Stowaway Found at Port of Houston Convicted

U.S. District Court Judge Reid O’Connor sentenced defendants Mohamed Toure, 58, and Denise Cros-Toure, 58, of Southlake, Texas, to seven years in prison each and ordered them to pay $288,620.24 in restitution. A federal jury convicted the defendants of forced labor, conspiracy to commit alien harboring, and alien harboring on Jan. 11 following a four-day trial.

A Michigan home health agency owner was sentenced to 84 months in prison today for his role in an $8.3 million scheme to defraud Medicare.

A Wisconsin woman pleaded guilty today to attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization. Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney Matthew D. Krueger of the Eastern District of Wisconsin and Acting Special Agent in Charge Michelle Sutphin of the FBI’s Milwaukee Field Office announced the plea.

The owner of a physical security school has been indicted by a federal grand jury for defrauding a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) program dedicated to rehabilitating military veterans with service-connecting disabilities and for making false statements to the VA.

The Department of Justice announced today that a former Tallassee Police investigator, Brandon Smirnoff, 27, pleaded guilty to assaulting a handcuffed, 24-year-old man. 

“As part of the department’s continued effort to safeguard and improve air quality, we remain committed to reducing the emissions of volatile organic compounds that contribute to high levels of ground-level ozone and so endanger the public health,” said Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark. “This settlement reflects the progress that can be made when the federal government engages in cooperative endeavors with its state partners.”

A Culiacan, Mexico man pleaded guilty to international money laundering in connection with his operation of a currency exchange house that received the proceeds of multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin smuggled into the United States by the Sinaloa Cartel, announced Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Robert S. Brewer Jr. of the Southern District of California.

An Indian national has been extradited to the United States from Singapore to face charges related to his role as an operator of a call center network that targeted U.S victims. The massive India-based telephone impersonation fraud and money laundering conspiracy defrauded thousands of U.S. residents out of hundreds of millions of dollars.