A Richmond man was sentenced today to 20 months in prison for theft of mail by a U.S. Postal Service (USPS) employee.
According to court documents, Terell Taylor, 40, a USPS employee and postal carrier assigned to deliver mail in Richmond from at least April 2023 through December 2023, stole mail entrusted to his care on multiple occasions.
Taylor then sold stolen mail in bulk to a co-conspirator in exchange for cash. For instance, on November 29, 2023, Taylor removed mail from the mail stream in his USPS vehicle and placed the mail in two black trash bags.
Then, Taylor sold the two black trash bags for $300.
Taylor was a multiple-time convicted felon with over 20 prior convictions for felony theft-related offences. He also had prior convictions for eluding police and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
As a bullet ripped through the ear of former U.S. President Donald Trump, federal snipers reacted swiftly to gun down the shooter in an assassination attempt on the presumptive Republican nominee for the November presidential poll.
“This evening, we had what we’re calling an assassination attempt on our former president, Donald Trump,” said Kevin Rojek, the FBI special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh field office. “We do not currently have an identified motive.”
In a live scene shown on TV, Secret Service agents rushed onto the stage to provide security cover for Trump, who was left with a bloody face.
The attempted assassination took place at Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Two Trump supporters were critically wounded, and one other shot dead.
The FBI said it had assumed the role of the lead federal law enforcement agency in investigating the incident involving the former president that occurred Saturday evening in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Special FBI Pittsburgh Field Office agents responded immediately, including crisis response team members and evidence response technicians.
“We will continue to support this investigation with the full resources of the FBI, alongside our partners at the U.S. Secret Service and state and local law enforcement,” an FBI statement said. “Anyone with information that may assist with the investigation is asked to call our tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI.”
Former U.S. President Donald Trump was rushed off the stage of a rally in Pennsylvania after a staccato of noises rang off in what sounded like explosives or gunshots.
The former American president appeared wounded with video footage showing a bloody ear of Trump.
Several attendees became hysterical and ducked as as the noises went off suspecting gunshots.
Secret service agents quickly rushed on to the stage to provide security cover for the former president and evacuated him from the rally.
As the security agents tried to move the ex-president from the stage, Trump was heard saying, “Fight!”
The presumptive presidential nominee of the Republican party also raised his first as security personnel moved to shield from further potential attack.
Trump’s spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement the U.S. former president was “fine and is being checked out at a local medical facility.”
A Secret Service representative, Anthony Guglielmi, said in a statement Trump “is safe.”
Cheung added, “President Trump thanks law enforcement and first responders for their quick action during this heinous act. He is fine and is being checked out at a local medical facility.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s supporters are upset with the media and the situation resulting in the disrupted rally.
A Queens, N.Y. man was arrested today in connection with an alleged scheme to steal over $3 million in COVID relief tax credits using the stolen identity of a corporate executive in New Jersey.
Linval Jackson, 32, was charged by complaint with bank fraud, bank fraud conspiracy, and aggravated identity theft. Following an initial appearance in the District of Connecticut, Jackson was detained pending a July 15, 2024 hearing.
He will appear in federal court in Boston at a later date. Jackson’s alleged co-conspirator, Isaiah Aaron Tenryk, was previously arrested and charged by a separate criminal complaint in May 2024. He was subsequently released on conditions.
According to the charging documents, Jackson and Tenryk allegedly used a fraudulent driver’s license as well as the name and Social Security number of a corporate executive in New Jersey to open a bank account in Boston.
Tenryk then allegedly deposited an approximately $3 million Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) check payable to the executive’s company into the fraudulent account.
ERTC is a refundable tax credit for certain eligible businesses that had employees and were adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
After the check was deposited, Jackson allegedly attempted to link the fraudulent account to other bank accounts he controlled to transfer the stolen money.
The charges of bank fraud and bank fraud conspiracy each provide for a sentence of up to 30 years in prison, five years of supervised release and a fine of up to $1 million.
The aggravated identity theft charge provides for a mandatory two-year sentence in prison to be served consecutive to any sentence imposed, one year of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes, which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.
U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross announced today that Charles Porterfield, 37, of Springville, NY, who was convicted by a federal jury of production of child pornography and committing the offence as a registered sex offender, was sentenced to serve 420 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Richard J Arcara.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul E. Bonanno, who handled the prosecution of the case, stated that in 2011, Porterfield was convicted in Erie County Court of engaging in a course of sexual conduct in the second degree and sentenced to five years in prison and three years post-release supervision.
Porterfield was also required to register as a sex offender for life. Less than one month after completing his post-release supervision, Porterfield paid a 13-year-old girl (victim) to engage in an online sexual relationship.
Porterfield used the Victim to produce images and videos of child pornography.
The sentencing is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Matthew Miraglia and the Northern York County Regional Police Department.
An Indiana CPA pleaded guilty yesterday to assisting in preparing false tax returns for clients who participated in an illegal tax shelter.
According to court documents and statements made in court, between 2013 and 2022, Jason L. Crace prepared income tax returns for clients that claimed millions of dollars in false deductions for so-called “royalty payments.”
However, as Crace knew, these “royalty payments” were merely circular flows of money designed to give the appearance of genuine business expenses.
In reality, tax shelter participants sent their money to bank accounts controlled by scheme promoters, who then returned the money to different bank accounts that the participants controlled.
This way, tax shelter participants retained control of the money they transferred while falsely deducting the transfers as business expenses on their tax returns.
Participants’ decision regarding how much (and even whether) to pay “royalties” was driven purely by the amount of income they wanted to shelter from the IRS on their tax returns.
Crace’s preparation of false tax returns claiming fraudulent “royalty” deductions caused a loss to the IRS of at least $2,532,936.
Crace is scheduled to be sentenced on January 14, 2025. He faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison. He also faces a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.
A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
A National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation has dismantled a prolific criminal network responsible for smuggling hundreds of migrants into the UK illegally. Key members of the Teesside-based network, including its figurehead, 43-year-old Muhammad Zada, were found guilty by a jury on July 11 following a six-week trial. Zada, from Middlesbrough, coordinated at least five conspiracies to smuggle Iraqi-Kurdish migrants into the UK from mainland Europe in 2017.
His associates were responsible for recruiting drivers and facilitating the movement of people into the country.
They were: Pareiz Abdullah, 41, Khalid Mahmud, 50, Marek Sochanic, 39, Gurprit Kahlon, 67, and Bestoon Moslih, 41.
Migrants were charged between £5,000 and £10,000 by the crime group to be hidden in vehicles, including refrigerated lorry trailers, and brought to the UK.
The first arrest was made in March 2017, when Milan Sochanic – Marek Sochanic’s father – drove a van from the UK to Belgium on two occasions to collect and transport people. He was stopped by French police at Calais on his second trip, and eight migrants were discovered hidden in the van among furniture.
Milan Sochanic was subsequently convicted of people smuggling offences in France.
Zada had purchased the van and arranged for ‘Milan Builders’ to be painted on the side before plotting the journeys with the help of Marek Sochanic.
On another occasion, the crime group organised for migrants to be smuggled from France and the Netherlands to the UK in the back of refrigerated lorry trailers containing fruit and vegetables.
The return journey from Rotterdam was foiled by Dutch police, who located 12 migrants due to be loaded into the lorry.
Pictured (L-R): Mohammed Zada, Pareiz Abdullah, Marek Sochanic (bottom), Gurprit Singh Peter Khalon, Khalid Mahmud and Bestoon Moslih
In the days that followed, Zada and his lieutenants arranged for migrants to be hidden inside a campervan, as well as in vans among bicycle boxes and a shipment of mattresses. On all three occasions, the journeys were intercepted by law enforcement officers – twice in France and once in Belgium.
The crime group also duped drivers to unwittingly smuggle migrants by tasking them to transport legitimate commodities between the UK to mainland Europe. People were then loaded into vehicles without the driver’s knowledge.
Zada is believed to have successfully brought hundreds of migrants into the UK illegally prior to these attempts. Footage captured by NCA officers shows Zada examining the campervan hired by his co-conspirator Gurprit Kahlon to transport the migrants from France.
Zada and other leading members of the smuggling network were arrested in a major strike across northeast England coordinated by the NCA in February 2018. The operation comprised around 350 officers from the NCA and its partners, including the North East Regional Organised Crime Unit and regional police forces.
Following a trial at Newcastle Crown Court, Mohammed Zada was found guilty of five counts of conspiring to facilitate breaches of immigration law.
Marek Sochanic, Khaled Mahmud and Pareiz Abdullah were found guilty on one count of the same charge.
Gurprit Kahlon and Bestoon Moslih both pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to facilitate breaches of immigration law at earlier court hearings.
Zada and Sochanic were convicted in their absence, having absconded before the trial began. Work to locate the pair and bring them into custody is ongoing.
All six men will be sentenced on September 20.
Martin Clarke, NCA Branch Commander, said,“Zada and his organised crime group didn’t care about safety and wellbeing of the human beings they were trafficking. They were willing to put them in dangerous environments like refrigerated lorries, all for a quick payday. We continue to work tirelessly alongside key international partners to disrupt the criminal networks, treating people as commodities and putting lives at risk.
“Tackling this crime type is a top priority for us – the NCA alone has more than 70 ongoing investigations into networks or individuals in the top tier of organised immigration crime or human trafficking.”
A man from Birmingham has been charged as part of a National Crime Agency investigation into the attempted importation of firearms components.
Thirty-nine-year-old Yasir Khan, from Sparkhill in Birmingham, was detained by officers from the NCA’s Armed Operations Unit on Friday, July 12, in the Jewellery Quarter area of the city.
The arrest follows the seizure of 72 firearm component parts, including top slides and barrels for handguns, found hidden inside the fuel tank and under the bonnet of a car which had been shipped from Pakistan to the UK.
The parts were recovered by Border Force officers on 7 July at London Gateway port.
Following his arrest, NCA investigators questioned Khan, and today (July 13), he was charged with the attempted importation of firearms. He will appear before Birmingham Magistrates on Monday, July 15.
NCA Senior Investigating Officer Paul Orchard said, “This operation has seen us prevent a huge array of gun parts entering the UK. These components could have been used to help build or adapt deadly weapons, which would have ended up in criminal hands.
“Working with our law enforcement partners, we will do all we can to protect the public by preventing illegal firearms reaching the streets of the UK.”
Officers are appealing for help in locating a vulnerable man from Canada who has gone missing in London.
Khaled Omeed, 30, has been visiting London with his family since July 10, staying in Hounslow. He became separated from his family on the Jubilee Line platform of Baker Street tube station at around 6:00 p.m. on Friday, July 12, and has not been seen since.
Officers are concerned as Khaled has a learning disability and is non-verbal. He is not familiar with London.
The family, who live in Toronto, were due to fly home today but have remained in London as efforts to locate Khaled continue.
“Anyone who may have seen Khaled is asked to call 101, quoting reference 672/13jul. For an immediate sighting, please dial 999,” Met police stated.
In 2023, 5.1 bribes were paid on average by each bribe payer in Nigeria in the 12 months prior to the survey, says the UNODC report. This represents a modest and statistically insignificant decrease in the frequency of bribe-paying from 2019, when on average 5.4 bribes were paid by each bribe payer.
It is estimated that some 87 million bribes were paid in 2023 (compared with 117 million estimated in 2019) – the equivalent of an average of 0.8 bribes per each adult.
The frequency of bribery is, on average, higher in rural areas than in urban areas. In 2023, bribe-payers living in urban areas paid on average 4.5 bribes, while those living in rural areas paid on average 5.8 bribes.
Out of all Nigerian citizens who had at least one contact with a public official in the 12 months prior to the 2023 survey, 27 per cent paid a bribe to a public official. In the context of comparable past estimates, this means that the prevalence of bribe payments in Nigeria has undergone a minor but statistically significant decrease since 2019, when it stood at 29 per cent.
When also accounting for instances where bribes were requested but citizens refused, more than one in every three interactions (34 per cent) between citizens and public officials in 2023 involved bribery.
Seventy per cent of Nigerians who were asked to pay a bribe in 2023, refused to do so on at least one occasion. The bribery refusal rate was found to be highest in the North-West (at 76 per cent), although all zones recorded refusal rates above 60 per cent.
Bribery is becoming less accepted in Nigeria. The share of citizens who think that bribery requests are acceptable in order to speed up administrative procedures decreased from 29 per cent in 2019 to 23 per cent in 2023. Fewer citizens report suffering negative consequences after refusing bribe requests in 2023 (38 per cent) compared with 2019 (49 per cent). This suggests that Nigerians feel increasingly empowered to confront corrupt officials without fear of repercussions.
In 2023, a sizeable share of all bribe-refusers (21 per cent) indicated that their main reason for refusing a bribe request was because they had other options of getting what they wanted. The data also show that normative concerns (42 per cent) as well as cost of living pressures (23 per cent) play an important role in explaining why Nigerians refuse to pay bribes.
