Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Jalal Nimer Asad, 62, of Lindenhurst, Illinois, was sentenced to five years in the Bureau of Prisons and ordered to pay more than $1 million in restitution and a forfeiture judgement of more than $4 million for his role in two different but related criminal conspiracies at multiple businesses within the Central District of Illinois involving tax evasion; mail fraud; and the structuring financial transactions to avoid reporting requirements.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Peter Jacobsson, 39, of Lincoln, Nebraska, was sentenced on July 9, 2026, in federal court in Lincoln for conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine and 500 grams or more of a mixture or substance containing methamphetamine with a prior conviction and use or carry of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – TERRENCE ROBINSON a/k/a Brian Jacobs (“ROBINSON”), age 41, a resident of Carriere, Mississippi was sentenced on July 16, 2026, after previously pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit the interstate transportation of stolen vehicles, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371, announced U.S. Attorney David I. Courcelle.

Source: United States Department of Justice

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Carlos Banegas-Contreras, age 47, an illegal alien from Honduras, was sentenced to 27 months in prison for one count of Conspiracy to Commit Bank Fraud.On October 6, 2025, Banegas-Contreras pleaded guilty to the charge in federal district court.According to investigators, in June of 2023, Banegas-Contreras and others conspired to use fake identification cards to cash 178 fraudulent paychecks totaling $299,474.00 at three check-cashing businesses and at five branches of a local bank.  The fraudulent paychecks were designed to look like they had been issued by a building materials supply company in the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – TERRELL KELLEY (“KELLEY”), age 34, was sentenced to a ninety-seven (97) month term of imprisonment on July 14, 2026, by U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan. KELLEY was ordered to pay a $600 mandatory special assessment fee and serve a six (6) year term of supervised release upon release from imprisonment, announced United States Attorney David I. Courcelle. 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A federal grand jury returned an indictment yesterday charging a Memphis woman with preparing false tax returns for others and willfully failing to file her own tax returns.

According to the indictment, between 2021 and 2024, Lynette Hogue prepared and filed with the IRS false and fraudulent income tax returns for clients of the tax preparation business where she worked. These tax returns allegedly contained false and fraudulent items, which generated refunds the clients were not entitled to receive. 

According to the indictment, Hogue willfully failed to file her own tax returns for these same years, even though she earned substantial income from her tax return preparation business and was required to file by law.

Hogue is charged with 29 counts of willfully aiding and assisting the preparation and presentation of false tax returns and four counts of willfully failing to file a tax return. If convicted, she faces up to three years in prison for each false return count and one year in prison for each count of failing to file a tax return.

Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division and U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant for the Western District of Tennessee made the announcement.

Trial Attorneys Isaiah Boyd III and Matthew C. Hicks of the Criminal Division’s Tax Section are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

On April 7, the Department of Justice announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division (“Fraud Division”). The Fraud Division is laser-focused on investigating and prosecuting those who commit fraud against the American people. The Department’s work to combat fraud supports President Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal benefit programs.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Seattle –A 69-year-old former resident of Rhode Island, Texas, and Chicago, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle for three federal felonies connected to his 2021 scheme to smuggle duffle bags full of drugs across the strait bordering Washington State and Canada via watercraft, announced First Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd.  

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Carlos Banegas-Contreras, age 47, a Honduran national, was sentenced to 27 months in prison for one count of Conspiracy to Commit Bank Fraud.On October 6, 2025, Banegas-Contreras pleaded guilty to the charge in federal district court.According to investigators, in June of 2023, Banegas-Contreras and others conspired to use fake identification cards to cash 178 fraudulent paychecks totaling $299,474.00 at three check-cashing businesses and at five branches of a local bank.  The fraudulent paychecks were designed to look like they had been issued by a building materials supply company in the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – MILTON EDILBERTO ESCOTO-GALINDO (“ESCOTO-GALINDO”), age 44, a native of Honduras, was indicted on July 16, 2026, for illegal reentry of a previously removed alien, in violation of Title 8, United States Code, Section 1326(a), announced United States Attorney David I. Courcelle.