#wire-fraud

#wire-fraud

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.

Phagnasay, Salazar, and Travis pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud conspiracy for knowingly allowing IT workers located outside of the U.S. to use their U.S. identities between about September 2019 and November 2022 and secure jobs at American firms. The three defendants also served as facilitators, hosting the company-issued laptops at their residences and installing remote desktop software on those machines without authorization.

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.

According to court filings and the defendant's admissions, Rodriguez and his co-conspirator Edwin Carrion founded the Technical Trading Team (TTT) in the spring of 2020. Rodriguez had sole trading authority over the vast majority of the nearly $5 million raised from over 20 individual investors. Rodriguez and Carrion promised investors annual investment returns ranging from 18% to 24% and convinced them to invest based on a number of material misrepresentations.

Sanberg grew up in Villa Park and attended Servite High School, later describing the all-male Catholic school which accepted students of all faiths as being the place where his values were shaped. He moved on from Orange County to Harvard to Wall Street, where he built a fortune from early investments in companies like Blue Apron. Sanberg later said he ultimately found Wall Street exciting but hollow.

According to the indictment filed on July 31, Risan, 70, allegedly offered and sold stock and stock conversion in his software company, Media Rights Technologies, Inc., and his music streaming service, BlueBeat, Inc., to investors based on false representations, including false claims of BlueBeat's copyright ownership of approximately 2.5 million songs by various well-known artists.

According to the Central District of California U.S. Attorney's Office, a California man was indicted on 13 counts of wire fraud for scamming dating app users out of $2 million.

Judges noted, "Following the government's lead, we reverse these convictions," acknowledging the government's concession that acquittal should have been entered for specific counts.

Girardi, who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, was sentenced to seven years and three months in federal prison after being convicted of four counts of wire fraud.

Tramaine Liptrot, a former Miami police officer, faces nearly two decades in prison for fraudulently securing over $200,000 in pandemic relief loans.

"Her guilty plea today says what she refuses to admit in her media interviews: she broke the law, lied to the public, and used her office for her own personal gain."