As mentioned on Savannahnow.com, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia has announced that it collected over $71 million in civil, criminal and asset forfeiture actions in fiscal year 2013, both on its own and working with partner Federal agencies. This is the largest total in the history of the Office. The… Continue Reading
Tag Archives: criminal
Conyers, GA, Woman Involved in MS Schools Bribery Prosecution; Prosecution Recommends 6 Months’ House Arrest
Posted in SentencingHarvey Franklin, former Superintendent of Schools for Greenville, Mississippi, pled guilty last year in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi to accepting more than $272,000 in bribes from Edna Goble, of Conyers, Georgia, and owner of Teach Them to Read Inc., reported in the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. The Greenville School District awarded Teach Them… Continue Reading
Bremen, Georgia, Man Sentenced to 2 Years for Conspiracy to Commit Arson
Posted in Sentencing, UncategorizedIn June of 2012, Hitendrafumar Patel of Bremen, Georgia, asked a man to burn down a business which Patel owned, telling the man that the business was not profitable and that Patel wanted to use the insurance money to pay his expenses. Patel gave the man incendiary materials and a key to the business. Unfortunately… Continue Reading
Atlanta Area Man Receives $2.8 Million in Refunds–from Prison; Sentenced to 5 Years
Posted in Tax Fraud, UncategorizedIn 2008, Arnold Tobias Gervais was convicted in the Superior Court of Cobb County, Georgia, for submitting a fraudulent tax return claiming a $600,000 tax refund from the State of Georgia. He was sent to prison from 2007 to 2010. While incarcerated, Gervais caused his wife to file a false 2008 IRS Form 1040 claiming… Continue Reading
4th Circuit Court of Appeals Overturns Money Laundering Convictions in $100 Million Life Insurance Investment Scheme
Posted in Money Laundering, ReversalAdley H. Abdulwahab was convicted of fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering in 2011 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia relating to a $100 million life insurance settlement scheme which defrauded more than 800 investors. As reported by the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram, Abdulwahab, a Texas resident, and four other co-conspirators fraudulently marketed… Continue Reading
Atlanta Resident Jessica Loren Posey Recieves 7 Years for Sex Trafficking Involving Minors
Posted in Sex CrimesAtlanta resident, Jessica Loren Posey, 25, was sentenced on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia to serve more than 7 years in prison for transporting a 16 year-old girl across State lines for the purpose of prostitution, as reported by the Gwinnett Patch. Posey was charged with transporting a… Continue Reading
Sixth Circuit Reduces Sentence of Detroit Arsonist, Limited by Plea Agreement
Posted in Pleas, SentencingIn 2010, Sam Wright and an accomplice, Calvin Jones, set fire to a commercial building on the east side of Detroit. The fire paralyzed one firefighter and injured six others who responded to the scene. Wright was charged in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, entered a plea agreement with the… Continue Reading
Three Jacksonville, FL, Physicians Acquitted in Multimillion Dollar “Pill Mill” Prosecution
Posted in UncategorizedThree Jacksonville, Florida, physicians, Todd Perla, Marc Tafflin and Anthony Posca, as well as a co-defendant, Jason Votrobek, were acquitted last Thursday following a three-week trial in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in a multimillion dollar “pill mill” prosecution, as reported in the Florida Times-Union. The doctors were charged with… Continue Reading
“BadB” Sentenced to 88 Months in $9 Million Worldwide Identity Theft Scheme, Including from Atlanta-Based Company
Posted in Uncategorized“BadB,” also known as Vladislav Anatolievich Horohorin, a citizen of Russia, Israel and Ukraine, was sentenced on Friday to 88 months’ imprisonment in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for participating in a worldwide identity theft scheme which resulted in losses of $9 million. Horohorin was indicted in 2009 in the District… Continue Reading
Pine Mountain, GA, Couple Indicted on Federal Tax Charges
Posted in Tax FraudA Pine Mountain, Georgia, couple have been indicted in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia for allegedly engaging in conspiracy and filing fraudulent tax returns. The government has charged Natashia and Detrick Tucker, who own and operate a tax preparation business, T&T Express, with illegally claiming inflated tax refunds for their… Continue Reading
Ellijay VP of Appalachian Community Bank Sentenced to 5 Years, 10 Months
Posted in Bank Fraud, SentencingAdam Teague of Ellijay, Georgia, former Senior Vice President of Appalachian Community Bank, was sentenced to 5 years’ and 10 months’ imprisonment Friday after pleading guilty last August to conspiracy and fraud charges in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Teague was also ordered to pay $5.8 million in restitution, his… Continue Reading
Grovetown, GA, City Council Member Convicted in Alabama
Posted in PleasLeland J. “Sonny” McDowell, a member of the Grovetown, Georgia, City Council, as well as an employee of Southern Detention Technologies, a fingerprint machine company, entered a plea of guilty on March 27 to bribery in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. McDowell was charged with offering… Continue Reading
Second Circuit Reverses Attorney’s Conviction for Exclusion of Public from Jury Selection
Posted in Jury SelectionRaghubir Gupta, a New York attorney, was convicted in 2008 in the Southern District of New York of preparing fraudulent immigration applications and sentenced to 51 months’ imprisonment. On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed Gupta’s conviction, holding that the trial court violated Gupta’s Sixth Amendment rights by excluding the… Continue Reading
Supreme Court Denies Petition in Shaygan Prosecutorial Misconduct Case
Posted in Governmental Misconduct, UncategorizedOn Tuesday, the United States Supreme Court denied Dr. Ali Shaygan’s petition for review of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit’s reversal of the trial court’s award of attorneys’ fees to Dr. Shaygan based upon misconduct by Federal prosecutors during his criminal case, as noted by the Chicago Tribune. The Supreme Court… Continue Reading
Former Gwinnett Commissioner Shirley Lasseter to Be Sentenced Sept. 5
Posted in UncategorizedAs noted in the Duluth Patch, former Gwinnett County Commissioner Shirley Lasseter pled guilty in May to bribery charges in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. The charges stemmed from Lasseter’s acceptance of a bribe from an undercover FBIagent who posed as a real estate developer seeking to do business in… Continue Reading
The Commerce Clause and Federal Criminal Law: No “Generalized Federal Police Power” Yet
Posted in UncategorizedThe United States Supreme Court’s determination of the constitutionality of the individual mandate provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, 26 U.S.C. § 5000A, in June in the decision of Nat’l Fed’n of Indep. Bus. v. Sebelius, 132 S. Ct. 2566 (2012) generated much discussion of the Commerce Clause, although the… Continue Reading
“Chewbacca Defense” Continues to Go Unmentioned By Courts 14 Years On
Posted in Defenses, ReviewTo date, no reported decisions mention the employment of the "Chewbacca Defense" at trial, despite the passage of almost 14 years from the late Johnnie L. Cochran’s demonstration in 1998 of the novel and innovative defense on the 14th episode of the second season of the animated television show, South Park, entitled "Chef Aid." The… Continue Reading
Southern Union Co. v. United States — Must a Jury, and not the Judge, Find the Facts Necessary to Impose a Criminal Fine?
Posted in Corporate CrimesThe U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000), held that the Fifth and Sixth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution require that any fact which increases punishment beyond the maximum prescribed by statute must be determined by a jury, rather than a judge. The Court’s holding in Apprendi led to its… Continue Reading
Broward County, FL, Physician Acquitted on Kickback Charges
Posted in Acquittal, Health Care FraudYesterday, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida returned not guilty verdicts against 78 year-old Francisco H. Gonzalez, M.D., on charges that Dr. Gonzalez allegedly took thousands in kickbacks from two Miami-area home healthcare agencies, ABC Home Health Care and Florida Home Health Providers (FHHP), according to the Miami Herald. Also… Continue Reading
Defendants Acquitted in Second Alabama Gambling/Bribery Case
Posted in AcquittalA jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama acquitted Alabama State Senators Larry Means, Jim Pruett and Harri Anne Smith; Milton McGregor, the owner of VictoryLand casino, outside of Montgomery; Tom Coker, a lobbyist for the casino industry; and Jay Walker, a spokesman for Country Crossing Casino, on all counts,… Continue Reading
Georgia to Take on Sentencing and Prison Reform
Posted in SentencingImage source: http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/02/seven_guards_arrested_for_retaliatory_abuse_of_georgia_prison_inmate.html Two articles in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in the past two days reveal a sudden new priority of Georgia’s leadership to tackle criminal sentencing and prison reform. First, the AJC interviewed Governor Nathan Deal, who acknowledged the growing costs of Georgia’s prison system. “We’re at a point in time where the necessity for… Continue Reading
Georgia Man Pleads Guilty in Nationwide “Pill Mill” Prosecution
Posted in Pleas, SentencingJames Hazelwood, of Cumming, Georgia, pled guilty last Wednesday in Federal court in Ohio to charges of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise. As reported in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, the charges relate to an alleged online "pill mill," which allegedly dispensed prescription drugs, including painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs, nationwide by means of false prescriptions. Hazelwood and… Continue Reading
Atlanta Man Indicted in New York for Securities Fraud, Insider Trading
Posted in Fraud, indictment, Securities FraudImage source: www.google.com/imgres Scott Allen, of Atlanta, was charged last week with securities fraud and insider trading in the U.S. District Court Southern District of New York, according to the Wall Street Journal. The government alleges that Mr. Allen and John Bennett of Norwalk, Connecticut, conspired to make more than $2.6 million in profits on insider trades… Continue Reading
Fayetteville Man Indicted on Federal Charges for Defrauding Colleges and Universities
Posted in Arraignment, Fraud, indictmentThe season for college sports is upon us once again and what better way to honor the occasion than with a bit of news from 7th Space Interactive that Dale Brannan, of Fayetteville, Georgia, has been indicted in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia for defrauding various universities and colleges, including… Continue Reading