South Florida Criminal Attorneys Blog

Staten Island Man Charged with Double Murder

February 5, 2014 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

Two Staten Island men fought for their lives but their assailant finally won out when he shot each of the men, one in the head, the other in the leg and torso. The victims of the attack, Kenrick Gray, 34, and Noland (DJ) Whistleton, 41, both died of their injuries a short time later after police responded to an emergency 911 call that conveyed the shooting which occurred on Park Hill Avenue. The call came in at 6:17 p.m. Gray who was shot in the head was pronounced dead on arrival at Richmond University Medical Center and Whistleton suffered the same fate when his lifeless body arrived at Staten Island University Hospital shortly after the violence concluded.

Gray, of Stapleton, may well have had an inadvertent hand in the events that transpired which led to the attack that caused his death and that of Whistleton. A few years ago he won a settlement against the City of New York that totaled $132,500.00 from a federal civil rights lawsuit. The city shelled out $125,000.00 and police officer Michael Daragjati had to personally pay $7,500.00. Additionally, the police officer is in the midst of serving an almost 5 year prison sentence for violating Gray’s rights as well as a conviction for an unconnected case. He had numerous other civil-rights grievances lodged against him at the time of the settlement.

According to court documents, the police officer arrested Gray in early April 2011 because he protested about being stopped and frisked in a “rough” manner at the intersection of Laurel Avenue and Targee Street in Staten Island. The following day, an intercepted phone conversation caught the police officer, speaking to an associate saying that he had “fried another [n-word].” This condemning statement led to the settlement in tandem by the City and personally by the police officer.

Unfortunately, Gray was not tight-lipped about his monetary windfall.

As has been par for the course this year in the Metropolitan area, it was a snowy night when Darren “True Story” Brown, 27 of Mariner’s Harbor, confronted Gray and Whistleton. He apparently heard the story of Gray’s good fortune and decided that Gray was a prime target for a robbery. After approaching the two men and pulling his gun, the two victims’ began to fight with their attacker, trying to separate Brown’s firearm from his person. Brown suffered a gunshot wound but law enforcement believe that it may have been self-inflicted during the scuffle and in the end he remained the only one of the three men still breathing.

Although Gray was the victim of the robbery he was well-known in the neighborhood to be a small-time drug dealer. According to police records he had twenty-two drug related arrests.

Brown was arrested and indicted a few days later after being found hiding in the shower of his girlfriend’s home by the Staten Island Warrants Unit. It wasn’t known if he made off with any money that Gray might have been carrying during the fatal shootout.

He now faces a potential penalty of life in prison if convicted of the first-degree murder charges in the double homicide. He was also charged with attempted robbery. He pleaded not guilty to all charges through his attorney.

According to silive.com (Staten Island Live Online), Whistleton’s sister said that he and Gray were friends. Her brother just happened to be “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“My brother, he tried to save Kendrick, and that’s how he ended up getting shot,” as shown on the online news source. “Knowing my brother, knowing how he is, he wasn’t going to stand there.”

A source close to the investigation told the New York Post that Gray had spoken about using the money he made from the settlement to start a music business.

In a telephone interview, a female relative said “Word gets around about that type of thing… People knew he had a little money and he just wasn’t as quiet about it as he should have been… it’s just sad.”

Retired Police Captain Faces Murder Charge for South Florida Theater Shooting

February 1, 2014 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

A gun was discharged in a Wesley Chapel, Florida Movie Theater shocking some patrons into the belief that the events of the mass murder that took place in Aurora Colorado in the summer of 2012 might be unfolding in their own neighborhood theater.

Kareen Lasky, who was in an adjacent theater when the gunfire rang out told the Tampa Bay Times that when the shooting occurred “The first thing I thought of was the theater out there in the West.”

Although this incident was not at all similar to the events that took place in Aurora, Colorado, a man was still shot and killed.

This specific event arose when a retired Tampa police captain shot a man in the chest after arguing with him about using his cell phone to send text messages inside a movie theater. The shooting took place at the Cobb Theater’s Grove 16 & Cine Bistro mid last month in Wesley Chapel, FL, a suburb about a thirty miles north of Tampa.

Chad Oulson was seated with his wife Nicole waiting for the matinee of the film “Lone Survivor” to begin when an altercation began with retired Police Captain Curtis Reeves, Jr. After words were exchanged, Reeves who also was also accompanied by his wife, got up to apparently complain to management about the texting, according to the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office police report. The Oulsons’ were sitting in front of the seemingly agitated 6-foot-1, 270-pound, seventy-one year-old former police captain.
As the argument between the two couples escalated and was seemingly reaching its peak, Mr. Oulson reportedly threw popcorn at Reeves instigating a reaction where Reeves revealed his .380-semi-auto handgun and fired at Oulson hitting him in the chest. Mrs. Oulson was shot in the hand, apparently trying to block the bullet that was directed at her husband. According to a witness, after Reeves shot Oulson, he sat back down and placed the weapon in his lap.

When police arrived, Reeves was arrested and later charged with second-degree murder. An off-duty Sumter County deputy who was inside the theater as the shooting went on detained the retired officer until other deputies arrived at the scene.

When neighbors were interviewed, each of them had only good things to say about the man that moved to the area about 10 years ago. “He must have just snapped,” said Joe D’Andrea, and went on to describe him as a friendly, “stand-up” guy… I would not think he was the type of guy to do something like that. Another neighbor, Bill Costas told CNN affiliate WFLA that the man described in the report sounds like “a completely different guy” from the one he knows. He continued by saying he was a “very nice guy, always smiling… very helpful. If I needed help with something, he was there to help. I’ve never seen him angry.”

But Pasco County Sherriff Chris Nocco was easy to find fault with the former police captain saying “To have a retired police officer… I don’t know what he was thinking at the time. I can tell you, anybody, over a cellphone, to take their life, it’s ridiculous.”

During his career, for his leadership capabilities, Reeves frequently established exceptional assessments and repeated letters of commendation. He was praised for his role in the training he commanded for other agencies regarding gun safety as well as other matters which were noted in his personnel file. He was applauded for his oversight of the tactical response team for the 1987 visit to Tampa by “then” Vice President George H.W. Bush and was regularly given praise for his abilities of problem solving and managing stressful situations. In one job performance review a supervisor stated that “Captain Reeves not only has the ability to act decisively when necessary but has the foresight to initiate the proper course of action to avoid conflict.”

Still, the Pasco County Sheriff stated clearly that: “It didn’t matter what he had done previously in his life. You don’t shoot someone over a texting incident.”

Early in Reeves career he was reprimanded for handling a city weapon without proper care. At the time, one of his supervisors also noted in an assessment that “Reeves has a tendency to be impatient in regards to legal matters and practices now in force… and may be abrupt with complainants in some areas of the city.”

However, that assessment was written over thirty-five years ago.

After appearing in Court for his primary hearing, he was ordered held without bail pending a bond hearing by Judge Lynn Tepper for the second-degree murder charge.

Former Miami Dolphin Davone Bess Arrested at Fort Lauderdale Airport

January 17, 2014 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

During his regular shift on patrol, Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputy Thomas O’Brien noticed a man “acting irrationally, dancing, singing with his pants repeatedly falling down.” in a terminal at Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport. When he approached the man to check on his condition, the man picked up a hot cup of coffee from an adjacent counter and squeezed it, causing the hot liquid to splash all over the Deputy’s uniform. He later wrote in his report that while he tried to start a dialogue with the man he “appeared to be looking through me,” According to Officer O’Brien, the man then positioned himself in a “fighting stance.” It was then that the Deputy used his baton to hit the offender on his leg with apparently no effect. At that point, the man began to remove his shirt and again adjusted his body as if in preparation to fight. The officer repeatedly ordered him to get on the ground which was refused upon each command. Finally backup officers arrived and he succumbed, was arrested, and taken into custody.

As it turned out the offender was Davone Bess, a former Miami Dolphins wide receiver who is presently under contract by the Cleveland Browns. Late last year, Bess was placed on the reserve/non-football illness list by the Browns for what they designated as “personal reasons.” He didn’t play in the last two games of the 2013 season.

Bess was charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and simple assault on a law enforcement officer, without violence. He was later released on bail of $100.00. When he was greeted by TV news reporters upon his release, Bess had nothing to say that was substantive, regarding his arrest. The three charges against him are all misdemeanors.

This wasn’t the first run-in the football player has had with the law.

Ten months earlier, before the Dolphins traded Bess to the Browns, the Broward Sheriff’s Office received a call to go to his Cooper City home where he was found being detained by several acquaintances. According to the incident report, Bess purportedly had been shouting “Hide the guns,” “Where is my weed” and “I want to get in the end zone; throw me the football.”

That incident wasn’t publicized at the time, but this latest event has brought the previous occurrence under further scrutiny.

During the first call that drew police last year, the first deputy that arrived noted a strong odor of what he believed to be marijuana coming from the master bedroom of the home. He also witnessed numerous males restraining the athlete who was in an agitated condition. He appeared completely incoherent and was trying to escape from those holding him. Fire rescue was called and their attempts to sedate the durable football player were unsuccessful. It took six Broward Sheriff’s Department Officers to finally restrain him and he was then brought to Memorial East Hospital as he continued to struggle. His family had him checked into the hospital, against his will, where he spent six weeks placed under observation.

His mother had arrived from California the day of the first incident after being informed that her son was acting bizarre. She was quoted as saying that her son was going through “some serious personal issues” and “had not slept in three days.”

Bess’s career had been sliding of late. In the six years he played in the National Football League, five of them with Miami, he amassed nearly 4000 yards in rushing and receiving. His best year was 2010 when he accumulated 820 yards and scored 5 touchdowns. He also had 25 kick returns for an additional 284 yards. Last year, with the Browns, his statistic’s fell to a combined 362 yards and 2 touchdowns. He only had 4 chances of returning kicks for a total of 19 yards.

Recently, Bess used Social Media services Twitter and Instagram to post images of marijuana as well as nude photos of himself. The picture of the illegal substance was titled “We da real dons”. Bess could be looking at disciplinary measures from both the Cleveland Browns and the NFL for posting those types of photos to the social media websites
A recent report by the Cleveland Plain Dealer stated that the Browns will likely release Bess before the league year begins on March 11. Although he was given a $5.75 million guaranteed contract after being traded to them from the Dolphins they may make an attempt to recuperate a portion of that sum, including a percentage of the more than $3 million he’s due to receive for the 2014 season. The report goes on to say that the Browns are deciding whether or not to file a grievance against Miami, based on the fact that they had knowledge that the player had unwillingly been hospitalized for irregular behavior before the trade was initiated.

New Jersey Pharmacist Charged for Federal Healthcare Program Anti-Kickback Scheme

January 10, 2014 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

Vladimir Kleyman, 42, a pharmacist and president of a compounding pharmacy in Lakewood, N.J., was charged by New Jersey authorities with being in violation of the federal healthcare program anti-kickback statute.

A compounding pharmacy is defined as a pharmacy where certain manufactured products are mixed to fit the distinctive necessities of certain patients’ requirements. This is achieved by the pharmacist combining suitable ingredients using several diverse tools. These medications are usually prepared for reasons of medical necessity. Examples of this process are altering a form of an existing medicine from a solid item such as a pill to a liquefied product also avoiding any non-essential ingredients that may cause an allergic reaction. This process is also used for obtaining exact dosages required or considered to be the best combination of a precise active ingredient or varying ingredients. The process can also be done for the purpose of adding a flavor or altering a texture of a specific prescription.

According to U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman’s office, Kleyman was arrested after being found to be in cahoots with a doctor from Toms River, N.J with one of his employees acting as an agent for the transactions. He is charged with paying the physician more than $50,000 in kick, encouraging him to refer prescriptions to his pharmacy.

Kleyman’s pharmacy, Prescriptions R US, also located in Lakewood utilized a middle-man to deliver recurring payments in cash that totaled into amounts of five figures to a N.J. doctor during a time frame of numerous months.

Mr. Kleyman appeared in Newark federal court in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge James Clark III on January 9 after an Indictment was unsealed containing allegations of his delivery of cash payments amounting to totals of no less than tens of thousands of dollars. The Indictment went on to specify that commencing in February of last year, Kleyman provided bribes in the amount of at least $50,000 in checks or cash by way of an individual in his employ who delivered the funds to a physician for the purpose of having the doctor authorize referral prescriptions, specifically for a pain cream made up of a blend of Ketamine, a Schedule III non-narcotic, Diclofenac, and Lidocaine as well as other compounded components which were prepared at Kleyman’s pharmacy, Prescriptions R US.

The complaint revealed the names of sixty-three patients that the pain cream had been prescribed for that was sent by the physician. The computer-generated list included at least 33 of 63 patients that were Medicare beneficiaries. The form was prepared by Kleyman or another individual who he employed or worked with in the scheme. Prescriptions R US did receive reimbursements from Medicare for the billing of more than $40,000 of the prescriptions which were referred by the induced physician separately and apart from other funds the pharmacy acquired from additional insurance providers from the health care industry.

Moreover, according to the complaint, in November and December 2013 there were a sequence of meetings held when the unnamed employee was given in excess of fifty thousand dollars in checks or cash from either Mr. Kleyman or his wife who also is an employee of the pharmacy knowing that the greater part of those funds were to be used to tempt the physician into accepting bribes for the purpose of referring the prescriptions to Prescriptions R US.

A conviction of the charges can levy a fine of up to twenty-five thousand dollars and a term of up to five years in prison.

24-count Indictment Reveals Widespread NYC Construction Industry Corruption

December 31, 2013 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

Indictment, Arrests and Sentencing
A three-year investigation looking into widespread commercial bribery and fraud in the electrical contracting industry led by the Inspector General for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey jointly with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office exposed the involvement of fifteen New York area companies and seventeen individuals as part of a 24-count indictment charging those involved with paying and receiving bribes, as well as falsifying business records.

In early December, two officers of Long Island City-based IG Federal Electrical Supply Corporation entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement. Chief Executive Officer and Vice President of Operations, Ira Friedman, 52, of Larchmont, pleaded guilty to falsifying business records. Friedmam falsely categorized as expenses; in excess of $1 million of their salaries. Consequently, by under-reporting the company payroll records through this salary scheme, IGF underpaid the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (Local 3) employee benefit fund by approximately $150,000.

Furthermore, the company acknowledged violating New York State Law by committing commercial bribery, fraud, and theft for disbursing bribes to purchasing agents of electrical contracting companies and receiving kickbacks from purchasing agents, in addition to fraudulently filing paperwork claiming to be a woman-owned business (WOSB Program). According to the U.S. Small business Association, filing a company as a “woman-owned business” offers certain advantages. The Federal government is required to award five percent of its subcontract and prime monies to these businesses. The Program sanctions contracting officers to limit competition setting aside various requirements for competition, specifically among small businesses owned by women.

Sentencing for Friedman is anticipated to be carried out in late January 2014. He is expected to pay approximately $260,000 in back taxes and forfeit $650,000 in addition to serving six months in prison.

Two weeks after the Friedman’s sentence was decided, Alan Brite, 65, of Huntington, the president of Benfield Electric Supply Company, Inc. in the Bronx, was charged with disbursing bribes to purchasers at a number of companies to gain business, including raising the price of bids to Unity Electric Company with the intention of paying a kickback to Donald Russo, 54, of Huntington, who was a purchasing agent for that company, according to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.

Benfield Data Company and Benfield Controls which are divisions of the Benfield Electrical Supply Company by itself and together with Brite are now charged with an assortment of felonies and misdemeanors. Mr. Brite is personally charged with two counts of the class C felony: Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, three counts of the Class E felony: Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree as well as three counts and one count respectively of the class A misdemeanors: Commercial Bribery in the Second Degree, and Commercial Bribe Receiving in the Second Degree.

Donald Russo, 54, of Syosset, NY, thought he had it all figured out. As a purchasing agent for Unity he was the recipient of the bribes paid by Brite’s firm as well as those with the ability to do so from other companies in the construction industry. He didn’t know that an investigation was underway until he and his company were jointly indicted two weeks ago

Russo’s Bar Electrical, located in Plainview, NY is a shell company that was exclusively set up to accept bribes, according to the District Attorney’s office.

According to the Indictment, as his take for steering contracts to them, Russo received more than $600,000 from five separate electrical supply companies, including Brite’s company during the years of 2008 through 2012. Prosecutors explained that Russo would bloat the costs of contracts he was in charge of so that a percentage of the proceeds were directed his way in exchange for permitting Unity’s business to be the recipient of companies that would agree to the inflated terms.

Russo was charged with five counts of falsifying business records, two counts and four counts respectively of grand larceny and offering a false instrument for filing, three counts of receiving commercial bribes, as well as four counts of criminal tax fraud.

The Supreme Court Decision on Shelby v Holder May Affect Florida Voting Laws

December 31, 2013 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

The last blog post of 2013 deals with what might have been the most important story of the year when a Supreme Court decision triggered what could have major implications affecting many jurisdictions throughout the Country, including Florida.

On June 25, 2013 the Supreme Court’s assessment of the case of Shelby County v. Holder was decided.

In a 5-4 decision, the high Court found Section 4 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) to be unconstitutional. Section 4 was the formula that essentially decided which States would be “covered” under Section 5 of the VRA. Simply put, Section 5 stated that if any jurisdiction wanted to make changes to laws relevant to voting, it first must have that aspiration upheld by the authority of the Attorney General of the United States or a three judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. This act is known as preclearance and was the basis for the law suit. Without the Section 4 formula in place, Section 5 becomes ineffective. In principle, the Court did not strip Section 5, but kicked back the capacity to rewrite a new up-to-date Section 4 formula to Congress.

Before the Court’s decision was declared, it was acknowledged that the outcome of this case would decide if any changes to the 1965 Voting Rights Act could be implemented without the preclearance clause in place. The suit by Shelby County, Alabama called for Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act to be judged unconstitutional after Congress extended the endorsement of Section 5 for a supplementary twenty-five year period during its 2006 session. Shelby maintained that by doing so Congress surpassed its constitutional authority.

The entire saga of this case from start to finish can be read by clicking here, in a fourteen page article displayed on this Website.

Before the recent ruling, many States and jurisdictions, mostly in the South were “covered” by Section 5. At the time of the implementation of the VRA these geographic locations were considered by the government to have shown the most flagrant racial discrimination relating to voter registration as well as the overall ability for minorities to vote. In Florida, jurisdictions covered were Hendry, Monroe, Hillsborough, Collier and Hardee Counties. These previously covered jurisdictions will now have the ability to propose changes to existing voting laws, redistricting that could affect voting results, and attempts to make other changes that were previously protected under Section 5.

During oral arguments, what many considered controversial remarks made by Justice Antonin Scalia instigated a debate that became volatile in the press and political Sunday shows and comic late night TV shows.

His phrase “perpetuation of racial entitlement” started a firestorm within the mainstream media and gave fodder for the debate. In a press release, The NAACP stated that “Voting isn’t an entitlement but a right… one we fought to get and one we’ve fought to keep” An online petition was posted on their Website in support of the Voting Rights Act and their president and CEO Benjamin Jealous released a statement saying; “Justice Scalia should refrain from speculating on the thoughts and motivations of the Congress and defer to the judgment of the overwhelming bipartisan majority that voted for reauthorization in 2006,”
Jealous continued in the press release. “Democracy is an American entitlement. Voting rights protection is an American entitlement. Guaranteed access to the ballot box is not the right of one race, one age group, or one economic class. Assaulting the Voting Rights Act, on the other hand, is an assault on America’s ability to be America for all Americans.” He further said “While much has changed since 1965, the record is clear that discriminatory election practices still exist in counties like Shelby County and states like Alabama.”

Other Civil rights groups and progressives were quick to damn the comment. Filmmaker, Michael Moore made a KKK reference in a “tweet” (online textual comment) via the social media service Twitter, and MSNBC’s Al Sharpton found Scalia’s comments “shocking”. He stated on his daily talk show, Politics Nation: “How is that an entitlement… I thought African-Americans were citizens! For us to have the right to vote protected is some kind of entitlement program?” Also on Sharpton’s show, Representative John Lewis (D, Ga), who participated in civil rights protests with Martin Luther King, told the MSNBC host in an interview: “It was unreal, unbelievable, almost shocking, for a member of the Court to use certain language. I can see politicians and even members of Congress… but it is just appalling to me.” He continued by saying “It is an affront to all of what the civil rights movement stood for, what people died for, what people bled for, and those of us who marched across that bridge 48 years ago, we didn’t march for some racial entitlement. We wanted to open up the political process, and let all of the people come in, and it didn’t matter whether they were black or white, Latino, Asian-American or Native American.”

Lewis is known for his 1964 “Mississippi Freedom Summer,” which was a movement to educate and register black voters throughout the South. On March 7, 1965 in Selma, Alabama, Lewis and fellow activists, along with over 600 marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Once over the bridge they were met by Alabama State Troopers who ordered them to break up their march. As an alternative, remaining together, the protesters started to pray. In response, police set off tear gas canisters and troopers clashed with the protesters, using night sticks to beat them. During the melee, Lewis suffered a skull fracture, but ultimately fled to a church in Selma on that side of the bridge. He appeared in front of TV cameras before being taken to the hospital and called for President Lyndon Johnson to intervene on their effort. To this day, Rep. Lewis bears scars on his head from the altercation that has been known as “Bloody Sunday”.

Later in the proceedings, after Justice Scalia’s remarks, at the onset of the Rebuttal Argument of Bert W. Rein, the attorney representing Shelby County, Justice Sotomayor’s first question to him was “Do you think that the right to vote is a racial entitlement in Section 5?” Mr. Rein’s immediate answer was “No, Section… the Fifteenth Amendment protects the right of all to vote”… But even with the Petitioner’s admission of that fact, he maintained that Congress’s 25-year reenactment of an “antiquated coverage formula” needed to be addressed. And the Supreme Court that formerly cited that it “raised a serious constitutional question,” knocked down Section 4 in a somewhat predictable vote.

In conclusion, whether Congress takes action to reinstate Section 4 with a new formula during its current session remains to be seen. But at least for now, States can move to change existing laws through their legislatures without being concerned about the preclearance mandate.

And it didn’t take long after the ruling was publicized for many States to begin doing just that.

Jamaican National Arrested for International and Domestic Human Trafficking

December 25, 2013 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

A Jamaican national who was previously ordered removed from the country but has since returned has been accused in a fourteen count federal indictment for a host of charges including International human trafficking.

Damion St. Patrick Baston, 36, was located, detained and arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations agents (ICE-HIS) and Diplomatic Security agents (DS) in New York on December 17. He remains in custody and is expected to make an appearance in federal district court here in Miami in the near future.

Diplomatic Security agents (DS) is a global leader in counterterrorism, international investigations, security technology, cyber security, threat analysis, and protection of people, property, and information. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement HIS is the primary investigative unit of the Department of Homeland Security in charge of investigating a wide-ranging assortment of international and domestic activities regarding the illegal whereabouts and movements of persons and merchandise coming into, presently inside, as well as outside the USA.

Baston is charged with three counts of money laundering, aggravated identity theft, five counts of transporting multiple individuals for prostitution, importation of an alien for prostitution, and use of a passport which was obtained and secured by presenting false statements. He faces the additional charge of illegal reentry of an alien previously ordered removed from the country, in violation of the United States Code.

In Miami, by practices of fraud, coercion, and force, Baston was charged by Indictment with one count of sex trafficking of a victim, both in Australia as well as numerous other countries globally, and the Southern District of Florida. All counts are in violation of the United States Code. Specifically, Code, Section 1596 affords for extraterritorial jurisdiction in cases of human trafficking. Additionally, a second count of forcible sex trafficking of a victim is listed within the Indictment relating to the Southern District of Florida accusations. These two charges by themselves would imprison Baston with a mandatory minimum sentence of fifteen years of imprisonment and a possible maximum penalty of life in prison if he is convicted of the allegations.

Other charges include five counts of transporting multiple individuals for prostitution, importation of an alien for prostitution, use of a passport secured by false statement, aggravated identity theft, and three counts of money laundering, all in violation of separate sections of the United States Code, Titles 8 and 18. The code’s Title 8, Section 1326 relates to the illegal reentry of an alien previously ordered removed.

The arrest was announced mutually by Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Diplomatic Security, both from the Miami Field Office as well as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, who collectively conducted the investigation.

In a statement released by U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer he was quoted as stating that “Human trafficking is one of the most deplorable crimes our office prosecutes.” Alysa D. Erichs also commented that “these victims are taken advantage of on a daily basis.” Ms. Erichs is the Special agent in charge of the Miami field office of HS Investigations. Also commenting, Special Agent in Charge Wendy A. Bashnan of the DS Miami Field Office said “We hope that the long awaited prosecution of Baston will provide some satisfaction to the many individuals he victimized and their families. DS’s worldwide presence at U.S. Embassies around the world allows us to work with our host country law enforcement to track and capture fugitives who have fled the U.S. to avoid prosecution.”

To read the official United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida press release, click here.

Health Care Patient Recruiters Sentenced to Long Prison Terms and Restitution

December 12, 2013 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

Emilio Amador, 46 brought potential patients to two South Florida Home Health Care companies in exchange for bribes and kickbacks while fully aware that those two companies would submit all costs to Medicare on behalf of the patients he referred to them for the supposed home health services they provided. Amador was a patient recruiter. He was also the owner/operator as well as president of Nation’s Best. He also pleaded guilty to relevant conduct for the fraudulent billing of approximately $30 million for his dealings associated to that company.

Earlier this month, Judge Federico Moreno sentenced Amador, to nine years in prison in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. His sentence was the result of his role in a $48 million scheme to defraud Medicare. Amador pleaded guilty to charges of two counts of receiving health care kickbacks and one count of conspiring to receive health care kickbacks this past September. Additionally at the conclusion of his stint behind bars, Amador has been ordered to a term of three years of supervised release. He has also been ordered to come up with $24 million in restitution, individually as well as jointly with other convicted co-defendants. But the $24 million in restitution is just a single drop in a very large bucket.

With Florida having the highest percentage of senior citizens in the United States with over 17%, according to the latest census report, it would be a logical conclusion to assume that health care services would also be the highest percentage in the country. It’s also reasonable to assume that health care, Medicare and Medicaid fraud would go hand-in-hand based on those statistics.

On a nationwide basis estimates of monies stolen through various methods in health care Medicare and Medicaid schemes are figured to be at least 100 billion; but according to some that are in the know regarding these statistics, that number is a low estimate. Other well-informed sources believe that the actual amount of stolen funds is closer in vicinity to 300 billion dollars annually.

Investigation and enforcement also generates a hefty tab. In total, last year’s costs (2012) amounted to over $217 million, broken down by the Federal government picking up over $162 million of the overall sum. There are fifty Medicaid Fraud Control Units which employ over 1,900 individuals including enforcement officers, as well as the FBI’s Federal Medicare Fraud Strike Force that through June of this year has brought charges against just short of 90 medical professionals including doctors and nurses in eight cities throughout the country, with schemes relating to Medicare fraud which has totaled close to $225 million in false billings according to government records. There are currently more than 400 law enforcement officers including agents from the FBI working to make the arrests in these types of cases in Miami, New York, Detroit, Los Angeles and other major US cities.

Florida is a breeding ground for Medicare and Medicaid fraud. Overall, the cost in trying to contain, arrest, and prosecute offenders is a multi-million dollar effort with hundreds of law enforcement officers working to detect and investigate these schemes throughout the state with the ever-present assistance of federal law enforcement agencies.

In this particular case, the sentencing of Amador was a segment of a Medicare Fraud Strike Force Operation that charged twenty-four South Florida residents in fraudulent billing schemes. It was part of a nationwide sweep that arrested and charged a total of ninety-eight people.

In February of this year, the heads of two Florida Home Health Care companies were sentenced as part of the $48 Million Health Care Fraud Scheme mentioned above. Rogelio Rodriguez, 44 was the president of Caring Nurse Home Health, Corp. and Raymond Aday, 49 the president of Good Quality Home Health Care Inc. were each sentenced to nine years, and more than four years respectively for their roles in the illegal billing scam. The sentencing was imposed after guilty pleas were accepted by the two in December 2012 for the Indictment which was made public earlier in October.

The Indictment charged them with one count each of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and it displayed that between the start of January 2006 through the period ending around mid-2011 the two companies submitted approximately $48 million in claims of which Medicare paid approximately $33 million. The claims submitted were for home health services that were either not medically necessary and/or not provided at all.

In Case number 13-20315-CR-Lenard which charged five defendants including Amador, the sentencing phase is now concluded. The other four defendants named in that individual case were Cristobal Gonzalez, Eduims Mora, Jose Contreras, and Elizabeth Monteagudo. All charges related to conspiracy to receive health care kickbacks and substantive counts of receiving kickbacks in connection with a federal health care program.

Monteagudo, 33, and Gonzalez, 39, both from Miami, were sentenced to serve 70 months and 46 months in prison respectively, followed by three years and two years of supervised release respectively. They were ordered to pay $3.5 million and $2 million in restitution respectively, jointly and severally with co-defendants. Mora and Contreras each received a 34-month prison sentence for their roles in the fraud.

To read other articles on this topic, some with the same defendants who faced other charges in different cases against them click here.

US Organized Gang Violence: MS-13 Member Gets Life Sentence plus 60 Years

November 28, 2013 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

The name they use sounds like they could be a secret government agency or espionage unit but in reality MS-13 is a ferocious, violent street gang with its roots established in Los Angeles via Central America which has been infiltrating many U.S. cities over the past three decades.

It was just a few months ago, in early September when one of their members, Adalberto Ariel Guzman, a/k/a Gringo was convicted for the 2010 murder of Vanessa Argueta, a 19-year-old mother along with her 2-year-old son Diego Torres in Central Islip, New York. Guzman, 21, bolted to El Salvador after the shooting but was arrested when he reentered the United States later that same year. A total of twenty-five members and acquaintances of the gang were charged in a 70-count indictment in March 2011 that led to his conviction. According to prosecutors, Guzman shot the woman for the sole reason that he believed she had shown disrespect toward the gang. The child was killed simply for being with his mother at the wrong place at the wrong time. Guzman was the last of three defendants in this particular case, the others being Heriberto Martinez, and Rene Mendez Mejia who were previously convicted for their role in the mob-style murders.

Last week, Carlos Ortega, a/k/a Silencio, a leader of the Sitios Locos Salvatruchas faction of MS-13 received a life sentence plus sixty years for all counts listed in an indictment against him including murder, conspiracy relating to racketeering, as well as assault with dangerous weapons, and related firearms and conspiracy charges. The sentence was handed down in the Central Islip federal courthouse following a six-week trial concluding with Ortega’s conviction, this past March 21.

MS-13, the known pseudonym for Mara Salvatrucha or MS for short, was founded in Los Angeles’s Pico-Union neighborhood in 1980 by immigrants from the Central American country of El Salvador. The word “Mara” refers to the Spanish word for gang and “Salvatrucha” is a term noted in Spanish slang as a Salvadoran army ant. Another rendition of the word Salvatrucha translates to Salvadoran peasant guerrilla which was a good part of who the gang’s early manpower consisted of.

The reference to the number 13 in MS-13 is credited to the gang “Los Emes” shortened in English to “The M’s” which is the thirteenth letter of the alphabet. The M’s were a similar gang that also originated in Los Angeles.

Besides operating in numerous cities in the United States, the gang has offshoots’ mostly in Central America but has also been known to operate in South America and Canada as well. They were originally fashioned to safeguard Salvadoran immigrants from rival Mexican gangs that were victimizing them and were made up of Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, and Nicaraguans. They have been branded the most dangerous and violent gang in the United States, as well as one of the most organized. Over the years they have been considered to be the only street gang of their type that can be mirrored to a true organized crime enterprise.

The gang’s strongholds have generally been on the West Coast and in Southwest cities but over the past decade their influence has widened on the East Coast to New York including its suburb of Long Island, Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia and Florida. Midway through the first decade of the twenty-first century it was believed that their membership had grown in excess of 50,000 members.

After catching the attention of federal law enforcement agencies, an initiative named Operation Community Shield was set up as a joint effort by the FBI and ICE. In 2005 during the first year of operation OCS was responsible for more than 600 arrests against suspected gang member throughout the United States including many from MS-13 and in 2005 began a campaign of cracking down on the growing street gang. Since then, thousands of gang members, many of them members of MS-13, have been rounded up, arrested and convicted of crimes relating to diverse varieties of street violence and murder.

But in the case against “Gringo” and “Silencio” it was investigations led by the FBI Long Island Gang Task Force, which was comprised of officers and agents of the Nassau County Police Department and Sheriff’s Department, along with the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department and Department of Probation as well as the Rockville Centre Police Department that led to the downfall of Adalberto Ariel Guzman who awaits sentencing in January for his conviction, for the two murders that was powerfully described as “brutal, cold-blooded executions.” by United States District Judge Joseph F. Bianco, and Carlos Ortega who’s conviction resulted in the life sentence plus 60 years for the “heinous acts of violence in the name of MS-13, cutting a swath of murder from Brentwood to Far Rockaway, all within the span of a few weeks,” as stated by U.S. Attorney Lynch.

Cyber Criminal Convicted in New York Facing Further Charges in Florida

November 28, 2013 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

A Ukrainian National seemed to be in a pretty good position to evade arrest and prosecution after fleeing to his native country once federal charges were filed against him in New York City and Broward County, Florida. But in 2008, his decision to take a vacation on the Greek island of Rhodes led to his undoing. The United States doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the Ukraine, but in Greece, a treaty is intact.

Egor Shevelev, 27 who has been called “one of the premier vendors of stolen credit card data in the world”, by federal authorities was extradited to New York in 2010 from the popular Greek resort Island to face charges including grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, scheme to defraud, and conspiracy. The charges were filed in an online identity theft case for trafficking and selling a total of more than 95,000 credit card account numbers that produced a total of over a $5 million-plus fraud.

The scheme was carried out operating through an online forum where Shevelev among other cyber-thieves trafficked in stolen, forged and fraudulent credit card numbers as well as other merchandise; turning the sales into cash with the help of unsuspecting eBay users, while Shevelev loafed in the seclusion of his apartment in Kiev.

In addition to the aforementioned criminal activities operated from that apartment, authorities said that Shevelev laundered more than $600,000 in digital currency through E-Gold, which is a worldwide electronic monetary/payments system and the Russian-based payment system WebMoney which based on their Website’s information is a “multifunctional payment tool that provides secure and immediate transactions online”.

Shevelev, who called himself Eskalibur online, also known as Esk, was one of the leaders of an International cybercrime ring that extended from Russia to the United States with stopovers in the Czech Republic. He was convicted of all charges. At the conclusion of a ten-week New York State Supreme Court trial and an eight-year-long investigation, Shevelev, along with his codefendants Anna Ciano, a/k/a “Angela Perez,” 41,and Douglas Latta, a/k/a “Realbusy,” 40, were found guilty by a jury of all charges listed in the Indictment.

Both living in Brooklyn, New York, Ciano and Latta were a duo who acquired in excess of 800 pilfered credit card numbers between the years of 2004 and 2007 from Shevelev as well as other cyber criminals as associates of the online forum.

Ciano was sentenced to up to 47 years in federal prison for her part in the scheme two days before Shevelev was given up to 40 years. Less than a month later in August, 2012, Latta’s punishment returned a term of up to 44 years behind bars.

To read the New York County District Attorney’s Office press release regarding this case in its entirety click here.
But the guilty verdict from New York and the continuance of his sentence will have to wait. In addition to the jury’s verdict and subsequent sentencing, Shevelev will now have to face further federal charges in the Sunshine State.

Late last month, Shevelev made his first appearance in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida to face separate charges that were listed in an Indictment that was filed in 2008.

The Indictment charges him with selling stolen credit card numbers and forgery of credit cards for the purpose of committing identity theft. The Indictment alleges that the crimes took place in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties, as well as Martin County, which is north of Palm Beach, between the dates of September 2007 and May 2008.

The Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel conveyed that investigators who were close to the case were overheard maintaining that the fraud distributed multiple millions of dollars.

Communicating through an interpreter and wearing jail scrubs, Shevelev pleaded not guilty to the charges, during a brief appearance in court. An Assistant Federal Public Defender was appointed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Lurana Snow after Shevelev stated that he had no resources to pay for his own defense. He was mostly silent during the hearing replying to questions in his native language with a yes or no answer. He also asked for a clarification of his legal rights.

The prosecution agreed to a bond of $250,000 which is basically a formality as Shevelev will remain in custody due to his convictions in New York. At the completion of any prison term he will ultimately be deported back to his country of origin.