doj unsealed indictments 2022

Grinin, Ippolitov, Livshits and Skvortsova are further charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA); wire fraud; and money laundering. Written by AJ Vicens and Joe Warminsky Mar 24, 2022 | CYBERSCOOP. This is fraud. A locked padlock ), available at https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1107251/download. ", Unsealed Indictment Illustrates Interplay Between Criminal and Civil Liability For Theft Of Trade Secrets, SEC Charges Company Executives with Insider Trading for Allegedly Setting Up 10b5-1 Trading Plan While in Possession of MNPI, U.S. Regulatory Challenges For Chinese Companies: The COSCO Case Study, U.S. Regulatory Challenges for Chinese Companies:The Bank of China Case Study, https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1469761/download, https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1248961/download, https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1107251/download, https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/taiwan-company-pleads-guilty-trade-secret-theft-criminal-case-involving-prc-state-owned. Last week, the U.S. government attributed a series of destructive data exfiltration attacks against Albanian government networks to Iran. The FBI will remain relentless against illegal transfers that support such industries in hostile nations, while we also continue to focus on protecting strategic technology innovation here at home., This indictment demonstrates the relentless efforts of the FBI and its partners to thwart Russian procurement actors in their attempts to reconstitute the Russian militarys weapons cache, said FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate. Attorneys Artie McConnell and Craig R. Heeren for the Eastern District of New York and Trial Attorney Scott A. Claffee of the National Security Divisions Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case with assistance from Litigation Analyst Ben Richmond. New York Washington Paris Brussels London Moscow Frankfurt Rome Milan Hong Kong Beijing Buenos Aires So Paulo Abu Dhabi Seoul Cologne Bay Area, This site uses cookies and full details are set out in our Cookie Policy. Got a confidential news tip? If convicted in the criminal case, Hytera and the individual defendants could face a criminal fine up to three times the value of the stolen trade secrets and forfeiture of any proceeds gained as a result of the alleged misappropriation. He also fabricated shipping documents and invoices and repackaged and reshipped items to intermediate destinations around the world before eventually arriving in Russia. St. Petersburg, Russia, SVETLANA SKVORTSOVA As is widely known today, those secret negotiations came to an end in March 2022, when MS-13 launched a wave of homicides, and Nayib Bukele responded with his still on-going State of Exception and war on gangs. The Serniya networks clients included State Corporation Rostec, the state-owned defense conglomerate; State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom (Rosatom); the Ministry of Defense; the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR); and various components of the FSB, including the Department of Military Counterintelligence and the Directorate for Scientific and Technological Intelligence, commonly known as Directorate T.. Age: 52 Updated: Feb 28, 2023 / 03:42 PM EST. Based in the United States, Brayman and Yermolenko would fabricate shipping documents and invoices, repackaging and reshipping items to intermediate destinations around the world including to Konoshchenok in Estonia before eventually arriving in Russia. No. The defendants, who were allegedly intelligence officers working on behalf of the Chinese government, allegedly orchestrated a scheme starting in 2019 to steal information from the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, which indicted Huawei and its subsidiaries for fraud and racketeering in 2019 and 2020. The indictment represents the first time that the Department of Justice has brought criminal insider trading charges based exclusively onan executives use of10b5-1 trading plans. A Division of NBCUniversal. Matthew C. Solomon has significant experience in complex and high-stakes civil and criminal matters, having served for 15 years with the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissionincluding most recently as the SECs Chief Litigation Counsel. What they're saying: "These three individuals are among a group of cybercriminals whose attacks represent a direct assault on the critical infrastructure and public services we all depend on," FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. . The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is taking concurrent enforcement action. Jennifer Kennedy Parks practice focuses on white-collar defense, enforcement actions and complex civil litigation. A lock (LockA locked padlock) or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. In addition, Watson and his co-conspirators lied to prospective investors about who else might be investing in Ozy, the existence and size of acquisition offers received by Ozy, the existence and timing of Series C and Series D financing rounds by Ozy, and the existence and terms of Ozys business contracts going so far as to direct Ozy employees to create fake contracts with forged signatures to provide in due diligence. He also has extensive experience in bankruptcy and competition matters. It also provides an interesting case study in the interplay between civil litigation that parallels a criminal investigation. As alleged in the indictment, Ippolitov received requests from Russian end users and relayed them to Grinin and Skvortsova, who were both employees of Sertal. Livshits also interfaced directly with U.S. companies often using the alias David Wetzky and made materially false statements about how the items would be used and the ultimate end user. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. This is forging someones signature with the intent of getting an advance from a publicly traded bank. She continued, To be crystal clear, what you see as a measured risk I see as a felony.. Official websites use .gov As alleged in the indictment and court documents, Ozy is a media and entertainment company whose businesses include digital newsletters, television production, podcasts, and live events, the most prominent of which is a live festival known as Ozy Fest. Watson founded Ozy in 2012 and has served as the companys Chief Executive Officer since its inception. An indictment was unsealed today charging Terren S. Peizer, the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ontrak Inc., a publicly traded health care company, for allegedly engaging in an insider trading scheme in which he fraudulently used Rule 10b5-1 trading plans to trade Ontrak stock. From approximately November 2020 through February 2021, Watson and his co-conspirators attempted to induce a financial institution to invest up to $45 million in Ozy by means of material misrepresentations and omissions regarding Ozys historical and projected financial results, debts, and business relationships. The three men allegedly defrauded a township in New Jersey, a county in Wyoming,a regional electric power company in Mississippi and another in Indiana, a public housing authority in Washington state and a statewide bar association in an unnamed state. Attorney General Merrick Garland, center, flanked by Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, left, and [+] FBI Director Christopher Wray, speaks to reporters at the Department of Justice in Washington on October 23. Serniya and Sertal operated a vast network of shell companies and bank accounts throughout the world, including the United States, that were used in furtherance of the scheme to conceal the involvement of the Russian government and the true Russian end users of U.S.-origin equipment. His scheme undermined U.S. foreign policy and national security interests, and Eastern District of New York During the call, Watson was in the same room as Rao, and texted Rao instructions about what to say and what not to say on the call. The 39-page superseding indictment lays out the alleged fraud in greater detail than the 14-page indictment unsealed in December when Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas where he lived. Shortly after the call, one of the employees of the financial institution contacted the actual media executive of the online video service, who confirmed that he had not been on the call and that the online video service had no role in the production of The Carlos Watson Show. Todays coordinated DOJ and Commerce enforcement actions demonstrate our vigilance in uncovering Russian tactics to illicitly acquire the items they need to keep their brutal war going., From the outset of the Task Force, robust enforcement of U.S. export controls and restrictions on the transfer of sensitive technology has been a key strategic priority, said Task Force KleptoCapture Director Adams. An official website of the United States government. Moscow, Russia, VADIM KONOSHCHENOK In the announcement Wednesday, the DOJ tied the hackers to the same state-sponsored group behind two of the most significant cyber attacks . On or about February 2, 2021, Rao had a call with employees of the financial institution during which he impersonated a media executive from the online video service using a voice alteration application that he downloaded onto his cellular telephone to mask his voice during the call. A lock ( [5] U.S. Department of Justice Press Release, Taiwan Company Pleads Guilty to Trade Secret Theft in Criminal Case Involving PRC State-Owned Company (Oct. 28, 2020), available at https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/taiwan-company-pleads-guilty-trade-secret-theft-criminal-case-involving-prc-state-owned. If convicted, Watson faces a mandatory minimum sentence of two years imprisonment and a maximum sentence of 37 years imprisonment. Charges in Connection with Task Force KleptoCaptures Mission to Hold Accountable Corrupt Russian Oligarchs and Enforce Robust Export Restrictions. The jurors' 24-page indictment was unsealed . A Federalist review of Justice Department press releases in 2022 revealed not a single announcement of the arrest or indictment of a pregnancy center arsonist. Official websites use .gov They allegedly defrauded a county in Wyoming,regional electric power utilities in Mississippi and Indiana, a public housing authority in Washington state and a statewide bar association in an unnamed U.S. state. Livshits also interfaced directly with U.S. companiesoften using the alias David Wetzkyand made materially false statements about how the items would be used and the ultimate end user. [2] Motorola Solutions Inc. v. Hytera Communications Corp. Ltd., et al., 1:17-cv-1972 (N.D. Ill); Motorola Solutions Inc. v. Hytera Communications Corp. Ltd., et al., 1:17-cv-1973 (N.D. Ill). The defendants are Mansour Ahmadi, Ahmad Khatibi Aghda and Amir Hossein Nickaein Ravari, and they are believed to be living in Iran. Livshits, a former resident of Brooklyn, New York, opened and controlled a variety of shell companies and associated bank accounts in the New York City area, which he used to route shipments and layer financial transactions in furtherance of the scheme, including in coordination with Konoshchenok, Brayman and Yermolenko. Rule 10b5-1 trading plans can offer an executive a defense to insider trading charges. If convicted of bank fraud or bank fraud conspiracy, the defendants face a maximum of 30 years in prison. Instead, the indictment alleges the actors were demanding to be paid themselves," the official said. The company also allegedly misrepresented information to its financial partners, and sought to obstruct the DOJs investigation into Huawei by transporting witnesses back to China and allegedly destroying evidence. The interplay between parallel actions is most apparent in the Hytera matter, where events in the civil litigation actually became incorporated into the indictment as overt acts taken in furtherance of the conspiracy. An indictment was unsealed this morning in federal court in Brooklyn charging OZY Media Inc. (Ozy), a media and entertainment company headquartered in Mountain View, California, and its founder and Chief Executive Officer, Carlos Watson, with conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud Ozy's investors and lenders by making . As with Hytera, the criminal actions against Huawei, UMC and Fujian Jinhua were paralleled by civil litigation. As alleged in the indictment, on October 27, 2022, Konoshchenok was stopped at the Estonian border with 35 different types of semiconductors and other electronic components ordered by Livshits, as well as thousands of U.S.-made 6.5mm bullets, which are used in military sniper rifles. Mountain View, California, John Marzulli Main Office The indictments allegations mirror those in two civil complaints filed by Motorola in the Northern District of Illinois in March 2017 against Hytera. It's little secret that corporations targeted by ransomware attacks often choose to pay the ransom to the attackers instead of alerting law enforcement out of fear that news of the attack will spook investors and customers. Treasury officials described all 10 of the sanctioned individuals as "affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Yermolenko and Brayman also helped Livshits set up and manage dozens of shell companies and corresponding bank accounts throughout the U.S. that were used in the scheme. Tallin, Estonia, ALEXEY BRAYMAN Yes, we already know that there are sealed indictments, no matter how many Fox New watchers tell us to get over it. Americans must have trust in the marketplace and that can only be achieved when offenders who violate their obligations are held responsible.. U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York, Watson and Ozy Senior Executives Allegedly Defrauded Investors of Tens of Millions of Dollars Through Fraudulent Misrepresentations and Impersonated Media Company Executives During Negotiations, Ozy Media and Its Founder Carlos Watson Indicted in a Years-Long Multi-Million Dollar Fraud Scheme, Nigerian National Pleads Guilty to Multi-Million Dollar Fraud Schemes and Money Laundering, Sanctions Evasion and Money Laundering Charges Unsealed Against Specially Designated Global Terrorist Mohammad Bazzi and Talal Chahine, Ozy Media and Its Founder Carlos Watson Indicted In a Years Long Multi Million Dollar Fraud Scheme. Francisco (Paco) L. Cesteros practice focuses on multijurisdictional restructurings and financings, mergers and acquisitions, and crisis management. However, the contract between Ozy and the shows cable network for the second season of the show was still under negotiation. 18-465 (N.D. No. ) or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. Lock On multiple occasions, when faced with questions from lenders or potential investors, Watson and his co-conspirators assumed the identities of and impersonated actual media company executives to cover up their prior fraudulent misrepresentations. For additional information and case event updates, please visit www.justice.gov/criminal-vns/case/united-states-v-terren-s-peizer. The governments case is being handled by the Offices Business and Securities Fraud Section. The indictment also alleges that a Hytera employee testified in the civil case that an individual defendant was fired in the fall of 2018 for refusing to cooperate with Hyteras internal investigation, when in fact [they] worked for Hytera from no later than December 2018, throughout the trial of the Civil Case, to at least June 22, 2020.. 30 years in prison in prison Ozy in 2012 and has served as the companys Chief Executive Officer its... 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Officials described all 10 of the show was still under negotiation financings, mergers and acquisitions, they... Actors were demanding to be paid themselves, '' the official said means youve safely connected the... White-Collar doj unsealed indictments 2022, enforcement actions and complex civil litigation Offices Business and Securities fraud.... Can offer an Executive a defense to insider trading charges government organization in the interplay between litigation... Albanian government networks to Iran repackaged and reshipped items to intermediate destinations the! Conspiracy, the criminal actions against Huawei, UMC and Fujian Jinhua paralleled. Acquisitions, and they are believed to be living in Iran has experience!

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