Category: MIL-OSI

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

BRYAN JOYCE, 40, of Southington, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill in Bridgeport to 90 months of imprisonment and three years of supervised release for offenses related to his selling privately made AR-15-style firearms, ammunition, and marijuana.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Sunseeker International Limited and Sunseeker USA Sales Co. Inc. (Sunseeker) pleaded guilty this week to two violations of the Lacey Act for using illegally obtained Burmese Teak on yachts that it imported into the United States. Sunseeker agreed to pay a fine of $200,000, and to implement a compliance plan, among other penalties. Sunseeker manufactures luxury performance motor yachts and superyachts. 

“Congress amended the Lacey Act in 2008 to prohibit the importation of illegally harvested timber,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). “By enforcing the law, we ensure a level playing field for companies that follow the law. Timber trafficking is the third most lucrative form of transnational crime, so enforcing the law keeps money from flowing into criminal enterprises.”

“South Florida is one of the world’s great gateways for luxury vessels, but our ports are not open to illegal goods,” said U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida. “Sunseeker admitted that illegally obtained Burmese teak was used on yachts imported into the United States. That matters. Trafficking in illegal timber, wildlife, and other protected natural resources harms legitimate businesses, supports corrupt supply chains, and turns the natural world into profit for criminal organizations. This guilty plea, fine, and compliance requirements are a direct step toward accountability.”

“Timber trafficking is a transnational crime that damages forests and puts legitimate businesses at a disadvantage,” said Assistant Director Doug Ault, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement. “We are actively disrupting illegal timber supply chains and holding violators accountable under the Lacey Act. This case is part of our ongoing work to protect natural resources and ensure American markets aren’t a destination for illegal goods.”

Sunseeker manufactures its vessels in the United Kingdom (U.K.) and sells them internationally, including in the United States. Sunseeker pleaded guilty to using Burmese Teak on their yachts, specifically, a Teak balcony door intended to be incorporated into a yacht, and Teak parts incorporated into two yachts priced at approximately $2.98 million and $1.07 million, respectively.

The illegal logging of Teak in Myanmar has been a known problem since at least 2017. Both the U.S. and the U.K. have imposed sanctions against Myanmar and the U.S. has sanctioned the Myanma Timber Enterprise (MTE), the sole authorized seller of export Teak harvested in Myanmar. U.S. sanctions prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or those transiting the U.S. that involve any property or interest in property associated with the MTE. The U.K. has concluded that timber harvesting, specifically Teak, has financially supported dictatorships in Myanmar.

Sunseeker was previously charged in the U.K. and pleaded guilty in 2023 to three criminal violations of the U.K.’s Timber and Timber Products Regulations (UKTR). The company was sentenced and fined approximately $450,000. The Teak imports that Sunseeker imported into the U.S. came from the illegal Teak imports charged in the U.K. case.

Sunseeker is set to be sentenced on Aug. 20.

Last month, ENRD hosted a TIMBER Working Group roundtable where ENRD PDAAG Gustafson outlined ENRD’s commitment to enforcing timber trafficking laws. It is estimated that the U.S. forest products industry loses $500 million annually to trafficking through depressed wood prices and lost export opportunities.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigated the case.

Trial Attorney Emily R. Stone of ENRD’s Environmental Crimes Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosenfeld for the Southern District of Florida are prosecuting the case.

ENRD is a member of the Department of Justice’s Trade Fraud Task Force, a cross-agency law enforcement effort that also involves the Criminal and Civil Divisions’ Fraud Sections, ENRD, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, the Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Attorney’s Offices nationwide. The Task Force was created to leverage all of the Department’s tools and authorities to prevent trade fraud that deprives the government of vital revenue, threatens critical domestic industries, undermines consumer confidence, and weakens national security. The Task Force is designed to pursue enforcement actions against parties who seek to evade tariffs and other duties, as well as smugglers who seek to import prohibited goods into the American economy. The Justice Department encourages whistleblowers to alert the government to credible allegations of fraud, including utilizing the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act or through the Criminal Division’s Corporate Whistleblower Program at CorporateWhistleblower@usdoj.gov using the form available here.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Earlier today in federal court in Brooklyn, Michail Chkhikvishvili, a Georgian national also known as “Commander Butcher,” was sentenced to 15 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Carol Bagley Amon for soliciting hate crimes and distributing instructions to make bombs and ricin.

Chkhikvishvili is a leader of Maniac Murder Cult, an international racially motivated violent extremist group that is also known as “Maniacs Murder Cult,” “Maniacs: Cult of Killing,” “MKY,” “MMC,” and “MKU.” Chkhikvishvili recruited others to commit violent acts in furtherance of MKY’s ideologies, including planning and soliciting a mass casualty attack in New York City. He was extradited from Moldova to the Eastern District of New York in May 2025 and pleaded guilty in November.

“Chkhikvishvili, a leader of the ‘Maniacs Murder Cult,’ repeatedly called for the murder of innocent civilians, including children, and schemed to attack and terrorize Jewish communities and racial minorities in the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. “Chkhikvishvili, for example, tried to recruit a supposed associate to dress up as Santa Claus and pass out poisoned candy to minority children. Today’s sentence takes a monster off our streets and protects our communities at least for a time.”

“The defendant plotted abhorrent acts of antisemitic and racially motivated violence,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Individuals who plan and encourage this violence will not find refuge in the dark corners of the Internet. Together, with our law enforcement partners, we will relentlessly pursue these criminals, and hold them accountable.”

“The defendant is a hate-mongering menace who intended to hurt and kill children in the Jewish community and in other minority communities in New York City,” said U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. for the Eastern District of New York. “Thanks to our incredible law enforcement partners, he did not succeed and will now face justice for his cowardly acts. Today’s sentence sends a strong message to hateful extremists, wherever you are, who seek to spread fear through unspeakable violence: we will find you and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.”

“The defendant recruited others to commit violent attacks against the Jewish community and racial minorities, and he will now pay a steep price for his crimes,” said Assistant Director Donald Holstead of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division. “His twisted plans included poisoning children with candy around the holidays, but that plot was stopped thanks to the good work of the FBI and our law enforcement partners. The defendant was extradited from Moldova, showing once again that those who try to harm our citizens will not be able to hide overseas from the FBI and Justice Department prosecutors. We will spare no effort to make sure these criminals face justice.”

“As a leader of the white supremacist group ‘Maniac Murder Cult,’ this defendant concocted hate-fueled, mass-casualty plans and inspired others to commit attacks based on his vile rhetoric,” said NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. “This violent extremist’s intentions were clear: harm and kill as many Jews and racial groups as possible. But thanks to the work of our NYPD investigators, along with the FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, he is now off our streets and being held accountable for his hateful crimes.”

Mr. Nocella praised the outstanding investigative work of the FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, which consists of investigators and analysts from the FBI, the New York City Police Department, and over 50 other federal, state, and local agencies, as well as the Department of State, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, and the government of Moldova for their crucial assistance in securing Chkhikvishvili’s arrest and extradition.

Maniac Murder Cult adheres to Neo-Nazi ideology and promotes violence against racial minorities, the Jewish community and other groups it deems “undesirables.” Since approximately September 2021, Chkhikvishvili has distributed a manifesto titled the “Hater’s Handbook” to MKY members and others. The Hater’s Handbook encourages people to commit acts of mass violence, including school shootings, and includes Chkhikvishvili’s assertion that he has “murdered for the white race.”

In June 2022, Chkhikvishvili traveled to Brooklyn, New York. Beginning as early as July 2022, Chkhikvishvili repeatedly encouraged others, primarily via Telegram, to commit violent hate crimes and other acts of violence on behalf of MKY. This included soliciting acts of mass violence in New York from an individual who, unbeknownst to Chkhikvishvili, was an undercover FBI employee (the UC).

Beginning in approximately November 2023, Chkhikvishvili solicited the UC to commit violent crimes, such as bombings and arsons, for the purpose of harming racial minorities, Jewish individuals and others. In November 2023, Chkhikvishvili began planning a mass casualty attack in New York City to take place on New Year’s Eve. The scheme involved having an individual dress up as Santa Claus and hand out candy laced with poison to racial minorities. In January 2024, the scheme evolved and Chkhikvishvili specifically directed the UC to target the Jewish community, Jewish schools, and Jewish children in Brooklyn with poison. Chkhikvishvili sent detailed manuals about creating and mixing lethal poisons and gases, including ricin. 

Chkhikvishvili has incited multiple attacks and killings around the world:

• In January 2025, a 17-year-old student killed one individual and injured another before dying by suicide inside Antioch High School in Nashville, Tennessee. The attacker livestreamed part of the attack. Prior to the attack, in an audio recording posted online and attributed to him, the attacker claimed he was taking action on behalf of Maniac Murder Cult. The attacker’s manifesto explicitly mentioned Chkhikvishvili.
• In August 2024, an individual livestreamed himself stabbing five people outside a mosque in Eskisehir, Turkey, while wearing a tactical vest bearing Nazi symbols. A manifesto attributed to the attacker included explicit references to Chkhikvishvili and his violent statements. Before the attack, the attacker also distributed a link to the Hater’s Handbook and other violent propaganda.

The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s National Security and Cybercrime Section. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrew D. Reich and Ellen H. Sise for the Eastern District of New York are in charge of the prosecution, with assistance from Trial Attorney Justin Sher of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section, Special Agent Kristoffer Borch from the Eastern District of New York’s Criminal Investigations Unit, and Paralegal Specialists Rebecca Roth and Wayne Colon. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division also provided assistance.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

California-based companies Perfectus Aluminum Inc., Perfectus Aluminum Acquisitions LLC and four affiliated warehousing companies have agreed to pay a total of $549.5 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by knowingly and improperly evading, or conspiring to evade, antidumping and countervailing duties owed to the United States on aluminum extrusions imported from the People’s Republic of China (China).

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

GERALD COLEY, also known as “G Rock,” 56, of Bridgeport, was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge Michael P. Shea in Hartford to 37 months of imprisonment and four years of supervised release for trafficking narcotics in southwestern Connecticut.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

An illegal alien who unlawfully possessed a firearm at a Fayette County gun range and her husband, who lied to an immigration judge in an effort to secure his wife’s release from custody and who paid another woman to fraudulently purchase firearms that others attempted to smuggle into Mexico, have pleaded guilty to multiple felony offenses and now face years in prison.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Seattle – A 57-year-old Fox Island, Washington, man was sentenced late yesterday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to three years in prison for his scheme to steal from an elderly client who trusted him as a financial advisor, announced First Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd. 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Juanita Faye Holtschneider, 58, of Fort Polk, La., was sentenced to 33 months imprisonment, three years of post-release supervision, and ordered to pay $322,098.70 in restitution, for her conviction of wire fraud and willful failure to pay federal employment taxes. 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A Brooklyn tax preparer was sentenced on Friday to 36 months in prison for her role in a fraud scheme that fraudulently claimed more than $600 million in COVID-19-related employment tax credits.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Tiffany Williams, 43, of Brooklyn, conspired with others to file tax returns seeking fraudulent refunds based on the employee retention credit and paid sick and family leave credit, credits passed by Congress to aid struggling businesses during the COVID-19 global pandemic. From November 2021 to June 2023, Williams and her co-conspirators filed more than 8,000 false tax returns seeking COVID-19 related tax credits.

In total, Tiffany Williams and her co-conspirators sought more than $600 million in credits they and their clients were not entitled to receive, which caused a loss to the United States of approximately $45 million.

Williams previously pleaded to one count of wire fraud.

Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division and U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr. for the Eastern District of New York made the announcement.

IRS-Criminal Investigation, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case.

Trial Attorney Richard J. Kelley of the Criminal Division’s Tax Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Adam Toporovsky and James Simmons of the Eastern District of New York prosecuted the case.

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.