visas for non-immigrants in exchange for bribes.
Evidence presented to the Court showed that, during an undercover operation conducted by the FBI between December 2018 and March 2019, Franklin, Hunter, and Shazier agreed to help protect trucks containing what they believed were drug proceeds derived from narcotics distribution by members of a Mexican drug cartel drug ring. The members were actually undercover FBI agents. Additionally, the three agreed to help protect trucks containing kilogram quantities of methamphetamine and cocaine in the future.
Evidence presented in court also showed that, between February 2018 and March 2019, in exchange for bribes, Franklin and Hunter created fraudulent documents for non-immigrants. Specifically, the documents were designed to help the immigrants achieve U non-immigrant status, which, by statute, is reserved for victims of certain crimes who have suffered mental or physical abuse and are helpful to law enforcement in the investigation or prosecution of criminal activity.
Former Employee Sentenced To Prison For Stealing And Selling Employer’s Confidential Information – March 11, 2021
Timothy Young was employed at a data analytics and risk assessment firm based in New Jersey. The company serves customers worldwide, including entities providing insurance and financial services as well as government entities. The company maintains a network that houses, among other things, significant amounts of personally identifiable information.
Without the firm’s approval, Young obtained confidential, non-public information that belonged to the firm. The information included names, logon names, passwords, email addresses, and telephone numbers for some of the company’s clients. Young then attempted to sell the information.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/nebraska-man-sentenced-21-months-prison-stealing-and-selling-employer-s-confidential
Former Accounting Coordinator For Non-Profit Organization Pleads Guilty To Embezzling $321,000+ – March 11, 2021
Danielle Strother-Rush was an Accounting Coordinator for the Eastern Minority Supplier Development Council, which is a nonprofit organization that was created to increase business opportunities for minority-owned businesses.
From approximately August 2014 until August 2016, Strother-Rush embezzled $321,255.88 in various ways. The primary way in which she embezzled funds was by writing checks to herself from the operating accounts and forging her supervisor’s signature on the checks. She also made unauthorized ATM withdrawals including several at the Rivers Casino. Lastly, she accessed the payroll bank account online and made unauthorized electronic checks payable to herself.
Former Employee Pleads Guilty To Embezzling $43,000+ From Employer – March 11, 2021
From April 2017 until October 2017, Larita Jenkins embezzled $43,161.03 from her employer. Jenkins embezzled the funds by accessing the company’s credit card software numerous times and issuing fraudulent refunds, causing company funds to be issued to both her and her husband’s bank accounts.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdpa/pr/mckeesport-woman-pleads-guilty-embezzling-more-43k
Former Employee Of Veterans Affairs Medical Center Charged With Stealing $8.2 Million+ Worth Of HIV Medication – March 10, 2021
A former pharmacy technician was arrested for stealing prescription HIV medications from the pharmacy of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in East Orange, New Jersey.
Lisa Hoffman’s responsibilities at the VAMC included ordering the necessary drugs and supplies for the outpatient pharmacy, including determining when to place orders and for what products, as well as regularly maintaining inventory levels of needed drugs and supplies. From at least August 2017 through November 2019, Hoffman used her position to steal prescription HIV medication from the VAMC. She placed large orders for HIV medication, purportedly on behalf of VAMC, and then stole the medication after it was delivered. VAMC surveillance footage captured Hoffman regularly taking dozens of bottles of HIV medications from the shelves of the outpatient pharmacy, placing them in a white mail bin, and then transferring the medications from the mail bin to her bag and exiting with the stolen medication. Hoffman stole approximately $8.2 million worth of the VAMC’s HIV medication.
Once Hoffman had the medication, Hoffman met her associate, Wagner Checonolasco at her residence, so that she could sell the stolen HIV medication to Checonolasco for cash. After obtaining the stolen HIV medication, Checonolasco resold it to others.
Former Casino Supervisor Pleads Guilty To Embezzling $315,000+ – March 9, 2021
According to the defendant’s guilty plea and documents filed with the court, in 2008, Jennifer Boutto began working as a reservationist at the Fortune Bay Resort Casino, which is owned and operated by the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa. Boutto later received a promotion to Front Desk Supervisor, a position that allowed her to issue cash refunds without direct supervision.
Between January 2013 and October 2019, Boutto used her position at Fortune Bay to steal money by issuing false cash refunds against the invoices of previous Fortune Bay customers. Boutto would then access the Fortune Bay vault and retrieve the falsely refunded amount. In total, Boutto executed the scheme 2,994 times and stole $315,739.87.
Two Former SunTrust Bank Employees Sentenced To Prison For Stealing $83,000 From Elderly Military Window – March 9, 2021
According to the government’s evidence, during the summer of 2018, Rashad Liverpool and Robert Tillery each frequently visited the victim, a client of SunTrust Bank, after normal business hours and against bank policy.
They identified funds that the widow held at Bank of America and took advantage of her diminished capacity in order to move those funds into accounts that they controlled. Liverpool moved $51,900 into a joint account that he created in his and the victim’s name at Capital One Bank. He used all of the funds for his own benefit, including two trips to California and one trip to Miami. During the trip to Miami, Liverpool used the victim’s funds to stay at a beachfront hotel, rent a red Ford Mustang, and purchase items from a mini bar. Liverpool also made ATM withdrawals totaling $3,200 from the victim’s account while she was hospitalized.
Tillery withdrew $3,000 in cash from one of the victim’s accounts and wrote himself a check for $25,700 from another. He used these funds to make purchases at various outlet stores and finance a move to Chicago. The scheme ended when the victim was hospitalized and a newly appointed attorney-in-fact discovered that the funds were missing.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/two-former-suntrust-bank-employees-sentenced-ordered-pay-83800
Amtrak Employee Charged With Stealing And Selling $50,000+ Worth of Chainsaws And Chainsaw Parts – March 9, 2021
Jose Rodriguez has been an Amtrak employee since October 2007, most recently as a senior engineer and repairman, based out of an Amtrak facility in North Brunswick, New Jersey.
Between August 2016 and July 2020, Rodriguez obtained 77 chainsaws, 103 bars, and 163 chains from Amtrak, the total value of which was over $50,000. Rodriguez used an online auction service to sell most of the Amtrak chainsaws and parts to purchasers throughout the United States. Rodriguez also directly contacted one purchaser on multiple occasions offering to sell chainsaws and parts the day before or the same day that Rodriguez picked up chainsaws and parts from Amtrak. Agents recovered several chainsaws that Rodriguez sold, which had serial numbers matching Amtrak’s chainsaws. One of those chainsaws had previously been reported stolen by Amtrak.
6 Alabama School Officials Charged With Fraud, Conspiracy In $7 Million Virtual Schools Scheme – February 23, 2021
Federal prosecutors say officials in Athens City Schools and Limestone County Schools, including two former superintendents, conspired to get more state funding by pretending to enroll full-time private students into the systems’ virtual schools. The two school districts were improperly paid around $7 million in state education funding for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 school years, according to federal officials.
Those named in the indictment received payments as a result of their participation, according to prosecutors. Private school officials involved are not alleged to have profited individually, though their schools and students did receive payments and access to educational equipment. Children at private schools who then were unknowingly enrolled in the public virtual schools as part of the scheme were unaware of the fraud.
https://www.al.com/news/2021/02/6-alabama-school-officials-charged-with-fraud-conspiracy.html
Former National President Of Children’s Blanket Charity Sentenced To Prison For Stealing $400,000+ From Organization – March 5, 2021
The former national president of Project Linus, Carol Babbitt, was sentenced to more than 2 years in prison for stealing money from the not-for-profit organization. Project Linus provides handmade blankets for children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or in need.
Babbitt served as the organization’s national president, from 2000 to 2016. In that capacity, she controlled the charity’s operations, including its bank accounts. In 2010, Babbitt began using Project Linus credit cards to pay for personal expenses, including clothing, electronics, pet grooming, furniture, tickets for sporting events, and personal travel. Babbitt used the charity’s funds to make credit card payments, and falsely classified the expenditure in the business ledger to hide her personal use of the funds.
Former Toyota Motor Manufacturing Employee Sentenced To Prison For Stealing $1.2 Million+ In Parts And Selling Them On eBay – March 5, 2021
Cynthiana Perry was an employee at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky (TMMK) in Georgetown, Kentucky. Perry admitted that between November 9, 2015 and November 6, 2017, he stole various parts and equipment from the plant, then sold some of those stolen parts through eBay and other means, fraudulently representing to online consumers that he was in lawful possession of the equipment he offered for sale. Perry mailed stolen equipment to purchasers and obtained $254,799.30 from this scheme.
TMMK identified 842 stolen parts and valued them at $1,216,147.61. The Court found TMMK’s loss calculation to be appropriate and ordered Mr. Perry to also pay restitution equal to that loss amount.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edky/pr/cynthiana-man-sentenced-36-months-mail-fraud
Former Chief Financial Officer Sentenced To Prison For Embezzling $3 Miilion To Help With Building House – March 4, 2021
Timothy Semones admitted that, in 2017 and 2018, he was the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of ETA Compute, Inc. (ETA), a corporation with its principal place of business in Los Angeles, California. Semones worked remotely from from home. As part of his duties as CFO, Semones had access to ETA’s Wells Fargo Bank business checking account and had the ability to make online transfers of funds from this account.
According to court records, Semones was in the process of designing and building an approximate 7,000 square foot personal residence. Between October 2017 and November 2018, Semones made 9 online transfers of funds, totaling $3 million, from ETA’s Wells Fargo Bank business checking account to personal bank accounts over which he had access and control. Semones used the misappropriated funds to pay construction costs for the Lake Creek Drive residence, and to pay off the balance of a line of credit used to build the residence.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-id/pr/former-cfo-eta-compute-sentenced-wire-fraud
Former City Administrator Sentenced To Prison For Embezzling $300,000+ Of City Funds To Try To Win Lottery – March 4, 2021
James was sentenced to serve a total of 50 months in federal prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $265,561.84 to the Office of the Mississippi State Auditor on behalf of the City of Bay Springs, as well as $95,000 in restitution to the IRS and $60,000 in restitution to RLI Surety, which was the bonding surety company for the City of Bay Springs. James was also ordered to pay $30,200 in fines and special assessments.
During 2017 and 2018, Randy James was employed by the City of Bay Springs, Mississippi, as City Clerk, and had control over certain financial aspects of the city. During this time, James embezzled just over $300,000 from Bay Springs between August 2017 and April 2018 by creating fraudulent invoices from fictitious companies for the costs of false services that were never approved or incurred by the city. James diverted city funds by obtaining checks from the City of Bay Springs, cashing the checks at a local bank, and wiring those funds overseas to international scammers in the hope of winning money in a lottery scheme.
Former Financial Controller Of Car Dealership Sentenced To Prison For Embezzling Funds To Pay For Personal Expenses And Child Support – March 3, 2021
Robert Fowler served as the Controller at Ford dealership for approximately 8 years until he was terminated in September 2016.
As Controller of Town and Country Ford, Fowler was responsible for the payroll, taxes, and accounting for the dealership and essentially served as the business manager.
Town and Country Ford’s parent company, Hays Automotive Group, owns car dealerships in Evansville, Louisville, and Nashville, Tennessee. In September 2016, the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of Hays Automotive Group discovered discrepancies in the books and records for Town and Country Ford.
Investigation revealed several embezzlement schemes conducted by Fowler, including opening unauthorized bank accounts from which he wrote dozens of checks to himself and personal associates; using company funds to pay his child support and other personal expenses at his home; using company credit cards to pay for personal expenses and paying for those transactions with company funds; paying his personal credit card with company funds; and forging signatures of corporate officers when applying for an unauthorized loan of $250,000.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdin/pr/former-controller-local-ford-dealership-sentenced-30-months
Armored Car Employee Sentenced To Prison For Theft Of $50,000 – March 2, 2021
Malik Ross was employed by Garda World Logistics, Inc. (Garda) who contracted with Midwest Regional Bank to transport its federally insured deposits.
Ross admitted that while his co-employee was inside a building in the neighborhood conducting Garda business, he drove a Garda armored car from that location to another location in the city where he placed a bag containing $50,000 in the middle of the road. A conspirator, in turn, retrieved the bag from the street and left the area with the money. The $50,000 in the bag belonged to Midwest Regional Bank, who was insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Former Bank CEO Sentenced To Prison For Falsifying Bank Records, Misappropriating $1.6 Million+ – March 2, 2021
John Hager was the CEO of Border State Bank (Border) and served as a director of the bank’s holding company, Border Bancshares, Inc.
Hager also held various executive positions in banks that Border Bancshares, Inc. acquired, including the former First State Bank of Clearbrook and the former First Advantage Bank. In late 2015 and early 2016, Hager loaned money to a bank customer to invest in a diamond and gold venture in Liberia, Ghana, and Kenya that promised a quick return. After he depleted his own personal funds on the investment and maxed out the amount he could borrow from the bank, Hager asked other individuals, including bank customers, shareholders, and directors of the bank to lend him money, which would enable Hager to recover his personal funds.
Former Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Arrested For Participating In Bribery Scheme With Organized Crime Members – March 2, 2021
Over an 18-month period that started in September 2015, Felix Cisneros accepted cash, checks, private jet travel, luxury hotel stays, meals and other items of value from a person identified as an individual who was associated with a criminal organization. Cisneros allegedly received at least $122,000 from the individual in 2015 and 2016.
Nurse Pleads Guilty To Stealing Fentanyl For Her Own Use – March 2, 2021
According to court documents and statements made in court, Donna Monticone was a nurse employed by the Yale Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility clinic (Yale REI). As part of her responsibilities at the Yale REI, Monticone ordered and inventoried a variety of narcotics used by the clinic, including fentanyl, which is a component of a cohort of drugs used by Yale physicians during outpatient surgical procedures to anesthetize patients and protect them from feeling pain.
In June 2020, Monticone began stealing fentanyl for her own use. She accessed secure storage areas and took vials of fentanyl, used a syringe to withdraw the narcotics from the vials, and reinjected saline into vials so that it would appear as if none of the narcotics were missing. The investigation revealed that approximately 75 percent of the fentanyl given to patients at the Yale REI clinic from June to October 2020 was adulterated with saline. Some of the vials contained diluted fentanyl, while others contained no drug at all and contained just saline.
In pleading guilty, Monticone admitted that knew that the adulterated vials of fentanyl she replaced at the Yale REI clinic would be used in surgical procedures, and that the absence of an anesthetic during an outpatient procedure may cause serious bodily injury to the patient. Monticone further admitted that she initially injected herself with the fentanyl while working at the Yale REI clinic and eventually began taking the vials home. She would refill the vials with sterile saline at home, bring them back to the clinic, and reintroduce them into the stock of fentanyl available for use during surgical procedures. On approximately November 1, 2020, Monticone brought approximately 175 vials of fentanyl that she had taken from the Yale REI clinic and discarded them in waste containers at the clinic.
Former U.S. Marine Sentenced To Prison For Illegal Exportation Of Firearms And Controlled Equipment – March 2, 2021
On December 12, 2020, Jacques Duroseau was convicted of conspiracy to illegally export and smuggle firearms and controlled equipment from the United States to Haiti, as well as transporting firearms without a license to the Haitian Army.
At trial, the evidence showed that Duroseau, at the time an active duty U.S. Marine with the rank of sergeant, along with a co-conspirator, both impersonated high ranking military officers and pretended to be on military business in order to facilitate the illegal transportation of eight firearms, including a Ruger model Precision Rifle 300WIN MAG and a Spike’s Tactical model ST15, as well as copious ammunition, riflescopes, and body armor, via commercial aircraft to Haiti. The evidence further showed that Duroseau’s purpose was to train the Haitian Army with the firearms and equipment in order to engage in foreign armed conflict.
Former Bank Employee Pleads Guilty To $2.3 Million Embezzlement Scheme – March 1, 2021
From 2006 through March 2020, Jordan Young worked at an Oklahoma City trust bank as a Trust Administrative Officer. Young oversaw trust accounts and distributed funds from those accounts to the beneficiaries as needed.
On February 22, 2021, Young pleaded guilty to making an unauthorized distribution, in the amount of $60,706.53, to his personal checking account from a trust account he was managing in October 2018. As part of his plea, Young admitted that he embezzled funds from his former employer from December 2015 through March 2020, and stipulated that the total loss to the trust bank from his embezzlement scheme was $2,323,036.91.
Former Employees (Husband, Wife) Of Weyerhaeuser Company Charged With Vacation Fraud Scheme – March 1, 2021
The indictment alleges that Melissa Sepulvado and her husband were both employed by Weyerhaeuser Company at the company’s mill located in Zwolle, Louisiana. Sepulvado was employed as a Senior Support Specialist and her husband was employed as an hourly worker. Her primary duties were to review and approve payroll entries for the hourly workers at the Weyerhaeuser’s Zwolle mill through its internet based electronic payroll system.
From November 2014 through April 2017, Sepulvado devised a scheme to defraud and obtain money from Weyerhaeuser using interstate wire communications, including the transmission of electronic payroll information. Sepulvado regularly entered fraudulent vacation hours on her husband’s time sheet and submitted electronic pay requests for those hours by means of an interstate wire communication in interstate commerce. Although her husband was eligible to receive 200 hours of paid vacation time each calendar year, Sepulvado entered and approved over 4,000 hours of paid vacation time for her husband for the calendar year 2016 alone. Sepulvado took steps to conceal the fraudulent pay requests by backdating the paid vacation hours to completed pay periods.
U.S. Forest Service Employee Arrested For Accepting $360,000+ In Bribes And Kickbacks For 4 Years – March 1, 2021
Francisco Isaias who was a United States Forest Service employee was arrested and charged with illegally directing nearly $900,000 in no-bid Forest Service vehicle repair and maintenance work to a San Bernardino County auto body repair shop that illicitly paid him more than $360,000 in bribes and kickbacks.
U.S. Postal Service Employee Pleads Guilty To Stealing Medication Intended For Veterans – March 1, 2021
Ammie Hale a USPS employee pleaded guilty to stealing mail on February 26, 2020, July 1, 2020, and August 5, 2020.
According to court documents, from September 2019 through July 2020, the United States Postal Inspection Service- Office of the Inspector General (USPIS-OIG) received over 40 reports from the Salem, Virginia Veterans Affairs Medical Center of medication parcels mailed to veterans in the Tazewell, Virginia area that were never delivered.
Agents of the USPS-OIG reviewed available video footage and observed Ammie Hale on two different occasions, while working at the Tazwell Post Office, removing parcels from the sorting area, and taking them to an area of the Post Office where employees keep personal belongings and hiding the parcels in her purse. On August 5, 2020, agents conducted on-site surveillance and caught Hale stealing pills from a package addressed from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Hale was interviewed on August 5 and falsely told investigators that she had never stolen mail prior to that day.
Pharmacy Employee Sentenced To Prison For With Tampering Elderly Patients Medications – March 1, 2021
According to court documents and statements made in court, Kristina Coleman worked as a pharmacy technician for a retail pharmacy chain.
In January 2019, she agreed to deliver two prescriptions to an elderly patient, which was not part of her ordinary job responsibilities. After the delivery, the patient checked her bottles and discovered several pills were missing from her oxycodone prescription. Further, some of the pills in the bottle were larger and had a different imprint than the others, and were later determined to be baclofen, a non-scheduled drug indicated as a muscle relaxant and anti-spasmodic agent. Coleman admitted to law enforcement officers that she replaced some of the oxycodone in the prescription bottle with the baclofen and gave the stolen oxycodone to a friend to sell, for which she received $80.
Additional investigation revealed that Coleman had been stealing Suboxone from the pharmacy for her personal use. Coleman admitted that she had stolen a strip a day for approximately one year.