Con artists posing as immigration lawyers created fake legal documents and even staged sham court proceedings to dupe migrants seeking legal pathways to U.S. residency out of their hard-earned money, according to a five-count indictment unsealed in Brooklyn Federal Court on Friday. The indictment charges five defendants with wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, and two counts of false impersonation of an officer or employee of the United States, according to U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr.
Industry NewsA South Carolina woman has admitted to taking part in a years-long operation that used stolen credit card information to buy ski passes later resold at steep "discounts," according to reporting by The Salt Lake Tribune. Jamilla Greene, 34, pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, acknowledging her role in a scheme that investigators say ran from late 2020 through May 2024. The operation involved Ikon and Epic passes and lift products for Utah resorts, the Tribune reported.
Hall presented the work at that year's Tefaf Maastricht fair with an asking price of $650,000. It did not sell, but remained on display at Nicholas Hall Gallery while they continued to seek a buyer-at which point Matthiesen was contacted by Doyle. Over the next several years, Doyle and Matthiesen communicated electronically regarding Doyle's purported art dealings; the con artist claimed to manage the "art side" of a family trust with assets worth billions of dollars, investigators stated.
All 31 suspects in the explosive NBA gambling case were hauled into Brooklyn court Monday, squeezing into the largest courtroom in the building - as the feds hinted at least some may be trying to cut deals. Hoops Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups, 49, landed $5 million bail at the federal proceeding, while fellow defendants Sophia "Pookie" Wei, reputed Bonanno crime-family mobster Thomas "Tommy Juice" Gelardo and the rest of the alleged crew tied to the headline-grabbing case were there for status conferences.
Audricus Phagnasay, Jason Salazar, and Alexander Paul Travis (the latter being the US Army soldier) each pled guilty to one wire fraud conspiracy for providing their identities to North Koreans between 2019 and 2022 so the Norks could fraudulently get work at US companies. All three provided space in their homes for laptops issued by the companies they supposedly worked for and installed remote access software that allowed their North Korean comrades to appear to be working from the US, the DoJ said.
Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz have been charged with taking bribes from sports bettors to intentionally throw certain types of pitches, including tossing balls instead of strikes to ensure successful bets. According to an indictment unsealed Sunday in federal court in Brooklyn, Clase and Ortiz helped bettors from their native Dominican Republic win in-game prop bets on pitch speed and outcome by throwing certain pitches slower and down in the dirt, well out of the strike zone.
In some instances, the defendants received bribes and kickback payments-funneled through third parties-in exchange for rigging pitches. Through this scheme, the defendants defrauded betting platforms, deprived Major League Baseball and the Cleveland Guardians of their honest services, illegally enriched themselves and their co-conspirators, misled the public, and betrayed America's pastime. Clase and Ortiz are facing charges of wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery, money laundering conspiracy, and honest services wire fraud conspiracy.
Prosecutors said Wellesley and Burton, posing as executives at London- and Hong Kong-registered Bordeaux Cellars, raised $99.4 million by promising loan investors they would receive regular interest payments from "high net worth" wine collectors. The defendants allegedly claimed the loans were backed by an inventory of more than 25,000 bottles of wine, including from Domaine de la Romanee-Conti in Burgundy and Chateau Lafleur in Bordeaux.
Monica Cannon-Grant, a once-celebrated local activist, pleaded guilty to multiple charges related to defrauding donors to her nonprofit, which received significant attention in the wake of George Floyd's murder and other instances of police violence. Cannon-Grant, 44, and her late husband, Clark Grant, were accused of spending the donated funds on personal expenditures including hotels, gas, restaurants, food deliveries, nail salons, and travel. The accusations also included fraudulently collecting unemployment benefits and pandemic relief funds.
The file-sharing service company LimeWire said in a statement on Tuesday that it had officially acquired the Fyre Festival brand "after a competitive bidding process" that included Ryan Reynolds' viral ad agency, Maximum Effort. "Fyre became a symbol of hype gone wrong, but it also made history," Julian Zehetmayr, the co-CEO of LimeWire, said on Tuesday. "We're not bringing the festival back - we're bringing the brand and the meme back to life. This time with real experiences, and without the cheese sandwiches," he added.
