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Philly Man Ran Interstate Sex Trafficking Scheme, Feds Say
A Philadelphia man will spend more than a decade in federal prison on sex trafficking charges, officials have announced.
Victor Clayton, 47, was sentenced to 15 years behind bars and 10 years supervised release for running an underage prostitution scheme that crossed state lines, US Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero said in a statement dated Thursday, Sept. 29.
On March 15, 2018, Clayton was arrested at a Dunn, North Carolina motel where police found him with two girls aged 16 and 15.
The 47-year-old had solicited the victims as sex workers at the motel, and had done the…
Jury Finds Lehigh Valley Man Guilty Of Cyberstalking Government Worker, Ex-GF, Ex-Wife
A jury found a Lehigh Valley man guilty of cyberstalking three different victims, including a government worker, his ex-girlfriend, and his ex-wife, authorities announced.
A five-day trial in Easton led to a jury finding Anthony Elonis, 39, of Bethlehem, guilty of three separate counts of cyberstalking on Friday, August 5, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Elonis was indicted by a Philadelphia grand jury in July after allegedly cyberstalking three victims between 2018 and 2021, the office said.
The victims included a government employee in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Elonis’ forme…
4 Convicted In PA Sex Trafficking Ring 'The Sevens'
Four members of a sex trafficking ring that ran out of a boarding house in southeastern Pennsylvania have been convicted, federal authorities said.
Shaquile Newson, 29, Alexander Malave, 31, Karvarise Person, 33, and James Goode, 47, were convicted on multiple charges, including conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors, the US Attorney’s Office said.
Federal investigators linked the quartet to "The Sevens," a "violent gang" that operated out of a 50-room boarding house on South 4th Street in Reading, t…
Owners Of Popular Philly Cheesesteak Joint Plead Guilty In Tax Fraud Scheme
The owners of a popular Philadelphia cheesesteak joint pleaded guilty Monday, May 9 to federal charges in a tax fraud scheme, authorities said.
Anthony Lucidonio, Sr., 84, of Philadelphia, and Nicholas Lucidonio, 56, of New Jersey, the owners of Tony Luke’s on Oregon Avenue were accused of hiding more than $8 million from the IRS for around a decade, according to the US Attorney's Office.
Federal prosecutors say the father-son duo did this by paying their employees in cash to avoid withholding payroll taxes between 2006 and 2016. The pair were indicted in 2020.
The pros…
Nationwide Hotel Chain's Corporate Credit Chief From NJ Admits Embezzling $300,000
A New Jersey employee who ran the company’s corporate credit card program for a nationwide hotel chain admitted embezzling $300,000, federal authorities said.
Marco Alvarez, 46, of Bloomfield, admitted that he “knowingly opened and used corporate credit cards to make $317,582 in unauthorized personal purchases” from April 2014 through January 2020, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
Alvarez, who worked as a senior analyst for strategic sourcing, tried to hide the thefts by “transferring credits owed to the hotel to these credit cards to offset the unauthorized charges made,” Sellinger …
$150M Bank Fraud: Teaneck Landlord Gets 8 Years, No Parole
A Teaneck landlord must spend the next eight years in federal prison -- without parole -- for orchestrating a $150 million bank and securities fraud scheme.
Seth Levine, 53, was the founding partner, owner, and managing member of Norse Holdings, the parent company to more than 70 subsidiaries, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
Each of the subsidiary companies owned one or more multifamily buildings, mostly in New Jersey, he said.
Beginning in 2009, Levine directed a scheme for nearly a decade to fraudulently refinance the multifamily properties by lying on refinancing appli…
Career Criminal From Connecticut, 73, Admits Committing Murder-For-Hire Of Jersey City Politico
A hardened ex-con from Connecticut admitted that he and a longtime criminal pal from Philadelphia stabbed a political consultant to death and then torched his Jersey City apartment in a murder-for-hire attack.
George Bratsenis, 73, of Monroe, CT said he and his partner were paid to whack Michael Galdieri, the son of former State Sen. James Galdieri (D-Jersey City) and a prominent figure in local Hudson County politics.
Bratsenis and the other killer, Bomani Africa, 61, were hired by onetime political operative Sean Caddle, who’d been an aide to former State Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) a…
Convicted NJ Child Porn Trafficker Gets 20+ Years In Fed Pen, No Parole, For Enticing Minors
A convicted child porn trafficker from Union County must spend no fewer than 20 years in federal prison for doing it again while soliciting two children to "engage in sexually explicit conduct online," authorities said.
Christopher Gardiner, 39, of Cranford, must serve out just about all of the plea-bargained 20 years and eight months that he was sentenced to on Tuesday, Feb. 8, because there's no parole in the federal prison system.
Gardiner, who'd been convicted of similar charges in Union County in 2007, conducted an "ongoing sexually graphic conversation on a web-based social media appl…
