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March 19, 2024 ¡ª An Aubrey woman was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $2.2 million in restitution for defrauding elderly victims in romance schemes, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.

April 8, 2024 ¡ª Sharon Lee Ann Gordon of Hurricane, Utah, was sentenced today to 12 months and one day of home detention, and three years¡¯ probation as a result of a guilty plea for stealing over $230,000 from an HOA during her time as the HOA Treasurer. In addition to her sentence, United States District Court Chief Judge Robert J. Shelby ordered Gordon to pay the remaining $63,448.32 in restitution to the HOA and $20,490 in restitution to the IRS for tax loss for unreported income.

October 23, 2023 ¡ª A former special agent with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has been sentenced to more than six years in federal prison for tax, structuring, and concealment offenses.

November 3, 2023 ¡ª A federal jury today returned guilty verdicts after a day and a half of deliberations in the trial against Pere Marquette Hotel developers Gary E. Matthews of East Peoria, Illinois, and Monte J. Brannan of Peoria, Illinois. Matthews and Brannan were jointly charged with five counts of mail fraud and 13 counts of money laundering. Brannan was also charged, individually, with three counts related to bankruptcy fraud committed in his personal bankruptcy case. Matthews was found guilty on all mail fraud charges and 12 of the 13 money laundering counts. Brannan, who earlier in the trial had pleaded guilty to the bankruptcy fraud counts, was convicted on all 18 remaining counts. Sentencing for both Matthews and Brannan is scheduled for March 27, 2024, at the U.S. Courthouse in Peoria, Illinois.

November 9, 2023 ¡ª A former Malibu resident was sentenced today to 188 months in federal prison for defrauding several individuals out of more than $3 million with bogus claims that he had access to stock shares of Alibaba prior to its initial public offering.

April 23, 2024 ¡ª A Deepwater, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for fraudulently obtaining more than $500,000 in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

April 26, 2023 ¡ª Dhirendra Prasad was sentenced to serve three years in prison and ordered to pay $19,270,683 in restitution for conspiring to defraud Apple, Inc., of millions of dollars and for related tax crimes, announced United States Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey and Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Special Agent in Charge Darren Lian. The sentence was handed down by the Hon. Beth L. Freeman, United States District Judge.

Oct. 1, 2024 ¡ª The former comptroller general of Ecuador was sentenced today to 10 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $16.5 million for his role in a multimillion-dollar international bribery and money laundering scheme in which he received over $10 million in bribes and laundered those bribes payments in South Florida.

Oct. 31, 2024 ¡ª United States Attorney Zachry A. Cunha announced today that a Rhode Island mortgage broker who purported to match borrowers seeking short-term loans with private lenders seeking high rates of return admitted to a federal judge that he misappropriated more than $1.5 million dollars of investors¡¯ funds by using the money to repay earlier investors, support his own international investment opportunities, and to cover personal expenses.

Nov. 13, 2024 ¡ª The U.S. Attorney¡¯s Office for the District of Colorado announces that Kimberly Ann Tew of Denver, Colorado was sentenced to 48 months in prison, and Michael Tew of Denver, Colorado was sentenced to 42 months for their roles in a wire fraud scheme that defrauded National Air Cargo, a logistics company and contractor for the Department of Defense.