On August 5, 2019, Ivette Dominguez, 33 years old, an Investigative Assistant with the United States Department of Homeland Security (“DHS"), Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI"), pled guilty to an Information charging her with making material false statements to Special Agents from DHS, Office of Inspector General (“DHS-OIG"), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE"), Office of Professional Responsibility (“ICE-OPR"), in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1001(a)(2). Dominguez is scheduled for sentencing on Oct. 11, 2019, at 9:30 a.m. before United States District Judge Beth Bloom, where she faces a possible maximum sentence of five (5) years in prison. In addition, Ms. Dominguez will resign from her position with HSI as part of her Plea Agreement.
Ariana Fajardo Orshan, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Jay H. Donly, Special Agent in Charge, DHS-OIG, Miami Field Office, and Michael Moreland, Special Agent in Charge, ICE-OPR, SAC Southeast, made the announcement.
According to the facts admitted at the change of plea, Dominguez, in her position as an Investigative Assistant, provided support to the HSI Special Agents investigating various criminal offenses, including drug trafficking and immigration crimes. Dominguez was assigned to HSI’s Homestead Investigative Group (“HIG"), where her duties included conducting database and criminal history checks to further the criminal investigations being done by that group. In her position, Dominguez was aware that the HIG was conducting a proactive criminal investigation into illegal steroids distribution at the Homestead Air Reserve Base, and played an administrative supporting role in that investigation. Using the information she learned in her official position, in December 2017, she alerted a target about this investigation.
In May 2018, Dominguez contacted that target in advance of the target being interviewed by HIG agents and advised the target that the investigation was weak and that the target was under no obligation to cooperate with the HIG agents. In March 2019, Dominguez exchange a series of text messages with an individual who portrayed herself as a friend of the target. In reality, that individual was a DHS-OIG undercover agent (“UCA"). After the UCA told Dominguez that the target was going to be interviewed by DHS-OIG and ICE-OPR agents, Dominguez asked the UCA to tell the target to lie to the interviewing agents to protect her by denying that Dominguez had given her any warning about the investigation.
On April 26, 2019, Dominguez was interviewed by DHS-OIG and ICE-OPR agents, who informed her that they had received allegations that she had alerted that target about the steroids investigation. During this interview, Dominguez initially denied any wrongdoing, but after she was confronted with the text messages she exchanged with the UCA, she admitted that she had alerted the target about the investigation, had provided her with advice and information about the investigation, had warned her not to sell steroids to a person who would approach that target, and had asked that target to lie to interviewing DHS-OIG and ICE-OPR agents to protect her.
Ms. Fajardo Orshan commended the investigative efforts of DHS-OIG and ICE-OPR. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Edward N. Stamm.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
