ReportWire

Tag: Criminal punishment

  • Former Illinois deputy convicted of killing Sonya Massey faces up to 20 years in prison

    [ad_1]

    SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The former Illinois sheriff’s deputy convicted of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Sonya Massey, a Black woman who called 911 to request help, is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday.

    Sean Grayson, 31, was convicted in October. Grayson, who is white, could be sentenced to as much as 20 years in prison but also is eligible for probation. He has been incarcerated since he was charged in the killing.

    In the early morning hours of July 6, 2024, Massey — who struggled with mental health issues — summoned emergency responders because she feared there was a prowler outside her Springfield home.

    According to body camera footage, Grayson and sheriff’s Deputy Dawson Farley, who was not charged, searched Massey’s yard before meeting her at her door. Massey appeared confused and repeatedly said, “Please, God.”

    The deputies entered her house, Grayson noticed the pot on the stove and ordered Farley to move it. Instead, Massey went to the stove, retrieved the pot and teased Grayson for moving away from “the hot, steaming water.”

    From this moment, the exchange quickly escalated.

    Massey said: “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”

    Grayson drew his sidearm and yelled at her to drop the pan. She set the pot down and ducked behind a counter. But she appeared to pick it up again.

    That’s when Grayson opened fire on the 36-year-old single mother, shooting her in the face. He testified that he feared Massey would scald him.

    Grayson was charged with three counts of first-degree murder, which could have led to a life sentence, but a jury convicted him of the lesser charge. Illinois allows for a second-degree murder conviction if evidence shows the defendant honestly thought he was in danger, even if that fear was unreasonable.

    Massey’s family was outraged by the jury’s decision.

    “The justice system did exactly what it’s designed to do today. It’s not meant for us,” her cousin Sontae Massey said after the verdict.

    Massey’s killing raised new questions about U.S. law enforcement shootings of Black people in their homes. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump negotiated a $10 million settlement with Sangamon County for Massey’s relatives.

    The case also generated a U.S. Justice Department inquiry that was settled when the county agreed to implement more de-escalation training; collect more use-of-force data; and forced the sheriff who hired Grayson to retire. The case also prompted a change in Illinois law requiring fuller transparency on the backgrounds of candidates for law enforcement jobs.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Drunk driver gets 24 years to life in prison for killing 4 people at July 4 barbecue in NYC park

    [ad_1]

    NEW YORK — Halena Herrera can’t cross a street without thinking about the pickup truck that barreled toward her, killing her best friend and three other people, at a New York City park two Fourth of Julys ago.

    Daniel Hyden was drunk at the wheel as the Ford F-150 jumped a curb, bulldozed a chain-link fence and plowed into a group of friends and relatives who were holding a holiday barbecue at Corlears Hook Park in Manhattan. The truck stopped just feet from Herrera, its momentum halted by bodies trapped underneath.

    Judge April A. Newbauer sentenced Hyden on Friday to 24 years to life in prison in the deaths of Ana Morel, 43; Lucille Pinkney, 59; her son, Herman Pinkney, 38; and Herrera’s best friend, Emily Ruiz, 30.

    Seven people were hurt, including Herrera, who was hit in the face by debris.

    “Learning that the only reason I lived was because four other people were dying under the car is still very hard to deal with,” Herrera told reporters after Hyden’s sentencing in state court in Manhattan.

    “I’m glad that at least now there’s some sense of justice,” she said. “It doesn’t help much. It doesn’t bring anything back, but it’s good to have it over with, so I’m happy for that.”

    Diamond Pinkney, Lucille’s son and Herman’s brother, said seeing Hyden sentenced was a “big relief.” The driver, a substance abuse counselor who wrote a 2020 book about coping with addiction, “knew what he did, he knew the possibility he could’ve caused and he did it,” Pinkney said.

    Hyden, 46, from Monmouth, New Jersey, described it as an “accident” in his courtroom apology. He was convicted in November at a non-jury trial of murder, aggravated vehicular homicide and other charges.

    “I’m processing how deeply disturbed and deeply hurt I was and still am. And I’m still processing the amount of people I hurt with my actions,” he said, standing in a room packed with victims, relatives of the people he killed and about two-dozen officers.

    Hyden said he had broken his sobriety after his own sister was killed by a drunk driver in New Jersey in 2021. At the time of his crash in July 2024, he was preparing to speak at that driver’s sentencing, he said.

    “What kind of human being would put other human beings through the same thing he was going through?” Hyden asked.

    Herrera scoffed at Hyden’s newfound shame, telling reporters afterward: “He has shown no remorse from the very beginning, so for him to sit there and say that he’s sorry is just — I don’t believe any of it.”

    The crash happened less than an hour after Hyden was refused entry to a nearby party boat and clashed with security. Police officers who responded to the boat incident testified that they didn’t witness anything warranting arrest, so they walked Hyden to a park bench and left.

    He then got behind the wheel of the pickup truck, prosecutors said, accelerating through a stop sign at 39 mph (63 kph), speeding through a construction zone and zooming over sidewalk at up to 54 mph (87 kph) before reaching the park.

    Hyden was pressing the gas pedal down fully and didn’t hit the brakes until half a second before he hit the crowd, prosecutors said. He then tried to put the vehicle in reverse, but witnesses pulled the keys from the ignition to stop him.

    Hyden’s lawyer suggested he had a foot injury that complicated his driving.

    “While this prison sentence will not reverse the fatalities, injuries, and trauma, I hope this sentencing brings a measure of comfort for those who were impacted by this mass casualty event,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. “If you are intoxicated, do not get behind the wheel — it risks the lives of others, and you will be prosecuted.”

    Herrera and Pinkney both said they want Hyden to remain in prison for the rest of his life so he does not have a chance to hurt anyone else.

    Herrera, who is studying to be a therapist, said she has had bouts of depression and struggles with post-traumatic stress — the horror of that night infecting her daily activities. But, she said, she has to stay strong for her 7-year-old son.

    “Every day, I’m worried that something else can happen,” Herrera said. “You know of it — you know that death happens, you know that accidents happen and things happen. But to live it is a different thing.”

    “So, now it’s like: Am I going to get hit by a car crossing the street? Is something going to happen to me?”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Supreme Court will decide on use of warrants that collect the location history of cellphone users

    [ad_1]

    WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide the constitutionality of broad search warrants that collect the location history of cellphone users to find people near crime scenes.

    The case involves what is a known as a “geofence warrant” that was served on Google in a police hunt for a bank robber in suburban Richmond, Virginia. Geofence warrants, an increasingly popular investigative tool, seek location data on every person within a specific location over a certain period of time.

    Police used the information to arrest Okello Chatrie in the 2019 robbery of the Call Federal Credit Union in Midlothian. Chatrie eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison.

    Chatrie’s lawyers challenged the warrant as a violation of his privacy because it allowed authorities to gather the location history of people near the bank without having any evidence they had anything to do with the robbery. Prosecutors argued that Chatrie had no expectation of privacy because he voluntarily opted into Google’s Location History.

    A federal judge agreed that the search violated Chatrie’s rights, but still allowed the evidence to be used because the officer who applied for the warrant reasonably believed he was acting properly.

    The federal appeals court in Richmond upheld the conviction in a fractured ruling. In a separate case, the federal appeals court in New Orleans ruled that geofence warrants violate the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches.

    The case is expected to be argued later this year, either in the spring or in October, at the start of the court’s next term.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Mississippi man serving an illegal sentence granted clemency, weeks after his brother

    [ad_1]

    JACKSON, Miss. — A man handed an illegal prison sentence years longer than the maximum penalty for his crime has been granted clemency by Mississippi’s governor, weeks after the man’s brother received clemency in a similar case.

    Gov. Tate Reeves announced Wednesday that he was granting clemency to Maurice Taylor. The man’s brother, Marcus Taylor, received clemency earlier this month from the governor for another illegal sentence.

    In February 2015, both brothers accepted plea bargains and pled guilty to conspiracy to sell a Schedule III substance.

    At the time, the maximum penalty for conspiracy to sell a Schedule III substance was five years. Yet Maurice Taylor was sentenced to 20 years in prison with five years suspended, and Marcus Taylor to 15 years.

    “Like his brother, Maurice Taylor received a sentence more than three times longer than allowed under Mississippi law,” Reeves wrote in his announcement. “When justice is denied to even one Mississippian, it is denied to us all.”

    In May, the Mississippi Court of Appeals had ruled that Marcus Taylor’s sentence was illegal, but did not commute his sentence because Taylor had missed the deadline to apply for post-conviction relief. After rehearing that case in November, the court reversed course and ordered his release.

    In Wednesday’s order, Reeves wrote that Maurice Taylor’s post-conviction counsel contacted his office for the first time a few weeks ago, providing legal documents in his case. Maurice Taylor must be released within five days, according to Reeves’ order.

    The Associated Press was not immediately able to identify and contact Maurice Taylor’s post-conviction counsel.

    The brothers are the only people to receive clemency from Reeves.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Court orders release of prominent Turkish journalist from prison pending appeal

    [ad_1]

    ANKARA, Turkey — A Turkish court on Monday ordered the release of veteran journalist Fatih Altayli from prison pending the outcome of his appeal against a conviction for allegedly threatening President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

    Altayli, 63, a longtime columnist whose YouTube programs drew hundreds of thousands of viewers daily, was sentenced last month to four years and two months in prison. He had been arrested in June on charges of threatening the president during one of his broadcasts — a case critics described as an attempt to silence a prominent government opponent.

    The regional appeals court ruled for his release from prison, citing the absence of any flight risk, the fact that evidence had already been collected, and the time he had already spent in detention, according to state-run Anadolu Agency.

    Altayli’s arrest stemmed from remarks on his program “Fatih Altayli Comments,” in which he discussed a survey showing more than 70% of the public opposed a lifetime presidency for Erdogan, who has ruled for over two decades. Altayli said he was not surprised by the result, noting that Turkish society favored checks on authority.

    “Look at the history of this nation,” he said. “This is a nation which strangled its sultan when they didn’t like him or want him. There are quite a few Ottoman sultans who were assassinated, strangled, or whose deaths were made to look like suicide.”

    Altayli has strongly denied that his comments amounted to a threat against Erdogan.

    Following his arrest, he continued to provide commentary through letters relayed by his lawyers, though he later suspended the program.

    With much of Turkey’s mainstream media owned by pro-government businesses or directly controlled by the state, many independent journalists have turned to YouTube as a platform for uncensored reporting.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs seeks immediate release from prison in appeals argument

    [ad_1]

    NEW YORK — Lawyers for hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs urged a federal appeals court in New York late Tuesday to order his immediate release from prison and reverse his conviction on prostitution-related charges or direct his trial judge to lighten his four-year sentence.

    The lawyers said in a filing with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan that Combs was treated harshly at sentencing by a federal judge who let evidence surrounding charges he was acquitted of unjustly influence the punishment.

    Combs, 56, incarcerated at a federal prison in New Jersey and scheduled for release in May 2028, was acquitted of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking at a trial that ended in July. Combs was convicted under the Mann Act, which bans transporting people across state lines for any sexual crime.

    Lawyers for Combs said Judge Arun Subramanian acted like a “thirteenth juror” in October when he sentenced Combs to four years and two months in prison. They said he erred by letting evidence surrounding the acquitted charges influence the sentence he imposed.

    They noted that Combs was convicted of two lesser counts, prostitution offenses that didn’t require force, fraud, or coercion. They asked the appeals court, which has not yet heard oral arguments, to acquit Combs, order his immediate release from prison or direct Subramanian to reduce his sentence.

    “Defendants typically get sentenced to less than 15 months for these offenses — even when coercion, which the jury didn’t find here, is involved,” the lawyers wrote.

    “The judge defied the jury’s verdict and found Combs ‘coerced,’ ‘exploited,’ and ‘forced’ his girlfriends to have sex and led a criminal conspiracy. These judicial findings trumped the verdict and led to the highest sentence ever imposed for any remotely similar defendant,” the lawyers wrote.

    At sentencing, Subramanian said that when calculating the prison term, he considered Combs’ treatment of two former girlfriends who testified that the Bad Boy Records founder beat them and coerced them into having sex with male sex workers while he watched and filmed the encounters, sometimes masturbating.

    At the trial, former girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura testified that Combs ordered her to have “disgusting” sex with strangers hundreds of times during their decade-long relationship that ended in 2018. Jurors saw video of him dragging and beating her in a Los Angeles hotel hallway after one such multiday “freak-off.”

    The second former girlfriend, who testified under the pseudonym “ Jane,” said she was pressured into sex with male workers during what Combs called “hotel nights,” drug-fueled sexual encounters from 2021 to 2024 that also could last days.

    At sentencing, Subramanian said he “rejects the defense’s attempt to characterize what happened here as merely intimate, consensual experiences, or just a sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll story.”

    He added: “You abused the power and control that you had over the lives of women you professed to love dearly. You abused them physically, emotionally, and psychologically. And you used that abuse to get your way, especially when it came to freak-offs and hotel nights.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Advocates raise alarms after Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan found guilty of obstruction

    [ad_1]

    MADISON, Wis. — Defenders of a Wisconsin judge found guilty of felony obstruction for helping a Mexican immigrant evade federal officers raised alarms Friday about judicial independence and said they hope the conviction will be overturned on appeal.

    A jury found Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan guilty on Thursday night after a four-day trial and six hours of deliberation. The jury found her not guilty of a misdemeanor concealment charge. No sentencing date had been set as of Friday morning. She could be sentenced to a maximum five years in prison.

    The verdict was a victory for President Donald Trump, whose administration filed the charges against Dugan and touted her arrest earlier this year, posting photos of her being led away in handcuffs.

    U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche praised the verdict on X, saying nobody is above the law, even judges.

    The case inflamed tensions over Trump’s immigration crackdown, with his administration branding Dugan an activist judge and Democrats countering that the administration is trying to make an example of Dugan to blunt judicial opposition to the operation.

    U.S. Attorney Brad Schimel, a former Republican Wisconsin attorney general and judge, denied the case was political and urged people to accept the verdict peacefully.

    “Some have sought to make this about a larger political battle,” Schimel said. “While this case is serious for all involved, it is ultimately about a single day, a single bad day, in a public courthouse. The defendant is certainly not evil. Nor is she a martyr for some greater cause.”

    Dugan’s defense attorney told the jury in closing arguments that the “top levels of government” were involved in bringing charges against Dugan. But prosecutors argued Dugan put her personal beliefs above the law.

    “You don’t have to agree with immigration enforcement policy to see this was wrong,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Brown Watzka told the jury in closing arguments. “You just have to agree the law applies equally to everyone.”

    Dugan did not testify. Dugan and her attorneys left the courtroom, ducked into a side conference room and closed the door without speaking to reporters.

    Steve Biskupic, her lead attorney, later said he was disappointed with the ruling and didn’t understand how the jury could have reached a split verdict since the elements of both charges were virtually the same.

    Dugan’s attorneys were expected to appeal the verdict.

    A coalition of 13 advocacy groups, including Common Cause Wisconsin and the League of Women Voters Wisconsin, said “higher courts must carefully review the serious constitutional questions this case raises about due process, judicial authority, and federal overreach.”

    Dugan was suspended as a judge after she was charged and the Wisconsin Constitution bars convicted felons from holding office. The Wisconsin Judicial Commission, which oversees disciplining of judges in the state, did not respond to a request Friday for information about what happens next in Dugan’s case.

    On April 18, immigration officers went to the Milwaukee County courthouse after learning 31-year-old Eduardo Flores-Ruiz had reentered the country illegally and was scheduled to appear before Dugan for a hearing in a state battery case.

    Dugan confronted agents outside her courtroom and after they had left led Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out a private jury door. Agents spotted Flores-Ruiz in the corridor, followed him outside and arrested him after a foot chase. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced in November he had been deported.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Harvard morgue manager who sold body parts gets 8-year prison term

    [ad_1]

    A former manager of the Harvard Medical School morgue in Boston was sentenced to eight years in prison for stealing and selling body parts “as if they were baubles.”

    Authorities said Cedric Lodge was at the center of a ghoulish scheme in which he shipped brains, skin, hands and faces to buyers in Pennsylvania and elsewhere after cadavers donated to Harvard were no longer needed for research.

    This page requires Javascript.

    Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.

    kAmw:D H:76[ s6?:D6 {@586[ H2D D6?E6?465 E@ ;FDE @G6C 2 J62C 😕 AC:D@? 7@C 2DD:DE:?8 9:>] %96J 2AA62C65 %F6D52J 😕 7656C2= 4@FCE 😕 (:==:2>DA@CE[ !6??DJ=G2?:2]k^Am

    kAmx? @?6 6I2>A=6[ r65C:4 {@586 AC@G:565 D<:? E@ 2 3FJ6C D@ :E 4@F=5 36 E2??65 :?E@ =62E96C 2?5 3@F?5 :?E@ 2 3@@<[ 2 “566A=J 9@CC:7J:?8 C62=:EJ[” pDD:DE2?E &]$] pEE@C?6J p=:D2? |2CE:? D2:5 😕 2 4@FCE 7:=:?8]k^Am

    kAm“x? 2?@E96C[ r65C:4 2?5 s6?:D6 {@586 D@=5 2 >2?’D 7246 — A6C92AD E@ 36 <6AE @? 2 D96=7[ A6C92AD E@ 36 FD65 7@C D@>6E9:?8 6G6? >@C6 5:DEFC3:?8[” |2CE:? D2:5]k^Am

    kAm$96 D2:5 {@586[ dg[ @7 v@77DE@H?[ }6H w2>AD9:C6[ EC62E65 E96 A2CED @7 “36=@G65 9F>2? 36:?8D 2D :7 E96J H6C6 32F3=6D E@ 36 D@=5 7@C AC@7:E” 2?5 4@==64E65 E9@FD2?5D @7 5@==2CD[ 7C@> a_`g E9C@F89 |2C49 a_a_]k^Am

    kAmp7E6C w2CG2C5 7:?:D96D FD:?8 2 5@?2E65 3@5J 7@C C6D62C49 @C E6249:?8[ E96 3@5J EJA:42==J 😀 C6EFC?65 E@ 72>:=J @C 4C6>2E65] {@586 24@G:?8 3@5J A2CED 367@C6 4C6>2E:@?]k^Am

    kAm{@586[ H9@ H2D 2 >@C8F6 >2?286C 7@C ag J62CD[ 6IAC6DD65 C68C6E 😕 4@FCE] s676?D6 2EE@C?6J !2EC:4< r2D6J D2:5 9:D 24ED H6C6 “68C68:@FD]”k^Am

    kAm“|C] {@586 24 9:D 24E:@?D 92G6 :?7=:4E65 @? 3@E9 E96 56462D65 A6CD@?D H9@D6 3@5:6D 96 42==@FD=J 568C2565 2?5 E96:C 8C:6G:?8 72>:=:6D[” r2D6J D2:5 😕 2 4@FCE 7:=:?8]k^Am

    kAmw2CG2C5 DFDA6?565 E96 5@?2E:@? @7 3@5:6D 7@C 7:G6 >@?E9D 😕 a_ab H96? 492C86D H6C6 7:=65]k^Am

    kAm!C@D64FE@CD D2:5 2E =62DE D:I @E96C A6@A=6[ :?4=F5:?8 2? 6>A=@J66 2E 2? pC<2?D2D 4C6>2E@C:F>[ 92G6 A=62565 8F:=EJ 😕 E96 :?G6DE:82E:@? @7 3@5JA2CED EC277:4<:?8]k^Am

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

    [ad_2]

    By ED WHITE – Associated Press

    Source link

  • US rapper Wiz Khalifa sentenced by Romanian court to 9 months for drug possession

    [ad_1]

    BUCHAREST, Romania — American rapper Wiz Khalifa was sentenced by a court in Romania on Thursday to nine months in jail for drug possession, more than a year after he took part in a music festival in the Eastern European country.

    Khalifa was stopped by Romanian police in July 2024 after allegedly smoking cannabis on stage at the Beach, Please! Festival in Costinesti, a coastal resort in Constanta County. Prosecutors said the rapper, whose real name is Cameron Jibril Thomaz, was found in possession of more than 18 grams of cannabis, and that he consumed some on stage.

    The Constanta Court of Appeal handed down the sentence after Khalifa was convicted of “possession of dangerous drugs, without right, for personal consumption,” according to Romania’s national news agency, Agerpres. The decision is final.

    The decision came after a lower court in Constanta County in April issued Khalifa a criminal fine of 3,600 lei ($830) for “illegal possession of dangerous drugs,” but prosecutors appealed the court’s decision and sought a higher sentence.

    Romania has some of the harsher drugs laws in Europe. Possession of cannabis for personal use is criminalized and can result in a prison sentence of between three months and two years, or a fine.

    It isn’t clear whether Romanian authorities will seek to file an extradition request, since Khalifa is a U.S. citizen and doesn’t reside in Romania.

    The 38-year-old Pittsburgh rapper rose to prominence with his breakout mixtape “Kush + Orange Juice.” On stage in Romania last summer, the popular rapper smoked a large, hand-rolled cigarette while singing his hit “Young, Wild & Free.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Crypto mogul Do Kwon sentenced to 15 years in prison for $40 billion stablecoin fraud

    [ad_1]

    NEW YORK (AP) — Onetime cryptocurrency mogul Do Kwon was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison after a $40 billion crash revealed his crypto ecosystem to be a fraud. Victims said the 34-year-old financial technology whiz weaponized their trust to convince them that the investment — secretly propped up by cash infusions — was safe.

    Kwon, a Stanford graduate known by some as “the cryptocurrency king,” apologized after listening as victims — one in court and others by telephone — described the scam’s toll: wiping out nest eggs, depleting charities and wrecking lives. One told the judge in a letter that he contemplated suicide after his father lost his retirement money in the scheme.

    Judge Paul A. Engelmayer said at a daylong sentencing hearing in Manhattan federal court that the government’s recommendation of 12 years in prison was “unreasonably lenient” and that the defense’s request for five years was “utterly unthinkable and wildly unreasonable.” Kwon faced a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.

    “Your offense caused real people to lose $40 billion in real money, not some paper loss,” Engelmayer told Kwon, who sat at the defense table in a yellow jail suit. The judge called it “a fraud on an epic, generational scale” and said Kwon had an “almost mystical hold” on investors and caused incalculable “human wreckage.”

    Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel.


    Follow on

    More than the combined losses in FTX and OneCoin cases

    Kwon pleaded guilty in August to fraud charges stemming from the collapse of Terraform Labs, the Singapore-based firm he co-founded in 2018. The loss exceeded the combined losses from FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and OneCoin co-founder Karl Sebastian Greenwood’s frauds, prosecutors said. Engelmayer estimated there may have been a million victims.

    Terraform Labs had touted its TerraUSD as a reliable “stablecoin” — a kind of currency typically pegged to stable assets to prevent drastic fluctuations in prices. But prosecutors say it was an illusion backed by outside cash infusions that came crumbling down after it plunged far below its $1 peg. The crash devastated investors in TerraUSD and its floating sister currency, Luna, triggering “a cascade of crises that swept through cryptocurrency markets.”

    Kwon tried to rebuild Terraform Labs in Singapore before fleeing to the Balkans on a false passport, prosecutors said. He’s been locked up since his March 2023 arrest in Montenegro. He was credited for 17 months he spent in jail there before being extradited to the U.S.

    Kwon agreed to forfeit over $19 million as part of his plea deal. His lawyers argued his conduct stemmed not from greed, but hubris and desperation. Engelmayer rejected his request to serve his sentence in his native South Korea, where he also faces prosecution and where his wife and 4-year-old daughter live.

    “I have spent almost every waking moment of the last few years thinking of what I could have done different and what I can do now to make things right,” Kwon told Engelmayer. Hearing from victims, he said, was “harrowing and reminded me again of the great losses that I have caused.”

    Victims say losses ruined their lives, harmed charities

    One victim, speaking by telephone, said his wife divorced him, his sons had to skip college, and he had to move back to Croatia to live with his parents after TerraUSD’s crash evaporated his family’s life savings. Another said he has to “live with the guilt” of persuading his in-laws and hundreds of nonprofit organizations to invest.

    Stanislav Trofimchuk said his family’s investment plummeted from $190,000 to $13,000 — “17 years of our life, gone” during what he described as “two weeks of sheer terror.”

    Chauncey St. John, speaking in court, said some nonprofits he worked with lost more than $2 million and a church group lost about $900,000. He and his wife are saddled with debt and his in-laws have been forced to work well past their planned retirement, he said.

    Nevertheless, St. John said, he forgives Kwon and “I pray to God to have mercy on his soul.”

    A prosecutor read excerpts from some of more than 300 letters submitted by victims, including a person identified only by initials who lost nearly $11,400 while juggling bills and trying to complete college. Kwon had made Terra seem like a safe place to stash savings, the person said.

    “To some that is just a number on a page, but to me it was years of effort,” the person wrote. “Watching it evaporate, literally overnight, was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life.”

    “What happened was not an accident. It was not a market event. It was deception,” the person added, imploring the judge to “consider the human cost of this tragedy.”

    Kwon created an “illusion of resilience while covering up systemic failure,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Mortazavi told Engelmayer. “This was fraud executed with arrogance, manipulation and total disregard for people.”

    ___

    Associated Press reporter Anthony Izaguirre contributed to this report.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Fugees rapper sentenced to prison over illegal donations to Obama campaign

    [ad_1]

    WASHINGTON — Grammy-winning rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel of the Fugees was sentenced on Thursday to 14 years in prison for a case in which he was convicted of illegally funneling millions of dollars in foreign contributions to former President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign.

    Michel, 52, declined to address the court before U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced him.

    In April 2023, a federal jury convicted Michel of 10 counts, including conspiracy and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. The trial in Washington, D.C., included testimony from actor Leonardo DiCaprio and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

    Justice Department prosecutors said federal sentencing guidelines recommended a life sentence for Michel, whom they said “betrayed his country for money” and “lied unapologetically and unrelentingly to carry out his schemes.”

    “His sentence should reflect the breadth and depth of his crimes, his indifference to the risks to his country, and the magnitude of his greed,” they wrote.

    Defense attorney Peter Zeidenberg said his client’s 14-year sentence is “completely disproportionate to the offense.” Michel will appeal his conviction and sentence, according to his lawyer.

    Zeidenberg had recommended a three-year prison sentence. A life sentence would be an “absurdly high” punishment for Michel given that it is typically reserved for deadly terrorists and drug cartel leaders, Michel’s attorneys said in a court filing.

    “The Government’s position is one that would cause Inspector Javert to recoil and, if anything, simply illustrates just how easily the Guidelines can be manipulated to produce absurd results, and how poorly equipped they are, at least on this occasion, to determine a fair and just sentence,” they wrote.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Former customs officer sentenced to 15 years for helping drug traffickers

    [ad_1]

    A former Customs and Border Protection officer has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to working with Mexican traffickers to bring drugs into the U.S. Diego Bonillo pleaded guilty in July to multiple charges, including conspir…

    LOS ANGELES — A former U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer was sentenced to 15 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to working with Mexican traffickers to bring drugs into the U.S., officials said Thursday.

    Diego Bonillo, 30, pleaded guilty in July to multiple charges, including conspiracy to import controlled substances such as cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin.

    As part of his plea deal, he admitted to using his position to allow drug-filled cars into the U.S. from Mexico without inspection. He allowed at least 75 kilograms of fentanyl, 11.7 kilograms of methamphetamine, and more than 1 kilogram of heroin into the country, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego said in a news release Thursday.

    Prosecutors said in sentencing documents that Bonillo was using a secret phone to alert the drug trafficking group which lanes he would be overseeing at the Tecate and Otay Mesa border crossings so he could ensure their entry without inspection.

    Agents determined that Bonillo was part of the scheme no later than October 2023 and continued until April 2024, allowing at least 15 vehicles to enter uninspected, prosecutors said.

    Bonillo used his payments to travel internationally, purchase luxury gifts, attempt to purchase property in Mexico, and spend time at the Hong Kong Gentlemen’s Club in Tijuana, Mexico, prosecutors said.

    He was sentenced Nov. 7 to 15 years in federal prison.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Chinese ‘cryptoqueen’ who scammed thousands jailed in UK over Bitcoin stash worth $6.6 billion

    [ad_1]

    LONDON (AP) — A Chinese woman who was found with 5 billion pounds ($6.6 billion) in Bitcoin after defrauding more than 128,000 people in China in a Ponzi scheme was sentenced by a U.K. court on Tuesday to over 11 years in prison.

    Police said the investigation into Zhimin Qian, 47, led to officers recovering devices holding 61,000 Bitcoin in the largest cryptocurrency seizure in the U.K.

    Qian, dubbed “cryptoqueen” by British media, was arrested in April 2024 after spending years evading the authorities and living an “extravagant” lifestyle in Europe, staying in luxury hotels across the continent and buying fine jewelry and watches, prosecutors said.

    Police said she ran a pyramid scheme that lured more than 128,000 people to invest in her business between 2014 and 2017, including many who invested their life savings and pensions. Authorities said she stored the illegally obtained funds in Bitcoin assets.

    When she attracted the attention of Chinese authorities, Qian fled to the U.K. under a fake identity. Once in London, police said she rented a “lavish” house for over 17,000 pounds ($23,000) per month, and tried but failed to buy multimillion pound properties in a bid to convert the Bitcoin.

    Investigators found notes Qian had written documenting her aspirations — including her “intention to become the monarch of Liberland, a self-proclaimed country consisting of a strip of land between Croatia and Serbia.”

    They said other notes showed Qian detailing her hopes of “meeting a duke and royalty.”

    Judge Sally-Ann Hales said Qian was the architect of the crimes from start to finish.

    “Your motive was one of pure greed. You left China without a thought for the people whose investments you had stolen and enjoyed for a period of time a lavish lifestyle. You lied and schemed, all the while seeking to benefit yourself,” Hales said.

    The businesswoman, who had pleaded guilty to money laundering offenses and transferring and possessing criminal property, was sentenced Tuesday to 11 years and eight months at Southwark Crown Court.

    She was sentenced alongside her accomplice Seng Hok Ling, 47, a Malaysian national who was accused of helping Qian transfer and launder the cryptocurrency. Ling was jailed at the same court for four years and 11 months after he pleaded guilty to one count of transferring criminal property.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • China’s ‘cryptoqueen’ jailed in UK over $6.6 billion Bitcoin scam

    [ad_1]

    LONDON — A Chinese woman who was found with 5 billion pounds ($6.6 billion) in Bitcoin after defrauding more than 128,000 people in China in a Ponzi scheme was sentenced by a U.K. court on Tuesday to over 11 years in prison.

    Police said the investigation into Zhimin Qian, 47, led to officers recovering devices holding 61,000 Bitcoin in the largest cryptocurrency seizure in the U.K.

    Qian, dubbed “cryptoqueen” by British media, was arrested in April 2024 after spending years evading the authorities and living an “extravagant” lifestyle in Europe, staying in luxury hotels across the continent and buying fine jewelry and watches, prosecutors said.

    Police said she ran a pyramid scheme that lured more than 128,000 people to invest in her business between 2014 and 2017, including many who invested their life savings and pensions. Authorities said she stored the illegally obtained funds in Bitcoin assets.

    When she attracted the attention of Chinese authorities, Qian fled to the U.K. under a fake identity. Once in London, police said she rented a “lavish” house for over 17,000 pounds ($23,000) per month.

    Investigators found notes Qian had written documenting her aspirations — including her “intention to become the monarch of Liberland, a self-proclaimed country consisting of a strip of land between Croatia and Serbia.”

    The businesswoman, who had pleaded guilty to money laundering offenses and transferring and possessing criminal property, was sentenced Tuesday to 11 years and eight months at Southwark Crown Court.

    She was sentenced alongside her accomplice Seng Hok Ling, 47, a Malaysian national who was accused of helping Qian transfer and launder the cryptocurrency. Ling was jailed at the same court for four years and 11 months after he pleaded guilty to one count of transferring criminal property.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • 2 California prison officers hurt in alleged attack by inmate

    [ad_1]

    FOLSOM, Calif. — Two California prison officers were hospitalized after an alleged attack by an incarcerated man, and authorities are investigating it as an attempted homicide, officials said Sunday.

    The incident happened Saturday at California State Prison, Sacramento, as the suspect was being escorted from his cell to allow staff to conduct a search, according to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

    “Staff used physical force and chemical agents to quickly quell the attack, and an improvised weapon was found at the scene,” the corrections department said in a statement.

    The officers were transported in fair condition, the statement said.

    The 48-year-old male suspect was placed in restricted housing during the investigation, officials said. He arrived at the facility in 2011 to serve a 17-year sentence for charges including corporal injury to a spouse. In 2022, he received an additional four years for possession/manufacture of a deadly weapon.

    The case will be referred to the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office for possible felony prosecution.

    The prison northeast of the state capital houses more than 2,200 medium-, maximum- and high-security incarcerated people.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs transferred to prison to serve prostitution-related sentence

    [ad_1]

    NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs has been transferred to a prison in New Jersey to serve out the remainder of his four-year prison sentence on prostitution-related charges.

    The hip-hop mogul is currently incarcerated at the Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institute, located about 34 miles (55 kilometers) east of Philadelphia on the grounds of the joint military base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, according to his listing in the federal Bureau of Prisons inmate database as of Friday.

    It’s not immediately clear when Combs was moved from the troubled Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he had been held since his arrest last September.

    Lawyers for Combs and spokespersons for the agency didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment Friday.

    Combs’ lawyers had asked a judge earlier this month to “strongly recommend” transferring him to the low-security male prison so that he could take part in the facility’s drug treatment program.

    FCI Fort Dix, one of several dozen federal prisons with a residential drug treatment program, would best allow Combs “to address drug abuse issues and to maximize family visitation and rehabilitative efforts,” Teny Geragos, his lawyer, wrote in a letter.

    Combs has already served about 14 months of his 50-month sentence and is set to be released from prison on May 8, 2028, though he can earn reductions in his time behind bars through his participation in substance abuse treatment and other prison programs.

    Earlier this week, Combs’ lawyers asked a federal appeals court to quickly consider the legality of his conviction and sentence. The 55-year-old wants his appeal to be considered soon enough that he can benefit from a reduction of time spent in prison if the appeals court reverses his conviction, his lawyers said.

    President Donald Trump has also said Combs had asked him for a pardon, though the Republican did not say if he would grant the request.

    The founder of Bad Boy Records was convicted in July of flying his girlfriends and male sex workers around the country to engage in drug-fueled sexual encounters in multiple places over many years. However, he was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that could have put him behind bars for life.

    In a letter to the judge before he was sentenced, Combs said he has gone through a “spiritual reset” in jail and was “committed to the journey of remaining a drug free, non-violent and peaceful person.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Turkish court sentences hotel owner and 10 others to life for deadly fire that killed 78

    [ad_1]

    ANKARA, Turkey — A Turkish court on Friday sentenced the owner of a ski resort hotel and 10 others to life in prison after convicting them of severe negligence in connection with a deadly fire that swept through the property, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

    The blaze hit the 12-story Grand Kartal Hotel at the Kartalkaya ski resort in the province of Bolu on Jan. 21 during the winter school break, killing 78 people and injuring 133 others. A total of 34 children taking family vacations were among the victims.

    The court convicted hotel owner Halit Ergul, along with his wife, two daughters, hotel managers, a deputy mayor and a deputy fire chief of negligence with “probable intent to kill.” They were each sentenced to life imprisonment for the deaths of the children, and received an additional 25 years in prison for the 44 other fatalities.

    The defendants, who have rejected responsibility for the deaths, were expected to appeal the decision. The courtroom broke into applause after the verdicts were read, with families welcoming the sentence, Haberturk news channel reported.

    The disaster forced terrified guests and hotel staff to leap from windows or dangle bedsheets to escape rooms engulfed in smoke and flames. It sent shockwaves across Turkey, sparking widespread calls for accountability over negligence and safety violations.

    Family members and friends of the victims staged demonstrations outside the courthouse during each hearing, holding up posters of their loved ones and demanding justice.

    According to the indictment, the fire began at 3:17 a.m. when a spark from an electric grill ignited a garbage bin and ruptured a liquefied petroleum gas hose, triggering the blaze. Staff noticed the flames seven minutes later, but within two minutes, the fire had spread beyond control. Air from an open door accelerated the flames, which quickly engulfed the wooden ceiling.

    Poor safety measures — including lack of smoke extraction, faulty alarms, inadequate staff training and missing sprinkler systems — allowed fumes to fill upper floors. Stairwells and elevator shafts acted like chimneys, and the absence of emergency lighting, signage and alternative exits prevented the safe evacuation of the hotel’s 238 guests, the indictment said.

    The hotel first opened in 1999, and has been operated by Ergul’s company since 2007.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • 2 men face sentencing in plot to kill Iranian American journalist

    [ad_1]

    NEW YORK — A plot to assassinate Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad at her Brooklyn home came “chillingly near success,” prosecutors told a judge who will sentence two purported Russian mobsters.

    Prosecutors are seeking 55-year prison terms for Rafat Amirov, 46, and Polad Omarov, 41, at their sentencing on Wednesday in Manhattan federal court. Prosecutors said Amirov, of Iran, and Omarov, of Georgia, were crime bosses in the Russian mob.

    Lawyers for Amirov say he should not spend more than 13 years behind bars. Omarov’s attorneys called for a 10-year prison sentence.

    The men were convicted in a two-week March trial that featured dramatic testimony from a hired gunman and Alinejad, an author, activist and contributor to Voice of America.

    Alinejad said in a message to supporters Tuesday that she planned to be in court to face the men prosecutors say were high-ranking members of the Gulici, a faction of the Russian Mob that carried out murders, assaults, extortions, kidnappings, robberies, and arsons in the United States and abroad.

    “They’ll receive their sentence, and I’ll speak my truth in my impact statement,” she said.

    Alinejad, 49, led online campaigns encouraging women in Iran to record videos of themselves exposing their hair to protest edicts for head coverings in public.

    Prosecutors said Iranian intelligence officials first plotted in 2020 and 2021 to kidnap Alinejad in the U.S. and move her to Iran to silence her criticism.

    Iran offered $500,000 in a July 2022 attempt to kill Alinejad after efforts to harass, smear and intimidate her failed, prosecutors said.

    Prosecutors said in court documents that Alinejad was targeted by the Iranian government after she “dedicated her life to exposing the cruelty, corruption, and tyranny of the Islamic Republic.”

    When Alinejad, Amirov and Omarov were offered the $500,000 bounty, they “appeared completely incurious about who they were plotting to murder and why,” prosecutors wrote.

    “Amirov and Omarov were interested in one thing only: their own power and wealth,” they said.

    Prosecutors said the plot “came chillingly near success,” interrupted only by the luck that Alinejad was out of town while a hired gunman tried persistently to locate her and because of the “diligence and tenacity of American law enforcement, which detected and disrupted the plot in time.”

    Lawyers for Amirov said in court documents ahead of sentencing that no one was physically hurt and their client’s involvement in the plot was “minimal, if not non-existent.”

    Lawyers for Omarov said he deserved leniency because his life had been threatened after a relative who was a reputed leader of the “thieves-in-law” criminal organization in Russia and Azerbaijan was killed in 2020. Omarov was extradited to the U.S. in February 2024, a year after he was detained in the Czech Republic.

    Alinejad testified at the March trial that she came to the United States in 2009 after she was banned from covering Iran’s disputed presidential election and the newspaper where she worked was shut down.

    Establishing herself in New York City, she built an online audience of millions and launched her “My Stealthy Freedom” campaign to encourage Iranian women to expose their hair when the morality police were not around.

    Prosecutors have kept the investigation open. In October 2024, they announced charges against a senior Iranian military official and three others, none of whom are in custody.

    Alinejad said she has moved nearly two dozen times since the assassination plot was discovered.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Matriarch sentenced to life in prison for hired killing of her ex-son-in-law

    [ad_1]

    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Donna Adelson, the matriarch of a wealthy South Florida family who was convicted in the hired killing of her former son-in-law, was sentenced Monday to life in prison for her role in the 2014 murder-for-hire of Daniel Markel.

    A prominent Florida State University law professor, Markel was locked in a bitter custody battle with his ex-wife, Adelson’s daughter, when he was gunned down in 2014 at his home in Tallahassee.

    Adelson, 75, was found guilty last month of first-degree murder, conspiracy and solicitation after a weekslong trial. She was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for the murder charge, with an additional 30 years for the other two counts, to be served consecutively. Adelson has pledged to appeal.

    In an emotional statement ahead of the sentencing in a Tallahassee courtroom, Adelson swore she was innocent and cast her trial as a miscarriage of justice, overseen by a jury she said was unduly swayed by years of negative media coverage.

    “What happened to Danny is unforgivable. But I am an innocent woman convicted of this terrible crime without evidence,” Adelson said.

    “I’ve always respected the law. I’ve never gotten a parking ticket, But I’m going to prison for a murder I did not commit,” she added.

    Circuit Judge Stephen Everett interrupted Adelson multiple times, warning her the statements showed what he termed an “utter lack of remorse” for the crime.

    Shackled and dressed in a purple jail jumpsuit, Adelson stood attentively while Everett handed down the sentence. “You certainly can choose to deny your involvement and maintain innocence. The court finds the evidence in this case is clear,” Everett said.

    The case had captivated people in Florida for more than a decade amid sordid details of a messy divorce, tensions with wealthy in-laws and custody fights leading to the killing.

    Adelson was the fifth person sentenced for what prosecutors say was a plot to kill Markel. Among those already serving a life sentence for the killing is Adelson’s son, Charles Adelson.

    At trial, prosecutors had painted Donna Adelson as the calculated and controlling matriarch of an affluent South Florida family with the means and motive to orchestrate the killing of the ex-son-in-law she “hated.”

    Defense attorneys insisted the state didn’t have sufficient evidence to link the aging grandmother to the murder plot, instead emphasizing the roles played by others and casting suspicion on two of Adelson’s adult children. Wendi Adelson denied involvement in the killing and has not been charged.

    ___

    Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Judge denies request by ex-detective convicted in Breonna Taylor raid to delay prison

    [ad_1]

    LOUISVILLE, Ky. — LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A former Louisville police detective convicted of using excessive force during the deadly Breonna Taylor raid is expected to report to prison this week, after a judge denied his bid to remain free while he appeals the sentence.

    Brett Hankison became the first officer involved in the raid to be convicted on criminal charges when a jury found him guilty of using excessive force in November. He was sentenced to 33 months in prison in July but quickly filed an appeal asking a judge to let him remain free on bond.

    U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings on Monday denied Hankison’s bond request. He is scheduled to report to prison on Thursday. Jennings wrote in her ruling that Hankison “failed to demonstrate a substantial question of law or fact material to his appeal justifying bond.”

    Hankison drew his handgun and fired 10 shots into the windows of Taylor’s apartment the night of the deadly raid, but didn’t hit anyone. Some of his shots flew into a neighboring apartment, nearly striking two people inside.

    Jennings said during Hankison’s sentencing that she was “startled” that no one was injured by Hankison’s shots. Hankison’s first federal trial on excessive force charges ended in a mistrial in 2023, and he was acquitted of state charges of wanton endangerment in 2022.

    Ahead of his sentencing, the U.S. Justice Department asked that Hankison be given no prison time.

    Jennings expressed disappointment with the request, saying the Justice Department was treating Hankison’s actions as “an inconsequential crime.”

    Two other officers shot Taylor as they returned fire, after Taylor’s boyfriend opened fire when police broke down the door. Hankison was behind the officers and when the shooting started, he ran to the side of the apartment and fired through the windows.

    Hankison said at trial he was trying to protect his fellow officers, who he believed were coming under fire from someone inside with a rifle.

    [ad_2]

    Source link