In 1989, Walter Leroy Moody, Jr., sent mail bombs to Judge Robert Vance of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit; Savannah, Georgia, civil rights attorney Robert Robinson; the Eleventh Circuit headquarters and the Jacksonville, Florida office of the NAACP, as stated in an item from Courthouse News Service. Moody was angered over having… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Subscribe to Uncategorized RSS FeedA Tribute to Tom Mikula
Posted in UncategorizedWe lost one of the good guys in our profession 10 days ago. Tom Mikula, a partner at Goodwin Proctor in Washington,D.C.passed away on Wednesday, October 9, 2013 at age 54. I received an email from a mutual friend telling me of his passing. I was devastated. I first met Tom when he arrived in… Continue Reading
Former Savannah Man Who Attempted to Extort Paula Deen Sentenced to 2 Years
Posted in Sentencing, UncategorizedAs reported by the Savannah Morning News, Thomas George Paculis, of Newfield, NY, a former businessman in Savannah, GA, was sentenced to 24 months imprisonment yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia for attempting to extort over $200,000 from nationally-known Savannah, GA, chef and entrepreneur Paula Deen. Paculis pled guilty on August… Continue Reading
Thomaston, GA, Woman Pleads Guilty to Identity Theft and Tax Fraud
Posted in UncategorizedEdna Yvonne Orr Goff, of Thomaston, Georgia, pled guilty last Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, to charges of conspiracy to file false federal tax returns and aggravated identity theft, according to BainbridgeGA.com. Goff was alleged to have stolen taxpayer identity information and prepared and filed false tax returns. Goff gained… Continue Reading
Two Georgia Men Plead to Fraudulent Vehicle Emissions Scheme
Posted in UncategorizedAs reported by the Marietta Daily Journal, Jerome C. Barnes, Jr., and Jared F. Walker have pled guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and violating the Clean Air Act for their conduct in a fraudulent vehicle emission scheme. The Government alleged that Barnes… 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
9th Circuit Reverses Conviction for Tax Fraud Relating to Alleged Terrorist Funding
Posted in Tax Fraud, UncategorizedOn Friday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the conviction of Pirouz Sedaghaty, also known as Pete Seda, for allegedly making a false statement on a tax return, as reported in the Oregonian. Mr. Seda was convicted in 2010 for allegedly making a false statement on his 2001 tax return relating to alleged… 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
The Propriety of Department of Justice Tip Hotlines and Soliciting Information from the Public
Posted in UncategorizedAn article this week has raised the interesting question of the propriety of the Department of Justice soliciting “tips” from the public in certain cases which it is investigating. DOJ currently is soliciting tips from the public in its investigation of George Zimmerman in relation to the death of Trayvon Martin and the Attorney General’s… Continue Reading
Fourth Circuit Holds that NYT Reporter May Be Compelled to Testify in Trial of Former CIA Agent Over First Amendment Objections
Posted in UncategorizedOn Friday, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals held that there is no First Amendment privilege which prevents a journalist from being compelled to testify in a criminal proceeding. The decision arose from the trial of former CIA agent Jeffrey Sterling under the Espionage Act for unauthorized leaking of State secrets. Sterling alleged provided information… Continue Reading
French, Swiss Defendants Acquitted in Paris on Charges Relating to the U.N. Oil-for-Food Programme
Posted in UncategorizedReaders may remember the United Nations’ Oil-for-Food Programme, which operated between 1996 and 2003 and permitted Saddam Hussein’s Iraq to sell oil on the world market in exchange for food, medicine, and other humanitarian goods despite a U.N. embargo. The Programme became the subject of much criticism that its proceeds went to benefit Iraqi officials… 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
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
60 Federal Judges and Prosecutors File Brief in Shaygan Prosecutorial Misconduct Case
Posted in Prosecutorial Misconduct, UncategorizedAs noted by the Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog, on Thursday more than 60 Federal judges and prosecutors filed a brief in the case of Dr. Ali Shaygan, the South Florida physician who was charged with 141 criminal counts and prevailed, as we have previously discussed here, here and here. The brief urges the the… 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
#UK Man’s Conviction for Threatening Tweet Overturned
Posted in UncategorizedPaul Chambers, a 28 year old accountant from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom, became a cause célèbre for the social networking website, Twitter, after he was charged as a result of a tweet he sent concerning Doncaster’s Robin Hood Airport in 2010. Chambers “tweeted” “Crap! Robin Hood Airport is closed. You’ve got a week and a… Continue Reading
Senator Saxby Chambliss Requests a Department of Justice Investigation into “SWATing” Pranks
Posted in UncategorizedAccording to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia’s United States Senator, Saxby Chambliss, has sent a letter to United States Attorney General Eric Holder requesting that the United States Department of Justice investigate the phenomenon of “SWATing,” in which a caller contacts law enforcement to report alleged violent incidents and causes police or SWAT teams to be… Continue Reading