News and reports from the Department of Justice.

News Release: Defendant Assisted in Theft of Laptop from Office Suite.

News Release: NEW ORLEANS - U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that DOMINIQUE ALAINA BERRY, age 33, a resident of Kentwood, Louisiana, was sentenced on Dec. 1, 2022 to 45 months in prison, the top of the range recommended by the United States Sentencing Guidelines, by United States District Judge Eldon E.

News Release: NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - DANTE BOWMAN, age 23, a resident of Florida, pled guilty on Nov. 30, 2022 before United States District Court Judge Jane Triche Milazzo to a one-count indictment charging him with possession with intent to distribute five hundred grams or more of a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of methamphetamine in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 841(a)(1) and 841(b)(1)(A), announced U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans.

News Release: TUCSON, AZ-A fugitive wanted for his involvement in a criminal drug enterprise was extradited from Mexico and returned to Tucson on Wednesday, November 23.

News Release: Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that DAVID McMANUS, 57, of Granby, was sentenced today by U.S. Circuit Judge Sarah A. L. Merriam in Bridgeport to 18 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for fraud and tax offenses stemming from his embezzlement of funds from his employer.

News Release: Baltimore, Maryland - A federal grand jury has returned a superseding indictment adding two new defendants to the nine defendants previously charged in relation to a Maryland and California unemployment insurance scheme. The superseding indictment charges the defendants with conspiracy to commit wire...

News Release: Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that GLEN CAMPBELL, also known as “Nick," 41, a citizen of Guyana residing in Queens, New York, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Kari A. Dooley in Bridgeport to 12 months and one day of imprisonment for helping to sell U.S. Savings Bonds that had been stolen from an elderly woman who had purchased the bonds for her grandchildren and other family members.

News Release: SANTA ANA, California - Suspended plaintiffs’ lawyer Michael John Avenatti was sentenced today to 168 months in federal prison for stealing millions of dollars from his clients - one of whom was a paraplegic with mental health issues - and for obstructing the IRS’s efforts to collect more than $3 million in payroll taxes from an Avenatti-owned coffee business.

News Release: MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA - Today, U.S. District Court Judge R. Austin Huffaker Jr. of the Middle District of Alabama, sentenced defendant Lonnie Mitchell, 36, of Montgomery, Alabama, to 60 years in prison for coercing several victims, including a minor, to engage in prostitution over the course of several years. There is no parole in the federal system. The judge also ordered the defendant to pay over $950,000.00 in restitution to the victims.

News Release: Tampa, FL - U.S. District Judge Charlene E. Honeywell has sentenced Jose Luis Pinargote-Baquerizo (37, Ecuador) to 16 years and 4 months in federal prison for conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute over 2,700 kilograms of cocaine. Pinargote had pleaded guilty on Aug. 23, 2022.

News Release: PHILADELPHIA - United States Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero announced that Christopher Lamont Stimpson, Jr., 24, of Greensboro, North Carolina, was sentenced to six years and six months in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $1,660 in restitution by United States District Court Judge Edward G. Smith for robbing a Lancaster County puppy breeder and his family at gunpoint in order to steal five French Bulldog puppies in October 2020.

News Release: MARTINSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA - Marcellos Carey Edens, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was sentenced today to 18 months of incarceration for an illegal firearms distribution operation, United States Attorney William Ihlenfeld announced.

News Release: ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Obsidian Solutions Group, LLC (Obsidian), located in Fredericksburg, has agreed to pay $510,991.08 to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by billing the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) for labor performed by personnel that did not meet contractual requirements.

News Release: Tampa, Florida - United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces the unsealing of four indictments charging Akinola Taylor (Nigeria), Olayemi Adafin (United Kingdom), Olakunle Oyebanjo (Nigeria), and Kazeem Olanrewaju Runsewe (Nigeria), with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, filing false claims with...

News Release: PITTSBURGH - A former resident of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, has been sentenced in federal court in Johnstown to 360 months’ (30 years’) imprisonment and a lifetime term of supervised release upon his conviction for violating federal child sexual exploitation laws, United States Attorney Cindy K. Chung announced today.