Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Sean S. Buckley, Attorney for the United States, Acting under Authority Conferred by 28 U.S.C. § 515, announced today that JOHN ARTHUR HANRATTY, the founder and managing director of a multimillion-dollar municipal tax lien investment firm, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield to 12 months and a day in prison for his role in a fraudulent scheme to steal nearly $20 million from a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”)-insured bank.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Greg Lindberg, 56, of Tampa, Florida, and the founder and chairman of Eli Global LLC and owner of Global Bankers Insurance Group (GBIG) was sentenced today to a combined 12 years in prison for his role in a bribery conspiracy and multibillion-dollar fraud conspiracy that bankrupted multiple insurance companies with thousands of unpaid policyholder victims.
According to court documents and evidence presented in court, from at least 2016 through at least 2019, Lindberg conspired with others to defraud various insurance companies, other third parties and hundreds of thousands of insurance policyholders. Lindberg and others conspired to deceive the North Carolina Department of Insurance (NCDOI) and other regulators, evaded regulatory requirements meant to protect policyholders, concealed the true financial condition of his companies and improperly used insurance company funds for his personal benefit. Lindberg and his co-conspirators caused companies he controlled in North Carolina, Bermuda, Malta, and elsewhere to invest more than $2 billion in loans and other securities with his own affiliated companies and laundered the proceeds of the scheme. Lindberg directed the scheme and personally benefitted from the fraud in part by “forgiving” more than $125 million in loans to himself from the insurance companies that he controlled. Lindberg used his ill-gotten gains to fund a lavish lifestyle, buying private jets, mansions and a 200-foot luxury yacht.
To carry out these conspiracies, Lindberg and others engaged in circular transactions among Lindberg’s web of entities using insurance company funds and misled or omitted material information from regulators, various ratings agencies, insurance companies and ultimately policyholders, regarding these transactions.
As Lindberg’s fraud and money laundering conspiracies were beginning to unravel, from April 2017 to August 2018, Lindberg and others engaged in a bribery scheme for the purpose of causing the Commissioner of Insurance of the NCDOI to take official action favorable to Lindberg’s company, GBIG. Lindberg and others gave the Commissioner millions of dollars in campaign contributions and other things of value in exchange for the removal of NCDOI’s Senior Deputy Commissioner, who was responsible for overseeing the regulation and the periodic examination of GBIG.
As a result of Lindberg’s conduct, his insurance companies, third-party entities and policyholders suffered substantial financial hardship, and multiple of his insurance companies have been placed in rehabilitation and liquidation. To date, thousands of individual policyholders and other victims are collectively still owed more than $1 billion. A special master was appointed by the court in the fraud case to assist with the restitution process and distribution of funds to victims. A separate restitution hearing will be set at a later date.
In November 2024, Lindberg pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States and conspiracy to commit money laundering. In May 2024, Lindberg was convicted by a federal jury of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds.
The FBI Charlotte Field Office investigated both cases.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson for the Western District of North Carolina; and Special Agent in Charge Reid Davis of the FBI Charlotte Field Office made the announcement.
Trial Attorney Lyndie Freeman of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Ryan for the Western District of North Carolina prosecuted the fraud case. Trial Attorney William Gullotta of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Dana Washington for the Western District of North Carolina prosecuted the bribery case.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
NEW ORLEANS – KENDRICK WHITE, SR. (“WHITE”) age 43, a resident of New Orleans, pleaded guilty on May 26, 2026, before United States District Judge Darrel James Papillion to committing sexual abuse, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2242(3), announced U.S. Attorney David I. Courcelle.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
DENVER – The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado announces that Brian Graham, 49, Lithia Springs, Georgia, was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison, three years of supervised release, and was directed to pay restitution in the amount of $441,546.876, and forfeiture after pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud.
Today, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division filed a lawsuit against the University of California for its deliberate indifference to race and national origin discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students at its University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) campus, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“Earlier this year, we sued UCLA for subjecting its Jewish and Israeli employees to an antisemitic hostile work environment,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Now, the Department of Justice calls UCLA to account for its toleration of the equally appalling hostile educational environment against its Jewish and Israeli students.”
“Universities have an obligation to maintain safe and inclusive campuses for all students,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California. “Universities that violate our nation’s civil rights laws by repeatedly failing to shield Jewish students from antisemitism will be held accountable.”
After the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, antisemitic hatred against UCLA’s Jewish and Israeli students reached a point where students were physically assaulted, injured, excluded from campus, and deprived of educational opportunities because of their perceived Jewish or Israeli heritage. As alleged in the United States’ complaint, UCLA violated Title VI through its deliberate indifference to this pervasive on-campus antisemitism. UCLA also breached its funding contracts and grants with the United States by certifying the school’s compliance with its Title VI duties to protect all students from unlawful discrimination while allowing discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students to infect its campus.
UCLA’s tolerance of antisemitism reached a flash point in April 2024 when masked demonstrators erected an encampment outside of Royce Hall and slapped, kicked, beat with sticks, doused with pepper spray, and knocked unconscious Jewish and Israeli students. During this time, occupiers formed “human phalanxes” to block Jewish and Israeli students from entering academic buildings.
This lawsuit — filed in the Central District of California — stems from the Department’s investigation into reports of antisemitic incidents against students on UCLA’s campus and written findings concluding, in part, that UCLA failed to fulfill its legal obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in responding to those incidents.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
WILLIAM ROSARIO LOPEZ, 40, of New Haven, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Victor A. Bolden in New Haven to 348 months of imprisonment and five years of supervised release for committing several armed robberies of Connecticut gas stations in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Javan King, 42, of Laurel, Maryland, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to 12 months and one day in prison in connectionwith his theft of more than 4,800 government cell phones when he worked for the Department of Justice, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A federal grand jury in Columbia returned a two-count indictment, presented by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, charging John Alexander Bellue, 32, of Rock Hill, for threatening the President of the United States and for interstate communication of a threat to injure.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Tampa, Florida – Esai Pastrana Cruz (30, Puerto Rico) has been sentenced by U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington to five years and three months in federal prison for conspiring to and making false statements to a federally licensed firearms dealer (“FFL”). Pastrana Cruz pleaded guilty on February 19, 2026. U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe made the announcement.
FLORENCE, Italy — Hundreds of Americans and Italians gathered under a clear blue sky on Memorial Day to honor thousands of U.S. service members buried at the Florence American Cemetery, marking the remembrance with a solemn ceremony defined by gratitude and shared military history.
Hundreds of American and Italian attendees, including… (Photo Credit: Randall Jackson)VIEW ORIGINAL
The May 25 event drew a crowd of military officials, local citizens and organizations dedicated to preserving the memory of those who died in defense of liberty, including a delegation of veterans from Veterans of Foreign Wars Mediterranean Post 8862 based out of Vicenza, Italy.
Hundreds of American and Italian attendees, including… (Photo Credit: Randall Jackson)VIEW ORIGINAL
The pristine grounds, which serve as the final resting place for 4,392 American service members, were transformed earlier in the weekend by a joint contingent of American and Italian boy scouts. The scouts meticulously placed American and Italian flags at the base of every single headstone, creating a grid of red, white, green, and blue across 70 acres.
Hundreds of American and Italian attendees, including… (Photo Credit: Randall Jackson)VIEW ORIGINAL
“We gather here today at this Florence American Cemetery to honor the 4,392 Americans laid to rest on these grounds,” said Vice Admiral J.T. Anderson, Commander of the U.S. 6th Fleet, during his keynote remarks. “They represent just a fraction of the nearly 70,000 U.S. service members who rest in peace eternally across the European continent.”
Hundreds of American and Italian attendees, including… (Photo Credit: Randall Jackson)VIEW ORIGINAL
The ceremony emphasized the bonds forged between the United States and Italy during the campaigns of World War II. More than a dozen ceremonial wreaths were laid at the base of the central memorial to pay tribute to the fallen. Among them was a wreath from U.S. Army Garrison Italy, presented jointly by USAG Italy Garrison Commander, Col. Vaughn D. Strong Jr., and his Camp Darby Deputy Garrison Manager, Tim Andersen.
Hundreds of American and Italian attendees, including… (Photo Credit: Randall Jackson)VIEW ORIGINAL
For the veteran community in Italy, the annual pilgrimage to the cemetery represents a profound duty. Commander Bobby White of VFW Vicenza Mediterranean Post 8862 noted that his post has maintained this tradition for at least two decades.
Hundreds of American and Italian attendees, including… (Photo Credit: Randall Jackson)VIEW ORIGINAL
“For today’s event here at the Memorial Day ceremony, the historical value is that for the VFW, for many years we’ve been here,” White said. “We have come here to pay homage to our fallen soldiers and comrades. They have made sacrifices dating back to World War I and World War II. So this day, I take it dearly, because I get to say thank you to those who paved the way for us to be here.”
Italian military and auxiliary representatives spoke with equal emotion about the price paid by American forces to secure the freedom of their nation.
Hundreds of American and Italian attendees, including… (Photo Credit: Randall Jackson)VIEW ORIGINAL
“I feel like it was important to pay my respects to the American Army,” said Col. Luciano Prestipino of the Italian Red Cross Military Corps. “The ones to put boots on the ground, to put their life on the line, to free us.”568
Lt. Gen. Massimo Panizzi of the Italian Army delivered an address that captured the geographic and emotional reality of the young service members buried thousands of miles from their homes.
“They rest here. Far from the voices they love, far from the streets where they grew up. But not far from our gratitude,” Panizzi said. “And today, from this land of Italy, we offer them immense thanks. The Italian people remember your sacrifice. We remember their lives given up on our soil for the freedom of others. And we all honor the bond of friendship forged through courage, suffering and hope. Every name carved in stone reminds us that freedom is not free.”
Hundreds of American and Italian attendees, including… (Photo Credit: Randall Jackson)VIEW ORIGINAL
The gravity of the landscape also left an impression on the younger generation participating in the commemorations, giving them a rare perspective on wartime sacrifice.
Hundreds of American and Italian attendees, including… (Photo Credit: Randall Jackson)VIEW ORIGINAL
“I feel quite honored to be at a place like the Florence American Cemetery,” said Brian Ehler, 14, a Life Scout in Scouting America. “I think it’s quite a rare experience that no normal American teenager would usually have. And I think it’s also a good way to remember the fallen who’ve given up their lives, so we could be here at this very moment.”
As the formal program concluded, a U.S. Marine stepped forward just outside the monument area to play a final tribute of “Taps.” The bugle call echoed across the graves and the large marble tablets nearby, which bear the names of an additional 1,409 service members missing in action.
Moments after the final note faded, the silence was broken by the roar of a ceremonial flyover. F-16 fighter jets from the 555th Fighter Squadron, 31st Fighter Wing, based out of Aviano Air Base, Italy, streaked across the clear skies to end a day dedicated to those that made the ultimate sacrifice.