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Monday, dec 23
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US Attorney
News
Repeat PA Sex Offender Returned To Prison For Child Porn Charges:
Usdoj
A repeat sex offender from Philadelphia has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for possessing child pornography, authorities said. Christopher Daniels, 34, also was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Juan R. Sánchez to 15 years of supervised release for repeated child pornography and related offenses, U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero said on Wednesday, Aug. 28. Daniels was charged with those violations in an August 2023 superseding indictment, and in March of this year, a federal jury convicted the defendant of all six counts against him, including receiving child pornography as a s…
News
Philly Man Selling 500 Grams Of Cocaine Pleads Guilty In Federal Court
A 60-year-old man from Philadelphia has pleaded guilty to intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine, authorities said. James Pearcy pleaded guilty before Senior United States District Judge Kim R. Gibson on Aug. 20, U.S. Attorney Eric G. Olshan said. From January 2021 to around June 2021, in the Western District of Pennsylvania, Pearcy conspired with others to deal cocaine, Olshan said. Pearcy was intercepted on a federal wiretap obtaining quantities of cocaine that he distributed to others, he said. Judge Gibson scheduled sentencing for January 6, 2025. Pearcy faces a…
News
Saudi Arabian Stole School Bus From NJ, Busted In PA: Feds
A 24-year-old Saudi Arabian pleaded guilty on Thursday, Aug. 14, to stealing a school bus from Livingston last year and transporting it across state lines, authorities said. In Jan. 2023, police in Livingston responded to a report of a break-in and during a search of a backpack at the home, found a Saudi Arabian passport with the name Bader Alzaharani, US Attorney Philip Sellinger said. Two days later, a Livingston school bus was reported stolen from a parking lot across the street from the home where the break-in occurred, Sellinger said. Alzahrani was located in Stroudsburg, PA, and …
Sports
Drone-Flying PA Man Who Caused AFC Championship Game Delay Faces Prison Time In Maryland: Feds
A Pennsylvania man who flew a drone over M&T Bank Stadium during the Baltimore Ravens' AFC Championship Game loss is facing felony charges, authorities announced. Chadds Ford resident Matthew Hebert found himself in the crosshairs of federal officials during the Raves' loss against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, Jan. 28 and will now face prison time after taking several photos of himself with the drone at the game, which had to be temporarily suspended. "An administrative timeout... you may have not heard of one like that before. But it was a drone apparently that was interfering …
News
Convicted NJ Sex Offender Charged With Trafficking Child Porn
A retired Marine from South Jersey who'd previously been convicted of having sex with an underage Pennsylvania girl was arrested by federal agents on child porn charges, authorities said. A U.S. District Court judge in Camden released Matthew Knapp, 38, of Lindenwold, on an unsecured bond following his arrest by Homeland Security Investigations agents last week, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced on Monday, Feb. 27. The agents found Knapp sharing the images from his home, the U.S. attorney said. A warranted search of the residence produced the seizure of, among other things, “a co…
News
Climate
OF FEAR: Jersey Doc Admits Harboring Indian Nationals As Unpaid Domestics
A Jersey Shore doctor must pay $642,212 to two undocumented women from India whose true identities she hid for eight years while harboring them as unpaid domestics, federal authorities said. Harsha Sahni, 66, of Tinton Falls, also must cover $200,000 worth of treatment of a brain aneurysm that one of the women suffered while they worked in her and her family's homes, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said. Federal prosecutors required the payments as part of a plea deal that allowed Sahni to avoid the potential consequences of a conviction at a trial, the U.S. attorney said. In exchange, S…
News
Plea
Deal
: 10 Years, No Parole, Awaits Philly Dealer Who Slung Meth In NJ
UPDATE: A plea deal is sending a Philadelphia drug dealer who slung meth in New Jersey to federal prison for 10 years without parole, authorities said. Nasir White, 30, took the deal, pleading guilty to drug conspiracy, rather than risk the consequences of being convicted at a trial. He must serve out the entire sentence because there's no parole in the federal prison system. A fellow dealer, Shawn McGuriman, took the same deal and was sentenced in August 2021 to a decade behind bars, as well, authorities said. White and McGuriman had a half-pound of meth that they'd agreed to sell to anot…
News
Feds: NY Ex-Con Who Tried To Get Loaded Gun By Newark Airport Security Gets 3 Years, No Parole
An ex-con from New York must spend the next three years in federal prison, with no parole, for trying to slip a loaded, stolen gun and lots of ammunition past a security checkpoint at Newark Airport. Desmond Herring, 48, of Newburgh made a beeline for his gate when a TSA officer staffing the checkpoint X-ray monitor found the loaded weapon -- along with boxes of ammo -- in his carry-on bag on Nov. 29, 2021, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said. Port Authority police collected the bag and examined its contents, the TSA said at the time. Along with the 9mm pistol were 10 rou…
News
Accused Nancy Pelosi Laptop Thief Returns To Ren Faire: Reports
The Mechanicsburg woman accused of stealing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s laptop during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol will be heading to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire for a second time, according to numerous outlets citing court documents. Riley Williams, 25, has been granted permission to visit the annual event in Manheim a second time, PennLive reports. She was spotted in photos and videos breaking into the United States Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021, and stealing Pelosi’s laptop before later disposing of it, FBI officials previously said. She was arrested Jan. …
News
Bucks Man Causes $1.5M In Damage Stealing Copper Wire From Old Power Plants To Resell: Feds
A 43-year-old Bucks County man has been charged with causing at least $1.5 million in damage to old power plants while stealing copper wire, authorities said. The crimes were allegedly committed at four coal-fired power plants in Pennsylvania and Maryland, according to US Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero. Michael Garrison, of Croydon, PA, was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to destroy an energy facility, eight counts of wire fraud, two counts of destruction of an energy facility, and one count of filing a false tax return, Romero said. S…
News
Federal Judge Fines Mahwah Company $67,668 For Jacking Up Price Of N95 Masks By 400%
A Mahwah-based company that admitted selling N95 protective masks at a 400% markup to a grocery store chain at the beginning of the pandemic was fined $67,668 by a federal judge. TSC Agency LLC -- a logistics and freight forwarding company located off southbound Route 17 near the State Line Diner -- will also remain on probation for a year under the terms of a plea deal with the government, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said on Tuesday, April 26. TSC and two partners bought 250,000 of the filtering facepiece respirators at $1.09 apiece mask from a foreign manufacturer in mid-March 2020…
News
PA Man Who Illegally Reentered The US Nabbed With Illegal Firearm:
Usdoj
A 30-year-old Harrisburg man is heading to prison after he illegally reentered the US, but he wasn’t initially caught on those charges, according to a release by the US Department of Justice. Luis Miguel Mejia-Lugo fraudulently used the identity of a United States citizen, including a counterfeit social security card, to obtain a Pennsylvania Driver’s License— using the license to purchase a firearm, US Attorney John C. Gurganus says. He was found with the gun and arrested in Hazleton on Apr. 29, 2020, Gurganus says in the release. Mejia-Lugo had previously been deported as an “alien w…
News
NJ
Feds
: Miracle-Aspirin Investment Scam Sends Long Island Man To Prison For 4½ Years
A Long Island man must spend the next 4½ years in prison for scamming investors out of $3.5 million through what he claimed was a revolutionary new aspirin, federal authorities in New Jersey said. Donald A. Milne III, a 57-year-old repeat offender from Massapequa, defrauded more than 70 victims from throughout the country, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said. All thought they'd invested in what he touted as a “fast-acting form of powdered aspirin that could instantly stop heart attacks and strokes," Sellinger said. Milne used the money instead for a Caribbean vacation, boating expe…
News
Feds Charge Clifton Doc With Randomly Doling Out Large Doses Of Oxy, Xanax, More
A Clifton orthopedic surgeon was charged by federal authorities with prescribing high doses of addictive opioid painkillers to patients who abused, sold or otherwise didn't need them. Evangelos Megariotis, 68, prescribed Oxycodone, Xanax, cough syrup with codeine and stimulants “outside the usual course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose,” U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said. Megariotis, who owned and operated Clifton Orthopedic Associates, already has been banned by the state from ever again practicing medicine or prescribing drugs in New Jersey. State au…
News
South Jersey Doc Goes To Federal Prison For Forging $500,000 Worth Of Employer's Checks
A South Jersey doctor was sentenced Monday to two years in federal prison for stealing more than $500,000 from his previous employer and using it to pay his bills. Walter Sytnik, 35, of Voorhees, forged checks for five years from checks he stole from the medical practice where he worked as a bookkeeper before going to medical school, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said. Sytnik also opened and maintained credit card accounts at the same banks as the doctor at the medical practice, then forged the doctor’s signature on the stolen checks and paid his credit card bills with them, Sellinger s…
News
Ring Member Convicted In $565,091 IRS Scam That Sent Refund Checks To Same NJ Town
A New Jersey woman was convicted of participating in a massive ID theft scheme that had $565,091 in tax refunds from the IRS sent to a small section of the same town. Awilda Henriquez, 35, took her chances with a trial after three of her accomplices took guilty pleas. She was found guilty in U.S. District Court in Camden on Thursday of 27 counts involving defrauding the federal government, mail theft, stealing government money and aggravated ID theft, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. Ring members filed more than 3,300 tax returns in 2013 using the names and Social Security numbe…
News
Jersey Shore Man, 68, Who Used Facebook To Lure Young Out-Of-State Girl Gets 7 Years In Fed Pen
A 68-year-old Monmouth County man who lured an out-of-state girl to his home after posing as a young boy was sentenced Monday to a plea-bargained seven years in federal prison for getting her to send him pornographic images of herself. Local authorities had removed the child from the Union Beach home of Herman Christopher Jensen when the FBI began investigating his online activities. They soon learned that Jensen had assumed the identity of a 17-year-old boy named Kevin Bennett on Facebook “in order to entice and solicit [the girl] to send nude and sexually explicit images over the internet…
News
Feds Bust South Jersey Man With Homemade Explosives
Federal agents busted a South Jersey man with do-it-yourself explosive devices and the materials used to make them, authorities said. Among various other items, Thomas Petronglo, 63, of Vineland had a 5¾-inch diameter metal can filled with potassium perchlorate and aluminum with a fuse sticking out, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said Thursday. The mixture is commonly used in commercial fireworks displays. Honig said authorities seized several other improvised devices -- mostly plastic cylinders and cardboard tubes containing "explosive mixtures" that were wrapped in black electrica…
News
Feds: NJ Ex-Con Who Served Time For Scamming Charities Charged With $1.35M Investor Ripoff
A compulsive gambler from Passaic County who went to federal prison for three years for ripping off organizations that benefit schoolchildren and people with life-threatening illnesses went right back to scamming after he got out, federal authorities charged. This time, Gregory Ciccone, 43, of Woodland Park orchestrated a scheme that defrauded investors of $1.35 million, much of which he used to buy a $54,330 BMW, clothes, wine and more, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. Ciccone told the 22 victims that he operated companies that reserved blocks of rooms of luxury hotels that then…
News
Ex-BF Sentenced For Kidnapping Of NY Woman Found Dead In Suitcase
The ex-boyfriend of a 24-year-old Westchester, NY woman whose body was found dead in a suitcase in Connecticut has been sentenced to decades behind bars for his role in her 2019 kidnapping. Javier Enrique Da Silva Rojas, age 25, of Queens, pleaded guilty in White Plains federal court to kidnapping Valerie Reyes in New Rochelle and illegally transporting her to Fairfield County, where her body was found in a suitcase a week later in Greenwich. US Attorney Audrey Strauss announced that Rojas has been sentenced to 360 months in prison following his guilty plea in February last year. He was als…
News
Federal Grand Jury Indicts South Jersey Officer Who Pepper-Sprayed Handcuffed Driver
An angry South Jersey police officer doused a drunk driver with pepper spray twice after he’d been handcuffed, then filed a false report about the incident, an indictment returned by a federal grand jury on Thursday alleges. Another officer had handcuffed the disruptive driver and was beginning to put him in the rear of a patrol vehicle at a local gas station when Bridgeton Police John Grier III “grabbed a large can of OC spray and pulled out the pin,” Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael Honig said. Grier, 49, of Cedarville, told the officer to “step back,” then asked the driver, “Do you want to …
News
Grandparent Scam: Here’s How Pair From PA, NY Stole $300,000 From Elderly Victims Across US
At least 50 elderly victims across the United States were conned out of more than $300,000 by a ring of grandparent scammers who included a Pennsylvania woman and New York City man who confessed in federal court. Jacqueline Velazquez, 37, of Reading, and Daniel Duran, 33, of Queens played key roles in the phone and email-based scheme, Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said. Here’s how it worked, Williams said: Co-schemers based in the Dominican Republic called elderly victims throughout the U.S. Posing as a grandchild, or the grandchild’s attorney, they claimed they’d been j…
News
First Convict Sentenced Federally In Trenton Protest Firebombings
UPDATE: A South Jersey man was sentenced today to 28 months in federal prison for trying to set fire to a police cruiser during a video-recorded riot that broke out following a peaceful protest last year in Trenton. Killian F. Melecio, 20, of Columbus must serve just all of the sentence because there's no parole in the federal prison system. Melecio admitted via video conference in U.S. District Cout in Trenton earlier this year that he stuffed a shirt he’d gotten from another man into the gas tank of the vehicle and tried to ignite it on May 31, 2020. The protest earlier that day in respo…
News
Mobster Sent To Federal Prison For Beating Husband Of ‘Real Housewives Of NJ’ Cast Member
A Lucchese crime soldier was sentenced Thursday to a plea-bargained 2½ years in federal prison for throwing the current husband of former “Real Housewives of New Jersey” cast member Dina Manzo a beating in exchange for an extravagant gift from her well-known ex. John Perna, 44, of Cedar Grove testified last October that Thomas Manzo hired him in 2015 to assault David Cantin, who was dating Dina at the time. Perna told a federal judge he was armed with a “slapjack” when he and another Lucchese associate followed Cantin to a Passaic County strip mall and attacked him on July 18, 2015. In exc…
News
Philadelphia Tax Preparer From MontCo Charged With Filing Bogus Returns
The owner of a Philadelphia tax preparation business filed bogus returns for clients, a 29-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury charges. Eric Amaefuna, 65, of King of Prussia took a number of steps to defraud the IRS at American Financial Stewardship (AFS) in northeast Philadelphia from at least 2014 through 2016, the indictment says. These included claiming false or inflated employee business expenses, losses and miscellaneous deductions, as well as increasing the stated amount of state and local taxes paid, the indictment returned in Philadelphia says. Amaefuna's clients, in …
News
Feds: Rapping Philly Bloods Member Who Sold Drugs With Mom Gets 15 Years In Meth, Heroin Sting
A 29-year-old reputed gang member and Internet rapper was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for selling nearly two pounds of meth and heroin to an undercover Pennsylvania State Police detective, authorities said. Wiretaps caught conversations among Louis "Trouble" Morales, suppliers and customers during a three-month joint investigation of the FBI and State Police, Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said. The investigators learned that Morales -- a member of the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods Philadelphia Chapter -- had access to a "seemingly endless supply" of …
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