Michaelis worked as a bookkeeper for a business in Christian County, Kentucky, where she executed the seven-year scheme to steal company funds. According to court documents, she concealed the fraudulent checks by diverting the stolen money toward personal expenses while deliberately failing to forward employee paystub withholdings to the United States Treasury and the company’s retirement plan. This dual concealment—both hiding the theft itself and neglecting statutory withholding obligations—strengthened prosecutors’ case for wire fraud charges.

A federal judge convicted Michaelis on five counts of wire fraud. U.S. Attorney Kyle G. Bumgarner of the Western District of Kentucky announced the sentencing, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Louisville Field Office, led by Special Agent in Charge Olivia Olson, overseeing the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Raymond McGee prosecuted the case from the Paducah Branch Office.

The FBI’s Bowling Green Satellite Office conducted the investigation that unraveled the check-fraud scheme. The restitution amount of $291,470 exceeds the initially embezzled sum, reflecting additional costs and damages assessed by the court. Michaelis will serve her sentence in the federal prison system, which operates without parole; her two-year prison term will be followed by two years of supervised release upon completion of her incarceration.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdky/pr/clarksville-tennessee-woman-sentenced-2-years-federal-prison-and-ordered-pay-291470

According to the criminal complaint, the three men and others conducted an organized fraud scheme that contacted victims through telephone calls, emails, and Internet pop-up messages. The scheme falsely claimed that victims’ personal information and financial accounts had been compromised and that immediate action was necessary to resolve the fabricated issue. Victims were instructed to mail cashier’s checks, money orders, or cash to P.O. boxes in and around the Orlando area.

The scheme primarily targeted elderly victims. According to the criminal complaint, twenty-eight victims have been identified. A criminal complaint is a formal document supporting an arrest warrant that does not establish guilt; every defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

The investigation was conducted by the United States Postal Inspection Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Orlando Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Patrick Flanigan will prosecute the case.

The arrests coincide with Department of Justice efforts to combat fraud. On April 7, the Department announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division, designed to investigate and prosecute those who steal or fraudulently misuse taxpayer dollars.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdfl/pr/three-arrested-conspiracy-commit-mail-fraud

The complaints, filed by Democracy Defenders Fund and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, center on Kennedy Center honors gala tickets sponsored by CBS, now owned by Paramount. Trusty’s most recent financial disclosure shows Paramount gave her two tickets to the December 2025 gala worth more than $12,000. Carr’s financial statements show he has accepted honors gala tickets from CBS or its parent company eight times since his 2017 appointment, totaling over $75,000 in gifts.

According to Carr’s latest disclosure, filed June 22, he accepted two tickets to the 2025 gala and reception worth $12,390. Yet ProPublica’s investigation found Carr sat with his wife in a private skybox at the December gala alongside Paramount CEO David Ellison and other executives—seats that sell for $125,000 a ticket according to Kennedy Center guidelines. Carr did not respond to requests clarifying the discrepancy in reported value.

Both commissioners voted last year to approve Paramount’s merger with Skydance. Federal ethics rules ban government employees from accepting gifts from entities regulated by or seeking official action from their agency.

A ProPublica analysis of ethics disclosures found that seven of the 10 commissioners who served since 2016 accepted tickets worth more than $260,000 combined from CBS or its parent company.

Democracy Defenders Fund, led by former White House ethics czar Norman Eisen, filed its grievance with the federal Office of Government Ethics, the FCC’s inspector general, and the FCC’s ethics office. The group said the investigation should examine whether Carr and Trusty broke rules on accepting gifts or violated criminal laws prohibiting federal officials from accepting illegal gratuities.

The watchdog groups are requesting that Carr and Trusty repay Paramount the fair market value of any improper gifts and that Carr be disqualified from further decisions on Paramount’s proposed merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. An FCC spokesperson previously said agency ethics officers have cleared commissioners to accept the tickets for years, finding it consistent with ethics law. Carr, Trusty, and the FCC declined to comment on the complaints.

Source: https://www.propublica.org/article/fcc-paramount-gifts-brendan-carr-ethics-complaint-warner-bros-merger

Ceballos was convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with the scheme. Following her prison term, she will serve two years of supervised release.

The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/pr/silver-spring-woman-sentenced-more-three-years-federal-prison-role-covid-fraud-scheme

According to his plea agreement, Kumar and his co-conspirators contacted victims posing as government employees, falsely claiming their accounts had been compromised. The callers instructed victims to move funds to government accounts for safekeeping. In some instances, the conspirators maintained contact with victims for weeks, persuading them to withdraw cash or purchase gold, which individuals posing as government agents then collected. Kumar admitted to traveling throughout the United States to gather cash and gold from victims and deliver it to other conspirators involved in the scheme.

A conviction for Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. The FBI’s Phoenix Division investigated the case, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Adriana Genco of the District of Arizona handling the prosecution.

The government warned that phantom hacker scams and government impersonation schemes increasingly target elderly victims. “The government will never call individuals to instruct them to transfer funds to the government. The government will never instruct a person to transfer assets into gold bullion. The government will never instruct a person to deliver funds to a ‘courier’ who comes to the person’s residence,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office statement.

Victims of elder fraud can report crimes to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov or call the National Elder Fraud Hotline at 833-FRAUD-11 (833-372-8311), available Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. eastern time with services in English, Spanish, and other languages.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-az/pr/california-man-pleads-guilty-role-phantom-hacker-scheme-targeting-elderly-victims

Adams operated the fraud scheme by charging borrowers fees to file applications containing misrepresentations and false statements aimed at exploiting the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, a federal initiative designed to forgive student loans for borrowers employed in public service positions.

The case was investigated by the Department of Education Office of Inspector General’s Eastern Regional Office, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and prosecuted by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jamie McDonald. The investigation was also supported by Jamila Davis, Special Agent in Charge of the DOE OIG’s Eastern Regional Office, and Ketty Larco-Ward, Inspector in Charge of the New York Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program permits eligible borrowers working for government agencies or qualifying nonprofit organizations to have their remaining federal student loan balance forgiven after making 120 qualifying monthly payments under a qualifying repayment plan while employed full-time by an eligible employer.

Adams’ scheme capitalized on borrowers seeking relief from student debt, charging them to falsify their employment history and other documentation required by the program. By submitting fraudulent applications on behalf of her clients, she sought to accelerate or enable loan forgiveness for individuals who did not meet the program’s legitimate requirements.

The Department of Education has faced significant challenges with the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, including high rejection rates for initial applications and concerns about fraud. The sentencing of Adams reflects federal prosecutors’ effort to hold accountable those who exploit the program for personal gain.

Adams’ prosecution demonstrates the government’s focus on combating student loan fraud schemes that target both borrowers seeking debt relief and federal loan programs. The use of postal services to distribute fraudulent documents triggered the involvement of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in the investigation.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/florida-woman-sentenced-two-years-prison-orchestrating-multimillion-dollar-federal

Between March 2018 and December 2020, Cleveland devised what prosecutors describe as a fraudulent scheme to “unlawfully enrich himself by marketing and delivering, and causing others to market and deliver, unapproved devices to consumers.” The products included the ScalpaJECT Hyaluronic Acid and Hyaluron Pen, which Cleveland falsely represented as not subject to Food and Drug Administration regulation. He also introduced an unapproved drug called “Scalpatox,” a botulinum toxin product, into commerce.

The case carries serious public health implications. According to court documents, injectable products delivered directly into the body or bloodstream “bypass some of the body’s key defenses against toxins and microorganisms that can lead to serious and life-threatening conditions.” The FDA issued a November 5, 2025, warning about unapproved botulinum toxin products and documented adverse events including botulism symptoms.

Cleveland was apprehended in Colombia in late 2025 and extradited to the United States, where he was arrested on an outstanding federal warrant following an indictment returned in July 2024. The U.S. Marshals Service located him in Bogotá with assistance from the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs.

Under his plea agreement, Cleveland faces a prison sentence between four and eight years. He has agreed to pay full restitution for his criminal conduct and forfeit $800,000. The FDA Office of Criminal Investigations and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Corey Hall and Randy Ramseyer for the Western District of Virginia and Trial Attorney Taylor Broadbent of the Criminal Division’s Health and Safety Unit are prosecuting the case.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/ceo-skincare-company-pleads-guilty-fdca-charges-and-mail-fraud

Featured image: U.S. Department of Justice (public domain)

According to the complaint, a resident of Ware, Massachusetts received a pop-up window on her home computer directing her to call a customer support number. The individual who answered claimed to be a customer service representative but was actually a scammer who told the victim her bank account had been compromised. The scammer instructed her to “protect” her money by transferring funds to the government for safekeeping. Following the scammer’s directions, the victim withdrew money from her bank account and deposited it into a Bitcoin Depot cryptocurrency ATM at a gas station in Ludlow, Massachusetts. The funds were then transferred to the fraud perpetrators.

During the investigation, law enforcement identified four additional victims whose funds could be traced to the same cryptocurrency wallet used in the scheme. Assistant U.S. Attorney Carole E. Head, Chief of the Asset Recovery Unit, is prosecuting the civil forfeiture action.

Under federal law, it is illegal to use wire communications as part of a scheme to defraud or obtain money through false or fraudulent pretenses. It is also a violation of federal law to conduct a financial transaction knowing it is designed to conceal the nature, location, source, ownership, or control of criminal proceeds. The civil forfeiture process allows third parties to assert claims to property before it can be forfeited to the United States and returned to victims.

U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley and Ted E. Docks, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Field Office, announced the action. The Ludlow Police Department provided assistance. The U.S. Attorney’s Office stated this is one of several civil forfeiture actions filed seeking to forfeit cryptocurrency tied to fraud schemes targeting Massachusetts residents.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/united-states-attorneys-office-files-civil-forfeiture-action-recover-crypto-involved

Smith was sentenced to 156 months for wire fraud and 24 months for aggravated identity theft, with the sentences running consecutively. He will also serve three years of supervised release upon completion of his prison term.

According to court documents, Smith identified real property throughout the Northwest Arkansas area and attempted to sell properties to which he had no legal claim or authority. He entered into purchase agreements with buyers and transmitted those agreements to various title companies via email and electronic communication, presenting himself as having legitimate authority to sell the properties. To execute the fraud, Smith used a fraudulent driver’s license bearing another individual’s name and information.

U.S. Attorney Kevin R. Holmes of the Western District of Arkansas announced the conviction. Assistant U.S. Attorney Carly Marshall prosecuted the case, with investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdar/pr/northwest-arkansas-man-sentenced-15-years-wire-fraud-and-aggravated-identify-theft

Between 2017 and 2021, Hondermann and her codefendant prepared tax returns containing deliberate false items, including fabricated business profits and losses, COVID-19 sick and family leave credits, and residential energy credits. The pair submitted these returns to the IRS seeking more than $5 million in refunds their clients were not entitled to receive. They diverted more than $1.1 million of the fraudulent refunds to bank accounts they controlled.

Hondermann pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to defraud the United States. Her codefendant, described in court documents as an individual close to Hondermann who worked at the business, admitted to filing false tax returns as part of the same scheme and awaits sentencing.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Sigal Chattah for the District of Nevada stated in a press release that “the deliberate falsification of tax records and the theft of funds are severe violations of public trust and federal law.” Chattah added that the office “remains committed to aggressively investigating and prosecuting those who use deceit to enrich themselves at the expense of taxpayers and honest institutions.”

Acting Special Agent in Charge Scott Brown of the IRS Criminal Investigation Phoenix Field Office characterized the scheme as “a substantial theft from the U.S. Treasury and, ultimately, from every honest taxpayer.” Brown noted that “by inserting false information into client tax returns and taking a share of the fraudulent refunds, Hondermann and her codefendant defrauded the government of millions for personal benefit.”

The IRS Criminal Investigation unit investigated the case. Trial Attorneys Thomas W. Flynn and Stuart A. Wexler of the Criminal Division’s Tax Section prosecuted the case. The announcement was made by Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/las-vegas-woman-sentenced-prison-5m-refund-fraud-scheme

Featured image: U.S. Department of Justice (public domain)