Category: MIL-OSI

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A federal grand jury in North Carolina returned an indictment today charging a North Carolina man with engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor outside the United States.

According to court documents, Michael Hess, 73, of Davidson, traveled to Nepal between March 2005 and July 2008 and engaged in illicit sexual conduct with a minor victim. Hess founded Papa’s House, supported by the Nepal Orphans Home, in 2005. 

Hess is charged with one count of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places. He is scheduled to make his initial court appearance tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Assistant Director Heith Janke of the FBI’s Criminal Division made the announcement.

The FBI’s Child Exploitation Operational Unit and Charlotte Field Office are investigating the case and received assistance from their New Delhi Law Enforcement Attaché Office.

Trial Attorney McKenzie Hightower of the Justice Department’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section is prosecuting the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided significant assistance.

Anyone who has information regarding the case against Hess or who may know someone victimized by the defendant is requested to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) or through the FBI online tip portal. Identified victims may be eligible for certain services and rights under federal and/or state law.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

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

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

FBI Minneapolis Field Office Special Agent in Charge Christopher D. Dotson announced Operation Ballistic Backlog today, an initiative carried out by the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) in partnership with the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Department of Public Safety (OST-DPS), to address a critical need for firearms evidence testing on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. This initiative is part of the FBI’s larger, overarching surge of investigative resources to address unresolved violent crime on tribal lands called Operation Steadfast Promise.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

In coordination with federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas and Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Little Rock Field Office announce the results of Operation Viper. Operation Viper, a high-intensity fugitive apprehension initiative, resulted in 26 warrants executed, the arrests of 39 individuals, a seizure of 35 firearms, the seizure of $74,400 in illegal proceeds, approximately 100 pounds of marijuana, and large quantities of fentanyl and other illicit pills.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 30, an Afghan national accused in the November ambush shooting of National Guardsmen near the White House, was charged today in a 17-count Superseding Indictment filed in U.S. District Court, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro. 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced today that that James R. Muench Jr., 45, of Depew, NY, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder, Jr. to entering aircraft or airport area, which carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a fine of $100,000.  

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced today that Theodore Hill a/k/a Ty, 28, of Buffalo, NY, who was convicted of distribution of cocaine, was sentenced to serve 200 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara.  

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Baltimore, Maryland – Maryland twin brothers pled guilty to tax-evasion charges in federal court, today, for their roles in a tax-fraud scheme. Dennis March, 55, and Greg March, 55, both of Berlin, each pled guilty to one count of tax evasion for concealing income and failing to pay business and individual taxes. 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Tallahassee, Florida – Forrest Alan Price, 32, of Tallahassee, Florida, pleaded guilty in federal court to possession of synthetic cathinone and 5 grams or more of methamphetamine with intent to distribute; carrying a firearm during a drug-trafficking crime, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The Justice Department announced today that it has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York against the State of New York Department of Health, New York State Medicaid Director Amir Bassiri, and Public Partnerships LLC (PPL), an Alpharetta, Georgia-based company that has managed New York’s Consumer Directed Personal Assistant Program (CDPAP) since 2025.

“New York’s backroom deal with PPL has cost taxpayers millions of dollars and cast countless Medicaid patients to the curb,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald for the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. “Today’s action is the latest reminder that the Justice Department is mobilizing every available tool to protect taxpayer-funded programs from fraud and corruption.”

“One of the Justice Department’s key priorities is protecting the public fisc and delivering savings to American taxpayers,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “New York’s failure to police a favored vendor that unlawfully siphoned millions of dollars of Medicaid funding is egregious and betrays the public trust. The Justice Department is acting to ensure that federal laws regarding truthful statements and fair dealing in federal health care programs are upheld and to prevent additional harm from being exacted against the public by Public Partnerships LLC and New York.”

The lawsuit aims to stop an alleged fraud scheme by which PPL has generated millions of dollars in unauthorized profits funded by federal taxpayers in connection with its takeover of New York’s $10 billion-dollar CDPAP program. The lawsuit alleges that the New York Department of Health awarded PPL the lucrative CDPAP contract after conducting a sham bid process, and then, despite learning of PPL’s intent to deviate from the representations made in its bid and violate the financial terms of the contract, failed to take action to hold PPL accountable and to protect public funds from misuse, resulting in a fraud scheme that remains unchecked to this day. The lawsuit seeks to enjoin all defendants from making further misrepresentations about the CDPAP program and from charging American taxpayers millions of dollars unauthorized by the contract.  

CDPAP is a Medicaid program that provides home care through lay caregivers to Medicaid patients with disabilities or significant medical needs. In spring 2024, the New York Legislature passed a statute that consolidated the management of CDPAP from hundreds of pre-existing “fiscal intermediaries” to a single fiscal intermediary, setting up one of the most lucrative contracts for administering a Medicaid program in the nation. The lawsuit alleges that although New York purported to conduct a fair bidding process to select the single fiscal intermediary during summer 2024, New York pre-selected PPL for the billion-dollar contract by conducting a sham bid process that resulted in PPL being awarded the contract in late 2024. 

The lawsuit further alleges that PPL and New York repeatedly made knowing misrepresentations to the public concerning the date by which PPL’s transition could be completed, intentionally concealing that, since the contract’s inception, both PPL and New York were aware that the transition would likely not be complete by April 1, 2025 – the contractually designated transition date – and would result in severe disruptions to patient care and harm to patients across the state. Worse yet, PPL and New York, without explanation, have disregarded key limits the contract imposed on the revenues and profits PPL was entitled to receive under the contract – limits that were central to the goal of saving hundreds of millions of dollars through the CDPAP transition. 

Instead of ensuring that PPL complied with the contract and protecting the American taxpayers, New York has permitted PPL to raid the CDPAP program of millions of dollars in excess revenues, billing at hourly rates in excess of those anticipated by New York prior to the contract award. As a result of PPL’s self-dealing and New York’s failure to require it to comply with the terms of the contract, the purported cost savings that the CDPAP transition was to provide largely have been erased. To date, New York and PPL repeatedly and willfully have misled the public and the New York Legislature concerning important aspects of the CDPAP transition, including, without limitation, the gross mismanagement of the program by PPL and New York. 

This case was investigated by the Civil Division’s Enforcement and Affirmative Litigation Branch. This case is being litigated by Assistant Director Patrick Runkle and Trial Attorneys Francisco Unger and Shimeng Zhang.