Category: Security

Source: US FBI

In early 2023, a unit in the FBI’s Criminal Division that focuses on child exploitation sifted through terabytes of communications and uncovered thousands of digital breadcrumbs that led to Nigeria. The Child Exploitation Operational Unit assembled priority lists of subjects to locate and interview in the West African country, including some of the cases that involved suicides.

The FBI, through the legal attaché office in Nigeria, coordinated all this with Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the country’s lead agency for investigating financial crimes. Other partners included federal agencies in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom that had similar sextortion cases resolving to Nigeria.

In late summer 2023, a team of FBI special agents, analysts, and forensic examiners—along with criminal investigators from the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)—set up a discreet temporary command post in the city of Lagos. The operation was dubbed Artemis after the Greek goddess who protects youths. In Nigeria, the teams worked in shifts for weeks at a time exchanging information with EFCC investigators to facilitate the arrests and interviews of Nigerians whose digital footprints appeared to connect them to some of the most appalling cases in the U.S.

“Everybody was equally invested in making this one goal happen,” said Special Agent Karen R., who managed the Bureau’s coordination of the sextortion cases that led up to the weeks-long operation in Nigeria. While Canada and Australia are well-known partners for the FBI, Karen pointed out that Nigeria’s EFCC has a uniquely strong track record of working with the Bureau, particularly on sprawling financial crimes that both countries are trying to stamp out.

“They are just as invested as we are in trying to make this problem go away,” she said. “We all know Nigerian prince scams. We know all of the scams that are traditionally done there. They’re aware of it, too, and don’t like that their country is known for that type of activity.”

Indeed, as everyone set out in the summer of 2023 to find and arrest the criminals and bring them to justice, Nigerian authorities were on a parallel mission of trying to dissuade would-be scammers in their own country from taking up sextortion and other financial crimes as an easy way to make money.

Poverty is widespread in Nigeria, and jobs and opportunities are scarce. Smart, tech-savvy, college-aged individuals with a phone, nude images scraped from the internet, and a script for duping faraway boys might view sextortion as a viable trade with little risk or downside. 

Source: US FBI

ALBUQUERQUE – A Canoncito man was sentenced to three years’ probation for his role in the violent 2022 assault that led to the death of John Doe.

There is no parole in the federal system.

According to court documents, on May 27, 2022, Landen Toledo, 21, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, along with Cole Ray Shorty, confronted John Doe at his residence to retrieve Shorty’s backpack. During the confrontation, John Doe exited his vehicle with a baseball bat. Toledo grabbed John Doe by the wrists, threw him to the ground, and kicked him in the stomach several times, causing him to drop the bat. Shorty then struck John Doe on the head with the bat. John Doe was left unconscious at the scene and later died from blunt head trauma.

Shorty pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 72 months in prison.

Toledo pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison and Philip Russell, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Albuquerque Field Office, made the announcement today.

The FBI Albuquerque Field Office investigated this case with assistance from the Navajo Police Department and Navajo Department of Criminal Investigations. Assistant United States Attorney Brittany DuChaussee is prosecuting the case. 

Source: US FBI

HOUSTON – A 64-year-old man has been convicted of all counts as charged for leading a Medicare fraud scheme involving the submission of falsified medical records, announced U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei.  

The jury deliberated for less than two hours before convicting Paul Njoku following a three-day trial. 

Njoku owned and operated a home health care agency called Opnet Health Care Services Inc. doing business as P & P Health Care Services. Njoku was the owner and CEO. 

The jury heard testimony from witnesses that Njoku, or others working at his direction, forged signatures of doctors and nurses. Specifically, Njoku and others cut out old signatures and taped them onto newly created doctors’ orders, nursing notes and nursing assessments. Medicare required home health agencies to maintain these documents to obtain payment for providing home health services. Njoku then submitted the falsified records in response to a request for records from Medicare. 

The jury also heard about a registered nurse who had departed Opnet in 2017. Njoku continued using her signature on nursing notes and assessments in 2018 and 2019 without her knowledge or consent. 

A witness also testified that Njoku bribed a doctor in exchange for approving home health services. 

From 2015 to 2019, Opnet billed Medicare over $400,000 in claims for home health services and received over $360,000. Opnet did not maintain the required documentation for many of them and later falsified records to support the claims.

During the trial, a representative testified that Medicare would not have paid these claims had Medicare known there was no documentation or that they were based on falsified records. 

“It is absolutely paramount that Americans—both as patients and as taxpayers—have confidence in the integrity of medical providers that receive Medicare funds. Here, the defendant unrepentantly abused that trust by engaging in bribery and stealing from Medicare,” said Ganjei. “With today’s guilty verdict, the Southern District of Texas aims to restore some of that lost trust. I thank the jury for their time and attention to this important case.”

The defense attempted to blame another person for the fraud. The jury did not believe those claims and found him guilty as charged.

U.S. District Judge Alfred H. Bennett presided over the trial and will set sentencing at a later date. At that time, Njoku will face a maximum of 10 years for conspiracy to commit health care fraud, five years for two counts of false statements relating to health care matters as well as another two years for the identity theft which must be served consecutively to any other prison term imposed. The convictions also carry a possible $250,000 fine for each count.

He was permitted to remain on bond pending sentencing.

The FBI, Department of Health and Human Services-Office of the Inspector General and Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christian Latham and Kathryn Olson are prosecuting the case.