Source: United States Department of Justice
SAIF FAIQ, 23, of St. Louis, Missouri, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Sarala V. Nagala in Hartford to 48 months of imprisonment and two years of supervised release for his involvement in an attempted robbery of Bitcoin and a kidnapping in Danbury in August 2024.
Source: United States Department of Justice
United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jamie McDonald, announced today that MICHAEL VASCONCELLOS was sentenced to 30 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to fabricate hundreds of gas pipeline safety test results provided to a regulated utility company (“Utility-1”), resulting in Utility-1 incurring more than $60 million in remediation costs.
Source: United States Department of Justice
MOBILE, AL – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama announced an indictment charging six defendants in connection with an alleged tax fraud scheme that sought more than $177 million in fraudulent federal tax refunds. The investigation is part of ongoing enforcement efforts led by the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), in collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), to combat tax fraud and related offenses.
Source: United States Department of Justice
LAS VEGAS – An illegal alien from Mexico was sentenced today by Chief United States District Judge Andrew P. Gordan to 24 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release for illegally reentering the United States after having been removed from the country on two prior occasions. Chief Judge Gordan also imposed an additional four months for violating the terms of his supervised release from a prior conviction. The government recommended a combined sentence of 28 months in prison.
Source: United States Department of Justice
LAS VEGAS – A man who resides in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Los Angeles, California, pleaded guilty today to a scheme to defraud the Small Business Administration (SBA) out of nearly $54,166 in PPP and EIDL loan money that he was not entitled to receive.
Source: United States Department of Justice
TULSA, Okla.— A federal jury convicted Victor Kensington Colbert Jr. of two counts of bank fraud for his fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program Loan Applications. Colbert ran the non-profit organization Oklahoma Heartland Heroes Foundation from 2018 until 2022. During the Covid-19 Pandemic, Colbert applied for and received several pandemic-related loans, including two Paycheck Protection Program loans and one Economic Injury Disaster Loan Advance totaling $217,490.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
A Barbour County man will spend the next two decades in federal prison for child sexual abuse material offense, announced U.S. Attorney Matthew L. Harvey. Arlin James Fleckenstein, 36, of Belington, West Virginia, was sentenced to 240 months in federal prison for transporting child sexual abuse material.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
MACON, Ga. – The Department of Justice has selected Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike Morrison as a 2026 recipient of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA) Director’s Award for Excellence as a Criminal Assistant United States Attorney. Only 13 criminal Assistant U.S. Attorneys nationwide were recognized with this prestigious honor. Morrison was presented with the award during a ceremony at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., on October 28.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
A dual U.S.-Salvadoran citizen and Riverside County man has been extradited at the request of the Government of El Salvador so he may face trial for allegedly murdering a woman in front of their toddler son in 2019, then abandoning the boy, whom farm workers found several days later, severely dehydrated, hungry and showing signs of child abuse.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
A federal grand jury today indicted three foreign nationals living in Los Angeles County who registered to vote in California who are charged with knowingly lying under oath on their naturalization applications by falsely declaring to have never claimed to be U.S. citizens and by registering to vote in U.S. elections.