News and reports from the Department of Justice.

News Release: WICHITA, KAN.- A federal jury convicted a Kansas man of defrauding federal and state agencies by a total of $355,550 in COVIID-19 business recovery funds.

News Release: WASHINGTON - The Bureau of Justice Statistics releases its report Federal Justice Statistics, 2021. The study found that arrests by federal law enforcement agencies declined 35% from fiscal year (FY) 2020 to FY 2021, reaching the lowest level over the past two decades. Due to the coronavirus pandemic...

News Release: Tampa, FL - United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces that Marques Howard (31, Tampa) has pleaded guilty to Hobbs Act robbery, conspiracy to commit that robbery, discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, and possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. Howard faces up to 20...

News Release: Jacksonville, Florida - United States District Judge Marcia Morales Howard has sentenced Scott Matthew Yotka (48, Jacksonville) to 60 years in federal prison for producing and distributing photos and a video depicting himself as he sexually abused two young children. Yotka was also ordered to serve a...

News Release: MIAMI - Jason Scott Carter, a 45-year-old former Coral Springs, Fla., police officer, must serve five years of probation and pay restitution following a federal conviction for fraudulently applying to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) for a COVID-19 relief advance grant and low-interest loan.

News Release: PORTLAND, Maine: A Hooksett, New Hampshire man pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Portland today to conspiracy and robbery charges stemming from a violent home invasion in York.

News Release: Bladimir Moreno, 55, was sentenced for leading a federal racketeering and forced labor conspiracy that victimized Mexican H-2A agricultural workers in the United States between 2015 and 2017. U.S. District Court Judge Charlene Edward Honeywell of the Middle District of Florida sentenced Moreno to 118 months in prison with three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay over $175,000 in restitution to the victims.

News Release: A federal court in the Eastern District of Michigan has permanently enjoined two Detroit, Michigan-area tax return preparers and their Detroit-based business from preparing returns for others and from owning or operating any tax return preparation business in the future.

News Release: PHOENIX, Ariz. - James Thomas Andrew McCarty, 22, of Charlotte, North Carolina, and formerly of Kayenta, Arizona, was arrested on Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022, following a federal grand jury indictment of 26 counts including Making False Statements, Cyberstalking, and Aggravated Identity Theft. A detention...

News Release: MINNEAPOLIS - A federal grand jury returned an indictment against a Maple Grove man for an armed carjacking at a Blaine grocery store, announced U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger.

News Release: Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that TAJH WILEY, also known as “Yung," 27, of Norwalk, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton in New Haven to 144 months of imprisonment, followed by four years of supervised release, for drug trafficking offenses.

News Release: GRAND RAPIDS - Barry Croft Jr., 47, of Bear, Delaware, was sentenced today to 235 months (19 years 7 months) in prison followed by five years of supervised release for conspiracy to kidnap the Governor of Michigan, conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction against persons or property, and knowingly possessing an unregistered destructive device, which was a commercial firework refashioned with shrapnel to serve as a hand-grenade.

News Release: NEW ORLEANS - United States Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that FRANK J. ADOLPH (“ADOLPH"), age 63, a resident of Kenner, Louisiana, pleaded guilty on Dec. 21, 2021 to conspiracy to defraud First NBC Bank, the New Orleans-based bank that failed in April 2017.

News Release: Baltimore, Maryland - U.S. District Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher sentenced Noland Rheubotton, age 57, of Baltimore, Maryland, yesterday to10 years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for an armed commercial robbery and for brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence.

News Release: SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - A St. Louis man pleaded guilty in federal court today to his role in a conspiracy to distribute kilogram-quantities of heroin in the Springfield, Mo., area.