Law Enforcement | WPN World People News

Deirdre M. Daly, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that Michelle Laudato, 35, of Farmington, waived her right to indictment and pleaded guilty before United States Magistrate Judge Donna F. Martinez in Hartford to one count of bank fraud.

William B. McNichols, 48, who handled accounting and other financial matters for a Washington, D.C. law firm, was sentenced to an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than $730,000, announced U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen, Jr. and Valerie Parlave, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

A former Chicago alderman, the head of a $1 billion Nebraska-based prescription medication provider, and another man were convicted of conspiracy to commit bribery of a fictitious public official to purportedly obtain business from the Los Angeles County hospital system after a two-week trial. A federal jury deliberated several hours before returning guilty verdicts against all three defendants.

Deirdre M. Daly, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that Patrick Pinto, 44, of Bohemia, New York, waived his right to indictment and pleaded guilty before United States District Judge Stefan R. Underhill in Bridgeport to one count of conspiring to commit bank bribery while he was an executive of Oxford Collection Agency.

The former part-owner and underwriter for New York-based litigation funding company The Law Funder LLC admitted in Newark federal court to participating in a secret kickback scheme that defrauded his former business partners of approximately $869,492, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Virginia Mecham, 40, of Ammon, Idaho, was sentenced in federal court in Pocatello to two months in prison, followed by two months of home detention, for embezzlement by a credit union employee, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced. Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill also ordered Mecham to serve three years of supervised release and pay restitution of $23,625. She pleaded guilty to an information on February 8, 2013.

Jonathan Womble, 36, a former corrections officer at the District of Columbia Jail, pled guilty to a federal charge of conspiracy to commit bribery for accepting $400 in cash in return for smuggling drugs and other contraband into the facility, announced U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen, Jr. and Valerie Parlave, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

Roland Kaufmann, CEO of Axius Inc., was sentenced to serve 16 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to bribe purported stock brokers and manipulate the stock of a company he controlled, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Loretta Lynch.

A Cleveland man was found guilty of trying to use explosives to destroy a bridge in Northeast Ohio, announced Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, and Stephen D. Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the Cleveland Division of the FBI.

The federal jury that voted in favor of death for drug kingpin Kaboni Savage voted in favor of life for Savage co-defendant Steven Northington, 41. Savage was formally sentenced to death last week by U.S. District Court Judge R. Barclay Surrick. He is the first defendant in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to receive the death penalty in federal court. He was convicted on May 13, 2013, of 12 counts of murder in aid of racketeering, one count of retaliating against a witness by murder, conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering, and one count of conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise. Savage ordered the October 9, 2004 firebombing of the home of Eugene Coleman’s family. Coleman was a federal witness at the time. Six people were killed in the arson murder, including four children. The jury had found Northington guilty of the murders of Barry Parker in 2003 and of Tybius Flowers in 2004, in addition to racketeering (RICO) conspiracy. Northington will be formally sentenced on June 19, 2013.