Financial Fraud: WILLIAM B. HUNGERFORD And TIMOTHY O. MILBRATH Found Guilty Of Conspiracy To Commit Money Laundering, And Six Counts Of Wire Fraud

<h2>Ex-White House Military Aide and Maryland Businessman Found Guilty For Operating Fraudulent EB-5 Visa Scheme<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>NEW ORLEANS – U&period;S&period; Attorney Peter G&period; Strasser announced that a federal jury returned guilty verdicts against two Maryland men for defrauding victims of over &dollar;15 million during the defendants’ operation of the New Orleans EB-5 Regional Center after Hurricane Katrina&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>After a three-week trial before U&period;S&period; District Judge Greg G&period; Guidry&comma; the defendants&comma; Maryland businessman WILLIAM B&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;BART” HUNGERFORD&comma; JR&period;&comma; age 58&comma; and TIMOTHY O&period; MILBRATH&comma; age 63&comma; a former U&period;S&period; Air Force colonel who served as a White House <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;category&sol;military-scammer&sol;" title&equals;"military" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" data-wpil-monitor-id&equals;"401">military<&sol;a> aide for three presidential administrations&comma; were found guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud&comma; conspiracy to commit immigration fraud&comma; conspiracy to commit money laundering&comma; and six counts of wire fraud&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The charges stemmed from their scheme to defraud immigrant investors who entrusted their money to the defendants to invest in job-creating companies in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina&period; As was alleged in the indictment&comma; HUNGERFORD and MILBRATH conspired together to defraud immigrants who sought to apply for EB-5 visas&period; The visa program permits immigrants to invest a minimum of &dollar;1&comma;000&comma;000&period;00 in a United States job-creating enterprise and obtain permanent residency if&comma; after two years&comma; that investment created or preserved ten American jobs&period; The minimum investment required was lowered to &dollar;500&comma;000&period;00 if the investment was made in a targeted employment area &lpar;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;TEA”&rpar;&comma; defined as an area with an unemployment rate of 150&percnt; of the national average&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The superseding indictment alleged that HUNGERFORD and MILBRATH formed NobleOutReach&comma; LLC&comma; to operate the EB-5 investment fund&comma; and they contracted with the City of New Orleans to run the New Orleans Regional Center&period; Because New Orleans was a designated TEA in the years after Hurricane Katrina&comma; immigrant investors only had to invest &dollar;500&comma;000&period;00 in order to qualify under the EB-5 visa program&period; HUNGERFORD and MILBRATH represented to investors that their &dollar;500&comma;000&period;00 investment would be used to create jobs in New Orleans and contribute to the rebuilding of the City&period; A total of 31 immigrants invested a total of &dollar;15&period;5 million in the defendants’ investment fund&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Evidence at trial showed that&comma; instead of investing the immigrant investors’ entire &dollar;15&period;5 million into New Orleans-based job-creating enterprises&comma; HUNGERFORD and MILBRATH fraudulently misappropriated investor funds for their own personal gain&period; HUNGERFORD and MILBRATH wrote themselves checks drawn from investor funds which they disguised as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;loans” or &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;loan repayments&period;” The evidence showed that the defendants created multiple companies in order to conceal the path of investor funds and misappropriate them&period; The defendants also spent investor funds to purchase vacation and rental properties for their own benefit&period; In the course of perpetrating the fraud&comma; the defendants made false representations to investors&comma; U&period;S&period; Citizenship and Immigration Services &lpar;USCIS&rpar;&comma; and the City of New Orleans&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As to each of the six counts of wire fraud&comma; along with conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud&comma; the defendants face a maximum penalty of twenty years in prison&comma; a &dollar;250&comma;000&period;00 fine&comma; and up to three years of supervised release&period; As to the money laundering conspiracy&comma; the defendants face a maximum of 20 years in prison&comma; a &dollar;500&comma;000&period;00 fine&comma; and up to three years of supervised release&period; As to the conspiracy to commit immigration fraud&comma; the defendants may receive a maximum of five years in prison&comma; a &dollar;250&comma;000&period;00 fine&comma; and up to three years of supervised release&period; Sentencing was set for December 17&comma; 2019 before Judge Guidry&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This was a very complex case with many moving parts&comma;” The U&period;S&period; Attorney’s Office noted&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;But it in the end&comma; it ultimately all comes down to greed&period; This scheme to defraud our community&comma; taxpayers and those lawfully seeking permanent residency in the United States&comma; occurred in the wake of one of the most turbulent times in our city’s history&period; Any attempt by perpetrators to conduct fraudulent schemes must not be tolerated&period; It is our greatest hope that this verdict serves as notice to everyone that justice will prevail in the end&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The protection of our citizens is one of the most sacred responsibilities entrusted to the FBI&period; The crimes charged&comma; not only involved stealing money from potential US citizens&comma; but also money that was to be utilized to help re-build New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina&period; The FBI takes a proactive approach to identify perpetrators involved in these crimes and will continue to investigate and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law&period; As in this instance&comma; these crimes truly victimized an entire community and are not tolerated by the FBI nor should they be tolerated by any citizens”&comma; said FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge Anthony Riedlinger&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>U&period;S&period; Attorney Strasser praised the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New Orleans Field Office&period; The case was prosecuted by Assistant U&period;S&period; Attorneys Matthew R&period; Payne&comma; Shirin Hakimzadeh&comma; Maria M&period; Carboni&comma; and Andre J&period; Lagarde&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Share This Article
Follow:
FraudsWatch is а site reporting on fraud and scammers on internet, in financial services and personal. Providing a daily news service publishes articles contributed by experts; is widely reported in thе latest compliance requirements, and offers very broad coverage of thе latest online theft cases, pending investigations and threats of fraud.
Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Exit mobile version