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Police & Fire
Somerset County Man Tried Donating To Hamas, Threatened To Kill Israelis: Feds Somerset County Man Tried Donating To Hamas, Threatened To Kill Israelis: Feds
Somerset County Man Tried Donating To Hamas, Threatened To Kill Israelis: Feds A 25-year-old Somerset County man was sentenced on Monday, Sept. 30, to 64 months in prison, time served, after he pleaded guilty to concealing his attempts to provide support to Hamas, authorities said. Jonathan Xie, a Basking Ridge resident, admitted to sending money to Hamas to fund violent acts against Israeli civilians while brandishing a gun and holding a Hamas flag on an Instagram Live stream, US Attorney Phillip Sellinger said. He had pleaded guilty in 2020 and was being held without bail. In December 2018, Xie sent $100 via Moneygram to an individual in Gaza he believed was a membe…

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by Sam Barron
News
Love At First Site: Ex-NJ Couple, Nigerian Wingman Charged In $4.5M Cyberfootsies Scam Love At First Site: Ex-NJ Couple, Nigerian Wingman Charged In $4.5M Cyberfootsies Scam
Love At First Site: Ex-NJ Couple, Nigerian Wingman Charged In $4.5M Cyberfootsies Scam A former New Jersey couple and a Nigerian national scammed more than 100 lonely hearts out of $4.5 million in an elaborate online romance scheme, federal authorities charged. Martins Inalegwu, 34, of Philadelphia and Steincy Mathieu, 26, of Brooklyn cooked up the plot with Moses Chukwuebuka Alexander and several of his Nigerian brethren, an indictment returned by a federal grand jury alleges. Together, they trolled online dating and social media sites for willing marks, whom they “wooed with words of love” on the phone and in emails, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said. T…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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MATCH DOT CON: It's Back To Prison For NJ Serial Dating Scammer Who Escaped Federal Custody MATCH DOT CON: It's Back To Prison For NJ Serial Dating Scammer Who Escaped Federal Custody
Match DOT CON: It's Back To Prison For NJ Serial Dating Scammer Who Escaped Federal Custody A serial dating scammer from Atlantic City who escaped from custody while serving time for conning women throughout the country must spend another 5½ years in federal prison. Patrick Giblin, 58, had already served several years behind bars -- and was months short of freedom -- when he made a break for it in July 2020, authorities said. Giblin bolted while being transitioned to a halfway house in Newark from a federal prison in Lewisburg, PA, to serve out the rest of his sentence for duping multiple women in an online dating scam, they said. It was the second time that he'd escaped federal …

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Convicted NJ Serial Dating Scammer Captured After Fleeing Federal Custody Just Short Of Release Convicted NJ Serial Dating Scammer Captured After Fleeing Federal Custody Just Short Of Release
Convicted NJ Serial Dating Scammer Captured After Fleeing Federal Custody Just Short Of Release A serial dating scammer from Atlantic City who conned women throughout the country has been captured after escaping federal custody last summer, authorities announced Monday. Patrick Giblin, 56, was being transitioned from a federal prison in Lewisburg, PA to serve out the rest of a sentence at a halfway house in Newark when he bolted on July 23, 2020, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. Giblin had already served six years for a 2007 wire-fraud scheme when he was sentenced in 2017 to five more years after admitting he duped several women in an online dating scam. He was barely a ye…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Feds Praise Leonia PD After Ringleader Of International Call-Center Phone Scam Gets 20 Years Feds Praise Leonia PD After Ringleader Of International Call-Center Phone Scam Gets 20 Years
Feds Praise Leonia PD After Ringleader Of International Call-Center Phone Scam Gets 20 Years A worldwide investigation that produced a 20-year federal prison sentence for an Indian national who ran call centers that defrauded Americans across the U.S. out of millions of dollars got a huge boost from police in Leonia. Leonia Detective Michael Jennings, in particular, did legwork that helped federal authorities eventually identify Hitesh Madhubhai Patel, 44, as the ringleader of the transnational scheme. For that reason, police in the Bergen County borough near the George Washington Bridge got a shout-out from the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday. It began in 2015 when Jennings …

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
NJ Man Who Vowed To Shoot Pro-Israel Demonstrators, Bomb Trump Tower Admits Supporting Hamas NJ Man Who Vowed To Shoot Pro-Israel Demonstrators, Bomb Trump Tower Admits Supporting Hamas
NJ Man Who Vowed To Shoot Pro-Israel Demonstrators, Bomb Trump Tower Admits Supporting Hamas A Somerset County man who told Instagram followers he was wanted to shoot or run down pro-Israel demonstrators and bomb Trump Tower admitted Tuesday that he secretly supported Hamas. Jonathan Xie, 21, of Basking Ridge admitted during a video conference with a federal judge in Trenton that he wired $100 via Moneygram to a purported member of the Al-Qassam Brigades, a faction of Hamas that has conducted suicide bombings and other attacks on civilians inside Israel, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said. “Just donated $100 to Hamas,” Xie posted to his Instagram account. “Pretty sure it was illega…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Feds: NJ Couple's Online Dating Scam Costs Those Looking For Love $6 Million Feds: NJ Couple's Online Dating Scam Costs Those Looking For Love $6 Million
Feds: NJ Couple's Online Dating Scam Costs Those Looking For Love $6 Million A married South Jersey couple orchestrated an online dating scam that wooed victims out of more than $6 million, federal authorities said. Martins Friday Inalegwu, 31, and his wife, Steincy Mathieu, 24, both of Burlington County’s Maple Shade, employed several accomplices – many of them living in Nigeria – to romance victims online and then take their money, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Craig Carpenito said. After making initial contact through dating and social media sites with phony identities, the thieves struck up what appeared to be romantic relationships with the victims either throug…

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by Jerry DeMarco