Submitted at 2:22 PM March 26, 2012
The Guardian on March 26, 2012released the following:By: Paul Harris in New York “Khalifah al-Akili emailed the Guardianshortly before his arrest to say he thoughthe was the target of an ‘entrapment’ stingThe arrest of a Pittsburgh man describedas a Taliban sympathiser has sparkedallegations that the FBI deployed anotorious confidential informant used inprevious controversial stings on suspectedMuslim radicals.Khalifah al-Akili, 34, was arrested in apolice raid on his home on March 15. Hewas later charged with illegally possessinga gun after having previous felonyconvictions for drug dealing. However, athis court appearance an FBI agent testifiedthat al-Akili had made radical Islamicstatements and that police had uncoveredunspecified jihadist literature at his home.But, in a strange twist, al-Akili’s arrestcame just days after he had sent out anemail to friends and local Muslim civilrights groups complaining that he believedhe was the target of an FBI “entrapment”sting. That refers to a controversial FBItactic of using confidential informants –who often have criminal records or arepaid large sums of money – to facilitate“fake” terrorist plots for suspects to inventor carry out.In the email – which was also sent to theGuardian before al-Akili was arrested – hedetailed meeting two men he believedwere FBI informants because of the waythey talked about radical Islam andappeared to want to get him to make jihadist statements. According to hisaccount, one of them, who called himself Saeed Torres, asked him to buy a gun. Al-Aikili said he refused. The other, who wascalled Mohammed, offered to help him goto Pakistan for possible Islamic radicaltraining. Al-Akili also refused.In the email al-Akili recounted that heobtained a phone number fromMohammed and put it into Google. Thesearch returned a reference to the case of the Newburgh Four, where an FBIconfidential informant called ShahedHussain helped secure the convictions of four men for attempting to blow up Jewishtargets in the Bronx.Hussain’s actions became notoriousamong civil rights groups due to theincentives he deployed on his targets, whowere local black Muslims in theimpoverished town of Newburgh. Theyincluded offering one suspect $250,000, acar and a free holiday. Al-Akili said healso found a picture of Shahed Hussain onthe internet and realised it was the sameman as “Mohammed”.Al-Akili concluded his email by saying:“I would like to pursue a legal actionagainst the FBI due to their continuousharassment and attempts to set me up.”The Guardian contacted al-Akili by emailand on March 14 by phone and al-Akiliagreed to talk more to the Guardian abouthis belief that he was being set up byHussain. But he was arrested the next dayand has been denied bail as a potentialthreat to the public, keeping him in jail.Al-Akili’s lawyer Mike Healey believesthat the FBI may have been monitoring al-Akili’s emails, and possibly his phone,and then rushed to arrest him onceHussain had been identified and al-Akilihad effectively gone public with his fears.Healey questioned why the FBI woulduse Hussain, who has also been widelycriticised for his role in another“entrapment” case in Albany, New York,which resulted in the jailing of a localimam and a pizza shop owner. “What arethey doing bringing him here? I amamazed they would use someone likethat,” he said.Yet, despite being painted in court as adangerous radical Islamist, the onlycharges brought against al-Akili were forfiring a rifle – which Healey said wasowned by a friend – at a local shootingrange almost two years ago in June 2010.Al-Akili faces the prospect of a hefty jailsentence if found guilty.A spokesman for the FBI declined tocomment on whether the agency had beenusing Shahed Hussain as a confidentialinformant in Pittsburgh.”————————————————————–Douglas McNabb – McNabb Associates,P.C.’sFederal Criminal Defense AttorneysVideos: Federal Crimes – Be Careful Federal Crimes – Be Proactive Federal Crimes – Federal Indictment Federal Crimes – Detention Hearing————————————————————–To find additional federal criminal news,please readFederal Crimes Watch Daily.Douglas McNabb and other members of the U.S. law firm practice and write and/ or report extensively on matters involvingFederal Criminal Defense, INTERPOLRed Notice Removal, InternationalExtradition and OFAC SDN SanctionsRemoval.The author of this blog is Douglas C.McNabb. Please feel free to contact himdirectly atmcnabb@mcnabbassociates.comor at oneof the offices listed above.
U.S. and Mexican Officials Sign Letter of Intent toShare $6 Million in Forfeited Assets to CombatFinancial Infrastructure of Organized Crime
Submitted at 3:26 PM March 26, 2012
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder andMexican Attorney General MariselaMorales Ibáñez today signed a letter of intent for the United States to shareapproximately $6 million in forfeitedfunds with the Office of the AttorneyGeneral of the Republic of Mexico tosupport Mexican efforts to combat thefinancial infrastructure of organizedcriminal groups and to enhance bilateralcooperation between the two countries inforfeiture matters.
Submitted at 10:36 AM March 26, 2012
Biomet Inc. has entered into a deferredprosecution agreement with theDepartment of Justice to resolve improperpayments by the company and itssubsidiaries in violation of the ForeignCorrupt Practices Act.
2Federal Criminal Defense Lawyers
Submitted at 11:07 AM March 26, 2012
The New York Times on March 26, 2012released the following:“By NICK WINGFIELD and NICOLEPERLROTHSEATTLE — Microsoft employees,accompanied by United States marshals,raided two nondescript office buildings inPennsylvania and Illinois on Friday,aiming to disrupt one of the mostpernicious forms of online crime today —botnets, or groups of computers that helpharvest bank account passwords and otherpersonal information from millions of other computers.With a warrant in hand from a federal judge authorizing the sweep, theMicrosoft lawyers and technical personnelgathered evidence and deactivated Webservers ostensibly used by criminals in ascheme to infect computers and stealpersonal data. At the same time, Microsoftseized control of hundreds of Webaddresses that it says were used as part of the same scheme.The sweep was part of a civil suit broughtby Microsoft in its increasingly aggressivecampaign to take the lead in combatingsuch crimes, rather than waiting for lawenforcement agencies to act. Thecompany’s targets were equipment used tocontrol the botnets, which criminals,known as bot-herders, use for ill intent.Microsoft has a big interest in making theInternet a safer place. Despite inroadsmade by Apple and others in some partsof the technology business, Microsoft’sWindows operating system still runs thevast majority of the computers connectedto the Internet. The prevalence of itssoftware has made Windows the mostappealing target for online criminals, andthe security holes they discover in thesoftware are a persistent nuisance forWindows users.Microsoft’s involvement in what hadbeen considered largely a lawenforcement function — fightingcomputer crime — is the brainchild of Richard Boscovich, a former federalprosecutor who is a senior lawyer inMicrosoft’s digital crimes unit. That groupwatches over fraud that could affect thecompany’s products and reputation.Mr. Boscovich, who handled drug,computer and financial crime cases inMiami in his former job, devised a novellegal strategy to underpin the growingnumber of Microsoft’s civil suits againstbot-herders. Among other things, heargued that the culprits behind botnetswere violating Microsoft’s trademarksthrough fake e-mails they used to spreadtheir malicious software.Mr. Boscovich said the Friday sweep wasmeant to send a message to the criminalsbehind the scheme, whose identities areunknown. “We’re letting them knowwe’re looking at them,” said Mr.Boscovich after participating in thePennsylvania raid, in Scranton.Before Friday’s sweep, Microsoftattacked three botnets in the last couple of years through civil suits. In each case,Microsoft obtained court orders thatpermitted it to seize Web addresses andcomputers associated with the botnetswithout first notifying the owners of theproperty. The secrecy was necessary,Microsoft argued, to prevent criminalsfrom re-establishing new communicationslinks to their infected computers.Some security experts said Microsoft’stactics had been effective, even if they hadnot eradicated the scourge of botnets.“Taking the disruption into the courthousewas a brilliant idea and is helping the restof the industry to reconsider what actionsare possible, and that action is needed andcan succeed,” said Richard Perlotto,director at the Shadowserver Foundation,a nonprofit group that tracks data abouttools used for online fraud and forms of computer crime.Mr. Perlotto and Microsoft said they didnot see civil legal action against peoplewho commit online crime as areplacement for law enforcement action,which can result in much stiffer criminalpenalties. “We equate this to aneighborhood watch,” Mr. Boscovichsaid.Jose Nazario, a senior security researcherat Arbor Networks, an Internet securityfirm, said that Microsoft’s record againstbotnets had been a “mixed bag” and thatsome of its gains were only temporary.After an earlier action against a botnetknown as Waledac, for example, thesoftware behind it was modified slightlyto create a new botnet.“You can take out a botnet, but unless youtake down the coders and put the clientsbehind bars, they’re just going to go aheadand do this again,” Mr. Nazario said.The computers that make up a botnet areusually conscripted without theknowledge of their owners, whounwittingly infect their machines afterclicking on links in legitimate-looking e-mails for things like security updates fromMicrosoft and notices of tax refunds fromthe Internal Revenue Service. Clickingthose links takes users to Web sites thatexploit security holes in their browsers orother programs on their computers.Criminals use the holes to installmalicious programs that siphon personalinformation from the infected computers,like online bank account passwords andcredit card numbers. They can alsoharness the infected machines to sendmillions of e-mail messages to other userson the Internet, including scam messagesthat help propagate the botnet. Sometimesbotnets are rented to clients to send spammessages advertising products likecounterfeit pharmaceuticals.On Friday, Microsoft was attacking itsmost complex target yet, known as theZeus botnets. The creators of Zeus offertheir botnet code for sale to others and,depending on the level of customersupport and customization of the code thatclients require, charge them $700 to$15,000 for the software, Microsoft saidin a lawsuit filed in federal court inBrooklyn on March 19.That, in turn, has resulted in manyvariants of Zeus botnets, making themharder to combat. Most of them are aimedat perpetrating various financial scamsagainst online victims. Mr. Boscovich of Microsoft said he had a “high degree of confidence” that the unnamed culpritsbehind Zeus were in Eastern Europe.To carry out the scams, they have hiredpeople known as money mules to travel todifferent countries, including the UnitedStates, to set up bank accounts so they canreceive transfers of stolen money fromvictims’ accounts, Microsoft said in itscomplaint. Microsoft said that the Zeusbotnets had enabled the theft of more than$100 million from victims since 2007 andthat 13 million computers were infectedwith some form of software associatedwith it.Because of the financial fraud involved,Microsoft rallied support from twofinancial industry associations — theFinancial Services Information Sharingand Analysis Center and the NationalAutomated Clearing House Association— both of which filed court declarationsendorsing Microsoft’s sweep on Friday.Microsoft does not believe the operatorsof the facilities it raided on Friday, whichrent space to clients on computersconnected to the Internet, are in leaguewith the people behind the botnets. Andthose operators said they had no idea thatequipment inside their facilities was beingused to issue commands to Zeus.“It’s very difficult, unless they drawattention to themselves, to pick up on it,”said Joe Marr, chief technology officer of BurstNet Technologies, the facility inScranton that Microsoft entered Friday.Mr. Boscovich said he did not think theFriday sweep would be as big a blow toZeus as Microsoft’s previous actionsagainst botnets, but he said it was just thebeginning of actions aimed at raising the
Federal Criminal
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3Federal Criminal Defense Lawyers
Submitted at 3:25 PM March 26, 2012
The Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) on March 26, 2012 released thefollowing:“LAREDO, TX—Several men have beenarrested and charged in a conspiracyrelated to drug trafficking and/or anattempted murder-for-hire plot, U.S.Attorney Kenneth Magidson announcedtoday. Kevin Corley, 29, and SamuelWalker, 28, both of Colorado Springs,Colorado; and Shavar Davis, 29, of Denver, were taken into custody Saturdayafternoon in Laredo, while MarcusMickle, 20, and Calvin Epps, 26, both of Hopkins, South Carolina, were arrested inSouth Carolina. A sixth man, MarioCorley, 40, of Saginaw, Texas, was alsotaken into custody in relation to this casein Charleston, South Carolina.The criminal complaint charging Corley,Walker, and Davis was filed just a shorttime ago in Laredo federal court, at whichtime they made their initial appearancesbefore U.S. Magistrate Judge Diana SongQuiroga. Mickle and Epps, charged in anow-unsealed indictment, are expected tomake their initial appearances inColumbia, South Carolina this afternoon.The investigation began in January 2011,when Mickle began negotiations withwhom he thought were members of theLos Zetas Cartel, but were actuallyundercover Drug EnforcementAdministration (DEA) agents, to purchasemarijuana in return for stolen weapons.The criminal complaint indicates that asthey began discussions about thedistribution of marijuana in the Columbia,South Carolina area, Mickle and Eppsallegedly told undercover agents about afriend in the military who could providemilitary weapons to them. The agentswere later introduced to Corley, whoallegedly identified himself as an activeduty officer in the U.S. Army responsiblefor training soldiers. He offered to providetactical training for cartel members and topurchase weapons for the cartel under hisname.The complaint states that over the nextseveral months, Corley continued tocommunicate with undercover agentsregarding the services he could providethe cartel as a result of the training,experience, and access to information/ equipment afforded him as an active dutysoldier. According to the criminalcomplaint, Corley allegedly mailed anArmy tactics battle book to the agents,thoroughly explained military tactics, andtold undercover agents he could train 40cartel members in two weeks.On January 7, 2012, Corley traveled toLaredo and met with undercover agents, atwhich time the agents inquired about hisability to perform “wet work,” allegedlyunderstood to mean murder-for-hire;specifically, whether he could provide ateam to raid a ranch where 20 kilogramsof stolen cocaine were being kept by rivalcartel members. Corley confirmed hewould conduct the contract killing with asmall team, at a minimum comprised of himself and another person whom hedescribed as an active duty soldier withwhom he had already consulted.According to the complaint, Corleyultimately agreed to $50,000 and fivekilograms of cocaine to perform thecontract killing and retrieve the 20kilograms of cocaine, and he offered torefund the money if the victim survived.Corley further offered to provide securityfor Mickle and Epps’ purchase of 500pounds of marijuana for transport fromTexas to South Carolina. He traveled withthem to Laredo, where they loaded themarijuana into a tractor trailer andattempted to escort it back to SouthCarolina. However, the tractor trailercarrying the load was stopped and seizedin La Salle County, Texas, on January 14,2012. According to the complaint, Corleycontinued to contact undercover agents todiscuss the possibility of futuretransactions with the agents. Corleyallegedly arranged for 300 pounds of marijuana to be delivered to Mario Corleyin Charleston and allegedly assisted inbrokering 500 pounds of marijuana andfive kilograms of cocaine for Mickle andEpps and discussed the distribution of these narcotics in South Carolina, Texas,and Colorado.On March 5, 2012, Corley delivered twoAR-15 assault rifles with scopes, anairsoft assault rifle, five allegedly stolenballistic vests, and other miscellaneousequipment to an undercover agent inColorado Springs in exchange for$10,000. At the meeting, Corley and theundercover agent allegedly againdiscussed the contract killing and theretrieval of the cocaine, which was tooccur on March 24, 2012. Corleyallegedly stated he had purchased a newKa-Bar knife to carve a “Z” into thevictim’s chest and was planning on buyinga hatchet to dismember the body.On March 24, 2012, Corley, Walker, andDavis traveled to Laredo and met withundercover agents, at which time theydiscussed the location of the intendedvictim, the logistics of performing thecontract kill, and their respective roles.The three were arrested, during whichtime a fourth suspect was shot and killed.A subsequent search of the vehicle inwhich Corley and the other co-conspirators arrived revealed two semi-automatic rifles with scopes, one bolt-action rifle with a scope and bipod, onehatchet, one Ka-Bar knife, one bag of .223caliber ammunition, and one box of .300caliber ammunition.The criminal complaint chargesconspiracy to possess with the intent todistribute more than five kilograms of cocaine and carries a possible punishmentof a minimum of 10 years and up to life inprison and/or a $10 million fine. Use of afirearm in furtherance of a drug traffickingor violent crime could result in up to 10years in prison, which is servedconsecutively to any other prison termimposed. Those charged in the indictmentfor conspiracy and possession with intentto distribute more than 100 kilograms of marijuana, including Corley, Mickle, andEpps, also face five to 40 years in prison if convicted.Corley, Walker, and Davis are set for adetention hearing on March 29, 2012 at10:00 a.m. before Judge Song Quiroga inthe Southern District of Texas. They wereall remanded to federal custody pendingfurther criminal proceedings.The investigation leading to the chargeswas conducted by the DEA and the FBIwith the assistance of U.S. Army CriminalInvestigation Division. The case is beingprosecuted by Assistant U.S. AttorneysRoberto Ramirez and Jody Young.Criminal complaints and indictments areformal accusations of criminal conduct,not evidence. Defendants are presumedinnocent unless and until convictedthrough due process of law.”————————————————————–Douglas McNabb – McNabb Associates,P.C.’sFederal Criminal Defense AttorneysVideos: Federal Crimes – Be Careful Federal Crimes – Be Proactive Federal Crimes – Federal Indictment
Federal Crimes – Detention Hearing————————————————————–To find additional federal criminal news,please readFederal Crimes Watch Daily.Douglas McNabb and other members of the U.S. law firm practice and write and/
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March 26, 2012 - The Federal Crimes Watch Daily
The Federal Crimes Watch Daily is a daily newspaper that discusses current federal criminal issues written by a federal criminal defense attorney.
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