Mayor Roque

Reasons to ‘Recall Roque’, the Mayor of West New York, N.J., seem to be apparent without visiting the website by that name.

For starters, Felix Roque and his 22 year old son Joseph were arrested by the FBI Thursday for allegedly hacking GoDaddy.com, where the anti-Roque website’s domain was registered, reports Politico. The pair allegedly shut down RecallRoque.com, though GoDaddy.com reports no effects to its own infrastructure.

But that’s not all. Politico says the unsealed criminal complaint also accuses the Mayor of making threatening phone calls to the government official in Hudson County, N.J. responsible for the online recall campaign.

The Roques are scheduled to appear in Federal court on Thursday.

The good news is that the internet is a bastion of learning: the Roques apparently learned Hacking-101 for free by surfing the web.

To read more click here.

Shoshanna Utchenik

Hunter Moore, 26, creator of the ‘revenge porn’ website IsAnyoneUp.com and self-promoted bad-boy, is under FBI investigation, confirmed ABC Nightline.

Moore operated the site that allowed scorned lovers to post nude photos of their  ex-partners. It also allowed people to comment.

He sold the website, and it was shut down in April.

Moore’s site allowed anyone to upload sexually explicit photos and videos, including screen grabs of Facebook accounts and links to Twitter accounts, without subjects’ permission or even knowledge, says Nightline. Moore boasted nearly 5 million hits a month, with some of those users posting comments that added insult to injury for those who found themselves unwilling internet porn stars, ABC reported.

One of those unwilling stars was aspiring actress Kayla Laws, 25, who claimed her computer was hacked and private nude photos ended up on IsAnyoneUp.com.

Her outraged mother, private investigator Charlotte Laws, initiated a cease-and-desist and take-down notice to Moore, who refused. Mom says she then convinced the FBI to investigate whether daughter’s computer was hacked.

Moore denied ever hacking any nude photos.

To read more click here.

Rep. Cordoza/gov photo

A California accountant seemed to think she could hurry things along by forging official letters from Congress to her client, promising speedy resolution of a tax issue, says a Justice Department press release.

Now Susan Tomsha-Miguel, 51, is charged with impersonation of an officer or an employee of the United States, and was scheduled for arraignment Friday.

The letter used U.S. Representative Dennis A. Cardoza’s letterhead, copied from real correspondence Tomsha-Miguel had with his office. Someone should have told Tomsha-Miguel that the cut-and-paste job that worked on her gradeschool report card won’t fly in the big leagues. To read the press release click here.

Keith Franklin Simmons, 47, of North Carolina, was sentenced Wednesday to 50 years in prison for an elaborate Ponzi scheme that devastated hundreds of investors, mostly elderly and vulnerable, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced.

A disgusted U.S. District Judge Robert Conrad Jr. and agents involved in his case described Simmons as a callous swindling predator, who wreaked devastation leading victims to anxiety, despondency, and in one case according to the Winston Salem Journal, denouncing god and considering suicide.

Simmons and his co-conspirators began soliciting victims to invest in Black Diamond Capital Solutions in April 2007. Over 400 victims invested more than $40 million from 2007 to 2009, when the bogus claims of wild profits started to unravel and Simmons was arrested by the FBI. Rather than trading in the foreign currency exchange market, as promised, Simmons was funding his own extravagant life style with the investments.

Judge Conrad also sentenced Simmons to pay $35,331,632 in restitution, which will come from selling off that stolen lifestyle one property at a time.  The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced it will additonally “request liquidation of forfeited assets and return of net proceeds of liquidation to victims.”

Hopefully these reparations will happen quickly, as almost 100 of those who lost everything are over 75 years old and have no time to lose.

To read more click here.

Dave Welker knew there was plenty cajun food and beer in New Orleans and plenty corruption.

Now after dealing with that corruption the pastfour years as head of the FBI in New Orleans, he’s retiring.

“I found (New Orleans) by far has been my best assignment, by far,” said Welker, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “Part of it is by virtue of my position. A great deal of it is the work that we’ve done. I think the impact we’ve had on the community.”

To read more click here.
 

OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST

• New Evidence Possible in Manson Family Murders (NBC L.A.)
• Vincent Gray Campaign Aide Howard Brooks Charged in Growing Federal Investigation (Washington Post)
• FCC Seeks Emergency Response Upgrade (Politico)
• Senate Passes FDA User Fee Bill (Politico)
• Corleone Wants to Put Mafia Past to Rest (Financial Times)

Shoshanna Utchenik

Some guys get all the breaks or at least one big one.

Robert Dale Lee, 49, got busted in September 2011 with a 150 lb carload of marijuana en route from Chicago to Kentucky on I-75. But that evidence won’t be admissible.

That’s because Federal Judge Amul R. Thapar ruled that a GPS device had been placed on his car without a warrant, when a warrant should have been obtained. The ruling was in line with one by the Supreme Court in January 2012 that placing a GPS on a vehicle was in violation of 4th amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure.

Lee remains in custody and still faces trial. The feds are trying to figure if they should appeal the ruling that could seriously damage their case.

Lee was on the feds’ radar for drug trafficking when DEA agent Brian Metzger secretly placed a GPS device on Lee’s truck. Says the Trib, because of the GPS, Metzger knew Lee travelled to Chicago and alerted troopers to keep an eye out for the truck saying, “it probably contained marijuana” but that the trooper “would have to obtain his own PC, probable cause, for a traffic stop,” Thapar wrote.

Trooper Matt Hutti got that call, and pulled Lee over for driving without a seat belt. Lee consented to a search, and when Hutti, another trooper and dog found the stash, Lee confessed in what Thapur called a “direct result of the traffic stop and search.”

Thapar ruled the stash was inadmissible in court based on Metzger’s use of the GPS.

“In this case, the DEA agents had their fishing poles out to catch Lee,” the U.S. District Judge wrote. “Admittedly, the agents did not intend to break the law. But, they installed a GPS device on Lee’s car without a warrant in the hope that something might turn up.”

To read more click here.

nypd poster

One of the first missing kids featured on a milk carton may see justice after all, though 33 years after his disappearance and long after he was assumed dead, it may be small comfort to his family.

Pedro Hernandez was picked up by local cops in Camden, N.J., yesterday, and “made statements to NYPD detectives implicating himself in the disappearance and death of Etan Patz,” reports the NY Daily News.

It seemed the long forgotten case of Etan Patz, the Brooklyn 6 year old who went missing in 1979, was suddenly reopened then shut again in April, when the NYPD and FBI gutted a SoHo basement looking for remains, but found nothing.

Othniel Miller, who worked in that basement and knew Patz from the neighborhood, said he was “deeply saddened” by the boy’s disappearance. His lawyer protested that Miller’s reputation had been “dragged through the mud” by the reopened case.

A 2004 New York civil case declared prime-suspect and pedophile Jose Ramos responsible for Etan’s death, though he is not serving time for this case. Ramos, now 68, is due to be released in November from a Pennsylvania prison where he is doing time for molesting two boys. He previously admitted to raping a young boy who looked like Etan on the day he disappeared, but insisted he let the boy go.

To read more click here.

OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST

• Mickey Shunick Disappearance: FBI, Police Exhausting Resources in Hunt for Missing Co-ed (ABC News)
• Air Jet Diverts After Passenger Claims to Have ‘Device’ (Reuters)
• Attorney General Statement on Resignation of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald (Justice Dept)
• Jury in John Edwards Trial Deliberates for 5th Day (AP)
• DOD and CIA Records Detail Meetings with bin Laden Raid Filmmakers (Judicial Watch)

Patrick Fitzgerald/doj photo

Patrick Fiztgerald, the Chicago U.S. Attorney who was considered a rock star among fed prosecutors, and who went after Scooter Libby in Washington and Rod Blagojevich closer to home, is resigning.

His office issued a press release on Wednesday saying he was resigning on June 30 and had no immediate employment plans and will take time off for the summer.

Fitzgerald, who was first appointed to the post in 2001, is the longest serving U.S. Attorney in Chicago.

“When I was selected for this position in 2001, I said that it was one of the greatest opportunities that one could ever hope for, and I believe that even more now after having the privilege of working alongside hundreds of dedicated prosecutors and agents. I have tried not to get in their way.

“I extend my deepest appreciation to the attorneys and staff for their determined commitment to public service. This was a great office when I arrived, and I have no doubt that it will continue to be a great office.”