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Tag: US Attorney for Connecticut
Greenwich Investment Firm Founder Stole Millions In Clients' Cash: Feds
A 49-year-old Connecticut man faces potentially decades in prison after he allegedly defrauded and stole $3.5 million of his client's money for years, federal authorities said.
Justin C. Murphy, 49, of Stamford, is charged with 15 counts of wire fraud, five counts of money laundering, and three counts of tax evasion, the US Attorney for Connecticut announced on Tuesday, Nov. 5.
Murphy ran the Greenwich-based investment firm Mara. The company also went by Mara Investment Group, LLC, Mara Investment Management LP, and Mara Investments Global Management LLC.
Federal inv…
New Canaan Man Gets Year In Prison For Tax Evasion, Must Pay $237K: Feds
A Connecticut businessman who admitted to hiding cash from the government for a decade was sentenced to a year and a day in prison and had to pay more than $200,000, federal authorities said.
Vishal Dhar, age 56, of New Canaan in Fairfield County, pleaded guilty to tax evasion in May and was sentenced on Monday, Oct, 7, the US Attorney for Connecticut said. He must serve two years of probation after he is released.
Dhar was accused of operating multiple entities such as Grey Brown, Inc. (a holding company for several restaurants operating under the name “Oaxaca Taqueria”), West …
Drug Murder: Two CT Felons Charged In Brutal 2012 Slaying, Feds Say
Federal officials have charged two men currently serving prison terms for other crimes with kidnapping and killing a Connecticut man in 2012, authorities said.
Melkuan Scott, age 32, and Arthur Stanley, age 33, both formerly of Hartford, were indicted in February on charges of kidnapping resulting in death and causing death with a firearm, the US Attorney for Connecticut announced on Tuesday, April 11. They have both pleaded not guilty.
Investigators said Scott and Stanley kidnapped Serafin Velez in Hartford on Feb. 16, 2012, and shot and killed him near 1 Waverly Park, the…
Human Smuggling Ring: Mexican Nationals Extorted Workers They Smuggled Into CT, Feds Say
Two Mexican citizens smuggled several people to Connecticut for tens of thousands of dollars, and once they reached the state, the victims were extorted and forced to work off an impossible debt, federal authorities said.
Maria Del Carmen Sanchez, age 69, and Apolinar Francisco Paredes Espinoza (aka "Pancho"), age 56, helped illegally bring 10 people from Mexico to Hartford beginning in September, the US Attorney for Connecticut said. Federal investigators arrested them on Wednesday, March 1.
Sanchez and Paredes charged each person between $15,000 and $20,000, a debt they would …
CT Wife, Mom Sentenced To 2 Years In Prison On Drug Charges: Feds
The wife of an accused drug dealer and mother of a convicted drug dealer will spend the next two years in prison after she admitted to selling drugs for her husband after he was arrested, federal prosecutors in Connecticut announced on Wednesday, Feb. 1.
Maria Maldonado, age 50, of Hartford, pleaded guilty to drug charges last year, the US Attorney for Connecticut said. She is out on a $75,000 bond and must report to prison on March 1.
Trouble for Maldonado began in 2021 when the DEA raided her and her husband's home and found 13,000 wax folds of fentanyl, more than 300 loose gr…
CT Tax Preparer Helped Falsify Dozens Of Clients' Returns: Feds
A Connecticut tax preparer is out on bond after a federal court charged him with more than two dozen counts of helping his client falsify tax returns over several years, authorities announced on Tuesday, Jan. 31.
David Etienne, age 48, pleaded not guilty to 25 counts of tax fraud on Monday and was released on a $100,000 bond, the US Attorney for Connecticut announced.
From 2015 through 2019, Etienne ran tax preparation services at Los Maestros Inc, Los Maestros Group, Tax Experts USA, and Tax Experts USA Inc. Prosecutors alleged he helped clients prepare numerous federal ta…
CT Trio Charged With Trafficking Fentanyl
Three Connecticut men were indicted for selling a large amount of fentanyl, which they stored in a West Hartford apartment, after allegedly selling drugs to undercover Hartford Police and FBI agents multiple times between August and October of 2020.
Kyle "Bark" Pitts of West Hartford, 37, Curon "Buck" Johnson of East Hartford, 31, and Jabari Walcott A.K.A. Jabari Walcott-Greene of Hartford, 22, were all indicted for narcotics distribution-related charges on Tuesday, Nov. 17 by a federal grand jury in Hartford, according to U.S. Attorney for Connecticut John H. Durham.
All …
Westchester Man Charged In Fatal Jewelry Store Robbery In Stamford
A Westchester County man and two others from New York City have been charged in connection with the murder of a Fairfield County jewelry store owner.
U.S. Attorney for Connecticut John Durham said on Thursday, April 9, that the three were charged with federal robbery offenses in connection with the Saturday, March 28 robbery of Marco Jewelers in Stamford.
During the robbery, the owner, Mark Vuono, of Marco Jewelers was shot and killed.
The three charged were Thomas Liberatore, 62, of White Plains, and Robert Rallo, 56, and Paul "Tony Pro" Prosano, 59, both of Brooklyn.
Court documen…
Area Attorney Admits To Federal Tax Charges
An attorney in the area has admitted to failing to pay more than $225,000 in taxes.
Bethany resident William Palmieri, 56, pleaded guilty in Bridgeport district court to two counts of willful failure to pay income taxes, U.S. Attorney for Connecticut John Durham announced.
Palmieri, an attorney with a practice specializing in civil rights law, reported to the Internal Revenue Service, but did not pay, all the income taxes he owed, between 2006 and 2014, even though he had the ability to make substantially greater tax payments during that time, Durham said.
As of December 2017, Palmieri ow…
Woman Admits Stealing $1.1M From Fairfield County BMW Dealer
A Hudson Valley woman has pleaded guilty to stealing more than $1 million from an auto dealer where she worked in Fairfield County.
Vanessa Vence-Small, 50, of New Windsor in Orange County, pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing the money while working as a controller at Continental BMW of Darien, according to John Durham, U.S. Attorney for Connecticut.
From October 2014 to June 2017, Vence-Small made 65 unauthorized electronic fund transfers, totaling $904,659.29, from the dealership’s bank account to her personal American Express account, the statement said.
During that same time period, V…
