Reports

A South Bay man who provided lifestyle and personal development coaching to students in public schools through a non-profit he founded was arrested today on an indictment alleging he and his accomplices fraudulently applied for millions of dollars in COVID-19 jobless benefits, including by using stolen identities.

BOSTON – A Lawrence woman pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Boston to separate fraudulent schemes that targeted banks and the Small Business Administration (SBA).

Jeannine Buford spent the money on personal expenses, including the $14,000 deposit on a 2017 BMW X6, a $5,000 couch and $1,855 to rent a luxury apartment in St. Louis.

BOSTON – A Stoughton man was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston for his role in a drug trafficking organization (DTO) that shipped dozens of parcels containing kilograms of cocaine from Puerto Rico to various addresses throughout Eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The defendant was also sentenced for his role in a bank and wire fraud scheme to fraudulently obtain COVID-19 pandemic relief funds.

Anuli Okeke, the former vice president and manager of a New York branch of Popular Bank was convicted yesterday afternoon by a federal jury in Brooklyn of all four counts of an indictment charging her with conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering conspiracy. The charges arose out of a scheme the defendant led to fraudulently obtain millions of dollars from the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

CAMDEN, N.J. – A former branch manager of a national financial institution today admitted using his position to organize a conspiracy to help individuals obtain at least 38 fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans totaling approximately $5 million.

Seattle – A 30-year-old New York City man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 42 months in prison for three counts of wire fraud and two counts of bank fraud related to his abuse of the COVID-19 Pandemic Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), announced U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman.

Jacksonville, Florida – United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces the return of an indictment charging James Elliott Davis II (35, Ponte Vedra Beach) with 16 counts of bank fraud, 12 counts of wire fraud, and 1 count of money laundering and theft of mail. If convicted, Davis faces up to 30 years in federal prison for each count of bank fraud, up to 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud, up to 10 years in prison for the money laundering count, up to 5 years’ imprisonment on the theft of mail count, and payment of restitution to the victims he defrauded.

Earlier today, in federal court in Brooklyn, a superseding indictment was partially unsealed variously charging seven members of the Brooklyn-based Hyena Crips gang with racketeering and using a firearm in the course of a murder in connection with three murders, murder conspiracies, robberies and identity-fraud schemes dating back to 2012.