obÌåÓý

August 14, 2023 ¡ª Gholam ¡°Tony¡± Kowkabi and Karen Kowkab of Vienna, Virginia, pleaded guilty in federal court today to tax offenses relating to their failure to pay more than $1.35 million in taxes, arising from their operation of several restaurants in the Washington, D.C. area. Gholam Kowkabi also pleaded guilty to stealing more than $738,000 from the emergency small business relief funds his Georgetown restaurant¡ªRistorante Piccolo¡ªreceived during the COVID pandemic. As part of his plea, Mr. Kowkabi acknowledged having spent money, which was intended to help his business, on a waterfront condo in Ocean City, Maryland, as well as personal investments, vacations for his family, and college tuition for his child.

March 4, 2025 ¡ª The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont announced that on February 20, 2025, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging 25 Canadian nationals with participation in a ¡°grandparent scam¡± that defrauded elderly individuals in Vermont and more than 40 other states.

April 11, 2025 ¨D The former longtime head of the accounting department at the now-shuttered downtown Los Angeles plaintiffs¡¯ personal injury law firm Girardi Keese was sentenced today to 121 months in federal prison for enabling the embezzlement of millions of dollars from the firm¡¯s injured clients and for embezzling money from the law firm itself.

May 7, 2024 ¡ª A Tigard, Oregon man with a lengthy criminal history was sentenced to federal prison today for transporting an adult victim across state lines for illegal sexual activity and laundering the proceeds through a Portland-based bottled water company.

May 7, 2024 ¡ª A resident of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was sentenced in federal court to 120 months of imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay more than $97 million in restitution and to forfeit more than $30 million and the proceeds from the sale of a yacht for conspiring to commit health care fraud and conspiring to pay and receive unlawful kickbacks, First Assistant United States Attorney Troy Rivetti announced today.

June 28, 2022 ¡ª U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez sentenced Paulette Carpoff, of Martinez, to 11 years and three months in prison for her role in the biggest criminal fraud scheme in the history of the Eastern District of California, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

September 26, 2022 ¡ª A resident of Lekki, Nigeria, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to 5 years in prison for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for his attempt to steal nearly $2.4 million from the United States government, including approximately $500,000 in pandemic-related unemployment benefits, announced U.S. Attorney Nick Brown.

November 17, 2023 ¡ª United States Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero announced that Joseph Cammarata of Monmouth Beach, New Jersey, was found guilty on November 15, 2023, on five counts of tax evasion following a two-week trial in the District of New Jersey before U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan.

December 6, 2023 ¡ª In two separate indictments unsealed yesterday, Hans Maria De Geetere of Knokke-Heist, Belgium, is charged with crimes related to a years-long scheme to unlawfully export sensitive, military-grade technology from the United States to end users located in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Russian Federation.

December 18, 2023 ¡ª Gholam ¡°Tony¡± Kowkabi and Karen Kowkabi, of Vienna, Va., were sentenced in federal court today to 57 months in prison and 24 months of probation, respectively, for tax offenses relating to their failure to pay more than $1.35 million of taxes arising from their operation of several restaurants in the Washington, D.C. area. Gholam Kowkabi was also sentenced for stealing more than $738,000 from the emergency small business relief funds his Georgetown restaurant¡ªRistorante Piccolo¡ªreceived during the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of his guilty plea, Mr. Kowkabi acknowledged having spent money intended to help his business on a waterfront condo in Ocean City, Md., as well as personal investments, vacations for his family, and college tuition for his adult children.