Federal officials unveiled a slew of charges Tuesday against two Coloradans accused of ripping off a program that provides free rides to Medicaid patients, the first criminal charges filed in response to a sprawling fraud bonanza identified by state officials more than two years ago.
The indictments allege that Ashley Marie Stevens and Wesam Yassin separately participated in the transportation program and fraudulently collected seven-figure payouts — more than $3.3 million for Yassin alone, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado. The two drivers, who ran separate companies, allegedly fabricated rides for appointments that didn’t exist. Stevens is accused of billing for rides for her husband while he was incarcerated, and Yassin allegedly billed $165,000 for driving a patient who was dead.
Both Stevens, of Mesa County, and Yassin, of Douglas County, were charged with multiple counts of wire fraud, money laundering and health care fraud for their participation in the driving service.
The program pays drivers to ferry Medicaid patients to and from doctor’s appointments, but it became a haven for fraud in 2022 and 2023, after state officials increased the service’s reimbursement rates. State officials told The Denver Post last month that an estimated $25 million was lost in the broader fraud.
Yassin’s indictment was still sealed Tuesday evening. In a statement, federal officials alleged that Yassin billed Medicaid for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of rides that never occurred between March 2022 and October 2023. She raked in $283,000 from rides for just one patient, most of which was paid to Yassin after the patient had already died.
Yassin allegedly used the proceeds to buy a home and furnishings, along with luxury vehicles, jewelry and cosmetic surgery. She was released on bond earlier this week, according to court records.
Stevens billed the state for more than $1 million between July 2022 and February 2023, according to the indictment. More than $400,000 came from rides she provided to herself or to her family members, for which there were “very few” actual medical appointments, federal authorities allege.
The trips included rides for her husband, who was incarcerated during some of the time when Stevens claimed she was driving him to the doctor. Another $150,000 was billed for rides that either never took place or were for trips that didn’t involve Medicaid services.
She was also paid more than $450,000 for rides that were at least 400 miles long, authorities allege. From east to west, Colorado is roughly 380 miles wide. Stevens allegedly used the proceeds from the scheme for travel and to buy a luxury car.
Stevens was already in Mesa County jail when she was indicted in December, according to court records. She remains in custody.
Yassin and Stevens are the first drivers to face any criminal repercussions for allegedly bilking the program. The fraud was in its heyday in 2023, state officials previously told The Post: A rash of new drivers entered the program then, shortly after the state increased the rate paid to transportation companies. Unscrupulous drivers, who were paid on a per member, per mile basis, allegedly packed their cars with patients and drove them across the state.
Some targeted homeless people in Pueblo and Colorado Springs, driving them to methadone clinics in metro Denver. Some patients were bribed with cash or drugs, state officials have said. Kim Bimestefer, the executive director of the state Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, told lawmakers last month that the fraud scheme was “international.”
A Fort Lauderdale financial advisor was sentenced to 20 years after running a $94 million international Ponzi scheme that defrauded 150+ investors across South Florida, Venezuela and Spain.
Miami Herald File
A Fort Lauderdale financial advisor will be spending the next 20 years in a prison cell after being found guilty of captaining a decades-long international fraud scheme, prosecutors say.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Becerra handed Andrew Hamilton Jacobus, 64, a 240-month sentence in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida announced.
“That sentence reflects the real harm to victims and sends a clear message: sophisticated financial fraud will be exposed and punished in South Florida,” said U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones.
Jacobus started his career in finance in the early 1990s, but that quickly spiraled into him falsely portraying himself as a seasoned financial advisor who managed legitimate investment portfolios, authorities said.
Over the years, he solicited funds through business entities he controlled and promised investors high-yield returns. In reality, he was running a Ponzi-scheme in which he would forge account statements, falsify financial documentation and divert client funds, according to court records.
Jacobus was able to rake in over $90 million from more than 150 investors and used the money to “support a lavish personal lifestyle and unrelated business ventures,” prosecutors said.
More than 100 of his victims appeared during his sentencing hearing, about 20 in-person and 80 remotely, some offering testimonies to Judge Becerra, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
“This was a $94 million international fraud built on lies and broken trust,” Reding Quiñones said. “The defendant preyed on families, professionals, and faith-based institutions across our community and beyond.”
The scheme spanned South Florida and multiple countries, including Venezuela and Spain, and roped in powerful figures, such as members of the Venezuelan Archdiocese, lawyers and doctors, records show. Jacobus also defrauded members of his own family.
“Greed was Jacobus’s greatest tool — paired with a computer and a phone, it fueled a scheme that stole millions and shattered lives,” said Special Agent in Charge Ron Loecker, of IRS Criminal Investigation’s Florida field office. “IRS Special Agents will continue to work tirelessly to uncover financial fraud and deliver justice to victims.”
Miami Herald Cops and Breaking News Reporter Devoun Cetoute covers a plethora of Florida topics, from breaking news to crime patterns. He was on the breaking news team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2022. He’s a graduate of the University of Florida, born and raised in Miami-Dade. Theme parks, movies and cars are on his mind in and out of the office.
Eight people from metro Denver were indicted on federal charges related to drug trafficking, weapons and money laundering, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado said Thursday.
The suspects — all current or former residents of Denver, Aurora, Commerce City and Wheat Ridge — are facing charges of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute meth, fentanyl and cocaine, federal officials said in a news release.
Law enforcement officers arrested Dario Perez Quintero, 34; Guadalupe Mendoza Martinez, 46; Pedro Mendoza Martinez, 54; Abimael Felix Luque, 32; David Uvaldo Mora Sanchez, 32; Hector Joel Quijada Portillo, 30; Oscar Noel Ruelas Molina, 44; and Jose Alexis Guzman Felix, 30, this week, according to court records.
The indictment, filed Tuesday, includes additional charges related to drug possession and distribution, illegal firearm possession and money laundering, but it does not detail how investigators determined the eight suspects were identified as being involved in the scheme.
They face up to life in prison if convicted on the first count of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute, federal officials said.
The case was investigated by multiple federal agencies through the Homeland Security Task Force, including Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Misappropriated over $1 million from two clients for personal expenses.
Used client funds to buy luxury items, a Mercedes SUV, and pay golf club dues.
A Southampton investment advisor was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Central Islip for defrauding more than $1 million from clients, officials said.
Jeffrey Slothower was convicted in May of 2024 of federal wire fraud, investment adviser fraud and money laundering. On Thursday, he was sentenced to prison and ordered to pay restitution, according to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office.
“Jeffrey Slothower used his position as an investment advisor to steal over a million dollars from an unsuspecting couple,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr., said in a news release about the sentencing. “Today’s sentence sends a message to all those that would use their positions as financial professionals to line their own pockets – our office will prosecute you to the full extent of the law.”
Trial evidence showed that Slothower carried out a scheme to misuse more than $1 million from clients. While operating Battery Private, a New York investment advisory firm, he solicited a California couple whose funds he had previously managed at another firm, officials said. Slothower promised to outperform their existing returns without market risk and, in 2017, offered to invest the first victim’s money in purported bonds backed by homeowners’ association fees paying an 8 percent return.
In January 2017 the victim sent more than $500,000 to Slothower at Battery Private to invest in those bonds. Instead, Slothower transferred the funds to his personal accounts and used them to purchase a $125,000 Mercedes-Benz SUV and for dues at the Long Island National Golf Club. He later made payments to the victim, falsely representing them as quarterly investment distributions, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Slothower later solicited additional investments from the first victim, including funds controlled by the second victim, then a Battery Private client. In December 2017, the second victim sent more than $500,000 to Slothower to invest in the bonds. Yet Slothower used these funds for personal expenses, including tens of thousands of dollars in credit card charges for a $6,500 Chanel purse, a $13,000 Rolex watch and more than $11,000 in Ralph Lauren clothing. Slothower made payments to the second victim that he falsely represented as quarterly investment distributions, officials said.
The scheme continued through June 2018, when Slothower obtained an additional approximately $84,000 from the first victim. He used those funds to make purported quarterly payments to both victims, which he falsely represented as investment returns, and to pay golf club dues, according to officials.
Slothower also engaged in mortgage fraud while attempting to refinance a mortgage on a residence he owned. He misrepresented to the lender, both orally and through false invoices, that the victims’ funds were proceeds from the sale of wine, stamp and fine art collections. At trial, according to officials, Slothower falsely testified under oath that he had not characterized the victims’ funds as proceeds from asset sales.
On Thursday, he was sentenced to 72 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $1.16 million in restitution and forfeiture, according to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office.
BERLIN — German prosecutors say they will drop an investigation of Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, over possible breaches of sanctions and money laundering rules after he agreed to pay a 10 million euro (about $11.8 million) fine.
The Uzbekistan-born Russian billionaire and metals magnate, who was reelected as the president of the International Fencing Federation last year, has been facing European Union sanctions imposed after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The Munich prosecutors office said Tuesday the probe of Usmanov, which prompted police raids of dozens of properties in Germany linked to him three years ago, will be dropped upon receipt of payment of the fine.
Some funds and assets linked to Usmanov had been frozen under the EU sanctions.
Prosecutors said Usmanov was suspected of transferring about 1.5 million euros through foreign-based companies for management of two properties in the lakeside town of Rottach-Egern south of Munich, in the months after the sanctions were imposed.
He was also alleged to have failed to declare valuables including jewelry, paintings and wines to authorities. Usmanov’s defense team had challenged the allegations about his ties to the companies and valuables and the applicability of EU law in the case.
The prosecutors said the discontinuation of the investigation upon payment of a fine was authorized under German criminal law.
NEW YORK — Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier ’s lawyers are asking a judge to throw out sports gambling charges that have kept him off the court this season, arguing that the government overreached by turning a private dispute over bettors’ use of non-public information into a federal case.
In a motion to dismiss made public on Tuesday, Rozier’s lawyers argued that the government’s theory of the case — that he prevented sportsbooks from making informed decisions about accepting certain bets — runs afoul of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that narrowed the federal wire fraud statute.
Rozier, 31, is accused of helped gamblers cash in by tipping off a friend that he would leave a March 2023 game early because of a supposed injury. The friend, Deniro “Niro” Laster, who is also charged, shared or sold the information to others, who placed more than $250,000 in prop bets, prosecutors said.
“The government has billed this case as involving ‘insider betting’ and ‘rigging’ professional basketball games,” Rozier’s lawyers, James M. Trusty and A. Jeff Ifrah, wrote in the motion. “But the indictment alleges something less headline-worthy: that some bettors broke certain sportsbooks’ terms of use against wagering based on non-public information and ‘straw betting.’”
Rozier was on the Charlotte Hornets at the time and the information about his early exit was not listed on the team’s injury report, nor was it shared with the public or the sportsbooks that accept wagers on NBA games and player performances, prosecutors said.
Rozier pleaded not guilty in federal court in Brooklyn on Dec. 8 to wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy charges. He was released on $3 million bond and is due back in court for a hearing before U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall on March 3.
His charges were part of a sweep of more than 30 other people in a takedown of two sprawling gambling operations: one that authorities said leaked inside information about NBA athletes and another involving rigged, Mafia-backed poker games.
The charges have raised questions about the integrity of NBA games in an era of legalized betting and myriad prop bets, prompting the league to tweak its injury reporting requirements.
A message seeking comment on Rozier’s motion to dismiss the case was left for federal prosecutors.
In the motion, Rozier’s lawyers wrote that under the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in United States v. Ciminelli, prosecutors can’t make a wire fraud case out of allegations that defendants conspired to deprive a person — or, in this case, sportsbooks — of the right to information needed to make discretionary economic decisions.
They also questioned whether federal prosecutors have the authority to bring such a case, since sportsbooks are regulated at the state level, not the federal level.
“This is not to say that sports betting platforms are without recourse when their terms of use are violated — they can void bets, pursue civil remedies, or seek state prosecutor involvement,” Trusty and Ifrah wrote in the motion, which was dated Dec. 12 but only posted to the case docket on Tuesday. “But Ciminelli puts to rest the notion that federal prosecutors are here to enforce contractual agreements between bettors and platforms.”
Rozier has earned about $160 million over a 10-year NBA career. He was a first-round pick for the Boston Celtics in 2015 after starring at the University of Louisville. Charlotte traded him to the Heat last year.
In the game in question, Rozier played the first nine minutes and 36 seconds against the New Orleans Pelicans before leaving, citing a foot issue. He did not play again that season.
Rozier’s lawyers noted that the indictment does not allege that he ever placed a bet on any NBA game, nor does it allege that he knew Laster intended to sell his tip to others or that using it to place wagers would violate the sportsbooks’ terms of service. And, they said, he really was injured.
“The government’s cynicism as to whether Mr. Rozier was injured is belied by a variety of witnesses and medical professionals who were aware of Rozier’s injury, in many cases before the Pelicans game,” Trusty and Ifrah wrote.
Prosecutors said victims were shot, hacked with machetes, and dismembered as part of a racketeering operation that spanned years and terrified New Yorkers
On December 19th, a federal jury in Brooklyn convicted two national leaders of the violent MS-13 street gang and two other members on racketeering charges tied to a series of brutal murders in Queens and on Long Island. The four defendants (22 defendants were part of the original indictment) were found guilty following a 10-week trial in the US District Court before Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall. Each now faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison when sentenced. The streets of New York City and Long Island can breathe a small sigh of relief. “These verdicts send a clear message: The NYPD will stop at nothing to identify, dismantle, and hold accountable any street gang that terrorizes our neighborhoods with violence,” said NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
A federal jury convicted national MS-13 leaders Edenilson Velasquez Larin, 36, of Colorado and Hugo Diaz Amaya, 37, of Kansas City, along with Fulton … https://t.co/FWDR6DbFKn@RaymondOrta
Federal officials said the defendants were responsible for orchestrating or carrying out four gruesome and violent murders between 2016 and 2022 as part of the gang’s racketeering enterprise; the killings involved machetes and firearms.
Brooklyn Federal CourthouseCredit: Lauren Conlin
Those convicted are Edenilson Velasquez Larin, Hugo Diaz Amaya, Jose Espinoza Sanchez, and Jose Arevalo Iraheta. The gang members have a multitude of nicknames listed in the indictment. Velasquez Larin and Diaz Amaya were identified as national leaders of MS-13, a transnational gang known for extreme violence. Prosecutors said the two “gang-authorized” murders across the United States (operating outside prison), made them among the highest-ranking MS-13 leaders active on the streets; thus marking this conviction a huge win.
Credit: U.S. District Court Eastern District of New York
Velasquez Larin was convicted of multiple counts including racketeering conspiracy, continuing criminal enterprise, drug trafficking conspiracies, money laundering conspiracy, firearms offenses, and murder in aid of racketeering tied to four killings: the 2016 machete murder of 18-year-old Kenny Reyes in Uniondale; the 2018 shooting death of 20-year-old Victor Alvarenga in Queens; the 2020 shooting death of 25-year-old Eric Monge in Queens; and the 2022 machete killing of 20-year-old Oswaldo Gutierrez Medrano in Nassau County.
Espinoza Sanchez, a clique leader on Long Island, was convicted of racketeering conspiracy, drug trafficking conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, firearms offenses, and murder in aid of racketeering connected to three of the four killings, prosecutors said. Arevalo Iraheta was convicted on racketeering and murder charges tied to the Gutierrez Medrano killing, as well as firearms offenses.
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Federal prosecutors said the killing of Oswaldo Gutierrez Medrano was one of the most brutal, stemmed from internal MS-13 “discipline.” After an unauthorized double murder by a Sailors Locos Salvatruchas gang member in a Texas federal prison, gang leaders known as La Mesa ordered retaliation against the Sailors clique. Gutierrez Medrano, a Sailors member in New York, was lured to Nassau County on February 13, 2022, under the false pretense of receiving a routine gang “beating,” to prove himself, authorities said. Instead, he was attacked to death with machetes and a knife, dismembered, and buried in a wooded area.
Federal prosecutors said the crimes were carried out to increase the defendants’ standing within the gang, punish perceived rivals, and enforce MS-13 rules through violence.
“This verdict holds accountable four extremely dangerous MS-13 members who participated in heinous murders and now deservedly face mandatory life sentences,” said US Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. in a press statement. He credited the FBI, HSI, NYPD, plus Suffolk and Nassau County Police for their work on the investigation and dismantling of violent gang leadership operating in New York.
OKLAHOMA CITY — A federal grand jury indicted the leader of the Black Lives Matter movement in Oklahoma City over allegations that millions of dollars in grant funds were improperly spent on international trips, groceries and personal real estate, prosecutors announced Thursday.
Tashella Sheri Amore Dickerson, 52, was indicted earlier this month on 20 counts of wire fraud and five counts of money laundering, court records show.
Court records do not indicate the name of Dickerson’s attorney, and messages left Thursday at her mobile number and by email were not immediately returned.
According to the indictment, Dickerson served since at least 2016 as the executive director of Black Lives Matter OKC, which accepted charitable donations through its affiliation with the Arizona-based Alliance for Global Justice.
In total, BLM OKC raised more than $5.6 million dating back to 2020, largely from online donors and national bail funds that were supposed to be used to post bail for individuals arrested in connection with racial justice protests after the killing of George Floyd by a Minnesota police officer in 2020, the indictment alleges.
When those bail funds were returned to BLM OKC, the indictment alleges, Dickerson embezzled at least $3.15 million into her personal accounts and then used the money to pay for trips to Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, retail shopping, at least $50,000 in food and grocery deliveries for herself and her children, a personal vehicle, and six properties in Oklahoma City deeded to her or to a company she controlled.
The indictment also alleges she submitted false annual reports to the alliance stating that the funds were used only for tax-exempt purposes.
If convicted, Dickerson faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for each count of wire fraud and 10 years in prison and fines for each count of money laundering.
In a live video posted on her Facebook page Thursday afternoon, Dickerson said she was not in custody and was “fine.”
“I cannot make an official comment about what transpired today,” she said. “I am home. I am safe. I have confidence in our team.”
“A lot of times when people come at you with these types of things … it’s evidence that you are doing the work,” she continued. “That is what I’m standing on.”
The Black Lives Matter movement first emerged in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida. But it was the 2014 death of Michael Brown at the hands of police in Ferguson, Missouri, that made the slogan “Black lives matter” a rallying cry for progressives and a favorite target of derision for conservatives.
The Associated Press reported in October that the Justice Department was investigating whether leaders in the Black Lives Matter movement defrauded donors who contributed tens of millions of dollars during racial justice protests in 2020. There was no immediate indication that Dickerson’s indictment is connected to that probe.
A Nigerian romance scammer was found guilty last month of money laundering. His victims include a Triangle area man trying to buy a home in Apex.
A Nigerian romance scammer was found guilty by a federal jury of laundering more than $120,000 from a Triangle area man, officials announced Wednesday.
Saheed Sunday Owolabi, 34, was convicted Oct. 16 of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, court records show. He was arrested in July 2024, about four months after he arrived in the United States on a spousal visa, according to court documents.
Owolabi was indicted in June 2022, along with another Nigerian man and two American men, court documents show. He and Stephen Ojo, the other Nigerian, posed as women online and convinced men to send and receive money for them, the indictment states.
“Investigators recovered chat messages in which Owolabi admitted he was running a romance scam until he realized he was actually communicating with another fraudster,” a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice states. “That individual mocked Owolabi’s efforts and told him to ‘learn how to do a cleaner job.’”
One of those victims was Derrick Donahue Davis of Concord, according to court documents. Davis fell for Ojo, who was allegedly going by the name “Kyra Carter,” after meeting the fake woman on a dating app in 2018, court documents state.
Davis ultimately played a crucial role in an April 2020 scam where the men sent a Triangle area man identified as “KCN” an email pretending to be KCN’s attorney. KCN was closing on a home in Apex, and the fake email used the COVID-19 pandemic as a ploy to get KCN to wire $120,768.17 to Davis’ bank account to avoid a delayed closing, court documents allege.
Davis then sent the money to several other people, and at least $1,500 made its way back to Owolabi, according to court documents. The victim didn’t realize he’d been scammed until he arrived at the closing appointment. Law enforcement noticed the large transaction and told Davis he was participating in criminal activity, but he allegedly continued to move money for Ojo and Owolabi nonetheless, court documents state.
Davis pleaded guilty in April 2023, and was sentenced to four years and six months in prison, court documents state. Ojo, who lived in Turkey during much of the criminal activity, has yet to be arrested, according to court records.
Owolabi is scheduled to be sentenced in January. He faces up to 40 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release, according to federal officials.
Lexi Solomon joined The News & Observer in August 2024 as the emerging news reporter. She previously worked in Fayetteville at The Fayetteville Observer and CityView, reporting on crime, education and local government. She is a 2022 graduate of Virginia Tech with degrees in Russian and National Security & Foreign Affairs.
Co-conspirator of suspended Osceola County sheriff pleads guilty to money laundering
WESH TWO NEWS ON CW STARTS NOW. FIRST TONIGHT, TWO MORE CO-DEFENDANTS IN THE CASE AGAINST SUSPENDED OSCEOLA SHERIFF MARCOS LOPEZ TOOK PLEA DEALS. TODAY. I’M JESSE PAGAN AND I’M MICHELLE IMPERATO LOPEZ’S ESTRANGED WIFE. AND ANOTHER CODEFENDANT. CHRISTINA DURAN. AN ALLEGED ILLEGAL GAMBLING OPERATION. THEY BOTH PLED GUILTY. WESH TWO HAYLEY CROMBLEHOLME IS LIVE AT THE LAKE COUNTY JAIL. HAYLEY. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THEM? SO AT THIS POINT, ANY SENTENCE COULD BE FACING THAT’S YET TO BE DETERMINED. THAT’S GOING TO BE UP TO THE COURT TO DECIDE. BUT FOR ROBIN LOPEZ, AFTER SHE WAS RELEASED FROM THE LAKE COUNTY JAIL HERE THIS AFTERNOON, IT APPEARS SHE’LL BE AVOIDING PRISON TIME AND AVOIDING A FELONY CONVICTION. NOW THIS ALL COMES. THESE PLEA DEALS JUST DAYS AFTER COURT DOCUMENTS ALLEGE THAT DIOR WAS PREPARED TO TESTIFY THAT HE GAVE CASH IN AN ENVELOPE TO ROBIN LOPEZ FROM THAT GAMBLING OPERATION TO GIVE TO MARCOS. IN THIS VIDEO FROM BACK IN JULY, ROBIN LOPEZ WAS RELEASED FROM JAIL FOR THE FIRST TIME ON A CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT RACKETEERING CHARGE. WHAT IS THIS FOR? IT’S A WARRANT OUT OF LAKE COUNTY. SHE WAS ARRESTED AGAIN IN OCTOBER FOR PROVIDING FALSE OR MISLEADING INFORMATION OR OMITTING MATERIAL INFORMATION ON HER BOND APPLICATION, BUT MONDAY AFTERNOON, SHE LEFT THE LAKE COUNTY JAIL ONCE AGAIN AND BASED ON HER PLEA DEAL, IT DOESN’T SEEM LIKELY SHE’LL RETURN. THE AGREEMENT SAID LOPEZ IS CHANGING HER PLEA TO GUILTY ON A REDUCED CHARGE OF MONEY LAUNDERING AND PLEADING GUILTY TO THE CHARGE RELATED TO HER BAIL APPLICATION. IT SAYS SHE WILL FACE A MINIMUM OF 24 MONTHS PROBATION, BUT HER ADJUDICATION WILL BE WITHHELD. HER ATTORNEY, MICHELLE YARD, SAID IN A STATEMENT TODAY. ROBIN LOPEZ MADE THE DIFFICULT DECISION TO ENTER A PLEA IN HER CASES. THIS PLEA ALLOWS HER TO IMMEDIATELY RETURN HOME TO HER FAMILY AND MOVE FORWARD WITH HER LIFE. IMPORTANTLY, THE COURT HAS WITHHELD ADJUDICATION, MEANING THAT SHE HAS NOT BEEN FORMALLY CONVICTED AND WILL NOT CARRY THE LONG TERM CONSEQUENCES OF A FELONY CONVICTION. THIS DIFFICULT DECISION WAS MADE WITH CAREFUL CONSIDERATION AND IN THE BEST INTEREST OF HER FUTURE. WE SPOKE WITH CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY RAJAN JOSHI ABOUT WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN ON THE LINE IF ROBIN LOPEZ WAS CONVICTED. BEING A CONVICTED FELON WOULD HAVE BEEN LIFE CHANGING FOR HER, HE SAID. THAT KIND OF CONVICTION CAN IMPACT WHERE YOU CAN RENT AN APARTMENT, WHAT WEAPONS YOU CAN HAVE. AND IN SOME CASES, IF YOU CAN VOTE. ROBIN LOPEZ WASN’T THE ONLY CODEFENDANT TO STRIKE A DEAL MONDAY. KRISHNA DAREN, WHO INVESTIGATORS HAVE DESCRIBED AS AT THE HELM OF THE OPERATION, PLED GUILTY TO A MONEY LAUNDERING CHARGE, WITH THE AGREEMENT SAYING THE TIME HE WILL SERVE IS AT THE DISCRETION OF THE COURT. IT COULD MEAN A MAXIMUM OF FIVE YEARS IN PRISON. WITH THE PLEA DEALS REACHED MONDAY, MARCOS LOPEZ REMAINS THE ONLY CODEFENDANT ARRESTED TO NOT STRIKE A DEAL. WE ASKED JOSHI WHAT THAT COULD MEAN FOR HIS CASE. THAT’S NOT GOOD FOR SHERIFF LOPEZ BECAUSE HE’S THE LAST MAN STANDING, AND THEY’RE GOING TO HAVE SOMEBODY WHO’S GOING TO TAKE THE FALL FOR ALL THIS. EVERYONE ELSE CUT A DEAL, AND A LOT OF THE CO-DEFENDANTS ARE GOING TO BE TESTIFYING AGAINST HIM. NOW, WE DO EXPECT TO BE TESTIFYING IN THE CASE AGAINST MARCOS LOPEZ. AND ROBIN LOPEZ’S ATTORNEY SAYS HER CLIENT PROVIDED A SWORN STATEMENT TO PROSECUTORS TOD
Co-conspirator of suspended Osceola County sheriff pleads guilty to money laundering
A co-conspirator of suspended Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez has pleaded guilty to money laundering, according to court records.Krishna Deokaran’s guilty plea came on the same day as the estranged wife of the former sheriff, Robin Severance-Lopez, pleaded guilty to money laundering Monday. While Deokaran never faced any racketeering charges, investigators described him as standing “at the helm of the operation, overseeing its financial and logistical framework.”Unlike Severance-Lopez, Deokaran is being adjudicated guilty by the court. Deokaran could face up to five years in prison, according to court records. His sentence is to be decided at a later date. Marcos Lopez is accused of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments from Deokaran in exchange for protecting the casino, the Eclipse Social Club Casino, where the illegal gambling ring was based in Kissimmee.Deokaran is expected to testify at the eventual trial for the former sheriff, but the date has not yet been set. >> This is a developing story and will be updated as new information is released.
LAKE COUNTY, Fla. —
A co-conspirator of suspended Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez has pleaded guilty to money laundering, according to court records.
Krishna Deokaran’s guilty plea came on the same day as the estranged wife of the former sheriff, Robin Severance-Lopez, pleaded guilty to money laundering Monday.
While Deokaran never faced any racketeering charges, investigators described him as standing “at the helm of the operation, overseeing its financial and logistical framework.”
Unlike Severance-Lopez, Deokaran is being adjudicated guilty by the court.
Deokaran could face up to five years in prison, according to court records. His sentence is to be decided at a later date.
Marcos Lopez is accused of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments from Deokaran in exchange for protecting the casino, the Eclipse Social Club Casino, where the illegal gambling ring was based in Kissimmee.
Deokaran is expected to testify at the eventual trial for the former sheriff, but the date has not yet been set.
>> This is a developing story and will be updated as new information is released.
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Law enforcement agencies working across several countries dismantled a sophisticated criminal network trafficking stolen cultural goods across Europe, Bulgarian authorities said Thursday.
A coordinated operation spanning seven countries working with Eurojust and Europol led to the arrest of 35 suspects linked to a smuggling ring that was attempting to sell thousands of ancient artifacts stolen from museums across Europe. Around 20 people face charges of antiquities trafficking and money laundering, Bulgarian Prosecutor Angel Kanev told a news briefing.
Kanev said the criminal group has been operating in Western Europe, the Balkans, the United States and other countries for over 16 years. The money laundering investigation has so far identified over $1 billion in illicit funds.
On Wednesday, judicial and law enforcement authorities from Albania, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, and the United Kingdom executed coordinated actions in their respective countries.
According to a Europol news release, the operation included 131 searches of houses, vehicles and bank safes in those countries. More than 3,000 artifacts were seized, including antique golden and silver coins and other antiquities with an estimated value of over 100 million euros ($116 million). Other seized items included artworks, weapons, documents, electronic equipment, large amounts of cash, and investment gold.
Paolo Befera, deputy head of the Italian Carabinieri’s specialized cultural heritage protection directorate, hailed the operation as “the largest of this manner ever conducted,” noting that in Italy alone, around 300 historical artifacts were seized from the alleged traffickers.
The Balkan region and Italy — home to invaluable Greek and Roman archaeological treasures — have long attracted criminal networks engaged in looting and theft. Despite strict national laws, such artifacts remain highly sought-after on the international black market.
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.
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.
For years, President Donald Trump complained that his predecessor had weaponized the judicial system against him on what he claimed were trumped-up charges, including election interference, mishandling classified documents, hush-money payments, and fraudulent tax and property dealings.
Now that the shoe is on the other foot, the president seems wholly uninterested in stopping the very weaponization he once railed against.
This week, Keonne Rodriguez, the co-creator of the bitcoin privacy wallet Samourai, was sentenced to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine—the maximum sentence under the charge for which he pleaded guilty earlier this year. “In July, Rodriguez and his cofounder William Hill plead[ed] guilty [to] the known transmission of illicit proceeds,” The Ragereported on Thursday.
Samourai Wallet did not perpetrate financial crimes, ransom data for bitcoin, or steal digital assets. Rodriguez and his team wrote code—that First Amendment–protected activity we learned to cherish after the crypto wars in the 1990s. Their service obfuscated users’ bitcoin transaction histories, making it harder for observers on a public blockchain to trace funds after they had passed through the tool. In the Justice Department’s view, that now constitutes money laundering and a failure to register as a money transmitter—even though Samourai never held custody of bitcoin (making the entire money-transmitting charge odd in the first place).
In a letter seeking leniency, Rodriguez acknowledged he should have obtained a license for the business, but U.S. District Judge Denise Cote, addressing the letter in court on Thursday, thought that was not relevant, even though that’s explicitly the “crime” for which he was maximally sentenced. “You chose to use your considerable talents to make it harder to recoup those stolen funds,” said the judge. Admittedly, some shadyactors used the software—but five years in prison for that?
In the TD Bank money-laundering scandal in 2024, the Justice Department collected the largest penalty ever imposed under the Bank Secrecy Act for poor compliance practices that allowed far more illicit funds to flow through its dollar-based system than the amount of bitcoin that ever ran through Samourai. Notably, nobody went to jail for that crime, even though bank employees were bribed tens of thousands of dollars to look the other way while criminal networks laundered more than a billion dollars of illicit funds through a top-10 bank in America.
Tools can be wielded by users for good or bad—the moral or legal responsibility for that is on the users, not the creators. Most money laundering occurs using U.S. currency—physical or digital. Prosecutors claimed that terrorists and criminals used Samourai Wallet’s services, but to a much larger extent, they use dollar bills.
The Samourai Wallet prosecution—and the closely related Tornado Cash trial on a similar Ethereum blockchain service in August—was always an outdated remnant of Operation Chokepoint 2.0, where the executive branch excessively and disproportionately went after cryptocurrency developers.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration publicly stated that it would cease prosecuting developers for writing code. In the months since, several bitcoin services that had shut off access for Americans in fear of legal repercussions have returned. The White House proclaims America to be the “crypto capital of the world,” adding the laughably incoherent statement that “all the remaining Bitcoin [will] be made in the USA.”
The president has issued various crypto-related pardons. On his second day in office, he made good on a campaign promise to libertarians by pardoning Ross Ulbricht from an excessive double life sentence for building a website. Last month, he pardoned Changpeng Zhao (known as C.Z.), the billionaire former CEO of the crypto exchange Binance, following a four-month money-laundering stint (though he recently admitted to not even knowing who C.Z. is).
It’s time for the Trump administration to get its legal house in order—that should start with a pardon for Rodriguez.
Then again, unlike C.Z., Rodriguez doesn’t have a billion-dollar investment to make in a Trump family–related business, nor a bunch of bitcoin votes to sway a critical election. Right now, leniency in crypto cases seems reserved for those with billions to invest or political leverage to trade.
WASHINGTON — The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on a group of bankers, financial institutions and others accused of laundering money from cyber crime schemes — money the Treasury Department says helps pay for North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
Over the past three years, North Korean malware and social engineering schemes have diverted more than $3 billion, mostly in digital assets, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said, noting the sum is unmatched by any other foreign actor. An international report documented the scope of the problem in a 138-page report published last month.
“North Korean state-sponsored hackers steal and launder money to fund the regime’s nuclear weapons program,” said Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley in a statement.
The department said North Korea relies on a network of banking representatives, financial institutions, and shell companies in North Korea, China, Russia, and elsewhere to launder funds gained through IT worker fraud, heists of cryptocurrency, and sanctions evasion.
The department in 2022 warned U.S. firms against hiring highly skilled North Koreans who obfuscate their identities to gain access to financial networks, often by posing as remote IT workers.
Tuesday’s new measures were directed at eight people and two firms, including North Korean bankers, Jang Kuk Chol and Ho Jong Son. They are accused of helping to manage funds, including $5.3 million in cryptocurrency, on behalf of sanctioned First Credit Bank.
Attorneys for embattled Fort Bend County Judge KP George filed motions Friday morning to dismiss the felony and misdemeanor cases against him, or at least remove District Attorney Brian Middleton from trying the cases, alleging prosecutorial misconduct.
George, 61, is charged with money laundering between $30,000 and $150,000, a third-degree felony, which carries a potential sentence of two to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $10,000.
The judge is also accused of a misdemeanor charge of identity misrepresentation, with prosecutors alleging he worked with a staff member to fake racist attacks against his own campaign on social media in an effort to gain favor with the public.
George’s attorney Jared Woodfill filed four motions on Friday, seeking to disqualify Middleton as the prosecutor in both cases and to dismiss both cases due to what they allege is prosecutorial misconduct.
The filings allege that Middleton and his colleagues used the encrypted messaging app Signal to discuss George and the charges against him. And George’s attorneys included screenshots of those discussions in their legal filings.
One exchange, identified in court documents as a Signal message between Middleton and former George staffer Taral Patel, provides — according to Woodfill — “insight to Middleton’s hatred and ill will toward Defendant KP George.”
The Signal message states: “Super confidential: got a complaint against FLATHOUSE. If true, pretty bad. Reading the complaint, FLATHOUSE hates KP. He spread the rumor about alleged affair…I am fuming mad…I told KP he was a rat. This shit is bad.”
Woodfill said Friday the Signal messages, which disappear immediately if not captured by screenshot, were obtained from Patel’s phone through discovery.
Woodfill goes on to say in the court documents that George has become aware that Middleton and his office “have used, and continue to use, messaging platforms such as Signal, and perhaps WhatsApp, to communicate about matters pertinent to this criminal prosecution.”
“By conscious spoliation and deliberate destruction of material evidence, the Fort Bend County District Attorney and his office did not, and now cannot, comply with its constitutional, statutory, ethical and moral duties to promptly and fully disclose information about this matter to Defendant KP George and/or his undersigned attorney. Additionally, KP George has obtained evidence proving that this prosecution was brought in retaliation for KP George being critical of Fort Bend County District Attorney Brian Middleton.”
A spokesperson for the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office initially said, “This is news to me,” when asked if Middleton wanted to respond. A few hours later, the DA’s office issued the following statement:
“Attorneys for KP George notified the media that they filed motions today claiming that his prosecution for the felony charges of money laundering should be dismissed and the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office disqualified due to prosecutorial misconduct.
This is yet another desperate attempt, in a long line of attempts, to smear anyone (especially the Fort Bend County District Attorney) using evidence and information provided by the State as part of discovery, through allegations that are baseless and entirely unrelated to the felony money laundering charges.
We recognize the public’s interest in this proceeding, but the rules of legal ethics require both prosecutors and defense attorneys not to make public statements that could materially affect a court proceeding.
Because the media is not the appropriate forum to lodge legal objections, the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office wants to reassure our public that we will be filing a thorough written response addressing the claims and false allegations made by KP George. We remain committed to justice and will not be swayed from our cause.”
This is yet another desperate attempt, in a long line of attempts, to smear anyone (especially the Fort Bend County District Attorney) using evidence and information provided by the State as part of discovery, through allegations that are baseless and entirely unrelated to the felony money laundering charges.
Fort Bend County District Attorney’s OFFICE
George switched political parties and became a Republican in June, giving the Fort Bend County Commissioners Court a 3-2 GOP majority. Middleton is a Democrat. The judge is slated to go to trial in January on the misdemeanor identity misrepresentation charges and in February on the felony money laundering case.
Woodfill maintains that George gave himself a campaign loan, a common practice when running for office, and paid it back but the paperwork was not filed properly. The indictment alleges that George laundered money between January and April 2019, with “intent to defraud or harm.” George is specifically accused of using campaign funds to pay his property taxes and put a down payment on a house.
Woodfill has said that the charges filed by Middleton are a political vendetta to unseat the once-popular county judge.
“This is all about dirty politics,” Woodfill said earlier this year.”I think the DA’s office is being weaponized to take out a political opponent.”
In the case of the misdemeanor social media hoax, George’s former staffer Patel pleaded guilty April 15 to two counts of misrepresentation of identity by a candidate and was sentenced to probation.
Woodfill claims in the October 31 court documents that after Middleton indicted Patel, the DA’s office conducted a three-hour interview with Patel that was tape recorded.
“Throughout the interview, prosecutors attempted — completely and utterly in vain — to incriminate KP George as a co-conspirator in Patel’s activities,” the motion states. “During that interview, Patel implicates other elected officials in his scheme. Approximately three minutes of the three-hour interview has been destroyed, and this is the portion of the proffer where Patel implicates other elected officials in Fort Bend County.”
“Middleton was the subject of Patel’s fake post which Patel indicates [was] used to benefit the Democratic ticket.”
Middleton has only spoken to the Press once about the KP George case, saying in an email in April, “For many good reasons, Texas legal ethics rules limit the kinds of public statements a prosecutor and defense attorney can make about a pending criminal case.”
“To that end, the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office has been very careful to do its talking in the courtroom and not on the courthouse steps,” Middleton said at the time. “Along these lines, in prosecuting a criminal case, it is not my practice to question the integrity of opposing counsel as a trial tactic. I believe a case should stand or fall on its merits.”
George is seeking re-election to a third term in 2026. Middleton is also up for re-election next year.
Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups — a Denver native and former basketball star at the University of Colorado and with the Denver Nuggets — allegedly participated in a years-long scheme to rig Mafia-led poker games through sophisticated technological means, scamming wealthy players out of millions of dollars, according to a sweeping federal indictment unsealed Thursday.
Billups was arrested Thursday in Oregon and faces federal charges of wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. The NBA said he was placed on immediate leave.
The 49-year-old coach appeared in court later in the day, and attorneys from both sides told the judge they had agreed on Billups’ release from custody on the condition he secure “a substantial bond,” though the amount wasn’t discussed in court. He is also prohibited from gambling-related activity.
Chris Heywood, Billups’ attorney, released a statement to ESPN on Thursday night denying the allegations.
“To believe that Chauncey Billups did what the federal government is accusing him of is to believe that he would risk his hall-of-fame legacy, his reputation, and his freedom. He would not jeopardize those things for anything, let alone a card game,” the statement read.
“Furthermore, Chauncey Billups has never and would never gamble on basketball games, provide insider information, or sacrifice the trust of his team and the League, as it would tarnish the game he has devoted his entire life to.”
The arrest came as part of a massive federal investigation into illegal, high-stakes poker games with ties to organized crime families. A second, related criminal case involved professional basketball players and coaches allegedly using inside information to set up fraudulent bets for their associates.
The 22-page indictment, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, alleges the poker games began as early as 2019 and spanned New York state, Las Vegas and Miami.
Victims of the scheme thought they were playing in “straight” illegal poker games, according to the indictment.
In reality, a group of people — referred to as the “cheating team” — worked together to scam them out of more than $7 million, investigators said.
They used a variety of high-tech methods to rig the games, federal authorities alleged. Wireless technologies to read the cards dealt in each hand. Rigged shuffling machines. Electronic poker chip trays that could secretly read cards placed on the table. Card analyzers that could surreptitiously detect which cards were on the table. Playing cards that had markers visible only to people wearing specially designed contact lenses or glasses.
Billups, investigators allege, was known as a “face card.” He and other former professional athletes were used to attract victims to the poker games. In exchange, they received portions of the criminal proceeds, authorities said.
The indictment spells out one game in April 2019, in Las Vegas, when the group defrauded poker players of at least $50,000. Billups, along with four others, “organized and participated in these rigged games using a rigged shuffling machine,” according to the indictment.
‘Threats of force and violence’
Authorities say the games operated “with the express permission and approval of” members of certain organized crime families of La Cosa Nostra.
These individuals — with nicknames like “Spanish G,” “Flapper Poker,” “Sugar” and “Albanian Bruce” — provided support and protection for the games and collected debts in exchange for a portion of the illegal proceeds
The organized crime families used “threats of force and violence” to secure repayment of debts from these poker games, according to the indictment.
All told, the poker scheme defrauded participants of at least $7.15 million, investigators said.
“Using the allure of high-stakes winnings and the promise to play alongside well-known professional athletes, these defendants allegedly defrauded unwitting victims out of tens of millions of dollars and established a financial pipeline to La Cosa Nostra,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge Christopher G. Raia said in a statement. “This alleged scheme wreaked havoc across the nation, exploiting the notoriety of some and the wallets of others to finance the Italian crime families.”
Thursday’s indictment “sounds the final buzzer for these cheaters,” said Joseph Nocella Jr., the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
The second criminal case involved NBA players and coaches divulging nonpublic information to their associates for the purpose of placing bets.
The 23-page indictment does not name Billups, but does list nine unnamed co-conspirators, including an Oregon resident who was an NBA player from about 1997 to 2014 and an NBA coach since at least 2021. Billups played in the NBA from 1997 to 2014 and was hired by the Blazers in 2021.
That individual, referred to as “co-conspirator 8,” allegedly told a bettor that several of the Blazers’ best players would be sitting out a March 23, 2023, game against the Chicago Bulls in order to increase their odds of getting a better draft pick.
The gamblers wagered more than $100,000 that Portland would lose the game. The Blazers lost by 28.
Chauncey Billups with the Denver Nuggets during practice at the Pepsi Center in Denver on April 6, 2010. (Photo By Craig F. Walker/The Denver Post)
The Denver-born phenom graduated from George Washington High School and played basketball at CU before being selected with the No. 3 overall pick in the 1997 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics.
Known as Mr. Big Shot nationally and the King of Park Hill locally in Denver, Billups also played for Toronto, Denver, Minnesota, the New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Clippers. Billups won the Joe Dumars Trophy, the NBA’s sportsmanship award, in 2009 while playing for his hometown Nuggets.
Billups is in his fifth season as Portland’s coach, compiling a 117-212 record. The Trail Blazers opened the season Wednesday night at home with a 118-114 loss to Minnesota. Billups’ brother, Rodney, is currently the Nuggets’ director of player development and an assistant coach on David Adelman’s staff.
The Portland coach also serves as executive director of the Porter-Billups Leadership Academy, a summer program affiliated with Denver’s Regis University. The academy helps third through 12th-graders “cultivate character development through an extensive academic curriculum and exposes young leaders to career opportunities in their pursuit of individual success.”
Academy representatives said in a statement that they are “deeply troubled by the indictment against Chauncey Billups, co-founder of the Porter Billups Leadership Academy. We respect the legal process and will closely monitor developments as the facts emerge. Our unwavering commitment to the underserved youths through the PBLA program and our institutional integrity remains steadfast.”
Billups’ attorney indicated in the statement to ESPN that Billups planned to fight the charges made by the federal government.
“Chauncey Billups has never backed down. He does not plan to do so now,” the statement read. “He will fight these allegations with the same tenacity that marked his 28-year career. We look forward to our day in court.”
GURUGRAM, India—When the Trump Organization in April announced another luxury real-estate project in India, Eric Trump gave a shout out to his local partners for helping accelerate the brand’s expansion.
“We’re incredibly excited to launch our second project in Gurgaon,” Eric Trump, who runs day-to-day operations, using the former name for the city near New Delhi. “And even prouder to be doing it once again with our amazing partners.”
NEW YORK — In 1983, six thieves muscled their way into a warehouse near Heathrow Airport, expecting to find a large sum of foreign currency. They got much more than they bargained for — 26 million pounds worth of gold bars.
What happened in the days and years next is the subject of PBS’ “Masterpiece” enthralling series “The Gold,” which traces the ripple effects of Britain’s biggest robbery, going from a local search to infiltrating an international money laundering cartel. It starts airing Sunday.
“From the minute the show starts, the pressure’s on,” says showrunner Neil Forsyth. “There’s a clock ticking, there’s a net tightening and all these things. So it’s lovely to write characters under that continual pressure.”
The so-called Brinks-Mat heist rocked Britain, leading to changes in banking laws, policing and shining a light on official corruption. Much of the gold was never located. It was melted down and sold back into the financial system, with the proceeds laundered into real estate.
“It’s literally in the bricks and mortar and the architecture that surrounds people everywhere,” says Emun Elliott, who plays one of the detectives. “There might be a piece of that stolen gold in your wedding ring. It is everywhere.”
To tell the sprawling story of “The Gold,” Forsyth streamlined timelines, combined real-life figures and adjusted events to fit the drama. Viewers are told the series was “inspired by real events.”
“It’s not a strict factual drama,” he says. “I don’t find that a very attractive route to go down creatively because I like having the space to create and that’s extremely important if you’re going to create something that’s truly entertaining, truly gripping.”
One real person who is portrayed in the series is Brian Boyce, the principled and determined lead investigator, played by “Downton Abbey” star Hugh Bonneville.
Boyce “was known to be a safe pair of hands,” says Bonneville, who met the retired officer to prepare for the role. Boyce knew some officers in the department were corrupt and picked a lean, insular team to track down the gold and money.
“He absolutely was adamant that not on his watch would police corruption thrive,” Bonneville says. “He’s a real man of integrity and I think that comes through. You’ve got him against all odds trying to steer a level course and get this job done.”
Forsyth says the series’ first episode attracted some 10 million viewers in the U.K. — or 1 in 5 of the adult population. He says he was in a restaurant with his wife once when the nearby table spent the whole meal discussing it, which was “somewhat unnerving.”
Forsyth was only 5 and living in Scotland at the time of what he calls the “iconic heist.” Despite its impact on British society, no one had pieced it all together in a dramatization or an all-encompassing documentary until now.
It takes two seasons to unspool fully and has a soundtrack that features songs of the era by the likes of Echo & The Bunnymen, New Order, The Smiths and The Stranglers.
Forsyth frames the robbery against large social forces that were clashing in then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Britain — the rise of a new money class hoping to buy their way to the top versus the upper classes and aristocracy, determined to stop them.
“This country doesn’t change,” says one old money character. “There is nothing the system likes more than those who take it on. That’s when it gets to show its strength.”
Though Elliott plays a detective who has vowed to track down the missing gold, he knows the viewer may be switching allegiances while watching.
“It’s like you kind of want them to get away with it and then the next episode maybe you want them to get caught,” he says. “That back and forth is just a thrilling kind of place to sit.”
“The Gold” is all about greed, of course. It shows how legitimate people got sucked into money laundering, how banks were complicit and how 1980s hubris kept it going.
“A big part of ‘The Gold’ story is people being out of their depth — people being overly ambitious and finding themselves out of the depth,” Forsyth says.
That includes the robbers themselves, who suddenly had to find a way to move and cash in on 6,800 gold bars. They were stick-up guys now way out of their depths.
“They just didn’t know what to do with the proceeds. They didn’t fit into this new world of money laundering and deregulation and the opportunities that it brought for criminality,” says Forsyth.
“It was the greatest victory for traditional crime, but it was also kind of its funeral really, and it got replaced by something far murkier.”
A Nigerian national living in Minnesota has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison — and ordered to pay nearly $1.7 million in restitution — for defrauding a widowed Colorado woman through an elaborate cryptocurrency romance scam, federal authorities announced Tuesday.
The 37-year-old man, Adetomiwa Seun Akindele, will be deported to Nigeria once he serves his sentence, according to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado.
Akindele pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering in a scam in which authorities said he posed as a wealthy Italian-American businessman named Frank Labato on a dating website in 2018. Akindele and the woman began exchanging emails and phone calls during which Akindele “provided the victim with additional false details about his personal and work background, images, and photos, to substantiate his fictitious persona of ‘Frank.’”
Those conversations led to Akindele telling the woman she needed to open a cryptocurrency exchange account to help him out of a financial bind, authorities said. At his direction, she wired him nearly $1.7 million, which Akindele converted into various cryptocurrencies, laundered it across multiple crypto exchanges and then converted it back to U.S. dollars before depositing the money into his own bank accounts.
Akindele, according to federal authorities, fraudulently assured the woman he would repay her for what were characterized as loans to his business, even executing three fake “promissory notes” to reassure her she would be repaid.
“Romance scammers are relentless and cunning, preying on trust and emotion to exploit victims,” FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Mark Michalek said in a statement. “This was an egregious case, and through relentless investigative work the perpetrator was tracked down and brought to justice.”
