September 8, 2008
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/September/08-crm-795.html
Malaysia Resident Sentenced to Two Years in Prison for Role in International Online Brokerage Scheme
WASHINGTON – A resident of Malaysia was sentenced today to two years in prison on a conspiracy charge that arose from an international fraud scheme to “hack” into online brokerage accounts in the United States and use those accounts to manipulate stock prices, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division Matthew Friedrich and U.S. Attorney for the District of Nebraska Joe W. Stecher.
Thirugnanam Ramanathan, 35, a native of Chennai, India, and legal resident of Malaysia, was also sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith Camp to pay restitution of $362,247 and serve three years of supervised release. Ramanathan previously pleaded guilty on June 2, 2008, to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, securities fraud, computer fraud and aggravated identity theft before Judge Smith Camp in Omaha, Neb. Following his arrest in Hong Kong, Ramanathan was extradited on May 25, 2007, to the United States.
Jaisankar Marimuthu, 33, and Chockalingham Ramanathan, 34, also residents of Chennai, were indicted with Thirugnanam Ramanathan in January 2007 by a federal grand jury in Omaha. Marimuthu and Chockalingham Ramanathan are also charged with one count of conspiracy, eight counts of computer fraud, six counts of wire fraud, two counts of securities fraud and six counts of aggravated identity theft. Marimuthu is currently being detained in a Hong Kong prison awaiting extradition to the U.S. following his conviction there on similar offenses but related instead to the Hong Kong stock market. Chockalingham Ramanathan remains at large.
Thirugnanam Ramanathan admitted in his guilty plea that he joined a conspiracy operating out of Thailand and India from February 2006 through December 2006 in which the prices of certain securities were fraudulently inflated by intruding or “hacking” into accounts of customers at brokerage firms in the United States and by illegally using the accounts to make large unauthorized purchases of securities in the name of the unsuspecting customers. After the price of the securities had been artificially increased or “pumped up” through the bogus trading, Thirugnanam Ramanathan admitted that he and his co-conspirators sold, or “dumped,” their own holdings of the securities at a profit. At least 60 customers and nine brokerage firms in the United States have been identified as victims. According to information presented during the sentencing hearing, brokerage firms sustained more than $300,000 in losses during Thirugnanam Ramanathan’s participation in the scheme. This case is one of the first federal prosecutions in the United States of an online “hack, pump and dump” scheme.
This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Richard Green and Joel Schwarz of the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Jack Patrick of the Fraud Section, both of the Criminal Division, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michel Norris of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nebraska. This case was investigated by the FBI in Omaha, with significant assistance provided by the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs and by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
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08-795
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September 8, 2008
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/September/08-crm-791.html
Girlfriend of MS-13 Member Sentenced to 46 Months in Prison for Involvement in RICO Conspiracy
WASHINGTON – The girlfriend of a member of La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, was sentenced today to 46 months in prison for her participation in a racketeering enterprise, Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Edward M. Yarbrough for the Middle District of Tennessee announced.
Ericka Cortez, a/k/a Shorty, was also sentenced today by Chief U.S. District Judge Todd J. Campbell of the Middle District of Tennessee in Nashville to serve three years of supervised release.
The RICO charge to which Cortez pleaded guilty charged that she and others involved in the MS-13 gang conspired to participate in a pattern of racketeering activity in the Nashville metropolitan area, including murder, attempted murder and witness tampering. In addition, the indictment stated that in approximately August 2006, Cortez transported a .22-caliber rifle at the direction of her boyfriend and MS-13 member Manual Marquez that she knew was to be used by Marquez and other members of MS-13 to attack and possibly kill rival gang members. The indictment further stated that on or about Sept. 6, 2006, Cortez provided false information to a Nashville Metropolitan Police Department detective who was investigating an MS-13 shooting of a rival gang member on Sept. 4, 2006. Cortez lied to the detective to protect MS-13 gang members who were involved in that shooting. Cortez later instructed another witness to the shooting to change his telephone number and to otherwise avoid contact with detectives. Finally, at the request of MS-13 leader Escolastico Serrano, Cortez agreed to photograph the victim of the attempted murder on Sept. 4, 2006, so that MS-13 members could locate and kill him.
Cortez is the fifth defendant to be sentenced on RICO charges stemming from an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Nashville on Jan. 10, 2007. That indictment charged 14 members of MS-13, including Marquez and Serrano, with conspiring to participate in the affairs of a racketeering enterprise and related charges including murder, attempted murder, assault, weapons charges and obstruction of justice. All 14 indicted defendants have pleaded guilty. Four other defendants were previously sentenced to lengthy prison terms after pleading guilty to the RICO conspiracy. Walter Hernandez was sentenced on March 31, 2008, to 324 months in prison. On Dec. 3 and Dec. 7, 2007, respectively, Henry Garballo-Vasquez and Jose Alfaro were sentenced to 240 months in prison. On Nov. 20, 2007, Geovanni Pena received a sentence of 235 months in prison.
According to the indictment, the MS-13 street gang is a violent international criminal organization composed primarily of immigrants or descendants of immigrants from El Salvador. The purpose of the racketeering enterprise was to preserve and protect the power, territory and profits of the MS-13 enterprise through violent assault, murder, threats of violence and intimidation.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jimmie Lynn Ramsaur of the Middle District of Tennessee and Trial Attorney John Han from the Criminal Division’s Gang Squad.
The case was investigated by the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department’s Gang Suppression Unit, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Department of Homeland Security, the Davidson County District Attorney General’s Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Middle District of Tennessee, and the Gang Squad of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
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08-791
September 5, 2008
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/September/08-crm-786.html
Appeals Court Affirms Decision to Revoke the U.S. Citizenship of Detroit-Area Man Who Shot Jewish Civilians While Serving as a Nazi Policeman
WASHINGTON – The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a March 2007 ruling by the U.S. District Court in Detroit revoking the U.S. citizenship of John (Ivan) Kalymon, 87, of Troy, Mich., because of his participation in violent acts of persecution while serving during World War II as an armed member of the Nazi-sponsored Ukrainian Auxiliary Police (UAP) in German-occupied L’viv, Ukraine, Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division announced today.
During the period of Kalymon’s service in the UAP, from 1941 to 1944, German occupation authorities enacted persecutory anti-Jewish decrees that were enforced in L’viv by UAP members. The Court of Appeals, in a decision issued Sept. 4, 2008, affirmed the District Court’s finding that UAP men also participated in actions to reduce the population of the ghetto in which the Jews were forced to live, by searching for Jews in hiding, by shooting Jews who attempted to escape, and by rounding up and deporting Jews to Nazi forced labor camps or to the Belzec extermination center where they were murdered with poison gas.
Both court decisions cited captured UAP documents, which established that on multiple occasions Kalymon took part in mass round-ups of Jews and helped deliver some of them for deportation. The court decisions also noted that wartime UAP reports, including one signed by Kalymon himself, proved that in 1942 he personally killed and wounded Jews in L’viv by shooting them.
Kalymon immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1949 and became a U.S. citizen in 1955. The Sixth Circuit affirmed the District Court’s finding that he was not eligible for citizenship because his persecutory actions on behalf of Nazi Germany rendered him legally ineligible to receive a visa to immigrate to the United States. The Sixth Circuit also affirmed the district court’s decision that Kalymon was ineligible to immigrate to the United States because he concealed his UAP service when applying for a visa.
“The Nazis and their collaborators killed more than 100,000 of L’viv’s Jews – men, women and children whose only ‘crime’ was their religion. John Kalymon was one of those collaborators, and this latest court decision is an important victory in the U.S. government’s ongoing effort to secure a measure of justice on behalf of the victims of Nazi inhumanity,” said Office of Special Investigations (OSI) Director Eli M. Rosenbaum.
The case was investigated and prosecuted by OSI, which also litigated the appeal. The proceedings to denaturalize Kalymon were instituted in 2004 by OSI. The case is a result of OSI’s ongoing efforts to identify, investigate and take legal action against former participants in Nazi persecution who reside in the United States. Since OSI began operations in 1979, it has won cases against 107 individuals who assisted in Nazi persecution. In addition, more than 180 individuals who sought to enter the United States in recent years have been blocked from doing so as a result of OSI’s “Watchlist” program, which is enforced in cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security.
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08-786