Category: Security

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A convicted sex offender was sentenced today to 37 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release for producing child sexual abuse material (CSAM), announced Lawrence J. Cameron, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Jesse Thomas Cunningham, 30, of Morven, N.C., was also ordered to register as a sex offender after he is released from prison.

Robert M. DeWitt, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Charlotte Division,  Cardell T. Morant, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in North Carolina and South Carolina, Roger “Chip” Hawley, Director of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), and Sheriff Scott Howell of the Anson County Sheriff’s Office, join Acting U.S. Attorney Cameron in making this announcement.

According to court documents and court proceedings, in 2021, Cunningham assumed the identity of a minor on Snapchat to communicate with an 11-year-old female. Court records show that Cunningham induced the minor to send him sexually explicit images and videos of herself via Snapchat. Over the course of his communications with the minor victim, Cunningham gained access to the victim’s Snapchat account and used it to persuade two other minor females to create and send him images and videos of themselves engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

According to court records, on December 7, 2021, law enforcement obtained a search warrant for Cunningham’s phone. A forensic examination of the phone revealed that Cunningham possessed CSAM, including images and videos of the three minor victims he had contacted via Snapchat. During the investigation, law enforcement also found evidence that Cunningham had coerced the minor victims, threatening to expose them publicly online if they did not comply with his demands for additional CSAM. Cunningham has prior criminal convictions of Possessing Obscenity With Intent to Disseminate, Attempting to Extort Another, Felony Secret Peeping, and Indecent Liberties with a Child.

On October 11, 2024, Cunningham pleaded guilty to producing CSAM. Cunningham will remain in federal custody until he is transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

The FBI, HSI, SBI and the Anson County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nick J. Miller with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte prosecuted the case.

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 Justice Department. 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, visit www.justice.gov/psc.

This morning, in federal court in Central Islip, David Ibarra was arraigned on an indictment charging him with sexual exploitation of a child, coercion, and enticement.  Ibarra, an active-duty senior airman in the United States Air Force, was initially charged by complaint in February 2025 and ordered detained in Anchorage, Alaska, before his transfer to the Eastern District of New York.  Today’s proceeding was held before United States District Court Judge Joanna Seybert who ordered the defendant detained pending trial.

John J. Durham, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York and Leslie Backschies, Acting Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), announced the charges.

“As alleged, the defendant, a 31-year-old man posing as a 13-year-old boy, manipulated a vulnerable child into producing and sending him sexually explicit images and videos of herself via text message in exchange for money,” stated United States Attorney Durham.  “My Office will continue its relentless pursuit of sexual predators who target children and work to secure lengthy prison sentences in these cases to protect our community and children from such conduct.”

“As alleged in the indictment, this individual targeted and then repeatedly coerced a child into sending him sexually explicit photos and videos of herself—produced at his specific direction—in exchange for money,” stated FBI Acting Assistant Director in Charge Backschies. “The FBI is committed to finding and arresting the monsters who prey on vulnerable children, and we will continue to work with our partners to ensure these predators are off the streets and behind bars where they can no longer pose a danger to our communities.”

As set forth in court filings, law enforcement identified Ibarra from cell phone records obtained for an individual who was communicating, via text message, with a 9-year-old girl living in Suffolk County, New York, and soliciting sexually explicit images and videos from her in exchange for money.  During these communications, Ibarra, who claimed to be a 13-year-old boy named “Dave” living in Texas, repeatedly pressured the victim to send him more images and gave her specific directions as to what sexually explicit poses he wanted her to record (“Can we be a little dirty before we go to sleep?  Pls and I’ll send money…”).  Ibarra made approximately 17 payments to the victim’s Apple Pay account to induce her to continue producing sexually explicit images for the defendant’s gratification.  

This prosecution is part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices, 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 https://www.justice.gov/psc

The charges in the indictment are allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.  If convicted of the charges, Ibarra faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and up to 30 years in prison. 

The government’s case is being handled by the Criminal Section of the Office’s Long Island Division. Assistant United States  Attorney Paul G. Scotti is in charge of the prosecution.

The Defendant:

DAVID IBARRA
Age:  31
Anchorage, Alaska

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 25-CR-90 (JS)

---

Earlier today, in federal court in Brooklyn, Walter Stanzione and William Neogra, the principals of a fire alarm maintenance company, pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy.  Both defendants were charged with a decade-long scheme to defraud the City of New York by seeking payment on millions of dollars of grossly inflated fraudulent bills.  The proceedings were held before United States Magistrate Judge Joseph A. Marutollo.  When sentenced, each defendant faces up to 20 years in prison.

John J. Durham, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Leslie R. Backschies, Acting Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), Jocelyn E. Strauber, Commissioner, New York City Department of Investigation (DOI) and Harry T. Chavis, Jr., Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, New York (IRS-CI New York) announced the charges.

“For over a decade, the City of New York relied on the defendants to ensure that the fire safety systems in hundreds of city buildings were in safe, working order,” stated United States Attorney Durham. “The defendants abused this position of trust so that they could scheme and steal, defrauding New York City out of millions of dollars.  The guilty pleas announced today make clear that reprehensible conduct like this will be uncovered and prosecuted.”

“Millions of dollars went up in smoke as Walter Stanzione and William Neogra fraudulently inflated the cost of their company’s products to finance personal luxurious purchases,” stated Acting FBI Assistant Director in Charge Backschies.  “For more than ten years, the defendants charged various New York City clients exaggerated pricing for fire alarm systems and obfuscated this misconduct through doctored invoices.  The FBI remains determined to protect our city’s citizens and infrastructure from criminals seeking to unlawfully profit with little concern for safety.”

“Stanzione and Neogra orchestrated a scheme to defraud the City of New York.  They created shell companies to pass-through supplies sold to NYC agencies at inflated prices with false invoices.  Millions of dollars were billed over a decade, and the excessive profit left these fraudsters living large.  Today’s plea means the defendants’ lifestyle will go from extravagant in size to a reduction in square feet,” stated IRS-CI New York Special Agent in Charge Chavis.

“These defendants systematically inflated costs billed to multiple City agencies—including the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, the Department of Education, the Department of Environmental Protection, and the Department of Sanitation, for more than a decade,” stated DOI Commissioner Strauber.  “When vendors exploit their contractual relationship with the City by overbilling, they steal public funds from City taxpayers.  I thank our federal law enforcement partners for their commitment to protect the City’s resources and to ensure vendors who commit fraud are held responsible.”

As set forth in various public court filings and in today’s proceedings, the defendants exercised control over Fire Alarm Electrical Corp., a company that held numerous contracts with New York City agencies to repair and maintain fire alarm systems.  For more than a decade, the defendants overbilled those agencies by submitting fraudulent invoices with dramatically inflated prices.  They accomplished this scheme in several ways:

• The defendants created numerous shell companies that were secretly owned by defendant Stanzione.  After purchasing supplies from legitimate retailers, the defendants would re-invoice the parts through the shell companies for roughly three to five times the real purchase price, ultimately passing along those “costs” to the City.
• The defendants took advantage of pre-existing shell companies that were being used in other ongoing frauds.  For example, the defendants used shell companies created by convicted EDNY defendant David Motovich, which Motovich had used in an entirely separate fraud scheme that was also investigated and prosecuted by EDNY, FBI, DOI and IRS (21-CR-497).
• When city auditors became suspicious of the shell companies, the defendants fraudulently modified the documents of legitimate retailers, passing off the altered invoices from these companies as if they were genuine.

These methods enabled the defendants to submit millions of dollars of fictitious payment requests to four separate city agencies over an eleven-year period.  Defendant Stanzione, the leader of the fraud, then siphoned off much of the ill-gotten gains and used the stolen money to fund his family’s lavish spending habits.

The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Public Integrity Section.  Assistant United States  Attorneys Erik Paulsen, Michael Gibaldi and Eric Silverberg are in charge of the prosecution, with the assistance of Paralegal Specialist Kavya Kannan.

The Defendants:

WALTER STANZIONE
Age: 66
East Meadow, Long Island

WILLIAM NEOGRA
Age: 65
Millsboro, Delaware

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 23-CR-482 (RPK)

Matthew Podolsky, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York; Leslie R. Backschies, the Acting Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”); and Harry T. Chavez, Jr., the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations (“IRS-CI”), announced the unsealing of a four-count criminal Indictment charging SHAN ANAND, NOSAKHARE NOBORE, NICHOLAS PAPPAS, LEONARD UJKIC, SOLOMON ALUKO, a/k/a “D1 ReallyRich,” and JORGE GONZALEZ with a scheme to fraudulently obtain checks and launder the proceeds. Many of the checks were funds provided by the government for COVID-19 relief that the defendants stole before depositing into bank accounts opened using sham businesses or stolen or fake identities. In total, the defendants attempted to steal approximately $80 million and succeeded in depositing approximately $50 million.

Acting U.S. Attorney Matthew Podolsky said: “We allege that the defendants stole tens of millions of dollars in COVID-19 relief and other checks, and even used a ‘Fraud Bible’ containing instructions for committing fraud. This Office will not tolerate the exploitation of programs designed to support the public in times of crisis, and we and our law enforcement partners will hold those responsible to full account.” 

FBI Acting Assistant Director Leslie R. Backschies said: “These six defendants allegedly used sham businesses, stolen, and fake identities to operate a multi-year check fraud scheme, resulting in $50 million in illicit funds being deposited into their accounts. The defendants brazenly attempted to exploit multiple United States government programs in their attempts to illegally enrich themselves. The FBI will continue to ensure fraudsters attempting to lie, cheat, and steal from the Government answer for their crimes in the criminal justice system.”

IRS Special Agent in Charge Harry T. Chavis, Jr. said: “This group of suspects openly communicated about their fraud, taking pride in the multiple schemes that stole nearly $50 million from the American public. They lied and cheated a benefits system meant to help struggling businesses that need it, all while stealing checks from agencies who assist the elderly and veterans. This gang of ‘bag hunters’ will now face justice for multiple charges.  This time, the U.S. government were the hunters, and the arrests in this massive fraud case are ‘in the bag.’”

As alleged in the Indictment:[1]

From 2021 to 2025, the six defendants worked together to steal money from the U.S. government, banks, and individuals. The defendants opened bank accounts using fake or stolen identity information for individuals or businesses, and were assisted in doing so by one of the defendants who was a teller at a major bank. From the inside, he worked to open or alter bank accounts to advance the defendants’ fraud.

The defendants then deposited fraudulently obtained or counterfeit checks into the  accounts. Many of the checks were issued by the U.S. Treasury (the “Treasury”) based on false and fraudulent filings with the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) in connection with the Employee Retention Credit (“ERC”) and Qualified Sick Leave Wages (“QSLW”) credit. The ERC is a refundable tax credit for businesses and tax-exempt organizations that had employees during and were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Employers must have paid qualified wages to claim the credit. The QSLW credit is a related credit that was also established in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The defendants did not operate businesses that would have qualified for these credits. The businesses they used to open bank accounts and apply for the credits were fake or sham businesses.

Other Treasury checks passed as part of the defendants’ scheme were payments for different tax refunds, including personal and corporate income tax refunds. Still other Treasury checks were associated with programs at other government agencies such as the Department of Veterans of Affairs and the Social Security Administration. Some of the checks involved in the scheme—both Treasury checks and other business or individual checks—were stolen from the mail or elsewhere. Other checks were partially or completely forged.

Once the checks were deposited, the defendants withdrew the fraudulently obtained funds in cash or transferred them to other banks accounts under their control. Over the course of their scheme, the defendants attempted to obtain approximately $80 million in total. They succeeded in depositing approximately $50 million.

The defendants communicated openly about their fraud. One defendant sent another a video of a screen recording of a document or documents titled “✅ 2021 Fraud Bible ✅”, shown in the following image:

This “Fraud Bible” contained instructions on how to engage in various forms of fraud, including credit card fraud, ATM fraud, and mobile cash transfer fraud.

Since at least 2021, some members of the conspiracy have worn clothing items bearing a logo depicting a sack of money running along with the phrase “Bag Hunter.”

Certain members of the conspiracy wore this logo while engaging in criminal conduct. For example, the following image shows NOBORE withdrawing fraudulently obtained funds while prominently displaying the Bag Hunters logo:

*               *                *

ANAND, 34, of Queens, New York; NOBORE, 29, of Edgewater, New Jersey; PAPPAS, 28, of Miami, Florida; UJKIC, 44, of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; ALUKO, 29, of Hackensack, New Jersey; and GONZALEZ, 28, of North Bergen, New Jersey, are each charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison; conspiracy to commit money laundering and engaging in a monetary transaction in property derived from specific unlawful activity, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; conspiracy to defraud the government, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; and aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory sentence of two years in prison. 

The maximum potential sentences are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendants will be determined by a judge.

Mr. Podolsky praised the outstanding work of the FBI and IRS-CI. Mr. Podolsky also thanked the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the New York City Police Department for their assistance.

The case is being prosecuted by the Office’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime and Illicit Finance and Money Laundering Units. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Maggie Lynaugh, Steven J. Kochevar, and Qais Ghafary are in charge of the prosecution.

The charges contained in the Indictment are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.