Law Enforcement | WPN World People News

A federal judge has sentenced a 36-year-old Dallas man in connection with his role in a pair of complex, lucrative oil and gas Ponzi schemes that operated in Michigan and Texas, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas John M. Bales announced today.

Mohammad Hassan Khalid, 18, a Pakistani citizen and U.S. lawful permanent resident who resided in Maryland, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, stemming from his participation in a scheme to support, recruit, and coordinate members of a conspiracy in their plan to wage violent jihad in and around Europe.

The Justice Department has returned approximately $44 million to victims of a securities fraud scheme related to Qwest Communications International Inc., Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney John F. Walsh for the District of Colorado, and Special Agent in Charge James F. Yacone of the FBI’s Denver Division announced today.

Christopher R. Thyer, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, announced that Garret Sorensen, age 42, of North Little Rock, Arkansas, a former vice president of advertising for USA Drug, entered a plea of guilty today to one count of mail fraud and one count of money laundering. Sorensen’s trial, which was scheduled to begin this morning before United States District Judge Billy Roy Wilson, was delayed while the parties conducted plea negotiations and finalized an agreement. The remaining 31 counts against Garrett Sorensen were dismissed.

A former state magistrate in Portsmouth, Virginia pleaded guilty today to accepting bribes from a bail bondsman in exchange for giving him favorable treatment in setting bonds for criminal defendants who had been arrested, U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride for the Eastern District of Virginia and Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division announced today.

The president of a Costa Rican company that sold reinsurance bonds to life settlement companies was found guilty by a federal jury in Richmond, Virginia today for carrying out a half-billion-dollar fraud scheme that affected more than 2,000 victims throughout the United States and abroad.

The speaker of a legislative assembly in Russia's far eastern region has been placed under house arrest on charges of embezzling 38 million rubles (around $1.3 million) from an oil firm, investigators said Sunday.

A Seattle area pastor who defrauded two dozen victims, some of them his own parishioners, out of more than $1.8 million was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 40 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and $1,843,932 in restitution for wire fraud and money laundering, announced U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan. Anthony C. Morris, 48, the pastor of New Covenant Christian Center, pleaded guilty in January 2012, admitting that his fraud was a Ponzi scheme where early investors were paid off from the money taken from later investors. At sentencing U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones said the defendant “did not resist temptation and left a trail of victims.”

A Seattle area pastor who defrauded two dozen victims, some of them his own parishioners, out of more than $1.8 million was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 40 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and $1,843,932 in restitution for wire fraud and money laundering, announced U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan. Anthony C. Morris, 48, the pastor of New Covenant Christian Center, pleaded guilty in January 2012, admitting that his fraud was a Ponzi scheme where early investors were paid off from the money taken from later investors. At sentencing U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones said the defendant “did not resist temptation and left a trail of victims.”

Investigators are looking into allegations that US retail giant Wal-Mart's unit in Mexico paid bribes to officials to speed the opening of stores during its expansion push in the country in the past decade, the Mexican government said.