Cyber Crime

Jelly Bean Communications Design and its Manager Settle False Claims Act Liability for Cybersecurity Failures on Florida Medicaid Enrollment Website Jelly Bean Communications Design LLC (Jelly Bean) and Jeremy Spinks have agreed to pay $293,771 to resolve False Claims Act allegations that they failed to secure personal information on a federally funded Florida children’s health insurance website, which Jelly Bean created, hosted, and maintained. “Government contractors responsible for handling personal information must ensure that such information is appropriately protected,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “We will use the False ... Read more

Two Chinese Nationals Charged with Laundering Over $100 Million in Cryptocurrency from Exchange Hack Forfeiture Complaint Details Over $250 Million Stolen by North Korean Actors WASHINGTON – Two Chinese nationals were charged with laundering over $100 million worth of cryptocurrency from a hack of a cryptocurrency exchange. The funds were stolen by North Korean actors in 2018, as detailed in the civil forfeiture complaint also unsealed today. In the two-count indictment unsealed today in the District of Columbia, 田寅寅 aka Tian Yinyin, and 李家东aka Li Jiadong, were charged with money laundering conspiracy and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. “The ... Read more

Ten Defendants Charged With Illegally Conducting Multi-Million Dollar Sports Gambling Business Ten defendants have been charged in federal court with conspiring to illegally conduct a multi-million dollar sports gambling business in the Chicago area. VINCENT DELGIUDICE, also known as “Uncle Mick,” directed an operation that accepted wagers from as many as 1,000 gamblers on the outcome of professional and amateur sporting events, according to a nine-count indictment returned Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Chicago. Delgiudice paid a service fee to a foreign sportsbook for use of its platform, and recruited gamblers to place wagers on a website, www.unclemicksports.com, according ... Read more

Construction Company Owner Charged With Fraudulently Obtaining More Than $2.75 Million in Chicago Housing Authority Contracts The owner of a construction company has been indicted for allegedly fraudulently obtaining more than $2.75 million in Chicago Housing Authority contracts designed to benefit minority-owned businesses. LESTER COLEMAN owned Coleman Development Corp., a Chicago-based construction company and certified minority-owned business. From 2010 to 2018, Coleman falsely represented to the CHA that his company would perform construction work sufficient to satisfy the agency’s minority-owned business requirements, which mandated that a certain percentage of work on CHA properties be performed by minority or women-owned enterprises, ... Read more

Texas Man Convicted of Conspiracy to Commit Theft of Trade Secrets A Texas man was convicted today by a federal jury in Washington D.C. of conspiracy to commit theft of trade secrets. Following a nine-day trial, Shan Shi, 54, of Houston, Texas, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit theft of trade secrets. Shi was originally indicted in June 2017 for conspiracy to commit theft of trade secrets, and a superseding indictment containing one count of conspiracy to commit economic espionage and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering charges issued in April 2018. Shi was acquitted ... Read more

Leader of Gift Card Fraud Ring That Stole More Than $700,000 From Target and Customers Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison Reverse-Engineered Gift Card Numbers and Stole Balances without ever Possessing the Cards A 30-year-old man arrested last year in Snohomish County, Washington was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to five years in prison and three years of supervised release for his scheme to defraud Target and its customers of more than $700,000, announced U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran. JEFFERY DOUGLAS MANN, of Marysville, Washington, led a group of five people who used a system to decipher ... Read more

Two Chinese Hackers Associated With The Ministry Of State Security Charged With Global Computer Intrusion Campaigns Targeting Intellectual Property And Confidential Business Information Defendants Were Members of the APT 10 Hacking Group Who Acted in Association with the Tianjin State Security Bureau and Engaged in Global Computer Intrusions for More Than a Decade, Continuing into 2018, Including Thefts from Managed Service Providers Rod J. Rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney General of the United States, Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Christopher A. Wray, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), Dermot ... Read more

9 Defendants Charged in Chicago in International Investigation Targeting “Romance Scams” and “Mystery Shopper” Schemes CHICAGO — Seven Chicago-area residents are among nine individuals arrested in the United States and Nigeria as part of an international investigation into online “romance scams” and “mystery shopper” schemes. During the Chicago-based investigation, dubbed “Operation Gold Phish,” law enforcement identified a variety of cyber-enabled fraud schemes allegedly carried out by conspirators in the U.S. and Nigeria. One of the alleged schemes involved “romance scams,” in which a conspirator builds trust with a victim through a purported online romance before convincing the victim to send ... Read more

Seattle Man Sentenced to Prison for Cyberstalking Campaign Against a Former Friend and a Co-Worker Harassed Victims with Multiple Texts, Phone Calls, Death Threats, False Online Service Subscriptions and Posed as Reporter Investigating Sex Abuse Allegations A former Seattle, Washington information technology professional was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 30 months in prison and three years of supervised release for conducting cyberstalking and threat campaigns against multiple victims, announced U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes. JOEL KURZYNSKI, 39, was also ordered to pay $37,682 in restitution to the victims. At the sentencing hearing U.S. District Judge Robert ... Read more

Leader Of Darknet ItalianMafiaBrussels Drug Trafficking Organization Sentenced To 11 Years’ Imprisonment DENVER – U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer announced that on September 26, 2018, U.S. District Court Judge R. Brooke Jackson sentenced Filip Lucian Simion, age 25, to 132 months (11 years) imprisonment for conspiracy to import controlled substances and launder money. Judge Jackson also ordered a personal money judgment against Simion in the amount of $850,000.00. On May 3, 2016, in a joint U.S./European enforcement action, law enforcement dismantled the ItalianMafiaBrussels Drug Trafficking Organization, arresting ten defendants during early morning raids in Bruges, Belgium and surrounding areas. Filip Lucian ... Read more

Latvian National Sentenced To Prison For -Scareware- Hacking Scheme That Targeted Minneapolis Star Tribune Website A Latvian man was sentenced today in Minneapolis for participating in a lucrative scareware hacking scheme that targeted visitors to the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s website. Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Erica H. MacDonald of the District of Minnesota and Special Agent in Charge Jill Sanborn of the FBI’s Minneapolis Field Office made the announcement. PETERIS SAHUROVS aka “Piotrek” and “Sagade,” 29, was sentenced to 33 months in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud. District Judge ... Read more

Canadian Who Operated Unlicensed Bitcoin Trading Business Sentenced Defendant Engaged in Bitcoin Exchanges with Undercover Agents despite Knowledge the Money was Drug Trafficking Proceeds A Vancouver, British Columbia man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 20 days of incarceration and more than $1 million in forfeitures for Operating an Unlicensed Money Transmission Business, announced U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes. LOUIS ONG, 37, was arrested in July 2017, after a series of bitcoin for cash sales with an undercover agent with Homeland Security Investigations. ONG repeatedly told the agent, who was posing as a member of a ... Read more

Nigerian National Charged in Phishing Scheme that Victimized Glastonbury School Employees Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, Patricia M. Ferrick, Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Joel P. Garland, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in New England, today announced that DANIEL ADEKUNLE OJO, 33, a citizen of Nigeria residing in Durham, N.C., was arrested yesterday on a federal criminal complaint charging him with fraud and identity theft offenses stemming from a scheme to obtain the personal identifying information of school employees in ... Read more

Russian Citizen Sentenced to 46 Months in Prison for Involvement in Global Botnet Conspiracy A Russian citizen was sentenced today for his participation in a criminal enterprise that installed and exploited malicious computer software (“malware”) on tens of thousands of computer servers throughout the world to generate millions of dollars in fraudulent payments. Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Gregory G. Brooker of the District of Minnesota and Special Agent in Charge Richard T. Thornton of the FBI’s Minneapolis Field Office made the announcement. “The defendant and his co-conspirators ... Read more

Man Who Laundered Millions From Massive Computer Hacking And Telecommunications Fraud Scheme Gets 48 Months In Prison NEWARK, N.J. – A Pakistani citizen was sentenced today to 49 months in prison for laundering more than $19.6 million on behalf of the perpetrators of a massive international computer hacking and telecommunications fraud scheme, Acting U.S. Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick announced. Muhammad Sohail Qasmani, 49, formerly of Bangkok, Thailand, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Katharine S. Hayden to an information charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Judge Hayden imposed the sentence today in Newark federal ... Read more