Law Enforcement | WPN World People News

Maricella Garza, 37, of Kingsville, has been arrested following the return of an indictment charging her with embezzling funds from the Kingsville Community Federal Credit Union, United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson announced Tuesday.

Zayd Allebban, former Wayne County Director of Enterprise Applications, the office that does software application development for Wayne County, was found guilty Tuesday by a federal jury in Detroit on charges of falsifying documents with the intent to obstruct justice, U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade announced. The purpose of the falsified documents was to conceal a bribery/extortion scheme by Allebban’s friend and supervisor, Tahir Kazmi, former Wayne County Chief Information Officer.

Vonetta Jordan, 37, of Poplarville, Mississippi, pled guilty to bank fraud on February 19, 2013, U.S. Attorney Gregory K. Davis and FBI Special Agent in Charge Daniel McMullen announced. She will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden on May 23, 2013, at 1:30 p.m. and faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

Shelly S. Singhal, Loretta Fredy Bush, and Dennis L. Pelino, formerly of Xinhua Finance Limited (Xinhua Finance), a Chinese company trading publicly in Japan, each have pled guilty in a one-count information to conspiracy to impede the lawful functions of the Internal Revenue Service.

A former Topeka lawyer has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for stealing money from clients’ trust funds, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said today. He was ordered to pay restitution of $537,680.

A former employee at the Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany pleaded guilty on Thursday to receiving bribes related to the award of contracts for machine products, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Michael J. Moore for the Middle District of Georgia.

United States Attorney Brendan V. Johnson announced that Alisa Knight, age 29, of Dupree, South Dakota, appeared before U.S. District Judge Roberto A. Lange on February 12, 2013, and pled guilty to count one of the indictment that charged her with making false statement to a federal agency. The maximum penalty upon conviction is five years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, or both and a period of supervised release of three years.

Richard Hall, age 47, a resident of Harvey, Louisiana, was sentenced today in federal court by U.S. District Court Judge Jay C. Zainey, to 24 months’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of theft from a program receiving federal funds, the New Orleans Affordable Homeownership (NOAH) program, announced U.S. Attorney Dana J. Boente. The court, in sentencing Hall, granted the government’s motion for an upward variance from the sentencing guidelines. In addition to the term of imprisonment, Judge Zainey imposed three years of supervised release following the term of imprisonment, during which time the defendant will be under federal supervision and risks an additional term of imprisonment should he violate any terms of his supervised release. The defendant was ordered to pay restitution in excess of $116,000 and fined $30,000.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury designated Yahya Abu Hammam (Hammam) pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, which targets terrorists and their supporters. Hammam is a senior leader of al-Qa'ida in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and has played a key role in the group’s ongoing terrorist activities in North Africa and Mali. Today’s designation supports ongoing international efforts to isolate AQIM, deny its members the benefits of their violent and criminal acts, and help restore Mali’s territorial integrity.

Federal authorities have arrested 14 people named in two federal indictments that allege long-term schemes to manipulate stock prices that led to more than 20,000 investors losing over $30 million when artificially inflated stock prices collapsed. As one defendant described his scheme during a wiretapped phone call: “What I do is turn stock into money.”