MIL Security Engine-1

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The Justice Department has filed a forfeiture complaint against two mission crew trainers that were interdicted in transit from the Test Flying Academy of South Africa to the People’s Republic of China’s People’s Liberation Army, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The Justice Department filed a forfeiture complaint against two mission crew trainers (MCTs) that were interdicted in transit from the Test Flying Academy of South Africa (TFASA) to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The MCTs are mobile classrooms intended to assist the PLA to train personnel on the use of airborne warning and control system and anti-submarine warfare aircraft.

“TFASA masquerades as a civilian flight-training academy when in fact it is a significant enabler of the Chinese air and naval forces and a pipeline for transferring NATO aviation expertise, operational knowledge, and restricted technology directly to the People’s Liberation Army,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. “The National Security Division will continue to act decisively to preserve the U.S. military’s qualitative edge by preventing U.S. technology from falling into the hands of our adversaries.”

“This seizure demonstrates the ongoing threat that China and its enablers pose to the national security of the United States through the unlawful procurement of U.S. military technology,” said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro for the District of Columbia. “The Department of Justice and our law enforcement partners continue to be steadfast in our commitment to use every lawful tool available to keep this critical technology out of the hands of our adversaries.”

“The Test Flying Academy of South Africa illegally exported U.S. military flight simulator technology and recruited former NATO pilots for the purpose of training China’s military, jeopardizing U.S. national security and placing the lives of American service members at risk,” said Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division. “The U.S. government will pursue every avenue available to defend the homeland, protect our warfighters, and hold accountable anyone who aids our adversaries.”

“TFASA’s continued attempts to leverage our nation’s military expertise and software gravely threaten United States’ national security interests and the lives of American service members around the globe,” said FBI Acting Assistant Director in Charge Vanessa Tibbits.  “May today’s disruption reflect the FBI’s unwavering commitment to protect our country from foreign adversaries.”

“This successful interdiction highlights the critical role HSI plays in safeguarding U.S. national security and preventing sensitive technology from reaching adversarial military forces,” said Special Agent in Charge Ricky J. Patel of Homeland Security Investigations New York. “By disrupting the transfer of advanced anti-submarine warfare training equipment to the Chinese military, HSI New York and our partners denied adversaries access to vital U.S. tactics and capabilities and, in turn, protected vital American interests. I commend HSI New York and our law enforcement counterparts for their steadfast commitment to countering illicit procurement networks and defending the integrity of U.S. defense technology worldwide.”

As described in the complaint, TFASA is a South Africa-based company that specialized in military flight testing and training through facilities in South Africa and China. TFASA was founded in 2003 with the support of the South African government to facilitate cooperation with China. According to its website, “TFASA Flight Test Services” trained Chinese military pilots for fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) training standards.

According to court documents, the MCTs and associated software were designed and manufactured, using U.S.-origin software and defense technical data, by TFASA. The purpose of the MCT project – dubbed “Project Elgar” by TFASA personnel – was to train PLA aviators on anti-submarine warfare techniques, expanding their capability to locate and track U.S. submarines working in the Pacific.

The MCTs’ layout was modelled after the P-8 Poseidon, which is manufactured by Boeing and serves as the United States’ primary anti-submarine warfare maritime patrol aircraft. The MCTs were designed to run software specially designed by TFASA for Project Elgar. The software used a basic flight simulator program designed and marketed by a U.S. company, which TFASA software engineers then enhanced using technical data relating to Western anti-submarine warfare aircraft, including the P-8 Poseidon. Former NATO aviators with training in anti-submarine warfare techniques were part of TFASA’s Project Elgar team.

This interdiction is the latest instance implicating TFASA in its role as a primary trainer of the PLA. In June 2023, the Department of Commerce added TFASA and numerous of its subsidiaries and affiliates in South Africa and elsewhere to the Entity List “for providing training to Chinese military pilots using Western and NATO sources,” which the Department of Commerce noted was “contrary to U.S. national security and foreign policy interests.”

This interdiction of the MCTs is a product of the U.S. government’s coordinated effort to stop the PLA and its enablers from further threatening U.S. national security. The forfeiture action comes as China, Russia, and Iran began a week of joint naval exercises in South Africa’s waters on Saturday, January 10.

The FBI and HSI New York Field Offices and the Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security are leading the investigation of TFASA and its activities.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Steven B. Wasserman and Rick Blaylock, Jr. for the District of Columbia and Trial Attorney Sean Heiden of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are litigating the case.

The burden to prove forfeitability in a forfeiture proceeding is upon the government.

MCT Inside Shipping Container Shipping Container Housing MCT Screenshots of Software Designed for MCTs

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced today that Khaled Abughanem, 53, of Lackawanna, NY, who was convicted by a federal jury of conspiracy to kidnap a person in a foreign country, kidnapping conspiracy, and threatening to retaliate against a victim, was sentenced to serve 204 months in prison by U.S. District Judge John L. Sinatra, Jr.  

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced today that Stuart J. McHenry, 35, of Hornellsville, NY, who was convicted of possession of child pornography involving a prepubescent minor, was sentenced to serve 108 months in prison and 10 years supervised release by U.S. District Judge Charles J. Siragusa.  

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

BOSTON – A Roxbury man was convicted yesterday in federal court in Boston for engaging in a scheme to cause the Massachusetts RMV to issue a Commercial Learners’ Permit (“CLP”) to an individual by providing that individual with the answers to CLP exam questions. In the state of Massachusetts, you must have a commercial learner’s permit before obtaining a commercial driver’s license.

Source: United States Department of Justice

Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit regarding Tribal fishing rights in Michigan.

More than 50 years ago, the United States successfully brought a suit to protect the off-reservation treaty fishing and hunting rights of the Tribal successors to the signatories of the 1836 Treaty of Washington. The Tribes with affected treaty rights were the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, the Bay Mills Indian Community, the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, and the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians.

Via consent decrees in 1985 and 2000, the district court allocated the fishery in the 1836 Treaty among the five Tribes and the State of Michigan. Following several years of negotiations and litigation, the district court entered a new decree in 2023 to replace the 2000 decree.

The 2023 decree, like its predecessors, equitably allocates the fishery to protect the Tribes’ fishing rights under the 1836 Treaty of Washington and provides for cooperative management between the Tribes and the State. The Sixth Circuit affirmed the district court’s issuance of that decree.

This successful outcome reflects the Justice Department’s historic role in protecting the rights and resources of federally recognized Indian Tribes and their members.  

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

ST. GEORGE, Utah – Brian Garry Sewell, 54, of Washington County, Utah, was sentenced to 36 months’ imprisonment, followed by 36 months of supervised release after he pleaded guilty to wire fraud that cost investors over $2.9 million. Additionally, in a separate case (4:24cr54), Sewell admitted that he operated an unlicensed money transmitting business where bulk cash was converted into crypto currency. In that case, he was also sentenced to 36 months’ imprisonment and 36 months of supervised release.  

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Tampa, FL – Lorenzo Valerio-Popoca (31, Mexico) has been sentenced by U.S. District Judge William F. Jung to 25 years in federal prison for conspiring to distribute and for distributing methamphetamine in the Tampa Bay area. A jury found Valerio guilty on July 31, 2025. U.S. Attorney Gregory Kehoe made the announcement.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

An indictment unsealed yesterday in the District of Kansas charged a Honduran man and Kansas woman for conspiring to submit, and submitting, a sponsorship application with false statements to the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to gain custody of an Unaccompanied Alien Child (UAC) after the child entered the U.S. illegally.

“This indictment represents the Justice Department’s ongoing commitment to prosecuting individuals who fraudulently pose as suitable UAC sponsors to obtain custody of vulnerable children,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “This conduct represents a violation of the societal responsibility to safeguard children. Our efforts are a continuation of the Department’s commitment to hold accountable those who commit crimes related to the exploitation of UACs, and will serve to strengthen ORR’s UAC program and ensure it is not manipulated.”

“We are determined to protect the most vulnerable members of our society,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan A. Kriegshauser for the District of Kansas. “This task often takes a multi-faceted approach involving multiple agencies and superior coordination. Given Task Force Alpha’s efforts, we are seeing real results, and my office is happy to be on the front line.”

According to the indictment, Romulo Hernandez Murillo, 45, a Honduran national without legal authorization to be in the U.S., agreed to pay defendant Lisa Marie Lopez Perdomo, 48, of Syracuse, Kansas, to assist him with applying to sponsor and obtain custody of a Honduran UAC. The agreement included being permitted to misrepresent himself by using Lopez’s address on the application to sponsor the minor. The defendants intended for the UAC to reside with Hernandez and work in the United States. In furtherance of his fraudulent sponsorship application, Hernandez submitted and signed, under the penalty of perjury, documents falsely claiming he resided at Lopez’s address. An employee of the HHS-funded care provider where the UAC was staying ultimately recommended that Hernandez’s application be denied after an investigation uncovered Hernandez’s false representations.  

The defendants are both charged with one count of making a false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement and one count of conspiracy to commit the same offense. If convicted of either offense, the defendants face a maximum penalty of five years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

This investigation was coordinated under Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA). JTFA, a partnership with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has been elevated and expanded by the Attorney General with a mandate to target cartels and other transnational criminal organizations to eliminate human smuggling and trafficking networks operating in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, and Colombia that impact public safety and the security of our borders. JTFA currently comprises detailees from U.S. Attorneys’ Offices along the border. Dedicated support is provided by numerous components of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, led by HRSP and supported by the Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section, the Office of Enforcement Operations, and the Office of International Affairs, among others. JTFA also relies on substantial law enforcement investment from DHS, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and other partners. To date, JTFA’s work has resulted in more than 435 domestic and international arrests, which includes those of leaders, organizers, and significant facilitators of alien smuggling; more than 385 U.S. convictions; more than 330 significant jail sentences imposed; and forfeitures of substantial assets.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) and Project Safe Neighborhood.

HHS’s Office of Inspector General and DHS’s Homeland Security Investigations are investigating the case with assistance from the Kansas Department of Labor, Special Investigations Unit; the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations; and the Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration. Additionally, HSI’s Center for Countering Human Trafficking in Washington, D.C., and ORR have provided invaluable assistance along with the United States Marshals Service.

Acting Deputy Chief Christian Levesque and Trial Attorney Matthew Thiman of the Justice Department’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Hart for the District of Kansas are prosecuting the case.

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