SCRANTON- The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Jerrod Curtis, age 42, Paul Daniel Chavis, a/k/a “Payne,” age 56, and Reneard Harris, age 68, all of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, were convicted on September 10, 2026, for conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and other drug trafficking offenses following a two-week trial before United States District Judge Joseph F. Saporito, Jr. According to United States Attorney Brian D. Miller, Curtis operated a…
WASHINGTON – Today, the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division along with the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the SBA Office of Inspector General, as part of a Heartland Fraud Surge announced the results of Operation No Doze, a surge of criminal enforcement actions targeting fraud in SBA’s small business COVID-era loan programs. During the summer surge between June 12 and Sept. 1, SBA-OIG and federal prosecutors in the Fraud Division and across over 40 U.S. Attorney’s Offices, with…
NASHVILLE – Helen Boerman, 48, of Brentwood, Tennessee, was sentenced to 42 months in federal prison for defrauding Medicare and other government health care programs out of nearly $7 million, announced United States Attorney Braden H. Boucek for the Middle District of Tennessee. Chief United States District Judge William L. Campbell, Jr. imposed the 42-month prison sentence on September 10, 2026, followed by one year of supervised release. Boerman was also ordered to pay $6,970,583.50 in restitution and a $100…
Office of the Inspector General · USAO - Tennessee, Middle
Ejiroghene O. Okuma, a financial adviser who defrauded an elderly client out of nearly $10 million, was sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison for wire fraud.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) · USAO - Georgia, Northern
Deputy United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Sean S. Buckley, and Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the FBI, James C. Barnacle, Jr., announced the filing of a civil forfeiture Complaint against approximately $61 million in cryptocurrency as the proceeds of black-market sales of sanctioned Iranian crude oil and petroleum products, intended to finance the Government of Iran and Iranian military components, including Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (“IRGC”)…
United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Ryan Raybould announced that four defendants — Donella Locke, Suekya Whitney (aka Suekya Locke), Shakoya Crenshaw (aka Shakoya Locke), and Krystle Locke (aka Krystle Edwards / Krystal Locke) — were indicted in two related fraud schemes involving the exploitation of elderly or vulnerable individuals entrusted to their care.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) · USAO - Texas, Northern
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas has charged another 218 people in immigration and border security-related matters from Sept. 4–10
PHOENIX, Ariz. – During the week of enforcement operations from Sep. 5 through Sep. 11, 2026, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona brought immigration-related criminal charges against 306 individuals.
Joseph Randall Summerlin, 52, of Billings, Montana, was sentenced to 50 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release for distribution of methamphetamine.
Criminal - Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section · Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
COVINGTON, Ky. – A Cincinnati man, Juan Wesley McKenzie, Jr., 25, was sentenced to 300 months in prison on Friday by Chief U.S. District Judge David Bunning for distribution of fentanyl resulting in death. According to court documents, McKenzie supplied fentanyl pills to Andrew Rossi, who then distributed portions of those pills to Steffany Keene. Keene subsequently sold several pills to a victim, who consumed them and died from fentanyl toxicity. Following the death, investigators used the victim’s cellphone to…
A Delaware Army Reservist was arrested and made his initial appearance in federal court on September 9, 2026, on charges of production of child pornography, receipt of child pornography, possession of child pornography, and travel with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) · USAO - Delaware
LEXINGTON, Ky. – A Louisville, Ky., man, Timothy Acker, 57, was sentenced on Thursday to 120 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell for possession of child pornography. Acker was previously convicted in 2018 for distributing illegal material involving minors and was a registered sex offender. In 2024, law enforcement investigated and identified Acker as an online user operating multiple illicit content‑sharing groups on encrypted messaging platforms. In early 2025, a separate investigation by law…
A Brooklyn woman was sentenced yesterday to 76 months in prison in connection with her leadership of a vast $64 million Medicaid fraud and illegal kickback scheme at her two social adult daycare centers and home health care company. The defendant was also ordered to pay over $56 million in restitution and to forfeit $5 million in fraud proceeds, including two properties, cash, and gold jewelry seized during a search of her home, as pictured below.
National Fraud Enforcement Division · USAO - New York, Eastern
BOSTON – A state leader of Trinitarios pleaded guilty yesterday to racketeering charges, including his participation in two murders and two other attempted murders.
MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Adrian Alcantar-Sanchez, a/k/a Pedro Ruiz-Betancur, age 46, a Mexican national unlawfully present in McIntosh County, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 78 months in prison for one count of Possession with Intent to Distribute Fentanyl and 78 months imprisonment for one count of Unlawful Reentry of Removed Alien. The sentences were ordered to run concurrently. On November 14, 2025, Alcantar-Sanchez pleaded guilty to…
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) · USAO - Oklahoma, Eastern
A four-times deported illegal alien from Mexico was sentenced today to 135 months in prison for knowingly selling more than pound quantities of fentanyl pills to a buyer to whom he also sold firearms and ammunition.
INDIANAPOLIS- Jonathan Andrew Jones, 31, of Lafayette, has petitioned to plead guilty to two counts of wire fraud for a $325,000 COVID-19 relief fraud scheme. The charges were brought as part of the Trump Administration’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud. Jones is currently scheduled to formally enter his guilty plea and be sentenced on November 19, 2026. According to court documents, during the relevant period, Jones was a medical student in Indiana and the sole owner of a purported tutoring business called Med…
United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jamie McDonald, and Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), James C. Barnacle, Jr., announced today that ILIT RAZ, the founder and former Chief Executive Officer of Joonko Diversity, Inc. (“Joonko”), pled guilty to securities fraud for her role in a scheme to defraud investors and mislead them about core aspects of the company she founded, including the identity and quantity of Joonko’s…
Federal prosecutors in the Western District of Texas filed 500 new immigration and immigration-related criminal cases from August 28 through September 10
United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jamie McDonald, announced today that DUSTIN TOMPKINS, a registered sex offender, was charged with sexual exploitation of children by persuading, and attempting to persuade, them to create and send him sexually explicit images, receipt and distribution of child pornography, and committing offenses against children while being a registered sex offender.
Scott Devries, 57, from Hardy, Iowa, was sentenced in federal court in Sioux City on September 11, 2026, to 90 months’ imprisonment. Devries pled guilty April 20, 2026, to one count of possession of child pornography. Evidence at the hearings showed that between January 2021 and August 2022, Devries possessed and received visual depictions of child pornography, which included prepubescent minors or a minor under the age of 12. While executing a search warrant, law enforcement discovered 20 electronic devices that…
A 54-year-old man employed at a northern Ohio dairy was sentenced after he admitted responsibility for environmental pollutants that were dumped into a waterway.
James David Johnson, 58, of Santee, California, was sentenced today to 151 months in prison and 10 years of supervised release for distributing images and videos over the dark web that depicted the sexual abuse of children.
Criminal Division · Criminal - Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section