#making false statements

Ex-Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos reports to Wisconsin prison

Author: HOPE YEN Associated Press / Source: madison.com

Former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos reported to a federal prison in Oxford, Wisconsin, Monday after a federal judge rejected his last-minute bid to delay his two-week sentence.

Papadopoulos was sentenced in September for lying to the FBI in the Russia investigation. He had sought a postponement of his prison…

New Post has been published on https://www.stl.news/anchorage-alaska-father-says-daughter-was-always-smiling-and-generous/170728/

ANCHORAGE, Alaska | Father says daughter was always smiling and generous

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The father of a 10-year-old girl whose body was found east of a remote Inupiat Eskimo town on Alaska’s northwestern coast says his daughter always had a smile and loved to use her allowance to buy things for her friends.

Walter “Scotty” Barr tells the Anchorage Daily News that Ashley Johnson-Barr liked playing basketball and went to church every week.

Her remains were found Friday east of Kotzebue. Authorities say 41-year-old Peter Wilson of Kotzebue is facing charges of making false statements to a federal agent investigating the girl’s death.

The girl was last seen playing with friends at a local park Sept. 6. Her cellphone was later found a half mile from Rainbow Park, in the opposite direction of her home in the community of 3,100 people.

Former Virginia Governor and Former First Lady Indicted on Public Corruption and Related Charges

A federal grand today returned a 14-count indictment against former Virginia Governor Robert F. McDonnell and former First Lady Maureen G. McDonnell for allegedly participating in a scheme to violate federal public corruption laws.

The McDonnells are accused of participating in a scheme to use the former governor’s official position to enrich themselves and their family members by soliciting and obtaining payments, loans, gifts and other things of value from Star Scientific, a Virginia-based corporation, and “JW,” then Star Scientific’s chief executive officer.  The McDonnells allegedly obtained the things of value in exchange for the former governor performing official actions on an as-needed basis to legitimize, promote and obtain research studies for Star’s products, including the dietary supplement Anatabloc®. 

Through the scheme, the McDonnells allegedly obtained more than $135,000 in direct payments as gifts and loans, thousands of dollars in golf outings, and numerous other things of value.

The couple are accused of trying to hide their receipt of these goods, of neglecting to claim them on a loan application, and of denying their existence to federal officials.

The indictment, returned in the Eastern District of Virginia, charges Robert McDonnell and Maureen McDonnell, both 59 and of Glen Allen, Va., with one count of conspiracy to commit honest-services wire fraud; three counts of honest-services wire fraud; one count of conspiracy to obtain property under color of official right; six counts of obtaining property under color of official right; and one count of making false statements to a federal credit union.  Robert McDonnell is also charged with an additional count of making a false statement to a financial institution, and Maureen McDonnell is charged with one count of obstruction of an official proceeding. 

Former Bank Employee Pleads Guilty in Fraud Scheme

59-year-old Jill Dail of Cambridge, Maryland, has pleaded guilty to bank fraud in connection with a scheme in which she and her brother, Jeffrey Dail, fraudulently obtained mortgage loans in the names of family members, using the proceeds for their own benefit.

Dail was a loan settlement processor in the mortgage department at a Salisbury, Maryland bank until she was terminated in June 2007, as part of a reduction in the bank’s workforce. Shortly thereafter, Dail was privately hired by the manager of the bank’s mortgage department to continue to do the same loan processing work she had performed as an employee of the bank.

According to court records, the bank manager paid Dail out of his own funds and gave her full access to the bank premises, computer system, and loan files. Dail continued to represent herself as a bank employee in her dealings with title companies and other businesses.

In her guilty plea, Dail admitted that beginning before January 2006 through at least August 2009, she and her brother, Jeffrey Dail, applied for mortgage loans in the names of family members and used the proceeds of the loans for their personal benefit. The Dails forged the signature of family members and bank officials on the loan applications, causing the bank to approve the applications and authorize the distribution of the loan proceeds at settlement. In each instance, the family members whose identities were used on the loan applications and whose properties were used as collateral for the loans had no knowledge of the applications or the loans.

Based on the assurances of Jill Dail, with whom the title company had a well-established business relationship, title company employees notarized the signatures of the family members on the settlement documents and disbursed the loan funds at settlement, as directed by Jill Dail, to Jill Dail herself, to Jeffrey Dail, and to their creditors.

The balance of loan funds still unpaid is approximately $357,150.

Dail faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz scheduled her sentencing for April 3, 2014, at 9:30 a.m.

“Americans with secret offshore bank accounts still have an opportunity to voluntarily disclose those accounts to the Internal Revenue Service to avoid going to jail. I encourage those taxpayers to do the right thing and take advantage of the IRS’s offshore voluntary disclosure program. Taxpayers can voluntarily come back into compliance so they properly report and pay their taxes.”

That's Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, warning the public against suffering the fate of Verna Cheryl Womack of Mission Hills, Kansas, who has been indicted by a federal grand jury for using numerous foreign trusts and secret Cayman Island bank accounts as part of a scheme to avoid paying more than $7 million in income taxes and for lying to federal authorities concerning her Cayman Island interests.

Federal tax law requires U.S. taxpayers to pay taxes on all income earned worldwide. U.S. taxpayers must also report foreign financial accounts if the total value of the accounts exceeds $10,000 at any time during the calendar year. Willful failure to report a foreign account can result in a fine of up to 50 percent of the amount in the account at the time of the violation.

Womack owned and operated a number of businesses associated with selling liability insurance policies to independent truck drivers. She sold those businesses for more than $35 million in April 2002.

The indictment against her alleges that Womack opened at least 19 bank accounts and organized a series of nominee companies and trusts in the Cayman Islands to conceal a portion of her income from the IRS. According to the indictment, these corrupt endeavors were part of a scheme that began in 1996 and caused a total tax loss to the government in excess of $7 million.

Womack is charged with one count of attempting to interfere with the administration of internal revenue laws and nine counts of making a false statement to a government agency.

Ali Forouzan, of Mobile, Ala., a former investor in the Alabama real estate foreclosure auctions industry, has pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements.

Forouzan pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama in Mobile to making materially false and fictitious statements to a Special Agent of the FBI and a Department of Justice Antitrust Division prosecutor.  The false statements were in regard to his knowledge of, and participation in, bid rigging and other fraudulent schemes in the Alabama real estate foreclosure auction industry.

The charge against Forouzan arose from an ongoing investigation into bid rigging and other fraudulent schemes in the Alabama real estate foreclosure auctions industry.

According to the charge, in February 2012, Forouzan was interviewed, with counsel present, about the fraudulent schemes under investigation.  Forouzan was aware of the nature of the investigation and knew that it was material for the FBI and the Antitrust Division to obtain his full knowledge of such unlawful acts as bid-rigging agreements and other fraudulent schemes relating to real estate foreclosure auctions; unlawful payoffs that he and others made and received in furtherance of such schemes; and secret, second auctions in which Forouzan and others participated.  However, Forouzan willfully and knowingly provided false and fictitious information during his interview.

Including Forouzan, to date, nine individuals and two companies have pleaded guilty as a result of the department’s ongoing investigation into the Alabama real estate foreclosure auction industry.